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geotrip.md

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GEO Trip

Day 1 Travel: Provo -> SLC -> Texas -> Panama

Note: I am going to try and write this in a MarkDown Editor (MarkText) as I don't remember the keybinding to render markdown in VSCode (I think it has ctrl and K in it).

I woke up when Dad walked in the room around 4:25. He told us he was coming over to give us a ride to the train at 4:40 (for which I am very grateful). Classically overestimating my abilities/need to get ready I set the alarm for 4:30 and thus was woken up by dad. We made it to the train with plenty of time and were able to catch the 5:16am train from Provo and ride it until we got to North Temple Bridge station where we switched to the TRAX green line and road to the airport. I did scriptures on the train, and about the time I was finishing up the sunrise was really starting to get going. The sky had a light blue tint as we were sitting in the Murray station, and I figured it would be worth my time to just enjoy the (insert word opposite of fading here) of the sky. There was a general pale but clear blue, followed by orange soda highlights in the clouds, the blues slowly became more vibrant, and the orange streaks became faint peach fuzz whisps slowly disappearing. I really struggle sometimes to just be in the moment, and I desperately wanted to take a picture to capture it. I was quickly sucked into my photo brain and was thinking about exposure, rule of thirds, and the unfortunate foreground. Here are some of the pictures I caught. Every one of them has an unfortunate train light reflection in the window that I didn't see until just now. With my photoshop skills that = unrepairable, thus the lesson learned is be in the moment, or take pictures outside :)

Insert pictures here

Texas was pretty uneventful, and a super short layover. I ate my leftover pizza that Mom gave me (Thanks Mom!) and then we were boarding. I did try to say "Y'all" as much as I could. I thought it was a blast, but it probably offended some people.

Arriving in Panama was pretty cool, I have some GoPro videos of it (the GoPro was loaned to me by BYU Videography to take videos of our quinoa project) and it was pretty cool. there was so much green and some mountains and clouds that were beautiful! Getting off the plane reminded me of Washington DC and Singapore (the two times in my life I have stepped off a plane to somewhere super humid I think, maybe Hawaii too). Immigration wasn't too bad, I have mild immigration trauma from my mission, so it always scares me, but mostly they just wanted proof that we had flights out of the country. Finish Later!!!

Day 2 Panama Tourist Stuff: Panama Canal, Food

  • Cool engineering! Add more later!

Day 2 Travel: Panama -> Colombia -> Bolivia -> Immigration! -> La Paz, Bolivia

  • Colombia sunset was amazing

  • Chinese people on the plane to Bolivia, so fun!!!

  • Immigration ahhh!

  • At hotel and going to bed a little before 6am

Day 3 Bolivia Rest & Tourist Stuff: Sleep, Lunch, Witches' Market, Gondola, Grocery Store, Mall (Dinner)

  • Crazy tired, so slept until 12ish, did some scriptures and fell asleep again until 1:30ish, felt amazing

  • Lunch at coffee shop, something Milanesa?

  • Witches' market textile shopping, super cool shop owner, her grandpa started, and family makes everything shop 884 I think verify this!

  • Bolivian friend took us on Gondola tour, super beautiful!

    • He took us to a mall for dinner good food, started with a "p" like a shishkabob (no clue how to spell that)

Day 4 Bolivia Work: PROINPA in Viacha

  • Bus ride

  • Working

  • Harvesting Quinoa!!!

  • Working

  • Long bus ride home, traffic and backup experience

  • Amazing dinner at a place called Dumbo's

Day 5 Bolivia Work: PROINPA in Viacha

So many amazing stories from today! I am going to list a few so I don't forget (It is 10:59, so I need to go to bed)

  • Come Follow Me group on the bus was amazing, we felt the spirit and had an awesome closing hymn!

  • Driving to Proinpa in the rain made me so grateful that I got to go yesterday when I got to actually look out the windows.

  • We didn't get stuck in the mud, or at the same spot as yesterday, blessings!

  • I was basically a dedicated videographer the whole day for BYU video, so fun, but it was hard to feel useful sometimes, eventually I took a break and helped with wiring one of the motors.

  • I got to herd some llamas!!! Pronounced Yamas, which makes me a llamero (a llama herder!, or in my opinion, basically an on foot Bolivian Cowboy!)

  • I got to have an awesome quinoa drink, delicious soup, and a great lunch!

  • I got to try sweet quinoa (used for popping/toasting) post washing and pre and post toasted, another breed of quinoa after a preliminary cleaning using the old stone method, after cleaning as flakes, as flour, and baked into a dish (although the dish might have been cunuhua a sister/cousin of quinoa that is almost better in every way except size)

  • We finished 3 quinoa washers!!!!

  • So many smiles and good times!

  • Fun google translate experiences and some small misunderstandings

  • Our TA played his harmonica for everyone and then the head guy at Proinpa sang and played his local instrument (almost like double stringed ukelele and mandolin mix with 5 sets of strings) which was so fun

  • Long bus ride home

  • great dinner

  • bed now haha!

  • update later and add pictures!!!