Train trip of a lifetime!!

The unfittie might not be blogging a whole bunch for the next while. Undertaking a long-delayed train trip across Canada. Fabulous so far. Good food, great scenery, interesting people, and sleeping like the proverbial log. Doesn't get much better than that for an unfittie with a sleep disorder. Thank you, Via Rail.

Signs of the Times, China 2008

This sign discouraging people from climbing over the railing at the Three Gorges Dam, and the way it was translated from Chinese into English, made everyone smile.

However, signs showing how high the water behind the dam would eventually reach, didn't make anyone smile. The water here was full of debris from the land it had covered.

In the Forbidden City, former home of the great Chinese emperors, were signs showing the ancient names of the beautiful buildings, and arrows pointing the way to other areas. "The Hall of Mental Cultivation" could be seen as we headed for the Imperial Garden.

The Palace of Gathered Elegance, the name given to the home of the emperors' concubines, made more than a few people smile.

But even with mental cultivation and gathered elegance, it wasn't easy to find a 4-star toilet.

In July, 2008, people like my husband who climbed China's Great Wall could see, despite the air pollution, a large sign announcing the upcoming Summer Olympics.

If you look carefully at this close-up of the Olympic sign near the Great Wall (or click on it to enlarge it), you can see people who have hiked up to get an even closer close-up of it.

One of my favorite photos

I knew I had this picture somewhere, but couldn't find it filed under "Galapagos" or "birds" or anything, anywhere. Ran across it today in my "to finish" file for An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel. Duh, huh?

I hope you like the photo as much as I do. It's of a Nazca Booby with two eggs. (You don't want to know what Wikipedia says about the two eggs, however.)

The Nazca (Sula granti) was formerly thought to be a subspecies of the Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra), but is now recognized as a separate species.

One of these days, I'll be visiting Canada's Gaspé Peninsula, where I hope to see another seabird of the Sulidae family, the Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus, formerly Sula bassana) on Bonaventure Island. I'm no bird expert, far from it, but I have become more and more interested in them the more I travel.

Scenes as I've seen 'em

above, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China

above, rainy day in Alaska

above, taken from a panga in the Galapagos Islands

above, in the Galapagos Islands

above, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico's Baja Peninsula

above, in Costa Rica

above, in Tenerife, Canary Islands

above, marine iguanas inland, Galapagos Islands

above, the jungle, Costa Rica

above, Galapagos Islands

above, specially bred sled dogs, and Dick, in Whitehorse, Yukon

Almost invariably, when we travel, Dick sees the scenery and I see Dick's back. Never content to walk beside me, seldom remembering to offer me his arm or his hand, my big, strong, healthy husband is usually walking some steps ahead of me: sometimes a few steps, sometimes a great many steps. So I'm working on a chapter for An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel entitled: "The back of Dick's back"!

Getting in and out of a panga

As mentioned in an early chapter, getting into and out of a panga and onto a yacht isn't always easy for the unfit among us. Unfortunately for my readers, I have documented evidence only of the times I did it in a reasonably dignified fashion. Once, however, while snorkeling, I did manage to get into a panga (with assistance from the young man at the helm) when I couldn't swim any farther. Fortunately for me, no photographic documentation of that exhausting event exists, anywhere. Take it from me, I have never done it unassisted, and have never done it gracefully. But, if I can manage, with some help, so can other unfitties, even you.

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