Traveling for me is something that I have done since I was very little. I’ve been all over the world, from many countries in Europe, to Australia, Mexico, Canada, and 30 something states. This summer, I had the privilege to go to Costa Rica and Norway, two opposite climates on the side of the world which showed me the pure natural beauty that the world has. For these trips, I went with a group of others my age and a couple of leaders and toured around certain parts of the Country, in unique and inspiring ways that are life changing. In Costa Rica we did a lot of community service on top of the fun things we were doing, hard work, but in the end rewarding, since the things we did after felt so much more enjoyable instead of taking it for granted. Norway however was nothing but hard work, hardship, and very demanding, but the things I saw on that trip were incredible, stunning, and at sometimes, unbelievable. Costa Rica was a nice leisure trip, we always had a nice bed to sleep in, clean dry clothes, and transportation to move us around. I loved every moment of that trip, but Norway was a completely different story. I took a tour of that country very few people would get to take, one that takes great physical activity and endurance, but is one of the most rewarding hard work I’ve done.

Norway  completely changed my look on where I live and why that’s important for the overall big experiences I will have in life, a habitat and environment for a living creature, will dictate how he lives his life. I realised that if I live in an area that doesn’t call to me with it’s unique characteristics of natural beauty, I won’t have as happy of a life. Norway made me immensely pleased with where I was, this really hit me in a very powerful way when we went on our first and longest excursion which was Sea Kayaking down Storfjord and Geiranger Fjord which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Everything about the landscape really appeared to me when we finally reached Storfjord, after going through many Islands and heading south along a canal that leads to the mouth of it. It took my breath away the nature of the environment I have found myself conflicted with. The shaping of the land, the feeling of being small under the steeply sloping towering green mountains that surrounded you on both sides, The seemingly boundless  and immense fjord, with your paddle drifting across the cold wavy water, dull in its color, but with a certain vibrancy of dark gray that you can only get from a cloudy day. The sense of cold humidity was a very unusual experience, and the low hanging stretched clouds, resting along side of the jaggy and rugged mountain summits looked absolutely stunning. Our kayaks swayed in unison as waves from a boat that passed reached us. You really felt the forces of nature at play, and the sheer complexity and complication of it that is colossal to yourself.

It was the fourth day of our week long kayaking expedition, I vividly remember this day being one of the worst on the trip. This day was to be our longest day, starting from our campsite next to the town Stordal all the way down to the mouth of Geiranger Fjord. Our campsite was a grassy plane, next to a small strip of beach that was off to the side of a small marina that was surrounded with red boat houses. After a nice afternoon of relaxing around camp, eating a nice dinner on the dock of the Marina with fresh fish that we caught crossing the fjord, and going to sleep early, our leisurely time would abruptly end in the day that was ahead of us. Our leaders woke us up around 4 o'clock, and told us to get ready and pack down our tent and place our gear into the boats. The first thing I noticed was everything outside of the tent was completely soaked. It had rained all night and it was still going hard. There was this very crisp cold that got to me right when I got out of my warm, dry sleeping bag. It was a sense of true chilled rigidness, and was here to stay. It was still dark, at least for Norway in the summer standards, and heavy thick clouds surrounded us surrounded us on all sides. I put on my weak two layers, consisting of a fleece jacket, and a rain jacket, packed my things and went outside.

The rain and cold was truely awful. Me and me friends got out of our tent quickly to get this done as fast as possible. My choice to not bring gloves in the waterproof stuff sack given to me was shortly realised, and for a short amount of time I thought my hands were going to either be frostbitten or damaged forever. We took down our tent, stuffed the absolutely soaked contents into its stuff sack, and quickly threw it along without personal things into the boat. Our next duty was to make Breakfast, something that sounded impossible at the time without freezing to death. It was just oatmeal, and for however long it took it seemed like forever. We finally had it done, and we grouped up and ate, the others quickly cleaned, threw the items used back into the cooking sac, and threw it onto one of the boats. We then swiftly got onto our boats, and unbleached ourselves. My hands were still bare, and for the time we were paddling it felt like my hands were stuck in the position of holding onto the paddle. It was hard, extremely hard, but the storm finally withdrew. We first crossed the fjord to get back onto the west side, which was the side we had traveled on all the way down, and started to head south towards the city of Stranda. Stranda compared to what we have seen on the fjord so far was a rather considerable size. Going from north to south, we passed a couple of old abandoned factories, waited for the ferry that connects the highway on the east side to the city to cross, and then stopped for lunch on this rock beach that used to be a boathouse. After lunch, we set out to where the fjord splits, this next more narrow fjord is where I saw some of the most incredible things on that trip. After the rain had departed, it left low hanging elongated skinny clouds that skimmed across the steep inclines on the side of the fjord, with the sun now shining, the colors that make up the ambiance around me amplified. The water turned this murky emerald green, and the air temperature became a very nice temperature. After a quick stop, we set off again, down the beautiful fjord still hugging the right side. A little ways down, on the left side there was a dark brown house on a platform, a lifted even ground that is surrounded by cliffs. One that drops into the fjord, and one that raises behind it high into the alpine regions above the little platform. At the bottom, there was a small wooden boathouse, and you could just see a very faint trail that zig-zagged in very low angles, all the way up the very steep incline. I imagined what it would be like to live there, and how not only how cool it would be but also how much of a pain it would be to get food or really anything else. After another 1 hour or so of paddling, we turned a corner that lead to a small outcove to stop, and above was one of the most spectacular things i’ve ever seen.

The edge of the fjord quickly spiked up in fragments with that beautiful polished black rock . This lead up to a mountain that was truely majestic and what seemed like it never ended from the fog slowly fading out the rest of the mountain. That same cool humid feel was still around me, and the sun by the time we landed at the beach shined brightly, which was a nice sense of warmth after a long morning of clouds and cold. There was this incredible waterfall, that you could see through the mist, that dropped water into the mist, and reappeared in the clear hundreds of feet down. Forelsket is the word I have for it, in Norwegian the indescribable euphoric feeling experienced as you begin to fall in love. It was one of the few moments that Ii’ve had an overwhelming feeling like that, for what i’m seeing in front of me. We stopped on the rocky beach below this great exquisite convergence of nature’s forces to take a break, and the only thing I did for the whole time until we had to leave was take it all in, to be present with this moment and where I am. We got back onto the boats, and started heading down the fjord once more to our campsite, which was right before the opening to Geiranger fjord. It was finally the mid afternoon, and our guide pointed to this boat launching ramp made of rock and said that’s our landing point. Our campsite was just like that little house on the hill, we ascended on this very sketchy trail up to a flatter point of the slope, where an old farm was, and it was here on this not so big platform that we were camping for the night.

What a day it was, and how amazing of an experience I had. But it wasn’t over yet. Tomorrow was to be about just as long of a day, with that same cold rain in the morning which got to your bones, and the paddling that felt like was taking you nowhere at times. Kayaking was the first of three adventures we did in Norway, but it was by far my favorite. 100 Kilometers of paddling down a magnificent fjord was really something else, and probably one of the coolest things i’ve done in my life so far. This trip really broke the scale for awesome experiences, some were unbelievable at times, and made last summer one of the best i’ve ever had.

Norway and the nature of its climate and environment really moved me on it’s beauty, and more so than any other place I had been to before. In 2017 alone I went to the canyonlands in Southern Utah for spring break, that was nothing less of amazing, and the Desert makes you feel like you’re on a different planet, but it never really called to me. Costa Rica and it’s climate and environment was absolutely magnificent, especially since I favor tropical climates, at least so I thought, but still, I didn’t feel truely connected with nature there. The dense rainforests made me feel closed in, insignificant, and lost. It was like the jungle kept going forever in this same staggered pattern. With no mountains, I felt that there was no diversity of the landscape, just the same jungle everywhere you go. Since it is a tropical climate I felt a little grossed out about how many microbes, large insects, and fungi grows in this area, all reproducing at astonishing rates from the powerful game of natural selection plays within the jungle. The air was very thick from moisture, heat, and that jungle aroma. It made me feel, not good. I thought it was cool, but something was wrong. Norway, however, was the complete and total opposite. With it’s dramatic and steep change in elevations between mountains, the vast openness you feel when you’re on a fjord, the nice temperate summer climate, the freshness in the air. It made me feel big and small at the same time, like even the highest peaks or the longest distances on fjords was reachable, it just took a bit of effort. The contrast between the cold blue-green fjord, with the radiant green off the sides of the steep mountains on either side, to the sagged and angled snow capped mountains above, it showed you the levels at which climates resonate in, and how they change as the altitude gets higher, all in one single view. There was also something about the temperate cold that made me feel all around better, it felt more fresh and crisp, and was within a perfect temperature for it to feel dense, not thick but dense if that makes sense. At home in Colorado, nothing i’ve seen can really compete. The nice steep mountains are nice, but just having a sea of pine trees with them abruptly ending at the alpine zone is unappealing to me. One place that I do find marvelous in Colorado would be the area around Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Democrat, especially the view of them when you drive on highway 91 from i70 to Leadville. One thing I love is when there are angled, fragmented mountains with spiked peaks that consist of dark rock, and are covered with snow, making a contrast between dark and light is always captivating for me. But once you get farther out west, it turns into a semi-desert mess that doesn’t look good at all.

Going to Norway really opened my eyes to what the forces of nature can do, and how it’s the collection of all those functions, all of those natural phenomena, that paint a stunning, beautiful, and fascinating image. It shows you how millions if not billions of years of change and development, how countless factors that played out in those times all far beyond anyone's control, created this moment in which we are living in right now. That this point in time, this place is uniquely special that will never be replicated in the same way ever. Norway showed me the beauty nature can have in this world, and how forceful yet fragile nature really is. Going on this adventure to Norway was an excellent time, and I hope next summer when I go to Asia I will have just as an amazing of a journey and experience.