PNewL PNewS
Volume 27 Issue 3 All the pnews that phits.” October
2019
Another Report Back
It has been a(nother) year of travel. I
think by the end of the year I will have been away from home a total of around
three months. Didn’t plan it that way—it just happened. Opportunity dontcha
know. Or maybe it was Sydney telling me that I am in the go-go 60s. I am not
sure I want to continue at this pace but I do feel a sense of urgency (well,
that might be overstating it) and I have over 25 items on the Bucket List. (I
just added a couple more after removing Portugal where I will be in two months!)
I just returned from the Galapagos, which
has zoomed to the Top Five of my favorite places, and one I need to go back to.
Besides the obvious charm of swimming with sea lions and sea turtles and
wandering in fields with wise old Giant Tortoises and finally seeing for myself
the remarkable Blue Footed Booby, the way that the Galapagos has managed to
maintain itself is…awesome. Our group leader, a hero in my book and a native of
the islands, said that he defends tourism to the locals, saying that the islands
wouldn’t be in the shape they are if the restrictions and tourism weren’t part
of the picture. The money that tourism brings in allows the islands to stay in
their pretty much natural state. You may be able to argue this point but I am
going to believe it because it means I can go back without too much guilt.
We went with Intrepid Travel, which I
believe is based in Australia so this was not a trip of just us US folks. I
like that part. It’s at the lower end though in no way cheap. We were land based
which didn’t really appeal to me early on but wound up being fine…even good. In
off hours, we could wander independently. I went with Gini, which was fun. We
bobbed around in plenty of boats—snorkeling or traveling between islands. The
water, that bright Caribbean blue (yeah, I know, nowhere near the Caribbean,
but a color popped into your head right? THAT color) is stunning and what lives
beneath is very appealing. I could have spent much more time in the water but I
admit—it was chilly. We wore wetsuits (humiliating outfits), but still, chilly.
When Gini and I arrived in Quito late in
the evening a few days before our trip started, the initial rumblings of “civil
unrest” had occurred. Okay, so how often is Ecuador in the news? Never? Rarely?
That’s what most people say…but lo and behold there we were driving through
heaps of burning stuff in the streets. In the morning, the nice man at the
hotel, Alejandro, suggested we head to the north of Old Town rather than into
it. By the following morning, the problems were reported to be finished so we
got some time to wander around. I suspect the barricades took away from the
charm of this UNESCO World Heritage Site but it was a beautiful day and
everything appeared calm (I’ll skip the part about the guys who sprayed us with
salad dressing in hopes of getting our bags!). Then we met our group (or the
ones who had been able to get in—some didn’t arrive til late because of
airlines concern about landing in Quito).
The following morning we were off to the
Islands and the real fun began (see above comments about sea lions, sea turtles
etc). Among the humans, it was a nice group of people. Mostly friendly, open,
like-minded folks. A good time was had by most I believe. As I mentioned, we
were led by a great guy named Cesar. He was a physical machine, unloading
luggage from and to boats, herding us in a respectful way, an unending source
of information in a very consumable way. He helped make the trip the success it
was for me.
Meanwhile back in Quito, things heated up
and turned, well, violent. It was hard to get information but in the last few
days Delta started communicating about changes in flights--the airport was shutdown completely for a day or so. We bounced around
from a Monday night departure to Sunday to Tuesday and finally got out then. It
was one of those rushed goodbyes at the airport as everyone went off in
different directions. And the following day, Gini and I were picking up the
hounds at puppy camp and another wonderful adventure had come to a close. Lucky
me, lucky us.
Things I am Learning& Miscellaneous Observations
• I have been working on a
project that involves spending someone else’s money. It doesn’t really matter
the specifics as I have had this happen before. When I told the person how much
I had to spend, she said I think this is your best choice—and it was $50 more
than I had to spend. I spose this is good salesmanship, but really, I have $200
to spend and you think I should spend $250? Who taught you math? I am annoyed.
• I am hoping I live in a
more innocent time. In the last couple weeks, I have dropped a piece of luggage
and a lawn mower each off at a stranger’s place for repair, hoping everything
goes okay and that somehow they come back. The luggage was at an actual
business but the employee was gone and her friend was covering things. He
didn’t know what he was doing but he was so earnest, I had to trust him. My
receipt is one of those shiny computerized ones that will eventually go blank.
I took the mower to the end of the dirt road, so rutted I only got to 5 MPH for
a little bit, past not one not two but three trailers with confederate flags. I
was worried. I won’t go back. He will come to me. Heck, if he met me at the gas
station a couple miles down the road I would be happy. Though really, if I get
my lawnmower back, I will be happy.
Follow up: The mower was
eventually retrieved by Jeff—I had kinda worn out my welcome by repeated
queries on when I could get it back. The luggage is still unaccounted for. Well
that is not true. Turns out the place I took it to did not send it to the
warranty place but some goofball who takes three months to get to it and
charges $75 to replace a wheel. I am still sad about it—the woman at the local
store got into a yes I did no you didn’t with me (if she really called three
times while I was out of town wouldn’t it have shown up somewhere on caller ID?).
I suggested this didn’t really matter but I want my bag back. This all started
on July 22nd. Some-times living in a small area with limited
services sucks.
• Laurie asked me what I
planned to do when I couldn’t do things for myself any more as a single person
living out a ways. In some ways, I am already there but I choose to think of it
as things I am choosing not to do any more. Maybe I am practicing.
•
I think I must enjoy in some deep-seated way the panic before leaving on a trip
because I do everything I can to make it a mad dash
will-she-complete-everything-that-seems-necessary-to-complete to departure.
•
[Note to reader: read this slowly. There are long rambling convoluted sentences
that might seem to go nowhere but it eventually makes sense. I promise.] As I
was terrifying my dog, bumping down Shawanaga Bay on a blustery afternoon at
the end of August, I thought of what Val had said when I told her I was going
to bring everything I need to feed myself over ten days on Osawa, using nothing
from the communal pantry. She said she would be afraid she’d forget something.
I thought—at a very odd time, since the boat really was slamming into the
waves, I was having a hard time getting it to plane at a speed that might calm
the hound, and, the hound, Roger, looked like I was torturing him and he didn’t
know why—we historically eat very differently. When I am on the island, I do
sit down and eat which I don’t usually do at home. (That, in and of itself, is
interesting to me, though part of it may be that I don’t really have a clear
horizontal surface all the time at home.) But I do not have meat + three or
even two and most times I don’t eat meat—I eat that when I eat out where
someone else does the dishes. I have long training for making do. I can work
around things that are missing (though ironically, I left the TP in the van on
the mainland and that’s a tough work-around). Last night I had a quesadilla and
sliced tomato which was delicious. I can have that nine more times as there are
nine tortillas left in the bag and 11 tomatoes (yay). When I was at Sobey’s, I
bought an odd item—pancake mix…just in case. I could eat pancakes if everything
went south. Reminds me of a time when I asked my neighbor Chris early on in our
friendship if she and her husband sat down to dinner every night. She looked at me like I was crazy—“Of course!” So
there’s one way to do it…and another, mine.
•
There may be as many bugs on Georgian Bay as there are in Western North
Carolina in the summer-- they are just different bugs. And how is that so many small bugs can find their way
into my nose?
•
As we were walking along the path I recently heard called the Power Line Path,
I was spacing out, enjoying the soft moss beneath my feet, the irregular up and
down, and keeping an eye on Roger. Then I heard a loud booming, “Girl(s?), you
are going the wrong way.” I thought…no I am not. I think I would have known if
I’d passed the main path…I think…oh wait…it’s not me…as two very busy dogs came
around the corner with Roger in their sights. Aha! It was Terry walking his
dogs, a longer timer, and a new pup who came to them from China, en route to
her demise rescued by a Canadian do-gooder. I was still a bit confused as we
rounded the path. I was not expecting to see them, much less be told I was
going the wrong way, and I don’t think he expected me. Onward.
•
I hit 11,381 steps on a day when all I did was drive, grocery shop at three
different places (okay one was a liquor store and one was a vegetable stand),
unload the stuff from the van into the boat, and drag it all up the stairs to
the cabins. Yay for me!
•
I have a very vivid memory of standing on the rocks in a strong wind,
shivering, naked, with a storm approaching and knowing that I was going to take
my morning dip or disappoint the memory of my grandmother. I was 9 or 10. This went on into my 50s. Not that long ago,
I thought I will take my morning dip but it might not always be in the morning.
Then I learned about Denis—there’s a new sheriff in town and he’s not even a
lineal descendent and he’s French,
though I am not sure that has anything to do with anything but it is true. He
has been coming up to Osawa for years and when he first started, he was
introduced to the morning dip tradition and he took it to heart. He is the Dip
Master for this millennium. And I did my best to be in the water in the
morning, except when the temperature was 43F…he and Bill went in, but I did
not.
•
I read this on the internet so it must be true. It was called “(something
about how to throw a) Crappy Dinner Party.” It was about how people don’t get
together because no one has the time and energy to fix up the house to have
people over. I thought the solution was something I could adopt. Here are the
rules. You are welcome to have me over any time as long as these rules apply.
1. No housework is to be done prior to a guest’s arrival.
2. The menu must be simple and not involve a special
grocery shop.
3. You must wear whatever you happen to have on.
4. No hostess gifts allowed.
5. You must act like you’re surprised when your friend
and her family just happen to show up at your door (optional).
"It is not how far we go in miles that counts, but how
deeply we allow the world to enter us."
Richard Schiffman
