[Finally addressing all questions posed in comments, in order of receiving]

Anna writes, with regard to travel: How’s it feel to be on the other end of that jealousy, finally?

A: Pretty good, actually!  Though your life doesn’t seem terribly dull

My mother asks (after the Chone article): That was no Disneyland set, ey what?

A: I have no idea what that means.

Lisa Cox asks: Was it everything you hoped it would be?

A: It’s kind of like sex for the first time.  It’s awesome and better than expected, but still can be pretty awkward at times.  And no matter how often you prepped yourself daily to get ready for it prior to the actual experience, you can never truly have guessed what it’d be like.

Honestly, all I wanted was a change in my perspective on things — something to knock me out of repetitive patterns that didn’t seem beneficial to me.  I don’t know if I’ve found that yet or if I will, but there are occasional times in life where you absolutely know you’re on the right (or wrong) track, and I’m pretty sure I’m on the right one.

My niece Elizabeth asks: Why do you look like the giant from The Princess Brid? Why are you bigger than their horses?

A: I look like Andre the Giant?  Thanks, Elizabeth!

The people here are definitely much shorter in general than people from the United States, by almost a foot or more.  So proportionately, I do tend to stand out in a crowd.  I rode both a horse and a mule, and on the latter, I’ll admit that I did look freakishly huge.  But Andre The Giant?? Really?  He was like 500 pounds and talked like he was missing half of his tongue.  I miss the days of being compared to John Cusack…

“Maggie and Friends” (my father and stepmother, hiding behind their Jack Russell terrier) write: Can’t find a Taco Bell?

A: There’s actually one in Quicentro, the mall I live behind.  Something about it is just wrong, though.  The tortillas are a mix of flour and corn, as opposed to just flour, so they both bend and taste strange.  Sour cream here isn’t thick and viscous, but runny like salad dressing, and tastes different as well.  It’s just close enough to the real thing that the strange differences really turn me off.  Also, rather than Nachos Supreme, they have Papas (potatoes) Supremo, which are french fries with the toppings you’d normally get on their nachos.   Not bad.

Nell asks: Wait, who are you?

A: I can’t tell if this is a reference to me doing atypical things, the “About” section not filled out or a temporary lapse of sanity on Nell’s part.  But just in case:

1. You don’t come to South America to do typical things.
2. Yeah, lots of stuff needs to get done.  So hard when moving about.  The photo gallery’s at the top of my list, but I hate working on this computer for webpage editing.
3. Get well!

Ty asks: Have you found yourself in need of anything that you did not pack? Did you forgo any recommended items that could have been useful?

A: It’s hard to say yet, as I’ve done little true backpacking.  I picked up a cheap phone here, which made me wish I’d brought my world edition BlackBerry with me.  And I bought a small mouse for the laptop, since the touchpad on the eee is a tremendous pain to use.  I avoided bringing shampoo and deodorant with me, but those are readily available everywhere.  So in general, I’m pretty content with the gear I took along.

Galit says: Oh, I have a question: was there a lot of local talk about our elections? Was there a big reaction to the results?

A: From my first day here, straight on through to the elections, this was a primary topic of conversation between both travelers and locals.  People from other countries assure me that there are still some places that like the United States (Israel’s the only country whose citizens I’ve met have had a generally positive view of us), but they’ve dwindled to a pathetic amount in the past few years.  When politics come up, people are almost always civil and want to know my opinion on things.  They don’t hate America (and make a point of still separating its people from its politics), but they don’t like her much either.

Part of it is the natural human tendency to hate the big guy, but an equal part is a laundry list of what they consider to be arrogant abuses of that power that affect things on the global level.  Number one on that list of regular complaints, oddly enough, isn’t Iraq but Guantanamo Bay.  The idea of coming up with a loophole for getting around the Geneva Conventions — especially from a country that’s had no shortage of POWs itself — gets a lot of people going.  We (Americans) criticized Europe for giving us grief over re-electing Bush — it’s OUR president, not yours!  Simultaneously, we regularly toss out our superpower-iness and expect it to be recognized without complaint.  We wouldn’t take this much shit from anyone, so it’s no wonder we went from “coalition of the willing” to “coalition of the unwilling” to “coalition of how-the-fuck-do-i-get-out-of-this???”

Europe’s basically like New York or California for the past four years; they’re big blue states constantly griping about the direction of things and abuses of power, but don’t really have any choice but to be along for the ride.  Proportionally speaking, the whole continent’s more educated as a whole than we are in the States.  But their dominant period is over, and no one’s even trying to fight it.  It seems to be generally accepted that after us are the Chinese (powerful, but still built around socialist ideals that only work only when 70% of the population are uneducated enough to have no problem working in abject poverty), the Russians (besides dealing with corruption on one of the grandest scales ever, their fantasies of the “good ol’ days” are much like rememberances of past relationships — it seems so perfect at first, but you can’t think about it more than five minutes without remember how terrible things turned out) and the Islamics (all rhetoric with no substance, they’ve mastered the art of using the smallest amount of effort to irritate on the grandest scale ever, but can’t even agree on the right vision of Allah amongst themselves).

Basically, we’re the best of four less-than-desirable options, but they’re stuck with us for now.

In Latin America, that subtle dislike turns to outright hate, especially among the poorer and less well-educated.  Some of it’s well thought out and likely deserved hate.  The rest is “we’re poor, you’re not, and you’re dicks about it” hate.  Up through the 80s, there are things in public record the CIA did that actively affected the lives of entire populations down here, and no one’s forgotten any of it.  We’ve also poured billions of dollars in aid to various countries here, which is reluctantly recognized and helps to counter the shady business.  But when you’re living in abject poverty and have visions of this magical land of gold that seemingly can do whatever it wants, wherever it wants, resentment starts to build and fester.

So, onto the election:

Europeans and South Americans unanimously seemed to view Obama the same way his idealistic US supporters did.  In many ways, he’s an unknown and will be given the keys to the kingdom, so to speak — if he botches it and is “The Next Jimmy Carter” as conservative pundits did their best to paint him as, it’ll screw up their world as much as it does ours.  But most people I talked to not only hated Bush’s policies, but the fact that there was very little intellectual substance to back them.  The whole “blame it on the liberal media” thing only works on a short-term basis.  The media on both sides does a great job of temporarily polarizing the public, but given time, most truths come out across the board regardless of who they benefit or detract from.  Bush spent most of the past term in a haze of corruption, enacting an unpopular foreign policy that had even less popular results.  On a global level, “ANYTHING BUT MORE OF THIS” is bound to be the popular choice.  There’s only so long that the most powerful person in the world can answer any criticism with an arrogant “Hey — Fuck you!” smile before it starts to wear on people a bit.

I spent election night at two bars, and my passive Obama support couldn’t help but swell watching the sea of nationalities react to his election as though it alone could stem the tide of a previously unstoppable global nightmare. A crying Englishwoman hugged me and said “thank you” as though I alone brought it about.  I’ve seen less emotion at videos of Superbowl victories.  It’s an optimistic reaction; there are too many problems in the US and globally to think that a change of power will fix things in the slightest.  But simply not “staying the course” is enough for now.  US haters seem to all be in stasis right now.  Those that weren’t fans before still aren’t, but they’re holding back the rhetoric and optimistically waiting to see what Obama does.  No one’s “Rah rah America!!!” around here just yet, but it’s far better than when I arrived.

The day after the election, I passed a stranger in the streets wearing a t-shirt with an American flag on it, and said “nice shirt!”

He said “Yeah, it feels great having everyone pointing it out and smiling at me for a change!”

Obama wins, at Finn's

And there was great rejoice...

In terms of moments where you could feel the world change, right there before you, it was a night I’ll never forget.

Jess Glace says: Well done! What’s your country travel itinerary?

A: I head down on a cargo boat to Peru on January 3rd, making my way to Iquitos for a bizarre jungle tour.  By late January, I make my way into Brazil, where I stick around through Carnival before heading south to Argentina.  From Ushwaia at the tip of Argentina, I hop on a boat to Antarctica for the hell of it, before heading back north to Buenos Aires.  Uruguay’s optional at this point, but a quick boat ride north should I go that route.

I get to Chile around May, check out Easter Island and then head northwards to Peru again.  Bolivia’s high on my list, but Americans are low on theirs so I’ll gauge the safety before venturing onwards.  If I can get back into Ecuador, I’d love to.  Otherwise, summer’s in Colombia.  I’ll either fly back at that point or make my way northwards through Central America.

Or maybe I’ll take up sailing…

Jeff writes: When do you expect to end up in Columbia?

A: Probably by July or so..?  If you (or anyone) wants to meet up, I’ll gladly work my schedule around things.

Fran asks: Are in in the hostel or in an apartment? I’m as usual - confused - can’t believe you ate the little piggy..is it better than Taco Bell?! Remember the egg that stood upright at midnight or— something - was that the winter or summer soltice - anything to do with the equater?

A: I’m in an apartment now — the next post should clear that up a bit.  No, the guinea pig was not better than Taco Bell.

The Equinox thing was weird.  Standing an egg is entirely considered to be a myth by all reputable sources.  Except that we didn’t stand the egg on its end — we watched as it stood up on its own for about two minutes before dropping back with no help from anyone.  As this is scientifically impossible, part of me wonders if you guys were messing with me, though I don’t recall anyone being near the egg when it stood up.  Anyway, to answer the latter question: I have no idea.

Jeff corrects me: Glad for the updates. But you filed this under United States rather than equador, which threw me off.  Also, when did you become news editor of the equador reporter?  And when did you become a black female minister?

A: You posted this under the “bacon” post, which was written in the States, right before I took off…

Also, I don’t mess around.

As for the female minister thing, I wish her well, but Yancy is clearly a boy’s name.

Please, feel free to ask me questions.  It makes me feel connected and loved