Moscow Adventure #1: Moscow Mountain

We arrived in Moscow on a Thursday (more on Moscow in a later post) and clearly had to start exploring immediately!

Everyone kept telling us about Moscow Mountain, an almost 5,000 foot mountain just outside of city limits. It's really popular with hikers and mountain bikers, and is criss-crossed with trails. But because all the land is owned privately, the trails are kept intentionally vague and it is hard to find accurate information. Needless to say, we picked what seemed to be the most straightforward path and prepared to get lost.

The driving directions were equally imprecise (who needs to label streets anyway?) and after a few wrong turns we arrive at...the side of an unmarked road. It seemed like it might be the right spot, but there was no information to indicate a trail head or path. Being the brave adventurers we are (ha - more on being brave in the West later - it seems like there are an awful lot more animals out here that can kill you), we started hiking up the road. 

View from halfway up - it was steep!

There are all sorts of berries growing along the trails and roads here, but I'm too scared to try them without knowing what they are (huckleberries? marionberries?). I need to find a local to give me a fruit tour! There's also some plant here that has a really strange smell. We keep catching it on the wind but can't figure out which plant it is.

Like when we drove out, none of the trails or turns were marked, despite our directions saying things like "turn left onto Moscow Mountain road." We just figure that any time we had a choice we should keep going up. Luckily, it worked!

Our reward for a hot and dusty hike was beautiful views somewhat reminiscent of (a drier) Humpback Rocks. And, of course, pride in having successfully completed our first Idaho hike!

King of the mountain!

Go West, Young Muhlenkamps!

Last year Jason and I decided that each year we would celebrate our anniversary in a different state, drawn at random. On our 6 month wedding anniversary he handed me a ziplock bag of little paper strips, each of which had the name and slogan of a state on it. I reached in and discovered that our romantic first anniversary was going to be spent in.......North Dakota.

Womp womp.

We were hoping to plan a separate trip there, but with moving our time was limited. Instead, we decided to take advantage of its location and stop on our trip out West.

First stop: the Buffalo Museum and World's Largest Buffalo in Jamestown, ND.

Run, Jason, run!

Ricky really enjoyed having his picture taken with the buffalo. 

Next we passed signs for Salem Sue, the World's Largest Holstein. Jason decided that a good farm boy couldn't pass up this photo op, so we got off the highway and took a few photos. Of course, he had to try milking her.

Apparently ND has decided that very large statues of animals will be its calling card.

Our final ND destination was the Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the western edge of the state. After his wife and mother died on the same day, Roosevelt headed west and spent some time cattle ranching and buffalo hunting in the North Dakota Badlands. Even though it was raining the badlands were still beautiful. It was like something from another planet.

We even saw a couple of bison (from pretty far way) and a wild horse.

The next day we got back in the car for the final long stretch to Missoula, MT. Here are the GPS directions for the day!

And we're back!

Now that Jason and I have officially moved to the West Coast (Moscow, ID, if you haven't been following along) we've decided it might be time to resurrect this blog to keep track of the adventures we have. At 3 hours behind EST and a totally different climate, hey, it's practically a foreign country.

There is the small issue of the name though. We're no longer newlyweds (13 months on Wednesday) and the only waves around here are the "amber waves of grain" from "America the Beautiful" that I am just now finally understanding. Suggestions for a new name?

August 2nd we started our 40+ hour, 2580 mile cross-country road trip from Charlottesville to Moscow. We loaded up the car, said some tearful goodbyes and set off for Coldwater, OH to visit Jason's family. There we learned all about bumbines (combines) from our 2 year old nephew, checked out the town picnic (Jason's verdict: it was way more fun when he was seven years old), and enjoyed hanging out with family. Day 2 took us to St. Cloud, MN, where we learned that all the Minnesota stereotypes we knew were true: people were tall, women were strong, and everyone was as friendly as can be.

The more exciting part of our journey begins on day 3, but for know I will leave you with some pictures of our reluctant travel companions, Ricky and Lucy.

First day in the car freakout

Hiding

Calming down (Thanks of the U of I pillowcases, Mom!) 

One of Lucy's rare appearances outside of the carrier 

Ricky takes a turn at driving

Thinking deeply 

Some much needed entertainment in the car

Cuba, part 2

For my second day in Cuba I signed up for a SAS trip to the Bay of Pigs. I figured it would give me the chance to see some other parts of Cuba, visit a very important historical site, and hear about the Bay of Pigs Invasion from the Cuban perspective. The trip also involved an excursion to the Zapata Biosphere (basically, the mangrove swamps near the Bay). We stopped there first, and took little motor boats to an island in the middle of the swamp.

At first I didn't really understand the connection of the biosphere to the Bay of Pigs invasion, but it turns out it is pretty important. The reason that the American-funded Cuban exiles decided to invade at that specific location was because it was not at all developed, was sparsely populated, was far enough from Havana that they figured there wouldn't be too much support for the government, and the landscape would make it easy to hide. 

We also went to a crocodile preserve. I of course did some posing with a baby crocodile.

Unlike the Amazonian alligator, this guy's mouth is tied shut. But don't worry, the trainer really loved him and they rotate out the crocs every 30 minutes or so to make sure they aren't overexposed.

The trainer also lent me his hat.

Then I got the chance to feed the big crocodiles. You put some meat on a string attached to a pole, then you're supposed to tease the crocs by putting it near them and then jerking it away when they snap. It was a lot harder than you might think!

Our next stop was a small town populated by charcoal-makers. We drove for about 30 minutes down a rutted, narrow road - oftentimes I wasn't sure the bus was going to make it through! The bus driver didn't seem sure either and he certainly wasn't happy about the abuse his bus was taking. It turns out that this tiny town was where Fidel spent the first Christmas Eve after the Revolution. He and his men had been working near by, and decided to find a place to eat dinner. They picked this town and sent for tons of food and supplies. Then Fidel "came down in his helicopter, like a star falling from the heavens" and ate with them in their huts. The spot now has a small museum. It was definitely the most pro-revolutionary moment of the trip. 

Thanks, Fidel!

Charcoal-makers' huts.

A gun-toting Fidel enjoys Christmas Eve supper.

This also plays into the Bay of Pigs story. As I mentioned, the exiles decided to invade at the Bay of Pigs because it was remote, mostly uninhabited, and not likely to have many ties to the regime. However, ever since this first Christmas Fidel had adopted the region as a sort of pet project and worked hard to better living conditions for the charcoal makers. So instead of a few apathetic peasants, the exiles met with people very loyal to Fidel.

After a break for lunch we finally headed to the Bay of Pigs proper, or Playa Giron (Giron Beach) as the Cubans call it. While they do refer to the physical bay as the "Bahia de Cochinos," when referring to the events of April 1961 they always talk about Playa Giron. We didn't have much time, but we visited a small museum where we saw artifacts from the invasion - just about everything pulled off of any of the fighters, including their house keys and underwear. We also watched a film reel from 1961 that was made in Cuba and told their perspective. It seemed like our guides were afraid it would upset us, as it spoke of "yanqui imperialism" and "mercenaries," but I thought it was actually fairly balanced, especially compared to the US anti-communism propaganda of the era. Have you seen The Atomic Cafe? The Cuban newsreel was tame compared to that. All and all they day was a really interesting look at a touchstone event of the last 50 years.

Giron Museum

Giron: Victory of Socialism

Jason on the SAS official blog!

A few weeks back Jason and I participated in an Oxfam hunger banquet on the ship, where all participants are randomly assigned a social class and given the corresponding food and conditions. It really drives home how little how many have. Jason's reflections on the event made it on to the official SAS blog! Check it out here: http://www.semesteratsea.org/2013/12/10/sas-hunger-banquet-leaves-stomachs-grumbling-and-minds-full/

Cuba, part 1

We're back on land and in Charlottesville now, but I don't want to leave the blog incomplete so I'm going to finish it off with some Cuba wrap-ups. Cuba was a later addition to our trip, as we only received permission from the United States Treasury - Office of Asset Control (OFAC) right before the voyage began. OFAC controls trade with countries the US has sanctions against, like Cuba. Since a few year's after Castro's Revolution in 1959, there has been minimal to no trade with Cuba and US citizens are not allowed to travel there as tourists. Educational programs and people-to-people missions are occasionally allowed, and thus the M/V Explorer received permission to go. However, as we found out about a month before arrival, the license did not extend to faculty dependents (spouses and children), so Jason would not be able to go. Since they couldn't even be in Cuba waters, ISE created a backup plan to leave them at a resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama for 5 days. It wasn't Cuba, but Jason says it wasn't a bad plan B! That was our first experience with the strange world that is US-Cuba relations. The embargo was implemented 40+ years ago, only the US and Israel continue to support it, it doesn't seem to be doing much, and yet a 3 year old can't go to Cuba because...they might spend money?

Anyway, we dropped the kiddos and spouses off in the Bahamas and made our way to Havana. The night before we arrived I got an email from Mom with a picture of the family getting their Christmas tree in the snow. I was feeling sort of homesick until I woke up the next morning to this:

Entrance to Havana harbor at sunrise

Inside the harbor we sailed along the Malecon, the wide boardwalk originally build to protect the city from the sea, but that now serves as a gathering ground for tourists and locals alike.

 Because of Cuban (and US) economic policies, many of the buildings are very rundown and even those that look like they are about to collapse are inhabited. This one has laundry hanging out to dry in an upper window.

 We approached our berth, where the water was reflecting the buildings beautifully. It's hard to tell in the small photo, but the flags hanging on the building to the left are the Cuban national flag and the flag of the FEU - Federacion Estudiantil Universitaria (Federation of University Students), a powerful student group in the country. They were responsible for organizing some of our stay in Cuba, in conjunction with the University of Havana.

 Our berth was right near Habana Vieja (Old Havana). So close, in fact, that it startled me when I walked to the back deck of the ship. We were practically parked IN a building!

Oh hey there, Havana.

 We had to wait a bit for the ship to clear immigration and customs. Our entire first day was scheduled for us. All 700+ of us would be visiting the University of Havana for a series of events - welcomes, lectures, and cultural displays - before returning to the ship for a mandatory meeting with representatives of the US Interests Section.

When we did get off the ship, the first thing we saw were tons of posters in the cruise terminal about the Cuban 5. We saw their faces on signs everywhere around Havana - basically they are 5 Cuban spies who were caught and jailed in the US. Cuba (and others) claim they had an unfair trial and thus are demanding their release. The US (and the US Interest Section officer we met with) insist that the US system is fairer than anything in Cuba and if they are still imprisoned it must be because they were guilty. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five

 The most amazing thing to me was that this is clearly a big deal in Cuba. I can't overestimate the number of posters we saw. And yet, none of us on the ship had ever heard of them. A real lesson in perspective.

We got on the buses and headed over to the University of Havana, just a few miles from where we were docked.

I liked this lady looking out her window.

 When we got there, there was a welcome speech and tons of journalists from all over the world. I got interviewed (in Spanish) by a Spanish news station, others were interviewed by reporters from Cuban, Chinese, and US news stations. I was asked what it was like being on the ship, what I thought of US-Cuba relations, and how it felt to be in Cuba, a place prohibited to most Americans.

My 15 seconds of fame.

After a bit we climbed the steps to the University itself, a tradition for all students there. As we climbed John Lennon's "Imagine" played, bringing tears to a few people's eyes.

 Inside the university courtyard there were more speeches by the rector and by our deans, followed by a series of lectures on science at the University of Havana, US-Cuban relations, and the Cuban political system. At the same time our students mingled with the Cuban students, and we ended the day with a cultural show and outdoor dance party. It was hot and sticky, but a lot of fun. The general message seemed to be that despite our political stances, we can - and should - all be friends.

There's the FEU sign again.

 After the US Interests Section presentation back on the ship, we were turned loose in Havana. I went out with a several of the other temporary singles (wives and husbands left in the Bahamas) to see if we could find some Cuban mojitos and maybe some live music.

Old Havana

Old Havana

We ended up at the Cafe Paris in Old Havana, located on Obispo Street where many of the restaurants and bars designed for tourists are located. Two Cubans told me they call Obispo the "calle prohibida" (forbidden street) because they can't afford to buy anything there. Cuba has a very complex system of two currencies - regular pesos for Cubans, and convertible pesos pegged to the dollar for tourists and for buying luxury items. Basically any place that charges in convertible pesos (CUCs) is too expensive for most Cubans.  I still don't really understand how it all works, and it's starting to look like they may eventually unify the two currencies.

Anyway, we found our mojitos.

Glass filled with mint lined up and ready to be doused in lime juice, rum, and sugar.

 And some live music.

The guy on the left is the professor I TA'd for on the ship.

I spoke with the people in the band for a really long time. They were very very nice, as were all Cubans. Despite our governments' problems, I never felt any animosity towards me, an American. In fact, everyone wanted to talk, get to know me, and tell me about themselves. The lead singer of this band asked me if I might have any toiletries I could give them (I guess soap is hard to come by in Cuba), so I made a point of gathering up all the mini-toiletries on the ship and dropping them off the next day.

Cathedral Square at night

I had been asked to join a gathering of Cuban diplomates and representatives of the ship at 8pm, so I had to head back early for that. It turned out to be a very fun reception, so I am very glad I was invited. Then it was early to bed, as I was heading to Bay of Pigs in the morning and we had a 6:00 breakfast time!