Deb – Page 4 – Boomer Away

Loy Krathong/Yi Peng festival

If you’re coming to Thailand to experience the beauty and culture, one of the top ways to do that is to time your trip for the Loy Krathong and Yi Peng lantern festivals in mid-November. And arguably the best place to experience it is in Chiang Mai, situated a long day’s journey (428 miles) north of Bangkok. We arrived here with just a few days to shake off the jet lag and prepare for the three-day event, held this year on November 14-16.

The celebration was tempered due to mourning for King Bhumibol, who passed away on October 13. The traditional beauty contests and fireworks were not done, and quite a few displays were present to honor the king.

There are many aspects to this cultural and religious event, but the two central visible themes are the handmade loy krathong floating lanterns, and the prefab khom loy hot air balloons. The lanterns are available for sale in the sidewalk stalls, starting at about $1 each (25-40 baht) with special krathong creations ranging upward from there. In addition there are lantern displays in the streets and the temples, and artful layouts of candles arrayed on the sidewalks.

Grandmother teaching the art of making loy krathong

Krathongs are typically made of organic materials, which is good because they are going to mostly end up in the river. The base is made of a section of banana tree trunk. In addition to the floral arrangements there are usually incense sticks and candles. The array of krathongs was beautiful, and there were plenty for sale as we got nearer to the river, with prices surprisingly low at or near the riverside. Families and charitable groups were constructing them at tables set up right on the sidewalk.

krathongs made from ice cream cones and flowers — krathongs made from carved ice cream cones and flowers

krathong floating in a pool at Wat Inthakhin temple

The largest center for the release is near the foot of the Saphan Nawarat bridge, crossing the Ping River. We met up with Flora, a fellow couchsurfer and teacher of English here in Chiang Mai, and set out for the site. The adjacent roads and the bridge itself were packed with humanity. We were grateful that we chose to arrive well before sunset and found a spot on a concrete stoop just 4 muddy feet from the river. There was no one in front of us and we enjoyed an unobstructed view of the celebration for almost 2 hours. The sights were especially lovely under the extra-large “supermoon“.

People wait to release krathongs at the Ping River

Releasing krathongs on the handmade pier — Releasing krathongs on the pier

Krathongs float in the Ping River, under the full moon

Crowds and lanterns at the Ping river, viewed from the west side

Supermoon shines down on the crowd; lanterns float in the sky and on water

The khom loy sky lanterns are the other famous visible part of the festivities, and their launch is integral to the Yi Peng festival, which overlaps the Loy Krathong festival. These hot-air balloon lanterns are released all over the city, and we saw them speckling the sky. (There is a large tourist-oriented release at Mae Jo University, with tickets costing $100-$300. You can see more about that here.) On Tuesday during the main celebration tourists released some of the lanterns on the bridge and along the river banks near us. The crowd roared in joy if the lanterns went up, and they squealed in unison if a lantern descended toward the crowd or actually crashed. One of the lanterns fell into the river at the footing of the concrete bridge, on top of a pile of wood and trash that had accumulated against the piling. It made a terrific sight, but it quickly extinguished itself.

Khom loy lanterns are set alight on Saphan Nawarat bridge

(While fireworks were officially banned, you can see above that someone decided to send one up.)

Khom loy lanterns are released from Saphan Nawarat bridge

As we left the area we made our way through thousands of people who were struggling to get to the river. There was no sign of traffic control, and cars, motorbikes and bicycles brushed against us in the sea of humanity. When we finally broke free from the crowds we were exultant and wiped out. We found a tuk-tuk to take us home to our apartment, one of the few outbound vehicles passing by a traffic jam of inbound people. It had been a beautiful, unforgettable night.

Just a random day in Mexico

This is an orphaned draft of a blog post that I started writing in February 2016. I’ve decided to release it with minor modifications in November.

Every day is so full of new things, and there is no time to write the blogs I have planned. Yesterday we were supposed to experience our first rain day of the entire trip, but we had just one thunderclap and a few drops of rain. So we took a taxi to the top of the extinct volcano, and then walked all the way down. It was beautiful to see almost all of Lake Patzcuaro from such a height. On the way down we saw peacocks in a private yard, and kitties, and drug addicts in the square. And we had tacos made from cueritos (skin) at the carnitas place that sells out in one hour flat every single day. So many stories to tell! The new experiences come in torrents and dribbles as we make our way across new lands.

View from the top of the extinct volcano, over Lake Patzcuaro

It’s been very dry and you can see how parched is the landscape. It looks like some farmers have had burn-offs, maybe intentional. Pretty soon the rains will come and the lands will green up again. In the meantime the berry farmers are going great, with all types of berries growing in sheet-plastic greenhouses across the countryside. On our walk down the volcano we saw wilderness, dry farmers’ fields, and evidence that horses or donkeys had taken these paths. The road was rough and rocky, with the original fist-sized stones exposed and jumbled, but the foot paths alongside were a doable challenge.

Private yard with peacock (the albino one on the left would not pose for me)

View from Patzcuaro back up the volcano we had descended

Kittens in an open doorway abutting the sidewalk

Around 1540 the benevolent priest Vasco de Quiroga brought artisans from Spain to install a unique handcraft industry in each of the local indigenous communities, assuring that they had ongoing ways of making a living without competing directly against each other. We have enjoyed seeing the artwork and I regret that we can’t take much of it home with us.

Indigenous clay pot, about 24" tall — Indigenous clay pot, about 24″ tall

Scuba diving in Cozumel

We have returned to our long-time love: the island of Cozumel, off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula. We honeymooned on Cozumel in 1993 and that is when we finished our certification as scuba divers. Since then we have returned over a dozen times, but stopped coming after 2009, in favor of seeing other parts of the world. We’ve scheduled a month here. Will it be different? Or familiar like a former home?

This is our chance to try out a more bare existence travel-wise before we embark on a longer trip. We are staying in an economical AirBNB site, back in town about a mile, so we don’t have the sea breezes. We also are going without air conditioning, and the temps are in the mid-80’s with high humidity. We have ceiling fans, and a small pool, so we are not really roughing it. But, as is true for many Americans, it’s been a long time since we lived without aircon in the summer. (Since 1987, in my case.) A quick Google search shows that we should acclimatize in one to three weeks. In the meantime we stay out of the high sun as much as possible, and I feel sluggish and in need of a siesta most days. And so it is for many locals; shops generally close from 1-3PM.

So far we’ve done 4 dives total in 2 dive days. The reefs are in excellent condition and chock-a-block with life. Mostly we are in 45 foot to 85 foot depths, sailing along on drift dives where the current takes us on a ride. On our last dive, Sunday, the skies went dark and the night critters started to emerge ahead of schedule, with lots of crabs and lobsters strolling about. Near the end we started to see strobe lights, which it turned out was lightning crossing the sky. We surfaced to a howling rain and growing winds. All boats skittered to the marina, where we huddled in our very-wet wetsuits. The taxi ride back to the shop rolled through flooding streets, and the driver pointed out that it was a good thing we all knew how to swim. The next day the port was closed as the storm continued.

I brought my 3rd generation underwater camera equipment, with high expectations for great photography. Several friends participated in a complicated plan to forward my camera housing to me here in Coz. So I was very sad when I hooked up all my gear and found that I have the wrong lens, and this will prevent me from shooting underwater. Nooo! I will have to make do with showing you some shots from my 1st-gen camera from the 2009 trip. It was a Sony 4MP point and shoot camera, and it served me well enough for awhile.

Matt delights in finding flamingo tongue snails for me to shoot, and he tells me by removing his air source and sticking out his tongue. What you are seeing here is a part of the snail’s body called the mantle. The shell itself is a bland creamy color. The mantle varies from animal to animal, with unique patterns on each one.

Eels are the tricksters of the underwater world for me. They seem unafraid, just poking out of the coral to check you out in and endless game of hide and seek.

Seeing an eel out in the open is not too common. Mostly you will find them on night dives, as shown in the photo above. On our first dive this year we saw a huge green moray gliding his 6-foot body right out in the daylight; this is only the 2nd time in 23 years we’ve seen such a thing.

Hawksbill turtle followed by French Angelfish

Turtles are a treat to find, and Cozumel is doing a great job of protecting and growing the population. On this trip we’ve seen them sleeping under coral ledges, and vigorously yanking out and devouring soft sponges. We also saw a pair doing a circling dance for about 5 minutes, right under us. The divemaster said that the behavior is not perfectly understood; they are either doing a mating dance, or menacing each other.

French Angels are usually found in pairs. They are unafraid of divers and sometimes follow us.

Despite the wicked reputation, stingrays do not attack divers and are quite shy. It’s fun to find one. Same thing with sharks: no fear, just fun. What am I afraid of? Jellyfish. Hate those things! Luckily we don’t often run into them here on Cozumel.

Octopi are hard to find, so it’s a happy thing when you do find them. Usually it will be on a night dive because they are out hunting. You will see them color change and hunker down to imitate a rock, like this guy here. If they are unmolested you can watch them walk across the bottom, ballooning up over a small coral head or rock, trying to trap food critters that are under the rock. When they are flustered they “ink”, spitting a black cloud as they jet away. Molesting the critters is not allowed and will get you banned from the marine park. But back in the past things weren’t so written, and once we saw a divemaster pick up an octopus, which then proceeded to crawl inside his vest. He had to take his gear off to get it out, an underwater maneuver that is only for the more skilled divers. The octopus, once freed, inked and jetted off. Octopi are reputed to be quite smart, using tools, planning ahead, and playing, as seen in these videos.

So many of the creatures have intricate patterns, colors and shapes. The diversity below the waves is astonishing.

On this trip we are seeing these crabs on most dives. Sometimes they wave their claws at you, but if you sit quietly you can watch them picking stuff off the reef with those long claws and bringing the food to their tiny little mouths.

Trunkfish fall in the category called “odd-shaped swimmers”, and they are indeed odd. Their improbably tiny fins propel them around like ballerinas on toe-points. They blow water at the sand, looking for food (but rarely seem to find anything.)

We’re always looking in and under anemones, looking for tiny shrimps and the occasional, rare crab hiding there. A find like this guy is one in a thousand searches.

Coneys like to sit on their ventral fins and have a rest, making them somewhat easy to photograph. Sometimes it’s at a cleaning station, where small striped fish (Caribbean cleaning gobies) run in and around the gills and mouth, picking off parasites. It’s a score to find a cleaning station and sit watching for awhile, provided that you don’t scare off the fish. You need to be really still and respect their space.

Blue Tangs are very common and often appear in large schools, so this is the fish that most snorkelers will first learn to identify. The juvenile blue tang is in fact yellow, and quite pretty, causing a common discussion on the boat: What was that yellow fish? — Blue Tang. — No, I said, the YELLOW fish.

Camelot, a magical place

Sometimes, when you are really lucky, you are unexpectedly dropped into paradise. The city of Ajijic and its sister city, Lake Chapala were not on our agenda for this trip. We planned to either bypass Guadalajara or stay in it briefly, on our way from the central highlands of Mexico to the coast at Puerto Vallarta. Our readings had shown that nearby Ajijic was a popular retirement site for Americans, and I was all for turning up my nose at anything that was Popular with Americans. But my options for home stays in Guad and nearby Tequila didn’t pan out, and there was an alluring rental on AirBNB in Ajijic: an upscale hacienda with a large pool and decks overlooking the lake and mountains, and handmade breakfasts included. It seemed a breath of fresh air after weeks spent in populous areas.

Ajijic (ah-hee-heek) reportedly has a fine climate all year, with no need for air conditioning or heat. Our host Alison told us that the rain generally stops around sunrise, reminding us both of the old song “Camelot”:

But in Camelot, Camelot
That’s how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.

There are small nursing homes here where people with dementia can live for less than $1,300 a month. It’s a pleasant option in a pleasant city, vs. paying $70K per year in the US.

On our first full day Alison took us to the weekly organic market. Here we started to see the amount of gringos living here, enjoying the great weather and economical living. I felt my spirits rise, just like they do whenever I go to the farmers’ market in Waukesha. The food was a feast for the eyes, and we bought a little for the tastebuds too.

Ajijic organic market day, making cold chocolate drinks with a molinillo

I really enjoyed chatting with the cacao vendor. Back home I volunteer at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where I explain the history and biology of cacao/chocolate, but this was my first time to actually use the wooden molinillo to froth up the chocolate drink, and grind the cacao beans on the stone metate. The iced cocoa drink was extra-delicious, and I vow to start making it at home. This recipe might do the trick, without starting from scratch.

Tasty empanadas made a light lunch, 18 pesos ($1)

Pull-apart fruit, sweet nuggets given as samples

On the next day we went to the more-traditional weekly street market, where natives and gringos alike shopped for the week’s pick of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. Coconut juice is a popular item, with a truckload to be consumed on this market day.

We went for a walk through town and down to Lake Chapala. We were excited to see a wintering site of the American White Pelican, which breeds back home in Oshkosh and Fond du Lac (and upwards into Canada as well.)

Ajijic from Lake Chapala to the Sierra Madre mountains

A walk through the city provided so many visual delights. Instead of the pervasive graffiti we see elsewhere, we found many beautiful wall murals and works of art.

The top of this building has what some call a “baby bottle” tower, a common feature in this area.

In Mexico most of the sidewalks are narrow and the walls of the houses go right up to the sidewalk; there are no lawns. The homes are hidden behind these walls, and what might they contain? Lavish digs, or simple concrete bunkers? Our host wrote 2 books showing some of the glorious homes that are hidden behind these walls. You’ll find a sample here. It seems there is ample work here for gifted architects and interior designers.

Elizabeth Taylor used to hang out here on the lakefront

We went to the Peacock Garden restaurant for early dinner, and my salmon dijon sandwich was complemented by the lovely scenery. A couple at the nearby table shared with us that they have rented a home in downtown for $500 per month, and the furnishings were easily affordable. The Lake Chapala Society is right nearby, offering social opportunities and chances to volunteer and enrich the local society as well. They also offer an English language lending library, which can be a bonus for book lovers.

A couple of nights we walked to the the Fast and Good Tapas Restaurant, a little streetside place. Each tapas or small glass of wine cost 20 pesos, about $1.10. The waiter was also the chef, and he was indeed fast, and the food was really good. On another day we went to the Sunrise restaurant for rib dinners at 90 pesos, about $5. Despite the upscale city locale you can still eat inexpensively.

Every night we enjoyed the sunset over the Sierra Madre mountains. It’s an alluring place, and deserves consideration as a snowbird retirement spot.

New life: birth on the beach

Today is a blustery day on the ocean, with high waves and intermittent rains. Here in Puerto Vallarta we often see very large, majestic frigate birds flying over the coast. They are opportunistic eaters, and this morning Matt saw one attack a smaller bird, force the bird to disgorge the fish it had just scooped up, and then the frigate bird took the fish and flew off. Frigate birds have their own frailties: if they fall into the sea they can’t take off, and will likely die there. (Our local divemaster saved one recently; click on the link to see the Facebook post by Banderas Scuba on Dec. 19 2015.) This afternoon we noticed an exceptional number of these birds circling our beach, 7 or more, coasting into the wind like it was easy, and they were not veering away from our area. We walked down to watch them, and a man told us the frigates were here for the turtles.

Turtles?

Yes, he said and gestured down the beach about 20 yards. There we found a group of hotel employees clustered around a hole in the sand. One man was armpit deep into a sand hole, and pulling out some things.

As we walked up we saw him pull out and discard a misshapen lump, which as it turned out, was a dead turtle egg. Someone had seen a live turtle emerge from the sand, and the staff came out to save them. Now the last 2 of the turtles were being deposited into a bucket. It seems that the frigate birds had also seen the baby emerge, and they were waiting to take advantage of the free meal.

In the bucket were 81 newly hatched loggerhead turtles, vigorously flopping around and trying to figure out how to get to the sea. One was pronounced dead, and we all sighed a bit as he was set aside; but then he rallied to show a little movement, and soon it was full on hey-I’m-not-dead-yet, so he went in the bucket with the others. They were all covered in the fine sand that they were born in, not yet washed clean by the ocean.

81 baby turtles — 81 baby loggerhead turtles

The staff had called for local officials to take the turtles away, so they could be protected and set free. No frigate birds were fed today.

Only 10 of us got to see this, so we felt really fortunate to be a part of this birthing ceremony. Live long and prosper, little ones!