Living Simply – Page 5 – HurricaneMaine

Quilotoa

What a great group of people I work with. There is often a suggestion for a trip that someone starts and quickly a group is put together. This weekend was a trip to Quilotoa. We rented a can to pick us up from school and after around 3 hours we arrived at the black sheep inn.

The drive there was amazing with all of the vistas.

Our destination is way out in the distance.

Black sheep inn is an eco hostel that serves vegetarian food only and focused on nature and preserving and conserving resources. They have a great facility and full meals and snacks all day long. Add in massages, helping with transport to hikes, games and things to do.

Beautiful lodge for meals and gathering.

The bunk house with quad rooms to share.

Single house with private bathroom. All others are shared. This is where I stayed as I love privacy and sleep as I am a very light sleeper.

It did get chilly here at night as it is 1000 feet higher than Quito. It is a little cooler here.

Composting toilet. It is a pit toilet that you sprinkle bits of leaves etc. for composting.

Private shower with hot water.
Worth the extra 40 dollars a night.

They have one very friendly cat, named Choco who loved to hang out around my house.

On Saturday, trucks picked us up to go to Quilotoa. The ride had some other great views of mountains. These two peaks are husband and wife, esposo y esposa called Ilinazas.

Quilotoa is a water-filled caldera and is one of the must do hikes in Ecuador. The caldera was formed 800 years ago when the cone of the volcano collapsed during a massive eruption. Over the centuries, the caldera filled with water, and now you can hike along the rim of the beautiful crater lake.

The surrounding area is also home to several indigenous communities that have lived in the region for centuries, mainly the Kichwa. They have a rich culture and history and still practice traditional farming. I love how they maintain a deep connection to the land and the natural resources. Of course they have built structures to support and encourage tourism.

The hike is pretty difficult. It is 1000 meters above Quito so the air is thinner. It is also a pretty difficult hike with the ascents and descents. I decided to do one kilometer and then turn back. The full hike of the rim is 5 hours. I chose instead to hike down to the bottom of the crater and back up.

Carrie decided not to do the full hike with me and we headed back to hike down the crater.

At the start of the hike we were all together.

Three dogs followed us and continued most of the way. I think they smelled our lunches we carried.

The path from the top where I am standing down to the bottom is 2 km, steep and lots of loose gravel on a path that switches back and forth.

There were llamas to get pictures with and mules or horses to take you back up.

The path up was very steep and loose gravel of course. We were not in any hurry as our friends were taking a long hike. So we stopped often to take long breaks.

Finally we made it to the top.

At the bottom we met Mario who we spoke to in Spanish. We decided to all have beers since we decided to hike up. He took a mule

A band playing right before we were leaving.

Sunrise the next morning.

The town of Chugchilan is where the inn is at. I walked around the last morning to look at buildings and people.

A great weekend with amazing people. When Carrie and I left the group, everyone hugged and we were wished a safe journey back. People are very friendly and caring

Washington mountains and Oregon beaches

From Seattle, travels led me to Rainier. Beautiful driving and only a little hiking. And yes you can see Rainier from everywhere!

Sad there was no Sasquatch but definitely saw bear skat on the trail.

I made friends with this beautiful black squirrel. He chirped at me and stood and stared. He was a great conversationalist and was there to greet me on my return trip back.

From Rainier I headed to the Oregon coast to check out the towns along the coastline. Along the way, I could have stopped to see Mt St Helens, but I was not sure how far out of the way it was. The day before and that day was longer drives. I’ll come back again. Washington is definitely beautiful (Montana is too as Becca and her Ryan is now living there.)

My first stop was Pacific City. Really small town and a great place to relax.

From Pacific city, my next hotel was in Seaside. This gave me enough time to take the coastal loop along the Oregon coast.

Cape Kiwanda

The water is very cool so at low tide one can walk in the tidal pools along the beach. Ok, It is still really cold but nice nonetheless.

Cape Lookout

Cape Meares

Octopus tree. The forces that made this happen were either natural or from Indians bending branches for direction pointing and navigation.

After the Capes I stopped in Tillamook at a creamery and had huckleberry ice cream.

I stayed over in Sunset Beach. Not a quiet beach, but not the busiest either. I visited a small aquarium that is family owned. The reviews looked good and the animals looked will cared for. You could feed the sea lions with fresh fish which was fun.

I stopped for a moment in Long Beach. The world’s longest beach but not much to see….

Later I saw a sign for oyster shooters. I had to stop.

Skokomish and Olympic national Park. One of the better places I stayed at was Waterfront at Potlatch. Right on the Hood Canal, and close to the staircase entrance of Olympic national Park.

Hike in Olympic.

Very large Western red cedar with 14′ diameter.

Difficult to see but there is a lot of moss on the trees due to the temperature rainforest.

Bremerton and the Seattle ferry. This is a much better way to get back to Seattle than going the highways. So easy and quite a bit of fun.

You can see Rainer in the center of the picture.

Now to get back to PA and pack for Ecuador…..

Seattle

2 days in Seattle and so much to choose from. Of course one needs to see the space needle which was erected in 1962 fire the world fair and at the height of the space race. The space needle was fun to go up in and see the city. Not usually something that I do but the history of it and seeing the city was spectacular.

Picture they took as we entered and could choose the backgrounds for each.

We also visited the Chihuly Garden and Glass to view a master glass artist’s creations. So incredible what he did with glass to create such large installations.

This was on the ceiling and the light cast shadows into the corners of the room.

On the way back to the hotel so Sunni could get ready for her flight, we had to pass a parade. Fun! It was pretty long but we were able to watch more of it on the the TV in the room.

Alaska airlines was fun to watch as they danced.

What to do in Seattle? There is a lot but I really did not plan and was happy to do some shopping (I had yet found a pair of jeans I was happy with and each region of the country has slightly different offerings). I also wanted to walk along the water and see some of the sights

Sculpture in the Olympic sculpture park.

Not a distorted face (with a seagull on top).

I passed pier 62 and noticed they had a free Zumba class at the end of the pier. Such fun!

Of course the aquarium was pretty amazing. Next to pier 62, it is along the water so fresh salt water is used for the exhibits.

Sea anemones. I love how when you stick your finger between the spines they hug your finger.

And the trip would not be complete without going to Pike Place Market to get something to eat and watch for flying fish.

This guy would put money in the mouth of a fish and they would toss it back and forth. The money never fell out of the fish. Quite the show!

The weirdest thing was the Gum Wall at Pike Place Market. There are so many used pieces of bubble gum dripping along all sides….

It smells like gum and is a bit disgusting.

Low key summer… so far….

I was home at the beginning of 2022 but it had been a crazy time in China since. A lot of time with family and not many pictures…. Just absorbing the time with them!

Becca, Ryan (soon to be son), and my boy Ryan

I settled into spending time with family and just relaxing a bit. Hard to believe that it had been 40 years since I graduated high school. The reunion was great and such a good attendance!

I stopped to look at my old house and talk with teachers I worked with in Punxsutawney. So good to see them!

Small Town living in Worthington means parades and carnivals….

Christmas in July movies with my SIL (and sushi)…

Movies…

I visited Candy and David in Atlanta. Always good to talk about lots of stuff with them and see how retirement is treating them!

Love how they are in the ‘burbs but deer are just happy to roam and eat flowers!

Covered bridge in Georgia built by a former slave.

Most of time was didn’t taking care of banking, retirement, and everything else. Not too informative but memories of being with my loved ones I’ll remember. And on to Montana.

What a wild few months

Leaving one country where you have been teaching and preparing to go to another is chaotic and emotional. Things that need to be done before you leave a country:

Banking and last pay
Police clearance which needs translated to wherever you are going then notarized and legalized
Work visa cancelled and one month visa given instead
Shipping some of your things before you go
Spending or selling much of your cash from the local bank to travel with less
Many dinners and brunches to celebrate all the friendships. The most fun and heartbreaking part.
Making sure that people coming to fill your role have everything they need to take over (that includes the department head position i had as well as the sunshine committee, etc)
Meetings with the next school with email and online resources and tools

I should have been posting all along but I was very busy to pack and decide what goes and what i give away among other things. So this post will be more of a dump of photos with some explanation of the people here. Unfortunately I don’t have all of the pictures as sometimes we forgot to take them!

I’ve had a fair amount of tears. You make some great friendships when you are abroad and lean on each other often. It is difficult to say goodbye but we really like to say “see you down the road.”

Heidi and Elaine have been here for so much in our lives They are great friends! We had some amazing times and were very close mahjong buddies.

Claire on the far right was another travel buddy during the COVID times.

Kathy my wine drinking buddy who was always there to lend an ear and have some fun.

And at the top of the Canton Tower. We even did the death drop ride. So funny. When she screamed before they ever dropped us, the crowd
thought it was hysterical!

Bubble cars near the top of the Canton tower.

Some of the best of my dragonboat buddies. I would spend usually four hours a weekend paddling with them. So funny, kind, and thoughtful. I will miss all of them but especially these three.

More of some of the best people to paddle with.

Receiving flowers from my cross country team at the end of the year athletic ceremony.

I met Lily the first year in Guangzhou. She likes to meet foreigners in a variety of places and have brought together some really fun people.

I have amazing colleagues and school events
are still great get togethers!

At the end of the year party i took a photo with all the people who are still left from our cohort.

At a tour of the new gym facilities that will be opening next year at the school. It will be an amazing addition and will miss Tamara and Joanna.

Of course I’m going to miss quite a few people namely my department and Anne who will be taking over as department head and breaking in a whole new group of teachers. She is amazing and of course I didn’t get pictures of the last afternoon together!

The last bus ride to school. This crew always is the first to arrive to await the bus. Always a great
to start the day!

I received some great gifts.
Vincent gave me a Chinese calligraphy saying that he painted: To leap with enthusiasm.

I was fortunate to see some former students come back and visit for graduation.

I will miss Bodie. He belongs to Dee Baker and often was in the school shop. What a support dog!

Zach and Alexis. I was fortunate to be around amazing educators.

…and TsoTso. They have been in a good home for months and look pretty happy.

Last day, students did not want to go to the buses. They really love school.

I will miss this pool also. It was great therapy for my knee and such a beautiful view

Khmer cooking class

There are many things to do in Siem Reap but i needed to give my knee a break and many other activities required biking or more walking. I was happy to find a cooking class on Trip featuring two dishes i have ordered frequently in Cambodia: Fish Amok and green mango salad. A tuktuk picked me up at my hotel (a guarantee people arrive on time….) And a quick stop down the alley.

Tuk tuks are the way to travel. They zip in and out, are not expensive, and use less fuel.

Narong is my chef and she works for a restaurant owned by a French gentleman who has been here for 13 years.

He owns the restaurant and the cooking school which also sells many of the ingredients. Helpful since I want to make it when I return home.

We started with a tour of the old market. Many items i already know from China wet markets. But we discussed different things useful to cook here differences in produce.

I have seen these peppercorns in many places.

Lots of vegetables including baby corn and tamarind.

These are two different types of eggplant.

We started by chopping all of the ingredients. The cooking takes little time but the preparation is much longer as all of the ingredients are fresh. The recipes can be found at www.khmergourmetcookingclass.com

The ingredients used for the sauce of the Fish Amok are minced small and then pounded in a mortar until it becomes a paste.

The paste made in the mortar is in the bottom left.

And now it is time to cook. I even made dessert. Glutinous rice balls with a palm sugar filling. They are boiled in hot water then cooled in cook water.

Cooking the shrimp for the green mango salad.

And then it was time to eat. Lots of food so some leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Asking with a great Angkor beer, a wonderful lunch.

Jakarta

It didn’t want to leave Flores and the Komodo Islands. I love nature and can find plenty to do in small cities. But we needed to spend a few days in Jakarta to get COVID PCR test to return to China. The hotel had a great pool and I only wanted to go a few places to tour.

We took a half day tour to see old Batavia. This was the capital of the Dutch East Indies along the northeast coat of Java. They took over surrounding kingdoms in these islands in benefit of their trade. It was a European colony for hundreds of years until invasion by Japan. Indonesia gained their independence in 1945. This statue commemorates their independence.

Old style boats that are still being used. Some are designed for cargo and use holds as well as putting cargo on the deck. Others carry passengers.

This man is taking large jugs of water
to sell to people who do not have access to water.

Original building for markets that is now a museum.

We rode in this three wheel car called a Bajaj.

This is an old draw bridge for boats to pass under. Jembotan kotan intan.

We stopped for refreshments of Indonesian herbal health drinks. The drinks are very tasty and make from fresh spices.

We visited a puppet maker to learn how he makes these thin puppets from goat skin that are so beautiful and take such time to make. He shared a short example of a puppet play that tells stories of past events in Indonesian history.

These are pictures of the shadow puppet presentation.

At first the dutch recognized the Chinese immigrants as good traders. But at one point the economy could not support more Chinese coming in. They told the Chinese they were going to be taken to an island but instead they were massacred. The red house which was a governor mansion was much later purchased by a Chinese woman and kept as a remembrance.

The end of this cannon is actually a lewd gesture in Indonesian. Much like the middle finger! Today many believe it can help with fertility to give offering and prayer here.

We also went to Chinatown.

Near the hotel was an antique market. I love to look at many of these old things in different countries.

Random walks let us easily see different foods and people on the street.

Not sure what these are for but we had a lot of fun making many guesses as to their uses.

Breakfast one morning was lontong sayur. Tofu, egg, steamed rice cake, and vegetables in s spicy broth.

While at breakfast could not help but laugh at this guy out the window who danced and mimed. Of course then we gave him money.

I also ordered pete goreng which is fried stink beans. It has a slightly pungent taste but not stinky by any standards. I also ordered tempe. Ordering sambal or spicy sauce on the side makes everything tastier. I really love Asian food especially Indonesian.

Snorkeling and beaches…A pink beach!

East Nusa Tenggara, the pink beach, gets is pink color from the brilliant red coral that degrades when the coral itself dies and the skeleton of calcium carbonate breaks apart. From a distance it is hard to see the pink but at the waters edge of is pretty spectacular.

We went snorkeling and I took some pretty cool videos here: https://youtu.be/JFaOk4JRY0c and https://youtu.be/SLR-uApupVo. I even found nemo: https://youtu.be/VWqyp_vs4X0

Turtle bay, Sivi island

Next we went to snorkel to look for turtles. Here is where I made my biggest mistakes. It was pretty deep water and I’m not a very strong swimmer. With the current, I could not really pay attention to the camera I had and as a result I did not get the actual footage of the large turtle in front of me which was spectacular. Next time a life vest would give me more peace of mind to attend to the camera. I did get some pictures but the turtle was actually much closer to me after I took them. Though heartbroken I can’t share what I saw when it was literally right in front of me, maybe it was just meant for me to enjoy.

Snorkeling in Menjerite bay

This was deep water and yes I wore a life vest. I did get some decent video here. https://youtu.be/6bKrOFrPKN0, https://youtu.be/iezli6sP_dI, https://youtu.be/wbhHtQf-zm8, and https://youtu.be/7rPmB0cCjvc.

Kelor Island, snorkeling and trekking

We took a speed boat in to the island. The top of the island is a great panorama viewpoint. The snorkeling was okay but there were incredible large schools of fish. The fish that close to shore are very aggressive and would nip at your legs. It did not hurt but was surprising and over and over became very annoying.

Snorkeling videos: https://youtu.be/Ki2pv_OkgKw and https://youtu.be/jT4AQuCIsAo.

The plan is to climb to the top and take pictures.

Our guide and owner of Filan Travel. He worked so hard to make a great trip by adjusting what was our most important things we wanted to see.

During low tide is a good time to work on the boat.

Afterwards we went back to the boat to clean up and have lunch. We had a little time to walk around Labuan Bajo.

We had a flight to Jakarta in mid afternoon. If I were to do it again I would stay another day. A proper shower with warm water would have been appreciated. But we had a lot to plan around and chose the flight back to China earlier based upon the current 8 day quarantine which ended up being changed to no quarantine. We also should not have booked our flight out so early but we were not sure what was going to happen and all indication at the time showed not a loosening of restrictions.

Komodo dragons

Komodo national park is composed of a few islands. The largest is komodo island and the second largest is Pusua Rinca. We visited both over the live aboard boat tour.

I have wanted to see Komodo dragons for a long time. This boat tour is one of the better ways to pack in a lot of things in one trip. Plus there is only two of us. Things are more customized that way. As the weather had been bad, no one could get to the Islands for about a week. We lucked out that it was open the day we started. But with impending rain we decided to do it the first day instead of the second, just in case.

Komodo dragons

Led by two rangers we toured a very small part of the island and learned about the dragons.

Males are larger than females and can be as long as 10 feet and about 330 pounds.
They can liver up to 30 years
They are endangered and this is the only place you can see them in nature in the world.
They have lived in these Lesser Sunda Islands for millions of years.
They lay 30 eggs in deep diagonal holes in mounds used by a kiwi bird for the same purpose. Many animals will try to eat the eggs so the female guards the nest for the first three months until the rainy season comes. Then the holes are undiscoverable.
They mate once a year. If males not present, females have both chromosomes so can actually create eggs by parthenogenesis. Unfortunately, in this manner there are only males hatched.
Juveniles run to the trees after hatching as they can be eaten by just about everything including other dragons. They live in small lizards, insects, etc and only come down once in awhile. Add use the law of nature only about 10% make it to adulthood.
The dragons have venom glands with toxins that stop clotting and lower blood pressure. There is also 500 species of bacteria that provide fast infection. Their serrated teeth leave large wounds. They can even take down a water buffalo. Many will feed on one animal and may fight for the food.
They can eat 80% of their weight but only eat every month or so.

Komodo Island

Timor deer and wild boar are some of the prey here. There are some amazing species here at it is a protected park.

The dragons were amazing. I was able to get within a few meters of them. They are incredible. If they want to move they can do it very quickly.

This is an optical illusion. I’m not that close.

Rinca Island

This has an actual information center and elevated paths but it is not a zoo. They don’t keep the dragons in the area as they come and go as they please.

We noticed a juvenile moving quickly away. He was sensing the air with his tongue that all the other dragons were moving into the area. Smart guy to get away. You can see him here: https://youtu.be/tud0SWFHbjk

As we walked along we noticed a deer laying under the walkway. There was one komodo dragon about 20 meters away. After visiting the information center, we saw that more dragons came near the other one. We are pretty sure the deer had been bitten and the scent drew in the other dragons. They can smell blood 4 km away. Now they just wait for the deer to be near death.

Both islands have a few villages on them. Life is pretty tough for the residents who are mostly fishermen. Their houses are mostly on stilts due to tides but also as komodo dragons roam the islands freely. Of course they can climb stairs so keeping doors closed is important. I’m sure they house there goats, chickens, and cats that we saw.

The villagers also make the komodo dragon carvings that you can buy. They have statues and also small ones that are magnets.

We also did a fair amount of snorkeling…..

Labuan Bajo

From Denpasar, the flight to Labuan Bajo is a little over an hour. It is further east from Bali on a large island called East Nusa Tenggara. From here I will stay one night at the Sylvia Resort komodo and will be picked up by the tour operator to travel to the boat in the morning.

There is not much around except for resorts scattered at the end of winding mountain roads. Sometimes it is better just to relax and enjoy the quiet which was made easier with its own beach and pools.

The next morning, after breakfast (and feeding the pussy gato friends I made by giving fish to just one of them the night before), we were picked up for our live aboard tour.

Call this light glamping. A bed, places to hang out…. We paid for a boat with air conditioning. You are on a boat so the bathroom is minimal with a toilet you use scoops of water to flush and a shower with little pressure. It is a typical Asian bathroom you might see in a smaller hotel (usually they have more water pressure for good reason).

They fed us so much food. All typically the same: rice, noodles, fried eggplant, vegetables, tempeh/tofu, fried fish, eggs and pancake for breakfast, fried bananas for a snack, and always fresh fruit.

Not much of an inconvenience as it is only two nights and the only way to see some really incredible things! The scenery through the area was amazing and we made several stops along the way which are in the next posts. Walking up on the water, having a whole crew just wanting you to be safe and happy was all part of the experience.

This is the ring of fire where the islands have been created by volcanoes. Many small villages exist for fishing but not every island is inhabited. Komodo national park has three large islands. Some villages are on them but no tourists can stay.

Sunrise saw the flying foxes which are actually megabats that feed on fruit coming back to where they nest for the day.

Sunset was amazing as well and you could see the flying foxes leaving their nests to feed on the fruit. These are the largest bats in the world and incredible to watch thousands fly over head.

Here is a video to watch: https://youtu.be/OceIxFyU4NU

We stayed in Flores and sailed to komodo island and back stopping at points along the way.