Holy Cow... Da Bomba Shack on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands is THE place to be for the full moon party, not to mention when it's a Lunar Eclipse! We had a great view of the moon, but this place is wild! Dancing, drinking mushroom tea (no we didn't) and other libations, ladies undies hanging everywhere, gawking at the moon, more dancing...party central, mon!!
Kicker Rock is actually split in two, and we dove in the channel. The currents were VERY strong - this is definitely not for novice divers. There was such a surge in current at the bottom that we had to hold onto rocks to maintain our position without moving 10 feet back and forth each time the waves came through, even though it was relatively calm on top.
Galapagos is located at the confluence of five ocean currents, so you never know which way the water is going to go. The water was mostly very cool, but once in a while you'd hit a really icy current for a few minutes.
The current was so strong that I was unable to swim back to the boat after the dive, which was a little scary. They had to motor around and pick me (and Mike, my trusty dive buddy) up on the other side of the rock.
We had really hoped for hammerhead sharks, but didn't see any. Plenty of reef sharks, sea lions, lobster, eagle rays, and a bazillion small to mid sized fish of every shape and size. The sheer quantity of marine life is amazing!
The Galapagos have thousands of iguanas...and they vary from island to island. These are Marine Iguanas, who love to swim in salt water. It's amazing how graceful they are underwater, like an eel. Other than swimming, they love to bask on the volcanic rock with salt spray nearby. You literally have to avoid stepping on them!
The iguana in the top photo snorted salt water all over the camera lens right after the photo. The lower photo is Mike with at least a dozen iguanas. Toward dusk, they group together for warmth and sleep in a huge iguana pile.
Here is the spot! El Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world and the actual equator line, at the highest point in the world. Thumbs up is the traditional pose here, as you are actually lighter on the equator by a couple of pounds :)
They did a demonstration showing how water drains straight down on the equator, and spins (the Coriolis effect) clockwise and counterclockwise within 6 feet of the line!!
Gruesome but true - this is an actual shrunken head, along with instructions. Although this hasn't been done for hundreds of years, the indigenous people felt this was a way to capture the soul of either your loved ones or your enemies. Did you know that your closed fist represents the size of your own shrunken head?
The longest zip line canopy tour in Costa Rica took us through 2 miles of cable with 18 platforms through the cloud forests. We gave our best Tarzan yells!
Here we are, a little muddy, with Jack Haggerty, who was in pilot training with Mike and just retired as a FedEx/Flying Tiger captain.
What a fantastic adventure with Pure Trek Canyoning in La Fortuna, Costa Rica - rappelling down 4 different waterfalls. The longest was 195 feet and the water was warm. It's lush and tropical, but not too hot.
Yee hah, we actually got to touch a real Eclipse 500!! This one is done with production and ready for delivery to some other lucky owner. There are about 43 of these airborne so far!
Cool! We were lucky enough to get the last public tour EVER to climb the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. You can see the 1950 bridge on the left and the new bridge on the right. We were 510 ft. over the water!! The bridge extends downward below the water 230 ft. An amazing feat of engineering - check out the Washington State Department of Transportation website for a computerized animation of the process. http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/animated/
After the helicopter dropped us off at the top of the glacier, we had a real adventure.
We got up to about 17 miles per hour on our sled ride!! You have to lean as you go around the corners, and say "gee" to go right and "haw" to go left. It's a much different experience in August than in March, when the Iditarod run actually happens... it was warm, sunny and short compared to the 1,100 miles they run on the Iditarod.
We were the only visitors up on the glacier along with the dogs owners, so we got to spend about an hour playing with the dogs. These Alaskan huskies are pure muscle, and bark like crazy but they are so sweet and friendly.
Adrenaline rushes abound on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Those 10 foot waves are mighty big when they are up close and personal. We ended up swimming on this one - that's Sue in front and Mike in back
Beautiful weather and 84 degree water makes for pretty cushy diving! We saw eagle rays, sting rays, lots of crabs, parrotfish, snapper, baracuda, little fingerprint snails, and garden eels that pop out of the sand. We also saw these little one inch worms called blennies that looked just like the creature in Alien that popped out of the guy's stomach. Eeeewww.
Oh YEAH...after climbing up the arch, we set lines, took a deep breath and rappelled off the top of Corona Arch, descending 115 feet. It's a little unnerving when you run out of rock to stand on and have to jump to the hanging position.
It was such a kick in the pants, we did it three times!!
What a beautiful course! Several holes were right on the ocean. There were bets made and pesos exchanged, but it all came out pretty even in the end...
In Times Square, they have a bicycle that you can ride - everyone sits in a circle and peddles through traffic (with the supervision of a pedicab driver). We had a narrow miss with a couple of truck mirrors and almost rear ended a cab...this was probably our most HIGH ACTIVITY adventure in the Big Apple!
Mike made it to the top!! Fortunately, he also made it back down safe and sound, tired but very satisfied. He gave this trip an A+ rating and will be looking for hiking companions for the next trip with these same guides. Anyone game?
This is the first time in my life I ever shot anything except a BB gun. Mike and I were pretty marginal shots - those clay discs you're supposed to hit were really fast. Our guide said a bird in the bush is 10 times faster. Good thing we weren't responsible for shooting our supper!
This was a guy trip - Mike's brothers Charlie, Tom and Dan, along with his flying buddy Joe, and nephews Tim (Chicago) and Matt& Nick (Moline) . Mike and I did a similar (and shorter) version on our honeymoon. 60% of this hike is in the water in a slot canyon. It's so scenic, so cool (view and weatherwise). You have to wear special water boots to go through the river, which is (per the ranger) like walking on greased bowling balls.
Wow - what a great celebration. It was hot and sunny, and we watched the fireworks surrounded by family. There was wagering aplenty (a buck per person) for a guess as to when the first bomb would burst in the air. Mike's sister Cookie won $9 !!!
Through this gorge, the glacier drops nearly 2,000 feet over ten miles and is raked with crevasses. Add in the solid granite cliffs that tower 5,000 feet above the glacier's surface, and you create an abyss that is deeper than the Grand Canyon.
We took a ride in on an old mining railway car in the Blue Mountains that is the steepest in the world, at an amazing 52 degrees (almost a vertical drop). They play the Indiana Jones theme as they drop you down the hill. Perfect!
At about 4 million people, Sydney is bigger than Los Angeles. The inlet from the ocean winds all through the city, so there are 600 miles of coastline. We lost track of all the marinas - there are boats everywhere. It's lively, cosmopolitan, has great transit, good diversity, food and culture. What an impressive city!
See those little tiny figures on top of the bridge? That's us climbing up...they have you on a safety line, and it takes about 2 hours to climb up to the center point. They are extra careful about climbers, so you can't take a camera or anything you might drop. They even give you a breathalyzer test prior to climbing! The view from the top was spectacular.
Here we are diving off the boat. It was about 100 ft. long, and totally set up for diving. There were 24 passengers and about 10 crew for 3 days...pretty nice! In this photo, I'm entering the water in what they call a "giant stride" where you take a big step off a platform to the warm water about 8 feet below. We saw some really cool stuff down there - giant cod, lionfish, garden eels and nudibranchs, which is kind of a colorful sea slug. We did 3 or 4 dives per day.
Cairns, Australia - There is an indescribable sense of relief when the chute finally opens. It pulls quite a jolt, definitely takes your breath away. The rest of the ride was peaceful, surreal and an absolute delight.
Wow, these are incredible, about 3 to 4 feet in diameter. They are so HUGE, with a very soft purple inside. If you touch the edge with your hand, they clamp shut!
OK, here is the real thing. These crocodiles jump out of the water, which is truly scary because they keep reminding you to keep your head and arms inside the open air boat.
Just look at the brick red color of that sand. It is absolutely beautiful. Also crawling with interesting things like legless lizards that look like snakes, thorny devil lizards that drink water through their feet and large hairy spiders that I have not seen and am NOT looking for. One bite from the Inch Ant can sting and swell for weeks. The weight of the biomass of insects exceeds the weight of all the mammals above ground.
Flora is bizarre as well. The trees keep their leaves and shed their bark, so the age of the tree is not discerned from tree rings but from carbon dating. Spiniflex grass dies from the inside and grows on the outside, creating a donut ring of green with dead grass in the center several feet in diameter. Cozy place for dragon lizards to hide.
About as big as a small dog, these guys are really ferocious, here feeding on a piece of wallaby. They are nocturnal and social feeders - helping each other tear the meat apart while they snarl and growl at each other. Mike said it reminded him of some dinners with his brothers?!
We loved the epic Lost World all day caving adventure. It started with a 100 meter rapell down into the canyon (that's a 30 story building, people!) We had lunch at the bottom of the cave, then strapped on the headlamps and took off for hours of cave exploring, including rock climbing, spider-walking, inching along narrow rock ledges, wading and swimming through underground rivers. There were lots of underground waterfalls, and even an opportunity for Mike to dive from a 8 meter rock ledge into a pool. We saw eels and cave spiders (I didn't look, but Mike saw them). The best part was kicking back with our headlamps off for 20 minutes and taking in the glow worms. After our eyes adjusted to the dim light they gave off, we could actually see each other in a completely dark cave! It was an amazing day.
How cool is this? This is a huge native Maori carving and we got to swim right next to it. The water is so WARM, even though it was 6pm and a little cloudy.
Afterwards we were offered towels and a spot of tea. At $30NZ each (about $25US) this was our best bargain so far for a 2 1/2 hour sail.
Ever heard of "sledging"? It's kind of like a plastic half sled for the water. You hold on like the dickens and paddle with flippers while you go over the rapids. That's me on the left doing some surfing - which lasted about 2 seconds until the water kicked me out. Cool! I actually had to do this without my contact lenses (too much water in the face) and am so blind without them that the guide had to lead me down the river. For example, she'd say...everyone swim over to that tree, and all I could see was green blobs. Anyway - it was a kick in the pants!!
This 50 meter drop looks fun, but was actually pretty dicey for me. (That's Mike on the left and me on the right.) My line slipped a couple of times, and I ended up swinging into some rocks. It was hard to keep a foothold on the rocks as they were slippery with water and algae.
After this one, we did one last abseil THROUGH a waterfall, where the water was pounding down as you tried to hold the line. Yikes!
The jump was 40 meters but it was all about the first step. I went two feet into the water and had a bit of time to splash aroung before springing back up. After three bounces you release a strap and it puts you in a seated position. Mine got stuck and they had to hoist me up inverted the whole time.
