High in Quito

I had to pinch myself when the captain said we were flying over Panama on Monday because we've never been as far south as the equator before.

I'm including this Pre Columbian Equadorian sculpure because I've got altitude
problems, despite two days of medicine and gallons of water. And Bob is fine. Just fine. Not fair.




The medicine hasn't suited me either. I was up every hour last night because my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. Drank a liter of water overnight.

Tomorrow we're going by bus to Mindo, two hours east of here and a drop of 4 000 feet. You'll see photos of exotic birds and frogs.

Tonight I ordered tomato juice and what came was yellow and sweet. The server said that it was from the Tomate Tree. Who would have thunk it.

We're impressed by Equador. Apparently health care and education is quite good and people seem happy.

Hasta pronto.

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And the Circus Came to Town

Seeing absolute wealth is often a shocker. But the 56 room Ringling mansion in Sarasota is over the top because of its artistically painted doors, cupboards, ceilings, 15 marble bathrooms and hand made coloured Italian glass windows. If you are ever in the area don't miss it! John Ringling made a fortune in the circus business and with that money he purchased and sold to developers most of the land in the Sarasota region in the early 1900s. That income allowed him to build the mansion.




Windows made by hand in Italy.



The Ringlings often travelled to Europe and Mable Ringling fell in love with the grandeur of Venice. So they commissioned the architect Dwight James Baum to build their dream home, modelled on the Doge’s Palace in Venice. Today the palace would cost 26 million dollars to build.

The couple hosted many lavish musicals, garden and dinner parties lasting until dawn. An orchestra played on their yacht moored off the marble terrace. Friends from New York travelled down by train and were picked up at the station in Rolls Royces. There was one dirt road. Sarasota in those days was a fishing village and the fisherman must have marvelled at Mable ferrying her friends around in a gondola.







What impressed me most was the couple's vision, attention to detail and love for art. The whimsical paintings below are on the ceiling of John Ringling's games room. His liquor came by boat from Cuba. Boats were unloaded during the night and the bottles stored in a vault just off the games room. His bathtub was made from a solid piece of marble that came from the same quarry as the marble Michelangelo used to sculpt "David."



Tomorrow morning, Bob and I fly to Quito, Ecuador. I'll miss our beach creatures.




Conch in shell







We're taking medication for altitude sickness and I feel a little off. But all will be well soon. See you in Quito!



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The Timucuan and Tarpon Springs

When we visited the the Everglades last year, we found a small museum with a fascinating display of Timucuan history and artifacts. The Timucuan were an Amerindian people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia around 1000 - 1500 CE and what amazed me the most was the complexity of their society -- 35 chiefdoms in a rigid feudal system with thousands of people. Even the clothing worn by upper class women was intricate and beautiful.











Shamans performed rituals. As in early Europe and other parts of the Americas, people were buried in large burial and temple mounds for sacrifice to the sun god.









Each Indian was born to become a particular kind of worker in the village -- a little Brave New Worldish. There were warriors and hunters, skilled potters and canoe makers. The old folks, the women, and the children did the planting and food gathering.Unfortunately, Europeans brought diseases with them and by 1700 the people were decimated to 1000.


Yesterday we found another piece of history in Tarpon Springs, an hour to the north of where we are in Indian Shores. There are a number of bayous or bodies of water there that feed into the Gulf of Mexico.




Settlers who built winter homes there in the late 1800s saw Tarpon fish jumping out of the water and named the areas after the fish and water. Then sea sponges were discovered, the best in the world. Greek divers were hired to work in the sponge harvesting industry because they had the skills and diving equipment.


By the 1930s the industry generated millions of dollars. The1953 film Beneath the 12-Mile Reef about sponge diving was filmed in Tarpon Springs.




But just as the Timucuan were wiped out by disease, the sponges -- (Did you know that a sponge is an animal? I didn't.) were wiped out by a red tide algae bloom in 1947 ending the successful sponge harvesting industry.


We're off to see Gravtiy now. Be well.

Honeymoon Island State Park

 Honeymoon Island is a quick drive over the Dunedin Causeway north of Clearwater. On the Osprey Trail today we saw virgin Slash Pine Trees, the tree that gave us turpentine many years ago. 

In 1939 a New York developer bought the barrier island. He and Life magazine created a contest for newlyweds. The winning couple would start their married life in a small thatched barrier island bungalow. And so the island earned its name. Now most of the island is a state park where you can see the Great Horned Owl, Osprey and Bald Headed Eagles. The owl we spotted today was perched in a pine tree 40 feet overhead.

An Osprey nest

We are following news from Toronto and Ottawa. What a romp! Mayor Ford was tops in the news today - even here.

All the Way to Burma

While I was packing for my flight back home from Nelson on October 23, Susan and Alan were getting ready for the family's November 2 flight to Burma. Thirty-six hours and three flights later they landed in Yangon. Susan said that the people are friendly and that there are tons of small shops selling many products.

But then she sent us these gobsmacking photos of temples. Two different worlds. In the second photo from the bottom, can you see the photos of monks walking along steps on the wall?

Bob and I fly to Quito on Monday. More photos to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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From There to Here

Late one evening a number of years ago, Bob and I slipped out for a walk from an inn in Baume Les Messieurs, a medieval town in eastern France. As we picked our way along cobblestone streets, we heard music filtering through the darkness. It led us to an ancient abbey where vocalists and musicians were enacting the annual visit from a neighbouring village in the 1200s. In those days that was how news got around, once a year by mouth.

So when I am whisked away someplace very different from home or when I post instant messages as I am now, I think of the magic of that church. And it's always a surprise to me that we can be raking fall leaves in the chilly Caledon air one day and walking on a hot sandy beach the next.

Life was beyond busy before leaving on this seven week jaunt to Florida and Ecuador. I had just arrived home from a whirlwind family visit to B.C. and while I was away having fun, Bob had been labouring with real estate business and closing down the house and gardens for winter. Now after all that frenzy, here we are reading and strolling. 

I'll post photos over the next week from here in Indian Shores on the Gulf of Mexico. I'm sitting on a balcony now overlooking the inter-coastal waters. Rain is falling in sheets making the air look like Brigadoon's scrim.  

Ecuador Bound

Hi Friends

Six months ago we visited through blog posts from Honduras. You might remember images of brightly coloured birds and flowers in Copan Ruinas. On October 30, Bob and I leave on another adventure, this time to Ecuador where you’ll see beautiful mountains, colourful birds and butterflies.

We’ll be easing into South America with 11 days at our friend’s condo in Indian Shores Florida and then on to the Ecuadorean Andes, traveling by bus and plane from near the equator almost to Peru. You’ll find the route on the map. 

Here’s our travel itinerary:

Wednesday, October 30, Toronto to Miami to Indian Shores

November 11, Miami to Quito, Ecuador at 9000 feet.  

Mindo, November 13, 14, 15 at 4000 feet.

November 16, flight to Cuenca, 2580m or 8000 feet: Spanish study and scouting around, 15-17 days. Then we’ll wind our way back to Quito through: 

Riobamba 2735m.

Guaranda 2670m.

Salinas 3550 m.

Ambato 2580m

Banos 1820m 

Puyo

Loop from Latacunga 2800 m. - Laguna Quilotoa 3850 m.  - Latacunga

Train from Latacunga to Quito

Quito Dec. 16-18.

Quito - Miami - Toronto December 19th

I’ll post from Florida. But in the meantime, here are some photos taken last week and the week before in Squamish and Nelson B.C.

Route in Ecuador

Our B.C. grandsons (the ones jumping)

Kootenay geese on a mission

On the Nelson - Salmo Trailway

Nelson - Salmo Waterfall

The Stawamus Chief, Sqamish B.C.

See you in Florida!

Best thoughts,

Lynda