Pro-Soup Propaganda: favorite post

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Monday, December 30, 2013

Pro-Soup Propaganda's 2013 Year in Review

Oh, 2013, what a funny, weird, great, horrible year you were.

I did some pretty awesome stuff this year.

*I did a fair amount of hiking! I did some nice walks at Mt. Tabor, other hikes around Portland, went to some parks, hiked up Multnomah Falls, and hiked (and camped!) in Central Oregon's high desert, to name a few.

*I met Lil Bub, Internet Cat Sensation!

*Jonathan and I finally kayaked and it was awesome!

*I got laid-off from my "main" job and all of my side-hustles soon became my job! Luckily I am making a bunch of money and am able to put a ton of it into savings.

*I saw Michael Pollan speak for the second time.

*Jonathan and I went whale-watching at the coast and it was awesome!

*I had a great, well-earned sandwich at the top of Mt Waynapicchu.

*I went to Ketchikan to work a lot and saw some bears, went to Easter Island and saw a lot of moai, saw the Nazca Lines, hiked the Sun Gate Trail, was forgotten by the train in middle-of-nowhere Peru and hiked back to Machu Picchu Pueblo in the dark (still one of my top favorite travel memories!), explored Machu-freaking-Picchu!, and explored Cusco.

*We adopted the weirdest member of our family, hands down. Welcome, FunCat, we are glad to have you, even though you may be a small evil orange wizard, but we are glad you live in the Fortress of Joy with us!

*I made a packing list of my carry-on bag for my three weeks in South America. Maybe it will inspire or help you?

*Amy and I had some amazing conversations.

*Jonathan and I only snowshoed once this year. We tried to go again last week, but Mt. Hood doesn't have enough snow on it. Boo!

*I thought I helped co-create #slothing but apparently it's been the rage on the internet already.

*I fulfilled some Gob Bluth wannabe-ness and rode a Segway!

*I cooked some of my favorite recipes that I still love to make: Chicken Vegetable Soup, Thai Coconut Soup, Basil Garbanzo Beans and Quinoa, Curry-Fried Quinoa, and the best Chicken and Veggie Noodle Soup ever!

*I visited a U-Pick farm with Amy and look forward to returning!

While there were more many happy memories this year than not, this was a really painful year in parts. I had some personal life issues that took several months to deal with. I'm still dealing with them, really. I'm doing my best to focus on the now and look forward to healing and feeling better, but sometimes it sucks. I feel kind of lost and floundery sometimes (like I'm floundering, not like this guy, cute as he is). I know things will get better and I'm doing the best I can, but I am really excited to go to Antarctica and focus on me for a bit. I have been working my butt off the past two months and am looking forward to reaping the benefits.

This was my list of 2013 Resolutions. While I actually did pretty good on that stuff (yay reading lots of books and saving money!), there is stuff that didn't really happen (going to the Japanese Garden and yoga).

This new year is going to be called "Year of the Radical." (2013 was "Year of the Waffle." It was a delicious year.) There are going to be some radical changes. Things are going to be shaken up. Amy is going to be moving in with us quite soon, which will help both her and us with our respective money situations. I will be going on my big adventures. Jonathan and I will both be getting mountain bikes. We want to go on more bigger adventures together. I no longer need to totally kill myself with trying to earn money to pay for my trips. I will still be hustling but I would like to think that now I don't have to drive myself crazy with Making All The Money, but, who am I kidding myself, it IS nice to have it. ;o)

Brendan Leonard's post "Do Things And Make Things Next Year" really resonated with me. His goals for next year? "Do Things" and "Make Things." After being SO busy this year and having it jam-packed with everything, I am looking forward to a little bit of downtime. I want time to do stuff and time to make stuff. What will those things be? I don't know, but I look forward to finding out.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

My Carry-On Gear For Three Weeks in South America

Note: This post has been updated July 22, 2013, to reflect what I did not use or need.

I had a couple people ask me what I was taking on my trip since I will be both in the mountains for days and then in much warmer weather later in my trip, so I figured I'd just blog about it to share with anyone else who might be interested. (If you are just tuning in, I am going to Cusco/Machu Picchu, Peru for ten days, Lima for three more, then Easter Island for a week.) I will be carrying my things in Patagonia's MLC Carry-On bag and REI Purse (not this one but similar).

Clothes

2 Columbia sleeveless shirts - this shirt is very similar to what I own
1 Patagonia Capilene 1 stretchy long-sleeve shirt
2 Patagonia Capilene 1 stretchy t-shirts
Columbia Back Beauty pants
Columbia Back Beauty capris
Patagonia Houdini jacket
North Face Venture rain jacket
North Face Venture rain pants
SmartWool NTS Mid 250 zip-neck sweater
SmartWool NTS Micro 150 bottoms
Columbia Global Adventure dress - (Update: ended up wearing this once, so I could do laundry)
Board shorts - bought in HI
4 pairs Patagonia Capilene Underwear
Columbia hiking shoes - no longer in stock, but they're Omni-Tech hiking shoes
Teva sandals - no longer in stock, but they are water sandals
Swim suit
3 bras
Socks
Patagonia Better Sweater hat
iTap gloves

Cameras & Electronics

Canon PowerShot S100 Digital Camera - Not seen, taking these pictures ;o)

Extra camera batteries

Diana F+ Camera

LCA+ Camera

4 rolls of 120 film

14 rolls of 35mm film (Update: did not use all of it because my LCA+ wrist strap broke.)

Kobo Touch

iPad

Travel adapter

Miscellaneous

Frank is a necessity!! I look forward to updating her photo stream and map!

Lots and lots of sunblock :o) (Update: did not end up liking this sunblock much.)

Extra quart-size bag

Cash

Water bottle

Toothbrush

Headlamp
Insect repellant (Update: do Peruvian bugs not realize what bug dope is? This stuff didn't work.)
Deodorant
Cellphone charger
Passport and holder (Update: passport holders are cute, but I didn't use it.)
Trip papers (copy of passport, copies of trip info, etc)
Sunglasses
Lady time stuff
Coconut oil
Toothpaste
Mascara
Headphones (Update: did not end up using these at all.)
Razor
Earplugs
Dr. Bronner's liquid soap

I'm also bringing two pairs of work gloves, protective eyewear, and knee pads for the Machu Picchu part of the trip. (The ranger ladies at SERNANP ended up being SO thankful to have the gear donations from those of us who didn't need to keep our things. It made me feel good that they were appreciated.)

Snacks!

Note on the snacks: I didn't end up eating a lot of this stuff because we had so much food on the trip anyway, so maybe less snacks would be good.

ProBars
Chocolate chips
Dried apples (Update: I wish I'd had more of these! When hiking Waynapicchu these were PERFECT.)
Packets of almond and peanut butter
Almonds, both raw and wasabi-seasoned

Voila!

My bag weighs exactly 17lbs, which is the amount I can take as carry-on on LAN Airlines. I know it will be a bit lighter on the way back because I will have eaten all the snacks and will leave the stuff I used at Machu Picchu for someone else to use, as I have no use for it at home.

There you go! Everything I am bringing with me for three weeks in South America!

Update: So how do you think I did? I think I did pretty good as to figuring out what I would use or not. There were only a few items I didn't use at all. What would you have done differently?

There are affiliate links in this post. If you click through them and place an order I will get a very small commission, which goes toward my Antarctica trip in January!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Chile: Exploring the Mysteries and History of Easter Island

One of my favorite photos of myself!

Last week was Peru Week on Pro-Soup Propaganda. Well, my adventures didn't end with Peru. After two weeks there I met up with Jonathan at the Santiago airport and we headed on to Easter Island for five days of adventure! We stayed at a little bungalow I found on AirBnB. It was exactly what we needed and the only thing that could have made it better was a little kitchen so we could have cooked for ourselves. Food is REALLY expensive and we ended up eating a lot of $5 (absolutely delicious) empanadas.

I had scheduled two full day tours with Marc of Green Island Tours and I am SO thankful I did. He was awesome! I learned a lot about the island and we got to see a lot of little nooks and crannies that I don't think we would have other wise. After our two days with him we spent two days exploring on our own.

Easter Island is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and I definitely suggest a trip there, but I do think that four days sandwiched by two half days was a little too long to be there (for me, at least). I began to get a little restless and was happy when we left. Also, having to eat out for every meal was kind of sucky. We did eat some amazing food there and did splurge on a few nice meals, but I would have really rather cooked for myself.

Overall, if you have the chance, go to the island and see it for yourself! As you can see from the pictures below it's pretty stunning and hard to take a bad photo of anything!