Wishing you all a happy, safe, fun, prosperous, exciting, relaxing, fruitful, stimulating, dry, wet, snowy, sunny, lucky 2008! May it be the year you want it to be.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Happy New Year!
Wishing you all a happy, safe, fun, prosperous, exciting, relaxing, fruitful, stimulating, dry, wet, snowy, sunny, lucky 2008! May it be the year you want it to be.
South Beach
A quick note about my visit a couple days back to the infamous South Miami Beach. I just walked around for a coupe hours and took a lot of photos of all the crazy colored building and the very fine beach. I was really quite warm, even at this time of year. The beach is really a sight, because it seems to stretch endlessly, and is packed with people. It's small percentage that seem to use the beach to play, though. The vast majority may as well be taking a nap.
Not much else to say really- it would have been nice to have more time and talked my way in to a volleyball game, but oh well - another time, I guess. Enjoy the pics..
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Dos dias en los Cayos
After getting out of the Everglades, I bounced into a car with my parents, sister, bro-in-law and two cousins to head to the Florida Keys for a couple days. There, we met up with another Columbian cousin that I have not seen for 14 years! It was a good couple days.The highlight for me was going snorkeling. The snorkeling itself was not all that great, since it turned a bit cloudy and the water was very choppy. Thus the reef was a little dim and the swimming was a bit difficult. I think the most gratifyng thing to me was simply that I made it. Fifteen or twenty years ago, my family was in Key West, and we went on a snorkeling trip. I got very seasick, but eventually mustered the energy to get in the water, but then chickened out at swimming across the blackness to the reef by myself. Thus, gratifying that this time around, everything went much better.
The boat was pretty neat also. We were on a 30-40ft catamaran, and around sunset, they cut the motor and actually sailed the thing for a while. I like the cruisy, easy feeling of a sailboat, so I really enjoyed that part.
The Keys are not quite what I remember. There are not as many beaches as I recall, the water is absolutely flat. Like a pool out there on both sides. I think if I came back here, it would be fun to bike the 100 miles from Florida to Key West. Or sail it - I did not see that many sailboats out there, but it seems like a great place for it.
Update: A couple pictures of the sunset at sea...
Out of the business
I am officially out of the alpaca business. A deal to sell the remaining animals was completed last Wednesday, Dec. 19th. It is good that we got some money for them, they went to a good home, and that is one more continuing expense I don't have to worry about. But still, it mostly makes me sad. I do really like those animals. I guess, in the end, they were just too smart for us. It is hard to treat them as commodities when they all clearly have personalities, emotions and intelligence. They'll never replace the family dog, mind you, but I think it's much the same as people who get attached to horses.
I know it is the right decision, though. To have those animals as a business venture was not a lifestyle that was good for us, or for me by myself. The business-work: marketing ,networking, bookkeeping and planning - was all rather unpleasant and extremely time-consuming. To afford a place to accomodate them required us to live a distance from our peers that made it hard to develop good friendships. It seems people really won't/can't travel 30 minutes to see friends on a regular basis. I made the effort, but getting home at 8 or later several times a week was taking its toll.
Anyway, those days are over now. I'm sad about it, but also relieved. And the alpaca money will allow me to pay the mortgage and extend my travels a little longer. I feel like a poetic quote or saying would be appropriate here, but my mind is coming up empty. Well, okay - that's it then. Here's some of the better pictures taken over the years...
I know it is the right decision, though. To have those animals as a business venture was not a lifestyle that was good for us, or for me by myself. The business-work: marketing ,networking, bookkeeping and planning - was all rather unpleasant and extremely time-consuming. To afford a place to accomodate them required us to live a distance from our peers that made it hard to develop good friendships. It seems people really won't/can't travel 30 minutes to see friends on a regular basis. I made the effort, but getting home at 8 or later several times a week was taking its toll.
Anyway, those days are over now. I'm sad about it, but also relieved. And the alpaca money will allow me to pay the mortgage and extend my travels a little longer. I feel like a poetic quote or saying would be appropriate here, but my mind is coming up empty. Well, okay - that's it then. Here's some of the better pictures taken over the years...
Saturday, December 22, 2007
The Everglades
"I urge every discontented man to take a trip through the Everglades. If it does not kill him, it will surely cure him" - unnamed, 1800s Everglades explorer
I spent three days exploring the southern portion of the Everglades. One day by car, and two in a canoe. It is not the place TV led me to believe over the years. For one, is is mostly marsh, not swamp. For another, a huge section of the park is a shallow bay, riddled with mangrove islands (hammocks) and serpentine channels.
The Everglades is not a terribly picturesque place, because vast swaths are relatively homogeneous. By my looking at it, sawgrass and mangrove constitute 99% of the biomass in the park. And for animals, if you like insects, fish, and birds - this is a great place for you. But still, I wound up with a lot of pictures, and the canoe trip was pretty neat.
I paddled 7 miles through mangrove swamp and interior bays to Hell's Bay chickee. The beginning part was very tight, involving a lot of caroming off the sides of the channel and ducking overhanging branches. It's a real maze in there, with over 160 markers in just 4 miles. That actually went pretty quick though, and I made it to the chickee pretty early in the day. So of course, I got back in the canoe and set off-trail to the west, looking for a passage to whitewater bay. My only map made it look possible, but there were no markers now, just a tiny 1" square section of the park service brochure, my GPS and compass. I did not make it to Whitewater Bay before I had to turn around to make it back to camp before dark, but I felt pretty confident I had found the trail. This assurance cost me 2.5 hours of paddling and added 5 more miles to the trip log...
The night was uneventful. Beautiful and a bit windy, but very calm and quiet. The moon was super-bright, I did not need a flashlight. And after it went down, it was so clear that even starlight was enough to make out the important features. Sometimes, when the wind would gust strongly, I could feel the chickee shudder, but this was the most unnerrving thing to happen. No alligators climbing on the deck, no canoe drifting away.
Come morning, I felt re-energized and confident, so I decided to take the alternate route back that I found, even though it invloved a decent hike to the car at the staritng point. I did find Whitewater Bay, less than 0.5 mile from where I turned around the day before. Then the trip got more dificult. The route back involved finding two small passages from larger bays to smaller ones. My map and GPS check me roughly on track, but the mangrove forest all looks the same and distances aross the bay are really hard to judge. So seeing the passages from far away is almost impossible. For example, the passage from Coop Bay to Coop Pond I did not see until I was 20 yards away. It is maybe 10 yards in width, and Coop Bay is 2 miles in diameter!
Furthermore, it was windy, which made the open water parts a bit choppy, which also makes paddling harder. Fortunately, I did not have to paddle upwind much. I learned this trip that when by yourself in a canoe, you are travelling in a big wind vane, and it can be really diffiuclt to turn into the wind, or paddle a course that is not downwind. But everything worked out well, with no more than 1 miles of wrong turns and search patterns. Of couse, there was an alligator sitting right where I intended to beach the canoe, but I found a close-by alternate landing. A quick lunch, then I hiked the 6 miles back to the car and returned to the hostel.
I thought it was a good adventure, and a decent accomplishment, since I haven't paddled a canoe in 15 years, only for an hour, and only the one time in my life. Next time though, I think I definitely should bring the fishing pole...
I spent three days exploring the southern portion of the Everglades. One day by car, and two in a canoe. It is not the place TV led me to believe over the years. For one, is is mostly marsh, not swamp. For another, a huge section of the park is a shallow bay, riddled with mangrove islands (hammocks) and serpentine channels.
The Everglades is not a terribly picturesque place, because vast swaths are relatively homogeneous. By my looking at it, sawgrass and mangrove constitute 99% of the biomass in the park. And for animals, if you like insects, fish, and birds - this is a great place for you. But still, I wound up with a lot of pictures, and the canoe trip was pretty neat.
I paddled 7 miles through mangrove swamp and interior bays to Hell's Bay chickee. The beginning part was very tight, involving a lot of caroming off the sides of the channel and ducking overhanging branches. It's a real maze in there, with over 160 markers in just 4 miles. That actually went pretty quick though, and I made it to the chickee pretty early in the day. So of course, I got back in the canoe and set off-trail to the west, looking for a passage to whitewater bay. My only map made it look possible, but there were no markers now, just a tiny 1" square section of the park service brochure, my GPS and compass. I did not make it to Whitewater Bay before I had to turn around to make it back to camp before dark, but I felt pretty confident I had found the trail. This assurance cost me 2.5 hours of paddling and added 5 more miles to the trip log...
The night was uneventful. Beautiful and a bit windy, but very calm and quiet. The moon was super-bright, I did not need a flashlight. And after it went down, it was so clear that even starlight was enough to make out the important features. Sometimes, when the wind would gust strongly, I could feel the chickee shudder, but this was the most unnerrving thing to happen. No alligators climbing on the deck, no canoe drifting away.
Come morning, I felt re-energized and confident, so I decided to take the alternate route back that I found, even though it invloved a decent hike to the car at the staritng point. I did find Whitewater Bay, less than 0.5 mile from where I turned around the day before. Then the trip got more dificult. The route back involved finding two small passages from larger bays to smaller ones. My map and GPS check me roughly on track, but the mangrove forest all looks the same and distances aross the bay are really hard to judge. So seeing the passages from far away is almost impossible. For example, the passage from Coop Bay to Coop Pond I did not see until I was 20 yards away. It is maybe 10 yards in width, and Coop Bay is 2 miles in diameter!
Furthermore, it was windy, which made the open water parts a bit choppy, which also makes paddling harder. Fortunately, I did not have to paddle upwind much. I learned this trip that when by yourself in a canoe, you are travelling in a big wind vane, and it can be really diffiuclt to turn into the wind, or paddle a course that is not downwind. But everything worked out well, with no more than 1 miles of wrong turns and search patterns. Of couse, there was an alligator sitting right where I intended to beach the canoe, but I found a close-by alternate landing. A quick lunch, then I hiked the 6 miles back to the car and returned to the hostel.
I thought it was a good adventure, and a decent accomplishment, since I haven't paddled a canoe in 15 years, only for an hour, and only the one time in my life. Next time though, I think I definitely should bring the fishing pole...
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Cooling off . . . in a swamp.
siiggggh.. OKay - I'm quite a bit calmer now about the mess in CO. Non-ideal situation, but we've done all we can at this point. New eviction date is Jan. 2 now, so if there are no more surprises, we can live with that..
I've traveled to south Florida, and will stay at the Everglades Hostel for a couple days. Then, I'll rent a canoe and paddle into the swamp for an overnight trip - hopefully staying at a chickee. Back out the night of the 19th! Hopefully with a good story and some cool pictures...
What's a chickee? From the Everglade NPS website:
"Chickees are located along interior rivers and bays where no dry land exists. They are elevated 10 foot x 12 foot / 3 m x 3.7 m wooden platforms with roofs, usually constructed on open water, well away from mangrove trees. A narrow walkway leads to a self-contained toilet. You'll need a free-standing tent, since stakes or nails are not allowed."
I've traveled to south Florida, and will stay at the Everglades Hostel for a couple days. Then, I'll rent a canoe and paddle into the swamp for an overnight trip - hopefully staying at a chickee. Back out the night of the 19th! Hopefully with a good story and some cool pictures...
What's a chickee? From the Everglade NPS website:
"Chickees are located along interior rivers and bays where no dry land exists. They are elevated 10 foot x 12 foot / 3 m x 3.7 m wooden platforms with roofs, usually constructed on open water, well away from mangrove trees. A narrow walkway leads to a self-contained toilet. You'll need a free-standing tent, since stakes or nails are not allowed."
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