Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica

Another “short update” from my brother Jim’s Central-American road trip (previous posts here, here, and here)—he’s now working his way back north…

“Bonny & Joey (Jim’s wife, my sister-in-law—and her sister, Bob’s wife) arrived in Panama City on Feb. 12th. We’ve explored (and experienced) the Panama Canal. Amazingly interesting!

Spent two days at Bocas Del Toro (islands that were the original headquarters for the Chiquita Banana Company, but are now more touristy). Wild boat ride there and back. A full day boat exploration of the mangrove forests, dolphin watching, snorkeling through the corral reefs (WOW!), crashing through the surf of the Caribbean on an amazing white sand beach reachable only by boat… and then a trek through the jungle, dinner on a stilt platform over the ocean waters, etc. And then the celebrations of CARNIVAL (Mardi Gras–Panamanian Style) during the evenings and into the night.

Then, the world’s most astonishing border crossing bridge (border at Sixtoala Panama, into Costa Rica)—unbelievable in almost every astonishing way. (Ask us about it some time).

Two nights in the highlands of Costa Rica at the town of La Fortuna. Our resort hotel was on the northerly slope of Volcano Arenal, an active volcano that spews lava and steam daily, apparently quite a sight! (Apparently, because it was cloudy and rainy the whole time we were there; never saw a thing). We’re told that it is more likely that the weather is not clear, and that many visitors never see the volcano. Oh well, the crocodile, butterfly, and ant farm that was part of our resort was amazing. The rain forest beauty of the flowers, forest, waterfalls, and steam baths made for an enjoyable time despite the weather.

Today we’re at Playa Hermosa (36C, 97F), a beach on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Tomorrow we head into Nicaragua…”

Winnipeg, Canada

A handsome presentation box from Nova Scotia Crystal has arrived at Circle… containing the sand-blasted crystal trophy for the Icograda President’s Award that I had received back on 26 October 2009 (at the opening ceremonies of the Xin: Icograda World Design Congress 2009 in Beijing). The 35-cm-high piece is now on display in our forum area—due to logistics complexities (involving the “import of creative works” to China) I had only been presented the framed diploma portion of the award at the ceremony in Beijing… which saved me the effort of lugging the chunk of crystal back from China.  :-)

(Hmmm… not a very good photo of what is actually a very attractive trophy…)

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

My friend Patricia Leguen,* the renowned Saskatoon sculptor, has just returned from Italy where she represented Canada at two international snow sculpture competitions with her team-mate Helena Bangert from Amsterdam. Patricia won first place and jury choice in Cortina d’Ampezzo on 22 January 2010 at the International Snow Sculpture Festival in a competition against nine other teams. The event’s theme was skiing, movement, and speed—as the world female downhill skiing championships were taking place at the same time. Patricia’s design, Schuss, was carved out of a 10-ft. cube (3 x 3 x 3 meters) of snow over three days in 25 person-hours.

On 24 January, Team Canada headed to San Martino di Castrozza to the 7th International Snow Sculpture Symposium (26-30 January 2010) to carve another 10-ft cube of snow in 3.5 days. The snow block was very hard and icy and, since no chain saws were allowed, it took 34 person-hours to carve the sculpture entitled Winged Victory, a tribute to the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Their sculpture won third place, with Italy second and Russia first.

*You often meet the most remarkable people when you travel. In June of 2003 I was on my way to an Icograda board meeting and the launch of the Icograda Archives in Brighton, U.K. Patricia was en route to a sand-sculpting event in Belgium (where she and a female colleague from Bellingham finessed a 60-ft.-high sculpture that “the guys were afraid to ascend.”) As fate would have it, we were both upgraded to 1st class on the Toronto-London flight… and so a seven-hour conversation as seat-mates began an interesting and surprisingly enduring friendship—I’ve had the chance to follow Patricia’s winning streak (she’s one of the world’s top ice, snow, sand, and fire sculptors) ever since.

Photos © 2010 Patricia Leguen: the finished Schuss with Patricia alongside; the finished Winged Victory.

Mizen Peninsula, Ireland

A picture is worth a thousand words; Tomi Ungerer’s simple yet insightful illustrations speak volumes with narrative clarity and power.

Happy (Chinese) New Year, my friends! Kung Hei Fat Choi!

“Time is the substance from which I am made.
Time is a river which carries me along,
but I am the river;
it is a tiger that devours me,
but I am the tiger;
it is a fire that consumes me,
but I am the fire.”

—Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) 

Panama City, Panama

Well, it seems brother Jim has made it to his intended destination…

“I’m sitting on the 3rd floor balcony of our hotel at the entrance to the Panama Canal, watching ships leaving and arriving from/for their passage through the canal. Beautiful & interesting. It’s been a few days since we’ve reported in. That’s because we’re kind of in recovery mode right now (see my earlier note to Bonny below). We made it to Panama City (our intended destination) and are now waiting for Bonny & Joanne to join us tomorrow. We’ll spend a day exploring the Panama Canal before heading up to the islands of Boca Del Toro for 2 days, then start our trek back through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and finally to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We’ve seen lots, learned lots, eaten great food, met wonderful people and are anticipating some great days yet to come.

(Note from February 9 to “Blondie” below…)

Our 5 hour whitewater rafting trip down the Rio Chiriqui Viejo (it straddles the border between Costa Rica and Panama) was spectacular, but we’re both hurting quite a bit right now. We did a 2-hour van ride from Boquete to the entry point of the river. It was amazing that the howling, beat-up van with grinding gears even got there. Then all the rafts and our gear was transferred to a 4-wheel-drive truck for the steepest part of the road. We all climbed into the back of the truck on top of all the equipment. We then met several local girls with donkeys. The rafts and equipment were loaded on the “burros;” we each carried our helmets, paddles and water bottles. The 25-minute trek down the trail was treacherous in itself—we didn’t know whether the burros could even keep their footing. It was a track that was as narrow as 8 to 10 inches in places, muddy and slippery and steep. Eventually we emerged from the jungle at the river where the rafts had to be inflated and readied for the rapid run. Many of us had slipped and fallen into the muddy path on the hike, so it was good to get to some water to clean up a bit.

We managed to ride the biggest Class IV and Class III rapids successfully. About 3.5 hours (75% of the way) both Bob and I got thrown from the raft (and it happened to us again just a few minutes later) at a big rapid section. Bob hit his hip bone big time, so he’s hurting quite a bit. It’ll take him some recovery days. I banged up my tailbone and knee pretty good, but managed to keep my head above water and safe. It was pretty scary, because you’re being flung down this wild river, over and into big rocks, trying to get back to the raft which is also riding the rapids. It was an amazing ride through deep jungle and on a wild river (22 km in total). Absolutely beautiful, but probably a ride meant for a younger and a somewhat experienced crowd. We were in a raft with a Swedish couple and a Panamanian rafting guide named Freddy. The other raft had a French Canadian couple, a single adventurer from Germany, and an American rafting guide named Micah. Great folks—all of them. Half way down the run, we pulled to the shore and had a picnic meal that was included in the trip.

I lost my wedding ring in the bottom of the river somewhere… lucky it wasn’t the one you bought me a couple of years ago. We’re back at the hotel, drugged up with pain killers, and heading downstairs for a meal. VERY HUNGRY right now. (Sorry, don’t have pics of the rafting trip because there was no way of taking a camera along on the wild ride).”

Photo: “Crazy old guys in the river,” Bob Banman and Jim Peters preparing to board whitewater rafts on the Rio Chiriqui Viejo, Panama.

Victor Verster Prison, Paarl, South Africa

It was (only) 20 years ago today that the great Nelson Mandela was finally freed, following 27 years in prison. I find it interesting (and seemingly as pertinent today as in decades past) to note how one group or nation’s “freedom fighters” are often labeled by the opposing group or oppressing nation as “terrorists”…

Nelson Mandela was finally removed from the United States’ No Fly List or “terrorist watch list,” in July of 2008… at the age of ninety!

(and hyperinflation)

Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica

My brother Jim’s latest email update and pics just in…

“We continue to have a great time on our driving trip through Central America. Spent time in Quetzaltanengo, Panajachel and Antigua, all in Guatemala. Awesome. Then headed to Copan ruins in Honduras—what a beautiful place—those Mayans sure were sophisticated in many ways. From Copan, we headed to Tegucigalpa (capital city of Honduras, 1.4 million people) for one night… tonight we’re in San Juan de Sur, a little surfing town at the bottom end of Nicaragua. It was 100F when we got here. Beautiful sunset and ocean breeze this evening. We might stay here one more day, or possibly head into Costa Rica tomorrow… Border crossings continue to be bewildering adventures, but we’ve survived them all (with considerable help of “bribe” money; amazing how that works).”