Here’s the Thing

Thanks to the help of some techie/design-savvy friends, I’m working toward what I hope will be a bona fide 2.0 version of Here’s The Thing. No release date yet, but I’m hoping for late summer, depending on how involved this revamp becomes. Though I’m not planning to drop the travel blog content, I’d like to shift the site’s focus toward my professional interests. For now, I’m considering the following areas:

- Music performance and education

- Professional development/advancement, as considered in education, business and community organizations

- Various consulting topics, yet TBD

- Possibly a new blog, also professionally-focused

I’m still in brainstorm mode, so that’s all I’ll commit to the blogroll for now. Hopefully more to come very soon (geologically speaking).

It’s been some time since I’ve posted to this blog…largely due to the fact that I have not embarked on any new travel experiences since returning home to Seattle over a year ago. But I’ve realized that there still may be something for me to write about here, even if it’s a long time before my next blog-worthy travel experience. Then again, who knows what may happen…

At a colleague’s suggestion, I’ve picked up a copy of Eckhart Tolle’s book, “The Power of Now”. While I admit I’m usually a sucker for these kinds of metaphysical reads, I’m finding the book to be a good spiritual foray. Not unexpectedly, my life has become very busy since I came home last year.  As is typically the case, I’ve slipped into a routine centered around work, with all other aspects of my life orbiting work like tiny electrons, which contain energy but no noticeable mass, per se. It’s something I’ve got to address, though probably not directly in this forum.

FINALLY! My travel photos are now uploaded and viewable in the gallery. There are around 7000 of them, but they’re all organized by country and city/region for viewing convenience.

I’ve been uploading pictures from my trip for the last few days…it’s slow going and I still have quite a few to go. But check back in the next few days. I hope to have everything uploaded and viewable within the week.

Have I really written 200 of these things? At any rate, I’m home! I guess this marks the end of my travel blogging for at least a while.  It feels great (and a little strange) to be back in a familiar city, and I’m excited to get back into a productive routine again. Thanks to everyone who read the blog and/or posted comments over the last year. The tips, encouragement and interest you shared made the experience that much nicer for me. For those of you in Seattle, I look forward to seeing you all soon. To folks that I met along my travels, I hope we meet again…in your country, mine, or elsewhere. Cheers!

Today’s raft trip was a blast! The river was swamped by the week’s rainstorms, making the class 3 and 4 rapids along the route a bit more challenging, mainly due to the speed of the current. In fact, we finished the route two hours early, making it a cinch for me to get to San Jose well in time for my last Costa Rican dinner for awhile. My body still aches like I spent the day as a pinball, but I’m feeling fantastic in all other respects. A great end to a great trip. I know I should have something better than that to say, but I guess I’ll have to save the deep thoughts for another post.

Tomorrow morning, of course, I click my heels three times and hop on a plane for Seattle. It’s weird to think about all that has happened to me in the last few months. In fact, I really can’t seem to wrap my mind around it at the moment. But as I check the weather for tomorrow (in Seattle…weird, again), I get the feeling that I might need to dress more warmly than usual. Something with sleeves, possibly. All good things must come to an end, right?

 

This morning I woke up around 6am, and since it was too early to get breakfast at my usual spot, I decided to go for a bike ride to get some photos of the area. After cruising down the road to Cocles, the beach I’ve been frequenting, I found a bike trail through the forest that looked worthy of some exploration. What I found was somewhere between fascinating and revolting. After turning the corner that took the trail away from the main road, I found myself in a thickly forested area with armies of crabs in all directions.

Since my orange one-speed was not equipped for bumpy trails, I had to walk most of the trail. This was dicey, because I was wearing flip flops, and a number of these crabs ran across and around my feet as they scampered off to their underground refuges. I admit that there may have been a little yelling and hopping on one foot from time to time as I made my way down the path.

But it was pretty interesting to see so many crabs up close. There were small orange ones and large brown ones, and some massive blueish-gray ones that, fortunately, ran off before I could get within 10 feet of them. The blue ones had especially large pincers. Eventually, the path dead-ended at a private property marker, so I had to turn around for an encore performance, slightly reminiscent of the dance sequence in Napoleon Dynamite. Egads. As tropical wildlife goes, I think I prefer banana plants and howler monkeys. The next time I see a crab, I hope it’s in a quiche.

Today is my last day in paradise, though. Tomorrow I’ll hop on a bus at 6am to go whitewater rafting and then head on to San Jose in the evening.

 

The last time I blogged about nature, I had to pay homage to a friend who believes that nature is out to get us. However, I’m pleased to say that I survived a number of close encounters yesterday that were much more positive.

I took a leisurely bike ride down the beach to the local botanical gardens. A private garden, the property looks more like a freely-growing jungle. While many of the exotic plants (everything from black pepper to bananas, cinnamon, and cacao) have been transplanted by the owners over the last 20 years, all of the animals on the property are part of the natural ecology of the area. In addition to a variety of birds, I found all kinds of poisoned frogs, lizards, and one very lazy mutt.

While the temperature and humidity show no signs of letting up in the next few days, I’ve been swimming in the sea and consuming ice-cold water by the liter. Even so, I’m looking forward to having a hot shower and running a load of laundry in a few days. As much as I love communing with nature.

 

The music on Monday night wasn’t bad, though I think I can say safely that I have heard enough reggae to last me a few years. Last night, the music festival kicked off at my hostel (the place is called Rockin’ J’s…aptly named). In addition to a swarm of hippies (and all the interesting aromas that accompany), there were several different bands, performing a variety of folk music. While folk music is not really my favorite, it has the same kind of relaxing appeal of dixieland or blues, and it really is perfect for the kind of laid-back party we were having at Rockin’ J’s.

The music was all fine and good, though at some point, without warning, the concert seemed to morph into a political rally for people who would rather sing about changing the world than make such an effort themselves. This is not meant as an ideological jab; rather, I have spent a great deal of time around such folk this year, and finding myself at the point of saturation, have decided that talk is cheap.

In any event, I had a few pages left in my book, so I retired to a well-lit table to drink orange juice and read. The music shortly resumed and before long I was once again enjoying the sounds of what the emcee called a “first-rate hoe-down”. I made a mental note to listen to some acid jazz on my iPod before going to bed that night.

But there is more…I’ve found a great place to get breakfast, a place called The Mission. They have great pinto (a mixture of fried rice and red or black beans), served with baked chicken that falls off the bone onto your fork. AND they brew their coffee, using beans they roast in their shed out back. Marvellous.

Also, the town is great for riding a bike (read: it’s very flat). Tonight, I’m hoping for some non-folk music at the festival, though who knows. But either way, I plan on reading another book, guzzling more OJ, and staying upwind from my neighbors.

 

After several days of rain in Bocas del Toro, I decided to cut my losses and head up the road to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. This is not to say that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy my time in Bocas. I met some great people, including a sound engineer from Toronto who likes to talk shop as much as I do. After a rainy boat ride and border crossing, I finally reached Puerto Viejo, checked into the hostel (where I will be sleeping in a tent!) and rented a bicycle to get me around town for the next five days or so. Having found an Internet cafe and scoped out two of the four music-blasting bars in town, I’m feeling comfortably settled in my new neighborhood. Tonight is reggae night, and tomorrow I’m going to split my time between salsa and rock music, I think. Also, I saw a poster advertising some sort of music festival starting on the 9th, so I may be able to pack a pretty good music buffet into my last week of freedom. Either way, I feel pretty relaxed and optimistic about the coming week.