» Wanderlust

WANDERLUST – Rural Mexico

cultivator — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:27:49 +0000

Rural Mexico is no place for kids.

Let me rephrase that. Rural Mexico is no place for fair-skinned, television addicted, perpetually protected American suburban children. Nor the grown up version.

But with constantly applied 50SPF and a few mishaps, we endured. And then got relatively comfortable. And then rather content. Then we had to leave.

I still like using running water to brush my teeth. And the pool could have been a little warmer.

Other than that, we learned that we can survive without YouTube, Kid’s Meals, sidewalks, Costco, or even Antibacterial Sanitizing Antimicrobial Disinfectant Gel Lotion.

- Monte

WANDERLUST – The Bikes of Manhattan

cultivator — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:38:47 +0000

Our friend and co-worker, Rich, was recently in NYC and was inspired by the many bikes he saw hanging around SoHo. Here is his visual gallery for your viewing pleasure.

WANDERLUST – Day 3, Rio de Janeiro

cultivator — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:27:38 +0000

I was walking home alone after dropping off some friends at their hotel and I happened to pass the bar where Joao Gilberto & Tom Jobim wrote the song “The Girl from Ipanema”. Gotta go there and get a drink right?

I go to the bar, it’s more of a restaurant than a bar, so I’m the only one there. And it’s more of a tall counter than a bar.
I start watching the bartender make the Caprinia, the Brazilian cocktail of choice. I’m trying to talk to him to ask him a few questions on how to make em. Then, he pours a huge glass of scotch after making like a dozen Caprinias.

This old waiter – grandpa type comes up and slams the scotch. The entire glass in one serving.

We exchange glances.

He then brings out a plate of apps for me: olives, some picked vegetables, cheese and salami.
I eat it all but the salami and he nods to me like, that’s good stuff, you better eat it.

Next thing you know, he brings out a plate of sliced steak.

And that’s when it all happened. 8 years of vegetarianism, gone.
- Rich

WANDERLUST – Seattle

cultivator — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:45:26 +0000

Went to Seattle recently. And, let me tell you, if you’ve never been to Seattle in the summertime (Late June – early September) you’re missing out. It’s 72 beautiful degrees everyday and no rain in site until late September. People think it rains all the time in Seattle, and it does. Kind of. It’s more like a fine mist and a low low cloud ceiling for about 8 months. But, if you can withstand that, you are rewarded with one of the most perfect summers. The sun rises at 5 a.m. and sets @ 9:30 p.m. making a day long enough to do pretty much anything.

I tried hard to cram as much as I could into 4 days, and believe it or not, did it without so much as a wrinkle of stress. Here are my favorite things to do and see in Seattle:

Ballard – my favorite neighborhood in Seattle.

Golden Gardens – a beach on the edge of Seattle where we watched the sun set over the Puget Sound. (yes, it’s as romantic and wonderful as it sounds.)

Take in as many views of Lake Union (which lies in the middle of the city) and the bridges that connect Seattle to itself as I can.

Take in a random naked, all-male bicycle parade.

Take a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island for the best fish & chips in Seattle.

(above: view of Seattle from ferry.)

(below: best seat in the house at The Public House on Bainbirdge Island)

Go to any of the many Sunday farmer’s markets. (This one happens to be in Ballard.)

Sea kayaking (here with friend and weekend host Susan).

Yes Seattle is an amazing, green (in color and environmental progress), water-filled city. There are so many other things to see, do, eat and hear in this northwestern city, too. Give it a chance, sometime. You just might get stuck there for 5 years like I did.

- Sarah

WANDERLUST – Rainbow Lake, Rocky Mountains Colorado (can also be classified as WHAT’S AUGUST HUNTING? – More fish, bitch)

cultivator — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:10:35 +0000

Made it out last weekend for our annual high lake trip. Brought along a few new guys which made this trip much more enjoyable. It’s always nice to see the look on the new faces as they catch a lot fish in such beautiful country.

Got to the trail head (in the Zirkel Wilderness) around 9:00pm and made it to the lake at 11:30pm. Had a hard time sleeping, bad choice bringing my 40 degree bag, but morning came quick enough. Woke up at 5 (i guess I was already awake), walked down to the lake and you could see rainbows and cutthroats everywhere. Fished mostly hardware and did great the first day.

Got up the next morning and the fishing was a little tough. Not much was hitting the hardware we had all used the day before so some of us switched to fly rods and spinning rods set up with bubbles. Once we found the right fly set up it was on (mosquito or black gnat with a green hairs ear dropper (not sure if that’s the right terminology). I caught a few off the fly rod but switched to the bubble so I could cast out to where the fish were. I’ve never used a bubble before, I was very impressed.

All in all we caught around 80 fish in two days.

As we walked along a 20ft cliff we could see a fish right below us. My buddy throws down a lure and right when the fish was about to hit it his line got all tangled up. As he was untangling his mess I couldn’t help myself, I threw down a fly and the fish grabbed it right away. Now what to do, I’m 20 feet above the fish with no where to go. I mannaged to climb down to lake level and land it (with my friend laughing at me the whole time).

-August

WANDERLUST – Nature Calls

cultivator — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:03:40 +0000

Since receiving a cryptic message in a fortune cookie that read “Find yourself in nature” I’ve been having the strangest feeling that I should go hike or camping or something. I almost decided to ignore this fortune, based on a previous snowshoeing episode where I got lost with a friend and ended up a refugee eating Girl Scout Cookies at a hippie family’s mountain cabin after dark. But, because I believe in the wisdom of the Asian mind (and cookie), I decided a few weeks ago to test the theory. I drove to some canyon between Denver and Colorado Springs, parked right off the road and walked about five minutes to a gorgeous flowing river. (Baby steps.) I laid in the sun on a rock. My white flesh like a piece of sashimi. Nature and I were communing. And then I got sunburned.

Back to the city. I’m over you, Nature.

This past weekend, again, me and nature got together. It’s kind-of like a one-nighter I can’t shake. This time, I outsmarted it. I was neither going to get lost or sunburned. I lathered on SPF 50, and with a friend in tow, left these markers to get us home.

If nature and I are going to be friends, I’m going to make a few rules.

-Heather

WANDERLUST – KCMO

cultivator — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:40:12 +0000

Sometimes I miss the smell of hay, dirt, grass, BBQ, conservatism, ignorance and grease. So, I return to Kansas City, MO. (not to be confused with Kansas City, Kansas. Don’t ever go there. It’s bad. Real bad. ) My roots. Sort of. I’m from a small town outside of Kansas City, which no one knows about, and I spent little time in, and Kansas City was always much more fun growing up, so I say KC is my home by default. Anyway, it seems I’ve been hungering for trips there about once a year (read: my best friend lives there and I go visit her and her husband in their big, comfy house for a $100 plane ticket). The last few times I was there, I was reminded of how glorious an escape, if only for three days, Kansas City really is. I roll in to this idyllic neighborhood called Brookside which is lined with trees and happy families and kids walking to school, and actually has the street names tiled into the sidewalk. On every block there are these old, stately houses from the 1910s & 20s. It’s much like Stepford, but without the robotic wives.

We start every morning with a walk to central Brookside where we have a reserved corner table on the patio at The Roasterie Cafe, and we people watch, bag on fat, unstylish KC people, and happily eat ham and cheese croissants and drink lattes.

Then something else happens during daylight hours, not incredibly important. Then we go out at night. And this is maybe when I love KC the most. The entire city is lit up like a Hollywood back lot. There are all these gorgeous old buildings in downtown with large lighted signs on the top that always transport me to the industrial times of the 1900s when the city must have been really bumpin’. Western Auto. Folgers. Abdiana Futons. Howard Johnson.

This Western Auto sign happens to be my favorite.

Then comes the best part of the evening where we have been rendered too inebriated for words and must soak up the booze with the best hamburgers ever made on a greasy grill. Town Topic.

You sit at the counter and a woman, presumably named Flo ( who looks like “throw mama from the train”), takes your order without showing any emotion, mechanically hands it over to the line cook, and begrugingly gives you drinks in a brown glass with rabbit turd ice. It’s magical. And, I recently found out if you sweet talk the mute line cook, he’ll throw some extra bacon on your burger for free. That’s livin.

All in all, it’s a nice escape from reality. Friends. Pretentious latte drinking. Greasy burgers. Remnants of old industry. Perfectly kept lawns and even more perfectly kept timeless homes. It lures me back time and time again. That yearning to experience a life unlike my own. And burgers.

-Sarah

WANDERLUST – Travel Betty

cultivator — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:02:08 +0000

Enjoy these :30 second vacations from a fearless female traveler. We shall all travel vicariously through her.

more at:

Travel Betty

WANDERLUST – May 29, 2007, Portugal to Spain

cultivator — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:53:23 +0000

I woke up in a campground on a beach in Portugal after riding 115 miles along the coast the day before. Laid, played and swam in the Mediterranean till mid afternoon. Then rode 85 miles into Sevilla, Spain with these other two guys from Germany. I locked my bike outside of a hotel. We checked in. Showered. Went to get ONE beer. I came back and my bike was gone. crazy.

- Rich

WANDERLUST – Lake Titicaca, Bolivia – March 12, 2007

cultivator — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:15:29 +0000

in the last 72 hours i camped in a massive lightning storm, waded through waist deep water, hitched a ride in a dump truck, went to the small village of tarabucco, took a 12 hr bus to la paz, a 3 hour bus to a little town on the shores of lake titicaca [where all the passengers got on a boat while the bus went across on a small barge]. then another hour in the bus i arrived in Copacabana. it has been a whirl wind.

the trek [outside of the Bolivian capitol of Sucre] was excellent. i met so many native people walking from one small village to the next. almost everyone was so nice and wanting to talk to me. i couldn’t believe the conditions that the rural people live in: mud brick homes, dirt floors. when you shake their hands it is like grabbing onto a piece of leather. their skin is exposed to the sun all day at such a high altitude while farming. when they smile, i swear their cheeks are stuck for a few minutes. i asked along the way, to passing farmers that were herding goats and llamas, if it was okay to camp wherever and everyone said yes. it was interesting that i could communicate much easier with the younger people in that area. the older folks didn’t speak spanish. after i made camp and was cooking dinner a hail storm rolled in and pounded my tent with pea size hail for an hour before turning into a 3-4 hour long lightning and rain storm. i was nice and dry in my tent which didn’t let in any water.

the next day i saw a woman walking in the same direction as myself along the path. she was wearing sandals and was carrying her belongings in a blanket wrapped around her neck and shoulders. we talked for a minute and i followed her on the trail for an hour or so as the route was hit and miss. pretty amazing. she kept looking back at me and i’d smile. i don’t think that she was too keen on walking with me, but she was okay with me following from a distance. she waited at a junction to point me in the right direction of my next stop. i got to the next town where there was supposed to be ‘transport’ back to Sucre. when i got there the locals said that the river was flooded and they weren’t going to make it today. the next transportation would be a week later. hence i had an additional 15 mile walk ahead of me. it was late morning. i didn’t feel too welcome in this particular village. but there were 2 kids that walked with me for a mile or so to the edge of their town, or collection of houses. as we walked, they were pretending that they were fighting the incas from taking over their village.

i finally got to the river 10 miles in, only to have it hail once again. i waited it out under a tree. it slowed down and i went to check if it was possible to cross or if i would have to pitch my tent [at a higher ground of course] and wait for the water level to slow. meanwhile everyone i met said that the river was chest deep. i found that hard to believe. as i approached the river, i saw a dump truck full of people on the other side. i figured that they were going to cross so i thought i’d wait to see how deep it was. turns out they didn’t cross and the truck did a 180 at the edge of the river and turned back towards town. then it stopped. the engine still going. it was parked along side of the river and we all just looked at each other. i took off my boots, socks and pants. put my boots back on and grabbed a stick to test the water. i started to cross and out of the corner of my eye i saw two men jump off the truck and head down stream to the left bank of the river. i maintained my balance and focused my attention to the trees across the river rather then the rushing water at my waist. when i made it across a woman on the truck started clapping and i ran toward it. i tossed my pack up onto the bed-which was full of pebbles to the brim and everyone sitting on the cargo. i climbed aboard, still in my boxer shorts. it was pretty cold and i put my clothes back on as we made the slow ascent back to town.

the two day trek seemed like a week, maybe that was because i didnt see one white person, covered 25 miles and had two river crossings.

i am here in copacabana for the night and tomorrow i will hike to a nearby island [via hiking and boat] for 2 days and back to la paz on friday. in the meantime, i am trying to arrange a climb with this guy from the UK that i met last week. there´s an easy 19,986′ peak, huyana potosi, that we can hire a guide for.

since tomorrow is my birthday, i splurged on a hotel room with a great view of the lake and my own bathroom for $3.25.

- Rich