Just When the Caterpillar thought the world was over...

...it became a butterfly. This is a proverb (maybe Chinese?) and from a journal I purchased years ago. I'm re-rooting myself in writing and thought this was an appropriate way to start. An entry from August 8, 2011: "I love this proverb because I have found myself in the life stage of the caterpillar (at the end of its life) many times, but life inevitably take a turn for the best, and I land on my feet as the butterfly." I want to tell my life story, to share the joys of travel from different chapters and moments of my life. I'm going to start by posting the rest of that August 8, 2011 entry. The parts with the [ ] are my added thoughts captured today, not from the journal entry in 2011.

"Tales of an Adventure Junkie: Life. It means many things to the over 6.8 billion people on this earth, in all its different regions with different cultures, religions, and expectations. My life has meant a number of things: love of parents, siblings, family, husband, and friends; Accomplishments; Adventure. Second to love, life means adventure - to live every experience possible and to its fullest. This journal is an account of my adventures as an adult, which all really started with two major launching pads: Girl Scouts as a child and the summer of 2002. [I would now also add the countless camping and wildlife outings my parents and Uncle Bill & Auntie Ursula took me and my sister, Mindy, on.] These two [or three] chapters of my life lead to the culmination of an experience that left me in a sate of mind of no return - an experience that means I would never look at life the same again. It was a turning point that has subsequently lead me down my current path."

"Even as a small child adventure was always key to my play. Even in urban Dallas we were on an adventure in our backyard as G.I. Joe or Shera, off to save the world. Our comfortable and safe lives in West Lafayette, IN still afforded adventures in nearby Happy Hollow Park - we made mud and stick forts right into the side of the "mountain", which was really a hill. But, we were so small and our ideas so grand. Our family camping trips helped plant the seed for outdoor living and exploration. This evolved into countless camping trips with my unforgettable Girl Scout troop. Most memorable, my friend, Barb Johnson, and I would sneak away early in the morning to get our more solitary and serene hikes with the hopes of spotting wildlife. We spun such yarns between us of imagining we were in the Narnia, or, laughably, in the jungle [we were in Indiana]. Our poor troop leader, Liz O'Neil, bless her heart! would nearly have a heart attack each time, but she understood our thirst. She herself had been to Africa with the Peace Crops." [I will circle back in another post to integrate our nuclear family adventures gifted to us by my amazing parents.] As our interest in boys and life, along with our shoe size, grew we dismembered our beloved Girl Scout troop, but we still got together to build tepees out of logs.

"Then entered my adventures with my Uncle Bill, his wife - Auntie Ursula, and my sister, Mindy. Our first adventure was a gift from Uncle Bill (and Auntie Ursula) for Mindy's high school graduation, in 1994; they took us to Isle Royale (National Park) - a pretty gutsy and brave move for a man who hadn't had a daughter for that long (when Uncle Bill  married Auntie Ursula he had no children and she already had a 15 year old daughter, Greta, and he was in his 40s). While this was not our first excursion with them (Yellowstone, Glacier & Seattle preceded), it was our first alone, without our parents. [Now a mother, I realize even more how much of a BIG DEAL this was for all parties involved: myself, sister, uncle and aunt, and maybe mostly my parents!] Isle Royale, in Lake Superior, MI, was to be our destination for a full week of backcountry backpacking. It was so exciting! My sister was 18 and I was only 14. [Uncle Bill drove all the way from Seattle, WA to West Lafayette, IN in his blue path finder. We were packed like a Tetras game - me in the back with literally no room to wiggle and all the gear, food, equipment; Mindy in the front seat, and Uncle Bill driving. The journey to northern Michigan was about 14 hours straight, but boy oh boy did we have some interesting insights along the way! Aside from 14 hours of loon calls not being too repetitive (but John Denver was according to Uncle Bill?), there were little insights to our generational personalities. We took a pit stop at our communal family cabin in Brainerd, MN. While there the infamous incident of "Two Cereals!" ensued. Mindy and I were teenage girls who wanted fast food and sugar. Uncle Bill was a 40- something year old non-chain food, health-food eater. When we went grocery shopping for the short cabin stay and asked for a different kind of cereal than Uncle Bill, he completely lost it right there in the grocery store. He bellowed out, "Two Cereals!" as the veins on his forehead bulged, face reddened to a bright cherry, and every muscle in his body tensed up, strangers jolted and staring at the spectacle. He had had it. Driving with two teenage girls, despite our higher maturity level than most our age, us was pretty funny, and it had taken its tole on him. Poor guy! This is absolutely one of our biggest family jokes to date. A day or two later Auntie Ursula flew in, we picked her up, and all exhaled a deep sigh of relief. She calmed and soothed all of us, as she is naturally inclined to do. I specifically remember her letting us have a burger and shake while Uncle Bill was twisting his hands and rolling his eyes at the idea. Mindy and I were like two little kids in a candy shop after pleading to have a treat. We were rewarded by Auntie Ursula. The shop had a white and red striped awning, the interior was white, and it looked like an old ice cream parlor from the 20s. A mini victory for us teenage girls. HA! The trip, which for a tiny moment hung perilously on the edge, regained energy and momentum with her arrival.]

"[Finally arriving at the dock (it seemed like an eternity after 3-4 days of travel already) where we would board with our new backpacks (mine at 85 lbs - I only weighed 110 lbs) and decked out in hiking boots and rain gear (yes it was raining upon embarking) we set out! What exhilaration!! When we landed on the shore of Isle Royale the first thing Uncle Bill did, even before registering us for the backcountry trip, was to return some rocks he had collected as a boy nearly 45 years earlier. He fessed up to a park ranger, who was a 20-something gal. She looked confused and simultaneously non-pulsed at his deep remorse for having taken the rocks and also wanting to return them. While we tease him about this to this day, it was one of many examples of his fastidiousness and integrity that I'll never forget. After registering with the park officials, we started our hike straight away. All our senses were tested and peaked! The gorgeous landscape from the jade-colored rocks speckling the white rock shoreline [(yes the very same kind that my uncle had stolen as a child and just returned)] to the ridge line with gigantic Century plants bursting toward the sky, to the mossy banks of crystal clear (but bacterial infested - Giardia to be specific) creeks. So many skills were gained. [One vivid occasion was of all of us taking a bird bath and filtering our precious drinking water in a creek. Suddenly we heard a large animal charging through the undergrowth thundering toward us. Uncle Bill leapt up onto a small bridge and made himself as tall as possible, screamed loudly in a gutteral voice and flung his arms over his head, clapping and flailing them wildly like our lives depended on it [because they did!]. Another lesson was learning how to back away - very slowly - from a precarious mother moose and calf. Pestering a moose on the far bank of a lake for a solid 10 minutes with just acquired moose mimicking calls - one of our lesser mature moments on the trip. There were other more useful skills acquired, too. Learning to use Moleskin on your rubbed raw feet BEFORE getting blisters; Pitching a tent and packing up camp in record time [for us anyway ;) - a daily amusement and competition for Mindy and I]; Securing food in a bag on a line in a tree [10 feet up and 10 feet out on a branch] to avoid luring in a hungry [Black] bear [a skill I used numerous other times on other adventures]; and pacing yourself on the hike. Our most humorous memory is, sorry Auntie Ursula!, one morning waking up in the small tent that all four of us shared to hearing Auntie Ursula say, "Good morning, Paul." This was, and is, her ex-husband! Other than the rancid aroma of Uncle Bill's socks (haha) that usually cleared Mindy and I out of the tent as quickly as possible, this got us out a mock speed. Oh we laughed and laughed. Years later we can tease and laugh about it with them, too. [This was truly a wild place, and I LOVED it - minus the mosquitoes. It also left me hungry for more wildlife and wilderness adventures.] Wildlife, including wolves and foxes, abounded, imprinting on my heart. [Among other memories, that was the first time I had not taken a shower for more than 1 or 2 days - hit a record of 7! although we did take bird bathes in creeks and swam in an excruciatingly cold lake (with leeches!). Amazing how clean brushing your teeth can make you feel. The 3-minute shower we got at the very end of the trip was one of the most glorious and cleansing I have ever felt to this day, only to be rivaled by a noteworthy and deliciously ice-cold shower in the Peruvian Amazon after an arduous 12Km hike in smothering 100F, 100% humidity heat.]

"Our second major Uncle Bill/Auntie Ursula adventure was on the occasion of my high school graduation in 1997. We ventured into the American/Canadian "Boundary Waters". We spent a full week canoeing the links of lakes and passageways of the northern waters. We slept on a portage full of rocks for our beds because we couldn't find a campsite, portaged our canoes (me all by myself one or two times after seeing another woman do it - not an easy or lightweight task - Auntie Ursula still exclaims about how impressed she was by my determination and that I could do it at such a young age) and learned to really camp and rough it. [The reason we didn't just camp at a normal campsite was due to my uncle's unfailing integrity - he refused to sleep on the Canadian side when he hadn't purchased a permit to camp in Canada. All the American campsites were already taken, dusk was upon us, and we had no alternative but to sleep on a portage site. If I think back to that night, I can still feel the rocks protruding into my back! But oh what a laugh now.] Adventures are partially fun because of the mishaps that you stumble into. Not finding that campsite was one. Putting my sister and I in a canoe together [or any two-person, manually propelled boat] was another. Mindy was a pee-wee, and I was a stealth gal. Lets just say her strengths didn't lie in paddling with much force, but rather to peeve me on when I told her she needed to paddle! Ultimately Uncle Bill had to split us up - me with Auntie Ursula, and he with Mindy - to balance out all of our physical strength. Auntie Ursula and I practiced the Native American names of some of the lake. The only one I think I could say properly was Ogishkumunshki (no idea if that's even how it's spelled, but that's how it sounded phonetically). We fuddled over them for hours, or randomly interjected them into conversations. It was a good match, and the rest of the trip was peeve-free between Mindy and I (mostly). To this day we still can't coordinate paddling together! But we do joke, " Pyaddle! Stroke! Pyaddle! Stroke!" in the Boris and Natasha voices from Rocky and Bullwinkle." [I remember one evening, it was getting late, and we didn't have any dinner. My uncle had planned everything precisely and exceptionally well, but he hadn't planned on us not catching any fish! He and I set out on one last attempt to catch our dinner as dusk was settling in while Mindy and Auntie Ursula set up camp. We trolled until I thought I would get hypothermia in my toes and then I miraculously caught a big Northern Pike! It was a proud and happy moment for both Uncle Bill and I, and all of our stomachs thanked me, too. This is one of the few photos I have of the trip. Definitely a highlight.]

[These trips solidified and deepened the bond between my uncle and aunt with me and my sister. I'm forever grateful to them for these experiences. Without a doubt they contributed to shaping me into the outdoor adventure nut I am today - even if I don't get to go on those much at the moment due to my husband and my young, precious children.]

"All this knowledge and these experiences came with me on my undergrad internship at the Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming."

And that is where my entry left off. My time in the Tetons is what I consider the launch to the next stage of my life - one where I had even more travel and career adventures - and ultimately my current path in life, to which I will dedicate my next entry.

Europe 2017

We landed in Paris, cold and about 48 degrees Fahrenheit. But our exhilarated. We were in Europe for the first time!! Well, first time to visit Europe for Ernesto, first time to Western Europe for me. And first time there together. In fact, first time together to another country besides El Salvador. This was epic for us - a long road getting there. It took 7 years to get married, then another 3 to get Ernesto's Green Card - HURRAY! That is another side story in and of itself, but anyone who has ever gone through anything with immigration will understand when I say it was laborious, tedious, and lengthy. But a great end result for us!

We made it to 3 countries this trip: France, Italy, and Austria.

 Of the three, we primarily traveled in Italy - from north to south. But we landed in Paris, and off we went, straight to Notre Dam as we had a long wait until our night train to Florence. Notre Dam was impressive, massive, exquisite with detail in the Gothic turrets. Walking inside was breathtaking - getting to see the artwork of wooden carvings that I'd learned about nearly 20 years prior in my art history course at IU was unreal. Finding out there was a terrorist attack at Notre Dam on a policeman a couple hours after we left Notre Dam was chilling. We were lucky to have missed it. This was only the beginning of our adventures in Europe. More to come...

Travel Is The Answer...

Processing birds for the Tropical MAPS program in El Salvador

Me in the viewing and research tower of the Costa Rica, CA rainforest: La Selva

Not just once, twice, or three times, I can't even count the number of times I have realized that the answer to my problems lay out there... in the world... I needed to travel.

Sometimes life hands you a curve ball (cliche I know, but true), and you need to regain your sense of self. For me the best way to do this is to get away. Funny right?! But extending myself into new, maybe uncomfortable or strange situations always brings me back to my center. As a twenty something individual, travel was always my answer. If I didn't have a job, I traveled. If I had a job and needed some rejuvination, I traveled. If I didn't know what the purpose of life was, I traveled. If I knew what job I wanted and needed more experience, I traveled. So many of my acquaintances were never daring, confident, or nice enough to themselves to let themselves take a break and travel. It sort of became my mission in life to never let life get in the way of traveling.

Now that I'm in my early 30's, traveling hasn't slowed down. Lucky me! I've been so incredibly lucky. In fact, travel and luck have led me down a path of stimulating academic ventures, marvelous volunteer stints, and meeting the man of my dreams, my husband Ernesto. As I grow into my mid- and late- 30's I plan on continuing to travel. It's an insatiable wanderlust that drives me to explore, feel, taste, touch, smell, hear, and BE in the new natural and constructed environments, cultures, music, and foods.

As a woman, traveling is liberating, especially when you face your fears of traveling solo (of course being very cautious all the way). To quote the Disney movie Pocahontas (I know, I'm a Disney nerd) "You'll learn things you never knew you never knew." When you're out there figuring out your itinerary, budget, and what triggers your enthusiasm, you find out that change can be good. And, that there's no one "normal."

So, my mantra - TRAVEL. Don't wait until you have more time, money, energy, retirement funds, the mortgage paid off, the kids grown, or whatever other factors in life you may view as an obstacle. You should make time for travel; you'll learn and share love with other people you encounter along the way. Travel will regenerate your love for life, and give you peace of mind.

Ernesto and I at friend Peter's wedding in 

Grand Teton National Park.

A giant Fig Tree in the Peruvian Amazon with buttress roots

5 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Environmental Impact When Traveling

As requested, here are some simple ways to lessen your environmental impact when traveling.

1) Since many destinations are reached via airplane travel, give to a carbon footprint organization to offset the carbon you emit during the flight. Here's a link to "The Conservation Fund: Go Zero" http://www.conservationfund.org/gozero. If you use Travelocity to book your trip, they offer this option during the reservation process. It is recommended that you donate $5/USD for every 1,000 miles.

2) Choose a hotel or resort from list of certified eco-tourism hotels. One good resource is The International Ecotourism Society website:  http://www.ecotourism.org/site/c.orLQKXPCLmF/b.4875065/k.FC19/ecoDestinations__The_International_Ecotourism_Society.htm

3) Unplug Before you Go: Simply unplug any appliances you won't be using during your absence. For example, computers, TVs, microwaves, ovens, lamps and other lights, etc. Just be sure to leave your refrigerator plugged in! From my personal experience I've saved up to 20% of my electrical bill using this conservation act.

4) Choose greener ways to get around locally: take a bus, train, or even rent a bike!

5) Save Water: A) At your hotel don't change your towels on a daily basis. Tip: if the maids still change your towels even after you've displayed the request for them not to, call the front desk and make a special request. B) Use only as much water as you need during showers, brushing your teeth, and washing your face. Turn off the water inbetween washing and brushing.

An Introduction

Greetings Travel Enthusiasts!

This is my first blog ever created, and is also my first blog entry. As a travel enthusiast myself, I thought it would be worthwhile to share my travel experiences, knowledge, and inspiration with other travelers. Whether you're a well-seasoned traveler, or one just embarking on the adventures that await, this blog will provide you with useful and entertaining information.

My intention is to offer information as well as answer your travel-related inquiries. Please feel free to post your questions on this site. My background includes extensive travel to the Caribbean, Central America, North America, South America, and Eastern Europe. I am also knowledgeable about Africa and Asia. Having been a Travel Director, it is my wish to help those with their travel questions and concerns. I also have a desire to inform travelers of eco-friendly means of travel. With a higher education in conservation and avian studies (that's birds :), I hope to impart some of my enthusiasm for nature upon my blog readers as well.

On a regular basis I will write about one of the destinations of my past, giving anecdotes and travel tips. I hope these entries bring you enjoyment, inspiration, and applicable planning facts. Many a pitfall can be avoided by learning from others misfortunes and many a marvelous journey from others' serendipitous discoveries.

Happy Travels!