As extreme as I get

I am not into "extreme" anything, and certainly not sports. My style is more moderate hikes and long walks. But, we just could not resist a Zip Line through the rain forest canopy.

I did not know much about zip lining, other than it is a fast ride on a cable. So, let me describe it. To begin with, you need to have an elaborate harness. This consists of a wide belt around your waist. Attached are two more harnesses, one for each thigh. The three are joined by a large steel buckle. The staff begins by putting you in the harness. They then fit you with a helmet and hook a large pulley, which has handles on each side, to the side of your harness, and hand you a ratty pair of work gloves. Ours were those blue and grey kind that you see in the hardware store.

After our group (there were 8 of us) were all fitted out, we road a tram about a mile up the mountain. At the first platform we were at an elevation of about 3500' . It was a nice, slow ride up through the canopy. We then got off on the platform where the guides gave us a brief instruction on how to ride the zip line. Here is how it works. You step up on a riser and the guide takes the pulley off your belt and hooks it onto the cable. He then hooks it to the large buckle on your harness and tells you to 'sit down' and to hold onto the handles on your pulley. At this point you are basically on your back, hooked to the cable and supported by the harness. Yup, you are hanging in the air by harnesses around your waist and thighs holding onto the pulley. They tell you to cross your ankles and tuck your legs up, so you are in a fetal position. Then you are given a push and off you go! Whee! As you get near the next platform, one of the guides shakes the cable, letting you know to brake. You brake by stretching out your legs and gently moving the pulling back and forth. They have a rope attached to the cable that 'catches' you, and then the guide pulls you onto the platform. You do a very short 'practice' run, but then they put you on the first cable so quickly you don't have time to think about chickening out. After that you have one chance to quit. No one in our group did.

There are 8 lines. The shortest is 120 ft and the longest over 2300 ft. I don't actually know how fast you go, but I have read that it is up to 50mph. It is advertised that you can see birds and animals, but you can't really. You are moving so fast that you can't observes much of anything except the tree tops. On the next to the last line, it goes pretty low, so that you are going through a cut in the trees, almost like being in a tree tunnel.

I have never done anything that made my heart race so much. It was a great experience. I'm not sure I would do another zip line, but I might.

Lions and tigers and bears

I will have to settle for birds, butterflies and monkeys.

La Fortuna is one of the areas of Costa Rica with rain forests, so there is a great variety of flora and fauna.

On our first full day here we went to one of the (several) butterfly conservatories in the area. It was great fun to hike the trails through the forest. Our particular favorite was the Howler Trail, where we were very fortunate to see lots of Howler monkeys in the trees. I was quite pleased with the pictures I was able to get. And they do indeed, howl.

This particular butterfly farm has four butterfly houses and a full room where they capture and care for the chrysalis. The butterflies pictured here all have small numbers on their wings. A young American student has numbered each one and is studying their habits and life cycles. She was patiently watching them when were talked with her. I also saw the most beautiful bright blue butterfly. It was quite large, but so fast that I was not able to get a decent picture.

The bird was photographed at our hotel. It is undoubtably the largest hummingbird I have ever seen. Not the best photo, but it does show the size of this bird.

Again, we have seen a large variety of birds, but I have been able to photograph few of them.

We also spent some time wandering around La Fortuna. In recent years it has changed from a small town supporting the local farmers to a tourist town. All the shops support the tourist needs. Costa Rica attracts two main types of tourists: those interested in extreme sports and those interested in beach resorts. This area is for the sports, with hiking, whitewater rafting, zip lines, and the such. More on that in my next post.

La Fortuna

La Fortuna is about 75 miles northwest of San Jose. It is in the shadow of Arenal, the most active volcano in Costa Rica.

Seventy-five miles is an easy 60-90 minute drive.

But wait, we are not in the US now. The roads in Costa Rica are, quite frankly, horrible. The drive took us nearly four hours. The maximum speed limit in the country is 80 kph, or about 50 mph. You soon understand why. But, the countryside is beautiful, full of blooming tropical plants and brightly painted houses.

Our hotel was a short distance outside of the the town of La Fortuna. It has beautiful grounds and each room is a small cabana. I wish I could say they were wonderful, but I can't. Here are a variety of the plants that surrounded us. I recognized a variety of lilies and yucca. Many things I don't recognize. Our first full day in La Fortuna we saw the bright blue sky. The only day of sun for the last week.

We have had a good view of Arenal volcano, except for the top which has been covered in clouds. It was the volcano that we came to see. Unfortunately for us, it has gone somewhat dormant in the last few months. Since its big eruption 45 years ago, it has constantly spewed and oozed, posing no harm to the surrounding area. Apparently at night you could see sparks shooting out of the top. We wanted to see that, but no go. It has stopped the fireworks. What a disappointment. But there is still a fair amount to see and do.

Costa Rica

It's been a challenging day. Our flight was late leaving Panama. We then had a very loud and obnoxious man sitting behind us. Up and down the whole flight. Must have been some one important since the flight attendant would do nothing.

The road to La Fortuna is narrow, winding and full of potholes. My stomach was roiling. But, the country is beautiful. We are disappointed to find that the volcano has calmed down, so we probably will not see any red lava this trip.

Hotel isn't as nice as promised. Ah well, hopefully tomorrow will be sun and a fun trip into the canopy. I should have pictures too.

Casco Viejo

This is the Old Quarter. It's original name is San Felipe. It is often compared to Havana or Cartegena. It is on a peninsula in the southwest part of modern day Panama City. Most of this part of the city was built in the earliest days of European occupation of Panama, in the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries. It was all but abandoned in the early 20th century as the wealthy residents moved to newer parts of the city. In 1997 UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site, which has helped encourage restoration of buildings. The Presidential Palace and the mayor's office are both here. But the restoration is slow, and gutted buildings stand next to restored gems.

The photo of the pink house above is a great example. It is lovely, but just across the street you see the ruins of the the building where Manuel Noriega's troops fought American forces in 1989. The building was all but destroyed. It is now for sale, and is a lovely old building with a beautiful view of downtown Panama City. The view of the city was taken from up on Casco Viejo. You can also sit along the water front and watch the ships waiting for passage through the canal.

Unfortunately the beaches surrounding Casco Viejo are trashy and rocky, but the views are spectacular. We did see some children playing on the beach, and we thought the piece of an old building was fascinating.

Many of the buildings have just the facade remaining. The have steel beams inside holding up the walls, and tin shed roofs to keep some of the water out. Panama receives an average of 16 feet of rain a year, so I imagine preventing water damage to your house can be difficult. (Raleigh gets an average of about 4 feet of water a year).

More about the canal

Our first two nights in Panama we stayed across from the Miraflores Locks. The picture of the tall building in the distance is our hotel as seen from the canal. We ate dinner at the Miraflores visitor center restaurant, which is the building with the balconies. You can sit at your table and look down at the ships going the the locks. The food wasn't great, but the entrainment was. So here are photos from both sides.

After two days we moved to a hotel in the center of Panama City. We can walk around a bit, but Casco Viejo, the old city, isn't really walking distance. Casco Viejo is the biggest tourist attraction after the canal itself. We can get a cab to most anywhere. The prices can vary and they will charge you double the going rate if your hotel calls the cab. Most of the time we can negotiate the rate.

We are not finding Panama City a particularly easy place to navigate. The places we want to see are spread out. Sidewalks are bad and often torn apart, resulting in mud everywhere (it has rained every day). There is a bus system, but it isn't designed for easy use by non residents. There are also lots of very seedy areas, which tourists are encouraged to avoid. It is also not a very clean city. There are many, many buildings either half finished or abandoned, and lots of trash everywhere.

More about what we have seen in Panama City in the next post.

Panama Canal

A full transit through the Panama Canal is something of a rarity for passengers. A partial transit is much more common, but the full transit takes place one Saturday each month. I was delighted to find that our trip with the canal trip, so I booked early.

There are three sets of locks through the canal. A full transit takes about 8 hours. Ships are charged based on the size of the ship, and the transit can cost up to $400,000, one way! Our boat was charged $3500.00. The canal is a much safer transit than sailing around Cape Horn, and saves an average of 22 days of travel!

Transit is 'first come first serve'. Ships dock either in Panama City on the Pacific side, or in Colon on the Atlantic side and wait until they are called for transit. The wait can be several hours, or several days. A ship can reserve a passages for a specific day, but they must pay in advance, and the fee is non-refundable. Cruise companies do this, of course, and any ship that has a tight time table.

A canal pilot boards each ship to pilot it through the canal. Depending on the length of the ship, one or two can go through at a time. We went through every lock with another ship.

Day transits are all one-way. The morning ships go from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and in the afternoon they go from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The large ship when went through the fist two sets of locks had to stop in Gatun Lake and wait, because it was too large and slow to make the full transit in the morning. The largest ships only go through the canal during the day. At night they allow smaller ships, and have two way transits. Each set of locks has two lanes.

Many modern ships, particularly oil tankers and some US military ships are two wide to fit through the canal. To accommodate them, a third, wider lane is currently being dug.

To go through the locks, a ships is guided into the canal. The locks (gates) behind it are shut, and then the ship is raised (or lowered at the Atlantic side). Once the water is at the right level, the locks in front are opened, and the ship goes into the next part of the canal and the process is repeated. The Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks have two sections and the Gatun locks have three.

So, today I sailed from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean in 8 hours! Oh, and you can probably tell, it rains the entire day.

A bright spot and an oddity

Here is my lone pumpkin. It actually isn't very large; about the size of a basketball, but the vine is huge with this one fruit. I'm sure the hot dry weather is keeping it from getting very large. It is the only bright spot in the garden. We have had some significant rain over the last ten days, so some plants are looking better. Lantana and cleomes are blooming again. But everything is very stressed. My crepe myrtle bushes haven't bloomed at all and the butterfly bushes have had very few blooms. Both should be beautiful all through July and August.

The oddity is my star magnolia tree. It is one of the first things that blooms in spring, and the blooms come out before the leaves. I don't know what has cause this, but it has blooms on it now, on several branches that have few leaves. It too, has been very stressed by the heat and drought this summer. But blooms in August! Very odd.

I am seriously considering re-doing the entire front yard. I'm thinking about getting rid of all the grassy areas in favor of paths and mulch, and putting in more ornamental grasses. Do any of my (few) readers know of a good software program that will let me design and play with garden layouts?

Final harvest

Here is my corn harvest. The ears are actually very small. The biggest one is just 6" long. But the kernels are plumb and juicy. We will have corn for supper tonight. With a plot bigger than 4'x4' and normal summer weather, I could have a decent corn patch.

Everything else is gone. Squash and cucumber numbers were very low. No tomatoes at all. It has just been way too hot and dry this summer. Today is day # 55 of above 90 and day # 9 of above 100 for the summer. Not good gardening weather. Even my drought hardy plants, like marigolds and butterfly bushes look terrible.

I'm pondering changing over to cacti and yucca!

Success!

This evening I harvested and ate my first ear of corn! It was great. Just one ear today, but within the next several days we should have several more. Here is my gardening assistant, posing with our corn.

No tomatoes this year. The new bed doesn't have rich enough soil for this terribly hot, dry year. I haven't had a single tomato, not even a tiny one. We will have to do some serious soil amending over the winter.

We are still getting squash but I think the cucumbers are about spent. Most of my flowers are sad looking too. Only the hearty drought tolerant plants, such as Lantana, Vinca, and Marigolds are still looking nice.

I haven't posted much this summer because gardening is too frustrating this year. For the second year in a row we are having incredibly hot, dry weather. Last summer was a record number of 90+ degree days. We are on track to break that record. We are also nearly 7" below normal for rain.

The only new thing in the garden this year is my one bright spot. I planted a small patch of sweet corn, just for the fun of it, in the front bed. It is doing pretty well. Here are pictures of our first ears. I hope to get half a dozen ears.

The other picture here is a pumpkin, in the same bed. It looks healthy enough. Our squash and cucumbers are doing well, but the tomatoes have no fruit at all.

Most of my flowers have wilted as well. Marigolds and vinca are about the only things that look good.

More fun things

Here is another hydrangea that I have, with this beautiful red bloom.

My peonies have not been very nice this year. I've had just 4 flowers, but I was able to get a nice photograph of this one.

The amaryllis snuck up on me. Yesterday I noticed it was about to bloom, It is nicely set between yarrow and fennel.

I plan to pick my first early snow peas today. I've been watching them all week. Can't wait to see if they are as good as they look

Happy place

I am very pleased with how my front bed looks this year. It is finally filling in the way I envisioned it. In fact, the Shasta daisies may be more abundant that I ever imagined! They are not blooming yet (but very soon). The yellow flowers are Asclepias tuberosa, perennial yellow butterfly weed. I planted it a couple of years ago, and this is the first year it has looked this good.

This is one hydrangea bush. I am amazed at the different colors in the blooms, since the soil acidity determined the colors. I must have mixed up soil in that corner. It is under a large oak tree. Anyway, I do love the blue flowers.

I just love this picture. No, it isn't from some Aztec ruin. We have lots of chipmunks in the yard. I saw this one sitting on the frog the other evening. I had to take the picture through the glass of the back door. The chipmunk kept running up the frog, and then back down. It was just too cute.

Bluebirds

I am so excited to see a bluebird in our yard! I don't know if this guy actually lives in the box he is stilling on top of, or if he lives next door. I have seen bluebirds going in and out of our neighbor's box. But, for the past two days, this guy has been hanging out in our front yard. So beautiful. Hopefully I can get some better pictures soon.

Hummingbirds are also back now.

I've got early peas, tomatoes, squash and cucumbers in. I've also begun to get my annuals planted. Now we are trying to find a good place to try our hand at corn. Odd thing for a small city lot, but it could be fun.

Here are some pretty spiderwort too.

New additions

Many of my (few) readers probably know that this area was devastated by a series of tornadoes last Saturday afternoon. Thankfully my neighborhood was not hit, but several of my friends and co-workers had damage to their homes. The tornado that struck downtown Raleigh was only about three miles from our house. We heard the 'freight train' and had hail, high winds and terrible rain.

But, on to better things. I acquired two new pieces of yard art. The sun was a yard sale find and the other piece I found leaning against a dumpster in a parking lot! I painted the two and we hung them last week.

I've added more food to the garden this year. Here are my early spring peas, which are coming up nicely. I've also planted a dozen tomato plants, with plans to can tomatoes and make tomato sauce. I will be putting in squash, cucumbers, pumpkin and I think corn, soon. This may be the tiniest vegetable garden around!

Earth Quake?

Yesterday morning something woke the cat and me, about 3:30. I felt a rumble and shake, and thought the heating unit was messing up. The cat wanted out, so I let him, and when I went back to bed I heard the furnace running.

When I got up, I asked my husband if he had noticed anything, but he had slept through it. I didn't think much more about it, until I saw a news brief that a 2.5 magnitude quake had been recorded in Virginia on Monday morning.

Not really related to gardening, but an interesting phenomena.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/se032811a.php#details

Brrrrr

Although Spring is officially here, it has turned cold again! Forecast for a dusting of snow tonight. What fun! But, at least we have gotten some much needed rain this weekend. The rain gauge had nearly .5 inches this morning.

We continue to do clean up in garden. Ligustrum drop seedlings everywhere. I spent nearly an hour pulling them up yesterday, all around the pond. Fortunately, they do pull up easily. I moved some monkey grass, and put down stepping stones at the pond as well. I also planted some vinca behind the pond, in the shady area. I will be adding more monkey grass as well.

Three years ago I was given a giant coneflower (rudbeckia maxima). Unfortunately it has never bloomed. I have now moved it to a place where it might drain better, and amended the soil with sand. The yard is more clay than anything else.

All winter the Blue Heron has been feeding in the pond. He will stay for an hour or more, if nothing disturbs him. On several occasions we have seen him come up with large gold fish in his mouth. When we cleaned the pond a bit yesterday, we saw a lot of fish, so there is still plenty for him. I took this picture this afternoon.

We have seen a variety of birds this winter, as well as chipmunks, squirrels (of course), a possum and a raccoon.

Spring!

I've been as dormant as my garden over the past few months. But now it is time for us both to be active.

Lots of things blooming this early spring. Redbuds, dogwoods, and azaleas are all about to bloom. Hostas are starting to come up, as are many other perennials.

Yesterday we dug up a new bed (15'x9'). We plan to put in tomato plants and do some canning this summer. I also put in 4 rows of early spring peas. Digging the new garden resulted in about a dozen Aucuba bushes, which we have potted. I'll be finding homes for them.

I also have lots of Rose of Sharon seedlings to dig up over the next few weeks.