Beijing (Part 3)

   Another bit of a drive brought us to the Great Wall.  I asked to bring my wheelchair, but the guide said that it wasn't accessible.  Sad face. I asked how far it was and she said it was just a little, easy walk.  No big deal.

   In reality, it was 20 minutes of this:

haha  Oh well, I did ok as long as I went slow and took breaks.  So no harm done and I got some exercise.

At this point on the trip, I had been adopted by a couple of life long learners and they bought me a panda hat since I didn't have a chance to get money at the hotel the night before.  I flipping love that panda hat!  I don't care how ridiculous I look, I am going to wear it even in the middle of a California summer when I get home!  

ridiculous

I made it to the top of the hill and took a gondola the rest of the way up to the wall.  It was a very scenic trip.  I didn't have my usual mini-panic attack that usually accompanies use of ski lifts or gondolas.  

The ride was really pleasant and scenic.

Then I was on the Great Wall of China!  A place I had seen in pictures and film since before I can coherently remember and I was standing on it!  There was much rejoicing and picture taking.

It was even more beautiful and more amazing than I could have imagined.  Plus, I was able to do the hiking and climbing required to get around!

On the way down, I had fun taking my time and looking at the booths selling really nice souvenirs.  The vendors were super pushing, going as far as grabbing us, but I didn't really mind.  I just would say I had no money (which was true) and move on.  Part way down I ended up finding a stray $5 and was able to get a beautiful embroidered picture with it.  At the very end of the way down, I found an additional $3 and this guy was SO nice in giving me a piece of marble with my name carved in it for that price.  He knew I really didn't have any more money and I really wanted the stamp.  Very nice guy.

Some people commented on my stroke walk (I actually look like I had a stroke when I walk downhill.  Those leg muscles never quite recovered from the stroke.) but I didn't get as many stares or comments as I expected.  

There were some strange and interesting things in the market lining the path back from the Great Wall.  I saw this and gave up trying to decide what was going on there.  

And naturally, there were camels.  Why wouldn't there be camels right?

On the way back, we were running early so we got to stop at a tea house.  We participated in a tea tasting demonstration which was really fun.  I never knew that making and drinking tea was such an art!  I liked most of the teas I tried, especially the fruit tea!  I spent an embarrassing amount of money on the tea and had fun taking pictures of the decorations.  

Dinner was at one of the most popular restaurants in the city.  It specialized in duck which was something I had never tried before.  After I heard how the poor duckies were raised, I almost didn't want to try them ever.  ( I did try the duck and it was delicious.  I justified it with the fact that the duck was already dead and I didn't want it to go to waste.  Weak, I know.)  The ducks are raised in increments of 15 days.  They start out free ranging on the river banks for 15 days to build up their muscle.  Then they are packed into a small pen and overfed.  The overfeeding and the inability to move make them gain a bunch of fat.  Then they free range again, and then they get put back in a pen but the floor of that pen is on a hot plate.  This is where it get's REALLY sad.  The hot plate is so hot that it burns the duck's feet so they jump and hop to try to not have their feet burn.  They are forced to do this for days and days until their meat is deemed perfect and they are killed for food.  So sad!

Ghana (Day 4)

  

 So yes, it was an early morning on my fourth day in Ghana.  I dozed on and off from 4:30 to 6:30 am but then the youngest woke up and was having fun poking me and playing with my hair.  :0)  I spent a last half hour with my host family taking pictures and playing clapping games with the kiddies.  When it was time to go I thought I may cry, but I held it together.  I hugged the kids and shook  hands with their grandmother and headed off to breakfast.  

   I had learned at this point to take tons of extra food so I could share it as I was eating which was fun.  One of the older girls came around to write the address for the village down for me so I could send letters that the elders would pass on to my host family.  I could tell she was really bright and probably the best at writing and English in the village.  I had already given my pencil to Sara so I rummaged through my bag to find a sharpie for her to use in school.  She was so excited, I wish I had brought more school supplies!  We talked for a while in between her being needed to write for other groups and she ended up writing down her facebook information so we could be facebook friends!  (The village has one or two computers that the kids and adults can go use in a central building.)  I was really excited!  Knowing that I could stay in contact with the people I met and stayed with made the fact that I had to leave slightly easier.  

    When breakfast was done, all that was left to do was get back on the bus.  I dragged my feet again by taking lots of pictures and giving lots of final hugs to my homestay mom and Kafi who had wandered over.  As the bus pulled away I waved and blew kisses as we pulled away from the crowd.  A bunch of the kids ran with the bus yelling and laughing until we picked up speed.  All of the sudden it was over.  It was a strange feeling of happiness that I was going back to the comfort of the ship, and sadness that I had to leave the wonderful community behind.  

    On the way back, we had one more adventure in store.  We stopped at some sort of wild animal reserve/park and picked up a guide who worked there.  The bus drove a ways and then let us out to what seemed like not much.  Then the baboons came!  These things are cool from a distance and kind of terrifying up close.  They are rather large, have sharp teeth, and their butts look like something that died of a horrible infection.  The guide said we could feed them popcorn that he brought, so naturally I ignored five years of biology class telling me this was a bad idea and fed the baboons.  I was amazed how close they were willing to get to us!  It was really fun while at the same time it made me sad that the wild animals were not so wild.  Even though it would have  been less of an experience, I would have rather watched the baboons from a distance with binoculars and known that they were still 100% wild.

                  

(She is not amused.)

   We got back on the bus and started driving down an awesomely rough dirt road through the bush!  We were in luck and spotted on of their herds of antelope!  We were all supposed to stay in the bus to take pictures, but me and a couple others managed to convince the guide to let us sneak out to take some pictures.  Then there was more awesome bus-offroading and we got to the trail head for the hike to the cave.  I was feeling pretty invincible so decided to go along.

   It was less of a hike and more of a rock climbing experience.  The trail went almost straight up with huge boulders jutting out.  I kept up pretty well though.  I wasn't even last to get to the cave!  The cave was pretty cool, but not very big or dark like I had envisioned.  THe best part was that it was filled with bats and their associated chirping noises!  I had never been so close to so many bats so it was cool!  Our guide said that we would have a better view of them if we crawled through this crack in the wall and hiked up a bit more.  Unfortunately that space we had to crawl through was lined with bat poo.  And let me tell you this stuff does not smell good.  I was gagging and my eyes were watering.  It was that bad.  Still, I shimmied through the nastiness to get what was arguable a worse view of the bats.  By this point my legs were starting to shake which is a big uh-oh when I knew I had lots of steep downhill to go.

   For the decent I wasn't nearly as successful as going up.  I was way slower than everyone else so one girl and the guide stayed back with me.  I was pretty much walking on jelly legs that kept partially collapsing underneath me so it was quite an experience.  I was barely able to get onto the bus and needed extensive help from my arms to get me up the two stairs.  I was fully expecting a complete shaking and weakness episode, but it never got any worse.  In face, as I was sitting on the bus ride back to the ship, I actually got most of the strength back!  Yippy!

    Between spending the day and night in the dusty village without a shower and crawling through bat poo, I'm pretty sure I had never been more disgusting in my life.  I was SO happy to get back in the ship and take a really long shower to scrub all that nastiness off.  I rested for a bit, ate lunch, and then ventured out onto the pier to check out the vendor stalls there.  I was surprised at how aggressive the sellers were!  I hadn't been anywhere touristy in Ghana yet, so I hadn't been treated like a tourist until then.  The guys would literally grab my arm and not let mea leave their stall.  Luckily I'm somewhat used to this from traveling to various places so I wasn't as overwhelmed or scared a some people probably were.  I basically figured out that we were playing a game.  They were trying to sell me things for as much as possible, and I was trying to buy things for as little as possible.  Other than that there were no rules.  It was just the best player would do the best.  With this mindset, it was much easier to shop and bargain.  I fully understood that they didn't really think of me "as a sister who will take my name to America" and they were certainly not cutting me a deal because I was a "poor starving student."  I'm like, you can't expect me to think that you believe that as I get off this huge cruise ship.  I bought a small gift for someone at the first stall and then skipped to three or four down the line where the sellers were less intense.  I  had my eye on one of the African dresses so I opted into the game by asking how much it was.  The seller quoted me 37 citi which was a bit to high for me.  I said I didn't have that much with me, but thank you very much and started to walk away.  He said, "wait!  Wait! How much do you have?" and I lied and said I only had 15 citi with me.  (We both knew I was lying.  Its part of the game.)  He laughed and said that was not nearly enough and quoted me 30 citi.  I kept just saying that I only had 15 and there was nothing I could do thinking I would just go on to the next stall.  When I finally started to walk away, the guy said, "Ok, ok, I give it to you for 15."  I was actually really surprised and pleased with that!  I gave him the 15 and thanked him very much.  He sort of smiled at me and approvingly said, "I like you.  You good." which I hope meant that I had mad bargaining skills.  True to my word, I told the other sellers who descended on me as I left the booth that I didn't have any money.  One artist said he just wanted me to look at his paintings and I thanked him and went over to see them.  They were really beautiful and I may end up getting one.  After he showed them to me, he asked if I wanted any and I said I didn't have any citi left.  He then offered to trade with me, one 30 citi painting for an iphone.  I laughed and said I wish I had an iphone to trade, but I don't.  After much haggling, I said that I really didn't have any money but I loved his paintings and would hopefully come back if  I could figure out a way to get more money.  He said he would save my favorite paintings for me which is a well accepted lie that is part of the market experience.  I thanked him very much for his time and told him he was a really gifted painter and headed back to the ship.  I used the "I have no money" approach all the way back and was largely left a lone which was nice.  I think I'm sharpening my bargaining skills.  :0)

Brazil! (Day 1)

  As far as epicness goes, my first day in Brazil pretty much wins.  It started early with my alarm rudely waking me up at 7:00 followed by a quick breakfast.  I hurried to pack my bag, take my meddies, change into my swimsuit, and put the gel backs in my cooling vest.  By 7:45 I was meeting with my group for the swimming with dolphins field program.  

  As usual the crew was wonderful and carried my chair down for me so I could focus on getting down the 5 flights of stairs leading down from the boat.  I immediately noticed that I may have some trouble with the heat and humidity.  It's the kind of heat here where you almost feel like you can't get your breath because it is so muggy.  I was definitely glad that I had decided to bring my chair that day.  We all loaded up on a small boat that would take us on our day's adventure.   I had awesome help all the way, probably more than I needed in fact.

   The boat ride to the first stop of the day was really relaxing.  I had secured a window seat and enjoyed the refreshing spray of the Rio Negra (the other large river in Manaus) and the scenery.  Right near the port, there was a small hill of houses built on stilts to accommodate to the different river levels at different times of the year.  In 2009 and 2010 the difference between the highest and lowest level of the river was 53 ft!  We also passed under a huge bridge spanning across the whole river.  It was the first of it's kind in the Amazon.  

   We arrived at our first destination by navigating a smaller offshoot of the Rio Negra.  None of us were prepared for the impromptu "nature walk" that was announced once we were off of the boat.  We were not allowed to wear sunscreen or bug spray since we would be interacting with the dolphins later and hardly any of us had long sleeves or pants.  I guess all of those things are pretty much necessities for a track through the rainforest.  Our guide was uneasy with our lack of preparedness but he shrugged and told the people in shorts to stay in the middle in case we encountered any of the venomous snakes.  I got a further shock of my own when it was announced that this little nature walk was actually going to be an hour long hike!  I immediately stepped out of the line we were forming to venture into the forest and resigned myself to spending the time in the boat.  The professor in charge of this field program saw this and offered that he would stick with me and go back with me when I was tired so I wouldn't have to walk through the forest alone.  I felt bad, but agreed because I really wanted to see the forest.

   I started out on the walk huffing and puffing and thinking with each step that I should probably not be doing this.  I kept taking steps though and soon came to the realization that I could quite possibly do this.  Over the next hour this girl who has been in a wheelchair or in bed for the last four years went on a 50 minute hike!  In the rainforest.  With excruciating heat and humidity.  Climbing over logs and ducking through spiderwebs as I went.  

That is one of the guides cutting through the forest with a machette.  How cool is that!?!

   I can't even put into words how amazing I felt when we got back to the boat.  I kept thinking, "did that really just happen?"  I never thought I would be able to do something like that years in the future, let alone just months after my CCSVI surgery!  

   As excited as I was over this achievement, it was only the beginning of the day's adventures.  A short boat ride across the river allowed us to get somewhat cooled off before we once again clamored ashore.  This time it was to a small village where we would be having lunch.   The food was fantastic.  I usually am not too crazy about fish, but the fish on the menu was done fantastically!  I helped myself to a few other delicious things that I am still not really sure what they were.  As we were eating, the professor leading the field program told us about the river dolphins that we would be getting to swim with at the next stop.  The dolphins were the source of scandalous folklore where historically they were believed to disguise themselves as distinguished and sexy young men who would then seduce young women who ventured out on their own.  Any mysterious pregnancies were blamed on the seductive, shapeshifting dolphins.  The professor added with a chuckle that he wouldn't be surprised that this myth was started by the missionaries to explain the emergence of pink skinned babies.   In terms of the dolphins biology, an interesting fact is that they change their skin pigment and mellon (the bump on their head) shape as a means of communicating emotions.

  With full stomachs and brains, we boarded the boat to our final and most anticipated destination.  We were entertained a long the way by one of the kids in our group and a daughter of the boat driver playing games that didn't need any common language.  

  We were greeted at the floating dolphin place by the family who ran the place and some very cute dogs who were only too happy to have us ogle over them.  I could tell that many of us were missing our pets at home.  After a brief introduction, it was time to jump in the water.  Swimming with the dolphins was quite an experience!  They are wild, so this isn't anything like my previous dolphin experience where the dolphin was trained to do tricks and sit calmly as we pet it.   Basically we would be floating in the murky water and all of the sudden our foot would touch something or we would get a gentle head but from a dolphin.  There were many yelps of excitement and surprise as the dolphins would brush against us or suddenly appear bobbing in the water next to us.  The people running the place enticed the dolphins to come to the surface so we could get a better look (and touch them) with fish.  These dolphins were certainly not flipper.  They were almost frightening looking with their slightly angular proportions and very sharp teeth.  They were very friendly though and seemed to be as curious about us as we were about them.  The place we were at didn't' get many tourists, so this was somewhat of a novelty to the dolphins as well.  

  Too soon it was time to get out of the water and shower to get rid of the slime that coated us from the river.  We were each given a necklace from the family with a scale form a fish that lived in the river.  After we got dried off, we were able to see this fish firsthand as the family showed us how to fish for them.  It actually wasn't' true fishing with a hook.  We used a fish tied into a string as bait which caused the fish to latch onto the string just long enough for it to be pulled out of the water for a quick glimpse of the full size of the thing.   Just as the huge scale suggested these fish were huge!  It was a little scary that we were just swimming in the same water as them!  I got to try my hand at fishing and managed to "hook" quite a few.

   Then it was back on the boat for a relaxing journey back to our boat.  

Normally this would have been more than enough for me for one day, but I still had another field program to go!  I hurriedly took a shower to get off the last bits of slime and got dressed in my evening gear.  This consisted of lots of bug spray, long pants and long sleeves.  I ate a quick dinner on the boat, rested for a few minutes back in my room and then was off to meet my group.  I was excited that two of my new good friends were doing the field program as well!  As we were talking, one of them mentioned that she had had brian surgery when she was younger and started describing it.  It started to sound extremely familiar so I asked, "Was it for chiari malformation?"  Her eyes got huge and she replied, "Yes!  How did you know about it?  No one knows about it!"  I told her that many people with Ehlers Danlos have chiari so I have tons of friends who have had the same surgery.  I was even tested for it several times before I found out my real problem was CCSVI.  As if we weren't already good friends for both loving biology and Doctor Who, that pretty much cemented it! 

We soon were back on another boat that would take us to our caiman spotting adventure.  This boat was pretty big and I wondered how we were going to see any wildlife until I realized that we would be transferring into smaller boats later.  The ride was pleasant as all boat trips seem to be.  We were all very tired, but didn't' sleep because we didn't want to miss the view of the city at night.  

I somehow managed to get prime seating in the front spot when we transferred into the canoes.  Our fearless guide hoped onto the boat and we were off.  It was very exciting cruising around at night!   The guide scanned the shoreline  with a flashlight hoping to spot the reflection of caiman eyes.  (Caiman are an alligator like reptile.)  After some meandering I thought I spotted an eye glowing from the water grass and sure enough we made a beeline to it.  The guide got down on his stomach and expertly scooped up the caiman out of the water.  We all cheered and then got the surprise that we could hold it ourselves!  The little caiman was very calm throughout the whole experience, letting us pose of pictures and inspect it's scales and feet.  It felt different than I expected.  It looks really rough, but it feels more like a snake with smooth scales.  I was particularly fascinated by the feet which were fragile looking yet very strong.  The guide let the caiman go after a belly rub that is seemed to enjoy.  We cruised around for a while after that spotting many more caiman and successfully catching another tiny one.  This one was a bit feisty and I confess I squealed a little when it began to thrash about while I was holding it.

I was completely exhausted by the time we got back, but it was completely worth it!  Holding a caiman was the perfect way to end such an awesome day!  

Dominica (Day 2)

I am seriously in love with this country!  I had another beautiful day in Dominica today and was very sad to leave.  

I decided to be a bit gutsy and didn't even bring my wheelchair on the field program today.  Turns out I didn't' need it even though I was a lot more tired today.  Today the trip was a bus tour to the Carib Indians, the indigenous population on the island.  The drive was beautiful and our guide was fantastic.  I'm going to call our bus The Little Engine that Could because it definitely had to struggle up those hills and through the potholes!  The roads in Dominica can get quite rough.  Sometimes we were driving through the rainforest on a tiny uneven road and then a car would be coming at us head on!  What seemed to barely be a one way road then had to become a two way road.  Despite the rough condition of some of the roads, I felt safer there than driving in LA.  The drivers all knew what they were doing and went as slow as was needed to be safe.  (Something many LA drivers should learn.)

We stopped briefly to hike through the rainforest to a waterfall and emerald pool.  I went about 3/4 of the way and turned around because I was getting tired and the rest of the way was really steep up and down hill.  I'm already putting my poor body through enough!  haha  It was very peaceful walking back through the forest alone (don't worry mom and dad, I asked my guide if it was safe first).  I also had some time to peruse the two little shopping booths at the entrance to the trail.  I didn't buy much because it was pretty touristy, but I did get a couple trinkets.  I also got the rare chance to see an agudi (correct spelling pending…) which is kind of like the awkward love child of a gunny pig and a weenier dog.  With long skinny legs.  

Back on the bus and some more treacherous driving (to us city kids) we arrived at the Carib Indian community.  It pretty much was like any other place we had driven past which was  a little disappointing at first.  We had brief glimpses of daily life (which is pretty much like our own: work, school, laundry…) but mostly we toured a few different set-ups where community members showed us some daily tasks from their lives. 

First stop was learning how to juice sugar cane.  It was pretty cool and a few of us actually got to try our hand at it.  The juice tasted very strange, not just like sugar like I expected.  It had a kind of grassy aspect to is, but wasn't unpleasant.

Next we learned about basket weaving and tried a bit ourselves.  The baskets are made with different patterns in each community so you can tell where they came from.  In daily life, the baskets would be used to wrap gifts and store jewelry.  The lady said that one basket would take her about two hours to make. 

The next stop was something about medicinal herbs but I couldn't hear because:

A.)  I was pretty tired at this point and seeing more of the view bellow than whatever herbs were being discussed.

B.)  A very cute distraction in the form of ATTACK PUPPY.  (I think you can see where he go this name.  He really enjoyed chomping on whatever he could reach.)  Don't worry mom and dad.  He didn't break any skin and I purled the heck out of my hands afterwards.  haha

The final station showed how they make flat break out of powder from a root.  I tasted the powder pre-cooked and it tasted pretty much like flour.  The bread however was fantastic!  It kind of tasted like really good sourdough bread.  We also got to sample some fresh coconut on the way back.

BEfore we got back on the bus, there were more local treats for us including green bananas (tasted like bread!), slices of a root (also tasted like bread!), more coconut candy, and a really good fish salad.  

The ride back to our ship was rather subdued since everyone was so tired.  I got a last few pictures of the island and then it was unfortunately time to leave.  I am DEFINITELY coming back here!