Warthog Pinacate

Here we are on a lovely Cardiff morning, watching the surfers. We met up with Calvin and Timmy, who were both recovering from the annual “surf without a wetsuit” tradition.

May of 2008 took us to Bali and twelve days aboard the Komodo Dancer. Until I have time to write more, take a look at this: http://www.peterhughes.com/komodo-home.shtml

Well, I have fallen way behind in keeping the blog. To keep me from being entirely ashamed, I’m adding material I wrote in 2007 on our return from New Zealand. We have many pix that I will eventually add here.

Nov, 2007

I’m gazing down at the Tasman Sea from the Air New Zealand 737 taking us from Queenstown to Auckland for our return flight to the U.S. We’ve had three awesome weeks on the North and South Island and enjoyed an incredible variety of activities.

Our overwhelming impressions are how young this country is–in geologic age, human history and travel appeal. The islands are scraps left over from Gondwana – that prehistoric mega continent that every kid knew existed even before the scientists confirmed that South America did indeed split off like a jigsaw piece from the coast of Africa. The mountains are tall and raw, early in the process of wind and water ‘s breakdown. Even the earliest settlers, the Maori, came here just 600 years back and can name the pilots of their migratory canoes. Europeans starting sniffing around in the 1600’s, but didn’t make much impact until the mid 18th Century when tentative trading began. And as far as the crowd that these islands attracts nowadays, it’s dramatically tilted towards the college age nature lovers and adventure seekers.

Another foolish way to view the place is to notice that all the domestic animals and not-so domesticated sports teams – come in black and white. Cows, sheep, sheep dogs, All Blacks, All Whites, Long Blacks. Even the most-ordered coffees are “flat white”, “short black”, “long black”. Only the Netball team dares call itself the Silver Ferns.

Distances are large here. It was easy to burn up 20 days driving north to South only. Roads are very good, but smallish, making for speeds more in the 40 mph range rather than 70. Towns don’t blur into one another; each has its own center and some space around it.

I can’t recount all of our travels; in three weeks of driving we saw and experienced so many things. But here are some of the most interesting to us, and hopefully to you our readers.

Blackwater Of Another Flavour

Boasting fantasmagorical limestone formations inhabited by glow-worms, Waitomo Caves seemed irrestible. The caves and their weird inhabitants are world renowed and included in 1000 Things to See Before You Die, which I consult regularly. Give us anything offbeat, goofy, creepy, especially unusual natural phenomena, and we’re on it. So the Glow Worm Caves were mandatory attendance . The only decision was what form our tour would take. The tamest tours put you in a walking group, or floating in a moderate size raft. For us, it had to be the Blackwater Abyss Tour. (not affiliated with Blackwater USA defense contracts - at least as far as we could tell. The instructor training might well be a bootcamp prerequisiite , especially suspicious give in that we did more belly-crawling and rapelling than I‘ve done in 10+ years! Sad to say, no one tried to recruit us during our adventure.)

Before our tour began, we had to suit up in wetsuits , helmets, and meatpackers’ boots, which are apparently the best suited for wading, climbing and floating in a cold river.

Guides Alan and Lucas gave us a short training run to acquaint ourselves with the rapelling gear we’d use to enter the caves. Both Fred and I have experience in rapelling, so this was just an introduction to a new braking device, known as a rack. It’s not a figure-eight device, but the theory is the same.

Once we’d gotten the hang of the rappell on some practice ropes, they escorted us to a platform that extends into a cave. Sure enough, there is an hourglass-shaped vertical tunnel , a drop of 35 meters to the landing area. One of the guides rapped down (fast!) and then one-by-one we stepped up to take our turn.

As soon as all the folks drifted down into the cave, they showed us the zip line that would take us to the next stop. The gag here is that they switch off all the helmet lights just before they release you onto the zip line. So you have the joy of hanging from your seat harness, headed off to some unseen landing zone in absolute blackness. Luckily, the trip is short, and the guides help you to land.

Now assembled on a rock ledge about 9 feet above the river, we are issued our next conveyance: good old fashioned black rubber innertubes. We were instructed to fit our bums into the center, jump off the rock and land in the river – bumfirst. You get submerged in the icy river and a bonus: a free cold water enema.

They’ve affixed guide ropes to a section of theunderground river, so that you can pull yourselves upstream to the bower of the glow worms. They’re permanent residents of the caves, feeding on newly hatched larvae. Each glow worm has a farm of sticky strings that hang from the ceiling. The worms’ glow attracts the baby larvae, who are programmed to fly upwards towards sky and stars. Well, rude surprise little larva, that star will be dining on you today.

Loud noises excite the worms and they glow brighter. We amused ourselves a bit yelling and watching them respond. After a bit more tubing, we pitched the inner tubes and just waded in the more shallow parts of the river.

The caves hold other curiosities. Some places where the limestone has eroded leaves formations that can resonate, So sing or hum and they will hum along with you. There are little passages that we were allowed to crawl through, and at least one headfirst slide.

The final exit was almost as dramatic as the entry: we climbed up rock formations where waterfalls flowed into the caves. Easy climbs if dry, it took some effort to counteract the rapid water flow. At last! Out of the cold water, into the light of day. Hot soup and bagels were the reward!

A memorable day and we felt good after the whole thing.

This is us, Fred, Carolyn and Bentley, at about 9 AM on Christmas Day. Weather fine, the tide close to the highest for all of 2007. Tradition here is surfing and enjoying the sun.

Merry Christmas to everyone. We are grateful for a happy 2007 and wish everyone wonderful holidays and a stupendous 2008.

Wrote this in early October during our short New York city visit.

Big Apple, here we are! Boy, it’s been years since either of us was here. We’re here to visit our friend James, who moved to NYC from LA this summer. He’s taking to the city in a big way, finding it friendly and fascinating. My memories of New York include a lot of crowds, grime, honking and attitude. It’s come a long way.

After a relatively painless set of flights arriving at La Guardia, we snared a cab to our hotel in Chelsea. We got hungry for a snack and took a walk out on 7th Avenue. Surprisingly, the restaurants were shutting down - it was only 11PM - so we found ourselves limited to the hotdog joints. But, hey, there’s joy in an authentic dog every once in a while.

Meeting up with James for breakfast, we were introduced to Balthazar, a fantastic restaurant in the Village. I could come here again and again. Great café au lait, and the best quiche I have had in years. The street is full of shops with original names, unique items, and a lot of local character. Greenwich Village has a history of resisting authority and “progress”, making it a holdout against the grid system in place in the rest of the city. The streets are small and misaligned, full of historic brick buildings and remnants of centuries of finely crafted stone, brick and iron.

After breakfast, we strolled around, poking into any shop that looked intriguing. Of all, the Ingo Maurer gallery was the most interesting. Ingo is a creator of fabulous and flighty lighting art. His work includes a hurricane lamp that shares only its name with the old fashioned glass funnels designed to keep the wind from snuffing the candle. Ingo creates a tornado in liquid (using the prosaic magnetic stirring device from science labs) with a bulb spotlighting it. Another is a birdcage-like metal maze with rubber rats trapped inside. And the bare fixture with wings attached. Many, many amazing lights. See more at www.ingo-maurer.com. Not in my budget, however… only $4100 for the hurricane lamp.

James is a fan of Ted Baker clothing, where he’s found a line of shirts that fit him well. They had great and original women’s clothing as well.

We toured an enormous sporting goods store that also featured just about every variety of shoe imaginable. With some of the shoes, I was reminded me of the orange patent leather flats that I bought in the late 60’s. I loved those shoes and wore them a surprising number of times. Orange and pink were my favorite combination for 1968.

Strolled along the Hudson River park, Chelsea docks with golf, Law and Order studios (Criminal Intent or SVU - I forget which.) It was a hot day - 80’s.

We planned for dinner at Crispo, a trendy restaurant in the up-and-coming meatpacking district, recommended by our friend Allen, who lived in NYC for several years. There are all kinds of new shops, lofts and restaurants cropping up in the old industrial buildings. Lots of charm and wonderful food.

I had to see a musical while we were here. Being a fan of Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, it had to be SPAMALOT. Laughed the whole way through. Afterwards, we had to stroll around Times Square. This is much more the NY that I’m used to seeing: crowds, noise, and hawkers. The new trend is Disney-fication. Taking a cue from Las Vegas, New York is trying to make itself more family friendly. Hence the hi-def screens blanketing the walls of Times Square with images of Bee Movie, Legally Blonde, and the M&M store and Hershey Store battling for choco-market-share across the boulevard from one another. Impressive, but not very inspiring.

Earlier in the day, we met James’ girlfriend, Jessica, and the four of us
Dinner at Nero - my dinner was a scrumptious lamb dish. Went to the bar “Employees Only”, where Jessica was instrumental in getting us past the bouncer.

Saturday AM, took short walk to a dinuh. (Translation: diner) Bagel, lox and cream cheese for me! Took the afternoon W tour from Pier 78. Our tour guide, Michael, did a great job weaving together history, geography, humor, philosophy into a rapid fire monologue as we toured the East River (not actually a river) viewed the Statue of Liberty and learned a few important cultural nuggets. Like why Jersey is called the “State of Confusion”. Like why the area along the Jersey coastline was called the DUMBO area. It seems that the area just across the bridge is Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. These are the same people who delight in naming neighborhoods with acronyms - SOHO and NOHO being South and North of Houston street, and TriBeca, the Triangle Below Canal Street, and some new ones we haven’t parsed out yet.

Either the day before that or after, we also toured the Natural History Museum. It’s a very impressive building, inside and out. (Having watched the movie “Night at the Museum”, I appreciated the statue of Teddy Roosevelt outside, and the various dioramas.) We only scratched the surface, viewing the celestial show in the planetarium and just a few exhibits. Well worth seeing, and spending a lot more time there!

Afterwards, we went to the site of the World Trade Centers. Both of us had been in the Towers years before their destruction. I remember an early visit to Windows on the World - the incredible restaurant on the top with views for miles. Now that so much of the demolition is complete, it’s hard to get a feel for the horrific event without reaching back to our emotions at the time we viewed it on television. It’s hard to see anything but a huge construction project in the pits that are now there. But the models of the mall and Freedom Tower that will replace the Towers are impressive.

Saturday evening, we ate at the Blue Ribbon Bakery, which had more resemblance to a wine café than a bakery. I guess for dinner, that’s a good thing.

So that was all the time we had, just 3 full days. Back home to our usual haunts and hobbies.

Parenthetically, I need to add to this blog all of our summer activities, which include a lot of beach time. After moving to Cardiff this spring, we find ourselves at the beach, in the surf with kayaks, in the coves with snorkels, and just on the sand walking the dog. Maybe when we get some rain, I’ll get around to writing that up. Oh, and meanwhile, off to some family events and then New Zealand for 3 weeks!

One more footnote: the recent wildfires affected us only in small and peripheral ways. I’m glad to report that while a number of our friends evacuated their homes, none that we are aware of lost their homes. Our thoughts go out to everyone with losses from the fires. And our thanks go to our wonderful firefighting and emergency response crews who keep us all safe.

Hello, we’ve updated our email.

The image below has our email. Avoiding email harvesters, the email address is an image and can’t be clicked or copied. Sorry for the inconvenience. But we’d love to hear from you.

It’s a sad statement on how lazy we’ve gotten. Here it is May, and I’m posting the story for our January trip. And, dear readers, neither Fred nor Carolyn wrote it, it is entirely cribbed from Carolyn’s aunt Jackie, who we observed writing notes every evening. Why bother writing our own? So please enjoy the account from Jackie. Oh, cast of characters in her narrative:
Margaret: Carolyn’s older sister, retired from biotech and professoring
Troy: Margaret’s husband, birdwatching nut and former rocket scientist (really)
Willy: Margaret’s beautiful golden retriever
Banjo: Margaret’s ugly (but sweet) mutt
Annie: Jackie’s beautiful Corgi
Anne: Margaret’s grown daughter
Elisabeth: Margaret and Carolyn’s Danish sister (former exchange student)

January 15, 2007 (Monday)
Margaret, Troy and I rose at 4 a.m., having taken Willy, Banjo and Annie to Lynnda Lopez the day before. We managed to leave right on time at 5 a.m., and drove to Anne’s place, arriving a6 6 a.m. in spite of one wrong turn. Anne took us to the Oakland Airport, where we settled in. Shortly a delay was announced, which turned out to be 2 hours. Other than that, the flight was uneventful. They plied us with liquids which was good. They also plied us with so-called snacks/junk food. On arrival in Maui, Fred and Carolyn were waiting, having arrived shortly before. Transferred shortly to the next flight, arriving at Kona airport shortly thereafter. Car rental next, a Buick minivan. Five people plus luggage fit easily. Went next to Costco to get supplies. $275 worth. Got it all in the car plus us, which took some expert packing. Drove across the island, through Hilo, and on to Paradise. Dark by that time but made it to our rented house, Cymbidium House, which is lovely. Set in among huge ferns and little ferns. Ate dinner at nearby old fashioned Lodge and had a delicious meal.

January 16, 2007 (Tuesday)
I am doing this several days later, which is a mistake. We drove around Volcano and got oriented. With help from Carolyn, I now remember that Troy stayed home in hopes of getting online during the day at the nearby Internet Cafe, while the rest of us headed for Hilo. We went to the Farmers’ Market which was open on the day. We also went to Hilo Hat-tie’s looking for a muumuu for Elisabeth. No luck. They appear to be out of current style. Darn! We also had a fabulous lunch at the restaurant where Troy and Margaret and I went last time. We also went to Long’s Drugstore to get stuff for Carolyn’s eyes, which are bothering her. I said I saw it as we were looking around, but as it turned out when we finally saw it that I probably did not see it.
January 17, 2007 (Wednesday) We did the crater loop and saw many fascinating things. We had lunch at the Volcano House. We ate sandwiches at home for dinner. Fred took off this night and hiked to the volcano and lava spilling into the sea. He said it was just wonderful with many terrific views. During the day, a great puzzlement was encountered. We stopped at a field of steam spouts. A bus full of Japanese tourists arrived just before us. Their leader went over to one steam spout and demonstrated a weird thing. With little or no steam coming out, he held one or more lighted cigarettes near the opening over the steam, and instantly much more steam or smoke or something appeared. He said it was burning gases. But Fred has questioned several rangers, etc. since, and none has an explanation.
January 18, 2007 (Thursday) We were a little lazy and did not get going right away, but the lava flow into the ocean at night was a major goal. We stopped at many lookouts along the way. On the way down to the beach area we stopped at the petroglyphs off the road by a good walk. They were elementary and not too spectacular but then I didn’t try to carve drawings into the lava, either. Earlier we were looking at another lava flow when Troy saw two Nenes flying overhead. Margaret walked after them, as did we all, and saw them in what may well be their nesting place. They are beautiful birds. Margaret even got close enough to see their unwebbed feet, an evolutionary characteristic.
January 19, 2007 (Friday) We set off midmorning for the little town of Pahoa not far away. It has a certain charm, not unlike little towns on the Olympic Peninsula or various Puget Sound towns in Washington. The big attraction was that it had an Internet Cafe. However, stomachs rule and we had lunch first in a funky little open front cafe and were waited on by an even funkier waiter. But the food was very good. Then we went back to the Internet Cafe and logged on. It was $2 for 1/2 hour, but I splurged for 1 hour at $3. Had the usual trouble sending from Entourage, but received over 100 messages. Switched to Yahoo for outgoing and got a couple of messages off. Troy received no messages from work so he can relax. Fred had some business to transact. After lunch we drove over to Lava Tree Park which was intriguing. Lava at some time or other had flowed through a grove of large trees. It covered them (or coated is a better word) with lava which was so hot it caused the interior of the trees to burn out. Very interesting. From there we went to another park (Ahalanei park) which was just lovely and obviously frequented by nearby residents regularly as well as by tourists. There was surfing and the waves were way up! Also, there was a very large pool where kids could play and swim. It had a very narrow opening on the ocean side. Only very large waves could hit that narrow opening hard enough to flood up and over into the pool. Wonderful contrast between the calm pool and the crashing waves. By the time we were done there, we thought of dinner. Troy suggested Hilo Bay Cafe in Hilo, not knowing that the rest of us had dined there for lunch a couple of days before. It was so good last time we went again and it was fabulous food.
Saturday, January 20. Troy was first up as usual and build a fire in the wood stove, which soon took the chill off. I was next, but barely. Fred soon came out all ready for his long hike today. Troy took him to the start of a trail that will be something like seven miles altogether. He will have to go through some woods, and then come out onto lava overlook-ing the area where lava flows into the sea. He said as he comes back he will be facing the woods which all look alike so he will have to determine ahead of time where to reenter them so he comes out the other side at the right place. He expects it will take him 5 or 6 hours, and there should be some gorgeous viewpoints. Meanwhile, the rest of us took off so that Margaret and Carolyn could go snorkeling down at the beach where Margaret and I went last March. We stopped for lunch first at the Aloha ? Cafe where the geckos come to eat jelly and entertain the customers. Then off to the rental shop to buy & rent a couple of pieces of equipment and then on to the beach. I am told that the water was a pretty good temperature and that M and C saw many, many fish, and even some sea turtles. We all went to the bar afterward to try some exotic drinks. Then off for home. Carolyn talked by phone to Fred and he was back at the house long before we were. He debriefed us on his adventure when we finally got back to the house. He estimated he had walked 10 or 12 miles altogether. The initial hike down to the volcano area took 2 hours. He met some people going and coming, and one man showed Fred his house and yard and brought him back to our house.
Sunday, January 21. Today the plan was to go up to the Saddle Road and to the observatory on Mauna Kea. It was a long but interesting drive through Hilo and then on up to the observatory which was at 9,000 feet. We had a cup of hot cocoa at the visitors center, and saw a wonderful but longish DVD portraying the development of the observatory and the various telescopes, with several of the scientists doing much of the narration. Very interesting. The challenges were not just technical and finding funding, but also coming to agreement on how to treat with appropriate respect the area which is sacred to the Hawaiians. We could not join the tour to the summit because our car was not 4WD. Carolyn wanted to stretch her legs and spoke to a ranger who suggested a fairly easy 20 minute trail. “Fairly easy” was not specifi-cally defined and it turned out to be a lovely but fairly steep climb up to the top of one of the nearby cone-shaped hills. It was clear to me that I would never make it, but Fred taught me to go very slowly: no faster than I could breathe through my nose. Magic! I went to the top with no difficulty, and the view was astounding. Troy called his friend Greg from on top to rub in the beauty. On return down to the Visitors Center we had a few crackers and dried fruit for lunch, thanks to Carolyn’s foresight, and then decided to drive as far up to the summit as our 2 wheel drive would permit. We got up quite a ways when the transmission started slipping! Instant unanimous vote: turn around and go back! The return trip felt riskier than it probably was, because the slope was steep in many places, but Fred brought us all down the rest of the way uneventfully. We returned to Hilo where we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant noted in the guide books, and it was excellent. Then on home. I only lasted another hour before going to bed.
Monday, January 22. We left Troy at the Thurston Tube as a takeoff point for a day of birding. The rest of us set off for Black Sand Beach and Green Sand Beach. Black Sand Beach was first, and it is indeed black. You would not think that would be pretty but it is. We wandered around the area, on the dry sand, wet sand and then onto some of the lava rocks. There were a lot of sea turtles in the area. Some were floating in the water, a couple of big ones just resting on rocks, and a couple lying up on the sand. We ate lunch at a restaurant along the road which was the “Southernmost restaurant in the United States” where they featured home cooked food and it was delicious. They had a sign “Eat Dessert First” but we were too full after the main course. But I got a piece of macadamia nut pie to go (same as pecan pie, but with Mac nuts.) We then went to Green Sand Beach which was hard to find, and a long hike. We drove in a long way, and parked in the “Green Beach Parking” area which was confirmation we were in the right place. We started out on a rough road which 4-wheel vehicles could manage. We walked quite a way when I decided to return–it was too far and too rough. So I started back and had walked quite a long way back when I came to what looked like a fork in the road. I took the fork nearest the ocean, and had only gone a short way when the fork sort of petered out. I then stumbled and made about a six-point landing on very rough lava. Fortunately, I had long pants and long sleeves on so very little damage was done. I returned to the right road, and had gone quite a ways when a 4 drive vehicle came along and they stopped and asked a question. They, too had left a couple of their passengers along the way, and they verified that they had seen two women and
a man who were still going toward the green sand beach. They then offered me a ride and I took it. Bless them! I sat in the car for a very short time until Carolyn returned because her feet were bothering her. It was quite awhile until Fred and Margaret returned, having made it all the way only to learn there was a very steep descent down to the actual green beach, which they did not attempt. We returned to the house and had a pick me up dinner. I offered bites of my mac nut pie, but fortunately there were only two takers. After dinner, Fred wanted to go online so I went with him to the ho-tel/restaurant where we ate the first night and parked in their parking lot, which our waitress had told us there was wi-fi. Sure enough, went online and caught up with messages, etc.
Tuesday January 23. Our adventure today involved splitting into 3 sections. Carolyn and I dropped Fred at a trailhead for a hike he wanted to make. And Margaret and Troy wanted to take a hike and look for birds so we dropped them at their destination. Carolyn and I took the car and among other things proceeded to the parking lot in the hotel near where we stayed (and ate dinner the first night) and parked near the gazebo which has hi-fi. We both turned our com-puters on and caught up with our various messages, etc. Soon we had a call from Troy and Margaret who had finished their bird walk. Later, Carolyn picked up Fred at the appointed time, and we were all back at the house together again.
Wednesday, Januaty 24. This was our last whole day to play, so we headed West and had lunch at the Aloha Angel Cafe. We then went to the same lagoon where Margaret and Carolyn had gone snorkeling a few days before. This time Fred joined them. Troy went to the bar for a beer, from where he could see all three as they swam about. The surf was still way up, so the water was much less calm than before, so no one stayed in as long as the previous time. Howev er, all said they had a good time. Later we drove on into downtown Kona, and walked around to see the town. We then went for dinner at Lulu’s, where fish tacos are featured and where Troy and Margaret and I had gone when we were here last March. Fred drove back to Volcano in about 2.5 hours where we all turned into bees–emptying out the car, packing our bags, picking up in each room, etc. On to bed a bit late.
Thursday January 25. Up at 6 or thereabouts, rushing around packing last minute items, eating muffins etc. that Marga-ret and Carolyn had the forsight to buy yesterday. We were loaded up and left by 7:59 a.m., one minute ahead of sched-ule. Troy drove and hit some traffic and road construction but arrived at the Kona airport about 10:30, in plenty of time for Margaret and Troy to check in the car, while Fred and Carolyn and I checked luggage. We all went through security uneventfully, and had time to find a bench and await the plane. It arrived on time, and we all boarded for the short flight to Maui. At that point, we started our goodbyes. The northern contingent boarded our plane to Oakland about 1/2 hour before the southern contingent got their plane to San Diego. Troy and Margaret and I got our luggage quite promptly and Anne met us with Margaret’s car shortly thereafter. Anne drove to her house, taking precautions not to expose us to any germs that could have been carried by Anne, as Brian has the flu. Troy drove the car to my place where we all hit the sack quite promptly.
Friday January 26. I got up at 6:30 full of anticipation for what the day held. Margaret and Troy were up by 8 a.m. for the same reason. I called Lynnda and arranged to pick up Willy, Banjo and Annie between 9:30 and 10:00. We drove tgwo cars up there and picked up three happy dogs. It is hard to say, though, who was happiest. Margaret got into the back of her car with both dogs, having negotiated with Troy to drive home to Placerville. I have seen Margaret in various situations through the years, but I have never seen her happier!!! I will add that in the afternoon I drove to Cotati to pick up Maude. When I arrived home, I felt like Margaret looked! We heard, too, that Bentley had done well while Carolyn and Fred were gone, so all is well with our collective lives. Except to take another trip together again in the future.

Merry Christmas from Fred and Carolyn! 2006 has been quite a year - the first full year of our second childhood. When we started this step off a cliff, we were afraid by now that we’d have spent our entire bankroll and found ourselves back at the high-tech grindstone. We’re happy to report that we still plan to take time for our exploits and quieter pleasures.

We’re spending Christmas with Carolyn’s family in Northern California. As of Christmas Eve, we are huddled around the fireplace, with just about a laptop computer per person. Brother-in-law, Troy wins at poker online, Fred’s catching up with YouTube, aunt Jackie is looking for software updates. 94-year old Dad is napping. Our collective four dogs have had their afternoon walk and are cajoling sister Margaret for snacks while she readies the lamb roast.

Tomorrow, we’ll actually join some family members under the age of 30. The next generation can truly be known as slackers when it comes to reproducing. But I’m not complaining, although young kids are awfully fun at Christmas time. Niece Anne is with her dad this year, but we’ll see Nettie and Russell, sister Judy’s kids. Aunt Petey will host Christmas day festivities again at her home in San Francisco.

While Thanksgiving was a month ago, I like to reflect also at Christmas time on how blessed we are - to have health and friends and family. That is wealth beyond any other. Fred and I now have time to enjoy life and explore new things and meet new friends. We don’t spend enough time sharing our reflections with others, but we enjoy our time and recommend to everyone that they take time - even a day or a week or three weeks - to take a break from whatever consumes them, either from passion or commitment or just habit. Getting a fresh perspective is really, really, yes really important.

Thank you to all of our new and old friends for making 2006 a wonderful year. We are gazing forward to 2007 with great hopes for an even better year.

Best,

Carolyn & Fred

We decided to take a pass on the tour that boasted of “cars thrown by horses.” On further reflection, they probably only meant carts drawn by horses, but there were better things to do, anyway!

So here we are, on the island known as Hispaniola. It’s sandwiched between Cuba and Puerto Rico, and is split into Haiti and Dominican Republic.

The island was Columbus’s first New World landing. He left his mark here in - a well established Spanish colony, with handsome 17th century buildings. We toured the first cathedral in the Western hemisphere - quite a beautiful building.

And some kitsch: just down the beach from our hotel is a bar/restaurant in the shape of a boat that looks suspiciously like the drawings in our history books of the three ships that Columbus set out in. I wouldn’t take that one out of the harbor, much less cross the Atlantic in it!

What are we doing here? Earlier this year, we planned to refresh our diving skills. We were thinking Cabo San Lucas, swim in warmer parts of the Pacific. But our yoga instructors, Frank and Serpil, mentioned that they had reservations at a hotel here and were looking for another couple to travel with. They had been here last year, and raved about the place. We checked out the diving and found that there is an onsite PADI dive tour and training shop. So it was a “go”.

The location is stunning. Here, on the Carribbean Sea, at Boca Chica, the bay is well protected. White sands, pale aqua waters that are about body temperature. Hot sun in the afternoons, punctuated by rainstorms that cool everything off. Of all the tropical places we’ve been, the climate is the most appealing. The beach has an expanse of shade palapas, with chairs under each one. You can stake out a set of chairs in the AM, and return on and off all day. There doesn’t appear to be any poaching of chairs or towels.

This is our first experience with “all-inclusive” on this scale. It’s got some advantages - there’s little stress in choosing your restaurant. Don’t like your dinner? Get another one! At lunch, there are ribs at one restaurant and lobster at the other. Go to both! (And I’ll comment, there are some number of people who are sampling a LOT.)
We really enjoyed getting to know Frank and Serpil better.

On Wednesday, we started our Advanced Open Water training. We might have been wiser to start a day later, because the water conditions were rough and visibility poor. But we wanted to get an early start. The plan was to do a wreck dive introduction - the “Tanya” was sunk off of Juan Dolio (just down the coast a few miles) about five years ago, and is attracting the coral reef creatures that will grow into a beautiful artificial reef after some time. Both of us were having trouble at the surface. We were both feeling rusty on our diving skills and very nauseous from the boat ride. Fred got back in the boat, Carolyn took a few deep breaths and decided to make the dive anyway. Daniel, our dive instructor, was Carolyn’s buddy for the dive, and she got comfortable once below the waves.

Like most dive instructors, Daniel’s a ham. On the wreck, he mimed the scene from Titanic, where the young stars hang from the prow of the boat. In later dives, he lounged into an invisible La-Z-Boy and blew impressive “smoke” rings, tucked his legs into a flippered lotus position, and twirled a young woman from Italy in a gravity-free dance. All good fun, and very much in the tradition.

The next dives were to practice navigation and deep diving. We had to calculate a dive plan that included a deep dive followed by two additional dives. Our original dive certifications were in 1973 (Fred) and 1980 (Carolyn). A lot has changed since our training. And we’ve only done a small amount of diving in the last few years. We’re very rusty, but the dive tables started to look familiar again after a few passes through them.

Our final dive was Underwater Naturalist specialty. There are too many varieties of sea life to recount here, but these were the highlights:
- sponges - tube, volcano, vase and rope and many less well-shaped clinging to coral or rock foundations.
- fire coral in flat and “finger” formations
- brain corals - from big heads, some of them!
- jellyfish - large, white
- many forms of anemones
- parrotfish, trumpet fish, sargent majors that see us as curiosities
- a member of the eel family, sand colored with slightly different colored circular markings. Usually reclusive, it was in the open and allowed Daniel to touch it
- cleaner shrimp
- sea fans, sort of ruddy colored with indigo bases
- a large hermit crab in a conch shell

It takes a while to get familiar with the varieties, and to be able to identify them underwater. As our divemaster reminded us, the special attractions of the reefs are not the big fish, but the tiny creatures that take patience to find and observe.

A few reflections on the country. A big caveat: our exposure was very limited and so our observations can’t possibly represent the country as a whole. In our hotel, the hospitality was excellent. All of the staff were friendly and competent. We were treated with respect and warmth. We ventured outside the hotel only once on our own and once on a city tour. It’s clear that the country is poor; the hotels have a lot more security than you’d see in more prosperous locales. And the hotel was perhaps overstaffed - a sign that labor is inexpensive. Also, we were mobbed by hawkers and a few beggars outside our hotel. From our tour bus, too, we saw some markets that showed the sad poverty in the grubbiness of their offerings. In recent years, the country has apparently seen tourism as its engine for economic growth. (Replacing sugar cane as the major source of income.) I hope they succeed.

No matter how much you read about Yellowstone, you cannot fathom its size or diversity without a visit. The two million acre park sits on one of the largest volcanically active sites in the world. It’s the site of several huge volcanic eruptions, and was forged by glaciers, geologic uplifts, fires and lava flows. The mountains, canyons, rivers, and serene valleys are nearly a continent in themselves. Along with the geysers, bubbling mudpots, flowing thermal features and - of course- the wildlife, it is awe inspiring and grander than you can imagine.

On this day, we had a specialty guided tour, just our naturalist and the two of us. The highlight of the tour was when we stopped to take a hike along the rim of the Yellowstone river – across from the road where most tourists view the river and Tower Falls. We’d heard from a ranger that a black bear was headed over the ridge toward the area where we planned to stop. sure enough, 5 minutes into the walk, we spot the bear ambling along, and a family, blissfullly unawares, just about 50 yards from the bear. After shouting words of warning, and watching some scrambling among family members, we were in a great spot to watch the bear as it walked along not far from our path. We tailed the bear at a fair distance and I got some reasonable video of the handsome black bear. Pausing on the bluff over the river, we could look across to osprey and their nests on the sheer walls. We also saw crowds of people. It kind of felt like being in the zoo, wondering who was watching whom.

As it turns out, we were being watched – and filmed. Another touring family met us as we returned after our hike and showed us their video of us on the bluff – and the black bear walking just below the rim where we sat. They’d been viewing us from across the chasm. That video is in the blog posting just before this one.

We’d seen another black bear, and a far off grizzly. We’d hoped to sight one of the wolf packs, but they were not granting visitors today. Apparently there are a lot of changes going on in the various wolf communities, and their hangouts are not as predictable as they have been in years past. The wolves have had a lot of impacts since their reintroduction in 1995, and mark a real success for naturalists hoping to get Yellowstone closer to its true natural state.

The elk, bison, pronghorn were pretty readily seen. It was a treat to spot a group of bighorned sheep on a cliff wall. The two kids scampered and played. It was almost too much like an animators rendition of their antics. Later, we came across mountain goats with whiter, fluffier coats. Birds of prey, robins, bluebirds, osprey, and a few marmots and other smaller critters. A very rich day.