Watching the sunset over Lake Superior the trip slowly starts to feel like it's a reality. The hues of red and orange reflect off the gently lapping surface of the water and slowly shift to warm shades of rose and lavendar as time passes on. The sand feels good between my toes and we sit there until the sun dips below the horizon. This morning we started off with a good roaring fire. Andras drove into Grand Marais to get ice and change while I stayed behind to 'keep camp.' We've come to a lakeshore during the peak of an extremely [View Full Entry]

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We awake to the sounds of birds signaling the early morning, allowing us to get an early 5am start. We’re slowly starting to get used to the idea of planning our days around the sun - awake at sunrise, asleep at sunset. In order to catch the 8am ferry out of Tobermory to South Baymouth, we rush around the campsite folding blankets, and stuffing firewood into the nooks and crannies of the trunk until we’re ready to go, right on time, early even, at 6:30am. We’re quite proud of our ability to stay organized and to have made such an early [View Full Entry]

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This very well could be the end of the earth. What was expected to be a four hour drive took nearly seven and by the time we arrived at Bruce Peninsula National Park we weren’t thinking about the geologic significance, the new ecological zone we’d entered or about how we were going to set up for our first night camping. All we were concerned with was standing up. It’s not that the drive along Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment wasn’t scenic, it was just so long and speed limits in Canada are relatively slow compared with what we drive in the states (80km/hr [View Full Entry]

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The moment we approached the US-Canadian border, we knew we were in for something special. We had been anticipating a fair amount of difficulty getting into Niagara Falls, what with our car laden down with everything but the kitchen sink, but instead we were greeted by what had to be the friendliest border guard in the planet. “Where you headed, eh?” “Niagara Falls, Toronto and then camping in Bruce Peninsula, sir” “Oh, Bruce Peninsula. Is that up by Tobermory? Great little place. Have a cabin up there…” Turns out it is up by Tobermory and [View Full Entry]

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After a day on the road, we made our first detour in Erie, PA. Neither of us knew much about Erie. I think collectively we knew that there was a Lake Erie, an Erie Canal and that if you added another ‘e’ than you got the word that meant ‘spooky’. We also knew that is was in Pennsylvania, and to us that meant the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Liberty Bell. Yep. That’s pretty much what we knew. A whole lot of not-very-much-that’s-useful. Perhaps that’s why we both jumped at the chance to stop and explore this city at the invitation of [View Full Entry]

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When we first starting telling people about our trip—our journey across the country, a summer of freedom without menial jobs, rent payments and utility bills—their first reactions confused us. It wasn’t “Oh how great!” or “Sounds exciting!.” No, instead it was something much more basic. “What type of car are you driving?” I suspect they were looking for an answer a little more rugged than what I had to offer, probably some sort of gas-guzzling SUV or camper. So when I said, “my Neon” lets just say that no one thought we [View Full Entry]

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It’s….a lame duck? The hike through the Mindo Cloud Forest takes my breath away with its beauty, and the water of Cascada Nambillo takes my breath away with its icy chill. The hike itself follows a dirt and gravel road up the mountainside until it branches off and heads down the slope towards the river. Red and purple impatiens cover the riverbanks, providing an splash of color in amongst the leafy green foliage. The songs of the birds fill the air, but I hear more than I can see. It is a tranquil place, interrupted only by our laughter and stories [View Full Entry]

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Today will not be good. Unlike yesterday, with my first sip of sun-sweet watermelon juice at breakfast to my last dew-dripped breath of evening air and every moment in-between filled with contemplation and reawakening, today the juice is bitter and my lips pucker at the presence of the tangerine beverage waiting for me at the table. It’s the end of the rainy season and the raindrops bounce off the pool while we wait undercover for the busses to take us to our last day of clinic. It casts a dour mood the group. We need to prepare ourselves for what is [View Full Entry]

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Disclaimer: This entry is less on my travels and more my thoughts and musings. Consider yourself informed. Getting to work at the Centro for Recuperative Nutrition was like getting to work at a live-in WIC clinic. Great career experience (plus we were indoors with AC, could I ask for anything better?) and it also gave me the opportunity to put to use some of my dietary advice for hypertension and anemia more-so than when working with the other populations because there seemed to be a greater awareness of their dietary correlations. Still, it is frustrating trying to explain to many people [View Full Entry]

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You know how I said this work was hot, tiring and frustrating? Add thankless to the list. We were awoken at 6am this morning to an explosion of fireworks and the songs of a brass band in the courtyard of the hotel. Thankfully I was already awake and showered otherwise I’m sure my heart would have been pounding, my ears throbbing and I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the pleasant start to the day. Part of me secretly thinks that the hotel did this on purpose as payback for the group of us who stayed up playing drinking games last [View Full Entry]

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