Botswana 2: Johannesburg/Pretoria

The next leg of our journey was a flight from Madrid to Johannesburg, where we planned for about a 22-hour layover so that we could visit with Adrienne's friends, a couple our age and their adorable 2-year-old girl, June. "Abrienne" and I, "Yackie," made quite the impression on young June. She kept asking to play with "the girls," and I taught her the word "whoops!"

It was great to get their impression of Johannesburg. They moved there about a year and a half ago so that James, an epidemiologist, could do some government work and research. Megan put her school on hold and has focused on raising June in a foreign land, no small task. They technically live in Pretoria. One of the things that has surprised them most is how walled-off everything is. Their neighborhood, and really every neighborhood we drove by, is walled-off, often with a guard and an electric fence. Shopping centers and restaurants are similar. Where we went to dinner had a car guard, who you pay to watch your car. It was interesting hearing Megan talk about the discomfort she felt as a white person living in a nice neighborhood with a gardener and a maid tied into their salary in a country where Apartheid only ended about 25 years ago. In Johannesburg, basically, all black people were kicked out of the city and forced to move into "townships," neighboring communities. Even with Apartheid ending, it is obviously very difficult to undo what was done, and townships are nearly entirely black communities. People of "mixed" race were basically considered illegal, and their parents faced jail time if caught having a relationship with someone of a different race (for example, Trevor Noah of TV and comedy fame). It seems so unbelievable that this policy of racial segregation and discrimination was legal until 1991.

The highlights of our stop over in South Africa included meeting these friends, learning from them about life in South Africa, and going to a nature reserve in the city where the animals are fairly habituated to humans and living without predators, making for consistent sightings. As soon as we drove in the park, 2 zebras were eating grass along the edge of the driveway! Those animals are so striking!

We saw 3 different types of antelope: impala (have an M pattern on their rear and tail), springbok (super fast up to 55 mph, South African rugby team named after them), and buskbuck (the most widespread antelope in sub-Saharan Africa). We also saw a hare tear down the path, then put on the brakes, practically skidding like in a cartoon, and run away from us as soon as he noticed us. We enjoyed stretching our legs and walking around the park. It was so great to get outside after so long in airports.

Antelope!

Impala, which do start to look like deer, except for the long, curly horns.

Don't mess with this spiky tree!

Overall, I found Johannesburg to be interesting, but I don't have much interest in returning. The racial dynamic made me very uncomfortable. I would go to other places in South Africa, such as Capetown, the nature reserves, or the Nelson Mandela/Apartheid museums.

The next morning, we returned to the airport for our final flight, a 50-minute flight to Gabarone, Botswana! Finally! We made it.

Botswana 1: Intro and Madrid

About 4 days ago now, I set off for a 5-week adventure, mostly in Botswana, to take part in a partnership with a hospital in Botswana. I will be working as an internal medicine resident alongside mostly doctors and interns of Botswana, but there are also a few other residents, including my friend and U of M colleague Adrienne, and a global health fellow out of Boston. Adrienne and I will be traveling together the entire 5 weeks. We also have a 1-week vacation at the end of our trip, at which point my boyfriend, her husband, and one other friend will join us for safaris and Victoria Falls. Due to strict residency training rules, Adrienne and I have been planning this trip for over a year and a half now, and we're thrilled to finally be here.

Out first adventure was getting to and exploring Madrid, Spain! We had a 15-hour layover in Madrid, so planned to spend a day in the city. We had a fantastic time! After an overnight flight with little sleep and a 6 hours of time change, we were pretty tired to start the day, and 22,000 steps and 15 hours later, it felt like the end of a 28-hour call. Good thing we're practiced at working through sleep deprivation.

Outside the train station: delirious, excited

We took a train from the airport into the city and locked our carry-ons in a secure luggage room with lockers. Free of our bags pressing into our shoulders, we practically skipped into the city. After quickly consulting the maps I had saved via screenshot onto my phone, we strolled up one of the boulevards to The Prado, the national art museum of Spain. We spent the morning wandering through the many galleries ranging from Italian Renaissance to early 20th century Spanish art. Some of my favorites included Raphael "Portrait of a Cardinal," El Greco, Velazquez "Las Meninas" and other portraits, Bosch "The Garden of Earthly Delights," and Goya, especially a whole hall of his darker, scarier paintings. That guy went through something terrible. We followed a guide of the "masterpieces" of the museum, which were numerous, but then wandered. It was really fun seeing some of the artists and paintings I remembered learning about in world history class long ago and art class even longer ago.

Velazquez y el Prado

Me and Adrienne at the Palace Real de Madrid

Around lunchtime, we wandered through streets in the general direction towards a restaurant we had looked up on Yelp, but enjoyed exploring the alleys, mostly for pedestrian traffic only. We reached Al Sur, a tapas restaurant, and enjoyed some tapas favorites (patatas bravas, croquetas, and prawns) and the most delicious glass of sangria I have ever enjoyed. Adrienne had never had tapas, what a place to try it out! After taking our time to enjoy lunch, we set out again to explore the city.

Exploring the alleyways

Mmm sangria

We made our way to the Plaza Mayor, a large plaza with only foot traffic. We enjoyed seeing street performers. We had 2 favorites: a person covered in a sparkly robe with a goat head and jaw that he would clack if given some coins and a man seemingly resting on air, but it was an elaborate set-up in which one arm and his body were fixed in place and carefully balanced against the rest of a sculpture. We made it to the Palace where we did more people-watching, but we did not end up touring it, mostly because for 2 hours a day, Madrid opens up its museums to EU citizens for free, and because we fell in this window, there was a super-long line (and we'd still have to pay full-price despite the crowd). Instead, we walked back across the city towards the train station and went to the Reina Sofia, a museum of 20th century art. The highlights here were the Picassos and Dalis. Their most famous possession is "Guernica" by Picasso. It is massive! I truly had no idea, even though I had previously been told it was large (11'x25'). It is such a passionate portrayal of the horrors of war (Spanish Civil War). There were also photos of his creation in various stages, and it was fun to see different limbs turn around and face different directions in the different stages of creation.

Plaza Mayor

Street performer... or a wizard?!

At this point, we were thoroughly exhausted, so went back to the train station, collected our belongings, made our way through the massive but cool Madrid airport, boarded our next flight to Johannesburg, and promptly fell asleep.

Costa Rica 5: More Rainforest Time!

Our fun rainforest adventures have continued in the past two days.

On Friday, we spent the morning zip lining! We went whizzing through the canopy, occasionally upside down, via a series of elaborate zig zagging cables. It was a lot of fun. Our group joined with an Irush couple. The woman was very afraid of heights and her husband had seemingly signed them up to do some exposure therapy, judging by the sheer volume of screeching and amount of profanities shouted. At the end, we did something called a monkey drop, in which we zip lined a small distance over a pool in a river, then dropped us with honestly varying degrees of control. The heaviest (muscular) guy in our group made a serious splash, whereas the fear of heights lady was plopped in ever-so-gently.

Ready to zip line! Annie got us all matching fanny packs.

On the way to zip lining we happened to spot a whole troupe of the endangered squirrel monkey, so I was pretty jazzed about that. We also saw men hard at work harvesting palm fruit that would eventually be turned into palm oil. The process was pretty interesting. They attach a machete to the end of a ten foot pole (at least), and used that to saw off first the palm leaves then the fruit itself. Once enough of those had dropped, they would be gathered in a wagon that was pulled by buffalo to a large container. At the end of the day, a large truck would take the container. Our guide said they made good money for that job, at $300 a week, more than he makes for leading zip line tours. 

That afternoon, a few of our group found a tiny secluded beach for swimming. We paid an older man for "parking," but I'm pretty sure it was a bribe for him to not steal our car or belongings... It worked! The beach was great, and we stayed swimming til our fingers were pruney. Plus, there was a troupe of howler monkeys right at the beach, and at one point, they started howling in a call-and-response manner with several other troupes within earshot. So cool.

After another awesome fish dinner, we spent the evening, our last as our complete group of 6, playing charades and taboo using phrases from the trip as clues we collectively wrote.

This morning, a few of us went back to Manuel Antonio park. As just 3, instead of a large group with a guide, we went down less trodden paths and saw lots of animals, 2 species of sloth and 2 species of monkey. Plus, I saw what I think was a coati, in the same tree as a capuchin monkey, both eating Palm fruit! I had no idea they would do that side by side, or that coati could climb trees, frankly. 

Sloth!

Huge iguana

Coati on left with bushy tail and capuchin monkey on right.

Later in the day, our group had lunch and did some souvenir shopping, then said some of our farewells as we had different airport departures and some had to leave for the airport tonight. Priya and I are spending the night in Jaco, a beach town famous for its surfing, but more built up and less quaint. (That's a nice way of saying I like the waves but I'm glad we are only staying one night.) Priya and I went swimming in the ocean before doing some poolside reading. We will head to the airport in the morning, and leave Costa Rica! It's been great!

Costa Rica 4: Manuel Antonio National Park

Today was the day I had been waiting for: guided tour of an awesome national park, a super accessible rainforest on a beach. We hadn't gotten 100 feet into the park before our guide had pointed out 3 animals I definitely wouldn't have found on my own, and I even think I'm pretty good!

List of finds:

Ground crab

Hawk

Butterflies and dragonflies

Two toed sloth x2

Three toed sloth x3

Awesome plants with defense mechanisms

Primary forest

White faced capuchin monkeys (like Ross's pet monkey, Marcel, from Friends)

Mantled howler monkeys (my old friends from Panama)

Basilisk lizards

Agouti

Iguana

And more!

After walking for a couple hours, we went to the beautiful beach in the park (named one of the top five beaches in the world), found a quiet spot, and played in the ocean together for a while. On our walk out, we spied more animals but mostly spied lots more humans and were thankful that we came first thing in the morning. Our guide was, too. I think he was outstanding. He had a fancy stand-up binocular set on a tripod that he used to help us see animals in the distance. Mostly he was very collaborative with the other guides, but he quietly scoffed at another guide showing his group a vulture, like how pedestrian! His true specialty was in plant life, but he realized long ago that that wasn't what tourists were primarily interested in. At one point he said wistfully, "I could give a whole botany tour..."

Rainforest!

Male 3 toed sloth, through binocular

 White faced capuchin monkeys!

Beach!

We ate lunch at a cool falafel place then headed to the public beach. We relaxed there, I so much so that I fell asleep and was only barely woken in time to move my book from certain destruction by the rising tide! The waves were pretty serious, and a lot of surfers were out, which was fun to watch. We also saw the smaller, more endangered squirrel monkeys by the beach! In the evening, we ate a fantastic fish dinner at a local restaurant and came back to our place for a nighttime swim in the pool, free from the chore of sunblock applications. The other girls and I also practiced our "babe dance" from 4th year of med school. We still had the choreography down to "push it" by salt n pepa!

Squirrel monkey!!

Costa Rica 3: Volcano to beach

Today was a big driving day. We woke up and enjoyed a relaxing early morning at our ranch. The volcano was obscured by clouds, so instead of hanging around Arenal, we got an early start towards Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park. The drive took us through mountains and farmland, which was pretty darn beautiful. We played a great game called "Hey cow!" which involved yelling at cows and seeing if they respond. We also tried in Spanish and got the same response: no response.

Past the mountain range, we had a less exciting drive, but did eat our favorite Costa Rican junk food: plantain chips with lime seasoning. The drive got awesome again when we reached the ocean! Mostly it was awesome because I saw a pair of scarlet macaws flying over us! They were majestic. After reading the book "the last flight of the scarlet macaw," written by an environmentalist and zoo owner in Belize about the endangerment of the species, I was pretty pumped to see a pair in the wild. Later in the day we saw toucans, too!

We ate lunch in the beach town of Jaco before making it to our last AirBnb, a beautiful villa in the hills of Quepos that looks out onto the ocean. We had another yummy fish dinner tonight after spending a few hours relaxing and exercising in our pool. We did some pool yoga, Navy sit-ups and invented a new game called "crocodile," which is a breath-holding contest in which you keep your eyes out of the pool. Making your opponents laugh is a great strategy, too great for my hilarious friends. I did not win. We watched the sun set and the stars appear from the pool. 

Yay ocean!!

Costa Rica 2: Canyons and white water

Today the crew participated in some of Costa Rica's outdoor adventure sports! I don't have photos because we took them with a waterproof digital camera, but I didn't take my phone. Sorry, Mom.

Heading towards Volcano Arenal

At the light of morning we met in the closest town, Fortuna, to pick up our guides and a pair of Honeymooners from California to round out our group for the day. We first went to the Lost Canyon for an activity called canyoning. Through a series of waterfalls down a narrow canyon, we did a mixture of hiking, rappelling, jumping, and zip lining to get from top to bottom. It was awesome. There were three areas where we hooked up to lines for rappelling and controlled zip line-esque falling. I've never done anything like it. One other funny surprise was when they had the 6 of us sit in a narrow area all in a row while one of the guides lay down in the river above us, acting as a dam. When we were all in position, he scurried out of the way and yelled "tsunami!" As a great rush of water poured over us. He was, I'm sure, the most junior member of the guides. When we walked past him to get into place, we casually asked "how's it going?" To which he replied in a quiet, pathetic voice, "I'm so cold..."

After eating a snack, we next traveled to the Rio balsa (named so for the balsa trees along the river) for white water rafting! We had a blast paddling our way down the river, and our guides pointed out the flora and fauna along the way. Some favorites include seeing 3 sloths!!!, a huge iguana, and at our midway stop for pineapple, seeing my friend Priya get gently head butted by a goat because he was between her and the leftover fruit rinds. Goats. We had a successful paddle through the class 2 and 3 Rapids. We definitely had plenty of opportunity to play in the rapids and swim. We only had one accidental swimmer; Priya got tossed in by a rapid, but I was able to use some Wilderness Medicine rescue skills and pull her out pretty quickly.

And I had thought my day of adventure was over! Incorrect. When we got home, there was a bird in my bathroom! The window in there doesn't open so I'm not sure how that happened, but I concocted a plot to chase it out through my bedroom and into the landing and out a veranda door. As I was setting up the series of door openings, Priya found me to "help," aka take pictures and laugh. I decided I'd feel better about chasing a bird if my head was covered (??) so I put on my rain coat and started flailing my arms in its general direction. I chased it into my bedroom, where Priya expertly clapped and yelled "bird!" at it until it flew out of my bedroom, into the hall, and out the door! Success! Hahaha.

Bird chasing!

To end the day, we relaxed by our beautiful pool and gardens, and our house maid (swanky digs, again, Airbnb, so great) cooked us seriously great fried fish for dinner. Yummm.

Tomorrow we leave for Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park!

Costa Rica!!

My travels now take me to Costa Rica with some of my best buds from med school. Yesterday we all arrived at different times and had our own struggles finding out beautiful yet well-hidden AirBnB rental. It was a farm not far from the airport, but oddly positioned between a horse farm and a gravel pit. Nonetheless, we were absurdly happy to be reunited.

In the morning, we did some yoga (sort of haha) and hung out by our pool until the latest to arrive in our group were ready to go.

Pretty nice digs! Spring-fed pool.

Next we made our way to Poas Volcano, which smells like sulfur but is otherwise not too active. It has a HUGE crater with light blue lake in the middle. It was unfortunately super cloudy when we were there but the sun burned off some of the clouds for a few minutes to give us a glimpse. Next, we stayed in the park and went on a short but steep hike to see a quiet volcano with a crater lake.

Some general medical advice

It was a little cloudy.

We moved on in the afternoon to a different region, surrounding the volcano, Arenal. We are staying at a gorgeous home on a ranch. AirBnB is awesome, especially with a group. We signed up for some fun outdoor activities tomorrow and had dinner in the closest town, Fortuna, which is an outdoor adventure mecca.

La Paz river and waterfalls! On the road.