Recife, Brazil

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In August of 2002 Kate had a meeting in Recife Brazil with international colleagues. This was our first trip to South America and unusual as we usually hang around home in the summer – the weather is warm, the quarry is open, life is good in St Marys during the summer. We'd rather go to warm climes when the weather at home is wintery.

Recife (say "ray-see-fay") is just south of the equator on the coast of Brazil where it juts out furthest into the South Atlantic. I understand it's fifth largest city in the country so it's quite a good size (around 1.5 million). Like much of Brazil it's a strange mix of first world wealth backed by third world poverty. We flew to Sao Paulo first where we changed planes to fly on to Recife. From the air Sao Paulo, by far the largest city, seems to go on forever.

We stayed in a high rise luxury hotel, the conference hotel, right on the beach and spent quite a bit of time on the beach. There's a long sandy beach to the south of the old city center with luxury high rises along the water front. Just a few blocks in the rest of the world lives in pretty miserable circumstance.

Some stories of our stay follow.

We spent a lot of time on the beach which was just across the road from our hotel. There's a pretty good sandy strip,  a bit of protected water before a battered reef and then the ocean beyond. Beyond the reef it's a bit dangerous for swimming as there are sharks out there. But between the beach and the reef it's warm and pretty safe ... although I did see a Portugese Man O'War jelly fished washed up on the sand.

On the beach there are lots of vendors renting chairs and umbrellas, selling food and drinks; others wander the beach selling trinkets. 

We made friends with a couple of beach vendors who made dynamite caipirinhas and kept us entertained. Caipirinha (say "ki-peer-ene-ya") is the national drink of Brazil. It's a simple recipe: take a lime, quarter it, squish it a bit in sugar, add some ice and Cachaça (sometimes called pinga – basically a white rum), shake and serve. If you use Vodka it's called a caipirinski. If you're in Texas and use tequila it's basically a margarita – another of our favorite drinks. They grow a lot of sugar cane in Brazil and a good deal of it is distilled for alcohol: some for fuel, some for the buzz. Cachaça is raw alcohol fresh from the still with little filtration – it's not a polished drink at all.

We had been warned to avoid the ice and for our first drinks on the beach we asked the vendor to hold the ice. No problem, sure. Now that's a potent drink. Thereafter we braved the ice. And actually you're pretty brave to do so as it's scooped out by hand and there are no opportunities on the beach for the vendor to actually wash his hands or take a leak.

Every thing in Brazil is quite cheap. Drinks on the beach were around three dollars, beer a lot cheaper but still over a dollar. One day we were in a super market and I found that you could buy Cachaça by the litre for about one dollar. So they made a good killing on the beach drinks. I wanted to bring a case home, damn the duties we might pay but Kate said no.

The beach was quite busy throughout the whole day with lots enjoying the sun and dipping into the sea to cool off. Brazilian women were usually in quite revealing string bikinis. There were sailboat rentals, a kids playing soccer or skimming on boards, there were even fishermen casting their nets.

We did explore the city a bit a couple of times. We took a cab with some friends to the historic old city one day -- Recife was the first slaving port in the Americas so it's quite old, originally settled by the Portugese (which remains the language of Brazil). Dinner and tipping.

Bicycles. Boat. Seat post fix and beach boys.

Camera hassles on street. Bicycle explore and ride back.

Taxis and stop lights cf. conference in Sao Paulo.

Credit car fraud.

This is only a place holder. There is lots more work on this blog and photo album to follow.

Ps. Photos were scanned during January 2021 of the COVID-19 lockdown from Fujichrome 35mm slides taken at the time. These are quick scans using a "Kodak SLIDE N SCAN Digital Scanner".

Paris

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This is a place holder. The album and note need a lot of work ...

Kate's annual KBS conference was in Paris this year from June 3-7. We did quite a bit of touring and exploring the country around this work week for Kate. I tagged along to carry her bags and did quite a bit of Paris on my own.

Click on the image at left for a photo album of our visit. The sculpture is La Danse (Carpeaux) which you'll find at the entrance to the Paris Opera House. The original is in the D'Orsay Museum, at the Opera House it's a replica.

This note and photo album need work ... a lot of work.

Ps. This note and photo album were created during the COVID-19 lockdown in January, 2021. Pictures are from slides taken at the time.

Champagne

 

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In June had a few days to explore the Champagne region before Kate's conference in Paris. We came back to the area during the conference on an afternoon trip with conference chums.

This note and album need more work .... a lot more work.

Ps. these notes and photo album were prepared during the COVID-19 lockdown of January 2021.

Dieppe and Juno Beach

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In June Kate had her annual KBS conference in Paris. We crossed the English Channel and arrived in Calais on a ferry from Dover having had a short visit with Jean and Chuck — our honorary second parents in England. It's a short ride across the English Channel and we got away early. Our plan was to see a bit of the country, explore some war sites and see the Champagne region before the conference.

There was some confusion at the port of Calais with our car rental. We were there noonish but they weren't expecting us until later in the afternoon. There was nobody at the car rental! After some awkward running about and the kind assistance from some locals at the port we finally had our car and were on our way — did I mention how poor our French is? We quickly got lost on the back lanes of the nearby countryside (do all roads wander like that?) but did make it to our hotel in the nearby country town of Bollezeele. Originally, we had intentions of visiting Vimy Ridge, the Canadian WWI memorial, but that was way too far for the limited time we had that day. 

Our hotel, the Saint Louis, was more of a country inn than a city hotel. Bollezeele is quite a small village. But the hotel was quite nice and catered to an upscale crowd. The parking lot was full of Rolls Royce sedans, there was some car rally event. I recall we had a nice dinner at the hotel and this was the first time I'd ever had white asparagus with hollandaise. In our part of the world asparagus is green!

The next day we headed westward along the coast to Dieppe. Dieppe is a smallish town along the coast with a deep water sheltered port. While the coast is quite flat around Calais here there are the towering white chalk cliffs that match the white cliffs of Dover. On August 19, 1942 during WWII there was an aborted invasion by Allied troops, mostly Canadian, who had hoped to gain a foothold and a valuable port on the continent at Dieppe. When you see what the coast has to offer — high cliffs, a wide stoney beach with no cover, a very narrow harbor and likewise narrow streets of the town — you would rightly guess that it was doomed to be a fiasco, a fool's errand. In Wikipedia I read "Within ten hours, of the 6,086 men who landed, 3,623 had been killed, wounded or became prisoners of war." Nevertheless in Dieppe they remember the attempt — there are celebrations every year on August 19.

We stayed in the first coastal village to the west, Pourville-sur-Mer on a street aptly named "Rue du 19 Août 1942". Our hotel fronted the beach with a row of those little beach cabins used as change houses. The weather was cool and grey, the water would have been very cold. They do go swimming in the channel as the season progresses — evidenced by the little beach cabins. We wandered the shore and stoney beach a bit and found some ruins of some fortified WWII bunkers/pillboxes that had fallen to the sea from the high cliffs above. We tried to imagine what it would have been like on the beach during the landing of 1942. It would have been a terrifying day for the green soldiers who had never seen battle before, and the many who were lost that day.

The successful D-Day landing was in Normandy on June 6, 1944 many miles to the west on the sandy shores. The next day we visited Juno Beach, where the Canadians landed, at the village of Courseulles-sur-Mer. The other landings, by various Allied forces along this 50mile stretch of Normandy, were code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach.

The picture above is me with uncle Mac's tank the "Bold/Audacieux" at Quai des Alliés, 14470 Courseulles-sur-Mer, France. It's right by the harbor and, at the time, there was a modest tourist information center. Since then they've build a huge Juno Beach Centre on the other side of the harbor. It will be confusing if you're looking for this memorial as it's not at the Canadian Juno Beach Center where you might expect to find it.

When we visited it was still a pretty modest affair. In front of the Tourist Information Centere there stands a green duplex-drive Sherman tank that was recovered from the sea in 1970 — the debris from D-day had been fouling fishermen's nets for years. This was one of the tanks that had sunk during the D-day landing and it is well documented as the "Bold/Audacieux" commanded by the First Hussars out of London, Ontario. We're there reading about the history and I'm choking back tears when Kate says to me, "So, this is like the tank that uncle Mac drove?". Through my tears I replied, "No, this is the tank uncle Mac drove". 

William (Mac) Dixon survived D-day and WWII to return to safely to Canada. His brother Walter, who died in a training accident flying a plane, wasn't so lucky. He's buried in Formby outside of Liverpool.

We ought to have visited the nearby war graves but the Juno Beach Centre was emotional enough. In retrospect I'm sort of ashamed of how ill prepared we were, how little of the history we knew and how little time we gave to these visits. We really knew very little about any of the wars or battle sites. It would be good to go back some day and spend more time. Our second dad, Chuck Fry, made many treks to the fields of Flanders to visit WWI battle sites. There were incredible losses during those battles. So to here on the beaches of Normandy.

From Normandy, our brief tour of war sites over, we headed inland and to the east to the Champagne Region.

Ps. these notes and photo album were prepared during the COVID-19 lockdown of January 2021.

England

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In June Kate had a KBS conference in Paris. We flew into Heathrow and spent a day with Mom² and Dad² in Woking to recover from the plane trip. It was a pleasant warm visit — we even went to Windsor castle (at least the grounds) to see a bit of the sites. There was some riding event happening that day.

The next day we took a train into London where we changed trains (a short walk between adjacent stations) for Dover. From Dover, you remember the white cliffs of Dover?, we took a ferry across the channel to Calais.

Ps. This note and photo album were created during the COVID-19 lockdown in January, 2021. Pictures are from slides taken at the time.

Zion

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In March of 2002 Kate and I were in Zion National Park for a couple of nights. We had earlier been to Death Valley and then at a conference in Las Vegas -- where we flew from. It was nice to catch a bit of sun and blue sky in the American Southwest and escape our dreary winter.

We had visited briefly the year before in 2001 when we did a grand tour of National Parks around the Grand Canyon and were so impressed we wanted to come back and explore more.

Zion is a deep narrow canyon about 3 hours to the north east of Las Vegas in Utah. As it's off season we were able to book a cabin in the park and drive our car in. In the busy seasons it's hard to get a room in the park and cars aren't allowed -- you're shuttled around by bus.

The cabin was very nice -- built of stone and logs with a fireplace to enjoy. There's not much going on after sunset which comes pretty early as you're in a canyon. We played scrabble one night and enjoyed ourselves. As this was a very short stay -- drive up from Las Vegas, overnight in our park, a full day in the park, overnight in the park and then back to Las Vegas for our flight home -- we made the most of our one full day in the park.

We arose early to make the most of the day. We had planned on doing some hikes up the rock face for views of the valley. But there had been a snow fall overnight and the trails were slippery. So, instead we went to the visitors center, near the entrance to the park, and hiked around there. As the sun came up and shone into the valley the snow started to melt and trails became more tractable.

Nearby is a trail to a high viewpoint at a place called the Angel's Landing. If you can imagine the looping path that a river makes as it meanders to form this canyon think of a very narrow loop that forms what looks like a very narrow tear drop. It's sometimes described as a vertical fin -- it's just that narrow. That's Angel's Landing.  What makes it especially interesting is the site you hike to is very narrow and very high up. It's a vertical drop of 1,488' from the top down to the valley floor. The steep path up is carved out of the side of the canyon wall and loops back and forth. Walter's Wiggles is a narrow switchback built of rock and stone on the trail -- very similar to some of the trails in Grand Canyon

However, we really weren't prepared for Angel's Landing.

Near the top (actually far from the trail end), at the narrow part of the tear drop, the trail takes one out over a narrow tilted area where there's a chain that you can hang onto! Kate is bravely leading the way and I'm scared shitless holding onto this chain and crawling along on my hands and knees. It seems to me that if one were to slip you'd soon be sliding over the edge and falling 1,000' or so to your certain death. A fast way down but not my idea of fun. I suggest that maybe we should turn around and not go to the end of the trail. Fortunately Kate agrees with me (takes pity on me) and we turn around.

As we are shimmying off this narrow (perhaps 40-50' wide) tilted rock area we encounter some young people who are on their return trip. They've been to the very end and on their way back. They're young, perhaps in their 20's, and walking along (recall we're crawling and holding onto the chain for dear life) smoking cigarettes, hands in their pockets and chatting away as if they were walking down main street in their home town. They were sympathetic to our plight and waited patiently as we crawled back to the relative safety of wider ground. The picture above shows Kate in the relative safety of "wider ground". I had a terrifying sense of vertigo that I could not manage just knowing that over the edge it's a straight drop ... down, ... down, ... down, ... and splat!

If you ever read about the trail we didn't make it as far as the "Scout Lookout" which is known as the turn around spot for the faint of heart. It's just that scary.

I have since discovered that the path, after we had abandoned it, gets incredibly narrow. Barely wide enough for people to pass one another! How can they have such places and even build trails to them? I've recently discovered on line:

• Dave Nally, author of Deaths and Rescues in Zion National Park, states “Angels Landing is the deadliest spot in Zion. There have been at least 15 deaths there during the last century.” (2019)
• In response to concerns about crowding and congestion on the trail, on and after April 1, 2022, everyone who hikes Angels Landing needs to have a permit. 

In later years we did return to Zion and were able to walk a rock face on the far side of the valley. But on this trip, we weren't brave (or foolish) enough to venture further. At this stage, I don't think I ever will.

In closing, there are a lot of trails worth exploring in Zion. Many are easy trails, some are frightening. For more information on Angel's Landing see Joe's Guide to Zion where there are some stunning photos of how narrow it can get.

Death Valley

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In March of 2002 Kate and I had a bit of a winter break in the American Southwest. We flew into Las Vegas (it's always easy to get there) where we rented a car and spent several days in Death Valley (to the west over the California border), then some more of our vacation time in Zion (to the north east in Utah). Both are National Parks, scenic spots and much more interesting than Las Vegas itself. This blog note covers the Death Valley portion of our adventures.

We have some advice for travelling to Death Valley. First book your accommodation -- either Stove Pipe Wells, the Furnace Creek Inn or the Furnace Creek Ranch -- then your flight. You can always get there, you can't always get a room. And you really want a room in the valley so you can experience sunrise and sunset. 

We've been to Death Valley before and this time decided on a novel entry even though it was late in the day. The Titus Canyon road is a one way gravel road that leads off the main road near Rhyolite and crosses the Grapevine Range to follow the Titus Canyon down into the valley. Along the way there's the Leadfield ghost town (August 1926 to February 1927 -- how's that for brief!) but not much else. The road is very narrow and very rough in spots. It's barely maintained and definitely a dodgy route at best. The canyon itself can be worn by flash floods -- there's a big alluvial fan where it comes out into the valley. Later during our visit we were talking to a park ranger who told us that we shouldn't have taken a rental car on that route, the car rental would have explicitly forbidden it, and if we had any trouble we would have been entirely liable for all damages. I'm writing this in 2021, some 19 years later, so I guess the statute of limitations applies. We visited again, some years later, and that time rented a 4-wheel drive to explore some of the more off-road locations.

We stayed at Stove Pipe Wells near the sand dunes and the Emigrant Pass out to the west from the valley. We like it here, it's much cheaper than the ritzy accommodation at the Furnace Creek Inn and the Furnace Creek Ranch which are more central to the valley. The rooms are fine, the restaurant is good enough. There's not many alternatives in the valley. They even have a salt water pool to swim in and Kate likes that. I like exploring the nearby sand dunes. In the album there's lots of pictures at sunrise and sunset of the dunes.

First thing next morning we're up early and down the road for sunrise at Zabriskie Point. There's Manly Beacon in front of you, the badlands of the wash, the valley and salt flats in the distance and the Panamint Range with Telescope Peak in the far distance. The sun rises behind you and you get to enjoy the changing view as the sunrise exposes the badlands in front of you. We've been here for sunrise many times and will always come back for more.

You can hike from Zabriskie point down into the valley through an area called the Golden Canyon. On another day we hiked up the Golden Canyon from the valley to the foot of the Manly Beacon and the Red Cathedral. At this time of year it's a pleasant hike. In the summer time it's to be avoided or taken with care -- people have gotten lost, taken a wrong turn, run out of water and died.

From Zabriskie we continue east and upwards out of the valley on the Furnace Creek Rd (No. 190) and take the side trail/road (the Furnace Creek Wash Road) for about 15 miles up to Dante's View, a high point on the east side of the valley.  Along the way, near the main road, there's a bit of an active mining town called Ryan on Amargosa Range on the east side of this valley. Dante's View is a scenic viewing area at 5,476' on the  crest of the Black Mountains (the easterly range), overlooking Death Valley with Badwater directly below. There's great views of the extensive salt flats below, the alluvial fans on the Panamint Range in the distance. Up the valley to the north you can just make out the oasis at the Furnace Creek Ranch (there's even a golf course at the ranch!) and the single paved road along the valley floor. Stove Pipe Wells is in the far distance to the north but not visible. At the end of the day it can be quite cool at this elevation and it's often quite windy. So you need to dress accordingly.

From this viewpoint you get the impression that the salt flats are fed by water coming from the north end of the valley (but I understand the major water flow is coming in from the south end).

There is some surface water at the Saltwater Marsh north of Furnace Creek (which always has water deep under ground) before Stove Pipe Wells. We saw a coyote when we visited the marsh -- you wonder what they live on. There's a tiny fish that lives in the salt water of the valley but it's so tiny as to be hardly visible. Stove Pipe Wells, as they name implies, relies on deep wells for water. There is some surface water at the Furnace Creek Ranch and a lot underground that they must pump to keep those golf greens going. And of course, there's surface water at Badwater but you wouldn't want to drink that! 

Badwater is the lowest point in North America some 280' below sea level (with Dante's View directly above). At Badwater you can walk out onto the extensive salt flats. It's pretty smooth and level here. Nearby there's an area on the salt flats called "The Devil's Golf Course" where it's awfully rough and irregular. North of Badwater there's the Natural Bridge Trail where water has punched a hole through the rock to make a natural bridge. 

We had dinner one night at the luxurious Furnace Creek Inn -- we can't afford to stay there but it's a  lovely spot to watch the sun set to the west and enjoy a nice meal.

We've been to Death Valley more than a few times. Each time has been an adventure. We're usually visiting sites we've been to before but we never tire of them: the sand dunes near Stove Pipe Wells and Zabriskie Point are my favorites.