Saturday, Nov 23rd, Ramada Paramaribo Princess, Suriname

 

Desmond, our guide for the day, gave us one of the best city tours of our destination - Paramaribo.   We arrived in the City after driving to the border from French Guiana, getting our exit papers checked and passports stamped, and climbing into our motorized dugout canoe.  The short ride across the river separating French Guiana from Suriname was followed by a three and half hour bus ride to our hotel in Paramaribo (Ramada Paramaribo Princess).  

Four days earlier, we stopped at the hotel to drop off our large luggage in order to lighten our flight weight for the small planes which took us into the rainforest.  Now, we were headed back home and needed the extra clean clothes, a shower, and could finally get a look at the City of Paramaribo.  

More than the other cities we have visited, Paramaribo's buildings and city layout tell the story of the many ethnic and national influences which have occupied Suriname.  Mosques, synagogues, Protestant churches built near each other, and streets which reflect the neighborhoods which operated the City.

This is the last day of the tour, and we ended it with a Goodbye dinner even though most of us will share an extra day waiting for our flights out.  To see all of the photos taken today, click on Saturday, Nov 23rd, Ramada Paramaribo Princess, Suriname.

Friday, Nov 22nd, Hotel Mercure Kourou Ariatel, French Guyana

Greetings!

We bailed on hanging with the tour group today.  They enjoyed a long drive to a Catamaran ride to a group of offshore islands, including Devil's Island (the French Jail).  We enjoyed a restful day at the hotel, and watched birds on a lake from above the dining room.  I produced a couple of useful website posts which will help me keep Sonoma County moving forward while it would seem the nation fall backward.

Thursday, Nov 21, Hotel Mercure Kourou Ariatel, French Guyana

Greetings!

The European Space Launching Facility is located in French Guiana, not far from where we stayed last night.  That big black thing next to this paragraph is a mock up of one of their latest rockets without the outer skin.  It was used to make sure all the buildings were large enough along the production route for the real rocket to fit.

We started early from our hotel to drive to the site, as it was quite a way down the coast, and is surrounded by 80 square miles of protected forest.  Once we arrived, we were given a tour of the entire facility, starting with the production of the bottom stage of the rocket and proceeding up the fuselage.  Finally, we were taken into the control building and shown the row upon row of computer stations from which all of the space agency personnel monitored the many aspects of the launch and flight.

Leaving the European Space Site, we stopped at a local Supermarket for lunch on the way to Cayenne, the capital of French Guyana.  Home to the pepper, it is the most populous French-speaking city in South America.  Better than that, it promised a meal of duck, steak, french onion soup, baggettes, and burgundy wine.  Patience was the key, but we are well on our way to great meals surrounded by friends who test our ability to understand their language.

Similar to Guyana and Suriname, French Guiana has a history forged in indigenous original residents, invaded by foreigners, who imported slaves to grow and dig for resources for exportation.  Because it has remained colonized and supported by France, it has become the home of many fleeing allied colonies and desperate countries.  Tensions are rising over immigration practices between newly-arrived refugees and long-time residents as worries over future economic security.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Thursday, November 21st, Hotel Mercure Kourou Ariatel, French Guiana.

 

Wednesday, Nov 20th, Hotel Mercure Kourou Ariatel, French Guyana

Today, we flew back to the coast of Suriname, and boarded a motorized dugout canoe to cross the river separating Suriname from French Guyana.  The last of the trip's three places we're visiting, French Guyana is actually not a country.  It's an overseas department and region of France.   It should not be confused with Guinea, a country on the west coast of Africa.

Here's a couple of little known trick questions about France and French Guyana.   Where is the largest national park in South America?  Where is the longest border in France?  The answer is in French Guyana (the border is between Brazil and French Guyana).

Today was a long traveling day, and not many photos were taken.  We arrived at the Hotel Mercure Kourou Ariatel just in time for dinner.  No webpage exists for it, but its 4-star status is deserved.  

 

Sunday, Nov 17th, Kabalebo Resort, Suriname

 

Today, we flew from Georgetown, Guyana to the Kabalebo Resort a few hours up the Kabaleto River.  It's the only river in Suriname that doesn't host an indigenous community.  Instead, twenty-five years ago,  the ecolodge now called the Kabalebo Resort began.  Operated by descendants of the original Amerindian and African Maroons, it's a three-star resort 150 miles from the nearest road which serves both the avid fly-fisherman and travel adventurer.

Over the next three days, we'll hike through the rain forest, canoe to rapids, spot an assortment of birds, flowers, trees, and animals.  Learning from those raised in the forest about the many uses of everything around us, it brought unusually rich insight into this precious environment.

It's Wednesday night, and in order to make a weight limit on the small planes which transported us into the far reaches of the rain forest, my laptop stayed behind in stored luggage.  Consequently, my ability to post daily reports had to be sacrificed.  Instead, this post will link to the past three day's photo albums (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday).  We hope they give you a sense of the wonderfully relaxing and stimulating times it provided us.

   

Saturday, Nov 16th, Georgetown, Guyana

 

Greetings!

After an early nature walk which turned out to be not early enough to hear many birds or see any animals, we had breakfast at the Lodge and boarded a boat to travel upriver.  Stopping at several places, Eugene provided us with the history and character of each.  Most were supply and access points for the gold, lumber, diamond, and other natural resource prospectors.

One of the stops was Bartica, where 70 Guyanese still live today.  We photographed the bold "One Guyana" sign symbolizing their resistance to the effort by Venezuela to annex the area north of the Essequibo River.  We walked a short way up the town beachfront, and met a delightful group of young women cricketplayers on their way upriver to a match.

On our return, we had lunch at poolside, and were met by Claude, who lives on the island.  He took us on a walk through the swampy coastal forest south of the Resort.  As a member of the Machushi tribe, who grew up in the forest, he was able to share much of the tribal lore and stories concerning the resources around us.

After the walk, Claude surprised us with a sloth he brought into the resort grounds from a nearby tree.  A pregnant female, somewhat smaller than others we have seen on other trips, but nevertheless a beautiful creature we were able to observe up close.

Late in the afternoon, we said goodbye to the Resort and took a local boat back to the Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel in Georgetown. 

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Saturday, Nov 16th, Georgetown, Guyana.

Friday, Nov 15th, Kaieteur Falls, Guyana

 

Greetings!

There was not much that went right today, but this very seasoned group of travelers took it all in stride. 

 What did go right was the talk that Eugene gave on the.way to the Airport.  He showed us housing, and explained how the country turned sugar cane fields into viable low, middle, and high income homes.  Giving access to land to those with the will to work hard to improve it seems to have been a good strategy.

So after nothing planned happening on time, we flew to the Baganara Island Resort Lodge on an island in the middle of the Essequibo River (the border Venezuela claims).  We then hiked a short distance to the Kaieteur Falls, took a few photos to prove we all made it, returned to the bar and then...to the best dinner of the trip.

To see all of the photos takem, click on Friday, Nov 15th, Kaieteur Falls, Guyana.

Thursday, November 14th, Georgetown, Guyana

Greetings!

After a 12-hour set of flights from San Francico to Miami, and Miami to Georgetown, Guyana. we were met at the Cheddi Jagan international Airport on Wednesday, and driven for an hour by Dale, while Eugene provided an excellent commentary on Guyana's capital situated downriver at the mouth of the Demerara River.  We checked into the Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel, and quickly fell asleep.

On Thursday, Nov 14th, Eugene and our tour guide (Lynn Spreadbury) hosted us on a City tour, including lunch back at our hotel, and a dinner at the Maharaja Palace, a great Indian restaurant.   

On our tour, we visited the Cheddi Jagan Research Center, where we met one of the past Presidents of Guyana (Donald Ramotar), who served. from 2001 until 2015.  Eugene, prior to becoming a local tour guide, had an illustrious career as a journalist, and was well-known to the President.  The President provided us with a very personal account of his time in office, and of the difficulty of governing the country without a majority of his party in the legislative branch.  His chief worry concerning Guyana now is its lack of electricity, and and is happy the current government is focusing on strengthening the country's infrastructure 

Georgetown has risen from a delta lowland, British plantation colony, which received its independence in 1966.  A series of canals draining the mangrove swamps nearest the mouth of three rivers, its housing communities look like, and are named to remind 18th century brits of, the homes they grew up in.  Large wooden stilted pitched roof two story homes which were designed to shed snow are everywhere, sit next to concrete, recent flat-roof structures more recently built.   The water from upriver, just before it reaches the sea, is held in ponds, and one of them serves as the home of a pod of Manatees.  With fist full of grass grown nearby, we got to serve them lunch by hand.

No Adventures Abroad tour would be complete without a visit to the local museums, and the Museum of Anthropology introduced us to Guyana's nine indigenous tribes, and the materials associated with 11,000 years of their occupation.  I was fascinated by the similarity of their pottery, and how closely it looked to that produced by those who lived in our Southwestern areas.

For an overview of our next fourteen days, and an itinerary for each day, click on our Trip Map and see it again on Google Earth.  

To see a few of the photos we took on our City tour today, click on Thursday, November 14, Georgetown, Guyana.  Limited internet access will probably prevent most of the photos from appearing regularly on this trip, as we'll be staying many nights in the forests upriver in the Amazon.  You might want to wait, and catch the entire set of photo-links after we get home.

Saturday, October 5th, Honolulu, Hawaii

Sonoma County Board of Supervisors

Taking a break from your meetings, when my wife informed me she was headed to her grandparents' Tuscan mountain village for two weeks with a girlfriend, I decided to indulge a long-standing dream of revisiting my six-year-old La Jolla Coast Shorebreak child to enjoy body-whomping in the warm Waikiki waters.  After what Pat now rightly calls a fantasy crash and burn, that six-year-old yelled at me, “What the fuck happened to you?  What part of keeping your lungs strong, and being in complete control of your body did you NOT understand?”

We used to be horrified by those who came near the waves not respecting the shear power of water hydraulics, and not preparing for it adequately.  Now I had become one.  Weak legs, no lung endurance, easily exhausted.  Trusting who I used to be to make up for who I had become. Disaster.

Exiting Kaiser Honolulu Hospital three days later with a week’s worth of Azithromycin, Paxlovid, and my first introduction to a teaspoon every six hours of Opioids (Codein-Guaifenesin), I’m now gaining a first-hand experience handing my body over to a drug that tells my brain to ignore all pain signals.  Loading up my cell phone with hourly instructions for the medicines treating Bronchitis and Covid, I'm overjoyed at how the mucus buildup in my throat so easily and painlessly becomes what we used to call “Logees” that we’d hock at our feet in the parking lots after mornings of surf.  Without the Codeine telling my brain to stop sending signals, the pain would cause my upper chest to convulse so badly those around me were asking if I had Parkinson’s.  And that’s much like it feels to be a six-year-old in a 76-six-year-old body.

So bring on Opioid Education and Services to the Behavioral Health Board!  I can’t say upgrading this Boomer’s beer-busting insights to a serious dose of codeine-induced fear of addiction to the joys of not having a brain will better prepare me for service, but it has crossed my mind that it might improve my empathy and understanding considerably. And most of all, I want that six-year-old to see that I’ve decided to take better care of what he protected next time our paths cross.


Gregory Fearon

Sunday, September 29th, Honolulu, Hawaii

Greetings!

Pat and I are a world apart.  She's with a girlfriend (Barbara Tomin) in Luca, Italy on a trip of Tuscany and Umbria.  I'm in Honolulu, Hawaii (12 hours apart).  We flew out two days ago, and fly back on October 13th.  Same Airporter bus down to SFO, same back.  A little strange to get off at Terminal 3, with her staying on to the International.  

I'm staying the full 15 days at The Beach Waikiki by ALOH (Youth Hostel), one block from Waikiki.  It didn't take long to get in the water, getting out was harder.  I'm satisfying my 4yr-old child, whose time was mostly spent in the shorebreak waves in La Jolla, loving the sand between my toes and the water caressing my body.  But what was exciting about not being in control then, is a bit terrifying now.  These 76 year-old muscles don't present the same thrill when they have to fight harder to maintain a balance and convince me that I'm safe.  A lifetime of understanding the power of the sea has passed since my first immersion, and that interferes with the childhood joy.  

When I checked into the Hostel, the desk staff mentioned that the facility had an informal rule that they would accept those from 18 to 48.  Older travelers complained about the noise at night, and uncomfortable mattresses.  I wonder what my roommates think of the midnight pee runs, and my disinterest in sharing dating tips or rooftop drinking.

Last night, I created

"Waikiki Play".  While out on a breakwater pier, enjoying the scene of young swimmers, body-boarders, and other beach-goers, I took some photos and videos.  One of the young swimmers who used the waves breaking over the rocks to her physical delight caught my attention.  It reminded me of exactly what I came here to do.  I think it will evoke the sense of free play most of us experienced as children.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Sunday, September 29th, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Wednesday, May 8th, Valletta, Malta

 

Greetings!

Today was our last tour day.  We spent it visiting some of the locations that we previously were not able to because they were closed.  We also went to a museum, and two outstanding temple and megalith sites.  Due to a mistake by the tour company, we were not able to visit one large megalith site, but did get to take a few photos before we were kicked out.  

It rained today, so our walks were done being careful not to slip on pathways not well designed for slick surfaces. 

This being the last post of the tour, and because I've taken photos of most of the site signs, I'm going to pass on identifying the sites in this narrative.  You'll see where we went in the photo album.  I do want to take the opportunity to thank everyone of the tour, travelers, tourguide, and drivers.  Malta was a great end of the tour, partly because it contained the oldest and largest ruins, and partly because it contained sites and experiences which illuminated the whole span of history.

We're flying home tomorrow, and getting in late.  The next day is an important fundraiser for good friends of our in Marin (Center for Domestic Peace).  Thanks to all at the Original World, and Supreme Travel..

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Wednesday, May 8th, Valletta, Malta.
  

Tuesday, May 7th, Valletta, Malta

Greetings!

It took us six hours to get to and from Goso today, an island one-third the size of Malta off the northern coast.  There have been proposals to build a bridge or a tunnel there, but all were discarded.  Much of the time was just getting through Malta's small towns between central Valletta and the coastal port at the town of Cirkewwa.  Ferries between there and the port of Mgarr on Gozo run every 25 minutes, and the round-trip fare is only about five Euros.  We had coachs on either end, and did experience a mechanical problem opening the coach door at one end. 

The first inhabitants of Gozo came from Sicily about 5,000 BC.  They were farmers, and only a thousand years earlier transitioned from hunter-gatherers to settled farmers.  Two of the structures (Ggantija) temples were erected more than 5500 years ago, before the pyramids of Egypt.  They are the second oldest existing manmade religious structures after Gobleki Teke in present day Turkey.  

The temples are built in the typical clover-leaf shape, with inner-facing blocks.  The space between the walls was filled with rubble.  A series of semi-circular apses is connected with a central passage covered by roofing.  The effort is a remarkable feat when considering the monuments were constructed when the wheel had not yet been introduced and no metal tools were available to the Maltese Islanders.   

An island trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to the cliffs edge.  We declined to take a ride in small boats out to an famous rock arch (the Azure Window) at Dwejra Bay which had collapsed recently.   Instead, we visited several really old windmills (1725), where millars called farmers to bring their grain by blowing through triton shells.

We ended the visit with a drive to the Roman Catholic Cathedral in the Cittadella of Victoria, the capital of Gozo.  The highest point on the island, its history epitomizes the many eras and architectural structures which have appeared.  Begun as a prehistoric settlement, then a Roman temple, it became a Christian and later a Byzantine church.  Recovered from early Arab destruction, a parish church was enlarged during the 15th and 16th centuries, then sacked by the Ottomans during the invasion of 1551.  Rebuilt once the island was retaken, it was damaged by an earthquake in 1693.  Finally, the present cathedral was begun in September of 1697.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Tuesday, May 7th, Valletta, Malta.

Monday, May 6th, Valletta, Malta

Greetings!

We began today by visiting the Sanctuary Basilica of the Assumption of Mosta, which has the third largest unsupported dome in the world, and is Malta's largest and most famous church.  The church narrowly avoided destruction during World War II, when on April 9, 1942 a German aerial bomb pierced the dome and fell into the church during Mass but failed to explode.  The event was interpreted by the Maltese as a miracle.

Then to a glass-making company, and a jewelry warehouse.  One of our travelers remarked that this practice of stopping by a business which clearly wanted us to buy something is a bit unusual for this tour company.  Pat and I confirmed that we shy away from tour companies which do so, but it's not unusual for tours to get payments from these businesses.

 

The Palazzo Parisio and Gardens in Naxxar was our next stop.  Begun as a hunting lodge in 1733, it has been expanded and now is described as "a miniature Versailles", and has been used as a wedding site, filming location, wine store, and an R.A.F. Office during WWI.  

Then we drove to Mdina and Rabat to walk through the streets of two of the island's oldest communities.  The Catacombs of St Paul and of St Agatha reminded us of the Hypogeum, except that they were built 2,000 years later.  Though simpler and smaller, the similarity of their design reinforces the notion that underground burials must have been a strong part of the culture for the last six thousand years.  Those who constructed the Catacombs had no idea that the Hypogeum existed, and was used so far in the past.

Finally, we ended up in a short hike at the Dingli Cliffs, the highest point on the island, for a view of the small island of Filfa.  

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Monday, May 6th, Valletta, Malta.

Sunday, May 5th, Valletta, Malta

Greetings!

I'm going to try to describe our adventures today without immediately jumping to the last thing we saw - the Hypogeum.  I hope I can convey to you the enormity of the experience well enough for you to understand the degree of self-restraint involved.

So first,  the Tarxien Temples.  I've never seen a ruin site better protected.  So forgive me for too many shots of the canopy constructed over it.  Steel cables forty yards long supporting a seriously impervious roof.  Not that it rains around here.  

And that walkway, what care to place it as close to the walls and rocks.  While I appreciate the work done through a grant from Norway to facilitate access and education, I found it a little too presentational.  Much of the site has been reconstructed, and the viewer isn't clear enough on where original rock remains.

Next, we drove to the three cities in which Vallettans live, and which provide the most insight into the character of its history.  Around the edges of the harbor, the fishing and merchant communities of Senglea, Cospicua, and Vittoriosa wind their way along the walls and waterfronts, to the palaces, churches, forts and bastions.  Viewing luxury yachts next to original rowboats, and kayakers enjoying a seemingly endless water course.  We stopped for lunch at another great restaurant, and Michael mixed Maltese language lessons with his ability to provide us with just the right meal for each of our needs and tastes.

Finally, we narrived at the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum at our purchased appointment time (3pm).  Fortunately, an unused surrendered ticket allowed us to include a member of our group without one, and we all descended into an entirely underground series of three levels of limestone, with its halls and chambers interconnected through a labyrinth series of steps, lintels, and doorways.  Here is another link to this outstanding travel destination,  I classify it as one of the top ten ruin experiences I have visited.

Carved after 4,000 BC with antlers, flint, chert, and obsidian, and used as a sanctuary and necropolis, it contained an estimated 7,000 individuals, intricately decorated pottery vessels, stone and clay beads, shell buttons, amulets, axe-heads, and carved figurines depicting humans and animals. One of the figurine, the Sleeping Lady, is thought to represent a mother goddess.  Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed in the visit.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Sunday, May 5th, Valletta, Malta.

 

Saturday, May 4th, Valletta, Malta

Greetings!

We gathered in the hotel after breakfast, met our guide (Michael from Original World), and introduced ourselves.  A very experienced group of travelers, all are here either after other stops this travel, or are going to other countries after this one, or both.  one of them is from nearby our home (Greenbrae), and knows a very close friend of ours.  Two are from Florida, and two from Tennessee.  All have had very interesting lives.

Our first of many stops today was Saint John's Co-Cathedral, where Michael introduced us to Malta by  walking us through the Maltese home of the Knights of Malta (Order).  Organized by the eight regions (Provence, France, Auvergne, Italy, Aragon, including Navarre, England, including Scotland and Ireland, Germany, and the kingdom of Castille, Leon, and Portugal), the Order's mission is to protect the Catholic faith.  From 1113 to 1530, its knights, led by sequential GrandMasters, battled against Barbary pirates and Ottoman forces.  After an important setback in Rhodes in 1522, King Charles V of Spain (Holy Roman Emporer) gave the Order Malta in exchange for a yearly falcon.  

As Michael led us through the Church, we saw that each of the regions had apses displaying the colors, heralds, statues of famous leaders, tribunary supporters who paid to be buried under magnificent floor crypts, and plenty of powerful paintings.   We continue to be amazed at the amount of mind-blowing art and tributes within churches throughout our travels.  Everywhere one looks is another wonderous contribution to the story-telling and tributes collected in service of the religion.

The Italian artist, Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio, spent many years on the island, and his paintings "The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist" and "St Jerome Writing" are both displayed in the Cathedral.  Others of his are in the Lourve, and in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.  His life, and works, struggle to reflect psycological realism, and a dramatic use of lighting.  Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture, and death.  He worked rapidly with live models, preferring to work directly on canvas.   

After a stop at the Valletta Theateer for a 3D show of Malta history, we walked to the National Museum of Archeology.  It was another well-designed set of epic-themed displays, presenting evidence of the last 9,000 years of Malta's civilized cultures through tools, pottery, sculpture, and architecture.  

While my cell phone ran out of memory about the time we visited the GrandMaster's Palace and Armory, I have to say that both are well worth the visit, even as the brutal militaristic precision apparent in the weapons and armor confirmed the worst views of war.  

Michael timed our journey to end at the Upper Barrakka Gardens shortly before 4pm.  At that moment, one of the cannons established to defend the City, is fired each day to the recoil of the large crowd standing at the walls above the firing.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Saturday, May 4th, Valletta, Malta.
  

Friday, May 3rd, Valletta, Malta

Greetings!

Today, we flew Emirates (what a plush plane and service!) from Cyprus to Malta.  Even though it was only a two and a half hour flight, it took the whole day to drive to the rental car company, negotiate the payment for a slight bump that happened getting out of a parking space, get driven to the airport, wait for the flight, fly, get our luggage, get picked up and driven to the hotel, relax in the upgraded top floor suite, walk around our hotel area (wow), get dinner at a local restaurant, and come back and finish this blog.

In addition to being the best traveling buddy, making all of the arrangements for the travel itself, and keeping track of the rest of the world's activity (including our hometown), Pat is using some of her time getting very much smarter on the use of her IPhone and the Internet.  I am really impressed with her growing use of AI search tools.  With my Google knowledge, and her Apple and Meta knowledge, we've really become capable of learning.  

Tomorrow morning, we meet the other five members of our tour group, and begin six days of exploring Malta.  Our walk through the southern edge of the City's bayside fortress walls was almost overwhelming, and we can't wait to see what our tour company presents us for the rest of the trip.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Friday, May 3rd, Valletta, Malta.