Travels With Maria

Author: Bruce Ishikawa

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
More

Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
More

The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Bob Marley’s Mausoleum

This morning a driver picked us up and drove us, with a Belgian couple, to visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in the Blue Mountains. The drive took about two hours over really bad roads, like the worst of Costa Rica.  Mile after mile, higher and higher into the mountains. Finally we were at Nine Mile. When we got out, guys offered us spliffs and brownies. We waited, but got a spliff inside which I smoked a little and left on his tomb with other offerings that people had placed there. This was where Bob was born, his childhood house is here. His mother and brother are buried here. Miami cops shot…
More

Men With Guns

Everywhere we go, we see men with guns. Municipal police, Federales ("we don't need no stinkin' badges") and marines, walking the streets, or riding in trucks, all carrying U.S. supplied machine guns at the ready. Off on an isolated stretch of Balandra beach, we encountered 4 marines in full battle gear, helmets, boots and of course machine guns, walking the beach. Maria asked "aren't you hot in all that clothing?" to which they replied, "Nah, we're used to it". There is a contingent of maybe half a dozen Federal police stationed at the hotel. Sometimes they are in the halls. All young kids of course, playing with their cell phones.…
More

Maria: Four Shades of Turquoise

Yesterday we spent the day at Tecolote beach. Unlike Balandra where the sand just is, this one has lots shells, sea glass and rocks to search through. Since we had walked the left side of the beach earlier this week, we went to the right and much longer side this time. As we started walking, we were approached by a very friendly, youngish man in shorts and sunglasses. For 100 pesos (about $7 U.S.) we could have the use of 2 lounge chairs, an umbrella and use of the bathrooms all day long. We parked our stuff and started our very long walk. This was made longer by the constant…
More

Maria’s Observations

1. La Paz is the cleanest city I have ever seen, there is absolutely no litter in the streets. 2. We have yet to see a native smoking, have only seen the occasional American. 3. The locals are exercise fanatics. They run, bike, rollerblade and speed walk on the Malecon. They also have what looks like organized exercising, and even something that looks like a cross between a treadmill and a stepper facing the water, there are 4 or 5 of these contraptions. Last night at 9:30, while we were walking back from the restaurant, they had an exercise class on the sand!!! I'm feeling out of shape... 4. The…
More

Twenty Years!

We celebrated our 20th anniversary today, starting out at a very nice breakfast restaurant where we had spicy Mexican eggs. Then off to the beach, and later out for a memorable dinner including oysters, octopus and red snapper at a local gourmet restaurant. Accompanied by a very nice Mexican chenin blanc. Here is an anniversary self-portrait, on our balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez.
More

What a Great Day!

https://youtu.be/j-W-RfeUYz0 Today, we were collected at our hotel and driven downtown to Baja y Espiritu Tours where we were fitted for wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins. Also there were a young couple from San Francisco, and a middle-aged couple originally from Austria, now living in Mexico City. And our captain, Saul, and tour guide Marcos. We walked across the street to the beach where we boarded a panga, a boat probably 18 feet long with a big outboard motor. We started out going up the coast, past the beaches we've been hanging out on for the past few days, then headed across a channel several miles wide to Espiritu Santo…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
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Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
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Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
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Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
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Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
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St. Louis Fishing

After lunch Saturday, we returned to the center of town where Ismaila put us in the hands of an English-speaking guide and the 12 year old kid who drove a caleche, a horse drawn carriage, furthering our belief that he was looking for his next job. We figured we were in for the standard, kind of boring tour of St. Louis, the original capital of French West Africa, reminiscent of New Orleans. It started out that way as the guide pointed out the first mosque in St. Louis, with a bell because the French didn't like the call to prayer, and an old rusting crane used to unload boats, built…
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Lunch in a Senegalese Home

Back in St. Louis, Ismaila took us to his house for lunch. We walked into a courtyard where he took us into a room with four women sitting and watching TV. We exchanged greetings and introductions and smiled at each other. One woman was braiding a young girls hair, the unbraided part was a tangled mess. The girl was in some pain, in tears at one point, but the finished part looked really good. Finally mom gave her a break and she left the room. (more…)
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The Trip Redeems Itself at Djoudj

Friday was the worst day of our trip. Saturday was the best. Ismaila, the guide we met on the boat, who drove us up here to St. Louis, picked us up at the hotel at 8am. He was out on the street and introduced us to Nicholas who was coming with us to the Djoudj bird sanctuary. Turns out Nick is a New Yorker, living in London, who flew to Dakar and came straight to St. Louis. Brave guy drove himself in a rental car. We all piled into a taxi for the 60km drive to the sanctuary which is on the Mauritanian border. (more…)
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