Good Karma in Alaska

Denali

We took the "Gold Star Dome" class train from Anchorage to Denali National Park.  The first half of the six hour ride is not very interesting, but the second half is through mountain valleys surrounded by snow covered peaks and is quite beautiful. 


Denali, also known as Mount McKinley, has been visible on the average of one out of every ten days this summer.  You might think I was very lucky to take the 66 mile bus tour into the park on one of those days.  But I think it is just good karma.  The weather during the ten days we were in Alaska was some of the warmest and clearest of the year. 

Denali

About thirty miles into the park, we got our first view of Denial.  The sky was clear and the entire mountain was visible.  It was still 60 miles away, but the view was stunning.  At 20,327 feet above sea level, it is the highest mountain in North America and it is 18,000 feet from the base to summit.  In comparison, Mt. Shasta is 14,179 feet above sea level and is about 10,000 from the base to the peak.  Denali has several sub peaks that are all over 14,000 feet above sea level.  Back in the 70's, I flew from Travis Air Force base, near San Francisco, to Japan and had a three hour layover at an Air Force base south of Denali.  It was a clear night with a full moon.  I remember being mesmerized by the mountain and watched it for the entire three hours as the sun rose and bathed the mountain in golden light.  I did not know at the time how lucky I was to be there on a clear day.  Now, more than 40 years later, when it happened again, I realize it is  not luck, but good karma.  

 

A misty cloud swept over the mountain in the afternoon, making it surreal.  On the ride out of the park, the coulds shrouded the peaks and swept down valleys.

 

In addition to the mountain, which few tourists actually see, the main attraction in the park is the wild life.  Our guide said if we were lucky we may see two or three grizzly bears.  We saw fifteen to twenty grizzly bears, the most the guide had seen all year…karma.  We also saw big horn sheep, moose, caribou, elk and a red fox.

It was fall in Denali and the foliage of the trees and shrubs was vibrant yellow, red, and orange.  The grandeur of Denali National Park is amazing.

We took the Denali-Anchorage Connection bus back to Anchorage where rented a car for the drive to Seward.  Our first day in Seward we took a guided tour to Exit Glacier, the only glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park accessible by road (or a short walk from the parking lot).  It is managed by the National Park Service which has an exhibit and research center.  Although the glacier is not particularly impressive compared to the others we saw, the information center gave us a much better understanding of the formation of Harding Ice Field and the glaciers it feeds.  Climate change is causing the glaciers to shrink more rapidly each year.  It is part of the earth’s cycle of ice ages and warm climate, known as the Milankovitch cycles, caused by the change in the tilt of the earth’s axis.  There are five known ice ages, with the most recent ending about 10,000 years ago.  Now we are in the middle of the cycle.  But the new factor of man-made carbon is dramatically increasing the warming trend.  Will it prevent the next ice age that would naturally occur about 14,000 years from now?  Or will another asteroid, like the one that created the Chicxulub crater and the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, hit the earth first?  





 

The next day we took a six hour whale watching and glacier cruise.   It was a clear, warm, and calm day. 

The cruise guide said it was the best day they had all year … karma.  We saw orcas, gray whales, porpoises, sea lions, puffins, and Holgate Glacier. 

It was a fantastic day on the water and made us thankful to be able to experience the beauty of nature.

We drove to Homer, the halibut capital of the world, where we had planned to kayak at Kachemak Park, across the bay from the Homer Spit.  But it was too windy and rough for the water taxi to take us across the bay.  At the time, I thought that I had used all my good karma for this trip.  But a few days later I learned that while we were prevented from kayaking because of wind and roughs seas, Denali Park was having the first blizzard of the season and the park was essentially closed.  It was incredible that we were in Denali the last days before winter arrived. 

 

So my good karma was holding and we saw some  Bald Eagles

 and took a hike through a preserve north of Homer.

We did not see much wildlife on the hikes, but we saw thousands of mushrooms. 

 On our drive back to Anchorage we stopped at Kenai Lake and kayaked for a few hours.  We saw loon and several salmon jumping, and a pair of swans on another lake.

It was another beautiful clear day.  On our last day in Alaska took a guided historical tour of Anchorage in a trolley car.  The tour guide was excellent and we learned about the history of Anchorage and the effect of the 1964 earth quake.  It started to rain while we we were waiting for  our flight ... karma.Alaska is described as the last frontier.  We saw only a small section of the state, but it was enough for me to appreciate its vastness, splendor and wilderness. Next on my bucket list are the Galapagos, New Zealand, and Tahiti/Bora Bora.

Spanish Immersion Course, Merida, Week Three

My guide the third week is Ana, a charming 26 year-old young lady of Maya descent. She is majoring in tourism at the University Autonmoa de Yucatan. On Monday we went to Caffe Latte, my favorite espresso café, and worked on my homework.

 

Mi guía de la tercera semana es Ana, una encantadora mujer de 26 años de ascendencia Maya. Ella se una estudiante en turismo de la Universidad Autonmoa de Yucatán. El lunes fuimos a Caffe Latte, mi café espresso favorito, y trabajamos en mi tarea.



On Wednesday we visited the Grand Museum of the Maya World. It is huge new modern museum dedicated to the history, culture and people of the Maya world. The museum is an interesting juxtaposition of the modern and ancient. Over the past 13 years, I have visited about fifteen Maya historical sites and have read about the Maya history. At the peak of the Maya civilization, there were an estimated 22 million Mayans. I have often read that millions of the Mayans mysteriously disappeared and abandoned their great city states. Fairly recent studies indicate that some of the early city states were abandoned over a period of a couple of hundred years and there was a slow migration to other areas. Then the Spanish arrived and enslaved and killed many of the remaining Maya population. The wars between the Maya and the Spanish lasted for about 500 years. Today, there are about four million people of Maya descent. 

El miércoles visitamos el Gran Museo del Mundo Maya. Es enorme nuevo museo moderno dedicado a la historia, la cultura y la gente del mundo Maya. El museo es una interesante yuxtaposición de lo moderno y lo antiguo. Durante los pasada 13 años, he visitado quince sitios históricos mayas y he leído sobre la historia maya. En el pico de la civilización maya, se estimaba que había 22 millones de mayas. He leído muchas veces que millones de los mayas desaparecieron misteriosamente y abandonaron sus grandes ciudades-estado. Estudios bastante recientes indican que algunos de los estados tempranos de la ciudad fueron abandonados en un período de un par de cientos de años y había una lenta migración a otras áreas. Luego llegaron los españoles y esclavizó y mató a muchos de la población Maya restante. Las guerras entre los mayas y los españoles duró unos 500 años. Hoy en día, hay aproximadamente de cuatro millones de personas de ascendencia maya.

 

 

Bus to Progreso

Progreso Beach

On Thursday Ana and I took a bus to Progreso and spent the afternoon at the beach.

El jueves Ana y yo tomamos un bus a Progreso y pasaron la tarde en la playa.

 

Friday night, after my last day of classes, I took my host family and Ana to dinner and then to a karaoke bar. The school administrator, Eva, joined us and we had a blast singing and dancing until about 11:30. I gave Ana a ride home on my motorcycle. She lives about 20 miles south of Merida. I turned the wrong direction on my return trip to Merida, so I did not get back to my host home until 2 a.m. Then got up at 6:30 to drive my motorcycle on the four hour ride to catch the ferry back to Cozumel. 

Viernes por la noche, depues mi último día de clases, me llevé a mi familia anfitrión y Ana a cenar y luego a un bar de karaoke. El administrador de la escuela, Eva, se unieron a nosotros y tuvimos mucha diversión de canto y baile hasta las 11:30. Di Ana a su casa en mi motocicleta. Ella vive mas o menos 30 kilómetros al sur de Mérida. Me di la dirección equivocada en mi viaje de regreso a Mérida, así que no volveré a mi casa de acogida hasta las 2 a.m. Luego se levantó a las 6:30 para conducir mi motocicleta en el paseo de cuatro horas para coger el ferry de regreso a Cozumel.

The three-week course was good and I have improved my vocabulary and pronunciation, but I still cannot understand most of what is said when I hear spanish spoken at a normal rate. It is going to take more practice and time. But the immersion course and home stay was a very rewarding and fun experience. My frustration in not being fluent in spanish at this time is outweighed by my feeling of accomplishment and joy in making new friends and experiencing life in Merida. 

El curso de tres semanas era buena y la he mejorado mi vocabulario y pronunciación, pero todavía no puede entender la mayoría de lo que se dice cuando oigo español hablado a una velocidad normal. Se va a tomar más práctica y tiempo. Pero el curso de inmersión y la estancia de la casa fue una experiencia muy gratificante y divertido. Mi frustración en no ser fluido en español en este momento se ve compensado por mi sentimiento de logro y alegría en hacer nuevos amigos y experimentar la vida en Mérida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Spanish Immersion Course, Merida, Mexico. Week Two

Another week and another beautiful guide. I did not know the school rotates the guides each week until Mariela knocked on the gate at 4 p.m. on Monday.

Mariela

It is a good program in that I meet more Spanish speaking people and learn different speech patterns. Mariela is a 21 year-old university student studying economics. This will be her last year. Like Yasmin, she is a lovely young lady with a lot of energy and big smile.



Home work at Star Bucks

    Monday we went to Star Bucks and worked on my homework.







 On Tuesday we rode my motorcycle to Maya ruins, Dzibilchaltun, about 15 miles north of Merida.

 The park has an excellent museum and a small cenote (sink hole with fresh water). I brought my swim suit with the intent of cooling off, but Mariela did not bring hers, so I did not jump in.


  
We were walking towards the a temple when a storm was approaching.  A guard warned us it was dangerous to be near or on the temple because of lightning and he waited for us to leave.

We rode out of the park at 4:30 and as we were approaching Merida we ran into the storm and I quickly realized we need to get off the highway and seek shelter.

I rode under the covered entrance to a new coliseum that was not open. For two hours we stood under the overhang of the entrance and watched the huge storm. It was totally black with streaks of lightning piercing the sky. I entertained Mariela by teaching her salsa, bachata and merengue, and singing a song. But after two hours it was still pouring rain and the wind was howling around us. I called Gonzalo and asked him to pick up Mariela and take her to her house. By the time he arrived at the coliseum, the rain had almost stopped but the streets were flooded and there were stalled cars everywhere. I rode slowly back to my host’s house, plowing through foot deep water in some places. I was glad Mariela was not riding on the back because I fishtailed a couple of times stopping for signals on the flooded streets. When I returned to my host home, there was no power. We went to bed early and the power came back on about 2 a.m. The next morning the news reported that it was tropical storm 13 and caused a lot of flooding.

On Thursday we went to the central market and then I attended Rotary that night. When they asked me what I like to do and I responded that I like to salsa dance and sing. So they asked me to sing a song. I sang the only one I know I can sing well accapella, “You Make Me Feel So Young.”

Mariela agreed to meet me at the Mambo Café on Friday night at 9 to go dancing. Needless to say, I was delighted to have a beautiful young dance partner. I told her she does not have to dance all night with me and is welcome to dance with younger men. We took the one hour dance lesson in salsa, bachata and merengue. Mariela text her friends and asked them to come, but they had other plans. She left shortly after the class and I stayed and danced with other ladies.



Uxmal

On Saturday I went on a tour to the Mayan ruins of Uxmal and Kabah. The tour was provided by my Spanish school. I have been to both these ruins a few years ago by myself. This time I had a Spanish speaking guide and one purpose of the excursion was to work on my Spanish comprehension. It was a hot but an enjoyable day.

Uxmal

Kabah





Kabah

I planned to go karaoke singing that night but the first two karaoke bars I went to were closed and I could not fine the third one on my list. Then it started raining hard and I decided to call it a night. On the way back to my host home, I was having difficulty seeing the road because my helmet visor does not have windshield wipers. I missed seeing the trolley car tracks and skidded sideways, dumped my motorcycle in the middle of the street and made a three point landing on my right elbow, hip and knee. I quickly killed the engine, picked up the motorcycle and pushed it to the side of the road to assess the damage to my body and bike. Although I had a big bruise and some bleeding road rash, nothing was broken and the motorcycle still ran, only missing a mirror. Lesson learned: DON’T RIDE A MOTORCYLE IN THE DARK IN THE RAIN.


Oh ... I forgot to write that I found an excellent espresso machine at Sam's Club for $71.  I have been looking for a good espresso machine in Mexico for many years because the one I brought to Casa Martillo ten years ago no longer makes steam.

More next week ...

Spanish Immersion Course in Merida, Mexico, Week One

 

 

For several years my bucket list has included taking a Spanish immersion course. After going to Cozumel three or four times a year for the past thirteen years, you might think I would already be able to speak Spanish fluently. But I can’t, so I registered for a three week course in Merida, including a home stay. I arrived in Merida after a red-eye flight from San Francisco to Cozumel, a ferry ride to Playa del Carmen, and a four hour bus ride.

My host family in Merida is a warm and gracious 79 year-old lady, Josefina, and her son, Gozalo. Josefina speaks English but has been told by my school to speak only Spanish with me. Her son, Gonzalo, speaks English, but we do better in Spanish.

I am very lucky to have a private class because I am the only student who started classes this week at my level of comprehension. My teacher, Astrid, is a beautiful 24 year-old lady who is a college graduate.



Astrid

She has excellent articulation, and is patient with me. She is fluent in English, but the class is solely in Spanish. Classes are from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday. I return to my host home at 1 and Josefina serves comida, the largest meal for the day, at 2. Then it is siesta time.














The school provides me with a guide who arrives at my host home each day at 4. We go to museums, shopping, cafes, and wander the city. Her name is Yasmin, which means “gift from God,” and it is a very appropriate name. She is an adorable 19 year-old college student with a lot of energy and a big smile.


Yasmin

Shopping with Yasmin

Mayan Skeleton

 

Studying at Star Bucks

Always fun

 

On Friday night Gozalo and I went to a night club. Gonzalo was not interested in dancing, but enjoyed watching the girls and the beer. The club provided a one hour lesson in bachata, salsa and merengue. A thirteen piece band started playing at 11. I danced with several women and had a blast.

On Thursday, my laptop stopped connecting to the WiFi, and I can’t be without email for three weeks. So on Saturday I took the bus back to Playa del Carmen and the ferry to Cozumel to have my computer expert fix my laptop. I arrived at Casa Martillo about 9 p.m. and the computer guru came over immediately and fixed it in 10 minutes. I went out to dinner at 10 for a bowl of pazole. I got up at 6:30 to ride my motorcycle to the car ferry and then the 4 hour ride back to Merida. The ride was not bad, except it was 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity.

More next week