May 27, 2008
Hallo from Holland!
We've had a wonderful, busy trip so far. First we stayed with Arnoud's parents and enjoyed the countryside around Arnoud's hometown. We took a bike ride through the quiet country roads and hiked through a nature preserve, the Kampina.
Then came Martine's bachelorette party on Saturday, May 17th. We had a tarot card reading, tasted Belgian beer, wore silly hats, and made even sillier photos. By the time we made it to the restaurant for dinner, Martine was half-naked (I've edited those photos out!) and everyone was half-drunk. Apparently we had a good time, and luckily we got everything on film as the details of the evening are a bit hazy.
For my birthday we went to Zaanse Schans, a cute little village north of Amsterdam, to see some of the old windmills from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Zaanstreek was an important industrial area of the time (the first industrial area in Europe) and produced all sorts of goods: paint, flour, oil, mustard, snuff, and milled wood. Some of the windmills are still working and we toured a paint mill, De Kat (The Cat). It looks very calm from the outside, with hardly any noise, but from the inside it's very loud and everything shakes and moves. The wings of the windmill turn all sorts of gears and mill stones and grinding and pounding devices. It's amazing how much energy those little sails generate!
We also visited a klompen museum to see the history of wooden clogs. Despite how it sounds, it was actually fascinating! We saw all different kinds of clogs from beautiful hand painted and carved bridal clogs to (my favorite) rollerskate clogs. Humphrey even found a clog to fit him.
Our friend Philipp came over from Vienna for a visit and arrived on Friday just in time for Happy Hour in the sunshine at a cafe in Amsterdam. Together with our family, we took over Eelco and Rianna's beautiful apartment for a Thai food take-out birthday dinner.
On Saturday our friend Tim took us out on his little boat to tour the canals of Amsterdam. It's a beautiful city and it's wonderful and unusual to view it from waterlevel.
We finished at Eelco and Rianna's where we enjoyed Mojitos in the park and once again were treated to a wonderful dinner. We finished the evening in Studio 80, a club in the center of Amsterdam, where we saw our friend Neal (from Error Krew) deejay and danced until dawn.
On Sunday nothing happened because we were too hungover.
Then came Martine's bachelorette party on Saturday, May 17th. We had a tarot card reading, tasted Belgian beer, wore silly hats, and made even sillier photos. By the time we made it to the restaurant for dinner, Martine was half-naked (I've edited those photos out!) and everyone was half-drunk. Apparently we had a good time, and luckily we got everything on film as the details of the evening are a bit hazy.
For my birthday we went to Zaanse Schans, a cute little village north of Amsterdam, to see some of the old windmills from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Zaanstreek was an important industrial area of the time (the first industrial area in Europe) and produced all sorts of goods: paint, flour, oil, mustard, snuff, and milled wood. Some of the windmills are still working and we toured a paint mill, De Kat (The Cat). It looks very calm from the outside, with hardly any noise, but from the inside it's very loud and everything shakes and moves. The wings of the windmill turn all sorts of gears and mill stones and grinding and pounding devices. It's amazing how much energy those little sails generate!
We also visited a klompen museum to see the history of wooden clogs. Despite how it sounds, it was actually fascinating! We saw all different kinds of clogs from beautiful hand painted and carved bridal clogs to (my favorite) rollerskate clogs. Humphrey even found a clog to fit him.
Our friend Philipp came over from Vienna for a visit and arrived on Friday just in time for Happy Hour in the sunshine at a cafe in Amsterdam. Together with our family, we took over Eelco and Rianna's beautiful apartment for a Thai food take-out birthday dinner.
On Saturday our friend Tim took us out on his little boat to tour the canals of Amsterdam. It's a beautiful city and it's wonderful and unusual to view it from waterlevel.
We finished at Eelco and Rianna's where we enjoyed Mojitos in the park and once again were treated to a wonderful dinner. We finished the evening in Studio 80, a club in the center of Amsterdam, where we saw our friend Neal (from Error Krew) deejay and danced until dawn.
On Sunday nothing happened because we were too hungover.
December 31, 2007
December 23, 2007
December 21, 2007
Going Under
We went for a sunrise scuba dive south of Ensenada Blanca with our friends Nancy and Chris from El Santuario. We loaded up kayaks with tanks and gear and paddled south along the coast to a secluded beach surrounded by cliffs. After a short refresher and equipment check, Nancy and I descended right next to a beautiful painted moray eel. We saw lots of reef fish: jacks, angels, triggers, damsels, and the largest parrot fish I've ever seen.
Arnoud and Chris went second and Chris swears he saw a reef shark, but Arnoud missed it. Humphrey didn't get to go, but he enjoyed the kayak ride! It was a beautiful morning and so much fun to get back under the surface.
Now we've moved south of La Paz to a bay called La Ventana which, as you might expect from the name, is famous for it's wind. It's a huge campground that is taken over by windsurfers and kiteboarders from December to March. It's not quite as remote as our last camp, but there's a lot more to do.
On Arnoud's first day back on his windsurf board, he snapped his mast in half way out. After an hour and a half of swimming, a kiteboarder finally took pity on him and dragged him to shore. In gratitude, I decided to learn kiteboarding. Watch out sunbathers, I'm coming and I've got a 9 meter kite strapped to my waist!
I've been taking lessons with Nat Lincoln from Edge Kiteboarding School. After a lot of theory and practice on shore with a little training kite, I finally got to go in the water yesterday, although I didn't get to take my board. I started up on the north side of the bay and dragged myself all the way south (about 3/4 of a mile) using a 6 meter kite. It was a lot of fun, although there's still water dripping out of my nose 24 hours later.
Arnoud's been a bit quicker with picking up the sport (darn him!) and took out a board yesterday. After a couple of mishaps and unintentional kite loops, he managed to stand up -- only to fall right back down... I would have laughed a little evil laugh to see that, but I was busy "tea bagging" my way down the bay (and no, you dirty people, not that kind of tea bagging!)
Humphrey, mean while, has learned a new sport too; he's finally mastered fetch and wants to practice all the time.
Other than our new extreme sports, we're practicing mostly relaxed activities. We bought a paddle and put my huge windsurf board to better use as a stand up paddle board for dawn balancing acts(photos soon.) Arnoud's been making lots of beautiful rock piles. And of course sunset is a spectator sport.
December 8, 2007
What a Wild Life!
The most amazing thing happened yesterday: We had breakfast sitting on the beach. It's was a totally calm day, with not a breeze or a wave in sight. I walked down to the water's edge with Humphrey and looked out to sea and all of a sudden a dolphin breached. He couldn't have been more than 20 feet out, in thigh deep water. And then another dolphin breached right next to the first, and bait fish started jumping out of the glassy water. I walked along the shore and watched as the two dolphins swam, sliding up out of the water every couple feet, all the way south along the beach and around the corner.
Today we went fishing with our neighbor and caught a bunch of big sierras (a kind of mackerel.) On our way back to the beach, we were followed by a sea lion who wanted to see if he could beg a few of our catch. We saw osprey hunting and manta rays jumping out of the water.
For lunch we had a ceviche of very fresh sierra plus a few giant diver scallops (almost as big as my palm) from some of the local guys. As we sat on the beach afterwards, enjoying a siesta break, we watched pelicans hunting, stitching the water in synchronized patterns, and herons wading around in the shallows looking for their own lunch.
Sorry about the silly title of this post, but it's been an amazing 24 hours down here, although according to our "neighbors", it's all perfectly normal. And about that stingray experience that so many of you have expressed concern about: It turns out that what we stepped on were probably skates or flounders or something like that. The local fishermen laughed at our stingray fears. And we went snorkeling on this beach yesterday and didn't see a single ray, so I think we're safe. I even went out windsurfing (and fell a lot!) without fear.
Today we went fishing with our neighbor and caught a bunch of big sierras (a kind of mackerel.) On our way back to the beach, we were followed by a sea lion who wanted to see if he could beg a few of our catch. We saw osprey hunting and manta rays jumping out of the water.
For lunch we had a ceviche of very fresh sierra plus a few giant diver scallops (almost as big as my palm) from some of the local guys. As we sat on the beach afterwards, enjoying a siesta break, we watched pelicans hunting, stitching the water in synchronized patterns, and herons wading around in the shallows looking for their own lunch.
Sorry about the silly title of this post, but it's been an amazing 24 hours down here, although according to our "neighbors", it's all perfectly normal. And about that stingray experience that so many of you have expressed concern about: It turns out that what we stepped on were probably skates or flounders or something like that. The local fishermen laughed at our stingray fears. And we went snorkeling on this beach yesterday and didn't see a single ray, so I think we're safe. I even went out windsurfing (and fell a lot!) without fear.
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