Winter & Spring Adventures

A few days ago I asked Jessica "Have you done anything on blog since the Bolivia posts?"
She replied "Nope"
"Are you planning on doing another post?"
"I think you should do it"

So once again here I am doing the very un-husband-like activity of updating the family blog. I find this somewhat ironic because Jessica often spends hours a week reading and commenting on all our family and friends' blogs (as she does while I write this), yet she is unwilling to work on our own. [Here, I (Jessica) will interject and say that today was one of the MONTHLY or so occasions in which I spent about an hour checking blogs, not weekly multiple hour sessions... :) And that grad school is quite consuming physically, mentally, emotionally, and time-wise, which is why I often feel I have nothing left for blogging!  Thank goodness I have such a wonderful husband who is willing to take the reigns while I'm MIA]

I'll start by saying that most of you have children who are always doing cute things that provides ample material to blog about. Jessica and I however are a party of two so our blog lacks cuteness and the only blog-worthy events in our life usually involve some type of outdoor adventure. Consequently I'll give a brief update of some of the fun activities Jess and I have done over the past few months.

(1) Cycling
Many of you know that cycling is one of the things Jessica and I most enjoy doing together. Unfortunately this spring has been uncharacteristically wet and cold which has decreased our cycling episodes. Nonetheless here are some pics of one of our favorite places to cycle, Little Cottonwood Canyon.
 

Half way up Little Cottonwood

Near the top, still tons of snow for later May

Give you an idea of how much snow was still up there

 (2)Danny's 25th Birthday

Without a doubt Jessica is the best birthday planner ever. This year was no exception. She started off the day with her gift to me- hang gliding. This had always been a dream of mine so when Jessica surprised me by telling me we were going to do it, I was very excited and a little nervous. This is an excerpt from my journal on the experience:

" The wind took us higher and higher , like a hawk in an updraft. I have always dreamed of flying, and this was the closest thing to it. In fact my instructor was constantly looking for clues to where the wind was, including the flight patterns of the nearby birds. When he’d see the birds rise in the air, he headed straight to them to do exactly what they were doing. It was indescribably awesome.

After a few minutes the wind died down and we had to come closer into the mountain side to search for more updrafts. That too was an exhilarating if not outright scary experience. We would swing out wide into the air and head straight for the hillside, only to level out right before hitting and swooping across the plain. Jessica later told me we were so close to the hillside that the tip of the wing was inches from scraping."

Lift off

All in all, it was an incredible experience. Unfortunately the winds were too low for Jess to go that day, so she had to reschedule. After hang gliding, we went cycling together and that night Jessica invited a group of friends over to play one of my favorite games, Mafia. Jess turned the event into a 1920's speakeasy/mafia party so everyone came up dressed for the occasion.

(4) Bryce Canyon & Escalante
For memorial day weekend Jessica and I headed off to Bryce Canyon National Park. This is a place both Jessica and I had been to often when we were young, but it had been years since we had been back. Once again, the park didn't fail to amaze.

We were very excited to be at Bryce

Bristlecone Point

Calf Creek Fall with our friends Daron and Dani Bree

A very cold plunge

Bolivia Part IV: Santa Cruz and Samaipata

Our flight from USA flew direct to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was the main city of my mission. It is the richest city of Bolivia (although the wealth is concentrated among a small elite class), and also has much more people of European decent.

While there Jess and I were able to visit a few families I knew as well as spend some time site-seeing. We visited the zoo, toured the main cathedral and ate of several hip little cafes around the city's center plaza.

The Jimenez family who invited us to lunch and took us around the city

A classic Bolivian scene- modern buses and cars next to horse drawn carriages

View of Santa Cruz from the Cathedral's tower

Jessicanny in the main plaza

After spending some time in Santa Cruz, Jess and headed back into the mountains to the town of Samaipata. Samapaita is a small town at a crossroads in Bolivia where the Quechua speaking people from the mountains, the Guarani speaking people from the Chaco region, and the Spanish Mestizos from Santa Cruz all mix. It is also a staging point for some awesome Incan ruins as well as to Amboro national park.

The town is quite quaint and peaceful and Jess and I spent a whole morning sitting on the balcony of our hostal watching the villagers bustle around the streets. We also went up to some impressive Incan ruins called El Fuerte. El Fuerte was a stronghold for the Incans against the Jungle cultures to the east. It was also religious site with numerous temples.

road up to Samaipata

Danny at El Fuerte

Street view at Samaipata

View from our balcony at Samaipata

One of our favorite experiences in Bolivia was a hike we did near Amboro National Park. This area reminds me a lot of Zions National Park in southern Utah, expect of course the Bolivian version is much more tropical. Our hike first took us past several impressive waterfalls. We climbed up around the last waterfall and from then on we made our own trail, first walking up the creek bed and then following a ridge up into the mountains. I also discovered that there is quicksand in Bolivia. I stepped in some and immediately sunk to my knees before being able to scramble out before sinking more. Needless to say, it was quite frightening.

The view from the top of our hike was incredible. Best of all is there was absolutely no one else around.

Danny embracing the mountains

Jessica eloquently posed in front of a waterfall

The only visitor along the last 3 hours of our hike was this cow

hiking up the ridge

what a view!

a very passionate and secluded kiss

a very graceful toe-touch off a waterfall

a not-so-gracefull toe-touch off a waterfall

more cows on the highway then cars

Overall, our time in Bolivia was fantastic and nearly everything went to plan despite how rugged and backward the country is. Ironically, once we returned to America we were plagued by problems getting home. We first flew direct to Miami from Bolivia. We then supposed to go through Atlanta, but snow caused that airport to close for two days, which gave us a two-day delay in Miami. Fortunately, of all the places in America to be delayed in January, Miami may be the best. We got a hotel in South Beach and spent all day on the beach there.

After our delay we got a flight to Detroit where plane delays caused us to miss our connecting flight. We spent a not so glamorous night in Detroit before finally getting home.

beach in Miami

Bolivia Part III: Guayaramerin and Riberalta

After our riotous time in La Paz, we took a flight out to northeastern Bolivia to the jungle towns of Guayaramerin and Riberalta where I served over a year of my mission. The flight was impressive both as we cruised through ice-capped mountain peaks of the Andes and later as we flew above huge winding rivers flowing north to the Amazon.

Guayaramerin is a remote town of about 40,000 people on the border with Brazil. The town exists because Bolivian goods are super cheap for Brazilians, who cross the river daily to shop and then return to Brazil.

Riberalta has about 80,000 people and is growing like crazy as people from the jungle villages pour into the town looking for work. Every year 1/3 of the cities population go out into the jungle for three months a year, collecting "brazilian" nuts that fall from massive trees. For the rest of the year the people work in factories cracking the nuts. If you every eat a brazilian nut, chances are it came from Riberalta!

Once in Guayaramerin, we immediately began walking the dirt streets of my old areas, looking for people I taught and for families I knew. We had pretty good success, and found several families and people I baptized as well as many other families I knew well.

We also had fun staying at a eco-resort, complete with private lagoon and mini-zoo with toucans, macaws, and various other jungle creatures. Jessica also got her first taste of the jungle bugs--  mosquitos so big that they bite through socks and pants! One afternoon we also took a boat ride across the Mamore river into Brazil. Unfortunately the Brazilian town of Guajara-mirim isn't very interesting so we only stayed about half an hour there. But at least Jess can say she'd been in Brazil!



the Andes!

winding Rio Mamore

the Melgarejo family who I baptized

typical road in my old mission area

typical house in my old area

crossing the river into Brazil

Jessica in Brazil!

Erik Montano, another person I baptized

Danny holding a Macaw that tried to eat anything it could get its beak on

More people I taught

Jessica's first encounter with a pet monkey

Member of the church in Riberalta who took us on his motorcyle to help find people I knew

The Melgar family

Jessica's very gracefull swing into the laguna

Danny's not so gracefull swing

Entire Melgarejo family at the eco-resort. Jessica felt very tall in Bolivia.