Dressed lightly, we drove up towards the Arenal Volcano to reach La Fortuna Fall. Warned and warned again about the extremely long, steep and treacherous stairs (250 of them) we started down. They were definitely "oh, my god" stairs. Stone and algae covered blocks - way too big for my short legs. Clutching a chain, I went for it! Lush tropical rain forest in a rocky canyon. Down, down, down - my knees became jelly after 100 steps. But once at the bottom....WOW. The most beautiful pool, the purest, highest waterfall and the clear stream from the pool was full of trout! Everyone was able to swim and enjoy. I waded out and the fish swam around my knees. Got tons of photos and could have stayed all day- particularly knowing I had to get back up those stairs! Too soon it was time to dry off and start. The stairs were truly gruesome. Really, really hard. But I made it and I wasn't the last, either. Ok, ok, so the really old guy with the new knee and bad heart was behind me. After lunch we are off to hike the volcano for three hours and visit the lava field. What an experience!
The Grand Canyon Adventure 2005
"I want to stuff my pockets with this red earth, to suck in this rain soaked breeze and store it somewhere in my soul so that I will feel it moving through me always."
"The huge wave of strength, endurance and quiet peace that emanates from the Canyon’s rocks and trees makes me feel quite alone. The sun is warming me, the cool breeze is teasing my hair and I feel quite close to the real world...beyond the shops and shuttle buses, the innumerable languages melding in the background like a babbling brook...oddly enough I feel like this would be a good place to die. To break against the red stone and return to an organic state of flesh and bone decaying into our Mother’s womb of soil and plant and timeless warmth. "
China: The Other Side of the World!!!
"Good morning, China! Unbelievable but true; this is the first time since we arrived that I have been able to sit down and breath deeply, relaxing and writing without hurry! I’ve been snatched up in a whirlwind and twirled through the days! Right now I am in a comfortable chair, my feet on the ledge of the 26th floor room’s picture window. All the windows here are open - no screens, no safety bars, etc. Great for uninterrupted views of the city, which is what I am seeing, cool dawn air on my feet. In Beijing at 6 AM the horns and traffic tempers have been flaring for an hour; here & there I can see a few bicyclists and deep thinking walkers. I can hear bird song and the horns sound melodious rather than angry. This is such a lovely place. I am really looking forward to today."
"We just had an amazing family style lunch at a banquet hall in the middle of the cloisonne factory. Yum Yum Yum! A large lazy susan in the center of a table for eight, which kept getting refilled with savory treats: tangerine & lemon chicken, green onions cooked with pork, little plates of bits & pieces, peanuts, beef, sesame-seed somethings, oysters in vegetables (yes, I ate some, they’re slimy, just like I thought) and just when we were almost full, a platter with a whole big fish - baked with cilantro and something else that made it delicious! And we all just picked at it with our chopsticks. I even dug out the fish cheek - yum! It was bigger than a dime! We were also served the local ‘liqueur’ in tiny quail egg sized cups; made from sorghum, it is 56% alcohol and not very smooth. Whew! A toast!"
London & Paris: My First Adventure Abroad!
Up at the muffled groan of dawn. Cottage cheese (theirs is wonderful here, all chunky and creamy) and coffee. It is blowing and freezing the longer I’m here! Maybe it will be more temperate in Paris. I took the DLR, the Tube and a rail train to Salisbury Village. Trip on the train was about an hour and forty five minutes. Long, but interesting scenery; smal burroughs along the way, lots of white wooly rocks and very green everywhere! Saw some thatched roofs. Neat. In Salisbury I had a 45 minute wait for the big red double decker bus, so I went into town. Brrr. The wind was absolutely freezing my face. I found a Red Cross store and bought a funky fake fur thing that is a great scarf! Wrapped up and went back to the bus station. It was my first double decker experience, so of course I went up top and sat in the front row. How weird! Good view, though. Stonehenge was about 30 minutes away. I didn’t know how it was going to make me feel. I was struck by its primitive simplicity more than anything else. It simply was. It doesn’t do anything, or change in any way - it just is so very solid and ancient. I loved it. But only for an hour, because it was sleeting! And the wind was straight from hell, I’m sure. I did manage to get some pictures with my frostbitten fingers, though. Someday I may visit again. In the summer! Rode the bus back to Salisbury, where I spent the afternoon dodging into shops, interesting or not. Had a wonderful lunch at a local pub, the Ale & Cider Press. It was colorful, to say the least. No tourists but me. A big, very old Boxer greeted me at the door - he lives there - and wandered around the pub, checking on everyone like a good waitress! I was served a choice roast beef dinner: mouth watering slabs of beef au jus, cabbage, carrots, burnt-just-right potatoes and cauliflower, with a flowery looking piece of puff pastry in the middle, all golden brown. And tea with milk. As I ate (gorged?) the bartender noticed the dog was hanging around me and called him over behind the bar. “Allroight,” he said, “but it’s yer second round today...” and he proceeded to fill the dog’s bowl with a big draft of ale from the tap. For the next few minutes all you could hear was slurp, slurp, slurp. Then the dog made his rounds once more...but he sat down awhile in between tables, I noticed! Back out into the wintery air - I climbed the hill to the train station to wait. Slept all the way back to London! Packed my backpack tonight for Paris - only necessaries and it shouldn’t be too heavy to carry everywhere. Also stopped on the way home for a coupla those excellent sausages so I can picnic on the train for lunch tomorrow. I’m nervous and excited. Pretty brave of me to commit myself to a ride into a foreign country for four days with no certainty of a place to stay! But I know it will work out great - everything here has gone so smoothly.
