UMTravels

Really – it’s just a day that I’d rather forget. Ugly, ugly marketing meeting.

Slight uptick with dinner at Swanda’s place.

Went to bed in a surly mood.

[223.2]

It being Monday that means a few more hours of work getting ready for the weekly marketing meeting tomorrow. Hard to believe that I’m approaching the two year mark on a 3-month contract. Let’s hope it lasts.

Getting closer to figuring out how to ride in what the Senior Colonel calls “The Gooney Bird”… the DC-3 run by Buffalo Airways out of Hay River, Northwest Territories. Having abandoned my original plan (because it was close to a grand), I had an epiphany. The answer:

• Frequent flier miles to Edmonton ($45 in fees)
• Enterprise rent-a-car, weekend rate ($65, plus gas)
• Drive 12.5 hour north to Hay River
• Grab the Saturday morning flight ($242 round-trip rather than $327 weekday)
• Stay in Yellowknife Saturday night ($80-$150 a night)
• Fly back to Hay River Sunday afternoon
• Drive back to Edmonton, maybe a motel half way down ($ ?)
• Fly out of Edmonton on Monday evening.

That brings it to about $500 which is doable. No frequent flier miles unless I stay in the Coast Tower Yellowknife. Oh, and maybe some for the car as well.

Just a tough Filet Mignon, salad, leftover wine and bread for dinner.

[222.8]

Another sunny day – with me in the garage. Today’s progress:

• Mounted the barn door track.
• Hung the electric winch
• Suspended the chop saw and table over where the table saw will be relocated
• Organized all the lawn equipment and got it hung up

Still to do:

• Organize the scrap on Craigslist:

Electric Lift ($100) Dead chipped good 8hp motor ($50)

Dr. Pepper machine ($200 ) Generic pop machine ($150)

Both work great — $300 for the pair.

Dinner tonight (yes, I’m entertaining again) is with Salamandar who is carless. The deal is I pick him up on the hill and he takes the bus home afterwards so that I don’t drink and drive.

Barbequed country style pork ribs, salad, roasted potatoes, last night’s bread. We both ate too much, but still managed to retire to the hot tub for an after dinner soak.

Not a bad way to end a meal.

[221.6]

It must be spring… time to start cleaning and arranging the garage.

Part of the battle is getting it organized so I can go through and clean out all the stuff I really don’t need but that someone else might:

• Bag of down pillows
• Year old mattress (size = double)
• Excess kitchen equipment
• 9×12 Karastan rug (pinkish oriental)
• And the list goes on.

Speak up if you need any of this stuff. Tomorrow I’ll post photos of the items that are soon to go on Craigslist.

And who is coming to dinner tonight? That would be ex-councilman Curt. It’s going to be a field and stream meal of lamb chops, stir-fried tiger spot prawns, some fresh bread, a salad and a couple of bottles of wine that Curt showed up with.

[225.6]

Got out of the condo a little before 11 after a heavy breakfast.

Got to duty-free about 11:30 for some Alberta Springs 10-year-old Rye Whiskey (for tonight’s Old Fashioned with DancingBear). And then the trouble started – even with stopping at duty-free which puts you near the front of the line, it took thirty minutes in the Nexus line (was 50 minutes in the regular line), next time, not so close to noon on a Friday.

Dinner with DancingBear at the house. Veal chops, roasted potatoes, salad, fresh baguettes, wine, whiskey, sorry, no song.

The trouble at home?

Getting closer to figuring out how to take that DC-3 flight from Yellowknife to Hay River (and back) in the Northwest Territories of Canada. How would it work?

• June 15 (Tuesday), fly to Edmonton on Horizon, stay the night ($10 for the frequent flier ticket, $100 for the room)
• June 16 (Wednesday), fly to Yellowknife, layover for four hours, transfer terminals, then fly to Hay River. Spend the night ($272 r-t for Yellowknife – a web special), about the same for the Hay River trip, and another $100 or so for the hotel)
• June 17 (Thursday), early flight back to Yellowknife, mid-day flight to Edmonton, early evening flight to Seattle.

Three days, $800-1000 dollars, all for this:

Time will tell.

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First, a little update on yesterday: trip to Vancouver took an hour longer than usual due to Highway 99 (what I-5 turns into in Canada) being shut down in both directions from a multiple fatality accident. Didn’t get to the condo until almost 5 with a stop for groceries and wine – luckily Helene was running late as well. And BamBam had to cancel as the wedding video he was editing was running way late. Just one of those yesterdays.

And on with today… three eggs over easy for breakfast (and again tomorrow), and then a stroll down to the Nexus office for an Iris Scan so that when I fly into Canada I can use the speed lane at the airport, cutting 45 minutes down to 5. It only took them half a dozen tries to get a decent scan. Thanks Helene for that tip – normally you do it at the airport after going through the line the regular way.

Sushi for lunch after getting a little work done.

Hummingbird and BamBam showed up at 5 for round two of the scholarship reading. Yesterday with Helene was round one. Twenty three scholarships to read this year. I got through about 2/3rds of then last night. It’s a fun task playing god.

Want to know the results?

It was a nicer looking graph before I sorted from high to low.

Back to Seattle tomorrow.

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Well, I’ve done it again… another cruise to nowhere. This time it’s an overnight from Vancouver to Seattle, but in a deluxe verandah suite. What is a deluxe veranda suite?

2 lower beds convertible to 1 king-size bed, whirlpool bath & shower, large sitting area, dressing room, private verandah, 1 sofa bed for 2 persons, mini-bar, refrigerator, floor-to-ceiling windows. Approximately 556 sq. ft

Suite amenities include:

$129 a person plus fees, and a train trip to Vancouver.

As for my day – off to Vancouver for dinner and scholarship reading with Helene and Natan.

[224.1]

Work in the morning – the usual Tuesday morning marketing meeting. It ran a little longer than usual, and had a few more action items for me to take care of this week.

When I returned home (after swinging by the apartment for laptop memory that hadn’t arrive yet), I found a wrapped present on the back porch from Wonerful.

The glass, not the wine – I put the wine bottle in the shot so you can see the size of the glass… it’s almost 5″ across. Guess this will be for when the doctor says “limit yourself to one glass of scotch a day”.

Dinner tonight was supposed to be Mark and Maria – until Maria turned seriously ill. Revised dinner plan was with Swanda… some of it billable. Marinated pork with a starter of beer steamed clams. Pretty tasty.

Back home afterwards for a little more work – to make up for the nap I took in the afternoon.

And the “book” in the title… maybe a one-day cruise in a large stateroom from Vancouver to Seattle in May with Mick.

[223.1]

Wow – did I wake up sore today from yesterday’s physical labor.

Spent part of the day putting the final touches on mid-May’s escape to prison.

The prison that Steve is now in is three hours away from Yellowstone (rather than two hours away from Glacier). I’ve been wanting to do a driving tour in the Jag and mid-May the weather should be good enough. Turns out that there are two prisons in Deer Lodge, Montana – the new one, and the notorious one.

That would be the notorious one. Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_State_Prison. It has quite a history. I’ve printed it out to take in the binder of trip materials. I’m still puzzling over whether to invite anybody else along on the adventure. Wouldn’t mind having company in the 3-bedroom penthouse in McCall, Idaho. Maybe some of the boys from Portland.

Not much to the rest of the day other than work, quarterly state taxes (owe nothing, which means I didn’t bill enough hours), grocery store, letter to Steve and the dentist, eating.

[221.3]

With the sun out so that it’s t-shirt weather I decide it’s time to tackle the fence project. Little did I know that the worst part would be disentangling the rosemary from the chainlink fence in the front. My neighbor (MaryAnn) was also out so we had a chance to talk about the fence coming down, and she was excited – even wanted the portion all the way back to her fence pulled out – but that will have to wait for Jeremy to move his car – I’d hate to scratch it.

The first is the “beauty” shot that I put on my blog the other day:

Looks pretty… but to get the shot I had to stand at the fence (so it wouldn’t be in the shot). Here is the before/after today’s fence removal project (yes, I’m beat):

Yes, there is a pile of left over fencing to the right, and beyond that (out of picture range) a pile of rosemary that is the “purple” in the first shot. It was growing through the fence – the end result isn’t pretty – think Edward Scissor Hands.

Dinner tonight was with Jimmy and Suzanne at his place. Fish, pasta, salad, wine, followed by scotch.

A fine way to end a full day of physical labor.

[222.2]

Woke up with a feeling of “cabin fever”… the need to just get out and about. What to do about it — drive.

I gathered all the stuff laying around needing to be delivered and headed out the door:

• Panama Taxi license plate and taxi meter for Tom, Marybeth’s son who is getting the Checker Marathon as his car when he gets his license
• Lowes for a replacement grill grate for the BBQ and batteries for the scale
• Fluffernutter’s to drop off an enamel public telephone sign (and chat with Aaron, his roommate)
• The apartment to pick up a DVD (which reminds me, I really have to watch If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium since I had it for months)
• Darcie and Jeannes to drop off a book — and have cocktails and enough snacks that it made dinner

Started at a little after noon and got home at 7.

Poking around the WorldMark site I realized that I could put together the Yellowstone/Montana prison trip for mid-May. Last night I had been playing around with a trans-Atlantic crossing with a stop on the way to London in Iceland so I could do a land-air tour of Greenland and a couple of spare days in London — the Norwegian Epic (which I’m planning on cruising with on my birthday) has studios available on the inaugural London to New York transatlantic crossing before going into service on the Caribbean routes for the next year (around $3-4K by the time all was said and done) and the evening before that it was a trip to Jasper up in Canadaland before dismissing it as too expensive (for the sleeper — $1200 round-trip from Vancouver). I never should have made that damn travel hit list!

Fence project tomorrow, I promise.

[223.2]

More work, more errands, damn Cailis is expensive.

So, yesterday, when I took the picture of the house, I had to lean over the fence to get the lovely non-chain-link fence version.

Tonight when I was wandering down the street to see the process on the rehabilitation of another house like mine (curious about the don’t park signs and heavy equipment) to find newly installed gas service (he REALLY does rehab houses well for future tenants) I paused in front of my house and realized how much I hate the chain link fence in front. I am envisioning closing off the side so that the trailer could fit behind it (if I still have a trailer) and the rest would be open (well, as far as the two neighbors fences).

Maybe that’s the weekend project. Now I just need a trailer hitch for the Jag.

Dinner tonight was a salad and a family hash made from last night’s leftovers of beefs and roasted potatoes, fried up and tasty.

Oh, and there is a new PAGE on this site… my version of a bucket list. OK — mine is called the “travel hit list”.

CLICK HERE

[223.9]

Happy Tax Day everyone! I decided to combine all my pain into one day and visit the dentist as well.

At least on the money side, I picked up my paycheck while I was on the eastside, and got a text says that an overdue loan was being paid into my account with 3% interest. All that and a couple of hours of billable work help to ease the pain of an almost $3K tax bill, and a quarterly payment of another $750… and I haven’t even done my state quarterlies yet. Ouch.

But it was generally a sunny day – doesn’t the house look good without an RV in front if it:

Now if the grass will cooperate and grow back.

Dinner tonight is with Mr. Muse, a former “Zonie” as in Panama Canal Zone. I invited him over to chat about his time growing up in the Zone.

Marinated beef flank steak, roasted potatoes and onions, coleslaw, red wine.

A fine time.

[225.2]

After a day of getting settled back into the Seattle routine…. Doing laundry, running errands, all the stuff that sucks up the day after a return, it’s time for Uncle Markie’s Book Corner.

99 Drams of Whiskey: The Accidental Hedonist’s Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink  (Hardcover)

Kate Hopkins

It didn’t get the best of reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, but it’s a lovely stroll through three whiskey regions. I’m about half way through and finding it quite enjoyable. But, then again, I like my whiskey. I also like knowing about the history of taxation and it’s role in how whiskey is made.

Turns out she is also a local Seattle author. I picked it up on the remainders rack at Compass Books in the San Francisco airport.

Click on the book and it will take you right to Amazon, and I get a few shekels for mentioning it.

Other than that, a quiet evening at home having a steak and some coleslaw. Nice not to have to rush off for some folkloric performance.

[226.7]

3:45 am comes early when you go to bed at 11pm.

The alarm went off, Oneil called, I got my self showered and shaved and my butt on the bus by 4:30am.

Was actually at the airport and through immigration and security a few minutes after 5.

Begin American Airlines rant/ramble:

• Website says Panama City club open at 5:15am, sign on club says 5:30
• No English language papers – even yesterdays
• American redid my schedule so that instead of a 2.5 hour layouver in Miami (plenty of time for checked bags and duty free) I had 1.5 hours – and the flight was 15 minutes late getting out of the gat when they broke a tow bar
• Came in at the far end of one terminal – had to walk to the center of the airport for customs, and then get back out to the far end – after going BACK through security to get to my gate… needless to say they were boarding by the time I got there
• Positive: lines at immigration were short, which is good since I couldn’t find the “trusted traveler” machines
• Flight 2: I drank them out of Glen Livet after one drink (two minis). Lots of Dewars, little Livet
• Chicago (ORD) lounge – huge, beautiful, but you could spend a fortune in here: $3.95 for a cappuccino, sandwiches starting at $8, internet access for people with day passes, business class tickets and Alaska Boardroom members, $8. There is an interesting concept – have an expensive private club where everything costs more.
• And every rag needs a ramble… what if American orders the Boeing 787… it’s a composite body and all their planes are buffed aluminum (saves 1,000 pounds of weight from the paint)… what will they do, paint them light gray?
• The seats on my last leg were WONDERFUL… they were a new style that the butt slides forward so the back can go further back – that and outlets for laptops that use standard plugs
• And a question – why does a new jet have cigarette ashtrays on either side of the bathroom doors? You haven’t been able to smoke on flights in twenty years and I assume both the bathroom design and the bathroom itself is newer than that.

Met a pretty young Italian guy in the airport in Chicago, gave him my card if he needs a home-cooked meal, he’s coming to Seattle for 5 years to study biology. Met a couple of pretty Miamians on their way to Everett to hang out and play tourist for 10-days. Didn’t give them a card, but told them when to get off Light Rail – same stop as me. Picked up a package and a New Yorker at the apartment before heading home and straight to bed (after opening the mail).

Good to be home.

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Yes, I set the alarm for 5:30am… and tomorrow the alarm will be set for 3:45am (to make the 4:30am airport transfer)… yikes.

Butts on bus at 7am and back to Gamboa we head to hang-out on the Pipeline Highway and look for birds – mostly what I saw was a pair of vultures, but there are some other shots of egrets and other little birds. I have the list is anyone wants it. Apparently between everyone (not including the photos I took that didn’t get analyzed) the total is 16 species.

Next stop was the Summit Botanical Park. Even at 10am the heat was stifling – and the poor ocelot pacing his cage (from the weed eater going close by, or just a caged animal) sort of put me in a sour mood. I hiked back to the bus, hung around the tracks for awhile and finally just went back to the cool of the bus.

Unfortunately it was an empty container train making the coast to coast trip (1 hour) rather than the passenger train (which is $22 each way, once a day, Panama City to Colon in the morning, Colon to Panama City in the evening, M-F). The Panama Canal Railway is actually the first transcontinental railway in the Americas. History here.

Back to the hotel for lunch, a nap, and catching up on some work since I have a decent connection here. The list of things to do is growing, and there won’t be any time tomorrow for anything other than the minimum.

Dinner tonight was a surprise… back at the Milaflores Locks private banquet room – this time for an evening meal, and an evening of watching boats transit.

This is a rare photo (at least in the daytime) of two boats headed north to the Caribbean, and one boat headed south to the Pacific. Most daytime transits are only in one direction.

Oh, and there was more entertainment – the best yet – full Panama band (meaning it had an accordion). Add ceviche on the salad bar and it makes a buffet even more enjoyable.

Yes, I’m having TOO much fun, AGAIN. Maybe it was figuring out how they were charging for booze at dinner. Glass of wine: $5, Glass of Chivas on ice: $4. Go figure. Here is a great shot of our tour guide playing around with me.

And it wouldn’t be the end of a trip without a group photo – I like the fact that this one wasn’t a “commercial” shot, but just everybody loading their cameras on the table. This is the only photo that I tried to crop and get the color/brightness adjusted:

Yes, there seems to be some jamon (ham) in the front row. 44 tour participants, Dario (the bus driver), Oneil (the guide) and I think the dancing boys and girls are in the back buried behind the pasty pudgy plainspeople (thank, Wonderful, for that phrase). If you want the latest photos, click on the “scroll bar” in yesterday’s (or was it they say before) post.

Tomorrow is an early day… first alarm at 3:45am, Oneil’s call at 4am, butt in bus at 4:30am, American Airline’s Admiral Club opens at 5:15am, flight at 7:20am. Ick.

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We have a winner…. Luggage out at 9:15, butts on bus at 10am – that means I was able to have a bloody mary while waiting in the lobby.

Today’s itinerary – getting back to Panama City. Apparently there is a new favorite restroom stop – the cheese store (with pastries and ice cream) that we made the emergency stop on the way down to Playa Blanca.

Next stop was lunch – “Did you want the chicken or the sea bass”. Way too much food – I passed on the dessert. Since check-in isn’t until 4pm, we had time to kill… shopping. I picked up another license plate – a taxi plate which I plan to give to Thomas, MB’s kid who is starting to drive my old Checker Marathon. Also picked up a hat pin featuring the canal and a boat, and a set of dominos for Blair featuring what I think is a local rum brand.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a stand run by a tribe of local indigenous people. I took a quick cruise through the market… and damn if I didn’t end up with another license plate (makes three now) – this one from the Panama Canal Authority from 2003. And then I found some religious mola – which is a fabric handicraft made by the Kuna women (the tribe that runs this particular market. I’m thinking of Hummingbird as I buy these, most likely for him.

Though the one with the nativity scene might go to my mother for Christmas.

Was checked in by 5pm and waiting for bags before I figured out that I needed more mixer – I’m not sure how the Yerba Matte Diet Soda is going to mix with the Kentucky Cream, but there is always a first time. If it doesn’t work I’ll stick to the Cream Soda or Pepsi.

Dinner tonight down the in the restaurant. Order two glasses of wine, got charged for one, so that’s always good, but I’m seriously getting tired of other people’s cooking.

Waffling on bird watching tomorrow morning…. It’s a butts in the bus at 7am kinda thing.

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PS – trying new tools in Word to do WordPress posts… like text wrapping.

So, this morning it was on the road by 8am, after a long night last night.

Destino (Destination)? El Valle (The Valley), a town situated in the crater of a dormant volcano, and home to a bunch of super-expensive houses in addition to the more normal rural village life. Though it wasn’t listed on the itinerary, a big chunk of the morning was spent in a botanical and animal sanctuary. Not usually my favorite kind of place, but this one was part zoo, part botanical preserve, part yellow frog breading station, and generally huge – it really did take a hour to stroll and see everything.

One of my favorite pictures is of the bird cages at the back of the property:

Mind you, these are about 40 feet tall.

And since we haven’t had a scroller bar link in a couple of days — here is that as well:

We were back at the resort a little after 1pm – after a shopping stop where I bought nothing – in time for my 1:30pm reservation at the Thai/Cantonese restaurant. Ceviche, an interesting papaya/avocado salad, Panama Chow Mein… interesting, definitely more interesting than the “buffet”

Afternoon showers meant I lost my Wi-Fi signal on my deck – driving me to the lobby and the ladies from Hamtramck while I checked mail and dealt with critical issues. While Playa Blanca is a nice resort (though the rooms don’t hold a candle to every other hotel we’ve been in so far), the internet service sucks. Yes, it’s free, but only for twenty minutes before you have to go back to the front desk for another twenty minute code. Needless to say I composed yesterday’s blog post in Word, then did a quick copy/paste into WordPress – which got me thinking about figuring out how to post directly from Word, letting me format posts a little more. This is the first post to try that process.

Dinner was in the “Sushi” restaurant. Four different kind of rolls were on the free portion of the menu (along with the best Miso soup I’ve ever had – I think they used fatted chicken stock as the base). It filled me up – and more importantly, that restaurant was actually air conditioned, with neither the buffet or the Thai/Cantonese (should be called Asian Fusion).

Stayed up too late with the ladies, but tomorrow is an EASY morning. Bags out by 9:15am, butts on the bus by 10.

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I love it when Oneil (our guide whose name isn’t really Oneil, but it’s close enough to the real thing and easier for the white tongue to pronounce) says that we are having a late morning departure… in organized tour speak, that means on the bus n your seat by 9am. Which for me means out of bed at 7, luggage to the door a 8 and try and get something in my stomach before 9.

The morning excursion is back to Gamboa (the jumping off part for the canal tour yesterday) to catch a river boat for a tour of a local indigenous village. We were prepared with “they might not be wearing many clothes”, but it wasn’t the National Geographic of the 60’s experience that I was hoping for. The village is inside a preserve, so there are lots of modern-day rules applied to the Indians who continue to live in their traditional village – in exchange for those rules, host tourist groups and explain about their culture, and sell locally made items. The way Caravan does it is that they rotate among the villages, but providing each of the villages upgraded dock facility and a covered meeting area.

It was an interesting visit, this village had lots of massive temporary purple vegetable dye tattoos (last 8-9 days) traditional to their culture (and offered for $1 to our group for smaller ones). Looked at the crafts didn’t buy, looked at the tattoos, declined.

Because of a gastro-intestinal incidence with one of our tour members we were delayed in getting headed to Playa Blanca (a resort) – and further delayed with an extra in-route stop for a further episode. Got to the resort about 2pm – and that was our lunch location. Oddly enough, with the heat, I wasn’t totally starved considering breakfast was at 8.

So what is the meaning of “Danger, Will Robinson” in the blog post title? It seems that we’ve been upgraded (again) – we have wrist bracelets that not only cover food, but wine, beer, soda – and the real upgrade, any well drink. By 5pm – my how this tour group had changed when free drinks are flowing (in a good way). Even the non-drinkers were having a beer.

Went for a swim with a Pina Colada, then switched to a Margarita (bad choice) before trying to get another Pina Colata only to find them out. Off to the lobby bar to switch to scotch and soda and chat with two sisters from Hamtramck which is a traditionally Polish, but now Syrian enclave outside Detroit.

The other free upgrade is free internet – but beware free. Free for 20 timed minutes per logon code. Luckily my room is close enough to get the signal from the lobby, but at twenty minutes, no new video/photo uploads until I get back to Panama City – only getting email at this point since I’d have to go back to the counter every twenty minutes. I broken system if you as me (and as I will tell Caravan).

A quiet dinner at the buffet restaurant (planning on making reservations for the sushi restaurant tomorrow night) as it’s big enough and there are two-tops in the recesses to avoid the tour group —- I can only be social for so many hours a day.

The “show” tonight – 10pm, after many scotched and red wine with dinner, was actually better than any of the cruise ship shows, or maybe that’s the liquor talking.

Tomorrow at early day – on the bus by 8am.

Ick.

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For Caravan Tours this is an easy day:

• No luggage to pack
• Out the door at 9am

Today’s journey is to Gaton, where we wait to board an old (96 years old) rum rummer allegedly owned by Al Capone (for rum running) and Steve McQueen (for partying in the 60’s). I have yet to verify either claim, but I will continue to research that issue.

The odd bit in Gaton was pulling up in front of the church that had on their board: We Love Tourists — and the book by Pastor Wilbur who ministers to Manuel Noriega when he was housed down the road, who had an impromtu sales session to raise funds by selling autograhed books (yes, I bought one for $5 which I will read and pass to Pastor Colibra)

I should just include the scroller bar here because I shot a ton of stuff before the canal, during the canal, looking at the future canal, transiting the canal, hanging out on-board, the works:

The weather today was stunningly clear, with the rain coming as we started to pull into the Radisson Summit Hotel & Golf here in the rain-forest of Panama. After the rain let up, the golfers were out there whacking their balls. FYI — on-line rate is $150 a night — compared to $200 a night for the Panama City hotel… let’s see…. $300 for these two nights, $800 for the four nights (beginning and end) in Panama City, that leaves $200 a night for the Beach Stay — ASSUMING it cost nothing for all the buses, boats and entrance fees for the rest of the trip. Caravan rocks. And you know how frugal I am.

OK — I made some comments about “buffet” — but tonight’s had TOO many good items. Endive stuffed with smoked salmon, bay scallop salad, chicken salad, ensalada caprese, seafood soup (which would go well with the rice dish), beef stroganoff, scalloped potatoes (not enough cheese, too much egg, better for breakfast), there were too many dishes, I had to take samples (and that isn’t close to the whole list) just to see what I wanted more of. Avoid the chicken — always overcooked in a buffet line — no fault of the cooks, it just has an extremely small range of temperature between cooked and dead.

So, after dinner, another “extra treat” and we aren’t talking dessert (though I did have the flan last night, I heard the creme brulee wasn’t that good this evening — but I’m not a dessert guy)… Oh, that “extra treat”. FOLKLORICA!

I know that my commentary makes “lite” of this, but it is a staple of organized tour. You can look at it two ways (or more)”

• Let’s get the locals to shimmy their junk in front of the tourists for a few shekels
• Let’s empower locals to keep their culture alive and help them supplement their income
• Or, my favorite — let’s make a win-win = skinny boys and girls schimying about in shimpy costumes.

Wow — that’s my jaded side!

And, with the cheers of the crowd, they MADE ME get up and pose with the dancers again. I think they are jealous — I get to wear their hats:

OK — I didn’t frame the photo — my seat mate Jesuaph did — and his lens is bigger than mine!

After all the hoopla I headed back to the room to pack (yes, it’s one of THOSE days). Bags out at 8, butt on bus at 9.

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