Random Impressions

In mid-January, we finished one segment of our trip and began another. In addition to some of the stories we've shared, there are many things we've noticed about where we were and differences and similarities we are noticing about where we've come to.

Central America
* There are so many spaces and ways that people of all ages socialize - sitting on the sidewalk in front of their homes, walking or taking public transport, shopping in the markets everyday, in the many central parks. Front rooms of homes open to the street, visible to those passing by and any visiting neighbors
* So much of life is spent outside - houses/restaurants around courtyards; parks; outdoor markets; perpetually open doors and windows; restaurants that are simply an outdoor food stand and collection of plastic chairs and tables on the sidewalk
* Shopping on the bus - while people are waiting for the bus to fill and leave or whenever it's stopped briefly to pick up passengers, people walk down the aisle or yell from outside through open windows selling their wares - everything from beverages, stuffed tortillas, vegetables to cookies. Salespeople will also stand in the aisle during the bus ride presenting infomercials for cure-alls.
* People walking or taking public transport or riding bicycles. Not many private cars, bicycle riding with multiple people (e.g. one seated on the crossbar or back rack)
* Volume of everthing is extremely loud - people's voices, firecrackers (many in celebration of Xmas), t.v., loudspeakers outside stores or mounted on cruising cars announcing sales/events, propaganda. Music everywhere (in stores, on buses, in public places, restaurants), loud and often one of 20 popular songs that we hear repeated.
* So much gender separation - only boys set off firecrackers or play soccer. Girls can play basketball. Many more girls and women wear indigenous clothing. (In Nicaragua, we did notice that when men are walking around selling baked goods from baskets, they would wear the same frilly lacey aprons that women would.
* Many businesses selling the exact same things (i.e. 5 "corner stores" in one block each with the same candy, chips, rolls, juice)
* People often don't use street names but refer to a place by its location in relation to local landmarks (i.e. 2 blocks North of the cathedral)
* Very strong religous devotion - churches everywhere and many phrases begun or finished with "if God allows" or "thanks to God"
* Harsh florescent lighting everywhere (even in churches)
* Bargaining for everything
* So much litter - much of it plastic bags. Many beverages sold from street stalls or restaurants are poured from bottles into plastic sandwich bags. A straw is inserted inside and secured with a rubber band or a small corner of the bag is ripped off to drink from.
* Many homes have informal stores or restaurants in their front room indicated if at all with a simple handwritten sign (e.g. "Have beans")
* Small shops where people can take things to be ground (i.e. corn, cocoa beans)
* Many pool halls in Nicaragua (men only)

Travelling
* The effect of the heat- tired, lack of energy- hard to acclimate. We would often be drooping while the local women were spritely in tight stylish jeans and high heels.
* So much focus on the necessities of life - finding food, lodging, water, bathrooms.
* Dealing with our first-world "needs" and expectations re: cleanliness, privacy, bugs, desire to be protected from the elements
* Difficulty in being closeted - balance of respecting local culture vs. being ourselves vs. protecting our safety vs. educating people
* Desire to travel and see more places vs. desire to stay in one place, get to know it better, meet more people
* Feeling of being isolated from local culture - so easy to only be in places for travellers or meet only other travellers, harder to have real connections with local people.
* So many plants, trees, pods, seeds, vines, flowers, fruits, vegetables that we've never seen/tasted before

Year of the Dog

We got a second chance at celebrating New Year's Eve when the Vietnamese welcomed the year of the dog at midnight on January 29. Tet (lunar new year) is Vietnam's most important holiday. Families reunite (from all over the world) in the hope of good fortune for the coming year and ancestral spirits are welcomed back into the family home. What this means for us is that it's been a little crazy travelling between towns, the towns themselves have been fairly hectic, and we've gotten to see some interesting preparations and celebrations.

We spent the holiday in the picturesque riverside town of Hoi An in Central Vietnam (just 5 km from the South China Sea).


Frenzied shoppers filled the market here in the days before Tet as people stocked up on necessary New Year's items: new clothes; flowers; kumquat trees and blossoming cherry or apricot branches to be decorated; fruit, watermelon seeds (roasted and dyed red), special pastries and other traditional foods; incense and offerings to be burned at gravesites, family altars, and in front of homes (such as paper versions of things that those in the afterlife may want -- clothes, shoes, money). It's difficult to describe the air of celebration. Entire streets are taken up with the holiday flower markets, huge numbers of businesses are preparing to shut down for a week or more, all households are being cleaned so the new year can be started with a fresh slate.

Frantic last-minute shopping on New Year's Eve


The new year celebration begins at the stroke of midnight. The festival is usually celebrated at home with family eating, spending time, and making noise to honor the entrance of the new year and scare off evil spirits. Being travellers with no home to get to by midnight, we went to the event put on the city. Before midnight, there was a sort of variety show with acts ranging from cheesy costumed pop music performaces by young heart throb ensembles to a traditional game of bingo where each "number" is announced through a folksong verse. As the bewitching hour approached, a leader from the local communist party took the stage to give a short speech and lead the crowd in the countdown and simultaneous flag raising. Midnight was welcomed with popping balloons (fireworks have been banned since 1995), air cannons shooting confetti, and the national anthem.

Next there was a procession through the streets similar to Chinese new year's parades some of you have seen. A long dancing dragon, lions, musicians, a float in honor of the year of the dog (represented as a very Disney-looking Dalmation dog), and other costumed characters pasting red slips of paper on people and businesses wishing them luck in the new year. All was quite festive!


The events of New Year's Day are very important as it's believed they affect the course of life in the year ahead. People take extra care not to be rude, show anger, or break things all of which may attract bad spirits. Similarly, it's crucial that the first visitor of the year to each household is suitable - someone who was born during the year of the dog or one of its 2 compatible signs and preferably someone lucky (e.g. wealthy, married, with several children).

When we woke on the rainy New Year Day, the streets were quiet. As we walked, we could see closed shops and restaurants, ashes on the curbs where people had burned offerings the night before, and families all dressed up travelling to visit other relatives. Every household we passed seemed to have an open door and a table in the front room set with tea and a tray of sweets.

The actual first day of the new lunar year was on January 29 but we've learned that Tet lasts much longer. Many businesses were still closed 10 days later, many local people go on holiday for a week or more, the decorations stay posted, and we still hear what seems to be the favorite Tet holiday song (ABBA's "Happy New Year").

We'll end with the most important (& just about only) Vietnamese phrase we've learned - Chuc mung nam moi - Happy New Year!

Who needs the Quickie Mart?

More stories from our tour of the Mekong Delta:

On the second day, we woke up at our host family's to a beautiful cool morning mist. After breakfast (which included a delicous banana leaf-wrapped treat of roasted corn mixed with coconut and sugar), we rode bicycles on the small village paths over canal bridges and past thatched homes to the town's morning market. Families were busy making homemade rice paper, cooking food, and tending children. Almost all of the children we passed would scream "hello" to us as we rode by.
Cat posing with our high-technical vehicles


One of the best things about being part of such a small group was that our guide, Phat, could walk with each of us and answer the questions we had about the unfamiliar fruits, vegetables, beverages, etc. We saw live fish being delivered from the river to waiting water tubs; bowls of fresh-cut noodles ready for soup; mountains of bean paste; stacks of the infamous durian fruit (some say it smells and tastes like garbage, with an onion aftertaste); stands with the betel nut-lime mixture that stains the teeth of the older women who chew it; and frogs getting their heads snipped off. Because this was a town that doesn't see many foreign visitors, many of the people were tickled and curious to see us, peppering our guide with questions about us.


When we returned from the market, our host family were observing the death anniversary with a grand meal with friends and neighbors. Ancestor worship is very strong in Vietnam and we saw altars everywhere we travelled. A large food and drink offering had been prepared and placed in front of the father's photo along with incense, cans of beer, and many many dishes of food and sweets. In the afternoon, the offering was consumed by everyone.

After leaving our host family, we travelled by bicycle, motorized cart, ferry boat, and finally our first motorbike ride (invigorating but quite horrifying to Jen) to get our next accommodation in the town of Cantho. The next morning as the sunrise sky was brightening, we departed from the Cantho docks for the Cai Be floating market.

The land of the Mekong Delta is among the country's most fertile. Rice, vegetables, fruit, sugarcane, coconut, and fish are abundant in "Vietnam's rice basket". The floating markets on the banks of wide stretches of the Mekong are THE place to shop for these riches.

The Cai Be market features wholesalers on large boats, each specializing in a few types of fruit or vegetables. Customers cruise the market in smaller boats and can easily find what they're looking for because the large boats hang samples of the their goods from tall wooden poles.
Shopper at the floating market-In the background, you can see the pole advertising this boat's wares


Our very adept boat captain was able to steer our small wooden boat in and out of all the market traffic. First we stopped for breakfast by tying our vessel up to a floating noodle boat from which we were passed steaming china bowls of spicy pho (noodle soup). Then a beverage boat tied up to our boat's other side to serve us Vietnamese coffee (strong coffee with a dollop of condensed milk over ice). Afterwards we took in the gorgeous views of the buying and selling of picturesque flowers and pineaples and green onions.

Too bad we won't be able to do our shopping this way on the Chicago River!

The Muddy Mekong Delta

From Ho Chi Minh City we took a three-day trip to the Mekong Delta with a fantastic new tour company. Their enthusiastic young staff won a contest for the most innovative new business idea (company philosophy: experience the country, don't just look at it). We highly recommend our guide, Phat, and the small-group tours (max. 5 persons)-- www.innoviet.com

Our adventure began at 5:30 am when Phat took us on a transportation oddessy. We took a local bus to the long-distance bus station where we waited for our 7 AM bus to fill up and depart. We were on our way by 8:35! Already we'd had one bona fide cultural experience. Once we got into the delta, we began to cross bridge after bridge (at least 15) over the small rivers, streams, and canals before arriving near the town of Vinh Long where a couple members of our host family were waiting to take us by boat to their home.

Luckily for us, we were staying with an extended version of the host family. Many relatives had travelled to observe the death anniversary of the patriarch the day after our arrival. We started by learning to make a traditional pastry called Bahn It which is a scoop of gluntinous rice filled with sweet coconut meat or bean paste wrapped and cooked in banana leaves. Quite tasty but difficult to make.

Here's a picture of the professionals teaching us


In the photo, the women are sitting on a large wooden platform in the middle of the home's main room which served as the hub. On this table all the family gathered, sitting cross-legged to prepare and eat meals, play cards, chat and relax.

Later in the day, we had another lesson - this time in mud fishing. We walked on a small trail back through the family's property to a small "river" that looked more like an irrigation ditch. The family climbed right into the water, mud sucking up past the knees. First a small dam is made by piling up grasses and branches. Using bowls, water is scooped behind the dam to create a stronger downstream current towards the dam. Then a branch is stuck in the mud with a woven wooden basket against it to catch the small fish now flowing towards the dam. This same process was repeated a half dozen times until a small bucket of fish, snails, and prawns were collected.


Jen's own attempt


Some members of our host family- on the far right is Joey. She's one of the daughters and a real hoot. She had 2 sons with an American pilot and moved to NY after her husband died. She now lives on the big island in Hawaii but was back for a 2-month visit for the death anniversary and Tet holiday.


We will update this post with more stories and photos from our Mekong tour soon...

Greetings from Saigon

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We have arrived in Vietnam and will be exploring this country until mid-February. We are enjoying seeing all of the prepartions for Tet (Lunar New Year Holiday) and will be posting stories soon.

Wish you could all be with us to enjoy a streetside bowl of pho (delicous Vietnamese noodle soup).

Miraflor Natural Reserve

We took 5:45am bus from Esteli for our trip to the Miraflor Natural Reserve. The reserve, established in 1996, contains over 14,000 acres ranging in altitude from 2640 feet to almost 5000 feet covering a range of habitats from tropical savannah to dry forest to cloud forest. The reserve is managed by the Miraflor Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (UCA). The organization promotes sustainable agriculture (e.g. coffee, vegetables, flowers, livestock) and ecotourism. The coffee-related work is connected with CECOCAFEN (which we talked about in an earlier post). The ride to the reserve was an amazing journey (about 2 hours to go less than 40 km) up winding roads climbing over passes to vast expanses of undulating landscape and farmland. After arriving in the La Pita community and having a hearty breakfast in the simple house of one of the UCA guides, our guide Edwin led us quickly to the summit above the house and we spent the rest of the morning walking along the ridge through changing settings including pastures, several different kinds of forests, and small rural villages. Some of the forests seemed similar to those we have in the midwestern or northwestern US but then we would notice a coconut palm or orchid plant. It wasn't orchid season but the Miraflor reserve has 250 species and we were able to see a couple blooming on the trees. We also saw a mature ficus tree. This was not the mild-mannered houseplant we are familiar with in the states. Here the ficus, also called "the strangler", grows as a parasite over another tree feeding off of and eventually killing/strangling it. When the original tree is dead, the ficus tree/vines remain around the hollow core where the tree used to be. The three of us were able to stand inside the ficus (and there was room for a couple more!) and Edwin climbed up to the top from the inside. We tried to follow him but our weak arms and knowledge of the constraints of our health insurance coverage prevented us from getting very far. He finished by descending tarzan-like on the outside of the ficus.

Edwin on his way up


We stopped for lunch in the home of a local family and enjoyed a bit of a siesta hanging in a hammock. Aftwards, we descended into the middle zone of the reserve on little paths through farms that serve as pedestrian roads until we reached the community of La Rampla to catch our bus home.

Our lunch spot


A farm we passed through

Heroes and Martyrs

In many Nicaraguan towns there are Galleries of Heroes and Martyrs. These monuments to the country's more recent history were usually run by the mothers of fallen heroes and veterans of the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) who fought the repressive Somoza dictatorship during the Sandinista revolution in the late 1970's or, even more disturbing, during the US-funded Contra war. The two galleries we saw were quite simple and very run down- photo displays with the names and dates of death of the very young companeros and companeras. The Sandinistas won in 1979 but lost power in the 1990 elections. One can certainly see the loss of the movement's support on these faded and almost empty galleries.

The Gallery of Heroes and Martyrs in Esteli was a bit better - it has beautiful murals, English translations, and updated postings of relevant newspaper articles. Esteli was the historic site of several major turning points and victories during the revolution. We spent almost an hour speaking with an older woman who lost two sons during the revolution and who now runs the museum. She told us of her strong hope and belief that Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas will regain power in the upcoming 2006 presidential election. She described how since the 1990 the country had fallen to a state similar to that of the Somoza era - no work, no education, and major poverty (Nicaraguan is second in poverty only to Haiti in the Western hemisphere). Some we spoke to seemed to mirror this woman's hope but many others (like our young Spanish teacher in Granada) felt that all of the politicians were corrupt and only looked to external economic investment for an improved future.

In the gallery, we saw the following quote from a man who had been a soldier in the revolution famous for the photographic image of him throwing a molotov cocktail (in a Pepsi bottle) and wearing a big cross around his neck and a beret on his head in a jaunty off-kilter Che-like manner: "Unfortunately, Sandinism outside of the revolution is different from the Sandinism that existed during the revolution."

Mural in Esteli


Check some of the olds posts below to see some photos we added

Coffee coffee everywhere...and not a drop to drink

On January 3, we travelled to the town of Matagalpa, certainly much different from the quaint colonial cities we'd seen earlier but located in a beautiful valley, mountain hillsides rising from the town edges. These surrounding mountains are home to many coffee plantations and processing plants and we were eager to learn more about the roots of our and Seattle's obsession. A lovely man in Matagalpa's coffee museum accompanied us to the offices of CECOCAFEN (www.cecocafen.com) to begin. CECOCAFEN is a coffee cooperative representing over 1900 small-scale farmers working in this region of Nicaragua. These cooperatives were formed when the Sandinistas implemented land reform in the 80's. When the Sandinistas lost power in 1990, many cooperatives joined together to improve their access to markets and provide social services and technical assistance to their members. CECOCAFEN works for fair trade, social change, and to improve the quality of life for farmers and their families. They do things such as teach farmers about organic farming techniques and develop money-making ecotourism opportunities for students and travellers like us. Chicagoans will be happy to know that Intelligentsia Coffee buys from CECOCAFEN farms. Owner Jeff Watts was actually in town when we were, visiting with the farmers. Apparently Starbucks is developing a new policy about fair trade purchasing and would like to purchase from CECOCAFEN but are still in negotiations.

While in Matagalpa, we had the opportunity to visit Solcafe, the cooperative member-owned dry mill used to process the coffee, and a few days later while in Esteli a little farther north, we visited the organic coffee farm of one family which had been trained by CECOCAFEN. The farm was located on the Miraflor Nature Reserve (more about this later). The Arabic coffee bushes grow to about 2 meters tall and produce red or yellow berries. According to our guide, Edwin, Arabic coffee (75% of the world's coffee is Arabic and the rest Robusto) is considered to be of higher quality and gets a better price than Robusto. Each organic plant has about 25 years of production. Coventional plants will produce more coffee berries but only have about 10 years of production. The berries are sweet, almost like a grape, and contain 2-4 coffee beans. It was amazing to learn about the amount of work that goes into producting each cup of coffee - 21 steps from the plant to cup. Here on the farm, once the berries are ripe they must be picked by hand within a few days, the beans must be extracted from the berries using a manually operated machine, then soaked in water to rinse natural minerals and impurities, and partially dried before being driven in small truck loads over incredibly rough roads to the processing plant.

Coffee bushes and banana tree


Washing the coffee beans on the farm


At the Solcafe processing plants, we were given a personal tour by the head of operations. Sacks of coffee beans are brought to the plant by farmers to be measured, rated (for color, aroma, percent of imperfections, etc.), dried, sorted, and packed for exportation. Again the entire process is incredibly worker- and time-intensive. During the processing season from October to March, Solcafe employs over 500 workers. Each sack of coffee beans is spread out on cement drying patios (separated from the beans of other sacks) and manually raked and turned 8 times per day until it is dried to 12% humidity.

Unloading beans at Solcafe


It was quite interesting to learn what goes into making a cup of joe and really drove home the responsibility we have to purchase and consume organic fair trade coffee. One sad thing was that even though we are travelling in the countries that produce some of the world's best coffee (Nicaragua has won the award for the Cup of Excellence for the past 3 years), all of the high quality coffee is exported and it is almost impossible to find anything in restaurants and homes other than powdered instant "coffee."

New Year's in Léon

For the New Year´s holiday, we were in the historic town of Léon in Central America´s most volcanic region. Léon was the capital of Nicaragua for over two centuries until Managua took over in 1887 and today is the country´s second largest city. New Year´s Eve seems to be celebrated quite similarly to Nicaraguan Christmas. We began the evening by visiting Leon´s cathedaral, the largest in Central America, constructed between the mid 1700s and mid 1800s. Inside this massive structure, many people were attending mass while other people treated the cathedral like an extension of the central square on which it´s located, wheeling their bikes around, checking out the nativity scene, eating, drinking, and chatting. The park itself was filled with music, food and craft vendors, and lines of people waiting to have their photos taken in front of screens with cartoon Christmas scenes like Santa and sleigh in the snow. We walked through nearby residential streets to watch families gathering in homes, sitting in chairs on the sidewalks, setting out stuffed dummies (kind of like scarecrows seated in chairs)and putting up pinatas. The closer it got to the midnight hour, the emptier the streets became as street stalls and bars closed and people went to their homes to celebrate and eat dinner with their families. At midnight, deafening amounts of firecrackers exploded and the stuffed men were set aflame to signify the passing of the year 2005.

The next day, we found the streets quiet and most places closed until we walked back to the cathedral at 3 o´clock where inside people were reciting the rosary and outside a crowd was gathering. At around 4 PM, a procession began. At the front of the procession was what seemed like a small high school marching band followed by a pick-up truck with huge speakers in the truck bed to amplify the words of the priest sitting in the front cab ("Viva Mary, queen of peace! Viva Christ the king! Viva Catholic Nicaragua! Applause! Applause!). Next were altar boys, priests, brothers & other official looking folk from the church surrounding a floral-decorated float(pulled by a jeep) where the bishop sat holding the holy eucharist (12 years of Catholic school & Catherine´s not sure that´s what it´s properly called). Behind them followed a jazzy horn band that would break into song in the middle of the priest´s orations, and finally droves of parishoners. This procession continued through Leon´s cobbled streets where families had decorated their windows and doorways with ribbons, balloons, flowers, and religious scenes, particularly statues of Mary. On the more than 2-hour route, many were praying but many others were also chatting with neighbors and stopping to buy snacks from street vendors that were following alongside selling cotton candy and other treats. The procession ended in the central park where a mass was held for another hour and a half. We could only make it through another 45 minutes or so. This event takes place every New Year´s Day.

New Year's Day Procession


Along the route of the procession