2008-08 Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico

Saturday
We had a couple of early frustrations on our first trip to Mexico. We had an early 6:45AM flight and had ordered a cab for 4:45. By 5:00 we still had no cab and no luck making contact with the cab company as everything went to voicemail. We quickly hopped in the van and headed to the park and ride. Fortunately our timing was good and only had to wait a couple minutes before we were picked up and on the way to the airport.

We arrived at a bout 5:30 only to find a long line for Frontier and only 2 agents at the counter checking everyone in. We did not make it to the front of the line until about 6:20 and just as we were about to go to the counter, our agent said she had to leave and go help at the gate. We did get helped next and got checked in fairly quickly, despite the fact that Ray and the girls had been able to check in on-line, but for some reason LeAnn wasn’t. We didn’t know what to expect, but it was not a problem. The extremely slow check in was due to the fact that they had changed flight numbers back in May and most of the people had not been moved to the new flight. It had ended up that we were, so ours went fast. So it was off to the gate. We found a security checkpoint with no line so that didn’t cause any problems. We go to the gate about 10 minutes before flight time and were relieved (somewhat) to see that they had not started boarding yet. The ticketing issues had caused them to delay the flight. With only about a 40 minute connection time in Denver, this was going to make it tight. We boarded the plane with Carmon the Blue Crowned Conure (a parrot type bird) on the tail and winglets and were surprised to find an all coach layout with nice leather seats for everyone.

We pushed back about 40 minutes late, but we did make up some time in flight and arrived at the gate with 15 until our next flight left. They made an announcement that they were holding the Puerto Vallarta flight as 16 people were making the connection. They asked others on board to let us off first so we all dashed off thinking we had to go from gate 24 to gate 51 and found out we were boarding at the very next gate! Because we were late, we missed our slot and landed at gate 53. We lined up and they started to check our documents and we got on board, this time we were flying on the Holly the Heron plane. We pushed off about 10 minutes late but were on our way despite the multiple close calls and potential issues. We all dosed on and off during the flight preparing for our upcoming week in Mexico.

We landed at Puerto Vallarta airport and had to take a cab to the Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta, which is north and west of the airport. On the way to the taxi stand we were pulled into the timeshare gauntlet with people pushing their resorts with various offers including free taxi to your resort, free sightseeing trips, and free tequila. When we arrived at our resort, they said they would like to have us learn about the other locations they had in Mexico and would match any offers that anyone had made to us plus throw in some other discounts for us if we could spare 90 minutes of time our first full morning here, so we decided to do it.

As we were on the way to the resort, we noticed a few things about traffic down here. They use roundabouts and U-turn slots in many cases rather than traffic lights, but where they do use traffic lights, they have the left turn lane on the far right side of the through traffic lanes. When the turn signal is green, left turning vehicles pull across the stopped lanes of traffic in the direction they are going before crossing the intersection. This does allow large trucks to make u-turns or left turns through at the lights

For dinner, we went to Taco Break, which is just outside the gates and located between 2 holes on the golf course. The food was cooked over a wood fire and was hot, fresh and good. Unfortunately while we were there, it started to rain really hard. We had to wait for a shuttle to come pick us up because it was about a 10 minute walk back to the hotel, and we would have gotten soaked. The heavy rain flooded the greens and filled up the road from gutter to gutter in many places. Since it was raining, we ended up going back up to the room and watching the Olympics—with Spanish commentary and a little more world wide coverage than we see in the US.

Sunday
Our morning started with a timeshare presentation by the resort owners. We took our goodies and didn’t invest. We spent the afternoon at the pool and walking up and down the beach. The surf was rough today and not a lot of people were in the ocean. The water was very warm and would have been comfortable. It was easy to see where the river emptied into the ocean due to the brown water and sediment coming from the river. A very distinct line was formed out into the ocean and it worked its way down the beach as the afternoon wore on. A couple of boats appeared to be fishing along the transition line. A few people were parasailing, but all in all, the beachfront was pretty quiet.

In the late afternoon we left the resort area and took a taxi to Paradise Plaza to find a place to eat and pick up some groceries. We found both and had a very good variety of Mexican foods. We were curious about the cheese and found out is called Chihuahua cheese. Mariah conversed at length with one of the waiters and is enjoying getting to use her Spanish language skills in a real world setting.

Monday
This morning we took a taxi into the small town of Bucerias, which is located about 15 minutes south of the resort. We first went through the flea market, which was set up on the streets outside the elementary school. We did not know what was inside the walled area until we had gone 3/4ths of the way around. School runs in two sessions, with one group going from 8AM to 1PM and the second group going 2PM to 7PM. We didn’t find too much at the flea market, so we walked around the town and then headed for the oceanfront to walk down the beach. All the street signs in this town have advertising on them. When we found the street signs with Corona on them, we knew it was time for lunch. There were numerous restaurants to choose from, but none of them were very busy. We chose one that we could eat out on the beach. There weren’t too many vendors out in this part of the beach, so we weren’t interrupted very much.

After returning to the resort, we spent the afternoon at the pool before going out for pizza in one of the local malls. With all the walking we did, we called it an early night.

Tuesday
We had booked a tour on Tuesday that included snorkeling, kayaking, hiking to a waterfall and time at the beach. We took our tour on a large catamaran boat that held over 100 people. As we went to pick up other passengers in Puerto Vallarta, we saw a pirate ship which also does tours of the area. They must have a show on board also because we could hear cannon shots coming from the ship. Our first stop was for water sports where we could snorkel and/or kayak. The leader found and brought up some star fish and an octopus, and we saw a lot of purple and blue trimmed fish, a couple orange trimmed fish, some needle fish and an eel or sea snake. We all went snorkeling and then Hailey and Mariah went kayaking too.

The next stop was in Yelepa, where we docked and got off the boat and headed up the hills to a waterfall. Ray and Hailey jumped in and got a waterfall shower. It felt so good to be in the cold water after hiking up in the hot weather. Our next stop was the beach, and we hiked through village and had to wade across the river to get to the beach area. At the deepest, the water was only up to just above the knees. One person was driving across the river in a 4 wheel ATV pulling a trailer, so this was a crossing that was done often. The beach had nice sand, and the water dropped off very quickly. It started to rain while we were there and had to retreat under the roof of one of the beachfront restaurants. We had been out under a large umbrella sitting on folding sling chairs enjoying the ocean and the view. While we were in this protected area, we could see a large iguana up in the rafters. Earlier, as we finished wading across the stream, there were 2 men with iguanas who would let you take their picture with the iguanas for $5, so we got to see ours up close for free. Later that afternoon back at the swimming pool, we saw two more large (>5 feet nose tip to tail) iguanas out on the edge of the pool deck before they headed down into the open water behind the pool

Wednesday
First thing in the morning, LeAnn and Ray got up and went golfing. The sun doesn’t come up here until about 7:45AM, so it is strange how dark it is early in the morning during the summer. It gets dark about 8:30, so the long evenings are nice. The course is under renovation, so only 9 holes are currently open, so we went around twice. Seeing it the second time helped a little, but not enough. The ponds have been known to have some crocodiles in them, but we didn’t see any on our round. There were plenty of birds out sunning themselves on the edges of the water hazards, so any crocs could eat very well. The course and the greens were in nice shape, as they have been getting plenty of rain at this time of year. Mariah wasn’t feeling too well today, so we just did some relaxing at the pool and in the room.

Thursday
Our plan for today was to go into downtown Puerto Vallarta. We started on the melecon or boardwalk along the beach. There were sculptures every few hundred yards and the nice thing was it was wide open between the street and the ocean, so the view was basically unencumbered. This is not much of a swimming area, and at least at this time of year the ocean is relatively brown from all the runoff coming in from the rivers. There were a couple of sand castle artists doing their work right off the boardwalk. We stopped along the way at some of the flea market stands, but it seems like most of them were just as interested in getting you to go to time share presentations as they were at selling their wares. It was also a day that one of the cruise ships was in town, so we were told that prices were higher today.

Our next stop was Senior Frogs for a quick appetizer and refreshments. It was our first visit to one and we had a lot of fun with balloon hats, funny signs and great decorations on the walls, chairs and ceilings. Some more exploring brought us to a tequila shop where we sampled a little merchandise and then to a local church which was grand in size and beauty. We took a couple of photos with a couple of travel bugs we had from our geocaching adventures to show that they had made it to Mexico. We didn’t get to do any geocaching as we just didn’t get close enough to any sites, which were few and far between down here. Our final stop after a long day of walking and sightseeing was Hard Rock Café, where we try to go anytime we are in a city that has a restaurant. We squeezed into a standard cab for our ride back to the resort with 4 in the backseat and one up front. The cab kept stalling every time we had to stop, but it would always start back up and we made it home safely. We took a quick dip in the pool to cool off once we got home. As we were leaving the pool, we saw 4 iguanas up in a tree, just relaxing on the limbs. There were 3 of the very large brown ones we had seen earlier, and one smaller green one.

Friday
On Friday morning we got up and headed off to the Sierra Madre Mountains for a new adventure. We boarded a large yellow people transport vehicle which took us out of town. It reminded us of a Jeepney in that we sat sideways in the back of the bed on benches. It was an open air vehicle, so it was loud in back. As we crossed one of the state lines, we had to stop and they sprayed the vehicle to prevent the spread of insects that are destroying the fruit crops in parts of Mexico. The bugs attach the mango fruit and have been hard on the trees in the coastal areas. We rode for about an hour and then were at our starting point for our canopy adventure. We were going to climb, zip line, and repel through the woods from tree to tree. We had to put on our gear, which included a harness, pulleys, carabineers, gloves, helmet, and repel loop. We walked up to the first platform and then the guides hooked us on the zip line and safety line and we all went one at a time. We had to keep one hand on the zip line rope, and this was used to brake as we approached the landing platforms. It was also used to keep your body from twisting. If you got your hand too close to the sliding pulley, you could start to spin. The other hand was kept on your safety tether.

There were 5 guides who did all the work and kept constantly moving ahead, leading and following everyone. We couldn’t bring any cameras with us, but they had a photographer who took pictures of us in action. He would be places where you least expected, both above and below. We zip-lined almost 2km, did a Tarzan swing from a suspended rope, and repelled down 75 feet from the last platform. We also got to cross a suspended platform. Despite some concerns before we started, and getting past our fears of heights, we all had a great time and talked about doing this again some time. They have a longer tour that also includes hiking, waterfalls, rock face repels that we would like to do if we ever get down here again.

On the way back from the pool today, we saw a total of 8 iguanas, 6 of the large ones and 2 small ones. Everyday we see more iguanas down by the pool, so I’m glad we are just about to leave, otherwise the whole pool area might be filled with iguanas. As we headed to dinner, the bellboy got us a small cab again for the 5 minute ride to the shopping center, but this cab driver did not want to take 4 in the back seat as he said he could get a $60 ticket, which was interesting because when we questioned the driver the other day on the 30 minute ride from downtown, he told us no problem.

It rained again in the late afternoon as it has done almost every day. The mornings and early afternoons have been beautiful, but the late afternoon evening rains have been anywhere from light to heavy long downpours.

Saturday
It was time to head back home today. We were sad to see it end, but are always ready for home. We grabbed a cab and made it to the airport before even the ticket counter was open for our mid-afternoon flight. We got checked in much quicker and had plenty of time to kill, and fortunately there was no one trying to sell us any more time shares. We picked up our photos from the tour operator’s store in the airport and got a chance to look at them before we boarded. Our bags were hand inspected at the gate and we were on our way. Our plane had Woody the Wood Duck on the tail this time going to Denver this time, and we got to fly on Holly the Heron again going into Minneapolis. Not having a tight connection in Denver gave us more than enough time to wander the airport and read, organize photos, or listen to music.

2008-08 Pests

We've had a series of pests this year, ranging from box elder bugs crawling all over the sunny side of the house, to voles digging tunnels and trails through the yard, to our latest surprise--a big hornets nest. Hailey was getting dropped off late one night and when the porch light went on, it shined right onto a hornets nest that had been constructed in our front tree. We had seen some activity around the back of the house, but we seem to have some of that every year as they try to find ways into the attic through the eaves.

The nest is about the size of a soccer ball with a 3/4" entry hole near the bottom on one side. It is a light grey in color. We aren't sure when it was started or how long it took to build the nest. Hornets only use their nest once and will abandon it this fall when it gets cold. So for now it is going to stay.

2008-07 Taiwan High Speed Rail

While on his last visit to Taiwan , Ray was able to ride on the bullet train from Taipei to Kaohsiung with a couple of local employees of Advantek. In the past, travel between these 2 cities consisted of a short plane ride and all the airport hassles that went with it, or 6 hour bus ride. The new train connects the two cities in about 1.5 hours, with many trains throughout the day. We arrived at the train station about 8:00 AM and were on our way about 10 minutes later. The bullet trains travels over 280km/hr (175mph) and have various classes of travel. The one-way ticket costs about $40.

The train roughly follows the west coast of Taiwan, although not close enough to view the ocean. The first 30 minutes going south are through a series of tunnels cut through the mountains. Then the remaining hour is along the coastal flatlands. The flatlands are densely populated as the entire stretch seems to be filled with one city after another in the distance. Along the way are various temples with intricate roof decorations interspersed between the cities and the fields. The tracks cut through vegetable farms, rice paddies, and what I think were fish farms. In one area, the vegetable fields were all covered with netting to help protect the vegetables from birds and other predators.

When we arrived in Kaohsiung, an interesting sign at the pickup and drop off point was translated as the “Kiss and Ride” area. That makes sense for your loved ones, but not necessarily for business acquaintances. On the way back to Taipei, we ate lunch in the train station in Kaohsiung at a fast food restaurant called Mos Burger. It was pronounced "moss", so I was expecting something along the lines of a mushroom burger. Instead they had various meat options all on a bun, including ground beef, pork, fish, and their specialty--octopus. I had the spicey hamburger, made that way with jalepenos. The sides include standard french fries or deep fried prawns, so I had the prawns since that is not on the menus back home

Coming back to Taipei, we arrived at the main Taipei Railway Station, which is right across the street from the hotel that I was staying.

2008-07 Geocaching

Ray has started to do some geocaching again lately. Geocaching is like a hi-tech scavenger hunt, using GPS units to zero in on the locations of the cache. Containers called caches have been placed all over the world for people to hunt down and then log their visits. Coordinates for the geocache are placed online along with hints and information for the search. Canisters that are used for caches can be anything from a small pill bottle to giant pickle jars. Most caches contain a paper for listing your visit at the site, but some also contain trinkets that you can exchange for trinkets you carry, and others contain items called travel bugs that are moved from one cache to another. The travel bugs have serial numbers and are traced online as they move across the US or the world. There are over 600,000 registered caches world wide. Once you return home you can log your visit online.

Although he did his first a couple of years ago, Ray got started again on a trip to San Francisco where he went looking for various caches with one of his workmates. It was a great way to see the city and get some exercise. The San Francisco caches were all in the city, along roads and in parks. A lot are hidden in plain sight, but blend in with everything else around them, so unless you know they are there, you will not see them. This one was attached to a plastic ivy leaf that was mixed in with all the live ivy growing along Lombard St.

After returning home, he went looking for some of the local caches in the parkland directly behind the house. There are at least 5 caches in the park. Some of the caches can have multiple steps where you find a new set of coordinates in the initial location and then have to move to the new location to actually find the cache. Sometimes the second set of coordinates is given on a piece of paper, but sometimes the cache owner has made a puzzle that must be figured out to find the next stage. In one case, a stone was at the location of the initial coordinates that have a series of lines and dots on them. The challenge was to determine what these symbols meant and how to convert them to longitude and latitude for input into the GPS. Some research on the Internet provided the information and the next location. A concrete dragon head tucked deep in the park was the cache location.

Trinkets can be items such as golf tees, happy meal type toys, items with city or town names, foreign coins or currency. Generally the value is minimal and they are small in size to fit in the cache canister. One interesting item Ray found was a stamped aluminum commemorative piece created from the scrapped airframe of the first UPS airplane.

At the tail end of soccer season, Ray, Hailey and LeAnn pursued a couple caches near the soccer fields were the kids were playing. Ray and LeAnn had hoped to do a little geocaching on RAGBRAI, but time and location did not allow.

Geocaching is fun family activity that can be done by all ages, either alone or as a group. You can learn more about it on http://www.geocaching.com/

2008-07 RAGBRAI Bike Ride

Ray and LeAnn both ventured out to ride on the RAGBRAI bicycle ride across Iowa this year. Our brother-in-law John and neighbor Mike (thanks for all the planning, phone calls, emails, and coordination) along with 2 of his workmates (Shannon and Michele) made up the riding team this year. We rented an RV again this year for the overnight stops. Mike’s friend Matt (thanks getting us the best parking/camping spots everywhere) was our driver and support crew.

We rode 2 days this year across the middle of Iowa, both in terms of east/west and north/south direction. We started in Jefferson and rode almost 60 miles to Ames the first day and then almost 80 miles from Ames to Toledo the second day. Our route mainly followed the Lincoln highway (US 30), one of the first complete routes across the US.

We arrived in Jefferson on Tuesday evening and ended up with a parking spot at the very end of the county fairgrounds. This was a quiet area, except for the trains rolling through town and blowing their whistles all night long. It seemed as if trains went through every half hour or so. This was the case along the whole route. It was amazing how busy the train tracks were in this area, with coal, tankers and boxcars going both directions at all times.

We walked downtown and had a bite to eat (a recurring theme you will read about over and over again) and listened to some music before heading back to camp. On the way back, we walked through a very dark area and looked up to see a brilliant sky full of stars. You can see so many more stars out in the country than you can in the city. The moon came up and washed some of them out, but it was a beautiful sight.

We left Jefferson about 7:00 AM and headed east. It was a clear day with light winds (although from the east), relatively cool and flat terrain. There was only one hill to speak of, and it was a killer. A lot of people had to walk their bikes up the last few hundred yards. During the day we heard and saw a lot of ambulances going back and forth, which surprised us, but when you consider the number of riders (estimates range from 15,000-20,000 each day) and the varying skill levels and speed, it is easy to understand how accidents can happen.

We stopped about every 10 miles or so for refueling, either food or beverage or both. The towns along the route all have lots of food and drink to benefit the local community sold by community groups, schools, churches, scout troops, etc. Although the bike ride does not have a specific charity sponsor, everyone along the way benefits. The ride itself follows a different path each year and has been in every county in Iowa at some point in time. This was the 36th ride.

As we rode into Ames, we went right through the Iowa State Univeristy campus. There was a lot of open space and it looked very pretty. The campground was about a mile form campus in the football stadium lot. We arrived early on Tuesday due to the short route. We went over to another tent campground which had portable showers. These were individual showers in the back of a converted container van, 12 showers to a container and 2 containers on sight. It sure was a better set-up than last years open air showers in show barns!

Across the street from the stadium were the large festival grounds for the evening which included the food stands, bike stores and entertainment venue. The featured acts were Styx and The Nadas, and the concert was a benefit for flood relief which devastated a wide area in Iowa. RAGBRAI was also selling bandanas to benefit the flood relief. The crowd at the concert was very large, so it appeared to be a success.

We again got up and got going about 7:00 on Wednesday. It was another clear day, but the winds were a little stronger (again in our face), but the terrain was much hillier, one hill right after another all day long. The 20 extra miles and all the hills slowed us down, but we all made it in by 5:00.

We noticed during the morning that the food lines were a lot shorter than Tuesday (and last year), so we were able to walk right up for a giant breakfast burrito at Farm Boys, which usually has a very long line. We never did figure out why that was the case. There were probably a lower number of riders that day as Tuesday was extremely large due to the short, easy route and its proximity to Des Moines allowed a lot of people to come for that one day. The good thing on Wednesday was it seemed like we heard and saw less accidents.

Our destination on Wednesday night was Tama-Toledo. We had a nice long decent into Tama through the river valley. We saw some signs of flooding in the valley. Matt had done some scouting around town and befriended a local who allowed us to park the RV in front of his house and set up our tents in his yard. We were just a block from the courthouse square where the festivities were centered.

We hit the food lines at their busiest time, so it took some time to eat. But by the time we finished eating the lines for pie and ice cream were short and quick, so we topped off our tanks with some great home made pie and ice cream. Small little John Deere popper engines were used to crank the ice cream, and they always sounded like they were ready to stop running, and made a loud popping noise every few seconds.

There is a great amount of trust and friendship on this ride. Everyone is willing to help out someone in need. Local stores would set out power strips for anyone to use for charging cell phones. Many farmers along the side of the road would have drinks or food and just have a free will offering, no set price. Food and beverage prices were reasonable, and there was plenty of competition to keep it that way. Schools opened their doors for space, cooling off, or rest.

It is a fun experience and well worth the time it takes to prepare for the ride. I would recommend everyone try to do some portion of RAGBRAI sometime in their life. Not every segment may be easy, but it is doable. You see young kids riding, and you see 70+ year olds riding, many doing the whole week. It is not a race, so you just have to know your pace and work to that.

2008-07 Fourth of July

We had a full day on the 4th this year starting with the parade and ending with the fireworks. The pragde lated about 2 hours and was filled with politicians this year since it is an election year. In between we enjoyed a barbeque, root beer floats and games such as ladder golf and bean bag toss. Ray and John went over to the community center where they were having a classic car show with lots of cars from the 60's. The weather was good this year, so we did not have to worry about any rain.

The weekend started with dinner with LeAnn's mom and her sisters to celebrate the end of her stay up here in the cities recoperating from knee replacement surgery.

Mariah did not join us this year as she was running in a 12 mile run around Green Lake out in Spicer, MN this year with a couple of her friends.

2008-06 Taipingshan Forest, Taiwan

Along with his co-workers, Ray visited the Taipingshan forest national park and Sandie Falls near Taipei, Taiwan. Taiping means welcome, and shan means forest in Chinese.

We took a bus ride of about 2 hours from our hotel to the entrance to the national park. Along the way we followed a very wide river that was almost empty, despite the fact that it had rained for almost a week prior. In one of the towns we stopped and met a delivery truck which had our box lunches on board. Our first stop was at the main entrance to the park. They had a couple of cars from a train that used to run in the area.

As we worked our way up the mountain in the bus, we stopped at a tree along the side of the road that was about 2500 years old and still growing. It was bundled up with rope to help keep it from splitting. It had many hollows and gaps in it. Many of the upper limbs have broken off over time.

We arrived at the top of the mountain at the visitor center and had to climb a long string of steps to get to the train station for the next leg of our trip. The train was a narrow gage train that had an engine on each end and passenger cars in between. This allowed the train to go back and forth without turning around. The train is called a beng-beng train for the sound it makes as it makes it way down the track.

The train ride took about 20 minutes to reach the trailhead for the hike down to Sandie Falls. There were 2 trails at the trailhead, one to the falls and another shorter loop around the train station area. We opted for the trail to Sandie Falls. As the map indicated it was about a 2.7km round trip, or about 1.6 miles.

As we started downhill the trail was smooth and not to steep, but as we got farther down the trail, it got a little rougher and was paved with stones. We noticed the trail was marked with distance markers from the top every 200 meters and as we saw the 1.2km marker we felt we should be close. Then we saw a sign that said we still had 1.4km to go and should asses our ability to continue. It was then we realized the trip was 2.7km each way. Oh well, we decided to keep going. The last 800 km were very steep with the stone path became a series of wooden steps, but by now we could hear the falls and were anticipating viewing them.

The forest was very dense and beautiful, with lots of ferns on the ground and moss on the trees. There were plenty of natural resting points along the way created by trees, rocks and grounds. These would be more important on the way up!

Once we made it to the falls, we found them well worth the effort. The top falls were over 70 feet tall and fell into a large clear pool. Below that was a series of 3 smaller falls that emptied into the river bed below us. The cool water felt good as the temperature was much warmer down at the falls than up at the train station. The group was spread out over about 20 minutes as they arrived at the bottom. After our stay and photos, we headed back up the trail to catch the train back to the visitor center and our bus. We knew now what would lay ahead of us and figured it would take about 1.5 hours of climbing as the trip down was about an hour. We had about 1200 feet of elevation to climb.

The first 800m upward were very difficult due to the many steps and required multiple rest stops. Once we made it to the stone path, the ascent rate was much faster. The group I was with regrouped at a rest station about 400m from the top and made it back in time to catch the next to the last train out.

The hike was a challenge, but well worth it in the end. When we returned to the hotel, some of us went to the hot spring pool which was filled with small fish that nibbled at your feet and toes to give them a good cleaning. It was hard to keep your feet in the water as it tickled so much.



While in Taipei City, we went downtown for dinner and saw the Taipei 101 building, one of the tallest in the world. It is styled to look like bamboo with the joints every 15 stories or so.