Category: Never Eat Soggy Waffle NEWS – Siri

January 10 2020

By Siri

One of new Zealand’s great cycle treks, the 90 km Twin coast cycle track between Opua in the Bay of Islands and peaceful Horeke in Hokianga Harbour travels by coastal views, wetlands, native forest and rolling farmland through some of New Zealand’s earliest Maori and European settlements.  Our shuttle took one and a half hours to bring us to the beginning of our 2-day ride. By 10:30 we were dropped off at the starting point in Opua, we have our back packs on the back of the bike rack and we are ready to go. We start biking on the trail that used to be a railway in the 1880s so here and there you can see little bits of old train tracks. When the train was working it brought lumber and crops to the coast for trade. The scenery is gorgeous along the river and by big fields of farmland. Occasionally dairy cows would stare at us with their big black eyes; awe so cute, I literally fell in love with cows in the past two days. Other times we ride through forests of pine trees or valleys of giant New Zealand flax, and the towering fern trees reminded me of the jungle trees in Costa Rica.  Everything was awesome besides the 27 km wind in your FACE! After 50km I was exhausted. Happily, we stayed in the greatest little cottage with great hosts who brought us a tasty “tucker box” so we could prepare a nutritious dinner and breakfast. If you ever stop in Kaikohe, make sure to stop at Mulga Bills Stopover.

Next day we had a fresh start but rode with the sorest behinds in the world. The scenery was stunning and more beautiful than the day before, there was no wind just a breeze and soon the trail was more downhill – Yay! We passed a farm with crazy and curious chickens where are stopped by a creek for a snack. We knew we were nearing the bay when the breeze picked up and carried the scent of the ocean. Soon we reached a long boardwalk through the mangroves with pretty grasses of reddish gold and some sort of fruit trees. On the last kilometer the wind came back to say “hi “, thankfully tires smoothly roll on wood so it was not that difficult. When we reached the hotel, I felt the best feeling of victory! My first long multi-day ride in my pocket.

                                                         A LITTLE BIT MORE OF MAORI HISTORY

The Maori sailed from Polynesia and settled in New Zealand around 1200 and they lived closely to the land mainly in the North. Starting in the late 1800s more and more sealing and then whaling ships visited New Zealand, mainly stopping at the Bay of Islands area for food and supplies and rest and relaxation. Here they met the Maori people. Many traders wanted kauri timber for ship building and flax for rope and nets. We saw some of these amazing trees that can live for 3-5 thousand years and it is strange to think the pretty pastures we rode by are areas of cleared forest that is so lush. Because of trade, Māori society changed a lot up to the 1840s. They changed their society from one of subsistence farming and gathering to cultivating useful crops for trade. In February 1840 the British wrote a treaty to negotiate exclusive rights to sale of land by the Maori and a voluntary transfer of sovereignty from the Māori to the British Crown. Our bike ride went through towns where the treaty was debated and signed by the majority of Chiefs, though some refused. This treaty was first signed in Waitangi and then passed through the country for more Maori chiefs to sign. Ever since there has been debate over the interpretation and the translations of the treaty and whether the Maori were given an honest deal.

January 4 2020

By Siri

This month we have done a lot of walking through Chile and Argentina. In Patagonia we did lots of hiking.  From the Patagonian forests of tall trees and pretty water falls to the grassy shrubby steppe, there are miles under our feet. They say they have four seasons in one day in Patagonia and it is true. We hiked in all kinds of weather – Rain, snow, sun, fog.

We did some challenging hikes to the bottom of Mt Fitz Roy (named after the captain of the Beagle – Darwin comes up everywhere) and Torres de Paine; both had a turquoise grey lake just below the spires and a little bit of snow. These hikes are 10 to 11 km each way and take you through the forest and near the end above the tree line to very step sections where you go up 1,300 feet in the last kilometer! I enjoyed the Fits Roy  hike the most; the flowers smell so sweet and give a nice sent to the air, the glaciers are beautiful with lots of vibrant blue colors (like literally the blue is like something out of a  Disney movie) and best of all, I got to play in snow yeess.  Ps: my brother did not get tp come on the Fitz Roy hike because he had hurt his hamstring muscle.

At the very end we visited Buenos Aires. Now I only spent 2 days there. We arrived near midnight and then had to wait a crazy 1.5 hours for our luggage so after crawling into bed at about 2am we slept in late, at least I did. We enjoyed a scrumptious brunch at my now my favorite café in Buenos Aires, La Pandera Rosa. My recommendation is the of Nutella and fruit on a Belgian waffle. Our first day was also New Year’s Eve and we walked around the town. There are lively street cafes with music and there is so much great colorful street/graffiti art on the sides of the old buildings that it is like walking through a modern art museum.  That evening the mood was very different because my dad flew back to Seattle and then all the shops and restaurants closed at 4pm for the New Years. The next day the streets were quiet with everything closed so we went for a walk, and gradually ran into more and more families doing the same.  We headed for Bosque del Paloma which is a big park in the city and one of the few places open on New Year’s day to visit. My brother wanted to jog and so meanwhile my mom and I rented a funny bike car or pedal go-cart to pedal around a lake in the park. That night was January first, we took a non-stop flight to New Zealand and we landed on January third. We lost January second flying past Antarctica somewhere

Dec 6 2019

By Siri

Alerce trees are among ten oldest-living species of trees in the world and are nearly extinct in Patagonia where they once thrived.  One of the largest, the alerce can reach 200 feet in height and 16 feet in diameter. Scientists estimate that some individual trees are more than 4,000 years old. Charles Darwin would have seen these but most of the oldest trees were logged since he passed by here. In the Pumalin Douglas Tompkins National Park forest they are over 3000 years old and the park is working to protect them. Their round big trunks stretch tall and branches with dark leaves are near the very top. I take big steps over roots as large as branches and wonder how much nutrition trees would need to stay healthy enough for 3,000 years. During our walk I feel so many different kinds of moss at the base of the rain-soaked trunks. I wrap my arms around the trunks of these thousand-year-old giants, and I only reach a small way. I wonder what life was like when these trees were sprouts. All around me ferns and their fiddleheads stand over my head. Bamboo rustles with the wind and hot pink fuschia flowers dance on their tree branches. Umbrellas dipping of the rain, I feel grateful for my new fuzzy and soft rain boots, slurping through mud and splashing in puddles. I feel like a small thing in this big old forest as I cross the springy wooden suspension bridge over a rushing light teal river, listening to nature music.                                                  

Nov 21 2019

By Siri

We have spent 2 weeks in Peru visiting ancient Inca sites around Cusco. One of the memorable experiences was when we went to stay in the small town of Zurite, outside of Cusco. The small town has the second oldest church in Peru, but mainly it is built of clay houses and farms. As we drove up to our home-stay it took some time because the “streets’’ were so narrow, plus we waited as people walked their cows through the town to graze in the fields. After arrival and a warm welcome, we had a little tour of the house. The house was typical with a cute garden/courtyard in the center. The one room my family and I shared was warm and cozy considering the rainy weather we had. Then we sat down to an interesting breakfast including steamed potatoes, plain corn tamales, whole wheat bread and to drink – steaming hot fava bean tea served in a clay cup. I was surprised that there were no plates. The first thing on the agenda, go see a not well-known Inca site Quillamarka, including a moon temple and cave carvings. In the mist, 2 dogs were herding sheep and goats and a man was walking two donkeys. We took photos of this pretty site and after that, drove to the house for lunch of quinoa soup. I did not eat much because my appetite was low from [A] high altitude and [B] I did not find the flavors that interesting.  

After lunch we went to farm corn at our tour guide’s family farm. The tradition is, while people work, others play music from a small drum and flute to make the harvest a good harvest – that was one of my jobs. Our guide’s name is Bryan; his parents still live in the same house and now raise guinea pigs in the room that had been the bedroom of our guide and his 2 brothers when they were kids. Bryan told us about how he would work in the fields before school and about 2 hours after school and on weekends when he was growing up. His dad is 82 and still works 3 times faster any of us. As we were working, Bryan’s dad brought out a typical corn beer that the Incas made called chicha. He brought out a pitcher and one glass for all to share. My mom tried one sip and she said ‘’it tasted like sour beer”, not really corn kombucha. I thought the work was hard after ten minutes. It is harder to imagine this life all day. After a long day we relaxed a little and at around 6 pm we had dinner of corn veg pancake, quinoa, lupine porridge, and crispy guinea pig; well I didn’t eat the guinea pig. After dinner I was so tired that I fell right to sleep once I was settled down. That same night it was so windy that I was awake for like an hour before we woke up and had breakfast.

The second day we hiked around the hillsides. First, off to see the pre-Inca petroglyph paintings and second a hike to the hummingbird terrace. To reach the high valley walls with the petroglyphs we passed through the eucalyptus tree forest and crossed about nine little streams.  Local people cook with firewood and most of the native forest was cut down, so some time ago Spanish thought to bring a fast-growing tree that they knew from Spain, eucalyptus trees. They brought a few over and they adapted to this ecosystem. Soon more grew so that they used them to make firewood and now the native forests are growing back in some places. After we passed through the forest and the tiny streams we reached the ‘’trail’’ it was so bushy and overgrown that when we reached near the top we had to wait a while because our guide had to make stairs with a machete. The paintings were made around 1500 BC; that’s what the scientists think. We saw a sun, a moon, some lamas and a painting of lightening.

Next, we went to see the hummingbird terraces the Incas made in the shape of a sacred animal. It was neat to see a clear hummingbird in the hillside. We took some photos and went back down but it turned out that we had to walk more – like a hour more to some of the biggest terraces in the sacred valley. Finally, we reached the van to drive to the house for lunch before returning to Cusco.

It would be neat growing up and playing in these hills if I didn’t have to farm so much. It was interesting to really see how villagers live and how much effort it takes to put simple food on my plate.

Posting late because Wi-Fi has been tricky in Patagonia

Nov 10 2019

By Siri

500 million years ago near the equator, on the edge of the Nazca plate, a hot spot in the earth crust erupted over and over to create at least 13 main islands, 6 smaller ones and about 225 islets to become known as the Galapagos. These islands are 670ish miles from the mainland of Ecuador and located right where the south east and north east trade winds blow and three marine currents meet; the panama current, the Peru coastal current and the deep equatorial counter current

Slowly over hundreds of thousands of years a strange collection of inhabitants made the islands home. There were plant seeds and birds that blew in on the trade winds. Many sea turtles and fishes came on the currents as far as from Southeast Asia by following the equatorial counter current. Mangrove seeds, and rafts of jungle plants floated across from Central and South America. On some of them were iguanas that could survive without food or water of months, also big tortoises that could float on water and not eat or drink for many months. Mammals only came if they were sea mammals like fur sea lions. They all changed to fit their particular island world. The land creatures did not have natural predators mostly and did not learn to protect their nests.  It wasn’t until after millions of years of evolution, after humans evolved and began sailing the world as explorers and pirates that land mammals came to the islands. The sailors brought rats, goats, and cats. These goats ate the food that the giant tortoises needed. The rats and cats ate tortoise, turtle and iguana eggs and birds’ eggs and the baby animals too.

The people that came to settle in the Galapagos had to be tough too and try to create a life that did not hurt the environment too much if it was going to work for them. I am not talking about those people that stopped by there over the past 500 years to take tons of tortoises, kill many tons of whales for oil and still now sharks for fins.

One of those tough families was the Wittmer family. The Wittmers moved away from Germany in 1933 for a more peaceful life and healthy place for their blind son to grow up. Margaret Wittmer was pregnant when they arrived. They went to the almost uninhabited Floreana island. They first made a shelter in a cave that pirates had used until they could build something more like a half-cave half-house of rocks and logs they found. This is where their son, Rolf, was born. This family made a farm that they could live from. They got food stuff from a ship that came by 4 times a year. This family still lives on Floreana island. In fact Rolf started as a fisherman and then built boats to show tourists the islands. We took a tour for 8 days on one of his company’s boats. It was way more luxurious then a pirate cave or raft of jungle plants😊 Thank you to our amazing naturalist guide, Nancy, who taught me these things  

10/28/2019

By Siri

Hello, I just visited the Osa peninsula of Costa Rica for a week. It was so beautiful; we did some walks through the jungle and saw a sleeping sloth and found my new favorite animal the squirrel monkey – so cute. We met some nice guests at our lodge who the taught me to write Haiku, which is fun. Our nature guide taught us how to make coconut milk from the coconuts the monkey’s drop from the palm trees.

 I will try to explain how to make coconut milk.  First you will choose a coconut that is big and brown. Next, you want to break off the husk of the coconut with a metal spike type thing that, at least here, is fixed to the ground.  You need to rip away the husks you have hacked at and loosened but that takes some strength; maybe some parent help. Next you will see the actual pod or seed, that is what you probably will see on photos on the web.  Now where does the milk come from? Well now you knock it all round the middle on the concrete to make a long crack all round. Pull it apart it over a big bowl and once its open let the milk pour into the big bowl or small pot. At this point your need to use a special tool. It is a big plank of wood that you can sit on that has a handle-like part with a scraping knife/spoon in the front.  You take the split coconut and rub it on the scraping end. WARNING: this may cut your hand on the serrated part; use at your own risk. It will take 10-20 minutes to completely scrape both coconuts. Now in the bowl you should have the coconut milk and coconut shavings; let that sit for a hour to soak up. Next blenderize it and strain it. Press down on the solids with a spoon to get all that good milk out. There you have it: ONE ingredient coconut milk it sweet enough as is – no sugar no nothing needed. My mom loved some in her coffee. I say enjoy it blended with pineapple and lime juice for a virgin Pina Colada – yum.

10/17/2019

By Siri

This is not Seattle weather; here it is rainy but hot. When not in school, my days include surfing, swimming and chilling at the house which I know sounds great but last week I was feeling more moody

I am glad to meet some people my age living nearby. First, I met Summer from Oregon who will be in Costa Rica for a year with her family. She goes to a local school so after our classes we had fun hanging out at the beach on boogie boards This week a new family, that is traveling the world for a year also, started a month at Intercultura school and we shared some of class together. Grace and Lyla, who are from California, fun kids our age. Now I have really been enjoying swimming at the beach a lot or the pool at my house even more

To add to meeting friends, this week’s highlights have been: Dia de las Culturas, when I taught our school how to make smore’s – which they loved. My favorite teacher for Spanish is Dariana, she is so good and makes me laugh, and I have her this week, my last week in Samara.  I surfed green waves with my coach Elder who taught me the timing to catch them. I jogged with my mom in the morning in the rain, later that afternoon I swam with my brother and dad in the ocean before we jogged in the rain together.  So, it turned out to be a pretty good week overall, I’d say.

 Some things I think of are friends, food, fall, Scout’s third birthday and one and only Seattle. I am not home sick; I put that aside and I am so excited for the next place, the Galapagos.

By Siri

10/1/2019

HELLO, today I will share my experience with ziplining. Not just the short one at home, but the longest zipline in Latin America. First, we had to drive to the Monteverde cloud forest because, well, that is where the ziplining is. We went to sleep to the windiest night, but we woke up to the beautiful sun.  In morning the bus picked us up at seven fifteen, sharp. I got on that bus and a rush of excitement woke me. After a short ride I stepped off the bus and someone told the group, including my family, about the place. We used the bathroom before getting our harnesses on. Then I looked to my left and saw a big screen TV Showing people doing the canopy tour. That is what we were doing. Then I saw the Tarzan swing, people dropping 100 feet. Seeing that made me want to do it so badly.

One of about ten guides told us what to do while we were in motion on the zipline. The first two lines were short just to get us warmed up. The shock of being in the air was different. Next we walked across a rope bridge or a hanging ladder bridge to get to the repel spot where we would repel 35 feet before touching ground. My mom’s face looked so funny; you should have seen it. Now after warming up, the ziplines started to get long. So, we hopped on the 600-meter-long zipline to the next platform that led us to the ATV ride, which I’d say was pretty smooth. An ATV can’t bring you up a narrow path, so we had to walk that part to, well, outside of my comfort zone.  I got a small glass of water that they had waiting for us. Oh, I forgot we had to change our pulleys for some reason. So, I got on to the platform when it was my turn. Sadly, Haakon and I had to go with a guide because we were not heavy enough to go alone. In order not to get stuck 200 meters up in the air, in the middle of the longest zipline in Latin America; you have to be at least 120 pounds. So, for the last two ziplines I had a guide go with.

Now we had reached the Tarzan swing. One of the guides asked me if I was going on the Tarzan swing and I said, “I will check it out”.  I got to it and I overheard some adults say they did not think we could do it. But that motivated me to go, even more. I walked onto the plank; all I could think of is the Tarzan swing. It was my turn and I thought they would push me off the platform, but then they told me that I had to jump off – so I did. I felt my stomach go to my head and my brain thought I was going to die. But then I was swinging wildly and felt great. Around me were trees and big blue Morpho butterflies.

That afternoon we had to head back to Samara. I did not want to leave but was looking forward to getting home.  Just getting an opportunity like this was awesome and was more than a gift.