Archives
June 2007
|
Sitka is Russian.
The Russians were the first to colonize the coast of Alaska, BC and down through California (Fort Ross was as far south as they came). According to Michner, the Russians did a very bad job of colonizing, the worst in history as a matter of fact, so there are many spots where this Indian rising and this slaughter occurred. But now it’s been all covered up with gift stores.
We walked through the town, shopped a bit on the way; the Russian cathedral is in the center of town. We walked along the street past park and skirting the bay. We walked to the park and through the park to see totems and the rain forest. Mom liked the walk. We came back for lunch and everyone but me wanted to stay on the ship, so I took the boat back and puttered around Sitka all by myself.
On the Fourth of July we docked in Juneau next to the Crystal Seas, which looked like one of those new huge ships I’ve been reading about. It was twice the size of our ship with twice the decks of balconies. In the center was a four-story window and I could see the shadow of people moving about behind the glass. Now this could be a ship with a climbing wall and other amenities and far more dining areas and specialty options (that cost extra of course) but there is a limit, I suppose and as I pointed out to Thomas, the odds are that our next cruise will be smaller, not larger because we’d want to get in further to where ever we are.
In the mean time, Juneau is just lovely. It rained and it was cold, but I loved the fact that the ship docked right across the street from the downtown, or at least a line up of tourist shops, ice creams parlors and bars. We stood in the rain for some time on Franklin Street and watched a terribly slow parade march down. Instead of squirting kids with water hose, the fire trucks and men threw taffy at the parade audience. Locals toughed out the weather, lining up an hour before the parade in the rain, to wait for the festivities. We stood for a time, but then made our way back to the ship for lunch because Michael must feed every hour or so. Even though the rain was dismal and cold, the little town, crushed up against the mountains, still white patches of snow and long trails of waterfalls thin through the green hills and mountain faces thick with trees and growth. That much was apparent even in between the drizzle and cold.
We shopped excessively but I haven’t found the totem or mask that I love. The masks are very expensive, seems to be asking more than the carving and work would merit.
We celebrated Mom’s birthday in the evening. Cocktails at 7:00, I like Cosmopolitans and two before dinner is quite relaxing. Then we had the champagne for dinner and wine and a birthday cake and the waiters all sang to her. So all is good and we promised mom a bird feeder because we were not going to schlep it on the trip.
Will we do a large ship again? Would I travel on one of the even larger ships being built? Probably not because it’s not about the room service or the dinners or the dressing up, it’s being able to get to places you can’t get to by road or rail. Like Juneau which is only accessible by boat or plane (the guide book says that Juneau has 100 miles of roads but they don’t lead anywhere) And I like traveling to small places, places that are authentic as it can be with less people than what we’ve experienced on this trip. I’m not a fan of crowds or doing what everyone else is doing, and here we were, docking in these tiny towns and bringing the crowd with us. There was no avoiding it. We are. So I think spending the money on smaller would be more interesting.
|
|
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link :: Email This Entry
|
|
Our boat in Costa Rica is small, 100 passengers when it's full. And it's not full.The contrast between the air-conditioned rooms and the open hallways creates a great deal of moisture and everything is quickly damp. Even my glasses fogged between the cold room and the warm hall, but it cleared quickly enough. Most people hung their cameras and binoculars out in the hallway so they wouldn’t get too much condensation. There are no keys for our rooms, I suppose even if you did steal something, where would you go? There were no problems of that nature but it took us all a couple of days to get use to the fact the rooms were always open. After our second walk, that wasn’t terribly hot, I jumped into the warm ocean and let the motion of the waves carry me up and down. Andrew and Michael bodysurfed. I love soaking in the warm ocean water with the late afternoon sun illuminating the palms lining golden beach. It was perfect. The locals have a saying, vida pura which literally means pure life, but I think it’s a South American version of “moment of being.” And on Sunday evening, when normally we’re getting ready for the week and finishing homework, and rushing around and lamenting the end of the weekend. I was floating in the ocean with nothing more on my mind than what drink to order at the bar that evening. Oh, this is the way to have a vacation!During happy hour Thomas entertained us by trying to hit his nose with a toothpick clenched between his $4,000 teeth.I like the bar on the boat very much and here’s why – it’s open to the air so the breeze blows through, and after experiencing the sticky, close heat of the jungle, the warm ocean breeze feels wonderful and refreshing, but not too cool. I like the bar because the drinks are included in the price of the trip (there isn’t a whole lot of alcohol, but then again, we don’t drink for the effects so it doesn’t matter to us) and I can sit and order pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris for a long into the evening as I like. The boys order virgin drinks and enjoy the milk shake or juice aspect of the drinks. Not only that, to start your lovely evening, there is an un-ending supply of Dramamine at the bar as well, which we’ve all taken as precautions at one point or another. And I can sit barefoot at the bar. And I can go to dinner bar foot from the bar.
|
|
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link :: Email This Entry
|
|
Gold panning in Alaska
In the morning we took a tour of a Gold Dredge (because we had no choice, it was on the way to the airport and our connection back to Anchorage.) Anyway we took a tour of the Gold Dredge where they too washed away tons of mountainsides with hydraulic nozzles to get at the gold. We did “pan” for gold, the tour gives you a bag of dirt seeded with tiny gold flakes. I was all for immediate gratification so we cheerfully panned. Michael was the best at it and gathered up all our gold flakes so we now own a total of $24.00 in solid gold, which is currently worth more that our Zap stock.
The tours we took on this part (and we assume for the rest of the trip) are geared for people who don’t walk or move at all. At the Dredge “tour” we walked about three yards from the bus to the film room. Then another forty yards of careful walking through the actual dredge, then, whew! Many people had to sit again. Fortunately, benches were placed strategically around the park for resting before tackling the arduous hike up a ramp to the dining room. Part of this tour’s appeal was the “real” miners dinner. We ate a noon, which is fortunate since I used up so many calories riding on the bus between breakfast and lunch.
Anyway. We were unceremoniously herded into a long dining hall and served “family style” (eating family style in my family means every man roots around in the refrigerator for something to eat – winner eats all) here it meant you sat where you were told and food was plopped onto the table and you served yourself. We slid down on benches and cast iron pots of meat stew (no it wasn’t moose, a helpful black board told us so) were placed between every four people. Biscuits and ice tea were also served. The glasses for the ice tea was served in mason jars (for that authentic touch) the water here is obviously filled with minerals because the glasses were cloudy, I didn’t doubt for a second they were clean, the groups trouping through here, not only cannot walk, but I’m sure have delicate constitutions and everything would need to be perfectly clean or the buses would no longer stop.
But I ended up sitting across from a prissy older woman who pursed her lips with great distaste at the glass and shook her little head and declared, “This glass is dirty!” It was also never going to be more than half empty, but I didn’t point that out. What I couldn’t resist saying though was “Then don’t drink out of it.” She replied that she certainly wouldn’t and drank her water (the same water used to wash the dishes and make that streaky stuff on the glasses but far be it from me to point that out) out of her thick pottery coffee mug. I drank from my glass just to be Miss Behaved. I’m still alive.
The stew was remarkably good, I can’t speak for the vegetables as I picked them all out, but I liked the meat. And the biscuits were fantastic, light, fluffy, probably made with lard. What the hell, we’re on vacation. We didn’t speak to the couple any more than the conversation with the glass. They didn’t seem to be having a very good time. I was kind of enjoying myself, but I couldn’t come up with anything more to say that would annoy the woman. I tried though.
We also visited the pipeline, not as awful as we think when we read about it in the “lower 48” as we’re called. It’s a pipe. The natives are favorably inclined towards the project for the very good reason that the building of this thing created fantastic wealth for the state and the residents. So they’re happy with it. No leaks or disasters were mentioned on our sanctioned tour. Thomas sat on the bus and listened to his music. We left him there, which is why he’s not in a picture in front of a big pipe. I don’t understand why he wasn’t fascinated.
|
|
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link :: Email This Entry
|
|
Port Douglas is marvelous and perfect and of course, expensive. We walked down town from the beach and while mom rested in the nice new apartment. We fed the boys pizza at a down town restaurant bar. The pizza was “different” and we ordered a Caesar salad that sported a very creamy dressing and poached egg on top and big heavy bits of bacon. The pizza had a walnuts and pumpkins topping.
The pizzas we order are small and thin crust. And the people here are thinner crust so to speak; there may be a correlation. Then again, we aren’t traveling in the K-mart section of the cities or the country. Port Douglas is clearly for the wealthy; there are many families here on the off-season, so this must be the time when they can afford to come here.
There are no fat people in Australia.
There are nothing but bars and restaurants downtown. My kind of place!
I found a great shop with Aboriginal art. In fact, tomorrow I will take mom to this shop and it will be raining so hard it pulls you to the doorways to see the pouring sheets of water. And it will pound on the tin roofs in this town, just like the pouring rain on the tin roof of Toad Hollow in Costa Rica. And the shop is filled with interesting things, and the rain is interesting. Andrew buys cookies at the local grocery store and shares them with us under the overhang.
Anyway we found the shop we liked and Andrew liked this small vase but I said, my it’s $145 and Andrew said, well I just spent $90 on lunch, so really. . .” And we purchased it and I’m not sorry now that it’s on the mantel at home.
The owner of the Aboriginal gift shop, Bilby said that she was delighted to see American’s in Pt. Douglas again. Ever since 9/11 the tourists had fallen off severely I didn’t mention that our economy tanked as well, if she wants to attribute our absence to that single event, then that’s fine. But the point was – no Americans for the last 3 years equals terrible business for their own town. She said she loved Americans, we spend of course, we are a high consumer society and we bring that sensibility wherever we go, but she also said that she loved our enthusiasm and curiosity. The US customers ask questions and are interested in what’s going on. So she was happy to see us, happy to see our Visa.
All her artists received money from their work, either commission or royalties. Hers is one of the few stores (there are a handful in the country) that carries an accreditation from a program bent on rewarding the artists directly for their efforts. Like the store in San Jose we found. It’s good to shop at such places, and frankly, it had the nicest things I ever saw. I ended up not shopping much in Adelaide and that was the end of that. So it was good to do shopping here.
|
|
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link :: Email This Entry
|
|
Corcovado National Park
From the Temptress (small cruise ship off the Pacific side) hand out:
Our exploration today will include two areas of Corcovado National Park: San Pedrillo and Caletas. Sue to its remoteness, Corcavado National Park is one of the least visited areas in Costa Rica’s vast National Park System. Located just 75 miles north of the Panamanian border, this region is known for its old growth forest and outstanding biodiversity.
In the afternoon we visit Corcovado Conservation Area (Caletas beach).
For the most part, according to the Frommers book we brought, you simply can’t get to Corcovado from anywhere, so we are very privileged to be here at all.
I feel like this is the first morning that we’re “on vacation” the last two days have been more traveling.
The sun is rising over the Rain forest, or the jungle to be more poetic. The classic view off a coast, the beach, the waves smashing against rough lava rocks the palms lining the beach. The wind here at 6:00 is warm, the season is green although we were told that there isn’t really a rainy and dry season, there is a rainy season and a less rainy season. So now I don’t feel so silly for taking the family down here for the wet season.
For his first day of vacation, Thomas is going deep-sea fishing. It cost $200 but I know it cost more at other resorts. So we’re sending him to fish with another gentleman who lives in the East bay and has a fishing boat in Sausalito. When I said to Tom (the older gentleman, that my son wanted to go fishing, he looked a little concerned. When Thomas appeared, Tom broke into a big smile and said, “Oh, I thought your son was 8 and I’d have to bait his hook, this kid is great!” For fishing, Thomas wakes up early and on time. Andrew took a picture of the boat, but we didn’t get any pictures of the fish. Thomas had a wonderful morning on the water. He caught two Wahoos and two Dorados. He had a wonderful time fishing and went on the second hike with us, that by comparison, was pretty boring, but he was patient.
We took a zodiac to the coast and landed barefoot, then hopped over the green “grass” and carefully wiped our feet with a blue towel mom was clever enough to bring with her. After wiping our feet, we donned clean socks and hiking boots. Then we proceeded to spend the whole hike stepping into creeks, wading across the river, step into the river and finished the hike with socks squishing, squishing down the rugged trail. Squish, squish, squish. It’s not a happy sound.
The first hike did, however, feature swimming into the warm river we had been following, (about 75 degrees) and we sat under the waterfalls. Andrew said “hey honey, weren’t standing under a waterfall in the tropics in Costa Rica” and we’re doing all right.
The energy of the forest – healing, milk from the Bano tree that will cure ulcers, needles from the palm tress that natives used. They treaded the needles with cobwebs to suture injuries. Margaret said that some natives hug trees to absorb the tree energy because the tree is so high, the highest thing in the rain forest, it’s closer to heaven.
On the hike we saw:
Monkey ladder vine – all twisted like ribbon candy up trees or from tree to tree, Michael liked it the best.
Garlic tree because the flowers smell like garlic
Jesus Christ lizard, but I missed seeing it walk on water.
Strangler Fig; Spider monkeys, mom and baby, in the trees
Leaf cutting ants; heard a toucan calling.
The blue feather of a Motmot, the bird grooms the tail feathers so they look like little pendulums.
A cream filled anole (lizards, small ones are now called anoles, which to us, sounds like a dessert)
Black vulture hopping on the ground; Balsa trees
The sure footed silver headed Duck Doo (my mother)
Yellow spotted ants that will sting so don’t put your hand on just any old tree.
Fish tail palm
The back of a coati Mundi which is a raccoon and the back of a little rabbit creature with no tail.
During lunch we saw Howler monkeys.
I wanted to see marshmallow bats but I never did.
|
|
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link :: Email This Entry
|
|
Cannibal Paul
Our Intrepid Tour Guide
Leads us Into the Jungle
and
Usually has a more Interesting Day
Today he toted Three Tourists from
Toulouse, two from Toledo
One awning salesman from Melbourne
To Tell them Don’t Lift the Rocks
Poisonous Snakes
Don’t swim in the Ocean
Deadly Jelly Fish
Don’t Breath close to Those Plants
The spores will make you sick
And The Usual – the Rainforest-is-a-Fragile-Thing
Lecture
Cannibal Paul
Usually leads Groups of Dedicated Doctors
into those Remote Spots that we see
in films or Crocodile Episodes
And he Alone can Tell these Important Doctors
What to Do
Because Cannibal Paul
Knows everything – Look at That Iguana
That Flying Fox
Strangler Vine
Flesh Eating Plant – his favorite
Cannibal Paul knew the names
Of the crew who worked on the film
Welcome to Woop Woop
We did not make that up
Cannibal Paul remembers when Port Douglas
Now the Carmel of Queensland
But with more Rain on the Off-Season
was no more than a Bar and Bait shop
Randomly placed at the edge
Of the Bay
He does not live in town
Cannibal Paul earns his money
by searching for Exceptional Dive spots in New Guinea
Using little more than a Machete and a bag of Beetle nuts
and a handful of Cannibal Vowels
He negotiates the access through
the Village, Land and People with
suspicious diets
The best way
he explains
To negotiate with Cannibals
Bring a bag of beetle nuts to share
eat some yourself (nasty things)
and sit and chat endlessly
about everything except the business at hand
He always secured his contract
One can’t help but wonder what a Bad Day
Is like in the Cannibal Jungle.
He did not say
Here
We pull up to a stretch of flat green tucked
Against the thick Density of the Forest
This is the Most Unusual Best Ice Cream
for only $4.00 for three scoops
Cannibal Paul has never married.
|
|
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link :: Email This Entry
|
|
After the main event - the Blue Mountains, we traveled a bit down the hill to lunch
For lunch the guide let us out in Leura Garden Village. We walked a bit, but it was pretty warm, so we found a little café, the Wayzgoose café. I ordered their specialty, flowerpot scones. My they were good – I just ordered one, so worth it because it was fun and different. The tiny café has a web site so we’re not all that isolated: www.wayzgoose.com.au. The weather began to break as we ate our lunch – Michael had spaghetti, which he slurped down with alacrity. The thunder started to rumble overhead as we ate. But we didn’t think much of it. Oh, the scone came with whipped butter, marvelous!
As we drove from Leura the thunder increased, breaking the heat and expanding into a full-blown storm – pouring, torrential rain. From here we were scheduled to visit a wildlife park – pet the koala and all that. Did a little rain stop us? Did a whole lot of torrential – fire hose spraying you down kind of rain stop us? It did not. The guide loaned us umbrellas and we marched right into a petting zoo of sorts, with wallabies and Kangaroos and emus jumping around free and easy. The wombats weren’t out, and the Tasmanian devil was behind bars. We petted the kangaroos and I saw a mother and baby in her pouch close up, I was thrilled! And I admit that petting the patient koala was very fun. We have a picture. I don’t look good. I never looked good on this trip – not once, but what the hell, I didn’t know anyone, so it didn’t matter.
We then, in the pouring torrential rain, toured the Olympic park; we didn’t even get out of the bus it was raining so hard. I discovered the boy’s electronic yahtzee game and glanced up at the facilities while playing my threes. I lost a lot of games.
The challenge with this huge stadium at the park is that it’s so big, what do you put into it? The money lost on a daily basis is staggering. So that’s a lesson for all us event planners. Although I don’t know what the lesson is.
|
|
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link :: Email This Entry
|
|
I think Cannibal Paul deserves more
than just a note in my journal
Because no one reads the travel journals
of another person
I don’t read my own.
They exist to be filed
Travel journals are just like photo albums
Except a journal prevents
that inevitable question
That stops the smooth flow of narrative:
who was that
to the left of mother
was he someone we knew?
or was that the waiter?
Who took this picture?
Did we get the camera back?
But in a travel journal when
you write
the landscape was so beautiful
or stunning
or sensational
or whatever inadequate adjective
your fumbling mind came up with
at the time
in the face of something foreign
There is no corresponding picture
to add verisimilitude to your
claim
of breathtaking
But I dream that someday
The journal
the story about Cannibal Paul
will keep me warm at night
when I’ve forgotten everything
Short Term -
Overwhelmed by Daily Life.
|
|
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link :: Email This Entry
|
Page 1 of 1
|
Categories
Favorite Links
|
