After paddling and Hari Raya I felt pretty unmotivated to plan any further travels, a first for me. At the last minute I set off for Kuala Lumpur winging it, with the idea of visiting two UNESCO World Heritage sites, Penang and Melaka.
My malay vacay (hehe) kicked off with a little magic. Just as I was heading to bed there was an urgent knock on my door informing me that there was a nest of baby turtles hatching. I rushed next door to the Juara Turtle Project just in time to help transplant the hatchling hawksbills, and to watch them scramble towards the sea. There really is no cuter animal than a baby turtle, and as I walked back home shooting stars whizzed across the night sky. I couldn’t help but smile, little me on a little island floating in the South China Sea.
Continue reading “Tip Pit”
Rock steady baby, that’s what I feel nowwww. Well hello, dear family and friends that still have any interest in reading this. Can you believe I’ve been writing on this blog for 7 years? Here is a brief summary of what I’ve been doing: After two weeks cruising the classic tourist circuit around Cambodia, I spent a month working for Little Planet, an outdoor education company based in Tioman Island, Malaysia. A month flew by, spent mainly introducing groups of international private school students from Singapore to jungle trekking, kayaking, snorkeling and star gazing, as well as a detour to the wild jungles of Endau Rompin for a three day canoe trip and a field trip to Bali, where I learned how to mud wrestle men twice my size. A painful 22 hour flight later I was back in California in my happy place working another quick season for Naturalists at Large, and after flitting around California for two months I hopped back on a plane to return to Malaysia for the summer. And here I am, writing during a two week vacation, after a jam-packed June.
Continue reading “Rock Steady”
After 27 hours of initial transit from San Diego and with three new countries under my belt in under a week, I write this on a bus in Cambodia, on my way from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Thanks to jet lag I’ve been awake every night from 3-6am, so you’ll have to give me a pass as I attempt to record my first impressions from the trip so far, especially since this is my first timing blogging using my phone.
Continue reading “Bread and Butter”
Yosemite is such a flirt! Views for days, meadows that glow gold, plunging waterfalls. It had been awhile since my last visit to the park, yet I still had that fluttery feeling in my stomach while driving in, proving once again just how easy it is to fall in love with places, and that true love can last a lifetime.
Continue reading “La Belle Fleur Sauvage”
I was told early on that the Camino de Santiago has three stages: physical, mental and spiritual. When I last wrote I was squarely in the middle of the mental- no longer under bodily duress but tired of the routine, of Spanish food, of the nightly snoring and farting keeping me awake every night. I began walking the Primitivo route from Oviedo on the first day back to school, a chill of autumn in the morning air, and it was from there on that strange things began happening. I would cruise for hours in a state of euphoria, totally blissed out. Changing the lyrics from Enrique Iglesias’ summer jam ‘Bailando’ to ‘Santiago,’ I convinced anyone I could to sing with me, and when alone serenaded the birds at full volume. I found myself crying at the sunrises, overwhelmed by the beauty found in every direction. Sometimes the wind would blow through the eucalyptus or pines just so, making them appear to bow as I was passing by… and I would bow back.
In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion. -Haruki Murakami
My love for San Pedro de Atacama started before I even arrived. Shortly after leaving Salta we cruised through the Argentinian salt flats for a free tour of sorts before making our ascent over the Andes. I saw my first llama somewhere around hour five and my level of excitement was definitely inappropriate, especially since it only increased with each new llama spotted. I passed ten hours contented, gazing out the window while counting cacti and listening to music, feeling grateful and absolutely enamored with this big beautiful world we live in.
It may be when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. -Wendell Berry
After saying my goodbyes in Guatemala, I gave myself three weeks to visit a bit of Honduras and Belize, before heading home to celebrate the holidays. After three weeks in California, it was onward for some cruisin’ and boozin’ in the Antarctic for another 21 days, before getting dropped off in Buenos Aires. All of that nonstop motion explains why I was feeling very travel weary and still uncertain about whether or not to return to California. In an effort to have a bit of downtime, I decided to visit the Eco Yoga Park, just outside of Buenos Aires.
Taking the Long Way 
