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| A little bit of heaven !!! |
Usually I like to just write about one topic per post, but today will be a bit of a potpourri as I've not written in a while.
I'll begin with Cuba, I just got back from a much needed vacation on it's lovely beaches together with Evelyn our daughter and grandson. Surprisingly, family vacations are very much a happening thing as there where many of them at our resort, it's nice to see this trend!
I liked Cuba, didn't get to see much of it as we were only there for a week, wanted to go to Havana but it was a 12 hour excursion so we passed on it, wanted to see Fidel too, but no luck there either !.
I found the people friendly and helpful, as far as getting a real feel for the country it's not possible in such a short time, but oppose to Mexico where police with machine-guns hanging from there shoulders are common sight, here I only saw an occasional policeman and they just carried a small barely visible side arm , one gets a much more secure feeling in Cuba.
The discussion of Democracy versus Communism I will leave for another post, it is one of my favourite subjects to delve into!.
One of the highlights of the trip was a hike we took in the Varahicacos Ecological Reserve, we were lucky as the hotel was just a half hour walk away so one morning before it got to hot Evelyn and I headed out , once there, fee paid, map in hand we went in and found ourselves plunged into a natural wonderland full of cactus, exotic plants, salamanders, caves, termite mounds, bee hives and even skeletal remains it was a most amazing hike
All kind of cactus plants and trees.
If I read the pamphlet correctly , foto on the left is a Curujeyes, it roots onto other plants and rocks.
Termite mounds abounded, some on the ground some high up in trees.
Lots of caves, some quite challenging to get into.
Lots of bees, with hives in the rock or like this exposed on the walls, had to walk by very slowly !!!
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| This little guy was very friendly and would come right up to us to investigate. |
2,000 year old aboriginal remains, discovered in 1985.
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| The porous rook filters out the seawater creating freshwater lagoons |
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| 300 year old Cactus tree, being slowly strangled by the roots of a Fiscus. |
Another excursion was to the Dolphin Park to swim with the dolphins , ordinarily I don't like the idea of captive animals being exploited especially dolphins, but there's a bit of an inconsistency in believes here as I have spent half a decade working with captive animals that are extremely exploited , some day I will have to come to terms with that.
These dolphins at least were in a very large semi natural environment, en a natural estuary surrounded by mangrove trees and interacting with other sea creatures that could come into their pools.
We had a great time swimming with them !!
We never made it to Havana but we did get a slight flavour of urban Cuba by visiting Veradero , even went for a buggy ride !!.
I will definitely be going back to Cuba one day.
Yesterday I spotted the first barn swallow of the season , she must have followed me back from Cuba !!!, it marvels me how these delicate little birds can make such a exhausting migratory journey every year, navigating their way over thousands of kilometres of a hostile over populated continent back to their birth place, my barn.
I have no update on Wisdom, I've scoured the internet and nothing, in these cases one has to stick to the old adage " no news is good news !! "
As I suspected neither BBC or CNN responded to my query to them. But as I was browsing for info I came upon BirdWatchingDaily.com and they had and article about Wisdom:
This article led me to some great pictures of Wisdom and her chic taken by Connie Toops , they can be found here:
"Paris to Istanbul" it conjures up images of history, mystery and intrigue, great adventures , dazzling scenery, delicious cuisine and a possible spectacular breathtaking bike tour !!!, 4,000 km in 50 days riding throw Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Turkey, Andy you have tweaked my interest with your intent to ride it in 2013, I wonder if I can get another leave of absence ????
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