Kyle Roundabouts Somewhere

Back to Madison

2005-01-20T20:34:00.000-05:00

Hi, I have returned to Madison now, and have ceased to have a need for a travel blog. I will contribute to it in the future, after Spring Break, for example, and this summer for sure. However, at this point it is school for me, final semester in college, and if I do keep a blog it will be a different one with an academic focus. I hope you have enjoyed the pictures. love,

Some scenes from Turkey

2005-01-09T14:23:00.000-05:00

Here is a nice picture of Nicole and I, when we went to go visit the Sumela Monastery. For the record, as Nicole has mentioned it already on her blog, we are engaged now. Notice the llamas on our sweaters.

Here is the Sumela Monastery, built somewhere around the 3rd or 4th century

Here is a picture of me in my ski gear, taken by Nicole. A wonderful landscape, really. Following is a wider view

So here's a view from the bus of the landscape around Erzurum. Pretty impressive. In Trabzon it's always early Spring, but here it is definitely winter.

Here is a nice view of the Black Sea coastline from Ataturk's Pavilion in Trabzon. You don't see the coastal landfill in this picture. A nice view, one that we don't really get from Nicole's apartment.

Well, I leave in two day's time to Madison. I hope everyone is well, and I'll see you all sometime.

A little trip during a longer one

2005-01-07T19:48:00.000-05:00

Nicole and I just got back from a town called Erzerum, in the mountains of Turkey. Just a few days there, with one day of skiing. A very excellent time overall. I also learned that I am somewhat of a reckless skier. I don't think about going slow or careful, I just send myself straight down the hill, without consideration of how steep it is or anything. So must of the time going downhill is a strong adrenaline feeling, with your thoughts being nonexistent and your instincts working to keep you from crashing and breaking some sort of bone or joint. It's just that going slow, with little back and forth turns, doesn't seem normal to me. I need to go at the speed that is just barely within my control, or rather largely out of control, I don't know.
Well, in a few days I'll be back in Madison, after a five month international vacation. I wonder how I will adjust?

For some reason, I'm in Turkey now

2005-01-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

Actually, I was completely intending to come here, to visit Nicole of course. Turkey is a nice place, I've never seen friendlier people in the world. However, I have been drinking enourmous amounts of black tea, and would worry about growing an ulcer if I was going to spend any significant period of time here. All in all, it's a good time, somewhat touristic. Hopefully we'll be going skiing in the mountains near here. The Black Sea is attractive, being right next to Trabzon (or vice-versa, rather) and would be even more attractive if there weren't the huge landfills going right up to the shore in some areas (Superfund in the U.S. for sure.) Well, I just wanted to type something here, as Saturday and Sunday are Nicole's major work days and I'm a little bored. I'll be back in the U.S.A. in a couple weeks, ready for the final haul of my undergraduate career.

umm

2004-12-12T11:58:00.000-05:00

¡oy! I've been neglecting the blog a bit. Nowadays, I've been studying for finals. Well, actually, there was a huge Quito-wide party last weekend, which was fun (dancing with random people at a huge concert, people passing around boxes of wine to whoever, and my friend Eli and I taking part in everything.) After finals are over, Saturday, I'll have a bit of time. But first, I have to finish a 9 page paper for Ecology (on community conservation in general in Ecuador), and take 4 finals. The only one I'm at all worried about is Anthropology, which is accumulative. We have had a pretty comprehensive look at indigenous and afro-ecuadorian issues here. You know, human rights folks have a lot to complain about Ecuador. It has a 70% poverty rate, for one. Education and malnutrition is still a big issue (and a connected one, if you have ever considered the effects of malnutrition on a developing mind.) And the government is considered to be one of the most corrupt in the world. The president and his new majority in Congress just decided to lay off the entire 31 member equivalent to the Supreme Court, without any law existing saying that he could actually do that. The conservative newspaper, El comercio, had the headline two days ago BASTA CON LA INCONSTITUCIONALIDAD (enough with the inconstitutionality.) I've for sure learned a lot here, especially in comparison with the narrow-minded view of Latin America I had before I came here. Anyway, I shall put up the rest of my pictures soon, about my trip to Podocarpus, and some of the fiesta de Quito. Then, it'll be off to Turkey for me, to hang out with Nicole!

Galapagos Islands

2004-11-17T16:06:00.000-05:00

Hi, so I hope everyone's doing well. A couple of weeks ago I took a trip (5 days) through the Galapagos Islands, on a 100 year old sail boat. Despite the size of the boat, I managed to only get a little sick, with my head over the railing, so to speak, just once. On the boat were 6 german-speaking people, 2 colombians, 1 english woman, and myself. It was a rather nice time, and I made friends with a couple of the german girls (doing research here in ecuador) and a colombian women with her mom (I talked with her a while, good practice with my spanish and interesting too, because she's one of the negotiators of the free trade treaty(tratado libre comercio, TLC) between the U.S. and the Andean nations. It's interesting, because the people here have a different attitude about free trade issues than many of the people I know in the United States (mostly liberal types.) Their concern (the people here, that is) is that small businesses will lose out, although most people think that the people of Ecuador would be better off overall, due to more foreign investment (which is lacking in Ecuador), more money, more jobs, etcetera. The poverty rate here is about 60 or 70 percent, pretty high. Anyway, I have some pictures to show all, not everything, but some interesting things.
First off, a view of the boat:

This was our one good day of sailing. I don't have any good profiles of the boat, but I have to tell you that it was way cooler than all the rest.
Next up, a little example of the landscape (though not typical, necessarily)

From around where I took this picture we saw a good deal of different kinds of birds:
Here's a masked booby

Next, a couple blue-footed boobies

Here's some cute little Galapagos mocking birds

I'm not exactly sure what they were doing, but they were taking turns at it, in a small group. Maybe mating rituals?
Anyway, we saw some albatrosses doing their mating dance. It's fairly odd, with them smacking their beaks repeatedly, bobbing their heads side to side, and other interesting things. I didn't get a great picture of that, but here's what the result would be

Very cute. The mothers only have one baby, and then after a while, the baby has to learn to fly. Fortunately, they´re located next to cliffs that make taking off easy. Unfortunately, it´s a long way down those cliffs, if they're not up to the task.
Here's some more birds typical of the Galapagos:
The pink flamingo, always attractive

The pelican, always hanging around, slurping fish down their gullet

And the Galapagos Hawk, always around to feast on the placentas of sea lions

Speaking of sea lions, they hang out in large colonies as well. Here's a typical scene in a colony, including the tourist feet:

And a cute little pup picture

However, I did hear of some folks on another boat getting bit by one of the papas, for being a little too intrusive on the fellow´s females.
Also in the Galapagos there are a few species of iguanas. One is the marine iguana, endemic to the Galapagos, and an odd sight to see when it is swimming, undulating it´s tail and body:

They have extra low metabolism for being reptiles, which lets them swim around, eating little sea plants.
The other type is the land iguana

Who eats the leaves of this strange cactus-tree (I forget the name)

No tortoise pictures yet, my Colombian friend was going to email me some good ones (the ones I have, they're just hiding their heads in their shell, being scared and all, not too impressive, kind of like big rocks)
However, I do have an obligatory closing picture, for any good ocean trip:

butterflies

2004-10-26T17:20:00.000-05:00

So, a while ago I went to an orchid and butterfly garden, and took a few pictures. I figure that I could go a little bit over a butterflies lifecycle, even though it means procrastinating from my homework. So, we'll skip the whole mating process, since I don't have any pictures of that (and who wants to invade a butterfly's privacy anyway?) and go straight to the newborns.

As you can see, the caterpillars at this stage are just weird little crawly things. Interesting to see, but not too exciting. However, they eat like crazy, and they swell and swell, turning into the caterpillars we know and love:

After a while, the caterpillars get bored of the whole deal, and decide to go through their whole metamorphosizing deal. They find a nice leaf to afix themselves to, then weave their chrysalis:

So, after the chrysalis ages for a good while, our little friend develops, and then emerges, it's wings wet and fresh

So, then we have our butterfly, ready to go about its business and create another batch of little crawly caterpillars:

So, maybe I'll stop procrastinating and get to my homework, eh?

our domestic economics

2004-10-21T09:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday evening my host father and I were talking about his economic situation, finding jobs in Ecuador, and the like. He told me of how he new somebody who was selling jam on the street to make money. However, he said that he could never do that himself. For years he worked as a lawyer for a bank, then retired about three years ago. If he resorted to working on the street, people who used to work under him would see him and not understand. He also mentioned how some people even resort to digging through the trash to find food to sustain themselves. He told me that he would rather die of poverty and starvation than ever resort to such a thing. However, its also difficult for him to find work, as his only recourse for jobs is the people he knows. The last job he applied for went to another person--age discrimination isn't something considered in Ecuador. Fortunately, a French business man will be renting the apartment that my host father owns, and he may be able to sell his house soon. Then the French family will go back to France in a year, and he and his wife will move into the apartment.
To tell the truth, however, this family lives by about middle class standards in the U.S. (not suburb middle class, but inner city middle class), which is an immensely higher standard than the majority of folks in Ecuador. Most folk in the city live in plain brick and cement buildings, while on the fringes of the city folks have even simpler structures, some plywood, tarps, etcetera. The past decade has seen a large move of folks to the city, as conditions in the countryside, I believe, have been to dry for a lot of agriculture, and for other reasons which I can't remember right now.
Anyway, off to classes for me. Chao.

weekend in Ibarra

2004-10-11T15:45:00.000-05:00

O.k, here´s some pictures to go along with the weekend before last. So, as I wrote previously, it was an interesting weekend from a chance encounter. So, first the fellow (alex) and I went to visit the lake cuicocha, which is a 3000 feet deep lake in the crater of an active volcano. We took a boat with a local naturalist around the lake.

After visiting the lake we went back to Cotocachi, a town famous in Ecuador for the quality of its leather goods. There I took a picture of the local church, right before sundown. Alex had this idea on symmetry in photos that I don´t exactly share, but he suggested I took the following picture:

Later that evening we went to Alex´s friend´s house. Here is the picture of the two, enamorados to use the Ecuadorian term (a somewhat looser association than the U.S. idea of boyfriend and girlfriend)

As I said, the next morning wasn´t so hot, but I did take a couple of cute pictures. First, of the kids who I was hanging out with in the house (actually, more entertaining than my hosts):

Then, finally, I have a cute little dog that was hanging out on the front porch:

That´s all for now. I have more stories to tell and more pictures, but working on these things is always a little taxing. Chao.

an interesting weekend

2004-10-04T08:39:00.000-05:00

This weekend I was supposed to meet a friend and go on a train to this park, Boliche near the volcano cotopaxi. However, I missed the train and she had already left. So instead, I decided to take a bus to Ibarra solo, because I knew that they were having a festival this weekend. On the bus I met an ecuadorian woman who had a son who was just about to start college in Ibarra. She said I might enjoy hanging out with him, so I said, o.k. So I get off the bus in Otavalo, the stop before Ibarra, and go with the mother to meet him at the terminal. He seemed like a nice interesting person. Then the mother left on another bus and we left to hang out in Otavalo. He helps me barter for goods in the Otavalo market (world famous), we have lunch, and then set off towards the volcano and lake-crater Cotacachi-Cuicocha after visiting the house of his grandparents. So we take a bus to another town, then take a taxi to the reserve, and hop on a tour boat around the lake-crater (pictures to come). Afterwards we return to Ibarra and meet up with a female friend of his. We end up going to her house and staying the night there, passing the time with a bottle of whiskey, cards, and some cute little kids. I think I almost enjoyed the company of the kids more than the folks I was hanging out with.
The next morning I wake up still drunk. It is always a bad decision for me to drink with folks. I am partly sick the rest of the day, and vomit a few times. We went to a spa-resort, and I felt alright there (with thermal pools and a sauna, all with water heated by magma.) However, I was nauseous during all the driving. I decide to leave early to head back to Quito, a 2.5 hour trip, and make it back by 7:00pm.
Overall it was a good weekend. There are a two things that bothered me, besides getting sick from the whiskey. First was getting sunburnt at the spa (I think my sunscreen wore off in the sauna.) Second, these folks had no money, and I ended up paying for all. Even though everything is less than half the price as stuff in the U.S., I still didn't like the idea. He offered for me to go camping with him next weekend, but I think I'm going to decline in favor of going to Banos with some other friends, or something like that.

bosque nublado (cloud forest)

2004-09-28T14:49:00.000-05:00

Hi, this weekend was absolutely awesome! My ecology class took a field trip to the cloud forest near Mindo, where we stayed at the professor's farm and spent a day making our way through the forest. First, we stopped at a huge volcano crater, named Pululahua, where about 50 some families have been making a living:

The large hill to the left is the magma core of the volcano, and the sides of the crater are to the right, rear, off to the left of the picture and under my feet. There's a profesor at the university who believes that this volcano is going to explode at some point, and not dead like the people in the valley think.
So heading off into the cloud forest, on the other side of the inter-andean valley, one first sees agriculture settlements such as these:

and then more into woods like these:

although here you can still see a couple little houses, like those ancient Chinese landscape paintings.
Just for kicks, here's the dog that came with us:

On the way we stopped at an orchid preserve, used by the local communities as and education resource as well as an example of how to do ecotourism. I have one picture of an orchid here:

Also, here is another flowering species, in the bromeliad family, I think (same family as pineapple):

Now we'll go down into the forest.

Here is a good example of the scale of biodiversity that one finds in jungles such as these:

All the ferns and other plants are just growing on this branch; I don't think they're parasitic, they just happened to find a place to start growing.
We were making our way down to a river, through trails that were barely there, with some folks ahead of us with machetes and ropes in case we needed to traverse somewhere. Soon we made it down to a stream, which we followed for a while:

Another interesting thing I learned is how some large trees establish themselves in such steep environments. From high up on the trunk they send roots on the downward side of the mountain. They have to keep on doing this to stabilize themselves:

So, eventually we made it down to the river, after a mildly strenuous hike of a few hours.

However, the hard part was yet to come, as we had to climb across boulders and then up a 70 degree grade of slope for another several hours. I was sure someone was going to kill themselves, but we all made it o.k. I'm surprised the profesor didn't make us sign a waiver, but in any case it was good fun. I have no pictures of the strenuous climb, it was raining too hard by then (that's what happens in the cloud forest after all.) However, someone was kind enough to take my picture by the river:

The next day of the trip will come when I finish my current roll of film (digital would be nice, although many folk regretted having a digital camera with the rain and mud and falling in the river and all). Chao.

what i've been doing in pictures, a bit

2004-09-22T17:23:00.000-05:00

Hi, first, I should show off my lovely house. It is surrounded by tall walls as is every other house in Quito, which you can't really see in the picture (many walls have broken glass cemented into their tops, as a deterrent to climbers)

There are a few lemon trees in the yard as well, and lots of lemonade!
Next, I should show off the lovely campus of San Francisco. This picture doesn't show a lot of buildings, but it kind of gives the sense of it being a place where students hang out quite a bit

Now, for a little tour around. A few posts back, I showed some pictures I had taken of the Virgen de Quito, San Francisco, etc. First, here is the hill that the Virgen of Quito is on. It is called the Panecillo, or little bread loaf:

My host family took me up it. Apparently I can't walk there, as it is a likely place to be robbed at gunpoint (though at the very top, there are plenty of guards.)
Now for inside the monastery of San Francisco. Here is a typical picture of the kind of barroque style art one sees inside many of the churces of the old town:

It was hard to take good pictures here, as no flash photography is aloud and it was rather dark. Most of my pictures inside were horrible. However, here is one of a really old painting, done by an artist of the famous Quiteno school of art:

The little writing in white reads:
who among you, having a hundred sheep, having lost one of them, doesn't leave in the desert the ninety-nine and goes to look for the lost one until it is found? (my translation)
Another interesting fact about the church is that, among other dead folks, it houses the tomb of ex-president Gabriel Garcia Moreno, who upon being shot in the street was carried here as he was dying:

A little creepy, no
Well, enough uploading for now, I've wore my brains out staring at this computer. Chao.

Back to school

2004-09-22T08:57:00.000-05:00

after having a weekend on the beach (I get the pictures this afternoon). I must of spent the majority of my time swimming and boogy-boarding in the Pacific Ocean. The bar scene was pretty crazy too. During the high season, which is about now and a few other weeks of the year, the town of Atacames essentially turns into an open air bar. I had my share of random daquiris and pina coladas, etc. It was a little unusual hanging out with a group of people I barely know, and sharing drinks with them. I prefer to share drinks with good friends.
Anyway, now its back to studying. I have to come up with some sort of education game about how the Spanish biologically metamorphosized South America (for example, with horses, pigs, rats, various lethal diseases, etc.)
This weekend I'm going to hang out in the cloud forest with my ecology class, que chevere!
Enough for now, I'll write more when i get my pictures back. By the way, I have no clue what the colors are for Ecuador's team, I watched two Ecuadorian teams play, la Liga (very popular in Quito) and the Policia team. Chao.

Soccer games

2004-09-18T10:59:00.000-05:00

I watched a soccer match on the TV here a couple nights ago. My boss, Emma, invited my flatmate and I over for dinner, and her place is close to the stadium. If we turned down the volume on the television, we could hear the chanting clear as day. When Trabzon won (they were playing a team from Spain, a Basque group) we could hear gunshots as well. By the time we went home everyone in the city must have collapsed because the streets were empty. Everyone says that in a year's time I will support Trabzonspor and no other. Maybe I will even attend a match.

What are the colors of the team in Ecuador?

The weekend

2004-09-14T14:13:00.000-05:00

On Friday I went to the Museo del Banco Central. Here is a sample of some of what we saw:

a picture from the museo, not mine (exploringecuador.com, i think)
It is a huge museum, the largest in Quito, and it has relics from the pre-ceramic period through the ceramic, colonial, and modern (and post modern?) period.
I also went with a friend and her host sister to a soccer game on Saturday night. It was very exciting, what with there being a fire in the cement bleachers and crowds of youths periodically rushing the riot police at the fence separating the bleachers from the field. I definitely am going to check out more soccer games, this one wasn't a national league so there weren't too many people there. This weekend I think I'm going to go hang out on the beach of Ecuador for a few days. I should get some decent pictures from that, to share for all.

pictures

2004-09-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

o.k, here are all the real pictures I took of Quito. I had some fake ones up here before, but now ive gotten better at talking with the photo folks about what i want.

here is Quito, from the same vantage point where i took my picture, the clouds are even the same. it sprawls along a north-south oriented valley.

this is the famous virgen de quito, inspired by some fellows dream, and taken from a certain passage from Revelations. It is rather large, there is a platform for people to walk on near her feet. this is looking south from where the photo of the city was taken.

this is the plaza and church of San Francisco. It is also rather impressive, with a cool museum in it that I have yet to visit. Yay for having my actual pictures online!

Lunchtime

2004-09-06T13:31:00.000-05:00

Just waiting around, I'm going to lunch with some gringo students, but thats o.k. I still don't know too many people here; I met one Ecuadorian at a party who kind of weirded me out. Yesterday I had a study group for my Andean Antropology class, that was kind of nice, one gringa and one ecuatoriano. Saturday I went walking around the old colonial town again, being a tourist and looking for a well-made charango (a traditional Andean stringed instrument, originally made from an armadillo shell, but now from just wood:

(from http://cipres.cec.uchile.cl/~svelasqu/Chara.htm)
Otherwise, its a good day, classes are easy so far, I just have to spend an incredible amount of time reading (twice over each assignment). I'm looking forward to doing some travelling, and have been asking around to find traveling companions. Soon, I shall have neat pictures to post, the developers are just taking their time.

in answer to nicole

2004-09-01T15:17:00.000-05:00

well well, the food is pretty good. of course i am no longer pretending to be vegetarian, and have stopped even thinking about it. every large meal, lunch and dinner, is always started with a soup, usually a vegetable soup with a meat broth. they always are great, or at least those of my host mom are great. meals are typically served with a lot of rice. then, its a little salad, some kind of meat (my host family prefers non-red meat.) no complaints from me really, although they try to feed me too much typically. chao.

I'm hungry

2004-08-31T15:06:00.000-05:00

Tell me about the food.

at usfq

2004-08-31T09:36:00.000-05:00

, or la universidad de san francisco de quito. everything seems cool so far, i just started classes. yesterday i had a taste of wandering around the city of quito by myself, it is kind of a crazy place, lots of traffic etc. hopefully i can post some pictures of it soon; my host family has a scanner that i can use. until later,

also at omaha henry doorly zoo

2004-08-31T09:31:00.000-05:00

here is my picture posting experiment, taken by Nicole

first few days

2004-08-27T13:43:00.000-05:00

i could call being in ecuador very exciting, but right now i am just a little intimidated. i was getting pretty sick driving around town with my host parents, and i was sleeping most of the time. now i have a little more energy, and i am set to start exploring the town more. it is quite a new experience, having to communicate all day in spanish. luckily my host parents, as well as others i meet, seem to be patient. the mountains around quito are impressive. i saw several snowcaps beyond the city, beyond the immediate ranges. they said that this was one of the clearest days they've had for a while. another thing that impresses me is the amount of pollution, there is a constant level of smoke hovering over the city. combined with the altitude and what i believe to be more chemicals in the fuel, its enough to make anyone sick at first. i definitely miss having friends around to talk to, so for now i'll just have to make do with e-mail and this shiny new bloggy thing.

sharks!

2004-08-25T14:23:00.000-05:00

sharks!, originally uploaded by nicole jilbert.

Here is a picture from the Omaha Zoo. Dig it.

first post

2004-08-23T10:56:00.000-05:00

Hi, I'm in Chicago right now, the day before I leave for Ecuador. I'm a little excited, but I usually don't allow myself to think about these sort of things until the very last minute. It has been a wonderful time visiting everybody throughout the Midwest.