Madagascar!

It's been two months since coming back from Madagascar, and I've been contemplating how to put a trip like that into a bite sized blog post that wasn't just filled with a list of animals we saw  or a rambling essay on how different a 3rd world country is from America. 

Traveling opens my eyes to so much more than just the tourist attractions, it's the people, the culture, the different kinds of plants, there's just so much... I'll try and highlight a few moments, that maybe can begin to paint even the palest picture of that incredible country.

The People
I've observed in my travels that people are the same the world over.  Our cultural differences separate us sometimes, and we often have different beliefs or norms, but we are all still part of the Tribe Human.  Madagascar is a beautiful blend of a 18 different tribes, with some very different lifestyles and practices (from annual exhumations at the family tomb to a completely nomadic lifestyle with no family homes or passing of generational wealth).  Across the country the tribes also look quite different, as African, Asian and European peoples have all settled there over thousands of years. 

As we drove from the capital of Antanarivo to the rain forests in the north, and then to the highlands to the south and finally to the spiny forest and deserts in the west, we saw a sampling of some of the different tribes, from small wood houses to 3-story brick homes built by hand from local materials, to zebu grazing areas lined with fences made of cactus. 

And everywhere we went, whenever we saw young women or little girls they always waved and would smile back at me when I smiled at them. And it was a real smile.   A real connection of woman to woman, and incredibly powerful.  Have you ever looked out a window and sometimes caught the eye of the person in the car next to you and you feel like you just invaded on their private lives?  But then sometimes you look at them and they look back and and there's a brief connection that's made? Like for a moment you just connected, and thought, yes that's a person too, with a story and a family and life all their own.  It was like that.  And it happened everywhere we went. 

It also broke my heart too see these beautiful and proud people where survival was a struggle.  As we drove along the roads we saw piles of rock with a half dozen people sitting by the road with small pick axes breaking down the rock into gravel.  We saw young kids, 7 years old, filling the pot holes with a homemade shovel asking the truck drivers for some payment for their work.  We saw that the people who lived in the areas that got a lot of rain were well fed, and the people in the south where they didn't have as much were struggling to scrape out an existence.  The people had what they grew, or made with the resources around them.  Subsistence living finally took on a real definition for me. It made me realize just how much we take our transportation infrastructure for granted, both in terms of utilities and the movement of goods and commodities.

The rice fields in the Highlands

The handmade brick homes

A local market, with clothing, goods and livestock.  The villagers would walk many miles each week for Market Day

A cactus fence!

The Animals and The Parks
I wish I could say that Madagascar is full of rain forests and lemurs are jumping from every tree, but alas that is not the case.  The main staple of the Malagasy diet is rice, and their rice growing practices are all manual labor and not efficient, so much of the country has been cleared for rice patties.  Almost all of the lemurs are endangered and their habitat is largely restricted to protected National Parks or private reserves. More than 80% of the forests are gone, but we heard that there is a movement to plant more forests and to set aside more land. But as we even know in the US, if you have the needs of people up against the needs of the wild, only a government who wants to care about both can help solve both......

But the lemurs and the chameleons were just so amazing.  We had the best moments, standing in the forest, usually on a really steep hill trying not to fall down in between a slippery mud bit or a branch poking at your back, just watching lemurs do their thing.  We saw chamelons sleeping on a leaf at night, and the largest lemur, the indri, calling their haunting call; we watched a baby lemur bouncing around non-stop on his patient parents, and lemurs coming down to the ground for their daily mineral supplements from the iron rich soils.  All just doing their thing and not particularly caring about us tourists one way or another.   One of the best moments was when our small group of 4 plus a guide were in one of the less popular national parks, and an entire troupe of Verraux's Sifaka was just hanging out right above us.  A mom and baby, jumped around just feet from us. It was just us, in the forest, with a half dozen lemurs, dancing from tree to tree.

Ring Tailed, or as we called them King Julien lemurs coming down to the river for a drink while we ate lunch

Verraux Sifaka or the Dancing Lemur

Parson's Chameleon, sleeping on a branch at night.

My favorite, the adorable Bamboo Lemur.  They were just so darn cute! and sadly don't survive in captivity, so habitat protection is especially important for them.

The Company
I went on this trip with my Mom.  And we had some trepidation going in to the trip, could we get along for 2 whole weeks at such close quarters? We might have had a couple mom/daughter moments, but looking back I can't be happier that we made this decision to take this trip together.  My mom turned 70 this year, and there were some hikes that were very strenuous for her, but together we made it through, even when we had to take her load off and carry her pack for a bit.  She has traveled all over the world, and some of it has been pretty rugged.  Having her there to talk and process through what we saw and experienced was so valuable for me.  And having such a seasoned traveler to commiserate with when things got uncomfortable, like when there was no hot water, or we had to sleep with the door wide open to get a breeze or a mosquito was buzzing around your head all night, Someone who understood and who could help keep you going and still find the joy in it all. 

So this just scratched the surface of this incredible 2 week journey, but thank you for reading, and I hope it gave a small glimpse of this unique country. 

If anyone is really interested in visiting Madagascar, I would highly recommend Pioneer Expeditions as a tour company, and Hari as a tour guide.  We saw many groups in our travels and were so pleased with our choice.

Mom, Hari and me at Ranomafana National Park

Adventures in Bordeaux

When we were planning a trip to France this spring, we decided we needed to spend a few days in Bordeaux.  We've always loved Bordeaux wine, but really we knew next to nothing about the Region, the city, or the history...and we had such a magical time here that I knew I had to capture it in my blog...   Being that it's July now, the memories are starting to fade, so I had to get this written now, or never..... 

In one of the wine cellars at a Chateau in St. Emilion Region

We spent three days in the Bordeaux region, one in the city of Bordeaux, one on a wine tour on the East bank in the Saint Emilion region and another day on a wine tour on the West bank in the Medoc Region.  Two days of wine tours, I know I know..... but these really weren't JUST about drinking the wine....   We were immersed in the magic of the chateaus, the history of the regions, the incredible complicated rules of French wine making, and the terroir (the earth) and all that makes the wine what it is.... so when we drank that wine it took on a whole other dimension.

One Winery we visited still gets the second press of their grapes by hand

I could probably spend the next 3 pages of this blog talking about all that we learned on the wine tours. I REALLY geeked out over this french wine stuff, the geography, the traditions and the rules; and it helped that we absolutely loved our tour guide Julie.... but I don't want to bore the heck out of everyone so I'll just say GO TO BORDEAUX!

And if you do, Ophorus Tours does an amazing tour. https://ophorus.com/bordeaux-wine-tours/

Chateau Hortin Ducasse

Now if you don't have the luxury of two days of wine touring, I'll say that the St. Emilion Region grows more Pinot Noir and Merlot, and the Medoc grows more Cabernet Sauvignon, so if you have a preference of one or the other you could pick that way.  But really if you can.... do both....

Streets of St. Emilion

St. Emilion is a Unesco World Heritage Site, an ancient monastery dating to the 2nd Century, and the wines we had there were quite possibly the most amazing liquid we have ever tasted, so maybe I will say St. Emilion was my favorite..... but then our absolute favorite winery was in Medoc, Chateau Hortin Ducasse. We loved them so much that we checked a box with 8 of their bottles, and missed our flight home to Denver so we could get that wine home safe and sound.   And the chateaus in Medoc were like fairy tale princess castles, which were a sight unto themselves.

A Chateau in the Medoc Region

But back to Bordeaux, the city itself.  Not so long ago, it was a gritty shipping town, and from what I've heard not much of a tourist destination, but they have cleaned it up, literally.  The mayor several years ago required EVERYONE to clean their limestone walls and the transformation was incredible.  It is a completely charming little town, with a whole downtown area that is cobble stones and no cars, fantastic restaurants, and of course amazing wine!

One of the gates into the City

I went for a run there in the early dawn one morning and it was euphoric to run down the cobble streets and along the river long before the shops were even open for the day.

The City square at Dawn

Lodging

So we stayed at this very trendy somewhat unusual hotel called Mama Shelter.  I think we are showing our age because the amount of social media available in the room itself was a little unnerving (a wifi camera in the room???)  but a great centrally located option if you are up for something different.

Eating

The food here was fantastic.... absolutely fantastic.....  you will need to get a reservation for dinner, because most of the restaurants are quite small and really only do reservations.  We found making a reservation on thefork.com  was incredibly easy, once we made one just 30 minutes before dinner.

At the recommendation of the hotel, we ate at Bistro Reno, which was a fantastic dinner.  In a lot of places in France they only serve what's on their chalkboard special that night, so they just bring over their board for you to look at while you decide.  Google translate and some discussions, and voila you have an incredible dinner with a fantastic bottle of Bordeaux from the Graves Region.

At the recommendation of our tour guide, the last night we ate at the Bistro Gloutton, which was beyond fantastic, it was sublime!   I remember my white asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and just thinking how can something so simple be so incredible?

We also found a great bread shop there for breakfast, Le Boulanger de 'Hotel de Ville, where we got croissants and an incredible praline sweet bread.  Our tour guide told us it's the best boulangerie in town, so there you have it...  you must stop by if you are ever there. And while I'm talking about sweets, the special dessert in Bordeaux is the canele, which is a sweet cake made with egg yolks.  In Bordeaux they use egg whites to separate the sediment from the wine, and so with so many egg yolks left over this became something of a hallmark dessert for the region. You will find a ton of shops selling caneles, pralines and beautiful chocolate, all things that go great with wine.

And if you still haven't had enough of wine yet, then you can go to Cite du Vin, the WINE MUSEUM.  Yes, of course, Bordeaux has a fantastic wine museum that talks about wine making all over the world, and finishes up with a wine tasting on their top floor overlooking the beautiful countryside.  

The highlight of our travels so far this year; Bordeaux, France.  

Happy Travels!

Process vs. Results - 25K Reflections

So I've been thinking about running a lot recently, which tends to happen to runners. And yes, I call myself a runner now. I've always heard people say a really long run is a metaphor for life; it has its highs and lows and the run is a journey through all these moments until you get to the finish line.  And this is what I've been thinking a lot about, the finish line. Was it a good finish, a bad finish?  Did I achieve my goals or fall short?  Am I "happy" with my "results"?  And the more I think about this the more I realize that this attitude is sort of a black hole of self judgement.  Am I a fast runner, am I a slow runner?  Am I good at running or bad at running?  Am I good at math or bad at math?  Am I good at spelling or bad at spelling? Am I a good driver or a bad driver (okay maybe this one is sort of important)

Putting adjectives onto myself is so easy to do, and yet goes completely against any desire for self-acceptance and self-love.  How can I love myself if I'm constantly asking myself if I'm good enough.  We have enough of other people judging our looks, actions and fashion choices; why do we need to pile it on ourselves?

So to the topic of this blog, process vs results.... I just finished reading a book called "The Happy Runner" which talks a lot about this... and the first thing it reminds you of is that at the end of it all, we will all be dead....and really isn't that the final finish line?  The book goes on to say if there's one thing you can guarantee in running is that for a period of time you will get faster, and then reach your peak, and then you will get slower, if injuries don't sideline you completely for a bit, and so if you judge your worth only on results then aren't you just setting up for disappointment?

To go deeper, if my biggest goal in life is to run an 8 min / mile, or to get a promotion to Director of Awesome Company, or to finally purchase that Aston Martin sports car, what happens when I get there?  Am I happy forever?  What happens if I don't get there?  Am I devastated with life?

And this is why I love this idea of process over results.  If life is a journey, then the goals and achievements on that journey are great moments in the timeline but they are not the only thing that define us.  The journey will have good and bad,  and we should try to give equal weight to each, because they are just moments along the long run of life.

I made a goal in January to run a 25K trail race, and yesterday I completed that goal.  And as I trained for this race, I worked on getting longer runs in during the week and building my mileage up.  I did some speed runs and started running trails with hills.  I got out of my comfort zone and started running with groups, many of whom were much quicker than me or could power hike up a hill like nobody's business, but they pushed me and gave me confidence.  I also got sidelined with bronchitis, went on a vacation that threw my training plan for a loop, had charlie horse cramps for 2 weeks and slept like crap the week before the race.  So come race day, the results of my race were nowhere where I wanted them to be in my mind.  And this had me down for a day... until I remembered process vs. results.  Here I was judging myself, good vs bad, fast vs. slow, and in an instant I had forgotten everything about the journey.  And that journey is where all the juice is, where all the stories live, and truly where you find all the happy tears of self love.

So whether my results were a personal record or I crawled across the finish line, at the end it doesn't matter. What matters is the journey; accepting that the world is going just they way it is at that moment, and we don't always have control over the outcomes, but we do have control over our attitudes to those outcomes. I am choosing to embrace the journey.

If you are interested in reading more about the Happy Runner, check out this excerpt

https://trailrunnermag.com/training/the-happy-runner-an-excerpt-from-david-and-megan-roches-new-book.html

  If you are interested in reading more about this idea of self acceptance without judgement, or if you are maybe 'not your average runner'  check out Jill Angie.  I could write a whole other blog on my reflections on a talk she did a couple months ago.
https://notyouraveragerunner.com/