Author: Traveler

The Mayan Calendar and doomsday

The Mayan Calendar is said to be nearing the end of a “long count”, which is believed by some to signal an apocalyptic change.  On one of our trips to the Riviera Maya, we visited Chichen Itza which contains the ruins of a city from over 1500 years ago.  While the Europeans were suffering through the Dark Ages, along the Yucatan Penisula and across Mexico a civilization was flurishing that had incredible astronomical knowledge.  For example, at Chichen Itza you can see a four sided pyramid that has 365 levels from top to bottom.  Known as the  Pyramid of Kukulcan, this remnent from the lost civilization is laid out such that two of its edges have carved serpents heads on the lowest level.  On the Spring and Fall equinox, the shadows of the pyramid levels falling on one another along the edges form the shadowy body of the serpent coming down the pyramid and the ending at the sculptured head.   If you go back to the long count on the Mayan Calendar, a recent explanation helped understand what the long count relates to: when the earth in its transit crosses the mid-pooint of a glactic or universal divide. Apparently it does this every 5,800 years.  So, how did the Mayans know this?  Or is this just coincidence explained by science? 

At any rate, this year might be a good time to take that Vacation to Cancun or Puerto Morales and run down the road to Chichen Itza. If you do, plan for a full day and then you won’t see it all.  In addition to the  Pyramid of Kukulcan, there is also an ancient stadium at which the teams competed for honor in a deadly game resembling Lacrosse.  Within walking distance is an observatory housing and Cenotes in which cerimonial sacrifices were made.  I’ll come back and write about these on another day.

Backpacking Grandview Trail into the Grand Canyon

A backpacker’s life is probably not complete without a trip to the Grand  Canyon.  We decided against Bright Angel Trail which heads down from the south rim a the lodge and main tourist area, but, we didn’t really want to take off into the Canyon alone. The solution was REI.  http://www.rei.com/  We had gotten most of our backpacking gear, technical clothes, backpacks, and cycling supplies from REI so as members we get their promotional mailers and emails.  We were hooked on the 3 day backpacking in the Grand Canyon as soon as we saw it.  REI proovided the tents, food, and two  guides Tom and Todd who met us at the campground at the south rim.  After dividing the gear to be carried and assigning us tents, they prepared the first of our amazing meals and told us to hit the sack because we were starting down early the next day. 

And so we did, heading off into the Canyon at Grandview  point down the Grandview trail.  The first few miles were a continuous downhill with switch backs, amazing views and incessant chatter from the excitement.  The first goal was Horseshoe Mesa that we were looking down on and as an added bonus, a cave in the side of the mesa.  We reached the Mesa in a few hours and numerous cut backs.  The trail further down into the the Grand Canyon passes the remnants of a house and storage area and bears off to the east.  A less distinct trail heads off to the west then turns south down to the edge of the mesa.  A narrow trail leads around to a shelf where double entrances to the cave are set back from the cliff face.  Inside the cave is a log, presumably so that if you don’t come back to the entrance, they’ll at least know where you wound up.  Leaving the cave, we headed back across Horsehoe Mesa and drop down 800 feet through the Redwall Limestone.  Well,  it feels like you are going to drop. The problem is your backpack rubs against the wall and urges toward the  empty air that is only inches away from where your feet are trying to land.  Don’t let anybody tell you going uphill is harder.  Going down a trail like this is far more exhausting.

The Amazon-Swimming with Piranhas

One of my goals was to see at least one great river on each continent. I had seen the Mississippi several times, so the next closest was the Amazon. The Amazon basin is vast, with two rivers joining at Manaus, Brazil to form the combined Amazon River that empties one third of the earth’s fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean.  Manaus is roughly one thousand miles from the coast.  We flew into Mansus and took a river boat upstream along the Rio Negro to the Ariau Towers. You can find their site at http://www.ariauamazontowers.com/.  If you visit the site you will see that we weren’t really roughing it, nevertheless, it was an amazing adventure.  We had a room in a tower located about 3/4 mile away from the main complex, where the food, medical and small store was located.  To reach the room we walked our luggage along an elevated wooden board walk, that had two levels: one for the dry season and one for the wet.  We were on the upper level so part of the time there was water below us.  The room was spacious with a queen bed and a twin bed and private toilet and shower.  There was another room below us but we never saw the occupants.  A screened porch gave a rocking chair view forty some odd feet above the jungle floor. 

We met our guide Jorge back at the main building along the dock where he directed us and about 8 others into an open boat with a outboard on the back.  We headed out onto a river so wide you could barely make out the other side. Half an hour later, Jorge eased the boat into an open area among some tree tops and we picked up our poles, literally ten foot long tree tops that had a t of monofilament attached, a steel leader at the end of the mono-filament and a hook at the end of the leader.  Jorge had a supply of bloody beef cubes about the size of the end of your little finger with which we baited the hooks.  Jorge watched with amusement as we dropped the hooks into the water and nothing happened. ” You have to make some noise.  Splash the water with the ends of your poles.”  Then he said to pull up the poles.  All the bait was gone.  He said that there were so many of the fish and their teeth so shaarp that you had to be very sensitive to feel them bite and then set the hook.  We re-baited and Jorge pulled in a Piranha.  I pulled in the next one.

The fish were not very big, but the teeth  looked as big as the teeth on a carpenter’s saw.  Jorge and I caught a couple more and it was time to go.  Jorge said we could swim in the river downstream if we liked, but, not to get into the water if you had an open wound or scrape because the blood would attract the fish.  We ate the fish for dinner and defered the swim until the next day.

Hiking the Isle de Capri

Seer had always talked about going to Capri, but neither of us are shoppers. We checked the island off the coast of Italy out and decided it would be a fabulous place to spend a few days hiking. No backpacks or camping, instead we would find a hotel and explore the island on foot. At the east end of the Island is the Villa Jovis, ruins of an ancient Roman party palace. Rising more than 2000 feet in the center of the island is Mt. Solara. We figured we could stay in between and easily hike to both.We booked airline tickets using frequent flyer miles so the story of getting there is where we’ll start.

We had a layover in Philadephia before the alnight flight to Milan. I know Capri is off the coast from Naples. We had to fly from Milan to Naples on a AirOne, a regional airline. If you ever go to Milan, follow the herd getting off the airplane. We were supposed to pick up our boarding passes for AirOne in the airport. Getting off the plane the signs said Baggage Claim and connecting gates. We only had carryon items so we didn’t need baggage claim. Granted, the hallway to baggage claim was lit and the hallway to connecting gates was dark, but there were a couple of uniformed guards by the access, so as everyone else headed toward baggage claim, we walked over to the guards and explained that we needed to get our tickets at AirOne. He didn’t know what  we were talking about, but after looking over the itenerary in my hand, he let us through a turnstile to a hallway and stairway that lead to a large waiting area adjacent the duty free shop. Spotting the information desk, we confidently asked for directions. The maid who was cleaning up told me the staff would arrive in half an hour, so we could take a seat. When, the next attendant arrived, She looked at us as if we had extra heads and informed us, she did not know of any AirOne, but we could ask the ticket agents at the kioks at the gates. Note that we had not gone through customs, had not shown our passports to any one and were wandering around an Italian airport with no clue as to where to get our tickets for the next flight.

Cycling Vermont

Seer and I, along with two sisters, decided to combine cycling, travel and the fall foliage of Vermont.  We didn’t want to ship the cycling bikes so we contacted POMG Bike Tours of Vermont at  http://www.pomgbike.com/ and arranged everything except the airline tickets.  We went in October and the foliage was amazing.  The cycling bikes Rich and Jenny provided were in great shape and had toe clips, although you probably would want to take your own pedals and clip system as well as your own  seat.  Rich rode with us and Jenny drove the SAG truck as needed. Our accommodations were in Stowe, so that was our starting point, dinner and rest destination each day.  I’m not sure what hills we climbed but Rich called them Ekk and Oh, My God.  They weren’t really difficult and didn’t really require cross-training, aka walking the bike up the hill, but we were assured that the LAMB gaps trek would test your cycling mettle.   Over dinner we discussed that more challenging route and an alternative where only two of the gaps per day were ridden. I think Rich  called it the LAMB Chop.

More to come

 

Goneguru’s Travel and Recreation Blog

I’m the Traveler at Goneguru.com. My wife is the Seer.  Together and separately we have had the great good fortune to have hiked, biked, run, traveled and enjoyed such places and things as: backpacking in the Grand Canyon, the White Mountains, Cumberland Island; hiking along the Appalachian Trail, along the Highline in Glacier National Park, to the top of Mount LeConte in Tennessee, and along the coast from Villa Jovis to Marina Piccolo on the Isle of Capri. One or both of us have traveled to Rome, Venice, Florence, Gibraltar, Madrid the Coast of Spain, Costa Rica, the Riviera Maya, San Diego to Maine, and Alaska to St. Thomas.  We’ve swam with Pirranha’s, snorkeled on Caribbean reefs, and ridden our bicycles from border to border.  We’ve done tri-athlons, du-athalons, half-marathons and the Peachtree Road Race.  All of this requires a great appreciation and love of food and travel and most of all meeting people. We intend to recreate our travels for our readers, to share our experiences from the past and future, and hopefully meet up with you along the way.