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The Florida Keys

Posted on 10 June, 2021 by pierreo

I cannot count the number of times that I have thought about going to visit the Florida Keys in the past. I always ended up not going as I was not sure what there was to do there and I did not look forward to the drive from Miami all the way to Key West. These are all the wrong reasons for not going somewhere!

That all changed in 2019 as Bee and I talked about it more and more and I discovered that there were a lot of good reasons for going there. We did so in January 2020. We flew to Miami and rented a car from there. Our first stop was at a Cuban Restaurant in Little Havana where we had an excellent lunch. After lunch, we drove onto Route 1 and left the mainland USA.

Our first stop for the night was at Marathon Key where we stayed at the Hampton Inn (we are frequent users of Hilton chain hotels as they always treat us really well). That evening, we had an excellent meal at The Island Fish Company, across the street from the hotel.

We had all day to go from Marathon Key to Key West so we decided to do some sightseeing on the way and stopped at the Curry Hammock State Park where we did a coastal trail on the North side of the Key. Nice trail but very much in lush greenery all the way and therefore not much to photograph. Here is an example of the typical trail we followed.

It was a very pleasant walk that only took us about 1 hour and we seemed to be the only people on the trail.

We arrived early at Key West and checked into our B&B called the Old Town Manor (details at the bottom of the post) – I would certainly recommend this B&B as it is beautiful, with very nice rooms and a great location.

The first order of business was to finalize our plans for the next day, when we were scheduled to take the Yankee Freedom to the Dry Tortugas. This is an all day trip to the very last key, one that cannot be reached by car but only air and boat – we chose the boat.

And it is coming back from the Ferry Docks that we really lucked out! In the main marina, I saw this boat which I thought was just gorgeous! This poor picture does not do it justice.

As we got closer, we noticed that it was available for local cruises – a bit more discussion and we found out that the Sunset Cruise will be leaving in 1/2 hour with only 15 passengers on board. We quickly signed up and almost ran to the B&B to get warmer clothes.

It turns out that this is “America 2.0” a replica of the yacht “America” which beat the Brits around the isle of Wight to win the very first “America’s Cup” on 22 August 1851. It is not a perfect replica as it is made in modern materials but made to look like the original yacht.

They asked for volunteers to help raise the sails – no modern conveniences, such as electric winches here – it is all done with arm, and leg muscles. I was only tailing, and trying to help a bit the person actually lifting the sail…

Here she is, almost fully rigged. The wind was just perfect for a good sail and she sailed very well.

I even got to steer her! Am I happy or what!

The two photos above with me in them are courtesy of Bee… Continue reading “The Florida Keys” →

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Culture, Travel

Big Bend NP – Texas

Posted on 21 May, 2021 by pierreo

In a short lull in the Covid19 Pandemic, we decided to go to Big Bend National Park.

We had actually booked the Chisos Mountain Lodge, in the middle of the park, for the first week in June six months earlier as this was a trip we really wanted to do. However, the lodge was still closed. We read that the Park would reopen on June 1, 2020 for day-use only so we made preparations and decided to drive there with a short stop in San Antonio on the way.

We rented a house in the Terlingua Ranch district so that we would have cooking facilities and be more independent; we also brought essentially all of own food and drinks as we read that not much was available locally. We arrived to a wonderful house on Jun 1 around 4PM and settled in.

On 2 June, we drove into the park early in the morning – we quickly found out that this was a good strategy: (1) there was no one to collect our money at the entrance gate and (2) we were ahead of whatever crowd would come in.

One warning – if you do not like photos of wide-open panoramas, you might as well stop right here! Big Bend is nothing if not wide open country with many different types of views, but always expansive.

As we drove into the park heading for the Santa Elena Canyon I could not resist this shot, just to prove the point above…

I did not drive very fast, we we were able to stop for the odd wild-life on the side of the road – this one was difficult to miss…

As I was photographing, he decided to fly away.

This last one is probably the best … we were so close, I hardly needed to crop this photo to make it look better.

Even early morning (about 9:30) it was already hot as we prepared to explore the Santa Elena Canyon.

Here is the view as we approached the canyon. The Rio Grande makes the border between Texas (USA) and Mexico. The left side of the canyon is in Mexico.

Continue reading “Big Bend NP – Texas” →

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Culture

Christmas Eve – Bonfires on the Levees

Posted on 3 March, 2020 by pierreo

In 2004, while I was living in Baton Rouge, I decided to stay home for Christmas. My parents were coming and spending New Year with me, but I was free on Christmas Eve.

Somebody told me about Bonfires on the Mississippi levees around Lutcher and Gramercy so I decided to check it out. At the time, I was still using film, but the company I used to develop the film had a special offer to put photos on CD and I took advantage of it. I therefore had saved digital versions of the photos from this first visit – not necessarily the best quality, but good memories.

I arrived a few hours before the fires were lit, and was amazed at some of the constructions. This is a log cabin that was fully equipped inside, with tables, chairs and dummies.

The ghost that you see in front of the photo is the result of a technique I used with my film camera when I was faced with a crowd. I would put the camera on the tripod and take several super-imposed shots without winding the film. Since people move, only the fixed objects that I am trying to photograph are clearly visible. Here, I probably only took 3-4 shots.

At 7 PM, the fires are lit, and there are fireworks, by individuals. Some of the fireworks are quite nice – I have no ideas how much money people put into these.

There were quite a few people, but it was not crowded. Even the River Road was not totally jammed.

The majority of bonfires are pyramids that tend to burn quite well.

I like the movement of the embers in this photo.

Even the log cabin went up in smoke Continue reading “Christmas Eve – Bonfires on the Levees” →

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, Travel

Alaska – Part 3

Posted on 26 November, 2019 by pierreo

Our continuing saga on a small ship in a large state…

It is still day 4 of our adventure and we have now moved all the way to the Northern end of the Seymour Canal, not far from where we were on Day 1. We are going to visit Park Creek, a bear sanctuary, not to rehabilitate them, but just an area that provides safety for them. The rangers have interacted with the local bear population for many years, and quite a few bears have their own name; the bears are left alone as much as possible, but are used to human presence and do not see it as a threat. We took the dinghy to go ashore and just as we were talking to one of the rangers, this is what we saw coming towards us. That is when I remembered I forgot my bells!

Mama Bear with two cubs, slowly coming along the shore to where we were. The rangers did not panic, so I figured we were safe. They kept on coming very close to us, but then followed the shore to our right, without taking a second look at us. We will encounter her again.

The cubs just followed Mommy.

Our valiant vessel parked in the sound waiting for us. She is such a beauty, I have to show more pictures.

After a very short walk, we came to a river where the salmon are running. Mama bear is now fishing for herself after she provided fish for her two cubs.

She jumped on a salmon and immediately started to eat. Continue reading “Alaska – Part 3” →

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Culture, Travel

Costa Rica – Part 2: Monteverde

Posted on 5 March, 2019 by pierreo

Following our successful stay in San Jose, we joined our Wilderness Adventure Group and headed off to Monteverde. We had a very good driver and arrived there in good time. Early enough for lunch and a first exploration of the lower tropical forest nearby.

Costa Rica is known for its very rich fauna and so we went immediately in search of interesting creatures. We all had a list of the “must see” on the trip.

This was not one of mine, still quite a nice centipede, I think…

Our guide was excellent at spotting small birds; I am not good at remembering names.

This was a stroke of luck, actually spotting a butterfly as it is coming out of its cocoon.

The feeders afforded a unique opportunity to see hummingbirds. They are still not easy to catch, particularly to catch them in flight.

This one appeared to be posing for me – or was it just waiting for its turn at the feeders. Not sure what the protocol is among the hummingbirds. Continue reading “Costa Rica – Part 2: Monteverde” →

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Culture, Travel

Greece – Santorini

Posted on 23 July, 2017 by pierreo

I am very late, but I want to continue the Greek Odyssey before I start other trips.
From Amorgos, we headed to Santorini, the place I probably anticipated the most of the whole trip. There is indeed room for disappointment here.

As we left Mykonos, we passed the fast ferry probably coming from Santorini.

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We approached the Caldera from the South and this is our first glimpse of Fira, the main ‘urban’ center in Santorini

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This is Oia, the city right at the entrance to the caldera. We will explore this on foot our last day.

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Another view of Oia – the main sites are all right at the top of the caldera, and there are wide open spaces in between these.

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Fira – You can see the path that descends from town to the old port, now only used for local tours.

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Continue reading “Greece – Santorini” →

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Culture, Travel

Greece – Naxos and Amorgos

Posted on 26 December, 2016 by pierreo

After a few days, it was time to leave Tynos and we moved to Naxos, a large island to the South.

We took another ferry to get there and had interesting views along the way. Travelling by ferry, at this time of year, is very relaxing. The ferries are not very crowded and therefore we just lounged around on the top deck, looking at the islands float by.

On the way we met this very interesting cruise ship which was making a stop at Mykonos – there are more and more sailing cruise ships and I think it would be a nice experience to try it, one of these days. However, I suspect that these are fully automated and therefore there is not much “sailing” involved.

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We ended up spending only one night in Naxos as the weather was getting worse and our guide feared that ferries may not be able to sail on our planned departure date. He gave us the choice of one extra day in Naxos, or one extra day in Amorgos and the group chose Amorgos (and I think we made the right choice).

One of the attractions is the Temple of Apollo with the “Portara” which is an almost intact door frame. It sits on a peninsula just outside of the main town.

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We saw ferries come in and out while we were walking around. There was a very strong side wind at the docks and we watched with interest as the “Cosmote” high speed ferry took 5-6 attempts to get its landing right. It made for good lunch time entertainment.

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I had to take a picture of the town viewed through the Portara.

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A better view of the town, with the castle up at the top and the docks on the right.

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As I said, we did not spend much time on Naxos and took our next ferry to Amorgos. This took several hours and was due to make three stops along the way. We were relaxing on the top deck and I just happened to be looking around when I saw this strange sight. Looks like a dozen high speed boats heading straight for us. The first thing that came my mind was: “I did not know they had pirates here in Greece! What do we do now?”

Why else would a formation of high speed boats come towards us like this?

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As they approached. I noticed they were actually going past us, and I started to feel better, then they slowly, still in formation, started to turn around and come after us again. There were 3-6 people on each boat but they did not look too menacing.

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Continue reading “Greece – Naxos and Amorgos” →

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Culture, Travel

Greece – Athens, Tinos and Delos – Part 1

Posted on 11 December, 2016 by pierreo

In May 2016, Bee and I spent three weeks in Greece, mostly visiting the Cyclades Islands on another Wilderness Travel adventure.

Before we joined the group, we had a couple of days in Athens on our own.

We explored the small streets of Plaka before ending in Monastiraki, which I remembered well from my first visit in 2009.

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The is the daylight view. I had taken this night time view of people in front of the church back in 2009 – I was publishing smaller photos at the time.

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Another church is this one, the Church of Panaghia Kapnikarea, situated in the middle of the main street from Monastiraki to Syntagma Square. We were able to see it inside – by pure luck as we saw someone getting out and managed to convince the cleaning lady to let us in as well, for just a few minutes.

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As if often the case in Athens, the church is a lot older then the neighborhood around it. It is thought to have been built in the 11th century, probably around 1050 (according to Wikipedia). It may have been part of a convent at some time.

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We spent the first night at the Hilton, and our view of the Parthenon and Acropolis was blocked by a construction crane. When we joined the tour group, we moved to a different hotel, much closer to the Acropolis and we had this great view f the Parthenon from our room.

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Continue reading “Greece – Athens, Tinos and Delos – Part 1” →

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Travel

Peru Episode 1: The Amazon Forest

Posted on 6 June, 2015 by pierreo

Bee and I recently came back from a great trip to Peru. We stayed there for three weeks and had wonderful experiences everywhere we went. We had more adventures at some point than we had anticipated (more on that later) but all in all it was a wonderful trip.

I will separate the trip in reasonable bites so that I do not bore anybody with endless photos and commentaries. It will also allow me to issue these blogs more regularly, rather than all at once at the end.

After a 30+ hour trip, we finally arrived in Puerto Maldonado, near the Brazilian and Bolivian borders, on the East side of the Andes and smack at the Western end of the Amazon Rain Forest. We left the office on Friday evening at about 18:30 Brussels time and flew to London, then Bogota, then Lima and finally Puerto Maldonado where we were met by the representative of the Riserva Amazonica, one of the resorts situated along the Rio Madre de Dios and where we would be staying for three nights. The is probably the least typical Peruvian portion of our trip; it is a first introduction to the Amazon jungle for both of us.

After a short bus ride from the airport, we boarded a small boat for the final leg to the resort. You got to admit that Bee still looks good on the boat after 30+ hours of travel!

Just next to where we boarded the boat, there was the one and only bridge across the Madre de Dios River. Nice bridge, the same colour as the Golden Gate bridge, and similar construction. Puerto Maldonado is only 250 m above sea level (the lowest by far we will be on this whole trip) and much closer to the Pacific Ocean (only 600 km) but the Rio Madre de Dios flows into the Amazon and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean, more than 2600 km away. For the mathematicians out there, this is equivalent to an average slope of only 0.01% for all this water to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

The sun was setting as we motored towards the resort. With storm clouds in the distance, it made for a nice combination.

We decides to start our trip in Puerto Maldonado as it was expected to be the most relaxed part of the trip. This would also give us a chance to recover from jet-lag. When we arrived at the resort, we were told that tomorrow’s activity would start at 6:00 AM, with 5:00 AM breakfast; we thought “No Problems, we will be awake at 3:00 AM anyway” so we immediately signed up.

We started by crossing the Madre de Dios river and ran into many cranes, flying overhead and nesting in the tress. On the picture on the right, the crane is actually landing, but not on the nest that is right below it – it continued to float past it to another hidden nest further down the tree.

On the river bank, we saw a small crocodile and I caught a kingfisher in mid-flight – it is actually the same as the one on the branch on the right.

Continue reading “Peru Episode 1: The Amazon Forest” →

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Culture, Food, Travel

Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast – Part 2

Posted on 9 February, 20159 February, 2015 by pierreo

After 5 days in Naples, Bee and I moved to the relative tranquility of Sorrento, on the Bay of Naples, on the Amalfi Peninsula, and the gateway to the Amalfi Coast and Capri. We had ten more days to explore this part of Italy, rich in History, Art and Nature.

We went to Capri on our first day there – the weather forecast was not ideal for the week to come and we thought we wanted to take advantage of a reasonable day to explore the island.

Unfortunately, two cruise ships had arrived overnight, and all passengers from the ships were also going to Capri. Our ferry into the island was full and we could not get the return trip we wanted, so had a return earlier than we wanted initially.

Still, the day started positive – we booked a boat trip around the island, which included a visit to the Blue Grotto and wandered around the harbor while waiting for the departure. It was very interesting to see that even though this is a very touristy island, there are still people here doing traditional work, such as fishing out of small boats.

Here is a general view of the main harbour. On the side of the mountain in the background, you can see the first few houses of the second town in Capri called Anacapri.

Taxis on the island have been somewhat modified to cater to the expectations of local tourists. It is obvious that the maximum expected speed on the island is very low, or this type of roof on a car would not survive very long.

On the trip around the island, we first passed by the Blue Grotto. We were told that unfortunately the tide and the wave were too high to be able to visit the grotto that day. The entrance is very tight and it is often impossible to go through. However, it looks like some people are making it, so I am not sure if the boat captain was telling us the truth or not.

At the Western tip of the island, on Punta Carena, stands a very tall light house. It is critical to mark the entrance to the Bay of Naples where there has been a busy port for many centuries.

Again, we can see that normal life continues around tourism – this gentleman was fishing probably in the same way they were doing it 100 and 500 years ago!

Continue reading “Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast – Part 2” →

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