Thursday, August 1, 2013

Galapagos Islands

Well, here we sit at the breakfast table on our final morning (abroad) on this trip.  We knew the time would pass quickly.  However, I think everyone is ready to be home and not traveling out of a backpack for a while.  

Our week in the Galapagos Islands has been good, but not great.  I guess we came in with these really high expectations of an exotic locale and it turned out to be a little bit pedestrian.  Admittedly, it was pretty neat to see the wildlife up close.  They all seem to be very tame and unafraid of human presence.  

I did get to do a day of scuba diving with manta rays and hammerhead sharks.  I think if we went back I would look to book a week-long diving cruise. The underwater marine life is amazing. 

We have a bigtime milk run to get back to Portland, Oregon. We embark on about 28 hours of continuous travel around 60 minutes from now.  

We will likely post a few more times before we wrap up this blog. Final thoughts on the trip, reunion pics with Nanda, etc.  

Looking forward to seeing you all soon. 


Cactus Tree

Darwin's Finch


Iguana

Mackenzie evading Tortuga Gigante

Customer at the fish market

Tortuga Gigante

Bluefooted Booby


Sea Lion - absent a tail :(   (shark bite!)



Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Manizales, Los Nevados NP, and back to Salento

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, our trip into Los Nevados was abbreviated due to Rock's altitude-related illness.  What we did see and do was very nice.  Beautiful above-timberline terrain.

Additionally, the hot springs at Santa Rosa were a real treat.  You are soaking in the hot water and watching the waterfall cascade down right behind you. A pretty sublime setting. 

We have been back at La Serrana in Salento for the past three nights. Rock has been doing very well. We even took him horseback riding yesterday.  Joanie and I got in a nice 40km adult-only mountain bike ride in today. Our last full day in Colombia.  It was a a nice way to wrap up the visit to one of our most favorite countries that we have traveled through - on this trip or any other.  

Tomorrow we get on a plane to Guayaquil, Ecuador and then follow that up the next morning with our flight to the Galapagos Islands - our final international destination of this nearly 9-month journey.  

We were counting the days and we only have 10 remaining before we will be landing in Portland, Oregon. We knew before we started that it would go fast.  It has been the trip of a lifetime and we are looking forward to reuniting with friends and family to catch up.


At 4100m. Tired...

Church in Manizales

Hot springs at Santa Rosa de Cabal


Los Nevados NP

Pig roast on Colombian Independence Day (7/20)


Salento

Street scene: Manizales

Sunset at La Serrana

Typical Colombian farm

View from La Serrana hostel

Monday, July 22, 2013

Video Clip: from Spain to Colombia

It has been a long while since we last posted a video clip. We have been shooting a lot less as the trip has progressed.  However, we have some good footage to share that focuses primarily on the Coffee Triangle of Colombia. Enjoy!


Sunday, July 21, 2013

Rock on the road to recovery

Rock's is mending well.  He slept through the night with zero coughing and his respirations are much reduced.  The antibiotic is doing the trick. What a relief.

Here is a fun Photo Booth picture of Rock and I using the "mirror" function. We were at the hospital and you can just make out the nasal cannula. He was parked next to an oxygen cylinder for about 3 hours yesterday morning.

In case you ever find yourself in a Colombian Urgencia room, bring your wallet.  Before we departed to the hospital, I loaded mine up with about $200 worth of local currency as well as the stash of USA greenbacks that I had available; another $800 or so.  When we checked in, the hospital security man asked if I had money to pay for any services rendered. I assured him I did.  After 3+ hours there, numerous meds administered, two different doctors, a blood draw and lab work, and O2 for just about the entire time, I held my breath for the damage.  It came to 65,000 Colombian Pesos.  About $35. I don't think they will hand you the clipboard and a pen in a USA emergency room for less than $1500.

Rock at San Vincente Urgencia room in Santa Rosa de Cabal



Saturday, July 20, 2013

First chink in the armor...


Wow.  What an epic 36 hours we have just been through!  Very, very stressful. The good news is that all seems to be in order and everyone is OK.  The compelling details:

We reported earlier on how idyllic we found Salento to be.  Fantastic mountain biking, hiking, and horseback riding.  Also a sublime and relaxed atmosphere at La Serrana eco hostel made the stay memorable.  Fantastic. 5 stars.  It was with some sadness that we departed Salento around 4 days ago for new sites in Colombia. 

Our first stop was Villa Maria, which is a suburb of Manizales.  Still in the coffee region.  Our objective was to hire a guide service to take us up high into Los Nevados National Park.  The park has some of the highest concentration of peaks in the Colombian Andes.  They top out at just under 6000m  - nearly 20,000 feet! 

We had no illusions about getting up any of the peaks. We simply wanted to see the high country and do some trekking.

The guide service came by our hostel in Villa Maria and gave us a briefing the night prior to our departure.  One of the things that caused my Spidey Senses to go on full alert was the plan itself. It involved a 3 hour Jeep ride up a rough hardscrabble road, not too dissimilar from the same type we have in the San Juans.  This would deliver us to 4000m (13,200 feet) whereupon we would go for a 4 hour hike.  We would set up camp that night at 4200m and then go to 4500m the next morning to the toe of the glacier.  This seemed to me like a very aggressive gain in altitude in a short period of time.  Things like Acute Mountain Sickness and HAPE were certainly something that Joanie and I discussed.

The drive up was beautiful and uneventful.  Our hike was hard due to the thin air. I had a low-grade headache.  Rock was suffering the most. No headache, but really dragging his feet.  After the hike, we told the guide that we wanted to camp near the car just in case.  He suggested we could do one better and drop down 300m to a nearby ranch and camp there at 3700m.  We agreed that would be the best plan.

We erected tents, etc and everyone was pretty well knackered so we passed on dinner and just rested in the tents. Essentially, we went to bed at around 17:30. At around 19:30 that night, Rock developed a cough. This progressed for the next couple of hours. It got wetter and wetter.  At 21:30, I went into his tent, listened to his cough and distressed breathing and decided to pull the plug.  I am not an MD, but felt that it was classic signs/symptoms for early onset of HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema). The wet lung sounds indicate fluid building in the lungs and if left untreated can lead to rapid loss of conscious and eventually death. He had to go down. Right now.

We broke camp in the dark, waking people up, disassembling tents, etc.  We loaded the truck and down we went those same rough 3 hours down the mountain road. We made the hostel in Villa Maria (1800m) at 1:00 AM.  Whew!  His breathing improved significantly during the descent.  He had only a dry cough in Villa Maria and slept well the rest of that night.

We were satisfied to have made the right call and made it quickly and decisively.  You don’t mess around with that stuff, at all.

After a healthy dose of coffee and relaxing, we eventually got a cab and made our way south to Santa Rosa de Cabal.  It has a fantastic hot springs. Really cool. We will post some images later. Well worth the visit.

Rock was 100%. We were patting ourselves on the back.

After a lovely visit to the hot springs and a nice dinner, we retired to our hostel.  I stayed up late doing our first machine wash laundry since Paris, 30 days ago.  It had been hand washing in the sink that entire time. We needed it.  I went to bed at around 2:00 am and Rock was coughing badly. Not a wet cough, but a bad cough. 

The cough persisted ALL NIGHT LONG.  None of us slept, Rock especially. His breathing was labored and rapid.  At 6:00 am we decided we needed to get him to a hospital. I had plugged in some signs/symptoms on www.webmd.com and one of the possibilities that matched his presentation was Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.  Whether he had it or not does not matter. What mattered is he was having a very, very difficult time breathing. I counted his reps at 50-60+ inspirations per minute and very shallow.  He was like a Cheetah recovering from a chase.  Almost panting.

Rock and I grabbed a taxi to the hospital 15 blocks away. English was just about bereft at this hospital and my Spanish is only just passable for getting food, lodging, and directions, but not for describing medical conditions. Let’s just say that the hospital desktop computer with Google translator was invaluable. 

The doctor's initial diagnosis was larynx.  I was calm, but firm. I said no way. He was 100% yesterday. No ill effects.  He does not cite pain in the throat. We think he likely has a secondary infection and needs antibiotics (which we carry and which we would have administered if needed).  I basically was not going to leave the office without a blood workup. Period.

His saturated O’s measured on the pulse Ox were 78. Yuck. They got him on O’s and also some antihistamines in the form of pills and the inhaler.  Then they took the blood sample.  The care was prompt and professional. And clean.  I checked on the computer each item they wished to administer.  It was all in Spanish, of course. 

About an hour later, the blood work came back with elevated white blood cell count. Possible bacterial infection.  Big surprise.  The last thing they gave him was a load dose of dexamethasone. A steroid to reduce inflammation.  His breathing was improving, but was still 30-40 per minute. 

We got the antibiotic script as well as some other anti-inflammatories and cough medicine. His saturated O’s were at 91 when we left the hospital. Mine were 98-99. 

He responded vey well to the steroids and his breathing continued to improve.  When we got back to the hostel, we were thrown into full-blown Chinese fire drill mode. The day prior we had arranged for a cab driver -that we had been using for the past 10 days -to come pick us up and take us back to Salento at 12 noon.  We missed the activities and relaxing atmosphere.  This is a 1 and ½ hour cab ride.  On July 20, Colombian Independence Day no less.  We tried to cancel the ride, but he was not happy with that idea. Can’t blame him. He was nearly in Santa Rosa and had passed up on other business. I was all for just eating the fare, but we decided that we could rally and stay on our plan. So we scrambled to pack up the gear, gave Rock some food to help his tummy with the steroids, hustled to the pharmacy for the script, administered the meds, paid the hostel in Santa Rosa, yadda, yadda, etc etc.  It was CRAZY. 

We arrived in Salento at 13:00 (4 hours ago). Rock is still doing well.  We unpacked back into our favorite hostel in Colombia and I made some coffee and I had my first food in a long time.  Rock seemed to be A-OK.

Our concern, of course, is when the steroids wear off. He is sleeping now and has been for the past 2-3 hours. His respirations are still 30+ but no coughing, etc.  The antibiotics should chase out this infection pronto and we are confident that we have dodged our second bullet in 36 hours. 

8 ½ months on the road and nary a common cold or diarrhea for just about the whole group. I had a cold the first few days in Thailand that I probably caught on the flight over from Hawai’i.  Joanie got over one a week or two ago.  We have been super healthy with no burglaries or car accidents to report. Knock on wood. This episode dished it out to us in spades. Wow. 

Please be patient with us on individual emails. Things are busy. We will post blog updates on Rock's condition as we have news to report. Remember, no news is good news. Bad news always travels fast.

Thanks.


Sunday, July 14, 2013

Salento, Colombia


This is our fifth day here in Salento, Colombia and we are having the time of our lives.  The setting is sublime:  steep, rolling hills for 360 degrees, perfect weather, little to no bugs, tons of activities, and very, very affordable.  Add in an amazing hostel property at La Serrana as well as wonderfully friendly locals and it all sums up to an idyllic travel destination.  We kind of had a sense that we were going to like Colombia, but we have been blown away with how good it is.  Perhaps the best spot we have visited in 8 months; certainly one of the top 2 or 3, for sure.

Salento is in the 'coffee triangle' of Colombia.  It is a small town set in the high hills at the base of the higher mountains of the Andes.  Every day we have done an excellent activity.  Thus far we have 2 days of horseback riding, 2 days of mountain biking, and a day of hiking under our belts.  The trek was our first activity.  We went up into the Cocoro Valley to see the famous Colombian wax palms.  Colombia is the only place in the world that they grow. The big ones are in excess of 100 feet tall.  

The horseback riding has been a blast.  We have done two different 3 hour rides. Each has included trotting, galloping, river crossings, steep ascents/descents on single track. Basically, all of the stuff you never get to do in the States with a horse riding outfitter. The galloping has been everyone's favorite.
The bonus is that the cost for this type of 3 hour ride is $17 US per person!  

Colombia is rapidly developing into a mountain biking destination.  The hills are criss-crossed with a combination of single and double track trails and roads.  Lots of descending and climbing just like home.  Yesterday, we rode for 5 hours or so.  Probably close to 25 miles on dirt roads with three different big climbs.  The kids did great. They have gotten so strong on this trip in their athletic thresholds.  

We have just one more day in Salento and then we are off to the Manizales region for some high mountain trekking.  


100 foot plus "wax palm"


Typical countryside in Salento


Coffee tour






Spectacular Cocoro Valley

View from our hostel

Wax palms in Cocoro Valley

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Thank goodness for air conditioning!!!


We are in Cartagena, Colombia. It is a VERY HOT AND HUMID city!  We have gone to the Old City and it is very cool. Today we rented a 6-person bike and it had a safari cover for shade and 4 wheels. It was really fun. However, Mackenzie got her foot stuck in the pedal! It looked like it hurt! It was kinda slow too. I bet that you could walk normally and keep pace with it.  The traditional food here is very good. Not as good as Asian food, but good. It is basically beans, rice, ceviche, and some different kinds of tortillas.

The Spanish established Cartagena in 1533.  The construction of the Old City wall was completed in the year 1631.

The next place that we are visiting in Colombia is the Coffee Triangle located in the mountains. We are going to take a coffee tour and ride horses. It is only 3 and a half weeks until we fly to the United States from Guayaquil, Ecuador. I am really excited!

        Audrey A. Gibbs