Caño Negro Adventure

(Caño Negro photos courtesy Steve Kettman.)

Near the northern border, Caño Negro Reserve consists of over 100 square kilometers.

Unlike a national park, locals and farmers are permitted to live and work within it’s limits provided they maintain a specific buffer around their property. The dynamic saves the govermnent in national park staffing, keeps the region wild, and keeps locals in the money.

While the waters of the Caño Negro Lake are at historic lows, rare and endangered wildlife continue to populate the area.

My Abercam pal Steve and I took a Caño Negro cruise with Canoa Aventura tour company and fellow travelers from Switzerland, England and British Colombia, Canada.

It was a day filled with satisfying sightings.

At the beginning our Rio Frio cruise, I spotted a reptile on my Costa Rica wish list, the basilisk lizard. Locally known by the nickname “Jesu Christi” for their ability to walk on water by quickly moving their hind legs, the basilisk’s English name also cites mythology. Medieval folklore held that the basilisk was a creature the body of a serpent and the head of a bird. It was believed to be so ugly it would turn it’s observers into stone.

Our entire group hoped to see all three kinds of Costa Rican monkey. Our guide, Pablo, careful not to dash our hopes, joked that he hoped to see a jaguar, a relative impossibility.

But shortly afterward, we spotted a group of howler monkeys, including an albino juvenile. Pablo noted that albino monkeys are more common as human encroachment on habitat forces many monkeys to mate within their own bloodlines.

Steve immediately spotted a group of white-faced capuchin feeding on palm fruits on the opposite shore. The capuchins made attack faces and noises at their neighbors to the south.

Just when we thought the excitement was over, an enormous crowd of spider monkeys burst through the folliage, following one another single file through the trees. We saw many mothers with babies on their backs. Within ten minutes all three species had presented themselves boldly.

Near the entrance to Caño Negro, a pile of brown rocks near the red clay shoreline turned out to be several dozen caiman, eyes above and noses below the water. We later saw one munch a large tilapia.

Iguana perched on feathery trees high above the water. When they are attacked they drop into the river to avoid becoming lunch. The Ticos refer to them as “Chicken of the Tree,” but have largely stopped consuming iguana in their diet.

Birdwatching was rich with variety. Three kinds of kingfisher, two kinds of egret, and several kinds of heron. We saw many northern jacana and hinga birds, an ibis, a wood stork, and a large bat falcon.

In another eagle eye moment, I spied a grey hooded kite, about twice the size of a parrot, but roughly the same shape. This carnivorous kite is actually a dark powder blue with alternating black and white feathers on it’s inner wings.

The last group we saw were a flock of rosette spoonbills. They resemble flamingos in their coloring but have unusual blue bills and a ordinary standing posture.

Afterward we ate a leisurely lunch at the Caiman Restaurant, a well balanced feast included with the tour.

In the weeks to come I hope to pass through Caño Negro again on my way to a day trip in Granada, Nicaragua.

Volcan Arenal Dessert

Even away from home it’s impossible to keep me from inventing in the kitchen! Two helpings of my Volcan Arenal dessert.

Volcan Arenal dessert: Vanilla ice cream atop a bed of limon cured apple slices, with apple puff pastry mountainsides, Melcochas de Natilla rocks, and guava jelly lava made to “glow” with a dusting of mandarin sour powder.

Thanks to fellow Abercam guest Steve Kettman for providing the salads that preceeded.

Zip Line Adventure

(photos and video courtesy of Esteban Coto)

This morning I got up super early to take advantage of the good early morning weather and try my hand at rainforest canopy zip lining at Arenal Mundo Aventura.

Of course there was an extensive waiver and much protective gear. Because of my height I required a second harness for my upper body.

The zip line itself is fairly easy to master. One hand to secure your harness, one hand a foot and a half behind you gripping a leather brake.

Ankles crossed knees up - you fly. Bring your brake hand down, even gently, and you begin to slow down. Don’t slow down until instructed by hand signal or you may not have enough momentum to clear the platform.

The first few lines were a cinch. My helmet brushed the line a few times to let me know why it was there.

I hit a snag on the first of two lines that passed over the La Fortuna waterfall. I was traveling fast on the second longest line. I was cautious not to brake. Maybe too cautious it turns out as my hand fell off the brake line altogether! I was losing control of the line and swinging around, but I managed to reach back and find the line again quickly.

I scraped my hand and wrist up on the fast moving steel cable. The guys expressed concern about my “injury” but it truly looked worse than it was. I licked mysel and hiked up to the next line.

On the way to this, the longest line, and the second to look over the Cataracas La Fortuna, I admit I was a little unnerved. We were to travel 80m over the forest floor. It was difficult to believe there were trees that scraped up this high.

The wildlife at this height of the rainforest was truly wild.

Army ants poured over the pavestones like rivulets of water. They had eaten a few steps clean away. Poison frogs with irridescent red and blue markings lay in wait in tree limbs and under leaves. Monkeys have used the zip lines for their own hand-over-hand transportation. Apparently, the electrical sound of pulleys moving across the lines encourages them to jump away and no collsions have been reported.

I made it across but just barely. I managed my brake well, but still couldn’t get enough zip to tag the platform without crawling the last 30 ft.

The rest of the ten lines went swimmingly. It seemed as though it was over quickly, but the tour took over three hours!

Adventure in the Old House and Old House Cooking

The house where I am staying is referrred to as The Old House as it was the first building on the Abercam property only ten years ago.

Tim Abernathy and Wayne Campbell, my hosts, stayed here for two years during the construction of their four villas and their own lodging, located in the heart of the resort above the open air bar.

The Old House is constucted of sturdy rainforest woods. Slats of a dry, heavily knotted cedar-like wood are layed front to back to create walls. The roof is made from black cane, covered on top by recycled polymer shingles, a federal requirement. The floors throughout are tiled with red Spanish clay.

On the walls, Tim and Wayne have hung a collection of yard long African masks, carved from ebony wood. Two are painted green, red and gold. Two are fringed with jute shag hair!

The house is a beautiful hideout when it rains. Dry and secluded and dimly lit.

Latice work and four hatch windows provide ventilation. There is no glass. Screens are layed over the openings.

A pentagonal porch stretches out for fifteen feet over the front of the house. It’s shadowed by orange halliconias, a yarrow-like flower that produced a poisonous blackberry, pineapple bushes, and orchidae. Ferns and moss and regional curiousities like wild cilantro over the ground

There are three hummingbird feeders which provide entertainment. The foremost of which is a small bird who jealously guards one feeder. He perches on a support the gardener built and swoops in to scare away those birds who dare to dip their beak in his artificial flowers.

I was very angry with the house cat last week when, while the bird was perched on something low laying, she pounced and caught him in her mouth. She strolled with him between her teeth for a dozen paces before the bird fought back and finally escaped.

I was sure the bird was mortally wounded.

He was back at his post today. He lost a few feathers and looks battered but is just as feisty and still getting his way.

My “feeder” is the tiny, blue tiled kitchen. I have a pie safe, a refrigerator, a hot plate, two stock pots, a large frying pan, a rice cooker, and a blender.

I have one menacing looking all purpose knife. The Ticos use the word “cuchillio” for everything from a butter knife to a machete. Groceries typically have a spare cuchillio for cutting plantains and other fruits from hanging stalks.

There are several cooking spoons, kitchen sheers and a spatula. Plenty of plates and tableware

Because of the potential for ants and flies, anything that is open must be wrapped in a sealed plastic tub or wrapped the refrigerator. You can not leave food out and you must clean up immediately after every meal. Tico kitchens are clean!

The freezer is mostly filled with ice. The only frozen food universally available here is ice cream. This is prohibitively expensive (about ten dollars for two pints), of modest variety (there are several different takes on vanilla), and of marginal quality.

It is also tough to find 100 percent butter here. Brown eggs are cheap and plentiful but rarely refrigerated. There are very few kinds of cheese and they all taste a bit gluey.

I’ve been making black beans and rice (the national dish), instant potatoes, lentil stew, and bread slice pizzas. In the mornings, I sometimes eat oatmeal. More often than now, I eat fresh fruit cured with limon juice. It’s hard to find proper lemons or limes, but the sour green limon is a worthy substitute.

There some unusual common fruit juices. Orange-carrot is very common. So is pineapple-guava. Fruit punch is typically orange-pineapple-guava-papaya.

For a refresher, I’m enjoying pre-sweetened agua frescas that you mix from a powder in envelopes. Today I’m drinking passionfruit, but I’ve also had hibiscus and soursop flavors. I find I need to drink about 1 liter a day on hot days just to keep hydrated.

The Circa de Cataratas Adventure

(photo courtesy Scott Robinson, wiki commons)

The Abercam resort is located at 1800 feet above sea level. Downtown La Fortuna, by contrast, is slightly below sea level. The two are 4 kilometers apart.

Twice a week, typically Tuesday and Friday, I have been traveling the steep down the Circa de Cataracas to run errands. The hike takes about 40 minutes to an hour each way depending on your pack and the weather.

I slide the huge wooden door that connects the Grande Tapia Blanca just far apart enough to edge through and close it behind me.

On a clear day, you can see Nicaragua to the North - a pile of distant green mountains.

The Circa is not yet fully paved. It alternates gravel and tarmac, gravel and cement, gravel and grey brick as though the public works department could not decide how to approach it.

In truth, the project is so large for La Fortuna the city must do it in stages. These bits of paved road represent the curves and grades that must be reinforced when the road is entirely paved next year.

About half of the homes along the road are private residences. Squat, single story, no basement. These homes typically have a garage and a small acerage. Since would be difficult to farm on this terrain, most keep horses or cows or both.

The cattle hang out in enormous pastures all day, bobbing their heads and chewing. They are often not of a single variety, but a mix of different breeds of dairy cattle and cattle for slaughter. Sometimes property owners hire their neighbors cattle to chew down the overgrowth in a vacant lot.

Horses generally have to work a bit harder. Most are called upon for a strenuous horseback ride through Monteverde, a protected zone at the top of the mountain. Horse poop is an obstacle for drivers and hikers all along the road.

More desirably, lucky horseshoes fall on the path as well. After stumbling on a few rusty half-shoes, I found a whole one in perfect shape the other day. It belonged to a ranch whose brand is Delta, which I considered a good omen (I write Delta Magnet Blog.)

The other homes along the Circa are live/work style cottage businesses. The nearest on to Abercam is a hammock shop where hundreds of brightly colored, hand woven hammocks cover every square inch of a porch and a modest showroom.

A wood carver, immigrated to Costa Rica from the US, has a small studio on the switchback beneath. He’s carved two male torsos out of rosewood for the Abercam bar.

The advertisement seems to be working. One of the last guests at the resort trekked down the road to commission a lean, muscular 24” torso for his coffee table at home. The price? A super cheap $152!

Another curiousity, a palm wood shack selling coconut water almost never has customers. According to Geraldo, who is pals with the owner, they used to have a brisk business selling beer, but then his freind “changed his mind” about selling alcohol.

There are plenty of campgrounds and “cabinas” for about $30 a night. There is also a few lovely sprawling lodges which are favored by European visitors. At least one has an open air restaurant that serves Typicos, “typical food,” which generally means Empenadas, fried plantains, and Casado or “married” lunch where rice and beans are combined with meat and a salad.

The Ticos are generally a friendly bunch and will exchange “Hola” or “Buenas,” with you. “Buenas” covers all times of day (“dias,” “tardes,” and “noches”) to a stranger. One response to “Buenas” is “Hoy!” or “today,” which men on horseback often give me.

Almost to a one, the Ticos own dogs. While I’ve seen at least one hound, though most of the dogs are lap sized mutts, variations on beagles, chihuahuas, and Australian shepards.

Though I introduce myself to dogs that follow me walking, I don’t typically pet them or feed them, and most wag their tails enthusiastically to “bueno perro” and a little running around.

Another curiousity, most locals who walk here are women and they travel in pairs.

The Circa ends at the bottom of the hill at a north/south road stretching between San Ramon and La Fortuna.

Costa Rica Animal Adventures

(image courtesy: Dirk Van der Made, wiki commons)

Today I took some time out to review a book of Costa Rican wildlife. There were lots of photographs, much better than I could take. I had no difficulty identifying the creatures I had seen.

The most notable and noisy species was the howler monkey.

I hiked Tuesday along a dry river bed full of stones on the property neighboring Abercam.

The river bed made the hike easier as few plants could push through the stones and the ground in the "green season" is heavy with moisture. I passed guava and lychee trees barren of fruit and then came across "signs of animal life" (poop) that didn't come from one of the neighborhood's free grazing cows.

I walked toward the sound of rushing water and heard rustling at the tops of some mangrove-like trees with curly dangling vines.

Soon, a male howler monkey made his loud warning call.

The first part of the call sounded to me like air rushing into a huge hoarse vaccuum or a frat boy with a 20 inch mouth belching into a megaphone.

The second part is a rythymic exhaling version of the first part that sounds a little more like what you'd associate with a monkey.

I could see the howlers clearly, though they were above me by about 20 ft.

The howlers make a third noise which I heard at a distance as I passed them in route to a twin waterfall - a more cordial howl to one another.

Birds that frequent the Abercam property include Costa Rica's national bird, the clay robin, chestnut mandible toucans, montezumas, yellow bellies, and hummingbirds.

The clay robins are as familiar here as red brested robins are in the United States. They are a powdery rust color all over and fight aggressively with one another.

Of course, I expected toucans to look like the bird on a box of breakfast cereal. All toucans do share expressive eyes, a similar mandible shape. and a like size.

The ones flying about Abercam have white, red, yellow, and black markings with brown and yellow bills.Their eyes are a light green.

Ironically, they're not big on "froot". They prefer eggs, small rodents, and young squirrels. Today, I caught a pair eyeing a male squirrel making a lovenest in a tall tree: future lunch!

They make two calls. One is a clicking sound that immitates the gecco.

By far, the most impressive vocalizer is the montezuma or pendulum bird. It's call is seven notes long.

The call flutters up a chromatic scale by half-steps. Two half-steps, pause, repeating the second note and another half-step, pause. This pattern repeats two more times until the bird holds the top note and slurs down all the way back to the first.

The montezuma also creates nests that hang like long baskets from trees. It's roughly the size of a hawk, and has a trim of bright yellow feathers on it's long black tail.

The yellow bellies, have, well, yellow bellies. They cackle and tumble over one another in midair like the parrots of Telegraph Hill.

The broad variety of hummingbirds here impressed me.

Most all of them have the same irridescent green somewhere on their bodies, like the red breasted hummingbirds in my backyard in San Francisco. But there are some with violet ears, some that are all green, and a peculiar species with a hooked bill designed for sipping liquid from inside the clawlike flowers of haliconia.

The species of butterflies are also amazing. The biggest ones I've seen are about the size of my hand and as fleet as bats.

In English, we distinguish between butterflies and moths based on whether we feel the creature is colorful or ugly. In Spanish, size is a the determining factor between mariposas and pollios.

I have not yet seen Costa Rica's national butterfly, the blue winged morphos, but I have seen a "postman" butterfly, a large yellow species, and a species with a long body that resembled a wasp with monarch-like wings in four sections.

I was initially concerned by the presence of two large wasps nests near the pool, but I soon learned this species of wasp principally eats mosquitos. Instead of buzzing around your soda and sandwhiches they cluster near their nests listlessly waiting for their prey.

Unlike these surprising wasps, not all the Costa Rica creatures are changing my mind about what constitues a pest.

Tonight, I got up for a glass of water and came back to a squarish orb spider about as big as my palm dragging a dust bunny across my headboard.

I stayed up for a while writing across the room. I made my bed and the spider regrouped, cowering beside my pillow.

The standoff finally ended when I threatened to trap it. First I tried to trap it under a bowl, but the spider jumped. Two feet high and three feet out!

I was startled, but I laughed too. For someone who has a dangerous level of fearlessness this spider was freaking me out.

I swaped the bowl out for a steam cover.

Then I figured, if I came at the spider from above and behind, it would stay low and move in the direction of the front door.

I guided it as far as the kitchen, trapped it, and set it free on the front porch to eat beatles another day.

Earlier this week, I found an unpleasantly fat tick. I saved it in a bag in case I came down with something.

Oddly, I was nauseaous, had a mean headache, and even some shortness of breath. But none of my symptoms corresponded with the tick diseases I'd read about in my guide books.

I'm guessing the overplus of prophylactics the SF travel health clinic introduced to my bloodstream have taken the wind out of any tick germs I got.

No scorpions or snakes so far.

Wayne says the scorpions at this altitude in Costa Rica can fit in a spoon and give a sting no worse than a bee. Still not anxious to experience that bite!

Snakes are detered from the property by the presence of over 300 minature bamboo plants around the perimeter. According to Tim, snakes get tangled in the dense sticks and turn back.

Everywhere I go, leaf-cutter ants are stripping some tree of its green.

They are fun to watch. Little bits of leaf marching single file over the forrest floor. Cute!

And people love the story of leaf-cutters. These ants survive by eating a unique fungus they create in their nests from moldering plant material.

Did I mention their queens live up to eight years! That's five years more than drag queen Pollo del Mar will reign as longest Miss Trannyshack.

However, the leaf-cutters are a nuissance to a well-manicured property. Geraldo, the gardener here, follows them and burns out their nests.

The ants seem to be worst on Wednesday.

That's Geraldo's full day off. The leaf-cutters seem to know.

Costa Rican Gay Resort Adventure - Abercam, La Fortuna

(image courtesy Abercam, La Fortuna)

Abercam La Fortuna doesn't have an address. "Grande Tapio Blanca, Circa de Cataracas" or "The Big White Wall on the Road to the Waterfall" is how the locals know it.

As you might expect from a gay resort, it is a discrete location. What goes on in the pool or on the grounds is visible only to other guests: the property is bordered by vacant lots on all three sides.

But Abercam is not so remote as to be unreachable.

A 15 minute taxi ride from the La Fortuna bus station costs $5. Local restaurants deliver.

Though proprietors Tim Abernathy ( the Aber syllable) and Wayne Campbell (the Cam syllable) keep a post office box in town, a mailman occassionally travels the steep twisting grade to deliver a care package with hard-to-find items from the states.

Presently, a Halloween party, for which there are already 20 guests, including a posse of deaf gay men from Alajuela, is demonstrating this challenge of living in Costa Rica. Halloween is a favorite gay holiday around the world, but the Ticos have no tradition of masquerade. There are no costume shops or spooky decorations.

"If you want something special it would be best to have it shipped 3 to 4 weeks in advance," Campbell says.

Whether there is a bowl of bite-sized Snickers or not, partygoers and long-distance bookings are unlikely to complain. Abernathy and Campbell have pulled together a suptuous environment dedicated to pagan pleasures.

Every inch of the property, which rolls over two acres from the Tapio Blanca to a dry ravine, is landscaped and maintained with native cultivars by a full-time gardener. Brown, yellow, orange and blue, butterflies are lured by the hibicsus and plumeria. Hummingbirds sip from the purple buds of Jamacian snake grass.

Along the clean brick paths, orchids are hung over driftwood braces. The scents of cinnamon trees and frangipani close around the visitor. Noni, guava, grapefruit, orange, and a half dozen other fruits are available for visitors to pick and eat in season.

The guest villas, each with a private balcony, are positioned to face active volcano Arenal. The property is legally as close as any resort can get to the lava-loaded giant.

"The nature that surrounds Costa Rica is alluring and can stimulate the senses on many levels," Abernathy observes, "The mist we have here and the exotic flowers lead to a heightened sense of yourself and others."

Another perk of it's location: the Abercam property is the lowest property on the hill that recieves it's tap water from the resovoir that feeds La Fortuna's famous 70 m waterfall.

"Crystal clear, pure and sweet. It's like drinking nature itself," Campbell asserts.

Originally from Florida, the pair began looking for a place to start a bed and breakfast in their mid-thirties. They explored the north of Georgia, parts of Dominica, and Guadalajara, Mexico before settling on Costa Rica.

Once they had made their choice they rented a car and drove every road in the country searching for locations. After a stint in Capos, they spied their current property and set out to develop it, opening just one year ago.

"We have met some very special people and made some wonderful new friends," Abernathy noted, "that's the best part of the resort for us."

As a means of saying thanks to the gay community for their support, the pair often offers discounts and special incentives. Be sure to ask about their current and future specials when making your reservation.

Local Bus Adventure - San Jose to La Fortuna

As I'd arrived near midnight in San Jose, the airline paid for a hotel room. It was only a shuttle ride away from the terminal. The time was midnight by my wristwatch.

I contented myself for an hour with showering up, translating Costa Rican television using Google, and eating Tico snacks from the vending machine.

I checked my email and discovered, in spite of my protests, I would be charged a 100 percent "no show" fee from Interbus. As one could not purchase a one way ticket with their service, I cancelled my return trip.

I could hardly believe I was charged $40 for a service I never recieved, due to problems beyond my control, without the option of rebooking.

If I was going to go to the trouble of using my poor Spanish to navigate through the local bus system, the "learning the way there" service Interbus could have provided me would not be worth my loyalty.

Their email response indicated my return trip refund would take, "up to two weeks for processing." Anyone who runs returns can tell you, a return takes only two minutes to process. How much time did they need? They'd already had $80 of my money for over a month.

When I woke up the next day, I was already too late for the Grey Line bus that stopped in front of the hotel.

My supposedly hardcore guidebook listed the bus terminals in San Jose as "dangerous." The front desk worker told me, "I live in San Jose and I won't go down there." The concierge also advised against it.

I went downtown anyway.

The eight square blocks on Calle 10 and Calle 12 between Parque Merced and the San Carlos bus terminal presented a less aspirational image than either the guidebook or the hotel employees. They were hardly treacherous, however.

There were some corregated tin buildings and chipped paint jobs. There was some rust and ground in dirt. The stores were small and crowded, but open and doing business.

Everyone was dressed well if not up-to-date. The Sodas were lit with ambient light and workers packed them during the lunch break. There was perhaps even less litter than there would be in any other city. I asked for directions twice and got good assistance.

Parts of industrial Oakland have felt far more menacing to me for their lack of purpose.

In fact, I felt more like a target at the airport and in the hotel than in San Jose downtown.

When I reached the sales window and told the bus driver I wanted a ticket to Fortuna, he told me the last direct bus for the day had already left. I pressed for another route and was directed to the San Carlos bus. I could catch a bus to Fortuna there.

These "busses" are in fact what U.S. citizens would call "coaches". The seats are high and well cushioned with storage compartments above and below.

I wasn't the only gringo on the bus. I did misplace my ticket, however, so when the driver came to take it, I stuck out. With a backpack and an overnight bag, I was not packed as lightly as the other passengers, either.

Just beyond San Jose and Alajuela, the urban valley escalated into young, undulating mountains. The roads twisted like switchbacks up and down hills. All the drivers navigated these at speeds approaching 60 km/hr.

We passed family sized coffee and banana plantations. No plot was larger than 10 acres. Signs offering regional tours were everywhere. The only livestock I saw was cattle. They were perched on the sides of steep hills, grazing unsupervised.

Though they did not have bathrooms, the coaches had front and back doors. Vendors occasionally boarded the busses at the front and sold snacks to passengers quickly, exiting at the back.

At our first small town, Naranjo, a retirement age man dispensed chips, peanuts, and agua frescas in sealed plastic bags. He complimented all the women who purchased from him. Three girls, who the vendor refered to as, "The Latinas," ordered the carrot flavor, chewed off a tip of the bag, and sucked up liquid through the tear.

We passed through Zarcero. On a long plaza, elevated from the road, bottom-heavy topiary archways opened to a small Catholic church. There were lots of signs announcing organic produce and an organic food delivery service located just north of the town center. Apparently, Zarcero is the center of the nations organic agriculture movement.

The first movie theater I saw (showing "G.I. Joe") was in Ciudad Quesada, popularly known as San Carlos, where the bus disembarked. I immediately got in line to board the La Fortuna local which left 15 minutes later.

I handed the driver a 5000 note, equivalent to $10, and he had difficulty making change. "Fortuna," he said, pleadingly, as though I'd done something extravagant.

The fare was 150 Colones or about $.25.

I sat down with my overnight bag in my lap as did the gringo sitting beside me.

On this bus, the locals boarded last prefering to stand. Quite a few rode without paying. One woman at the back of the bus made a cross sign her chest as the bus transmission choked into ignition. She had on a wooden rosary and a horseshoe shaped gold and diamond watch.

I'd begun to notice there were a lot more watches in Costa Rica than in the US. Also, everyone had a good cell phone. No one wore hats or sunglasses. In fact, it's illegal to wear a hat and sunglasses in public buildings and banks here - it's considered a disguise.

Like an ordinary city bus, the driver stopped this bus whenever a passenger pulled one of the cords over the windows. Not frequently, but at odd places, someone hopped off. We once stopped at a pasture and another time at a private school. The driver seemed to know who was going where.

One stop consisted of an two apartments atop two orange plate glass window stores, like one would expect to find in San Francisco. The easternmost shop was a small gym with a half-dozen machines and free weights. The westernmost shop was newly painted and for lease. This structure was bordered on either end by papaya plantations.

Approaching La Fortuna, I noticed a change in humidity. Dense clouds hung over constantly errupting Arenal.

The air wasn't particularly sulphurous, perhaps owing to the precipitaion and all the greenery.

But for the palms, the broad variety of trees was totally unknown to me. I was about the enter the rainforest.

My Airline Adventure Part 2

above: a bag of chips and a bag of sugared peanuts was all there was to eat after midnight at the Holiday Inn Express.

Traveling by plane is one of my first memories. Was I even old enough to walk? Perhaps my Dad carried me to the cockpit (which was open) and let the pilot pin a plastic pair of wings on my t-shirt. Mom played solitaire. I saw things I was just learning to identify by name - clouds, mountains, water.

When we flew over a city at night my Mom would say, "The Lights of Los Angeles," "The Lights of Honolulu," as though each city was famous for the adoption of electricity.

I also remember our flights in the early 1980s. The flight attendants were still called, "stewards," and "stewardesses." Days after the end of a labor strike, my family traveled to Hawaii.

The jet was a DC-10, wide bodied aircraft with lounges on board up a narrow, ten-rung spiral staircase.

They would inexplicably publicized as "dangerous" by the news media though statistically they were no more prone to failure than narrow bodied jets.

The planes were, however, expensive to fly.The modest protests by the otherwise powerful and well regarded airline industry seem suspicious in retrospect.

The flight attendants and maintenance workers would soon buy one of the airlines. The airline would be assailed by corporate raiders until the communal operation went bankrupt.

These were the beginnings what is now resolutely an anti-consumer, anti-worker industry.

Are consumers so easily placated by low fares? It costs about the same travel to four cities in Europe in 2010 as it did to travel to Brussels alone in 1980. Where are those rising fuel costs? That weaker dollar?

For their part, workers seem happy to keep their jobs and senority in the company. The benefits of this are less evident as retirement age approaches.

The basic thrill of flying, that motivates both of these parties, hasn't changed. Clouds, mountains, water. The sense of being "above" is powerful.

But there must be a reason, unrelated to front line workers and consumers, that the industry is weighed down by horror stories.

Every year it seems an airline is going broke, bankrupt, merging. From a business standpoint it seems as though business is never good.

It's not all those long gone packets of playing cards. Or the continuing absence of peanuts and pretzels (which would still be worth their weight, from a liability standpoint, as alcohol absorbers.)

What if it is really related to fuel and labor? What if it is old airplanes? Worn parts? Dangerous mechanical conditions?

Aren't all of these items a small part of the bottom line? A part of the bottom line consumers would pay a little bit extra for?

Do we need an expose on the price of access to airport terminals? On the salaries of top airline executives? Is this business even motivated by bad publicity anymore?

Personally, I would cheerfully accept an amount in the mid-six figure range to be an top airline executive. I would probably save lives, jobs, money, and be popular with consumers.

If I'm deemed unqualified, I'm sure airline executives in Latin American or Southeast Asian countries would happily accept a million a year, regardless of the benefit package, for the chance to transform an increasingly ugly U.S. industry.

Airline Adventure Part 1

I insisted on the shortest possible schedule to get me from San Francisco to La Fortuna.

The entire journey was to take me 20 hours.

I arrived at the airport a few hours prior to my 23:30 flight and read quietly. The leg to Miami went as scheduled arriving at 8:00 local time.

That's when the complications began.

Our 10:20 flight was bumped back to 10:40 and then 11am. We boarded sometime around 11:15.

The pilot spoke on the intercom. There would be a 30 minute delay. The jet was mising a part that needed to be replaced.

I don't know much about jets. I do know they have many parts. Since an active jet contains the lives of about 300 people, every jet part would seem essential.

So, when a second 30 minute delay was announced, I groaned but took a nap. Let the maintenance people do their business!

I awoke to the plane being evacuated. We returned to the airport and waited for another hour.

Finally, the flight was cancelled.

Two airline workers announced a new gate number. We rushed to the gate imagining each of us would be able to board the flight.

There was room for about seven. On standby.

Everyone else was ticketed for a flight that was to leave at 7pm, almost 12 hours after our arrival time at MIA.

24 consecutive hours of internet access at the Miami airport costs $8. That's about 1/4 of what I pay at home.

No one can convince me that, just because Miami has an airport, their Internet service is 600 percent more valuable than the Starbucks Wi-fi service less than a mile away. Certainly, their price structure anticipating the kind of business that evolves from 12 hour delays.

These markups seem hellbent on enhancing, rather than relieving, the misery of any journey, exploiting travelers in the process.

I purchased a days worth of access. I tried to staunch my losses.

I emailed the bus company that was to carry me to La Fortuna. It was one hour before my bus was to depart. I wouldn't be able to make it.

They replied that they could not schedule me for the next day as they were booked and that they would charge me a 100 percent no show fee. A forty dollar loss.

I emailed the couple whose resort I would be staying at. I emailed my roommates. I updated my Facebook with a picture of myself arriving smiling in Miami. "That was eight hours ago."

I approached the customer care center for the airline. They secured me a room for the night once I reached San Jose. A useful development.

Less impressively, they offered me a ten dollar meal voucher. At home, I've been able to make 10 dollars worth of food nutritiously last a week. In MIA, however, the only vegetarian meal I could purchase for ten dollars consisted of a 6" "personal" pizza, a bag of BBQ chips, and an orange soda.

I was happier than most.

The outgoing flight that lucky seven were booked on was also having mechanical problems.

After about an hour, it was taken out of service. The gate and the plane changed. That flight, originally scheduled for 13:00 finally left at 17:00.

By then, my 19:00 flight was bumped back to 19:30. Another mechanical problem. The passengers began to revolt.

A tall, frat boy type who was traveling to Costa Rica for a long weekend became the leader of the discontented, memorizing sob stories and deploying them whenever a figure of authority appeared.

I spoke to a couple from Milwaukee who were celebrating their anniversary.

"The last time we tried to celebrate our anniversary I got sick and it ruined everything, " the wife said, "I was hoping this would be different."

Another woman asked me to help her find the bus schedule online. She was nearly in tears. She hoped to be out of the country by midnight as the next day was be the first annniversary of her daughter's death.

There were quite a few older people who did not pack enough of their medications for an eleven hour layover.

Every one had a special day planned. A busy day planned. And everyone was paying long distance charges in a scramble to reschedule bookings.

If I multiply my losses times 300, I come up with a figure of about 50K. Would the airline accept that kind of one-day loss?

It was clear that the staff was doing everything in their power to cope with the distress. Airline policies did not leave them many options.

I was personally reluctant to fly an airline that grounded three planes leaving for the same destination on the same day due to mechanical difficulties.

I asked on two separate occassions to be placed on a flight to Houston, knowing that is the other common transfer point for Costa Rica.

The second man who dealt with me insinuated that I had planted a bomb on the flight when I expressed concern regarding the safety of outgoing Miami aircraft.

"What reason do you have to believe the plane will come apart over the Gulf of Mexico?"

The plane did finally board, with all engines running, at about 20:00. I arrived in San Jose two and a half hours later.

I did not make La Fortuna until 16:00 the next day.

Reviving Frequency Hopper

For the next four months, I'm reviving Frequency Hopper, the travel blog I began in 2006 to commemorate a Transatlantic cruise I took with my mother.

Presently, I'm traveling to Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Missouri, and Colorado.

My first stop is Abercam La Fortuna, a resort exclusively for gay men located in the heart of Costa Rica, as close to the active Arenal Volcano as is legally possible. I will live there for close to two months.

Unlike Delta Magnet Blog, which I've nurtured during roughly that same period, Frequency Hopper will lean more toward the plain spoken.

Travel has an implicit reward which adjectives detract from. It's an altered state without drugs or sleeplessness.

For the purposes of clarity, all times will be stated on a 24 hour clock.

Formal Night Pics

These are the photos from our first formal night on board the Jewel of the Seas

Mom and me with the captain at his pre-dinner reception

Awww. Mother and son. Kind of like an upscale Olin Mills....

And this is the picture my roommate says "ought to snag me a husband"; see how sincere I look in a tuxedo?

Asia de Cuba photo

The grainy camera phone pic taken of Stefan, Troy and Mom at Asia de Cuba in the St. Martin's Lane Hotel, London.

Ossipee, New Hampshire

My Uncle Ralph picked us up at the pier when our ship arrived on Monday. We stopped off for Dunkin' Donuts and to see my cousin Ellen and her husband before treking to Ossipee, New Hampshire.

My uncle's place in New Hampshire overlooks Dan Hole Pond, named for a fur trapper who was popular with the local First American population.

That night we ate at Whittier House, a student union style bar decorated with old license plates, beer cans, and pewter beer steins. We sat in the screened in back porch which had a stone coy pond in the center.

Mom and I were both pleased to get into full sized beds. I could (and can still) feel the ocean. Mom swears she can't feel it, but I believe she's too exited being on land again to try.

Sunday, Mom and Uncle Ralph went shopping and then watched football all day. I wrote all morning and then planted bulbs in the front yard. There was a quick shower that soaked me - our only rain the entire trip!

Mom won a one dollar bet with her brother on the Broncos/Patriots game. She's says she's going to frame it and put it on her Bronco altar at home.

Monday, we stopped in to see my cousin Stephen on the way back and got to Logan for our flights.

And that's it! We're home!

Home Again

Mom and I both arrived safely at our respective homes last night at about 8pm.

I called her today. She said she was happy to be home but missed the chocolates on her pillow.

Anyway, I still have pictures to post including New Hampshire, dinner at Asia de Cuba, and formal night (I have to scan these, so it may be a few days)

Service Highlights

The cruise staff conducted themselves far beyond our modest expectations of good service - especially our dining room waiter Yatin from India and our assistant waiter Olga from Lithuania.

Even though he manages dozens of tables, Yatin found time every night to seat my mother himself. Olga discovered early on that we enjoyed hot tea with our meals and layed out a tea service every night for us.

While the cruise line provides everyone with generic envelopes in which to place cash for tipping, we picked out some handsome watercolor greeting cards in which to enclose a gratuity with our handwritten thanks.

Final Sea Day!

We dock and disembark in Boston on Saturday. Once there, we rendevous with my uncle and his family for a weekend in the New Hampshire woods. Then Monday we fly home.

Today on the Atlantic, the cloudless sunny weather persists. Mom went to a towel folding demonstration this morning and I read my book by the pool in the Solarium where I took a dip in the saltwater pool. We're looking forward to watching the sunset from our nightly stakeout in the Champagne bar (one diet Coke one regular Coke, the bartender calls it "the usual").

The Grand Buffet

Our final food event of the cruise took place at midnight.

700 man hours went into preparing all the foods and sculptures for this incredible display that took up most of the 1000 seat dining room.

Highlights included:
-gryphon, dolphin, swan, and mermaid ice sculptures.
- a verdigris green statue of liberty made entirely of chocolate.
- cheese wheels carved to resemble American coins,
- animals made from cut fruit.
- caviar and salmon in mass quantities.
- seven layer cakes in seven flavors.

Mom grabbed some salmon, cheese, and crackers. I got some fruit and a wedge of white chocolate black forest cake. The best part of the buffet? We got to take our portions back to our stateroom for all night munching.

Halifax and the Evangeline Trail

Our kilted guide Ken toured us through the Anapolis Valley where French Catholic settlers, known as the Acadians, first settled.
They built clay dikes to permit the high Bay of Fundy tides to flood the area, leaving mineral rich silt for farming when they rolled out.

The British forced their expulsion from the land in the mid 1700s. Longfellow's narrative poem "Evangeline" popularized the cause of the Acadians internationally. In the last century, Queen Elizabeth dedicated the histroic park at Grand Pre to the memory of thier tragic exile.

We ate in the small college town of Wolfville. Mom and I tried out the "national obsession" Tim Horton's coffee shop. I had a few sips of the brew - my tounge grew fur and my ears began ringing. Later, we journeyed to a local apple orchard where I tasted a 400 year old cultivar, the German Gravestein. Most everyone else enjoyed a scoop of homemade ice cream.

When we passed back through the Anapolis Valley the tide was high and the clay dikes we'd photographed earlier in the day were now swollen marshlands. As a bonus, our coach took us to the star-shaped dry moat Citadel that looks over Halifax, guarded by soldiers in traditional costume.

St. John's Surprise

Our unreally perfect weather continued into St. John's, Newfoundland. Rough winds, however, chilled us at our first stop, Cape Spear.

This handsome stetch of coast, a lookout station during the second world war, still boasts a working lighthouse and status as a national park. Wild yellow lupins, thistle, milkweed, and black eyed susans bind the soil with their roots and prevent it from blowing away. The evergreens all bend in the direction the wind blows and lose their needles on the eastern side.

After a pass by the settlement of scenic Petty Harbor, we drove through downtown St. John and up Signal Hill.


We could see our cruise ship from this site that overlooked both the harbor and the Cape Spear lighthouse. I climbed the steps to the Marconi Turret where the first wireless transatlantic signal was exchanged.

Our guide Laura, a young Newfoundlander, though less steeped in history and fact than our other guides gave us the best demonstration of what it was like to live in the area as she joked with the driver and shared personal anecdotes.

The locals easily gave us our best welcome and our best send off of the cruise. At the pier, huge furry Newfoundland dogs, Canadian mounted police, actresses in Victorian dress and a Tv crew greeted us. As we departed, our friendly hosts lined the piers, cliffs and roads surrounding the inlet and waved to us until we passed from sight.

Sea Days

The transatlantic crossing, constituting the middle three days of our journey, ended today in St. John's, Newfoundland.

During our sea days:

- Mom played a sanctioned game of duplicate bridge
- I saw a French Caberet singer in the shipboard theater.
- Mom went to the daily Catholic mass held in the discoteque.
- I worked out in the gym. ("Why do these weights seem so heavy? Oh, KILOS!")
- Mom watched a cooking demonstration.
- I worked on my novel in several quiet corners.

We saw a several movies in the cinema including "The Devil Wears Prada," which seems to be the passenger favorite. We also both got treatments in the spa.

Lismore and Waterford

Our most rewarding of the journey, the shore excursion to Waterford took over nine hours. Our guide, Claire passed around a bottle of Potcin, or Irish moonshine, and a sod of dried peat or "turf" as exhibits to explain the way of life in the Irish Countryside. She graciously explained hurling, mandatory prayer in schools, Irish divorce (the couple must spend four year apart to make it legal), and many Irish aphorisms.

Mom wants to import "Tidy Town" and "Tidy Street" competitions to the U.S. We passed the all-Irish "Tidy Street" winner on our way through Lismore and took a stop at Lismore Castle which one can rent out for 2 grand per weekend with 12 friends.

Ultimately, we traveled to the Waterford Crystal Factory. In the last 30 years, the factory, which originally employed a team of about 70, expanded to 900. We saw at least two dozen active workers on the tour, pouring, molding, turning and shaping hot glass.

The three floor showroom was crowded both with crystal and with consumers. Both Mom and I made small purchases.

Cobh, Ireland

We arrived in Cobh, the second largest natural harbor in the world (Sydney is first, San Francisco is third) at dawn. This pic is a little shaken by ship motion. Cobh is one of two islands in Cork county that are connected by bridge to the town of Cork on the Irish mainland.

The first immigrants to be processed on Ellis Island originated from Cobh. Irish immigration to the United States is percieved in Ireland to be a century-long phenomena, tailing out in recently with a twelve year technology related boom.

Dublin Pics Part 3

A view of St. Patricks from the lawn. Near the gate is the well where St. Patrick performed baptisms.

Dublin Pics Part 2

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Dublin Pics Part 1

St. Stephen's Green in Dublin.

Our Ship

Our cruise ship, The Jewel of the Seas, as seen from the tender boats departing from Plymouth, England.

Dartmoor Pics 3

These wild ponies are also native to the area. Their full height is about 4 ft tall. This one has a foal.

Dartmoor Pics 2

A black-faced ram. This type of sheep is native to Dartmoor and roams wild over the moors and across properties.

Dartmoor Pics 1

A view from the tour bus of foggy Dartmoor, the inspiration for Doyle's "Hounds of the Baskervilles".

Port Racine, France pic

The smallest port in France named for the playwright who once lived in the area.

Grevile, France Pics Part 2

Mom posing in front of a typical house in the village of Grevile

Grevile, France Pics Part 1

In Grevile, the birthplace of painter J. F. Millet posing with his statue.

Cabin Pics Part 2

Me spreading out on the desk in our cabin.

Cabin Pics Part 1

Mom demonstrating our balcony on embarcation day!

System Up!

After some "safe-mode" troubleshooting, I got my laptop working again.

I'd just spoke to guest services and returned the Internet cable for my room when the system came back.

When I begged for the cable back I told them Mom fixed the computer while I'd been talking to them.

If Mom could have fixed it she would have. She was more distressed than I about our blog being disrupted as this would have necessitated writing many postcards.

Anyway, we have some pics to post.

Dale and Mom Status Update

Mom went back to the ship this afternoon. I stayed on to find a Mac system software disc and check out St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Of course, we both want to do everything on the ship, but there is not nearly enough time.

Mom's not used to such busy days. I'm not used to eating so much cheese.

Cork is our next stop with the longest shore excursion of our cruise, the Waterford Crystal tour, a whopping nine hours.

I think we'll probably skip the late show in the theatre tonight and rest up.

Our first day at sea will be a relief. We're both getting spa treatments in the am and eating on our own at the Italian restuarant on board in the pm.

If I find an Internet Cafe in Saint John that will probably be my next login

Dublin Castle

We saw Dublin Castle today. The rooms were all very spectacular, featuring rococo plaster ceilings, antique chairs, browned lacquer portraits, and gilded pillars.

We saw a room where heads of state slept. Someone asked our guide to name some notable visitors. "Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan slept here - not together, of course. And Bill and Hillary Clinton slept here - together surprisingly."

Mom and I both enjoyed the Castles collection of Louis the fourteenth chairs upholstered with tapestry illustrating Aesop's fables.

On the way out, we were hustled aside as the Irish President was approaching. She got out of her car and we glimpsed her at close range for a second before she glided into the fortress.

On the way back to the coach, several Amercians expressed surprise at the low level of security.

A Finish man said, "If you could not approach her as an ordinary person, she could never get elected in Europe."

The man behind him on the coach said, "That's the problem in America - they're ordinary people until they get elected."

Plymouth and Dartmoor

We arrived in Plymouth on Wednesday where we took tender boats to shore.

Our tour took us through the Devon countryside to Dartmoor. Yellow gorse, pink heather and ferns colored the sides of the road.

The farms in the hilly Devon region divide along hedges, which, as accidental wildlife refuges, are federally protected and cannot be altered. The grass is brilliantly green. Mom said it really looked like the green in a crayon box.

Once we got to Dartmoor, black faced sheep and wild Dartmoor ponies could be seen grazing everywhere. The ponies and sheep are "owned" by local interests, and are tagged once a year, but they are left to graze and roam and never culled.

We passed Princeton, where Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired to write "The Hounds of the Baskervilles" among the moss covered heaps of extruded rock.

Finally, the Dartmoor Inn served us a cream tea.

As the tea was layed out, but our table was reluctant to dig in, I assumed the role of "mother" and poured tea for the group. The Dartmoor Inn bakes their exceptionally light scones in a outdoor woodstove at the entrance to the property.

Just before we left, some ponies and sheep began grazing on the West end of the property. You can get close enough to touch them, but they kick. Don't ask how I found that out.

Let's Eat!

We have a dinner table for six on the ship. Cathy and Nick are a Canadian couple. Dick and his wife (Betsy, whose name Mom couldn't remember for some reason) are from outside Washington D.C. All are about Mom's age or a little younger. We get along well.

The serving staff is very attentive. Cathy who is slight never eats too much but they load her up with food anyway.

Mom ate fish every night except last night, our first formal evening, when filet mignon was served. The satifying vegetarian meals included a vertically stacked Eggplant Parmesian and a large Pumpkin Curry pastry served with asparagus.

For breakfast and lunch there are a variety of place to eat on the ship, including the dining room, although almost no one uses the dining room before the dinner seatings.

Cherbourg Mon Cheri

Another day of unbelievably beautiful weather greeted us in Cherbourg where we went on our first shore excursion Tuesday.

We toured of the West Coast of Normandy. Our first stop, the small village where painter J.F. Millet was born. Next, Port Racine, the smallest port in France named for the playwright who lived nearby.

We had a photo op at a lighthouse and climbed a Norman heath from which one could see several islands belonging to Britian.

Mom spoke for a long while with our tour guide who lives in the middle of Normandy with her boyfriend. She said their ritual was to come to the restaurant on the heath, and have a crepe with the wind rushing by. It was clear she was passionate about the area.

Meltdown

We've not updated recently as my computer melted down somewhere between Britian and Ireland.

I'll post a few anecdotes to keep you all in the loop, but pics are probably not forthcoming.

You can find an Apple system software disc laying on the street in San Francisco, but nowhere in Dublin, apparently....

Embarcation Day

After a three-hour transfer through the English countryside Monday, we arrived at the port of Harwich and boarded the boat.

Our cabin is layed out differently than we expected. More favorably in many ways.

It's as big as some suites on other ships, but not nearly as long. The balcony is roomy enough for two to comfortably sit with a table between them. I've spread out on the desk. The bathroom was perhaps the best surprise, roomy and clean with blue tiles and circular shower stall featuring sliding doors.

We took in the "Welcome Aboard" show which featured a juggler/commedian I'd seen on my very first cruise.

Asia De Cuba Dinner

My friends Stefan and Troy joined us for dinner Sunday night at the hotel restaurant.

Troy is from Australia and Stefan is from Sweden although they both live in London now, so we discussed immigration and our native dinner traditions.

Mom's favorite was the lobster mashed potatoes. I enjoyed the Mu Shu tortilla pancakes with mint and goat milk sauce.

At the end of the night, my camera batteries failed. I took a picture of my three dining companions with my cell phone to be posted when we return to the US.

"Rock N Roll"

Sunday afternoon we attended a matinee of the new Tom Stoppard play across the street from our hotel at the Duke of York's Theatre.

Sinead Cusack stood out. She portrayed both a mother and her daughter over the course of the play's twenty two year timetable.

The production used music cues to mark passages in the character's lives and in the social life of Prague before and immediately after the Velvet Revolution

Pub Lunch

We had lunch Sunday at one of Britian's oldest pubs, the Lamb and Flag, parts of which have been around since the 17th century.

I asked for a Ploughman's Lunch which featured a generous wedge of Stilton Cheese. Mom said she'd served as much Stilton to her friends at a bridge party. I took it as a dare. I consumed about 3/4ths before "giving in".

Getting Lost

A planned journey through Regents Park went arwy when I led us down the wrong side of the Grand Canal.

I first knew we were lost when we found a place that was open Sunday before noon. They also sold me four double A batteries for 2 pounds - about half the going rate downtown.

When we finally gave up, a pair of men on a bench with thick accents were powerless to direct us. We’d walked all the way to a much more native and less scenic part of London called Shepard’s Bush.

Trafalgar Pic

Mom took great pictures on this trip. Dad used to jinx her photographic efforts saying she always cut off the subject’s head.

The pigeons are not as numerous in Trafalgar square as they once were, but they still leave quite an impact. When I stood up I discovered my hand was in some of it here.

Canterbury Tales at the Gielgud

We attended a performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "The Canterbury Tales."

One of the dudes from East Enders, Michael Matus (he had the recurring role as a stereotypical American on Absolutely Fabulous) figured promiently.

The director Mike Poulton was the star of the show, however, as it was easily the most complex and originally staged play I've seen in some time.

Dale Gets Lost, Finds His People

While Mom took a nap this afternoon, I walked around to find a good currency exchange and some "take away" food.

I wandered around SoHo which was wall to wall gay men, especially around the Seven Dials and the shops around Dean Street.

Almost everyone was well groomed in a button-up shirt with an open collar. Sort of the unofficial gay uniform here like a t-shirt jeans and a baseball cap would be in San Francisco.

Our theatre tonight was at the Gielgud, so I got a taste for what the current nightlife is like without have to lose my sleep to join in....

Mom at Covent Garden Market

Turned Back From Buckingham

Our plans for Buckhingham, aside from maybe sticking our tongues out at a guard or two were altered.

First, we arrived too late for the Changing of the Guard.

Next, the ticket office cancelled our reservation for the Queen's Rooms. We would have appreciated any effort they might have made to notify us of this before we spent five pounds on a cab to get there and queued up for a half-hour.

More Good News More Bad News

After a lengthy queue at Customs and a speedy transfer, we arrived at St. Martin's Lane Hotel

Though the service was excellent and our room was ideal, the staff put us off for a while about the condition of our belongings.

When the porter brought our bag to us, it was gaping open, shredded at the corners, and held together with tape. I could close the latches with the suitcase empty, but the inside was exposed.

Just the same, nothing was damaged or missing.

We went got an excellent new suitcase on Picadilly and gave our destroyed bag to the porter.

"I'll take it outside," he said, "I need something to kick."

Boston to London

Mom was at Logan to meet me at the gate. We went through another security battery and had time to eat at a greasy bar food restaurant.

Our flight left on time. We were seated next to several of our shipmates who are staying in the same hotel in advance of the cruise.

All the items in the in-flight goody bag glowed under black light and all the lavatories were illuminated with black light.

We were both impressed with the safety video which was a cartoon rendered in blocky 60s-feel characters.

Mom had a conversation with one of the crew members and asked if there was a reason why all the flight attendants were so cheerful. "Boston is an easy trip. Everyone is so polite," she said, "it's not like this flying in and out of New York."

SFO to Boston

On the flight to Boston, I met a soldier on her way to a weekend with her five-year-old. She was about to be deployed for her second tour of duty in the Middle East.

She was first sent to Afghanistan and will now be stationed in Baghdad.

I thanked her for her service.

She said her greatest reward was watching a major Afghan party run a woman for president. She openly wondered when a major US party would have the courage to do the same.

Another Wrinkle and Wrinkle Removed!

A few websearches demonstrated that my AC adapter issue was in fact a battery issue.

I resolved it but went to SFO for my Boston flight with the laptop half-charged.

At the airport, I took my computer to a automated charging station and topped the power up. It was very space age. Unattended remote controlled, taking credit cards and securing charging ports with red light isometric thumb-print readings.

When I went to retrieve my Pismo, the thumbprint reader wouldn’t work! Neither would the courtesy phone beside the station!

I had ten minutes before my final boarding call to rescue the device from three tech support people and while I was waiting my phone ran out of minutes. Ultimately, Pismo and I were reunited just in time for takeoff.

Another Wrinkle

The AC adapter on my laptop just busted. :(

It's 11pm the night before we travel. I've got about two hours of power left on my Pismo now. Not that I'm going to be making any mid-air posts....

At least I found out in time to websearch directions to the Apple Store in London.

Good News/Bad News

The good news? Our luggage arrived at the hotel today three days ahead of schedule.

The bad news? According to our courteous concierge, the suitcase was "broken beyond repair," though none of the contents were missing!

Stay tuned....

The Veggie Factor

Vegetarians take special risks when they travel.

Principally, they risk starvation.

To protect myself from this fate, I've enlisted the help of the graphically challenged but internationally ambitious vegetarian listing site Happy Cow

"Backpack to the Future" or "My Pack: A Love Story"

As I previously suggested, my Mom and I elected to send our luggage to London ahead of us.

The prevailing system = total surrender to overworked baggage handlers,
outdated airport systems, understaffed customs areas and overspeculative security.

Hopefully the upcoming system will look more like this

Until then, at least my backpack has the 007-esque Tumi tracer

Facetime

Pic of me from Christopher Irion's "Who Makes San Francisco"

To Do List...

As cruises resemble all-inclusive vacations, one imagines planning very little in preparation.

I must gather materials for our suitcase,

Arrange for our luggage to be shipped ahead so we can finesse customs,

Purchase tickets for shows,

And figure out where we'll eat on land.