Travel for Love

Travelers often lament the negative impact of tourism on pristine natural environments such as the Galapagos or Antarctica. Similarly, residents of big cities and other heavily traveled sites often have a hard time during tourist season. But for me, living in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, it was only a recent incident that made the impact of irresponsible tourism hit home for me.

Growing up, I spent many weekends in the Laurel Mountains southeast Pittsburgh where my parents have a weekend home. Our place is only about a mile or two outside the beautiful Ohiopyle State Park, which features whitewater rafting, hiking, and biking. Some of my favorite memories as a kid were of hiking through the mountain trails and riding bikes through the state park.

I especially enjoyed a hike we often chose: the Meadow Run trail. This trail begins on top of a hill and winds through deciduous forest where chipmunks scurry about on the rocky forest floor and the sun shines through the canopy of poplar leaves in narrow beams. As the trail begins to descend into the valley, the poplars give way to rhododendrons and hemlocks and the path winds along walls of rock covered in moss.

Hikers reach Meadow Run soon after. This pristine mountain stream undergoes a dramatic change in elevation through the deep gorge traversed by the hiking trail. Points where the trail bring the hiker to the water are very diverse: from dramatic cascading waterfalls to deep swimming holes. As a kid, often in the company of friends or cousins, this was my favorite part. We could spend all afternoon swimming around in the creek, sliding down rocks, jumping in to swimming holes, and trying to avoid seeing giant fishing spiders.

Probably the best part of the hike was reaching the grand finale. The trail ends at a point in the stream where the rushing water has carved out a deep trench in the rock, creating a natural waterslide. Sliding down the rocks on your butt through the rushing water is a blast, and a really unique adventure! The “slides” are a lot of fun, but it’s important to be careful and respect the fast-moving water and keep your wits about you. There are no safety installations or lifeguards at this natural attraction.

A few weeks ago, I did the hike again with my mom and a friend. Over the years there has been quite a bit of investment in Ohiopyle State Park, including rebuilding an old railroad bridge on the bicycle trail, converting the train station into a visitor’s center, and adding a large parking lot and stairs leading to the slides. Basically what this has done is allow visitors to the park to avoid to 2 hour hike it usually takes to get to this area, and just spend the day at the slides. We figured it would be more crowded at the end of the trail due to this but we decided to do the hike anyway.

We had a great time on the hike and actually did a lot of swimming and sliding upstream of the slides area. There were hardly any people and we mostly had the trail to ourselves as we hiked. We spent a couple hours swimming and decided to head down to the slides, cautious because the water was pretty high and swift that day.

Approaching the slides was a complete 180 from our peaceful hike on the trail. We could hear people yelling and every creekside rock was covered with people life a crowded beach. It seemed like the easy access had invited swarms of people to descend on to this pristine area.

But for me, the worst part was a group of obnoxious college aged kids that had taken over a large area at the entry point to the slides. They were totally drunk and actually had coolers of beer and flaunted their open cans – completely illegal in the state park. They were running around like idiots, falling all over the place and sliding around completely recklessly. We actually saw a guy pick up one of the girls (kicking and screaming) run across the slippery rocks, and toss her into the rushing water, beer and all.

As annoying as this kind of ridiculous behavior is anywhere, it was especially disgusting to see their utter lack of regard for the natural environment and even more so the lack of respect for the dangerous conditions. The water in the slides was very high and fast – I have done it hundreds of times but would not have attempted it that day. You could tell they were getting very banged up by the rocks, but I believe someone could have easily gotten hurt or even drowned in those conditions.

That’s another reason I find this kind of behavior disgusting. People often do drown in Ohiopyle, usually while whitewater rafting despite taking the necessary precautions. A drowning in Meadow Run due to blatant irresponsibility would surely result in more limitations to visit this area and perhaps safety installations interfering with the natural beauty.

This uncalled for behavior left a really bad taste in my mouth. We left the area shortly thereafter and even attempted to call the game commission on the group, if only for their own safety. It’s sad that these efforts to make this naturally beautiful area more accessible to the public has resulted in such abuse of the privilege.

I’m not sure exactly what the moral of the story is here, but I know I will continue to be more conscious of how my travel behavior may impact the locals who’ve made it possible for me to visit a place.

Warning – boyfriend gushing below!

Roberto and I have taken lots of trips together over the past 2 years. We traveled all over the US when he was still here, traveled around Brazil a lot, and visited Europe, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Argentina. We have settled in to a nice comfortable travel style where we compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses: he drives and I navigate (ALWAYS!), he carries the heavy stuff and I hold onto the important stuff (netbook, ipods, passports, reservations), and when we buy drinks we put them in each other’s backpack pockets for easy access. We make most decisions together and we both have a go-with-the-flow attitude when visiting places, often making spur of the moment decisions.

While I am grateful for such a good travel companion in general, I also get to enjoy some benefits and unique aspects of traveling with a Brazilian. These things would likely not be the case if I were traveling with another American.

Note that while many of these topics are characteristic of Brazilian culture I’m not trying to generalize or stereotype – really I’m just talking about traveling with MY Brazilian, and can’t speak for the rest of them!

The Language Thing

Of course, I rely on Roberto like crazy when I travel to Brazil. Sadly, I am not coming along as far as I’d like with learning Portuguese partly because he’s just so darn good at translating everything for me. I would truly be lost traveling in Brazil without his help!

But he’s even super useful outside Brazil! His Spanish is also very good, so I can thoroughly depend on him in Spanish-speaking countries too. This really helps when we run into people who don’t speak any English, or quickly exhaust somebody’s English phrases. This has the added benefit that Roberto can have more in depth conversations with locals, get better travel advice, and really just warm people up by speaking their native language.

I usually sit back and listen during these conversations, understanding maybe half of what’s being said in Spanish and not much more in Portuguese.

Of course, being fluent in a couple romance languages doesn’t help much outside Europe and the Americas. We’ll both be equally lost when we travel to other places like Africa and Asia.

Conversing with the locals…

Brazilians are Everywhere!

We’ve run into Brazilians in the most random of places. There was that family from Sao Paulo we met on an airboat in the Everglades, the group of Capoeira dancers in front of Sacre-Coeur in Paris, and the group of Brazilian women sitting behind us on the motorboat in the Bruges canals.

This is fun because, they are always delighted to find other Brazilians and start sharing life stories. Usually they’ll talk to us both in Portuguese and I’ll follow along as best I can nodding and smiling until Roberto gets around to telling them I’m American. Then typically one of them will address me in English and tell me about their sister/uncle/friend/primo who lives in Miami/NYC/Boston.

It’s nice to feel a sense of community among Brazilians who meet out in the world. It’s a bit different from meeting Americans because I don’t think we have the same kind of pride in our culture as Brazilians do. Not to say we aren’t patriotic – it’s just different with American cultural influence being so far reaching. Brazilians don’t have a familiar churrascaria in every major city the way we have McDonald’s, so they seem to find much more joy out of meeting people from back home.

The Common Thread – Soccer

Since the rest of the world loves soccer for reasons us Americans can’t seem to understand, traveling with a bona fide member of the soccer-loving community has its perks. For every region we’ve traveled to, Roberto seems to know enough soccer facts to engage the locals in an in depth conversation about their popular teams’ rivalries and recent matches, best players and coaching woes, and that country’s performance in the most recent world cup and their predictions for 2010.

Bonding over a soccer match in the DR.

What this means to me? Well, Roberto’s bonding with folks over their passion for soccer is a great way to meet people and make friends. He’s broken the ice through soccer with just about every cab driver we’ve ever had, often then moving into some great tidbits on what to do in the area and what to avoid. We’ve had tons of fun getting to know waiters and bartenders through soccer which usually leads to free drinks and chef “experiments” not to mention great advice on local nightlife.

I think some of the waiters in the touristy areas enjoy us (Roberto) making an effort to get to know them, and talk about something meaningful to them rather than which tourist sites we should see next.

In General

In general we’ve found that foreigners (this was true in the US too) are often super intrigued by Brazilian culture and want to learn more. They have ideas of a beautiful and exotic land with gorgeous people and a fun loving culture (well that sounds about right!). Brazil isn’t often in the forefront of international news so these assumptions live on. This is an interesting contrast to American culture, which most other countries are exposed to plenty. There’s no mystery to being American.

It’s been a great experience for me to travel with Roberto and begin to understand global perceptions of Brazil, the US, and international relationships from various perspectives. I like to think of it as an unexpected perk of having a multicultural relationship!

I watched this documentary film this weekend and found it very interesting. It follows the stories of a handful of the “Lost Boys of Sudan” as they immigrate to the US. These boys were a group of over 27,000 refugee young males who fled their villages in southern Sudan to escape violence, forced sterilization, and murder from the northern Sudan Arabs. These boys and young men escaped into the bush after being orphaned, or were able to flee attacks to the villages since they were out tending cattle herds.

Background

The Sudanese Civil War was one of the longest and deadliest wars in recent history, with almost 2 million civilians killed in the southern villages, and millions forced to flee. In the 90s when Al Qaeda moved into Sudan, and the government began supporting Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War, the Clinton administration prohibited any investment in the country. The civil war officially ended in 2005. Violence still plagues Sudan as the War in Darfur continues today.

The “Lost Boys” ended up walking hundreds of miles to seek refuge in Ethiopia, where many stayed for a couple years, until the Ethiopian government became unstable and they had to relocate to Kenya, where the UN had set up a refugee camp along the border. It’s been said that this group was one of the most badly traumatized groups of war victims ever. Many did not make it to Kenya, dying from the elements or disease, or starving to death. A program by the US government brought more than 3500 of the refugees to America in 2001 – almost 10 years since the original village attacks – until the program was halted after 9/11.

The Movie

This documentary gives a background on the boys, mostly showing footage of them telling their own stories. It includes footage of the boys’ arrival into Kenya and shows life in the refugee camp. The story continues when, after 10 years in the camps, many boys begin to get placed in the US through a resettlement program. The film documents the refugees’ trip over and the arrival of 2 groups in 2 cities, Syracuse and Pittsburgh.

It was very interesting seeing the guys experiencing modern life for the first time – using electricity, watching TV, cooking, etc. It was sad to see their difficulties with adjusting to the culture differences, new language and way of life, while wondering about the family and friends they left behind. I found it especially sad seeing how lonely they were – saying they never spent any time together since they all worked at least one job and went to school. This was a big contrast to their former lives, where the families and friends were together many hours out of the day.

It was nice to see in the movie that several of the young men were reunited with their families eventually. Several of them finished college, and a group of the young men put together an organization to support their countrymen and bring awareness to the situation in Sudan. One of the guys got a business degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and his goal was to go back to Sudan to start a company and be a leader in the growth and development of his people.

My Thoughts

One thing that I really enjoyed about this movie was that it was not especially opinionated or political. They stated the facts and remained objective for the most part. Yea, the point of view was through the eyes of the refugees, so you automatically sided with them. But, I didn’t notice any annoying comments that made obvious political statements. The people portrayed by the documentary were sympathetic enough characters, so such undertones would have been overkill. At least in my opinion.

I knew little to nothing about the civil war in Sudan before watching this film, so it was a good learning experience for me. It was hard to imagine the struggle these refugees went through, and certainly makes me grateful to not have been born into such a situation. The fact that the events of this documentary occurred very recently made it very real, while the scenes filmed in Pittsburgh brought it all “close to home.” It made the young men feel like real people living real lives, rather than just characters on film. Yes, I realize it’s a documentary and they ARE real people, but some documentaries just don’t get that point across as well.

Today there are “Lost Boys” in nearly every US state. According to the documentary and other internet research I’ve done, it seems that this relocation was very successful. Many of the boys have completed degrees and nearly all of them are self-sufficient productive US residents now. It’s nice to see that these boys are doing well here. This is definitely a film worth watching.

The UNESCO World Heritage Sites are a list of sites around the world that have a physical or cultural significance. I thought it would be fun to make a list of all the World Heritage Sites I have visited. Hopefully I’ll be able to add to this list soon!

Africa
Historic Cairo in Egypt

Memphis and the Acropolis (including Giza Pyramids) in Egypt

Americas
Atlantic Forest Southeast Reserves in Brazil
Iguazu National Park in Brazil
Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in Costa Rica
Everglades National Park in the US

Great Smokey Mountains National Park in the US
Mesa Verde National Park in the US
Montecello and the University of Virginia in the US
Statue of Liberty in the US
Yellowstone National Park in the US

Europe
La Grand Place in Belgium

Historic Centre of Bruges in Belgium
Cathedral of Notre Dame in France
Banks of the Seine in France

Acropolis, Athens in Greece
Old Town of Corfu in Greece

Historic Areas of Istanbul in Turkey

So far I’ve been to 18 of the 890 sites. I have a (literal and figurative) long way to go.

I am sitting in the Rio airport on my way home. I was going to work on my post about the food in Buenos Aires, but I don’t think I can write anything good about food after the girl in front of me on my Tam flight to here barfed all over the aisle. She had spaghetti for lunch. I was lucky I guess… it landed on two guys’ flip flopped feet as well. Can anyone tell me why the heck Tam does not put barf bags on their planes?

Anyway, I thought I would make some observations about immigration after going through Brazilian immigration 4 times on this trip. And how inconsistent it has been. Now, I know this is not just a Brazilian problem, but this is the country I have the most experience in as a foreigner so I have the most observations here.

Each time I enter Brazil, my visa is handled differently. I have a Brazilian business visa because when I was planning my first trip to Brazil I was also potentially going there for a business meeting. Since it doesn’t make sense to get two visas and you cannot do business on a tourist visa, I decided to just get the one. I confirmed with the Brazilian consulate that it would not be a problem to visit as a tourist on a business visa, and they advised me that this was the best approach. They even said having two visas would likely confuse the immigration officers and make things even more difficult.

So, the first time I visited Brazil it was actually for tourism. I indicated as much on my immigration card and when I entered Brazil, the officer lady looked it over, looked at my visa, and changed the check box to business on the card without asking any questions. I didn’t say anything either, and went about my “business.” The next time I entered, I put tourism again and nothing was even questioned, and no one changed the card. Finally, the last time, coming back from Argentina I did the same thing. And the immigration officer was NOT happy with me! She called over 3 other people, looked through my passport, and asked me if I have a tourist visa. I said no, just the business visa, and explained that the consulate had told me but they didn’t want to hear it. I had to fill out a new card and put business, and they told me next time I need to get a tourist visa to visit as a tourist. I think there was also some “imagine if we tried to do that in the US” snarkiness to go along with it.

So I kind of understand that there are specific types of visas for specific purposes, and you really should have the right kind. But come on, do people really get both kinds of visas? I think all the immigration officers are doing is making me want to lie about my trip’s purpose and put business every time to shut them up. I mean, they do the same thing so it must be ok for me to lie about it too, right? Seeing that it’s accepted to brush the issue under the rug by just making sure the forms match doesn’t make me want to fork out another several hundred dollars for another visa. Next time I will just be putting business!

Another issue I had this time was with my the tourist card or whatever it is that you fill out and keep. Each of my trips, I was never actually told to hang onto it, and my first trip the immigration officer did not ask for it upon my departure. But, when I went to Argentina, the Gol lady asked me for it and it never even occurred to me to bring it. She said this might be a problem and I had to go downstairs and talk to the federal police (in charge of immigration). But, she gave me a boarding pass and checked my luggage. Roberto and I decided we didn’t want to sit in the little room and argue with the police, and we would take our chances with immigration on the way to the gate.

So when we went to immigration the officer asked me for the card. I explained that I had lost it, but he was able to look in my passport for the information he needed. We asked what that was, and he said it was to make sure I had not overstayed in Brazil. If I hadn’t had the stamp in my passport saying I had entered Brazil on that date, and since I didn’t have the paper card, I could have been fined for overstay. So, let me get this straight… I need the card just in case I do not have a stamp in my passport saying I entered Brazil legally, or in case I do not have my passport. I venture to guess not having the card would be the least of my worries if I did not have a stamp in my passport or did not have it at all! I don’t know why they made a big deal out of it. By they way, when I went through immigration to leave Rio, I gave the card to the lady who threw it away without looking at it.

So, those are my immigration inconsistencies. Another mildly amusing thing happened when I was checking in with US Airways earlier. The guy asked me if I had a ticket, and I said “no, aren’t I supposed to get my ticket here? He said yes but he needed a printout of my itinerary. I told him I did not have one (I’ve never heard of this before!) but I was going to Pittsburgh. He told me “well, we do usually require you to have a printout of your itinerary, but I trust you since you are American and all.” Trust me for what? Knowing what city I am going to without a printout? Not trying to do something shady or illegal? I found it funny that being American = able to be trusted with knowing which city I am to fly to. Would this story have ended differently had I not been American? I was amused by this, but I have definitely never heard of needing a printout. Hopefully I can continue to use the American excuse… I don’t know why immigration didn’t get the memo that they are supposed to trust me with my business visa since I’m American and all!