Getting to Africa

Hey Guys!

We are back for more blogging adventures, this time on a 3 month stint to East Africa. Here we will visit Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya with a one month placement in Uganda with Veterinarians Without Borders (VWB). We are both super excited to be back on the road again, so let's dive right in!

We had a pretty eventful trip to Uganda, and this blog will cover everything leading up to finally stepping foot on Ugandan soil. We spent 2 days in Ottawa, getting an orientation from VWB staff, learning about what we will likely be encountering while we are in Uganda. We will be working with local farmers to try to facilitate their efforts to raise healthier cows that produce more milk. We will likely be facing some unique challenges that we do not have in Canada- infrastructure is not to the same standard, and it is also a tropical country with a selection of disease we do not see. 

 We got to see the Parliament buildings all lit up one of the nights as it was still going from Christmas.

So at this point, once our orientation was done in Ottawa we were set to fly Ottawa --> Toronto --> Amsterdam--> Entebbe (Uganda). However, our first flight was cancelled. The 'curse' of the start of each big trip being interrupted continues. However, we only jokingly call it a curse. This same curse was what allowed us to see NYC at Christmastime a few years ago, and that was super magical. Anyways, back to the point. We went to the WestJet counter and after a lot of bumbling around (I'll give you the Coles Notes version), we ended up on a flight Montreal--> Doha --> Uganda. 

Where is Doha? You might ask. It is the capital city of Qatar. I had heard of Qatar, but never anything more than that it was a country in the Middle East. After a quick google that it was a safe place to visit, we decided to fly through here, with a 16 hour layover. When I say decide, we weren't exactly spoilt for choice. The next days flights through Amsterdam were sold out, so when we missed the first flight it really threw everything for a loop. More on Doha later. 

We still needed to get ourselves to Montreal, so we boarded a VIA Rail train at 7 pm that night. We ended up in a great little hotel downtown, and decided to head out and experience some of Montreal's famed nightlife. Johnny Blair had told us about a few good places to check out, and this picture below is from one of his haunts. 

I did this shot for you, Johnny. 

We didn't fly out until 8 pm that night, so we had plenty of time to explore this great city. We first went to the St. Joseph's Oratory of  Mount Royal. It was built in 1904, and is Canada's largest church. I think the thing I was most impressed by was the pipe organ in the upper basilica. There was a person playing it while we were there, and it was amazing. 

 There was also great view of the city from up there

Then we headed down to Old Montreal, a beautiful collection of streets and buildings. Some date back to the 17th Century. 

 The Old Clock Tower overlooking the St. Lawrence River 

We had an absolutely fabulous meal of poutine for Jared and a Montreal smoked meat sandwich for me. 

Here we are in front of the Notre-Dame Basilica, built in 1672. 

We boarded our red eye that night, heading for Doha, Qatar. We didn't feel too bad when we disembarked, and were eager to head out and see the city. We even got a free hotel room out of it! Qatar airways gives (mostly) everyone with an 8 hour or more layover a free room for the night. We also had free transfers into the hotel in town, and credit for meals. We love this kind of stuff.  We had the option of ordering room service, which we totally took advantage of. To be able to eat really good food, and sleep in a real bed was so divine. But back to our city tour.....

I am standing in from of the Souq Waqif mosque in downtown Doha. Eating chicken biryani!

 The commanding skyline of Doha along the West Bay

 Centre of Islamic Art, which showcases traditional pieces throughout history. I would have been SO into this if it had been open. It was still beautiful to look at from the outside. 

 Traditional dhow boats used for fishing. I think a lot of them take tourists out now. 

The outside of the Souq Waqif bazaar. In Arabic, souq means bazaar.  

We came across a 'pet' alley, full of birds, rabbits, kittens, puppies, turtles. It was quite extensive! It is always sad to see that many birds crammed into such a small cage, though.

Lots of textiles, rugs, clothes, and various souvenirs. Too bad this isn't on the way home! Jared wanted to get a huge sword

At the end of the night we sat and smoked shisha to wind down and watch the people go by. I am not condoning smoking, just so everyone is clear. It's just one of those things you have to do for the cultural experience. 

Walking back to the hotel, we came across this HUGE arch made up of two swords. 

The next morning we boarded a plane to Entebbe (Uganda). When we touched down, it felt like a sense of accomplishment. I felt really lucky that we got to have this little mini-adventure added on to our already great upcoming trip.  

After clearing customs and getting our bags, we met up with our driver, Bruce. We started on the six hour journey to Mbarara, the town we will be based out of for the next couple of days. 

We passed by the equator on the way.

Until Next Time!

THE LAST OF SOUTH/CENTRAL AMERICA- San Juan Del Sur and Ometepe

Hi Guys! 

This is our LAST blog for South and Central America. I am so lucky to have been able to travel for a year with Jared and a couple of backpacks. It is truly my happy place. We have seen so much, learned so much, and feel so grateful to have had these experiences. But there is still one more blog! And it's a good one, so let's dive in. 

We headed down to San Juan del Sur for some beach time and surfing. We had also heard that there was one really special attraction in this area- sea turtles! The beaches of Central America are a major nesting ground for sea turtles, but they are not without their threats. There is an overpopulation of wild dogs, and they love to dig up the eggs for a tasty snack. Humans have also done this for centuries, as it is part of the indigenous people's diet. The Nicaraguan government sets aside a certain amount of eggs for this purpose, but the rest are illegal to be consumed. We visited a sanctuary, that is behind a big fence so the sea turtles are safe in here. 

We arrived at the La Flor Nature Reserve after dark. Our guide had asked us if his family could come along, and we saw no reason to say no. His son is pictured below. We first picked up this basket of hatchlings from the interpretive centre. They incubate eggs in-house to boost numbers, in addition to the naturally hatching eggs on the beach. There is some thought that the cycle of the moon has an effect on the numbers of females coming up on the beach to lay eggs. However, each source I came across had something slightly different to say, so who knows. The event everyone wants to see is an arribada, in which thousands of turtles arrive on the beach at the same time to lay their eggs. The thought is that there are strength in numbers (from predation). We must have seen hundreds of turtles coming and going on the beach, digging holes, laying eggs and covering them up. It was a truly magical experience. 

This was one of the turtles we placed on the shore, heading for the ocean. 

That was such a cool experience, I can't believe we saw SO many turtles. After the turtle reserve, we headed down to Playa Maderas and Majagual. We walked in about 20 minutes with our packs, but then we had an entire beach and hostel to ourselves! It was pretty rad. 

We played a big game of checkers with driftwood and rocks. 

After the beaches, it was time to head for Nicaragua's biggest lake. We had technically already seen another section of this lake when we were in Granada. This time we took a ferry to the island of Ometepe, which is a dormant volcano. You can still climb up to Conception (on the left) and get some amazing views on a clear day.

We rented some scooters and went touring around the island with some friends. Here is a waterfall we trekked to through the jungle.

Local traffic

The biker gang strikes up again!

This was the dining area at our hostel, which was also a permaculture farm. We did a tour with them one afternoon, and learned about how they are using sustainable farming techniques to produce as much food as possible on the property to feed the hostel guests. They were also composting waste (toilets included), as well as routing their waste water through a biofiltration system.

This is a rainbow eucalyptus tree. If you peeled off the bark, you would encounter different colors of the rainbow.

We stayed on a back section of the property- which was called Elsewhere Land.
Ometepe was a really chill place to spend our last couple of days in Nicaragua. Sadly, it was also the last couple of days of our trip all together. What a ride, I have never felt like a year of my life went by so fast!

I think this is a very suiting last picture. There was a girl that couldn't carry her suitcase down the twisty jungle path from the hostel, so we helped her get down to the road. We promise this wasn't all our luggage! However, I love the picture because it signifies the team work we did, and how there is no way either of us could have done it alone.

 I will always remember the beaches of Rio during Carnaval, getting engaged on the W, making a Mitsubishi Outlander our home for months, taking in Macchu Picchu at sunrise, summiting Huayna Potosi (6088m), watching Fuego's eruptions light up the night sky in red, swimming with hammerheads in Galapagos, meeting Devon and Eric in San Gregorio, and about 1000 other amazing and hilarious things we saw. Thank you for reading, stay tuned for Africa!

Until Next Time! 

Granada

Hey Guys! 

As our year-long trip started to draw to a close, we headed for Granada. Our friend and classmate, Steve K, lives here and works for World Vets. He facilitates veterinary work in the field of needy communities of Central America. He organizes the trips that put veterinarians and veterinary students in the field. There is no shortage of animals that need to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, hoof trimmed or teeth floated. Hats off to you, Steve. 

Here is a picture of us relaxing on the shores of Laguna de Apoyo with him. I am terribly behind on the blog, and Steve has moved on to a new international developement project in Peru- still with World Vets. 

We did some kayaking on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. There is an egret in this picture. 

A monkey jumped onto the kayak when we got close to one of the islands. She is a senior citizen, and lives on an island. Monkey's don't swim, so she lives off the food the people bring to her. 

While in Granada, we toured the Flor de Cana distillery. This is one of Jared (and his dad's) favorite kinds of rum. We are tasting some 30 year old rum in this picture. Plus check out the beard!

Gazing at Cerro Negro as we sip rum

Remember when I was talking about those naughty Somoza's in the last blog? This is the Masaya Volcano, and this is where you ended up if you spoke out against the regime. Some very dark stuff indeed. Standing at the top of the crater and gazing down into the lava lake sent chills up my spine as I thought about this fact.

I highly recommend coming here at night, where you can see the lava lit up, glowing intensely. If you watch long enough, you get treated to bubbling lava explosions.

This is a little random, but sometimes we would go to really bougey places that the 'fancy' backpackers went to. I'm sure this coffee cost less than it would in Canada, but we still thought it was quite a splurge.

Can you believe it? Our next blog will be our FINAL blog for South America. No time like the present, right guys?

Until Next Time!

Leon

Hey Guys!

Our first stop in Nicaragua was the city of Leon. Leon was a cool university town, lots of young people around. One of the things we heard was a 'must-do' was to go sand boarding down a volcano! They dress you up in a big orange jump suit and you slide yourself down on a toboggan/board. In theory, I could have stood up and boarded down, but it was all I could do to ride down on my butt/back. They gave prizes for the fastest guy and girl, sadly neither Jared nor I took home those honors. However, it was a fantastic time. The pictures are stolen from the internet because we didn't want to bring our cameras up there. It was a dusty/ashy extravaganza. 

After some adrenaline, it was time for me to do a city tour and get some history in. With all the things that have happened in Nicaragua in the last century, this was a great place to do it. Leon has always been the intellectual heart of the country, and it was the capital for many years.

Nicaragua fell to a similar fate as many Latin American countries, in that it was besieged by a military dictatorship for many years. The Somoza's kept Nicaragua in it's iron grip for 40 years. However, this was not without resistance from the people. The revolutionary hero was Augusto Sandino, and he commanded a large rebel army. The US government had interests in the area (bananas, coffee and the Panama Canal). Augusto Sandino fought for years against US Marines to keep American interference out. The US eventually left the region around the time of the Great Depression, and this is also when a democratic election was successfully carried out in Nicaragua. Augusto Sandino was put in charge of brokering peace between the rebels and the newly elected government.

However, this peace did not last as Sandino was executed by Anastasio Somoza Garcia. He had been put in control of the National Guard (at the insistence of the US Ambassador to Nicaragua). Somoza then hunted down all the leaderless rebels and had them executed too. Then that crafty Somoza used the National Guard to oust the President two years later. And this is how a 40-year dictatorship starts. It helps when you are fully backed by the US Government. From this rubble emerged the Sandinistas, a rebel force that opposed the dictatorship. Their symbol was the silhouette of Sandino, with hat and boots, and their flag was red on top of black.






Now it gets really interesting. A poet by the name of Rigoberto Lopez Perez shot Somoza in Leon on September 21, 1956. Somoza's eldest son took over, and he was no better. On July 23 1959, he ordered the National Guard to fire on a group of peaceful protesters at a university in Leon. I stood on the spot where it happened. The picture below commemorates the four students that were killed.





That Somoza died of a heart attack in 1967, and another really rude family member took over. Apparently he was the most vicious of all. We toured a volcano while in Nicaragua, and it is widely accepted that he threw his dissidents into the hot magma from a helicopter!

However, this madness was fortunately coming to an end. In 1975, Jimmy Carter decided he was no longer going to support a regime with such horrible human rights infractions. By 1979, the Sandinistas were in power. Somoza had tried to flee to USA (Jimmy said no), then Paraguay. However, a team of Sandinistas found him there and blew him to smithereens. Literally, they had to identify him by his feet. You can't make this stuff up. Apparently Somoza relatives are exiled all over the world, with changed names and new identities. And that was the end of the Somozas.



More sights from the streets of Leon
















We rounded out our time in Leon with an overnight trip to the beach.




Until Next Time!

A little surf town called El Tunco

After the exertions of Acatenango, it was nice to head to the little surf town of El Tunco in El Salvador.  We aren't amazing surfers, but you can't beat the vibe of a surf town. We had read about El Salvador being dangerous, and I think that is certainly the case in some parts of the country. However, El Tunco is a haven from all that nonsense. The people are relaxed, there is lots of good food to eat and the beaches are beautiful. It was a great place to stop to break up the trip between Guatemala and Nicaragua. 

These are Jared's knees. Relaxing on the beach while I tried to get up on waves.

Look! Sometimes I was even successful.

After El Tunco, we had to take a rather harrowing journey through Honduras to get to Leon (Nicaragua). Normally, this would just be a long day in a bus. However, Honduras was currently having a national election. There were (justified) concerns that the election was rigged, and people were rioting in the streets. The government had declared a state of emergency and instituted a curfew to crack down on the dissent. We had to get through this country en route, so our driver was speeding through at break-neck speed to get through before dark.  Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to get across the border and would be stuck on the Honduran side in some seedy border town. The sun had already set before we pulled up to the border, but luckily there were still people there to process us. I am thinking it probably would have been fine even if we hadn't got through- but it seemed a little unnerving that our driver was in such a hurry. Generally, people weren't in much of a hurry to do anything in Central America. We pulled into Leon that night with plans to do some sand-boarding the next day.
Until Next Time!