A sticky question – explained

June 8, 2010 in Uncategorized by Kristin

As ‘A Sticky Question’ was my first blog post as a science blogger.  I emailed the post to family and friends and asked for their honest assessments.  I think the biggest thing people were looking for (especially from my non science-y contacts) was a more concise summary of my findings.  While as a chemist I found it really informative to learn about the structures and makeup of different sugars and sweeteners, those without science backgrounds seemed to get a little bogged down in the background information.

To evaluate the different claims about the relative dangers of high fructose corn syrup vs table sugar, I went to the HFCS Wikipedia article.  Now, I know very well that Wikipedia is really not the best source for scientific information.  The Wikipedia section on the health effects of HFCS is ‘under dispute’ so rather than reading the Wikipedia article, I went to the original scientific research articles the Wikipedia article cited.  It is the various interpretations of these Wikipedia articles that has led to such a vigorous debate about HFCS.  There were four main articles that seemed to be at the center of the debate, so I analyzed those articles myself. Read the rest of this entry »

A sticky question

May 29, 2010 in Science, Uncategorized by Kristin

A Sticky Question:

There has been a lot of talk recently in the news and online about high fructose corn syrup, so to settle my own curiosity I did a little digging.  First some essential background and terminology:

  • Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are organic compounds (organic meaning made with carbon) that are made from the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.  Sugars and starches (as well as many other naturally occurring compounds) are all types of carbohydrates.
  • Sugar: A general purpose term for carbohydrates that dissolve in water and generally have a sweet taste.
  • Saccharides: There are many different types of naturally occurring sugars.
  • Monosaccharides are sugars with chemical formula CxH2xO2.  There are monosaccharides with 4, 5, 6, or 7 carbon units, referred to as tetroses, pentoses, hexoses, and heptoses respectively.  For this discussion, we are only really concerned with two specific hexoses: fructose and glucose.  Both have the chemical formula C6H12O6, but they have different chemical structures.
  • Disaccharides are sugars that have been made by the ‘condensation’ of two monosaccharides.  This means they have chemically been combined with the loss of one water molecule (this chemical reaction occurs naturally through the use of enzymes in living plants, or can be done synthetically in the lab).  For our discussion, we’re really only concerned with one disaccharide, sucrose, chemical forumula C12H22O11.  Sucrose is made from the monosaccharides glucose and fructose. Read the rest of this entry »

The list post

January 12, 2010 in hardhips, highlights, highs, lowlights, lows, review by Kristin | 2 comments

We’re home. One of the toughest things people often ask us about our trip is ‘What was your favorite country?’ It is nearly impossible to answer this question – we enjoyed every country we visited (except for Honduras, but that doesn’t really count). Lately I have been thinking back on some great things, some crazy things, some challenges, and some things we missed (links refer back to the corresponding blog post):

Hiking in to Yaxchilan, Mexico

Greatest Hits

High jump in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia


Places we missed and are on our wish-list for the next trip

  • Mexico - See the Yucatan Peninsula.
  • Guatemala - Spend the Day of the Dead in Huehuetenango, and hike two days through the jungle to visit the unexcavated Mayan ruins at El Mirador.
  • Nicaragua - Visit tropical paradise on the Bay Islands.
  • Honduras - Scuba dive off Roatan Island.
  • Panama - Sail more of the amazing San Blas Islands.
  • Colombia - Visit the Lost City on the Caribbean coast.
  • Ecuador - Visit the jungles of Ecuador and shell out the big bucks to see the Galapagos Islands.
  • Peru - Mountaineer in the Cordillera Blanca of Juaráz.
  • Bolivia - Visit the colorful canyons of Tarija in Southern Bolivia.
  • Argentina - See Iguazu falls and fly to Eastern Island.
  • Chile - Drive the Carretera Austral of southern Chile and hike in Torres del Paine.
  • Brazil - The whole country!
Tropical paradise in the San Blas Islands, Panama

Fun/insane things that would never happen in the US

  • Mexico - Fireworks raining down on the crowds for Independence Day in Zacatecas and in general the very generous use of fireworks, all day, all night, for any occasion.
  • Guatemala - Watching men in Chichicastenango dance around while wearing an exploding fireworks-suit to celebrate the Burning of the Devil, and Chris getting sprayed with beer in a good luck ceremony for the demi-god/evil spirit Maximon. Add hiking next to flowing molten lava and fighting off spiders around Lago Atitlan, and Guatemala earns the award for the most lawsuit-worthy country.
  • Panama - Sailing across the ocean from the San Blas Islands of Panama to Cartagena Colombia in an overcrowded ship with a captain who liked his booze.
  • Bolivia - Crawling through the apocalyptic tin mines in Potosí and biking down the death road.
Five-minute fuse in Potosí, Bolivia


Biggest Challenges

  • Being ill – It’s an unfortunate reality for a trip of this length in these countries that most travelers will pick up some nasty bugs. We spent some serious sick time in Mexico and Nicaragua, but coming down with giardia in La Paz, Bolivia was by far the most unpleasant experience. Hunting down rabies vaccines in Ecuador and Peru wasn’t a cakewalk either.
  • Worrying about money – While driving endless days in Patagonia towards the end of our trip, we had too much time to think about our dwindling budget and the unknown costs of shipping the car back to the US and purchasing airline tickets. It ended up being a lot cheaper than we expected, and relaxing at the hot springs and ranch in Uruguay helped us regain perspective.
  • Being cold – Throughout the trip, we were continually surprised by how cold we were. Once you’re above 10,000 ft, it doesn’t matter how close to the equator you may be, it will be chilly. We should have brought more warm clothes.
  • Not getting too irritated – There’s no hot water, there’s no heat, this hotel is good enough, let’s not stop here, I’m starving, I’m freezing, watch out for that pot-hole, etc. Two people in one car for sixteen months can push the limits of anyone’s patience. We found that if we got really annoyed, we would wait for ten minutes and then think about it again. Chances were that whatever it was, it really didn’t matter.
Surfing at Playa Negra, Costa Rica

That said, The Darien Plan is now going on sabbatical. We are currently with Chris’s parents in Florida. We will spend some time with them here before visiting my family in Boston, then we will set off back across the country for California (with many stops to visit friends and family along the way). We plan to end our travels in San Diego. Thanks again for reading. Feel free to contact us (email addresses and Skype handles at the top of the blog) if you have any thoughts or questions. Also check out our website, Drive the Americas, for comprehensive information on driving North, Central, and South America.

State of the trip

January 10, 2010 in costs, expenses, finances by Kristin | 3 comments

For anyone considering a similar trip, here are cost-per-country estimates and some other necessary expenses associated with the trip.

Chillin’ like a villain in Nicaragua


Insurance

  • Health insurance: $1600 for 16 months for two people – Covered only catastrophic events, emergency evacuation, etc.
  • Car insurance: $3500 for 16 months – We bought extensive coverage since our car was new; third-party only insurance is much cheaper but doesn’t provide much coverage.
  • Property insurance: $440 for 2 years – Covered any theft of our belongings during our trip.
Inca terraces outside of Cusco, Peru

Transportation and shipping

Sharing hot chocolate in a family’s home in Lagos Montebellos, Mexico


Cost of living

Average budget per day (for two people), including hotel/campsite fees, food, beverages, gasoline, vehicle maintenance, toll roads, and other costs associated with driving.

  • Mexico: $75/day
  • Guatemala: $70/day – If you want to learn to speak Spanish, this is the most economical country. We lived with a wonderful family and took lessons in Xela, but Antigua has a more pleasant climate and atmosphere for those weighing options.
  • El Salvador: $43/day
  • Honduras: $100/day – This value is skewed as we got screwed at the border and spent less than 24 hours in that country.
  • Nicaragua: $90/day – One of our splurge countries. We partied with friends over New Years and rented a luxurious condo with our friends Tom and Kelsey to put together our website with driving information, Drive the Americas.
  • Costa Rica: $48/day – While this country is probably the most expensive in Central America, we played it super cheap for a month when we squeezed in to a small cabina on Playa Negra with Tom and Kelsey, cooking our own food and catching our catch.
  • Panama: $54/day
  • Colombia: $64/day
  • Ecuador: $78/day
  • Peru: $85/day
  • Bolivia: $85/day
  • Argentina: $95/day – Many long days of driving large distances really added up.
  • Chile: $40/day – We were only in one location, Pichilemu, for a week, so this is not representative of the true costs of this country. Chile is more expensive than Argentina.
  • Uruguay: $66/day – Prices in Uruguay are similar to those in Argentina, but the country is so small the driving expenses were low. We also camped everywhere except when we were playing gauchos on the ranch.
Children on the Islas Taquiles, Lake Titicaca, Peru

While this does represent a good chuck of change, we would probably have lost more if we’d left that money in the stock market…money well spent in our opinion.

Our last huzzah

December 30, 2009 in Argentina, Buenos Aires by Kristin | 6 comments

Night on the streets of Buenos Aires

Since my father and his wife Joyce were visiting us in Buenos Aires for Christmas, we checked in to the luxurious downtown Plaza Hotel to await their arrival. For the last week of our sixteen months in South America, we would be living at a very different standard than we had become accustomed to. Uniformed attendants opened the polished brass doors as we entered the marble lobby and a bellman took our bags to our room. Our suite of rooms was just slightly smaller than our apartment in San Francisco, and I leapt on to the fantastic bed (complete with down mattress cover and eight fluffy pillows) as Chris turned on both of our flat screen TVs. To get in to the Christmas spirit, we went to a nearby dollar store and bought the best plastic Christmas tree, lights, and sparkly bangles $15 can buy.

Busy shoppers on Calle Florida

Despite the snow storm that shut down most of northeastern US travel for 24 hours and resulted in the cancellation of their flight, Dad and Joyce managed to catch a flight only a day later than they had originally planned. After they arrived in Buenos Aires, we immediately hit the packed streets around our hotel for a little shopping. Buenos Aires is known for its cutting edge fashion as well as inexpensive leather products, so we wandered the streets for a couple of hours, avoiding the stores with agressive hawkers inviting their ‘friends’ in for a ’special bargain.’ In addition to the fantastic shopping during the day, we ended most evenings enjoying fine wine and food. My father quickly settled in to a routine of ordering a refreshing white Torrontés to accompany appetizers and a rich Malbec to compliment huge steaks.

Around the sparkling dollar-store tree Christmas night

While taking a tour of the city to get a feel for its many different neighborhoods, we stopped at the Cementario de la Recoleta. This elaborate cemetery guards the remains of Buenos Aires’ elite families who pay dearly for some of the most expensive real estate in Argentina. Walking the narrow alleys of the cemetery we recognized names that are commonly used for streets in any town in Argentina, such as Sarmiento, Mitre, and Alvear, but we were headed for the cemetery’s most visited resident: Evita Peron. Luckily when we visited the cemetery, it was almost empty. We visited her grave without waiting in a line that can stretch around the corner. Some mausoleums were constructed from immaculate marble with elaborate statues guarding the entrance of tombs complete with stained glass windows. Others were crumbling into rubble, the tomb’s entrance a mess of broken glass and wooden shards.

Elaborate statues in the Recoleta Cemetary

We also took a one-hour boat ride across the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to visit the exquisitely preserved town of Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay. The oldest town in Uruguay, it was originally settled by Portugal in 1680, and changed hands many times between Portugal, Spain, and Brazil before the entire independent country of Uruguay was established in 1828. We wandered its rough cobble stone streets, peeked in some preserved homes, and enjoyed a quiet lunch on the main town square before heading back to Buenos Aires later that afternoon.

Lighthouse built in the remains of a crumbling cathedral in Colonia de Sacramento

We spent our last day in Buenos Aires with my parents wandering the picturesque streets of the San Telmo neighborhood. Every Sunday this area hosts a huge antiques fair, complete with tango dancing demonstrations and empanada vendors on every corner. We lingered over some beautiful old seltzer bottles, as well as soon cool gaucho equipment, but decided our bags were already too full to fit just one more thing. After they left that night, we spent another 48 hours in Argentina before heading to the airport ourselves. And now, this is it: our last blog post from Latin America. At 5:30 am December 30th we took off from Buenos Aires International Airport on a flight (via Panama City, Panama and Houston, Texas) to Miami, Florida. I never thought I would say this, but I’m ready to stop traveling for a while. We are looking forward to some quality family time in the United States as we figure out what we want to do with our lives. Taking this trip has been one of the best things we have done with our lives, and I know it has permanently changed us. Still to come for those who are interested: a greatest hits list, and an estimated budget for those considering a similar trip. Thanks for reading our blog and sharing the last 18 amazing months with us.

Old seltzer bottles for sale in San Telmo

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