Go batty.

I have written a little about bats in a previous post (see here). Today I am going to write about them again, and not just because this weekend is Austin’s 8th Annual Bat Fest (although the timing is pretty good for that).

In case you are not aware, the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas is home to the largest urban colony of bats in North America. At sunset from spring to fall, you can see as many as a million (or more) bats leave in unison to fly down the Colorado River (Lady Bird Lake). They look like choreographed black smoke, flitting and dipping as they consume tons of mosquitoes and other insects. It is quite a sight, and one that attracts thousands of tourists every year. It is only fitting that there is a festival in honor of the bats.

I mention in the aforementioned post that to me bats are fascinating. I would not call them “cute” per se, but they serve an important role in our ecosystem (did I mention they eat mosquitoes?). Not only did I encounter them in my hotel sink in Nicaragua, and flying from beneath a bridge in Texas, but I have seen them in a place one might more naturally expect: a cave.

When in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico several years ago, my then-boyfriend and I went to explore a cenote (sen-NOTE-ay). A cenote is basically an inverted cave or a sinkhole, that connects to groundwater. It is an underground cave with freshwater, so you can swim around, snorkel, and even walk around where the water isn’t too deep. We paid the modest fee to enter this particular cenote and climbed down a rather rickety ladder contraption. The water was deep where we entered, so we swam around, coming to the other side where we could stand up and walk. My boyfriend was walking ahead into another chamber of the cave when I spotted something hanging from the ceiling. It took me a while to figure out they were bats because they were very small, not what I had seen in books or on TV. I called out, “Hey, there’s baby bats hanging out over here.” And just like that, whoosh! A huge herd/flock/bevy/whatever of bats came flying out of a hole in the ceiling of the cave. I wasn't scared, for whatever reason. They didn’t make any noise. All I could hear was the flutter of their wings as they circled in a figure eight formation above me. I just stood there, still as could be, hand over my mouth in awe, trying not to make a sound. It was amazing.

I know there are many of you out there who are freaked out by bats. You don’t want anything to do with them. They scare you because you’ve heard they have rabies or they will get tangled in your hair. Maybe they seem like rodents with wings. Maybe you’re afraid they will turn you into a vampire. But there are times when traveling presents you with the truth and shows you how different something is in its natural environment. Sometimes something you fear is just something to marvel. This was not a bat flying around the attic of a farmhouse. These were not two dehydrated and sleepy bats hanging out in a hotel sink. What I saw in that cenote was a colony of bats that lived there. They slept, ate, and raised babies there. I was the interloper, not them. And I had to be thankful to those wordless hosts. Because it was quite a show.

Read up, Part 2.

I was talking travel books with a friend last night and recommended to her the books I suggested in this blog post. So now I feel like recommending to you some more books, these with the common thread of "cultural differences." I have written before about how cultural differences make traveling so interesting. This is true. At least for me. But sometimes these differences are much deeper than you ever thought. The following books illustrate this well.

Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China, by Rachel DeWoskin.
A recent American college graduate goes to China to work for a public relations firm and becomes a star on a Chinese soap opera. She improves her Chinese language skills, immerses herself in Beijing life, and encounters cultural differences that sometimes baffle her. She also illustrates the changes China was undergoing at the time, in the early 1990s, shortly after the Tiananmen Square protests. Knowing little about China, I found her story educational, charming, funny, and inspiring. I really want to go to China now.

The next two books I list show how you do not have to leave the U.S. (or wherever you may live) to find cultures other than your own. And the stories don't necessarily have to come from immigrants.

Neither Wolf Nor Dog - On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder, by Kent Nerburn.
This book traces the lessons an American Indian teaches a white man as they travel through the reservations of the Dakotas. What Mr. Nerburn learns, and therefore what we learn, goes way beyond anything most of us have ever known about native peoples and how they view their history and world. According to the author's forward, this book has been used as a bridge between cultures and as tool for Indians themselves - a way for them to visit their past history and feel proud to be Indian.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman.
This book was recommended to me by a language interpretation instructor I had. It is about the Hmong community in Merced, California several years ago. Many Hmong refugees fled to the U.S. and other countries because of the civil war in Laos in the 1970s. This book focuses on one such refugee community and shows how cultural differences and misunderstandings can have serious repercussions in the U.S. medical community. Western medicine and traditional Hmong culture collide in this intriguing anthropological story.

These real-life stories amazed me. In many ways. Traveling can sometimes mean "traveling with a book." You can learn about other cultures while reading in a comfortable hammock in your backyard. You can enjoy others' travel adventures and experiences without renewing your passport. And you can discover incredible and different cultures within your own borders. I love traveling to experience other cultures, but sometimes all I can afford is a book. Sometimes, that is enough.


If any of you out there can recommend any books you have read about other cultures -- books that amazed you in some way -- please share in the comments below. 

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Ugly Americans. What is that? Do they really exist?

Oh, you bet they do. They are amazingly loud, talking as if their ears have not yet depressurized from their flight. They don’t speak any phrases in the local language, choosing instead to speak louder when a local does not understand them. They display an arrogance that is often shown with demeaning comments about the way things are done in that particular country. They do not consider local traditions, choosing to wear inappropriate clothing in more conservative places or refusing to research local customs before arriving to avoid any misunderstandings or disrespect.

The Ugly American is also a novel, written in 1958 by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. I found this great quote on Wiki where a Burmese character in this book explains his view:

“For some reason, the [American] people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They’re loud and ostentatious.”

(You can see more about the book, and the 1963 movie staring Marlon Brando, here.) 

This is a drastic version of people from the U.S. who are abroad. Oh, these drastic versions exist. But there are also those who aren’t as obvious, not as obnoxious. Yet they, too, have trouble opening their minds to absorb differences and find value in them. 

They say things like:

 “They drive on the wrong side of the road.”

“Their doors open the wrong way.”

“They don’t know how to make a sandwich.”

“Their coffee is too strong.”

First of all, let’s establish that if you want everything to stay the same, to experience only the same things you experience every single day of your life at home, then don’t travel. Stay home. Order a pizza. This seems like an extremely boring way to live in my opinion, but if that is what you prefer, then do what you do.

Second, when you are going on a trip-- particularly if it is a trip to another country-- it is a good idea to shift your thinking a bit. I believe that the fun of visiting another place and experiencing another culture is for the differences. The differences are interesting, beautiful, and often inspiring. And all these differences, whether they are the way coffee is prepared or how people drive, are not necessarily “wrong.” They are just different. To people in other countries, the way you do something is very different. Sometimes we forget this when we are traveling. Much like the character in The Ugly American, I do not know why.

When I was in Nicaragua, the sea turtles in the Pacific were laying their eggs on the coast. There were night tours from San Juan del Sur that took people to watch them lay their eggs. A group of us packed into a couple crowded vans and bounced along a bumpy road for about an hour to another beach. When we got to the nature reserve, we were greeted by the scientists who would be leading us to the turtles. They gave us explicit instructions: no flashlights unless they were red light; no flash use with cameras; and no talking. Easy enough. We didn’t want to scare the turtles and keep them from their job of laying eggs in the sand.

In the very dark night, we eventually came upon a female turtle digging away at the sand to lay her eggs. The guide pointed a red-filtered light at her so we could see. All of us were silent ...except for one couple that evidently did not hear, or chose to ignore, the previous instructions. They were talking normally, like they were having lunch at a cafe. They were promptly shushed, and it took a few times before they finally shut their respective pie holes. Now, I am not 100% sure this couple was American. But based on past experiences, I am 99% sure they were. 

Yes, it’s true that there are people from all cultures that are oblivious, obnoxious, loud, embarrassing, etc. I am not saying that all such people are my fellow U.S. citizens, because in fact, I have seen and heard such behavior from other countries as well. But it has become such that no matter where that particular type of person is from, people assume they are American. So I simply suggest that when you are going to travel abroad, shift your thinking for the little things, and maybe you can help shift the thinking of others in the world and help make the Ugly American a thing of the past.

It’s a simple shift.

Not  “They drive on the wrong side of the road” but “They drive on the other side of the road.”

Not “Their doors open the wrong way” but “Their doors open differently.”

Not “They don’t make a sandwich the right way” but “This sandwich is a whole new experience.”

Not “This coffee sucks” but “This coffee is definitely going to wake me up!”

It is not about being polite. Or politically correct. It is just changing your frame of mind so that you enjoy the differences instead of making them into something annoying. And then you can possibly avert becoming an annoyance yourself. 

Zach Galifianakis in Due Date (also starring Robert Downey, Jr.). Hilarious movie.

Where am I?

Today I am going to share some photos from a beautiful place I visited a few years ago. Check them out and see if you can guess where I was. I'll give you some clues: it's not Latin America (big surprise, I know); and it's not New England.

Clue: this is the Atlantic Ocean.

Another clue: it's an island.

Last clue: to get there, you must take a ferry (although, obviously
none of these boats are ferries. The ferry is much, much bigger).

That's it for clues, people. Now see if you can figure it out and post your guesses in the comments below. I know some of you have had trouble posting comments on this blog page. I have no idea why, but I am sorry about that. Please try again. Even if it's anonymously. Come on, just do it!

Oh, and friends reading this who know where I was on this trip are not allowed to guess. That would be cheating.

I'll tell you the answer later.

And the answer is ...
Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada!
Grand Manan is a lovely little island and a great place for a peaceful and quiet vacation. 
If you want to know more, check out this link.  Or if you're thinking of visiting, see the information here. 
      So grab your loonies and toonies and go have some fun, eh.   

Go shopping!

In the last two blog posts, I wrote about money. Today I will discuss what to do with that money: go shopping! The truth is I do not enjoy shopping like I once did. It’s more of a chore, something I sometimes have to do. It is rarely something I get excited about doing anymore. Unless I am traveling.

Shopping in local stores and markets, browsing through locally made artwork and handicrafts is a wonderful way to get a taste of the local culture when you are traveling abroad. And it’s a great way to find souvenirs for friends, family and yourself. It is also a way to find things you forgot or didn’t realize you would need. This happened to me in Guatemala, where the evenings and early mornings were ever-so-chilly (see this post here for info on that). I really felt I needed some more clothes for layering to keep warm. That is when Mercado Minerva came to my rescue.

Minerva Market in Xela, Guatemala is a large, open-air market that is open a couple days a week, Saturday being the busiest. Minerva is a bus terminal, where you can catch a bus to anywhere, or to a point where you can then catch another bus to anywhere. So if you are ever a traveler in Xela, you will undoubtedly be there at some point. But the market is another adventure altogether.

You can buy anything there: fresh produce, batteries, kitchen utensils, toys, hair accessories, live (or not) chickens. If the booth you’re browsing in doesn’t have what you're looking for, another one will. The market is crowded with people. You get pushed and shoved as you try to make your way through the crowd. Mayan women, who were so much smaller than I, were experts at getting through a crowd. They pushed passed me like determined rugby players, while I was merely an empty, cardboard box to be flung aside, not a woman who towered over them like a Sequoia tree. It was quite impressive.

I was specifically searching for the part of the market where they sell used clothing from the U.S. (and perhaps other countries as well). Evidently this practice is quite common all over the developing world, although in Latin America I have only seen it in Guatemala ... but that could be because I was looking for it. Organizations, such as Goodwill, sell their surplus inventory of donated clothing to merchants in developing countries at a bulk rate. The rate must be very low because these items are sold at a price that shames any sale at Macy’s. The L.L. Bean thermal, long-sleeve shirt I found was only 3Q (three quetzales). That was about 50 cents at the time. Take that, Macy’s!

Here I am in that 50¢ shirt from the market.
It is not nearly as cute as Estrella here, one
of the students in our afterschool program.  

The booths with the used clothes don’t have any fancy displays. There are usually just piles of clothes that you can go through. You don’t have to refold anything and put it back on a shelf all nice and tidy. No sirree. You can sometimes just climb onto the pile of clothes and sit there, searching comfortably for as long as you wish. If any of you ever heard of the wedding dress sales that used to take place at Filene’s Basement in Boston, I imagine it is comparable. Only much more affordable. With no overly eager brides clawing out your eyes.

Some local shops in Xela also sold these used clothes, but in nicer storefront settings. One day, I was walking in town and saw an awesome t-shirt hanging in the doorway of such a shop. I just had to buy it for my friend, Laurel (you can read more about Laurel here). Since I hadn't packed many clothes, I wore it during my time traveling. She knew it was used. She knew I had worn it. All of that was part of the charm, part of the experience that she appreciated (maybe not all people would appreciate such a gift, but Laurel is cool like that). 

Like I mentioned in my very first blog post, when you’re traveling, there is no time or space for being overly fashion-conscious. But you should make time to shop and search for that special something you just can’t live without ... at least until you get home. Or until you pass it on to a friend! 

I have mentioned this green t-shirt before, and you have seen it in other photos. But I am showing you again
because this is the shirt I got for Laurel, but that I wore throughout my time in Guatemala. The irony of the shirt
was not lost on my volunteers, shown here with me,  Miss Brightside.  Miss Brightside indeed.

Show me the money, Part 2.

Last week I wrote about money when you travel and some tips on how to use it with as little drama as possible (see this post here). But sometimes a little drama cannot be avoided.

When I was in Guatemala a few years ago, quetzales (the local currency) were hard to find for several weeks. One day I went to five or six cash machines/ATMs with a friend and they were all empty of money. So I had no cash. And there were no places that would just swipe a credit card for payment, especially in the local stores, restaurants and markets. We continued to try, day after day, but to no avail. Luckily my host family lent me some money until I could get cash. But it was a problem for a few weeks, and there were travelers running around Xela in a panic because they had no money. “Help me, I cannot even purchase a liquado de sandía or hot chocolate because I have no cash!!” (Of course, the locals were having the same problem, but as I discussed in this blog post, they take it, and any inconvenience, all in stride.)

Evidently the Guatemalan government was having new money printed in Europe somewhere. But before the printing job was complete, they retired a bunch of old bills, thereby leaving an inconvenient and incomprehensible void. True, sometimes one goes to a cash machine in the U.S. and there is no money left, especially on weekends. But on Monday morning, it’s full again. We don’t even think about it. Believe me, when it goes on for days and days and you are in a place where you don’t have your own bank, it is a little disconcerting. This is another one of those instances where you just adapt, deal with it, and realize it is part of the experience. Luckily, part of my experience was living with a kind and generous family.

When using local currency, you will sometimes find it hard to get change for bigger bills. The smaller stores will often not be able to change the larger notes, thereby making it impossible to buy that pack of gum/local paper/bottle of water. They will just tell you, “No change. Sorry.” And you lose out on that candy bar, and they lose a sale. Much like in the U.S., the ATMs I’ve encountered in other countries don’t spew forth a wide variety of paper money. Stateside it’s 20s all the time. Never any larger, never any smaller. The lack of denominational variety is sometimes the case in other countries, too ... thus the issue of getting/not getting change. The smaller businesses, which most of them are, just cannot keep up. So any time you can get small bills, do. It is worth making the effort so you can buy what you need, when you need it (or what you want when you want it). 

Here are those cool Nicaraguan córdoba bills again. I love that see-through
circle and wonder what it is made of, because I promise
it is not plastic cling-wrap. 

As far as using the ATM, I have used a personal credit card, and one of those prepaid credit cards. The problem is the fees, but I don’t think you can avoid them. On my trip to Nicaragua, I used a prepaid Visa card I bought through AAA and it worked well. But I had all types of fees by the time I got back. Fees from the U.S. side, fees from the Nicaraguan side. It ticked me off, but what can you do? You will probably have some kind of conversion fee whenever you use a credit card, so they will get you one way or another. I do not recommend carrying huge wads of cash around, even though there are no fees with cash. Your fee may be losing it all to a pickpocket, luggage thief, or worse. Just don’t be flashing that money in front of anyone. Ever. (I also discussed this here.)

Before you take that trip, contact your credit card company and/or bank and let them know where you will be traveling so they do not put a block on your card if they see charges from Buenos Aires or San Salvador or wherever you are traveling (which is a great service if your card has been stolen, but not so much if you trying to use your own card in a foreign country). Also, make sure you have on hand the phone number you should call if your credit card is lost. They will most likely have a number you can use overseas. Keep this number separately from your card. Or better yet, email it to yourself so if everything gets stolen or lost (gasp!), you can access those numbers at an internet cafe. You could also email yourself a copy of the credit card so you have all the needed information in an emergency. I know, I know ... you keep everything on your smart phone. It’s so remarkable. It’s so cool. But when your smart phone falls out of your pocket as you jump onto a moving chicken bus, lands in a giant puddle, and is run over by a pick-up truck hauling six water barrels, three goats, and two men sitting on a hay bale, you will feel pretty stupid that you don’t have the information elsewhere.

For me, a few of the interesting things about visiting another country are seeing the colorful, local money, getting accustomed to using it, learning what the conversion rate is and using it in my head (eventually), and getting away from the almighty dollar. It’s just a nice change of pace. Those bills and coins represent a colorful culture and history. There may be many places out there where you can get by with just a credit card. That’s all well and good, but traveling to developing countries isn’t always quite so slick and easy. So if you use the cash, take a close look at it, feel it in your hands. Then let it go. Use it for that ice cream cone or cold cerveza. That’s what it’s there for after all. 

Show me the money, Part 1.

If you have ever traveled in another country, you know about foreign currency (and the Canadian quarters that sometimes turn up in your wallet do not count, unless you were in Canada when they got into your wallet). Money from other countries is very often quite gorgeous. They feature pictures of various historical figures, royalty, national monuments, famous buildings. Yes, we have all that on U.S. money as well (minus the royalty), but not in such bright, beautiful colors. It can be lovely. Frame-worthy even. And dealing with a new type of money is another part of the experience and adventure of travel.

Before you take that trip abroad, I recommend ordering some currency of the country you will be visiting through your bank. And do it well in advance because it sometimes takes a while ... not every bank has a stack of Honduran lempira or Malaysian ringgits lying in their vault.  I suggest doing this because it’s just great to have some cash on hand when you get to the airport (or dock/port or bus station). You don’t have to find an ATM/money machine right away, or money-changing booth, nor do you have to worry about dealing with the money exchange brigade as you exit (people standing there with cash, ready to change your money ... but rarely at the going rate) – you can simply smile and walk on by. Then you can pay for a taxi, or a bus, buy a cold drink, stop and get some coffee, whatever. It’s just one less headache, especially if you arrive at night.

Here are a couple of Nicaraguan córdoba bills. The paper
is shiny and seems to be waterproof. And I love the
illustrations. Thirty córdobas equals $1.29 US, as in
one dollar and twenty-nine cents. 

Another thing I recommend is to take a calculator. Just a teeny, tiny one that will fit into your pocket, purse or daypack. Maybe you can do math in your head lickity-split like Rainman. Not so me. It is just useful as you get used to the conversion of your money to the new money you’ll be using on your trip. Because you will most likely want to know how much something is compared to home. 

“Wow, this rug is 200 quetzales! Are they crazy? I could get a rug at Crate & Barrel for less than that.”

---- Um, no, you couldn’t. Two hundred quetzales is just over $25. Get a half dozen!

A calculator helps put things in perspective.

Sometimes you can use your U.S. paper money, especially for hotels and the like. Even though it’s had some hard times lately, the dollar is still valued in many countries and used with great frequency.* In fact, it is used so often in many countries that they would scoff at my suggestion to bring a calculator because they are so accustomed to converting to U.S. dollars that it is second nature. I have met many foreign travelers who have to exchange their country’s money for U.S. dollars before exchanging it for the local currency of where they are traveling. At home they got U.S. dollars to exchange in a country other than their own and other than the U.S.  Go figure. 

*(Note: Panamá, as well as some other countries, exclusively use the U.S. dollar. Here is some information on the Panamanian balboa, aka, the U.S. dollar, which is quite interesting. )

I should also mention that in my travels to Latin America, I have encountered businesses that are very willing to take U.S. dollars, but only if the bills are nice, clean and as crisp as possible. If a bill is even minutely torn, they will turn it down. If it is worn out with folded edges and corners, they do not want it. I have never understood this, especially since I have paid for things several times here in the U.S., with bills that looked like an old pair of ripped up denim jeans, with nary a blink from the cashier. Why in these countries that are so laid-back are they so uptight about the condition of a U.S. paper bill? If you know, please share. 

Next week I will continue with more information about money and travel. Stay tuned ...