April 22, 2009

Ode To Santa Cruz

There's a town people visit, they can't stay away.
They drive "over the hill", down to Monterey Bay.

It's a place where there's always a bit of a breeze.
Even when the rest of the West must resort to A.C.

The fog rolls in and out; it is quite a routine.
Keeping redwood trees healthy on Route 17.

It's spunky and funky, with a laid-back sort of charm.
Where you can eat a burrito as thick as your arm.

The students in school here think the trees deserve hugs.
Their mascot is infamous--the fighting banana slugs!

The locals--Well! They march to a different drummer.
You won't find many here who'll be driving those Hummers.

Head down to the wharf and stare out at the water.
That crunching you hear--it's a hungry sea otter!

The Boardwalk rollercoaster is right on the beach.
Even the surfers on Steamer's value freedom of speech.

Old Route One beckons, with its views of the coastline.
And its reminders of the big earthquake in 1989.

It's a town without nukes, where you can grow giant cukes,
It's a place people call: SANTA CRUZ.

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April 8, 2009

Irish Rainbow

Irish Rainbow, originally uploaded by perlgurl.org.

Sorry all, but I've been away for the past couple weeks, roadtripping around Ireland and celebrating a prolonged St. Patrick's Day by sampling the local Guinness and irish whiskey. Back soon!

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January 16, 2009

An Argument for Packing Your Trash-Wherever You Go

Vervet Monkey on Trash Can, originally uploaded by perlgurl.org.

Trash is everywhere, even in national parks in Kenya. We had a really hard time keeping our lunch away from these vervet monkeys.

You know how in parks squirrels and chipmunks and seagulls will show interest, but generally wait for you to leave before looking for crumbs?

Vervet monkeys don't wait.

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September 11, 2008

Granite State Greenery: AMC Huts Showcase Green Tech

Hut Hike 2008: Greenleaf & Galehead, originally uploaded by perlgurl.org.

Hello, all!

Just back from a hike through some of the AMC huts along the Appalachian Trail. We headed up the Bridal Path Trail up to Greenleaf hut and then on up a total of 3600 feet to Mount Lafayette (5,260ft) and across the Garfield Ridge Trail to Galehead hut, passing the summit of Mt. Garfield (4,500 ft) along the way.

Had a great time, some serious weather though, like fog, hurricane force winds (80+mph), torrential rain, thunder, lightning and a snow advisory.

The Garfield Ridge Trail was substantially more difficult than I remembered, especially around Mt. Garfield, where it turns from a trail to a rock climbing expedition. It made Agony Ridge below Greenleaf feel like a cakewalk.The weather thankfully cleared for a bit along the way and we had some fantastic views.

We made it to Galehead a bit after dark. The Galehead crew gave us a tour of all the green tech at the hut—composting toilets, kitchen compost, wind power, solar, on-demand hot water for the kitchen, etc.

You can find more pictures of our trip on FLICKR: Greenleaf to Galehead and I'm going to try to do a post with more details on how the huts of the White Mountains make little choices that make big differences to keep their impact on the environment low.

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July 20, 2007

What Makes A World Wonder?

When I was a young girl, I wanted to see the wonders of the ancient world set forth by the great Greek historian Herodotus. Unfortunately, by the time I was born, only one of them still existed. In fact, five of the seven wonders of the ancient world were destroyed long before Christopher Columbus bumped into the New World, and the sixth - the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus - fell victim to an earthquake in 1494.

Last year, I finally made it to the only ancient world wonder still standing - the Great Pyramid of Giza. Completed more than 4,507 years ago, it's still unclear how many people it took to build that great pile of stones - numbers range from 30,000 to more than 100,000 - and if the workers were slaves, hired help or religious believers taking time off their own lands during the periodic Nile floodings. Mathematics show that almost 2.5 million blocks of stone were used, some weighing as much as 80 tons.

Nowadays these stones are worn, sometimes crumbling, with visitors' initials carved roughly into their crumbling facades. You're not allowed to climb the stones or sit on them, and everywhere you turn, someone wants to sell you a camel ride. Still, one can't help wanting to touch the structure, just to believe it's real.

And so I did.

When people asked where we went on our honeymoon around the world, I told them we went to visit "The Greats" - The Great Pyramids, The Great Wildebeest Migration of the Serengeti, diving with Great White Sharks, and the Great Wall of China. Most people don't know that the Great Wall of China is not one of the initial world wonders.

However, just this month, the Great Wall of China became one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. These new wonders are not part of the UNESCO World Heritage program, which I greatly respect, but some other endevour. In fact, UNESCO has distanced itself from the 7 wonders campaign, which has been run something like a world contest for travel fame. I'm conflicted here, because I'm an avid traveler and supporter of UNESCO and I'm wary that this 7 wonders deal is nothing but a marketing stunt.

The New World Wonders are:

The Great Wall of China (Been there, would visit again)
Petra, Jordan (If Indiana Jones can do it, so can I)
Christ the Redeemer, Watching over Rio, Brazil (I object! See below.)
Machu Picchu, Peru (Can't wait to visit, especially since Esther came back)
Chichén Itzá, Mexico (Certainly on my short list)
The Roman Colosseum, Italy (Was too young to appreciate, must revisit)
The Taj Mahal, India (Again, the short list)

Who surprisingly did not win?

Well, quite a few places. To name a few:

Statues of Easter Island (More Brazilian voters than vacant Rapa Nui)
Stonehenge, United Kingdom (Been there, certainly would go again)
Pyramids of Giza, Egypt (You're an old wonder, so you don't get to play)
Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France (I cannot stay away from this place)

Ok, so why did I object to Christ the Redeemer being a wonder of the world? Well, honestly, I don't. I object to it being one of the seven greatest architectural achievements existing on Earth at this time. One thing I associate with a world wonder, whether its an ancient one, or a new one, is that it has to be a truly collective effort. It must require the sweat, blood and even lives of many people in order to gain its status. I like to think it's the kind of project that crosses country, class, race, and economic status - although many such structures are religious in nature. And it should take time.

Is it wrong that I consider the scale of the Rio project not grand enough? After all, its final construction cost of $250,000 was covered by tiny donations from the faithful, which certainly is a collective effort.

So please tell me, what am I missing about the icon of Rio? How did this statue merit such a status? What sets it apart from all the other candidates, such Mont-Saint-Michel - a monstrous monastic stronghold more than 1000 years in the making, built on quicksand, with the largest tidal changes (up to 50 feet) in the world?

You tell me.

Just a follow-up note.

I was trying to think of what I was missing in my definition of world wonder, and it came to me: Mystery.

Even much, much later, you should be able to stand looking at a world wonder and WONDER:

How on Earth did they do that?

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March 12, 2007

Egypt Revisited

My husband Shane and I visited Cairo and Giza in Egypt on our trip around the world last fall. You might remember that I posted a couple photos from our trip back in September, including a visit to The Saladin Citadel and The Great Pyramids.

Shane is now reliving his experiences on his blog, and talking about the lasting impressions of the trip. His candor often makes me chuckle, as I am reminded of his worldliness from before I met him (he had never left the time zone).

Within the Citadel, I happened across the filthiest restroom I'd ever seen. It was also probably the oldest. Scary, too, was the fact that locals were filling up their water bottles. From the looks of it, it would have been safer to fill up a water bottle from a puddle in an overcrowded cow pasture.

...

The last impression was the absolute chaos at the airport on the way out. I wrote about that before, so I won't go in to much detail now. Suffice it to say, if there had been a panic from real or a false threat, people would have died.

Read More At Shane's Blog: Egypt: In Retrospect

Reading his post on Egypt has reminded me of my own experiences in Cairo. As Americans, we were very much not welcomed, as we learned when we first arrived. We had, perhaps stupidly, not arranged for transport from the airport to Giza in advance, wanting to do things on our own. The chaos that greeted us made us very uncomfortable and we kept being followed around (get used to it). We eventually brokered a not-terribly-overpriced taxi ride to our hotel by vetting it with a third party, a woman at one of the hotel desks, who vouched for the individual offering us a ride.

Arriving at our hotel with a view of the pyramids (about a 15 minute walk if you don't believe the directions of the camel riders) we had our car bomb sweeped. Like seriously sweeped. We stopped at those moveable bomb blocking cyliders and talked to guys with guns vaguely pointed in our direction. They had dogs, they checked the trunk, they had mirrors and checked under the car. They questioned the driver, and us. Then they let us through and we went to the entryway. We didn't want to leave our bags outside, so Shane checked us in while I watched our bags (1 suitcase plus two carry-ons). The hotel staff kept saying I could go, but I just laughed and stayed. You might think we were being overly cautious. Perhaps, but we never insulted anyone and we tended to make friends instead. Also, we made it through a trip around the world and didn't lose a single thing to slippery fingers, even in some of the most common places for thievery.

When white guests and women went into the hotel, the staff didn't make them go through the metal detectors, but when anyone else did, they made them. I admit, all the bomb stuff made it both interesting and a bit nerve-racking to eat at the cafe in the lobby since the State Department told us to avoid hotel lobbies and such places. We did, for the most part, but if we had totally hid in our rooms, it would have defeated the purpose of the visit, right? Besides, the food there was awesome and we got to see an Egyptian wedding that was held there and do a lot of people watching without having a single person hit us up for something. The day we arrived in Giza, bird flu broke out there. Great! Poultry, one of the staple safe foods when properly cooked is now rather off the menu. Still, the food we had in Egypt was actually really good. Lamb became our primary meat course.

Having a working GPS was a must for us in Cairo. Whenever we got in a taxi, we were able to see whether or not we were headed in generally, the right direction. It was especially useful for the return trips, which were often hailed ourselves. We could see that the driver was following a similar route back to our hotel. We had our concierge write us little notes like "Please take us to the ABC Hotel in Giza" so we didn't have to worry about the language barrier, or even speak English in front of anyone, just work out fees on a calculator and smile and chuckle.

The Khan el-Khalili shopkeepers didn't know what to make of us. We didn't respond to English, so they'd switch to French, Spanish, German... Perhaps I should have covered my hair but I had read that only certain women did so and I did not want to misrepresent myself. Despite attaching myself to Shane in the crowds, I got the worst groping of my life there and while I can safely say the guy regretted it (I elbowed him hard in the gut), it was a bit upsetting. We left the market and went into Old Cairo where people still have careers making brass lamps and baskets. The roads are very narrow and filled with all sorts of vehicles. Here the locals are shopping, and no one bothers us, although we are almost run over on several occasions. I'll never forget the giant rotary where we finally hail a cab home - it's a swirling vortex of buses belching black smoke, honking taxi cabs, people on bikes holding the corners of cars and overloaded donkey carts.

The Citadel was fantastic, a beautiful historical monument with a view the city for miles around it. Pyramids vaguely visible through the heavy haze. We happened to be there for the afternoon prayer call which we got on video. As the sun set, a guard showed us some of the closed-off areas like the prison. We had to stay hydrated and so Shane visited the restroom. As a girl in visiting the third world, you quickly learn to pee standing up. Luckily, backpacking teaches you that, too. Still, after a very brief visit to the airport bathroom early on in the trip (frightening, I think I saw lepers) I decided I would avoid public restrooms in Egypt whenever possible. Going in meant being disconnected from Shane, which was dangerous, and was disgusting in almost all cases anyway.

As Shane described, the Cairo airport scene on our way out was beyond description. A mob scene in which we we initially thought something must be very wrong, and people were trying to leave the country en masse. Of the hundreds of people there, we were the only whites and stood out. Tour groups did not go through this but had a special other entrance. The chaos was balanced with very friendly guards. When we finally got into a line of sorts, we were surrounded by women with large groups of children and even more luggage (like contents of my first apartment). All of which stared at us openly, but wouldn't smile. The women eyed us suspiciously. At one point, a woman's cart had been pushed over by some men pushing to the front to argue with the counter staff (this happened a lot). She was older and had a baby in her arms, so I picked up her cart and righted it for her, fixing her luggage. After that, she nodded regally to me and others nearby murmured, and I felt I'd gotten a reprieve of sorts.

We were screened repeatedly for weapons. All the metal detectors everywhere were going off constantly, but no one was stopped. They just shoved through, sometimes three at a time. Same for the luggage. Finally, at the gate, we were screened again by two guards. Shane and I were wearing the EXACT same gear - our REI hiking boots, light-weight cargo pants and shirts. Yet Shane went through fine and I kept beeping. It must have been underwire. I tried emptying pockets, offered to take off my shoes. They wouldn't wand me, even though I would have been ok with it. I felt bad for making trouble for them. Finally, the guard just decided to ask me if I was carrying weapons and take my word for it.

"Are you carrying any weapons?" the guard looks amused.
"No," I smile.
"Are you carrying any bombs?" the guard laughs.
"No," I chuckle, feeling rather ridiculous.
"Ok, go on through."

And so we were off to Kenya.

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September 30, 2006

Great Wall - Badaling, China

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September 28, 2006

Tiananmen Square - Beijing, China

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September 24, 2006

Great White Shark Diving - Gansbaai, South Africa

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September 23, 2006

Storms River Mouth - Tsitsikamma NP, South Africa

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September 20, 2006

Garden Route - Hermanus, South Africa

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September 19, 2006

Jackass Penguin Colony - Boulders Beach, South Africa

Check out our Jackass Penguin Colony In South Africa podcast - an video program that highlights these animals!

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Garden Route - South Africa

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September 18, 2006

Stellenbosch Wine Route - South Africa

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September 16, 2006

Kenya Wildlife Highlights - The Great Wildebeest Migration

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