Another fine wakening. I took an early stroll for some morning pictures.
We also had another great breakfast. Patricia and Karla continue to do wonders in the kitchen. I think everyone wants to take them both home. Today we are headed to Quito. Continue reading
The dogs were barking for a little while so I didn’t get to sleep as fast as I could. That was ok since my book was keeping me company. Eventually I drifted off. I don’t remember what time I woke up but there wasn’t enough sun to so I refused to get out, leading to a trip back to dreamland. Robert knocked on the door around 8a for breakfast. Now it was four of us, me, robert, george, and laura. Spinach and onion omelettes, granola and yogurt, juice, water, and quinoa cereal. Serious. There was quinoa cereal It was good and robert thinks it’s only found here so far since it’s a new product. I’m sure it’ll take off once it’s known. There was cane juice and honey in it. We made a plan with robert for the activities today. Again, it was not planned so that’s a $150. Continue reading
I left off with the plane landing uneventfully.
Got my bag and headed out. I was running on some crazy energy. Basic immigration line and thankfully having been up front in the plane I got an early start on the line. That was quick too. Maybe because they all seemed so tired being up that early. Oh yeah. We landed like 30 minutes early at 0345 or something. After immigration it was off for my bags. It took a while for my checked bags to come. Intact and appearing to be unopened it was off to customs. Pretty fast there as well. I gave my form, put all my bags including hand bag on the scanner belt and picked them up. That was it. I left that area wondering if I’ll find my ride. You know. New country. I don’t speak the language well enough. I also don’t have a phone that I can use for calls and I also can’t find my info sheet of phone numbers that I need in case of problems. Well. No problems. Continue reading
(update: if you want to skip all the chatter and just look at all the photos you can go to www.flickr.com/santasfallenangel/sets )
I’m on my way to the Galapagos. I knew I would be as I am the who booked the trip to begin with. I got home after work and had about a 48 hour turnaround to get ready for this trip, that’s including sleep. I wasn’t awestruck or anything when I was getting things ready. Same basic setup. Do the laundry. Make sure the mail is on hold. Remind people you are leaving. Get your todo list of the things you can’t forget with a tiered down secondary and tertiary list of the things it would suck to forget and the stuff you can always pick up if you really needed to. Don’t forget: passport, money. I think that’s about it. Yes it’s nice to have clothes and other things but with a credit card you can probably pick up most things you need. Most people that know me would assume, rightly, I would have also included camera, batteries, and battery chargers. I think those would fall into the second tier of things that would suck to forget. It is the galapagos. Darwin’s finches, giant tortoises humping, the things dreams are made of, or at least the things that I learned about in science that stirs the imagination. A phone camera will work also and worst case is I’d have to resort to my memory, which is something I most assuredly don’t want to do. Besides, we don’t have the interface yet to extract the videos and pictures stored in my head.
(Pause for airport) Continue reading
I hadn’t really planned on writing anything while I work on my recent trip photos and writing of the trip but an experience this morning prompted me to through down some thoughts. At breakfast two women in the buffet line were complaining about the meal on thanksgiving. “This is the best they could serve?” was what one of them said. First off, it’s the morning of thanksgiving. I’ve never heard of a morning meal. Second, I’m not in the fittest shape but these ladies could do with fewer sausage links and french toast themselves. I was having a normal breakfast of omelette with vegetables, fruit, granola, and some fingerling potatos. Green tea, guava juice, and water for drinks.
I’m at work over this holiday so others can have the time off. I’m not a big holiday person to begin with. Celebrate every day not just the one day. There are a bunch of family hanging out while I’m not there. I’m ok with that. I’m not bored or lonely and I’ll hang out tonight with people for a short time at least.
But this is thanksgiving. I keep hoping it will stay one of, if not the only, holidays that actually means something. Not the commercial shopping blitz of ‘christmas’ in which christ probably would say to do something good for those less fortunate instead of the spoiled senses of others wondering what new things they are going to get that they don’t really need. Halloween is about candy and not All Hallows Eve or celebrating the dead. The fourth of july, while it should be about independence is generally a time to drink and grill and watch fireworks. I still shudder when I see people mumble through the anthem.
But thanksgiving. Yes it’s not a pure holiday still. Heck it started with a conquest of the europeans against the north american indians. It’s stood though mostly as a time for friends and family to get together even if there is an over abundance of drinking and gluttony. It’s the spirit of caring on this holiday that made me cringe overhearing those women this morning. This feels like another rant but I hope you’ll feel the plea of wanting man to be better towards one another. Maybe use this day as the springboard into the xmas season as the time to show compassion and caring. Turn over the money you were planning on dumping into the latest and greatest whatever and buy someone a meal or take your family and do some volunteer work.
Stick a fork in me, I’m done.
-SFA
Death and dying happen. It has happened and it’s going to happen again, to me, to you, to everyone. This is something that I had been thinking about again recently as I was going through some photos but hadn’t really planned on writing about. Continue reading
Not the greatest of pictures but I was at work at the time and didn’t have much time. The full moon picture was from the night before. Continue reading
Time lapsed video from magic sands
I had this chance to record this beautiful sky… so I did. I sped it up instead of taking photos and making into a video. It’s smoother. This is just a new hobby I’m trying to work on and I hope you enjoy this.
Working two jobs and spending the rest of the time on hobbies other than writing sure makes the time pass by. I recorded this as a test piece and it was good enough of a first effort I wanted to share it with others. Enjoy. There’s a link for a better quality one.
Test video of A Passage of Time