Fouteen Days on a Big Green Bus

For some time now I have been heard to proclaim that those of us in our senior years "can still do it all! It just might take us longer." Well, I'm here today to tell you that this is not exactly true. I hesitate to report this, as I still believe in Green Tortoise and find it to be an amazing adventure experience, but I am now convinced that there comes a time when not all adventures are appropriate for all people. This time does not necessarily correspond with too many years lived. It does, however, have much to do with too little strength and agility left after those years lived. Darn!

Anyway, this was a great trip in terms of traveling companions. Such an interesting group! Two young sisters from Denmark, two older Polish ladies, a young British fellow, a frenchman of middle years who lives in Spain and is an employee of British Airways, a young Canadian woman from Halifax and a number of U.S. citizens from scattered points across the country (with Oregon providing a surprising number of participants). They were all fun and good sports. One woman, who at first appeared a bit disgruntled, "I could have gone on a cruise for this money and I would have had my own bed and would have been waited on ---" was heard to announce a few days later that all was well after all because she was pretending that she was not "roughing it with a bunch of stangers". She proved to be a real trooper!

I will take a look at my pictures and post a few next. The whale watching was hard to photograph as it was impossible to predict where the next whale might surface and by the time you swerved around in that direction, focussed the camera and snapped the shutter (with it's built in delay) there was hardly a ripple left of the event. But I can tell you that all accompanying baby whales (you won't see any of those, of course) were only one day old. That is what our guide said. Not quite sure how that was determined but each one was one day old.

The beach camp was wonderful. The weather beautiful the first day and then windy and cold the next. When I was a little girl in Oregon I used to listen to the nighttime storms and try to imagine that I was warm and cozy while out in a tent in the howling wind and storm. It was a favorite dream and in Mexico this time the dream came true.

We had expected some sort of old rust bucket of a ferry to carry us across to mainland Mexico from La Paz but it was quite nice. Very elegant. Although, come to think of it, some of that elegance may have been in the eyes of beholders who were fresh from a much less comfortable site.

El Fuerte is a delightful colonial town. We stayed in a hotel there (Hidalgo) that was truly elegant with beautiful courtyards and even a statue of Zorro. Creel, the town in the mountains from which the Copper Canyon may be visited is a cold, miseraable place high enough in the mountains to cause near death to those ( of which I seemed to be the most affected ) suffering from altitude sickness. We visited a most spectacular canyon and I took a few photos there between desperate gasps struggling for oxygen in the thinly supplied air.

A stop in Tucson and Joshua Tree Park and then back to SF where the Green Tortoise Hostel was a welcome resting place before heading back to Live Oak. By the way, this hostel is the perfect place to stay while exploring San Francisco and may be on the agenda at some point in the future.

We are getting ready now to leave on Saturday for East coast Mexico, Guatemala, and then a long stay on Caye Caulker. Pray for us!