He had come to the area to break his girlfriend out of captivity, and it was our job to not attract his attention as we walked to our destination. Our guide stopped our group occasionally to carefully listen for elephant movement. We knew that Renaldo and his small herd of young bachelor-elephants were close because we encountered lots of fresh wild-elephant poop. In Nepal, they give domesticated-elephants molasses because the animals like the sweetness. The elephants then become dependent on this food, making it easier for humans to control them. Molasses also makes for dense, flat, dark-brown poop! Wild-elephant poop is light to dark green in color and generally forms taller mounds that smell a little like alfalfa. I remember this last detail vividly as well as my whole experience with elephants in general, because I took the time to smell the poop!
I have not always used a journal when making my travels, but I regret this because the memories of those trips are now faded. So now, I write in a journal or on postcards every single day because the journal is where I keep the story of my trip. I don't always want to do a lot of writing, so sometimes I just log things. I note the date, time, weather and the names of people, places, and what I did. This helps my memory later even if I didn't include a lot of detail. The funny thing is that after I get started I always add more than I intended because I enjoy writing about my day.
For me, the hardest part of any trip is the end. I usually have conflicting feelings because I miss my family and want to see them, but I also want to stay longer. I had so many wonderful experiences in Nepal.
