Night Ride

Last night I went on my first night ride up in Tilden Park with my new Magicshine light. From what I can tell, its straight from China and distributed in the US by some random interwebscompany at www.geomangear.com. BUT, it was cheap, $100 for the light and tax and shipping and handling. The light lasted for at least an hour and a half on full brightness, though the website claims it should last for 3 hours. Even better, the battery is smaller than my fist, so I can mount it right underneath my stem.

It was awesome. I can't wait until next Wednesday to ride at night again, up in Redwood Park and Joaquin Miler Park.

Africa photos are up!

I've posted my favorite photos from Africa (Ghana/Burkina Faso/Mali) up on Facebook. You can check out them out here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2511446&id=1209158&l=4e976d2540

Still getting settled back in Berkeley, enjoying Joanna's good coffee and my room again. I'm pretty glad I only have three weeks until school starts, because I don't think I could spend much more time than that just sitting around doing nothing.

I've been able to ride the past three days in a row, and my legs are tired. I think I lost a lot of muscle, because after each ride it feels like I've just been to the gym and did a workout, as opposed to just being exhausted. Gotta get into a tiny bit of shape in the next week, because Daan and I are going to Moab, Utah and Boulder, CO on Monday.

California

Well rested and back at Alia's family's house in the bay area. Surprisingly, we didn't have any flight delays, missed connections, or lost luggage in four flights yesterday. Imagine that! United did a pretty good job and the American personnel definitely felt friendlier than European airports.

This afternoon I am headed back to Berkeley, assessing the situation, and probably going to try to move back into my apartment over the next two days. Last time I moved in, it took at least six months to fully unpack everything. This time... I have a month until school starts, hopefully I can get rid of all of the boxes by then.

Time to think about school. What classes to take, what professors to try to get to be my adviser, and what to actually try to focus research in.

Can't wait to get home and ride my bike!

46 Degrees baby

Thats right. Its 46 degrees here in Marrakech today. Take that you people from Arizona. Take that you people from China. Unless you are from Burkina Faso or Mali, you can never say its hot again.

Today it is hot. For those too lazy to convert, 46 degrees is 115 Fahrenheit. Yikes.

Tomorrow we fly to the cool clime of Madrid.

The next day we fly to cooler yet San Francisco, by way of Frankfurt, Boston, and Chicago. Homeward bound!

Essaouria, Morocco

Today we decided we were well enough to hop on the bus over to Essaouaria, the coastal hippie-ish town only two hours from Marrakech.

The town has feelings of Berkeley; urine smell (though this is present in most of the Moroccan cities we have been to), people strung out on drugs, waterfront views, and a few bums to top it off.

We were "greeted" by some well-wishers after getting off the bus, and halfway into the medina a man offered to take us to a hotel that had "cheap rooms" at 150 Dirham for a double (about 15 Euro). We were headed for a hotel mentioned in our Lonely Planet Guide, but it was likely full and listed at not much cheaper, so we were willing to take a look. Very cute place, with an ocean view from the room, and a different color theme on each floor. Ever been to Jacob and Isaac's house in Santa Barbara?

Answers to yesterdays quiz:
1. Definitely dehydrated. Only 1.5 liters of water and two small sodas are NOT enough for 8 hours of hiking. Oops, I should know better. Unlikely altitude sickness, I didnt start to feel bad until back under 3000m, unless there is some odd time delay. And the bottom part of the hike was so hot I felt like I wanted to climb in a nearby aquaduct to cool off. Not sure about the bacteria but...

2. The cipro seems to have fixed me. I feel nearly completely better now, my appetite is back. Either that or it was just slow rehydration that helped. Or the bug passed on...

3. to Alia! But she didnt seem to get as sick as me and is definitely feeling better too.

Lastly, is there anything anyone wants me to buy for them either in Morocco or Spain that they can't get in the states or is cheaper/better here? Shoot me an e-mail.

Jebel Toubkal

Yes, I am now in the 4000m club, with the summit at 4167m.

Alia and I couldn't even find the trail from the refuge the day before in the daytime, we knew it would be difficult at night. The refuge is this big stone cabin where most trekkers spend the night before summiting, as we did too (at least until our 2:30am departure.) Made the summit in time to view the sunrise, and incredibly glad we hired a guide to take us in the dark. And it was all downhill from there.

And now time for a mini-quiz!

Multiple choice:

1. What ailments did Stephen have starting halfway down and until the next morning?
a) altitude sickness
b) bacteria gone wild
c) dehydration
d) excessive exposure to the heat
e) alllll of the above

2. What drugs has Stephen tried to cure himself?
a) advil
b) immodium
c) ciproflaxin
d) pepto bismol
e) all of the above (though not immodium and cipro at the same time because that is bad)

True/False
3. Stephen has gotten Alia sick (true/false)
4. Lance Armstrong is the man (true)

Six days to go!

Ouarzazate--Ait Ben Haddou--Ouarzazate; 64km

64 kilometers today, mostly flat. The legs felt a lot better than they did over the past few rides, 60 days of rest likely helped a bit.

We rented bikes from a place in Ouarzazate, a town on the other side of the Atlas Mountains from Marrakech. The city is roughly 200km, 5 hours by bus away; a trip mainly of going up and over a massive mountain pass, at least 7000ft elevation gain to the top. The route the bus took would make for a great stage of a pro bike race, if they could close down the road and get the traffic off.

Our ride was on the amazing 80 dirham Target bike: generator headlamp, dual fenders, rear rack. Pretty much the perfect commuter bike. We set off by 7am to avoid the traffic, as the Moroccan day doesnt really get started until after 9am. Got to Ait Ben Haddou by 10:00. You have probably seen the city before; the main tourist attraction was the kasbah, used in Lawrence of Arabia, The Mummy, and Gladiator.

Very cool. By lingering around at the top of the hill and taking in the scenery, the Chef of the UNESCO restoration project invited us to the very top of the Kasbah. Hesitant at first--trained by West Africa to believe anyone doing anything for you expects payment--we were pleasantly surprised to recieve hot fresh mint tea, an explanation of the construction project, and hospitality. Ahmed has three sons and lives in Ouarzazate, he also heads another project near Asni, where we will pass through tomorrow. For payment, just a handshake.

The weather behaved through the afternoon; clouds rolled in to keep us cool for the slightly downhill ride home.

Things that are making me love Morocco so far:
*all day bike ride
*delicious sweets around every corner for a quarter a piece
*5 dollar haircut, including the use of a straight blade razor for all the details
*10 dollar hotel room big enough to sleep three people
*hospitality not found in Spain or West Africa.

This hospitality is great
*tour at the top of the kasbah
*restaurant owner letting us store the bikes at the side of his house
*adjacent store owner offering to look after the bikes when we tried to return them and the place was closed.
*free extra OJ from a stand because we were a repeat customer

and did I mention the desserts?

Tomorrow: headed off to Imlil to climb Jebel Toubkal the following days.

Marrakech; first impressions

First impressions of Marrakech:

1. French arabic keyboard is going to make blogging difficult.
2. The food here is awesome. Fresh OJ for 30 cents. Havent had a meal yet, but looking forward to every one. Too bad for Alia everything looks like it is coated in nuts.
3. The massive covered market is much more pedestrian friendly than African markets.
4. Exotic animals spotted: zebra skin, leopard skin!!, turtles, alligator skin.
5. It is going to be hard not to buy a lot of souvenirs.

Things are going to be cheaper, only 65 dirham to sleep on the roof; breakfast included. The next two weeks are going to be wonderful, I think I will have to try every imaginable sweet I see.

But my legs and belly are going to be jelly when I get home.

Hour-by-hour forecast for Pamplona, Spain. Sunny with a chance of sleep, 0%.

Time for a quick recount of the past... 48¿? hours.

Saturday, 09:00am wake up to head to Montserrat
Saturday, 11:30pm board bus to go run with the Bulls. Heading to Pamplona

------------------------(insert fake time break #1)----------------------------------

Sunday, 05:00am arrive in Pamplona. See a preview of the apocalypse, bodies and trash strewn everywhere. People are still drinking.
Sunday, 07:00am get onto the road where the bulls are run. People are still drinking.
Sunday, 07:45am are on the wrong part of the course, police sweep a few hundred people and drunks off of the course.
Sunday, 07:46am realize we are not running with the bulls. shit.
Sunday, 10:00am buy a bus ticket back to Madrid. Cheap, €18, but leaves at 9:30pm. shit. People seem to have stopped drinking.

Sunday, 10:00am--9:30pm the families come out. Grandparents, parents, stollers, toddlers. They are only seen in times play the waiting game. We are getting good at it by now. Find a bench to sit/sleep on for 45 minutes. Sun moves and now you´re in the sun. Get up, repeat... Find a park that has been cleaned by the amazing street-sweepers (actual people, not machines) in Pamplona. Sleep either until the urine wafts over you, or people are loud.

Sunday, 09:30pm ridicule a bunch of drunkards being prevented from getting on a bus because they have plastics cups full of god-knows-what, and the driver knows better than that. Laugh at them.
Sunday, 09:30:10 realize this is our bus. Get on the bus, the only open pairs of seats are at the very back.
Sunday, 09:31pm the drunkards sit next to, in front of, and behind us. Loud, smelly, vomiting, and passing out on the floor in the aisle. Damn. They were speaking what sounded like a cross between Russian and German. Maybe they were Romanian? Don´t know, their Spanish was fluent too (I hope they didn´t know English, oops).
Sunday, 09:50pm abandon ship. Open seats ahoy! Scramble up to the front of the bus, find two open seats, glad to be out of there.
Sunday, 10:30pm go back to rescue the food I forgot from the hungry drunk folk.

------------------------(insert fake time break #2)----------------------------------

Monday, 03:00am arrive in Madrid. "Sleep" outside the bus station.
Monday, 05:30am get into the Metro station. "Sleep" at a table
Monday, 06:30am decide it is best to beat the rush hour cramming on the Metro. Get on a train, go to where our hostel is. Check in time, 12 Noon.
Monday, 07:00am shit. That didn´t take long enough. "Sleep" on a bench.
Monday, 08:30am arrive at El Retiro park. Realize that the shampoo has exploded inside my backpack. Throw a tantrum. Sleep in the grass.

Monday, 11:30am desayuno. Huevos Americanos, scrambled eggs on toast, with coffee. €4.50
Monday, 12:15pm check into the hostel. Room isnt ready yet.
Monday, 01:00pm room is ready. Take out laundry. Do laundry in a washing machine. €3, still worth it, worth every cent.
Monday, 02:00pm sleep.
Monday, 06:30pm wake up. I slept more just now than in the past two days. Those eye shades really help knock you out when you are tired enough, discover the new must-have for traveling.

Now, we´re going to go shopping for the trip to Morocco tomorrow. After that, dinner. I am so hungry. Where can I get two double-doubles and an animal style fries? Pleeeeease?

Montserrat

Recovering from a sunburn I got from the three hours spent on the beach yesterday, (it was cloudy when we got there! of course I wasn´t wearing sunscreen), we went to see Montserrat, this big church up on a mountain. I was slightly hesitant about going, not sure if it would be worth the €15 round trip train ticket. Glad I went though.

It was a somewhat cloudy day, but the temperature kept it reasonable (maybe 70 degrees?) and allowed us to make a nice hike up to Sant Jeroni, the 1,236m highest peak above the church. We were nearly above the clouds when we summited, but they cleared out and provided some decent views on the way down.

Really cool. Saw some legit rock climbers ascending other formations. Pretty jealous of them--it has been a long time since I went climbing outdoors.

Barcelona has been a good city, quite different from Madrid. A lot less formal, but more touristy, much more... but also more like home/California. Except I´m not sure where I´d go biking if I lived here, it must take a while to actually get outside of the city. I´m missing the bike a lot, especially after seeing the Tour come through and occasionally seeing more and more cyclists. Everyone be ready to spend an awesome fall mountain biking. I´m ready to go.

Next on Africa Africa Africa:
We fly to Marrakech, Morocco on the 14th, and are there until the 26th. Going to climb Jebel Toubkal, the highest peak in Morocco at 4165m. Seeing Marrakech, Imlil, and Essaouria mostly, with a bus over to the other side of the mountains to see some other towns.

Tour de France, Stage 7

This morning was a lot more beautiful than yesterday. The air was clear, with a low cloud ceiling, providing for a good morning to see a bike race. There wasnt any rush to get there early today, based on the experience of seeing the Tour of California leave from San Jose, we could get there only an hour or two early and still not miss anything. If we wanted the prized starting-line photo, we would have to stand in one spot, but I wanted to try to see the riders before the race.

We went on the hunt for where the teams would set up their big vans and lay out the bikes for the papparazzi, and found the big empty parking area. That was about 9:30, with the caravan scheduled to leave at 10:00 and the riders scheduled to leave at 11:00, I suggested we look for the coolest cappucino-serving café and hoped to collect a signature or two. So left we went out of the parking area.

We looped back onto the course and saw the caravan leaving, and by the time we got to the parking area, the first of the teams was arriving. Yes Alia, they came from the right side. You win.

The big attraction was when the main show rolled in, the Astana bus. I didn't feel like pushing the crowds and standing seven deep, but did get this:



After that, circled around to see all of the mechanics prepping the bikes for the race. It was too crowded at the start line to really see all of the riders signing in, and with our patience spend from yesterday, we headed about 500m down the road from the starting line to see it all roll out of town.

View of the corral and back side of the start:


Front of the peloton, you can see Cavendish and a bit of Cancellara:


Fabian Cancellara, in yellow:

Stage 6, Tour de France

Wow, today was pretty long. We got up at about 8am worried that we were going to get to the stage too late to get a good spot to watch the finish; the peloton was expected at 3pm.

Got to the Olympic Stadium around 10am to see the finish line still being set up, the official tape was not on the ground yet. A crew was busily trying to paint over a pedestrian crossing so it wouldnt confuse riders, but they were fighting a losing battle. The pounding rain was no match for the blowtorch-brooms that they had on hand, they couldnt keep the road dry enough to put black paint down.

We stood in this rain until the caravan arrived sometime around 4:30. Yes, six and a half hours of solid rain in Barcelona in July. Has this ever happened before? Who knows. The rain died down when the riders had about 30k to go, as far as I could tell based on Alia's translations of the French announcements.

David Millar was going to be the star of the day.

5k to go, 36 seconds lead over the sprinters.
4k to go, 30 seconds.
3k to go, 25 seconds.
2k to go, 20 seconds.

And we see a mass of riders flying by, I see a Cervelo test team rider and Caisse d'Epagne rider at the front, turns out Mr. Hushovd won it.

Tomorrow we go see the start of the race, and I try to get a signature or two.

Madge

Introducing Madge, our trusty steed across West Africa to the desert and back.

She is a reincarnated cement mixer, V6 Mercedes power. Capacity for twenty passengers and two drivers, 400L of purified water, 6 gerricans, lots of propane, a kitchen, and toolbench. Eight seats on the roof for slow scenic drives. One big back locker to hold everyones gear. A dozen+ tents, and an extendable tarp for cooking in the rain. A big tow cable tied on the front, handy for pulling out stuck tro-tros.

Possibly the best feature--school bus style windows, making the back seats the coolest places in Mali. What a breeze.

Didnt have a single mechanical that slowed the trip down, though apparently the speedometer/trip distance meter broke once.

If you are considering traveling in Africa, I highly recommend looking into an overlanding.

barcelona

In Barcelona! One day until the Tour arrives! Super excited. The finale of the stage heads up Montjuic, for any of those that are familiar with the area. Yesterdays bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona was a long one, taking about 8 hours start to finish.

This hostel we are staying out, Alberguinn Youth Hostel, has two computers with free internet. Quite handy.

Today I think we are going to try to buy bus tickets to Pamplona, and maybe walk around La Rambla. Tomorrow and the next day are Tour de France days, probably all day tomorrow in order to get a good view to see the finish, and the beginning of the next day. After that, a morning on the beach before an overnight bus ride to Pamplona.

Later today I am going to try to upload some photos. Hopefully it works!

found bags

Our bags made it back to us today, only 40 hours overdue.

I'm exited to see the tour. It should be a sweet couple of days in Barcelona, apparently the finish is up Montjuic, an interesting hill in the city.

Now its time to scramble for two beds in a hostel in Madrid, then tomorrow we are going to Manzanares el Real, where a park named La Pedriza supposedly has some hiking trails. Spending the night there, then transferring to Barcelona via Madrid on the following day.

Sprits are a bit higher now that we have our stuff, especially because The Westin is allowing us to leave a bag here at the hotel for a few weeks.

Hasta lo.

Back in Spain, mostly.

Looks like we´ve made it to Madrid again. It´s pretty warm, but not so bad compared to Africa, the humidity is down.

The flight schedule was pretty terrible getting here. 2:55am flight with a short stop in Lome, arrived in Casablanca somewhere around 10am. Flew out just past 12, got to Madrid around 3pm (flight was late leaving).

Got to the Westin somewhere around 6pm, with a quite nice room. Wandered around for an hour looking for a cheap place to eat, and it seems that the cheapest food by far is Persian/Kebap places. A dinner combo for €6. Individual sandwiches are about €4. I really want to try paella somewhere tonight, but I´m a little intimidated by the price, and totally can´t understand the menus. Spanish 1 vocab pretty much taught me that pescado is fish, and thats about it.

The only other frustrating thing is that our bags decided to lose themselves somewhere before getting to Madrid. I really thought that was going to happen, and at least we don´t need to worry about left luggage yet. It seems that Iberia has experience with this, it´s claimed to be the European airline post likely to lose someone´s bags. This combined with a bizarre technical stop in Lome, Togo at 4am where half the people got off the plane, makes me think that we might never see our bags again.

Uh oh.

Anyone want to try to figure out how much money I can claim per bag? http://www.iberia.com/equipajes/

My spanish isn´t too good, and I checked three total bags.

Happy hunting!

shipping....

So. Flight out is in twelve short hours.

Today we did the run around Accra trying to ship an extra box of stuff home. Learned we couldn't ship international packages from the nearest post office, got redirected to the bigger (but not main) post office in another part of town. Everyone out there, don't go to the Cantonments Post Office if you want to ship an overseas package. Shipping a 6kg box of stuff home was going to cost GH 90, around $60. Not the cheapest. Unfortunately, UPS quotes me at about 240 Euro to ship something from Madrid to San Francisco.

Left luggage looks like about 3-4 Euro a day, and it'll probably be around 20 days that we need to do it, also not too cheap.

Maybe the hotel we're staying at will be really nice and let us keep our stuff there for that time.

How else to kill time?

Madrid via Casablanca, here we come.

Kokrobite, Ghana

On day four of four at Big Milly's Backyard Beach House (www.bigmilly.com). Tonight is our last night here, tomorrow headed back to Accra after some relaxing days on the beach.

The food has been excellent, and pretty decently priced. It'll be tough to go from a $7 dinner that is $25 quality, to a $25 dinner that is $7 quality once we get to Spain.

Here's the plan for the next few days.

July 1 - Spend the night at the Joska Lodge, Accra
July 2 - Night at the airport
July 3 - 2:55am flight to Madrid via Casablanca, arrive into Madrid somewhere around 3pm.

Once we get to Accra its time to figure out how to mail a package back home. I haven't seen any cardboard boxes that look worthy of making the voyage back to home, so we might end up having to ship stuff out of Madrid or see how much left luggage at the airport might cost.

Still trying to figure out how we are going to get to Morocco. I want to see some of southern Spain if possible, but that'll probably easier to do in the future than seeing Morocco (at least by bike--which I think I want my next trip to be). It's looking like it's going to be both easier and faster to just get a round trip Madrid-->Marrakech ticket.

That's on tomorrow's agenda. Get back to Accra, and figure out what's cheaper. It looks like there are some fairly cheap easyjet flights, but they then add on all these random charges.

Only if the Euro could drop some more...

Accra, Ghana

The Dragoman trip is officially over. Madge (our dependable overlanding truck, didn't break down once!) dropped us off in one piece back in Accra yesterday, and Alia and I have been planning out the next few days. So far, staying at the Joska Lodge, recommended to us by the Danish girls on our trip (Maiken, Line, and Rikke). Cost is about 35 Ghana Cedi for a night, which is about $20. Definitely cheaper than Motel 6, but a little bit more than what we wanted to be spending. The room is clean and has TV, A/C, and a hot water shower, which is nice. Hopefully the hot water will help the clothes get a bit cleaner.

So far here are the next few days:
6/26 - Kineisha Market, going to get a few custom shirts made, look browse for souvenirs, etc. Also looking for a box so I can mail some stuff we bought home.
6/27 - go to a beach somewhere? in transit
6/28 - beach
6/29 - beach
6/30 - come back from beach
7/1 - accra
7/2 - fly out in the evening back to spain, arrive in Madrid on 7/3

Today is has rained on and off all day. The rainy season has started.

kumasi, ghana

Kumasi, take two. It's a pretty huge and sprawling city, it took us about 45 minutes to drive across it yesterday. Estimated population is over a million. This time we're having a quick stop to transfer us down to the beach.

The rainy season has started, yesterday we enjoyed about eight hours of solid rain. Yay. Hopefully this doesn't keep up too much, or the extra week we have here is going to be dismal. The Dragoman trip officially ends on Wed, 6/24, and we fly back to Madrid on 7/3. What to do?

Probably going to spend lots of time on the coast, relaxing, and being bored. Maybe we can find a cheap bookstore in Accra to stock up. Definitely going to get some custom shirts made--the colors of fabrics here are awesome.

This afternoon? A canopy walk.

Bobo Diolasso

The Tuareg

Today we got back from Timbuktu and are spending the night in Sevare, Mali. A bit faster drive today--didn't have to wait two hours for lunch to be prepared, and didn't have to dig out a stuck jeep.

Yesterday afternoon ten of us in the group went for a camel ride out on the dunes. Surprisingly comfortable, I can see how camels can walk for days out in the desert. They just seem to float along on top of the sand, with snowshoe-like feet.

Our Tuareg guides took us out about half an hour into the dunes, where we ran around and took some photos. We were treated to their special tea, which goes something like this:

Strong as dead
Sweet as life
Sugar as love

The first round was delicious. The leader of their group showed the best bartending skills I've seen in Africa. Pouring from the kettle two feet off of the ground into one glass, back into the kettle from another glass, then into a second glass. Repeat about 20 times until the sugar is fully mixed.

Now... time for their fun. Each of the guides set up shop to try to sell us souvenirs, which I think everyone bought something. I got a bracelet with some Ebony inlays and special Tuareg symbols.

The second round of tea was surprisingly quick, and very tasty. People started heading back toward the camels to take the ride back into town. It was at that point that I realized between us and town was a dark red, swirling wall. Ever seen The Mummy?

We were in the sandstorm within minutes of seeing it. It felt like being in a gritty blizzard... and the color inside was amazing.

I'm glad the Tuareg were still leading they way, we probably could not have been with a better people to lead us home.

Timbuktu, riding out a sandstorm on a camel.

Timbuktu

Made it!

A 14 hour Jeep ride through the desert to the land of camels and spice.

Halfway through West Africa, completely in the middle of nowhere.

The Tuareg people and Dogon people live the extreme life in the heat, with hardly any water around. The mask dance was amazing. Check it out online.

Hopefully I can begin uploading photos back down in Ghana, after the trip is done.

Mosquitos

The mosquitos aren't too bad, yet.

Hopefully they will get better as it gets drier.

Seeya in Mali (maybe)

au revoir!

Ougadougou

Tonight is our second night in Ougadougou. Tomorrow we head to Mali, and spend the night in no-mans-land, in the space between leaving Burkina Faso and entering Mali.

Dogon trek and Timbuktu lay ahead.

The random hotel where we're camping has internet, but none of the other internet cafes here have had a live connection.

We cooked a mean chicken stir fry for dinner--and baked goods are cheap enough here that I think I'll be passing on the cookies, but thanks for the recipes. Also, Sean, are you trying to kill Alia? I'm pretty sure groundnuts = peanuts = death, but I'll have to try that one once we get home.

Temperature reports are somewhere between 90-110F in the daytime, the thermometer that Alia got for me said something around 100 today. It has gotten a lot drier since we got to Burkina Faso, quite nice to be out of the humidity. I think I'm drinking somewhere from 5-8 liters of water per day.

So far my stomach has been doing well, and it's been a week since arriving in Accra. Typically it gave way about 10 days into each China trip, which places that right in the middle of the Dogon trek (I think). Let's hope my pepto and immodium will hold me through.

Had a really bizarre night tonight, and probably a new record for time it took to get dinner, about two hours for a bad cheeseburger.

I can't wait to play some soccer.

Kumasi, Ghana

Day Three.

Drove from Lake Bosumtwi to Kumasi, Ghana today. I'm in cook group 2, which means I got to help buy some food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Wedesday.

Breakfast: Eggs, bread, cereal...

Lunch: Sandwiches. Pick what you want of the wonderful ingredients of tuna, corned beef, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, etc.

Dinner: Stir fry with unknown ingredients. We got a bunch of random veggies as well as three frozen chickens (~1300g). Maybe after we use the whole bin of spices it will taste good. Eggs to be added too?

The next few days look like we're headed north, doing about 250km/day. Tomorrow there are some waterfalls, which sounds great. It'll probably be one of the nicer showers over the next week.


Anyone have any good recipes for simple baked goods? Maybe I'll try to make some cookies one evening, but we might not use the ovens because it is quite hot. In the daytime somewhere in the 90s, instant sweating once you get in the sun. Last night the low I think was somewhere around 80.

Time is up, next post will likely be from Burkina Faso!

24 hours to go

Today we met up with the Dragoman tour group to have a pre-departure meeting. Only half an hour late after going to the other Niagara hotel in Accra, it looks like there are about 16 travelers and two guides.

Dinner tonight at 7pm, departure at 7:30am tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to getting on the road, sitting on the roof of the bus, and taking in the wind.

Last night--uneventful. Got a little local joopa(?) rice, turned out to be quite spicy, mostly rice and chilis I think. Did some reading, did some more sleeping. Woke up only once in the middle of the night to Alia freaking out about a mosquito (though I don't like them either). There haven't seemed to be too many bugs yet, but I've been assured by David, our guide, that it'll get worse and malaria is a real problem here.

Things to look forward to:
1. Ougadougou
2. Dogon trek in Burkina Faso
3. The largest mud building in the world, the Djenne (pronounced jenny)Mud Mosque.

It sounds like there is going to be very little internet access until we get back on the 25th of June.

12 days to Timbuktu!

Hotel Hansonic

Arrived into Accra last night at just after midnight. Yesterday was a busy day.

6:45 am: Wake up, head to the Madrid Airport
Madrid's Metro is quite amazing. The trains are clean, run on time, and seem to go everywhere. Something for New York to live up to.

10:30 am: Depart Madrid, fly to Casablanca
A short one. Luckily our bags are checked all the way through to Accra, so we won't have to worry about them later in the day.

10:10 am: Arrive in Casablanca. Time travel!
The plan is to take a train into Casablanca, about 35 minutes away. Get some lunch, try to see some sights, and kill some time until our 7pm flight out. Got a good mozzarella pizza for lunch, had some killer sweets for dessert. Too bad Alia can't eat them--most things look like they could have almonds or almond oil in them.

We got back to the airport a bit early. Even though our boarding passes were labeled terminal 1, and the monitor didn't have our flight up, it took half an hour to figure out where it was actually leaving. Note to anyone flying there, all international flights go out of terminal 2. No matter what. Even if everything says differently.

7:00 pm: Leave Casablanca
More like 7:30pm, though nobody cares we're leaving late. The airport was hot and stuffy, and I was hungry. Had another sandwich.

Midnightish: arrive in Accra!
See Alia's blog for a good recount of the visa process. She's a better writer than I am anyway.

1:00 am: arrive in the hotel
The taxi guy asks for EUR 15 for the ride. From our research we see that it should cost something like $5 (screw our tanking dollar) and Alia doesn't feel like haggling much. The alternative of spending the night at the airport doesn't seem to be much better either. We end up getting a ride for EUR 10, though I think I could have gotten him down to 7 or 8.

Go to bed around 2:30am after showering, getting settled. I don't think I'm going to miss hot water showers. Cold water feels so good.

Highlights of the day:
-Delicious baked goods in Casablanca for... $0.30 each?
-walking around a lot. Didn't go for a tour of the mosque, but saw some of the downtown area.
-applying for an "emergency entry" visa in the airport in Ghana. What fun!

Lowlights:
-it is going to be hot this summer, very hot. It's about 90F inside the hotel room...
-I'm going to be hungry pretty often. Lunch took about an hour to arrive and we were the only customers in the restaurant.
-I'm hungry again already. Ate breakfast/lunch two hours ago, but portions were small, time to go find some street good. Maybe bananas or papayas or watermelon would be good.

I tried to upload some photos, but the internet is quite slow. Alia says to paint pictures with words... right. That's why I'm a mechanical engineer. Maybe another day...

Los Amigos Sol Hostel, Madrid

In Madrid, pretty tired. I think I´ve been up for more than 24 hours straight, and it is starting to catch up to me. Tomorrow I think we will just explore around the city for a bit, buy some things we forgot, and catch up on sleep.

Things forgotten so far=
-toothpaste
-a lock
-extra toilet paper (for africa)

Just heard that Prop 8 was upheld in court, what a bummer.

One down, three to go

The internet just ate my last post. Safely at the Frankfurt airport, should be leaving for Madrid in two hours.

Tomorrow night is the Champions league final-- does anyone have a recommendation on where to see it in Madrid?

Packed

I think I'm fully packed.

CLOTHES


1 hat
1 light beanie
1 rain pants
1 rain coat
1 fleece layer
4 t-shirts
1 collared shirt
2 hiking pants with zip-off legs
1 lightweight long pant
1 swim shorts
1 gym shorts
3 cycling socks
1 light hiking sock
2 cotton socks
5 underwear
1 light hiking shoes
1 flip flops
1 sunglasses



GEAR
Protection:
1 big bottle bug spray - 25% DEET
1 small bottle bug spray - 98% DEET
2.5 bottles sunscreen
1 500 mL Campsuds - used as dish soap, hand soap, shampoo, etc.

Hydration:
1 Katadyn Hiking Pro water pump
1 set iodine tablets/taste neutralizer
2 1L Nalgene bottles
1 2L collapsible bladder

Fun:
1 Canon PowerShot SD1100
2 4GB SD memory cards
2 camera batteries
1 universal charger for camera
2 pocketknives (I'll probably lose one)
8 AAA batteries
1 Petzl LED headlamp
1 SD-USB card reader
1 Moleskine notebook

Health:
2 deodorant (I'm smelly)
2 Ciproflaxin
1 Mefloquine
1 Immodium AD
Many Pepto Bismol pills
1 toiletries (toothbrush, floss, nail clippers, etc)
1 quick dry camping towel

L.L. Bean backpack for day trips
Lowe Alpine 90+15 Backpacking backpack to hold everything
tent dropcloth

Needed:
a watch
gallon-sized ziploc bags

Flight plans:

United Airlines 929: SFO-->Frankfurt, depart 6:56pm, arrive 3:00pm 5/26
SpanAir 118: Frankfurt-->Madrid, depart 5:55pm 5/26, arrive 8:25pm 5/26

48 hours and counting

Packing for the trip.

I think I finally got all of my camera stuff together. I bought a xD card reader yesterday, thinking it'd work for my SD card (you know, x = S). Too bad when I plugged in my SD card it must have toasted it, because it wouldn't let itself be read anymore.

2 4GB SDHC cards and an extra battery.
2 tubes of sunscreen.
1 larger tube of 25% DEET insect repellant.
1 smaller bottle of 98% DEET insect repellant
1 towel.

Time to figure out the everyday clothes to wear.

Xin Nian Qui Le!

Happy New Year!

Here are some videos of fireworks that we lit off in my last trip to Shanghai. Enjoy!

kirkwood

Today Sean, Ryan, Wes, Sam, and I went to Kirkwood to go skiing. It felt pretty good, and I think I'll definitely always ski unless its powder conditions. Snowboarding isnt for me.

We're trying to put together a Morgan Territory ride tomorrow,

and hopefully this will go well. I haven't ridden this long in a long time. Probably will bonk hard going up Wildcat and the tiny rollers approaching it. Worst case I can BART back home.