Pinch Me, I didn't just spend a month in Africa?

Yes, you read the title right. I, Rachel Nicole Coffman, recently crossed off something on my bucket list that I have been dreaming of doing for a long long time. I went to Africa. I did not just travel to Africa, I was immersed in it for 30 whole days.

Travel is such vague word a lot like love. It can mean many things but never the same thing. My travel to Africa could be a completely different experience than your crazy aunt''s trip. I would hate to get type cast as a traveler who flys only first class to be courted by a plush shuttle to my 5-star, very "american" hotel and only do the activities the guide book expects you too. That isn't my type of travel and not that there is anything wrong with traveling like that but for me I like to walk away knowing I got a little dirt on my hands.

So when reflecting back on the 30-day trip 20 days post vacation it is hard for me to even remember it was real. In its entirety, the whole trip feels like a dream. Did I summit Mount Kilimanjaro and was it truly not that difficult? Does this mean I should do Everest to push myself or should I just stop tempting fate?

So where do you start summarizing an experience so full of details. I think I shall just go in chronological order to be the simplest. On the outskirts of Johannesburg we met our fellow Nomad Tour mates and began an 8-day quest through Bostwana.

This was taken in the Okavango Delta at Jumbo Junction Camp. 

Six years ago, I found myself in what I can only look back and label the darkest of dark points in my life. I was positively scared of everything. The thought of me pushing myself to uncomfortable limits was as outlandish as the chance of me winning the WV Lottery. I existed, I didn't live. A year passed, I had a new job and was having a coffee break at Taylor Books rummaging through the travel books. I found a pictorial spread on the Okavango Delta in Bostwana. There were fascinating pictures of people sailing through the Delta on makoro canoes surrounded by huge lilly pads and long reeds. I remember thinking to myself, "I have to see this but I doubt I ever will."

It was a hot but not humid evening and the landscape had just went front the bright afternoon blue to the warm haze brought on by the impending dusk. I stuck my foot into the same makoro canoe that had seemed so allusive to me in that bookshop. It was a symbol of why I push myself. Why making dreams and accomplishing them are so so very important. The small action of placing my body in that canoe meant that from point A to point B I did what was needed to make the vision in my head a reality. 

Joy, our guide, pushed off from the bank and stuck the long reed oar into the clear but dark water. We moved at a smooth pace as the long reeds engulfed us as we followed the small path through the marsh. Everything was golden. 

The silence from the serenity of the surroundings was quickly interrupted by a loud gargle in the distance. Hippos enjoying the evening sun were ahead and to the left. I got increasingly nervous as we approach since hippos are one of the most deadly creatures in Africa and the canoe itself wasn't as sturdy as one would hope. The evening continued and my right of passage into Africa had begun. 

It is strange to see animals like hippos in the wild. Your whole life these are animals you will only witness in a zoo in the USA. You expect them to be captive and it is an abnormality to see them free. I looked over my shoulder and thought who is watching them and I had to quickly remind myself this is their home, here they are free. 

We spent about 15 minutes watching the hippos and began to glide back to Jumbo Junction, our camp in the Delta for the next two days. The sun quickly turned from yellow to blaze red and the sky welcomed intense views of the Milky Way. I looked up to the sky and stared at the Southern Cross, the unfamiliar constellation only seen in the Southern Hemisphere, reminding me I was far away from my home.  I could have sit out there for hours and just stared above me. The sheer vastness an uninterrupted sky can stir in the human soul is unrivaled. I love being reminded how small I actually am, it makes me try that much harder to be louder, to be more significant.

I don't crave significance in a vain, self-serving way. I want my life to mean something, everyone's life matters in some way or another. We influence strangers everyday in different ways. There are so many people who have influenced me that probably have no idea their small words or actions helped me make life decisions. These are the things I think about when I stare at high detailed sky. Being able to see constellations that the lights of modern development hide brings into perspective why as a society we are plateauing.  All the great thinks saw the stars without  light blocking their wonderment. The could stare and think and know there is always more out there. Now we are so narrow-minded and everything in our field of vision is so masked by something else that no one is wondering what else is out there, what is left to be discovered.  

This is why I must travel because it lets me breathe in a way I can't when I am confined by my daily life. Expectations, social pressure, work, etc., all weigh me down and I forget who I am amongst everyone's expectation of who should be. Traveling allows me to get lost in being in the exact moment I need to be. The ability to disappear and fully connect to you soul without interruption. I crave this feeling like a smoker craves drag, an alcoholic craves vodka, and a junkie needs a hit.

After a full day in the Okavango Delta, my senses were on all cylinders as we went to sleep in our tent positioned right next to the marsh. Our tent was so close, we were awoken by a herd of elephants sloushing through the marsh in the middle of the night. My heart started to beat a little bit faster as everything in Africa sounds like a Lion in the dark but once I figured out danger wasn't a factor I slowly drifted back to sleep. 

Sun met us again in the same color it had left us, blaze red. As the sun arose over the Okavango Delta like fire, I was eager to know what adventure would await us today. How in the end of this expedition would I tell this story? The dream was just beginning and what would unfold over the next couple of weeks would become one of the most humbling experiences of my life. 

My best friend Lauren said before I left West Virginia that I would be a changed person when I came back, she thought for a different reason but I am changed. I am changed for the better. I didn't just come here to see Africa, I came here to feel Africa. I feel Africa will always be with me from here on out reminding me how grateful I am and how much I have left to do in the time I have left in the world. Africa has made me want to get closer in my faith with God and I am looking forward to strengthening that relationship.

This is just one day and some of my thought of Africa, many more to come. 

The Tastes of Lima

Wow, I am post 72 hours from reaching the Sun Gate at Machu Picchu and I still am not rested up form my 45km journey to one of the greatest moments of my life. There are very few moments when I am speechless but after 45kms, endless stairs, and rain, when I crossed through the Sun Gate and Machu Picchu laid there in the distance, I gasped and cried.

This wasn't just any trip for me, it was the first place in this big world I became obsessed with in 2nd grade. We learned about the Incas in our gifted program and every since age seven, I have wanted to go there. I dreamed about walking among the ruins and retracing the historic steps of a civilization well advanced for its time. Honestly, had I rode the train to the lost city in the Andes, I may have been disappointed but I chose the four-day Classic Inca Trail hike and it was well worth it. The amount of pride you have when you reach your chosen beacon reminds you it was never the destination you were after but the journey.

I am in fairly good shape but it is a physical marathon adapting to high elevation and walking for 5 hours at a time up and down when you have a desk job most days. I learned more about myself in 4 days than I have in a long long time. Being uncomfortable is the hidden treasure of life because it requires you to grow without choice.

So I will start my blog about this vacation in our first stop which is Lima.

January 3, 2015

We flew out of Charleston with nerves and excitement only to be blasted at Miami when we learned our flight was delayed to maintenance and look like we would miss our whole day in Lima. Fortunately, we were rerouted on  LAN flight at 1 am and we were able to make our food tour for the morning. Lima is bustling right now, and I can not wait to visit it in ten years to see the urban growth.

Leaving the airport you can see you are surrounded by the high poverty areas that are still being ignored as the urban growth in city center writes a different description of Lima. Quickly, are driver headed to Miraflores along Costa Verde and the panoramic view of the contrast of the green cliffs and blue water quickly came into view.

Christen and I arrived at our hotel, La Castellana and it was perfect. We rushed and showered in enough time to barely make our food tour. We started the day with a trip to Barraco region of the city to have a fresh Lucuma smoothie. This fruit is known as the last gold of the Incas and it has a very sweet but nutty taste. We had one fresh from the tree growing in the middle of the cafe. 

Next, it was on to the market to learn about the exotic fruits of Peru. We reached the market and it was a rainbow of colors of all kinds of different fruit. I quickly learned the Peru has completely outlawed GMO's and the fruit I was looking at looked bigger and brighter than anything I would get in the USA. This leading to more hatred of the crap we are told to eat that is so genetically modified and chemically enhanced it should be outlawed for human consumption. My favorite fruit I tried was the Chirimoya, which was green on the outside and heart shaped. Its flavor was that of a coconut, banana, apple, and pineapple rolled into one. 

After the market, we ventured into a Cevichery to learn how to properly make ceviche and a 

proper pisco sour. For the ceviche we used one of my favorite fishes, sea bass. I fell in love with this fish in the Adriatic and it continues as its flavor is so good when it is fresh. The making of a ceviche is very easy and combines all the flavors I love; hot, cilantro, lime juice, and garlic. You mix a mixture of things together topped off with onions, corn and a sweet potato on the side. 

Lima was a fantastic town for this foodie. I loved my day there and wish I had more time, but I will only have to go back when the time is right and experience again the joys of Peruivan cuisine. I am two days back in the states and everything here tastes bland and fake. It is always an adjustment to come off such a high after traveling and go back to life they way it is suppose to be. Our night in Lima was finished with a visit to a restaurant named Tanta where we had causa limena, aji de gallina and a Peruvian chocolate cake. 

(more food pics from lunch)

Lima was a special city and another reason I love falling in love with South America over and over again. I hope to go back sooner than later. Stay tuned for pics and updates from Cusco and the Inca Trail!!