Where the Buffalo Roam

To me, the buffalo seem like the perfect symbol of our (humans) destructive tendencies. When I'm out on the prairie (or at least, the farm and ranch land that used to be prairie) I imagine what it must have been like when millions of buffalo roamed here.

So it's sad to see in an article in Harpers that, even now, we haven't finished with our efforts to control and destroy the buffalo.

It wouldn't bother me to get rid of the cattle. And people who want to eat meat can eat buffalo just as well as cow.

But then again, I'm one of those wacko's who thinks the environment and nature are just as (or more) important than people.

If you want to help, check out the Global Response campaign.


One of my pictures from Yellowstone on my way back from Colorado last fall.

Unusual Moth

Walking by some bushes, something caught my eye, but when I turned it looked like a dead leaf on a bush. I almost kept going, but it didn't really look like a dead leaf so I looked closer.

I'm glad I did - it was a beautiful large moth. I've never seen one like it before. Luckily I had my little camera with me and it stayed still for me to photograph.



Click on the picture to see them larger.

Creatures of Habit

A week or so ago I was riding my bike to work and as I came around a corner I heard something that sounded like a snake. You might not think that snakes make much noise, let alone a distinctive noise. I can't put my finger on it, but it is recognizably different from other animals, presumably related to the way they move.

I stopped and put down my bike and walked back to see if I could see anything. I was actually a bit surprised to see a snake on the edge of the path. I figured even if I had heard correctly that it would have disappeared into the bushes.

It had obviously been sunning on the warm ashphalt path. Cool mornings with warm sun are a good time to see snakes around here.

I slowly moved closer, expecting it to take off. Usually they're pretty nervous and wary of people. It was alert but allowed me to get to where I was crouching down beside it. It had started to move away but its tail was still on the path.

Out of curiosity I reached out and stroked it's tail. Surprisingly, it still didn't take off. I wondered if there was something wrong with it, but when I stood up it disappeared rapidly into the bushes. It was maybe just a little sluggish from the cold night.

Today, when I rode by the same spot, on another cool but sunny morning, I heard something again. Sure enough, there was a snake again, in the same spot.

I'm pretty sure it's the same individual since it's one of the largest, fattest garter snakes I've seen. If it was spring I'd assume it was a pregnant female, but I don't think that's the case this time of year.

I hadn't thought of snakes as creatures of habit, but it makes sense that they would remember good spots and reuse them. I'll have to keep my eye out for it.

Oregon Coast

This is overdue, but if I don't post right away, then I get waylaid by too many things waiting to do at home.

After a conference in Portland at the beginning of June, Shelley and I rented a car and spent a few days driving down the coast of Oregon. We've been to the Oregon coast a few times and it's very nice. Here's the route we took:


View Larger Map

We left Portland in the afternoon and reached Astoria at supper time. There were various chain hotels which would have been fine but we were keeping an eye out for something different. We spotted the Cannery Pier Hotel and decided to check it out.



Their regular rates are pretty steep, but it was off-season and later in the day and they gave us a good deal. And we got a glass of local wine as a welcome drink :-) The room was very nice with a great view of the bay. The "window" from the bedroom into the bathroom overlooking the tub and glass walled shower was a first for me!

We asked for recommendations for supper. There was a place next door but then we wouldn't have gotten driven to supper in the 1946 Cadillac. So we went to Clemente's downtown. We had a great meal. When we ordered tiramisu (one of my favorites) for dessert they were all out :-( But the waiter came back and said the chef would make something for us and whipped up a tiramisu-like dessert and it was complimentary :-) After supper the chauffeur came back in the Cadillac and took us back to the hotel. Can't beat that!



The next day we drove down the coast, stopping at Cannon Beach (for a walk on the beach), and at Tillamook for a visit to the cheese factory.

We had asked at the Cannery Pier Hotel for recommendations for places to stay further down the coast and they had suggested the Inn at Arch Rock. It turned out to be an older place but with a great site overlooking the ocean. We stayed here the next two nights.



The next day we drove down to Newport and visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I think my favorites were the tufted puffins.



In one of the local newspapers we'd seen a review of a restaurant called 44 Degrees not far from where we were staying. On the way by we stopped in to check it out. It's in the Whale Cove Inn a new (very fancy) hotel. We decided to splurge and try it out for our last supper. They serve a fixed seven course dinner. The only choice was the entre. Wine, of course, was extra. Each course was quite small but we were just pleasantly full when we were done. Everything was great. We were glad we went.

However nice fancy hotels and restaurants are, they're also a sign of "development". People talk about the "wild Oregon coast" and maybe parts of it still are, but the majority of it consists of towns, restaurants, hotels, condos, and vacation homes. Every beach we visited was overlooked by buildings. And, depressingly, me being a tourist there just adds to it. Too many people, too much money, not enough concern about the environment. I can't help think we're doomed, or at least the world I'd like to see is. Sorry, that's my lament for today.

The next day we drove back to Portland and flew back to Saskatoon.

I did have one complaint flying back. I've been carrying my travel mug with me on trips to avoid the waste of paper cups. But when we went to the Starbucks in the Portland airport, they refused to use my mug. (It was even a Starbucks mug!) It was some kind of regulation but I'm not sure what the reason was. Maybe it's not sanitary for the staff to handle? (It wasn't a Starbucks regulation, it was something to do with the airport.) In any case it was mildly annoying!

more photos

Portland

It was a cool, cloudy, rainy day here. I spent the morning at the zoo but didn't take many pictures (and the ones I did take were unusable). Pretty hard to take pictures of moving animals at 1/20 of a second!

I did a little better at the Japanese Garden and the Rose Garden.

2008 Thrashers Rock Climbing Weekend

Every year the Saskatchewan Section of the Alpine Club of Canada has a beginners rock climbing weekend. This year Shelley and I helped lead the climbing. As usual, we spent our time at Wasootch slabs in Kananaskis. Unusually, the weather was great!

The photos are at: http://picasaweb.google.com/apmckinlay/200805Thrashers

I left in more than usual because everyone likes to see pictures of themselves. (And their kids!)

Aggressive!

When I was out running today I came across a garter snake on the trail. By itself that's not too unusual. The first unusual thing about this one was that it didn't immediately flee. Instead it formed a rough coil in the middle of the trail and stared at me. I froze to get a good look at it before it took off. It was quite thick, a lot fatter than the other garter snakes I'd seen this spring. My guess is that it's a pregnant female.

When it didn't move I started to edge closer. It continued to stare at me, it's pink tongue with it's black forked tip flicking in and out.

When my shadow crossed over it, it lunged with its mouth open as if to bite. I was still several feet away and it only lunged about 6 inches, so I wasn't in any danger of getting bitten. But it still took me aback. I've seen and handled lots of garter snakes and I've never seen one aggressive like this. Even picking them up I've never had one try to bite me. (Note: they aren't poisonous and they don't have very big teeth so they couldn't hurt much even if they wanted to.)

I didn't want to leave her sitting on the path - too many dogs and people who are scared of snakes. So I edged closer again, hoping she'd head into the bush. But she refused, instead lunging at me again. I picked up a stick and tried to gently encourage her to leave. She lunged at the stick a few times but eventually gave up and slithered away.

I wonder if her aggression was because she was pregnant? (If she was actually pregnant.) But when I was a kid I took home a "fat" garter snake that gave birth a short time later, and it was never aggressive like this. (I returned mother and children to the wild.) Maybe this was just an aggressive individual. In a mammal you might wonder about rabies but I don't think that's a possibility for snakes.

[Sorry, no pictures, I haven't gotten as far as carrying a camera running yet.]

Pelicans at the Weir

view larger size

Flowers at the Mendel

A few days ago when I stopped at Museo for coffee I wandered through the conservatory and I couldn't resist taking a few flower shots. In the past I'd wish I had a camera. Now that I carry the little one pretty much everywhere, I find myself wishing I had the big one!

A Morning at Beaver Creek

This morning looked so nice and sunny that I decided I had to get outside. I grabbed my camera and headed out of town, stopping to pick up a latte and a muffin. It was cool at first, just above freezing, but it warmed up as the morning progressed.

After reading photography books lately, I dug out Shelley's old tripod from the basement. I also figured out how to turn on the exposure warning on the camera display (so areas that are too under or over-exposed blink red).

At first, I didn't find anything to take pictures of. There are no leaves on the trees yet so everything is pretty drab. I was keeping an eye out for spring flowers, but there didn't seem to be any out. There weren't even any buds on the trees to photograph.

I did experiment with exposures a little - the white ice and dark bushes made a good challenge. It took up to three stops of exposure override to get a decent histogram with no blinking exposure warnings. It seems odd that the automatic exposure doesn't handle this better. Occasionally you might want to let part of the picture go black or white, but I would think that would be the exception. Wouldn't the norm be to keep the exposure within range? (like I did with the override) But I'm no expert. As long as I get a feel for when I need to override I'll be ok.

I got the tripod out to take some pictures of the ice. I was quite proud of myself for using the tripod. But at the end of the morning I remembered that you're supposed to turn off the image stabilization when you use a tripod. (I hadn't.) Oh well, can't win 'em all!

I was quite surprised to disturb a garter snake sunning in the grass. It would be warmer in the sun, but considering the air was only a few degrees above freezing, and the ground was still frozen, it's pretty amazing a cold blooded animal could be active. I'm not sure how it would get warm enough in its hole in the ground to move to get out into the sun.

After seeing the one snake I looked for more, but didn't find any. After a while I quit looking. Of course, then I just about stepped on one. This one didn't take off quite so quickly and I managed to get some decent pictures of it. No chance to use a tripod on these shots and with shooting through the bushes and grass I had to manually focus. But a few of them came out ok.

I found the crocuses nearer the river. I did use the tripod for these shots, although it was hard to get low enough with it. I had to override the exposure on most of these as well. Adjusting the exposure when taking the shot definitely made my Lightroom work easier, and ended up with a better result. (I think)

Baja Birds

I finally got around to going through all my bird photos from Baja.


One of the "tricks" to getting good photos is to take lots and pick out the best. The first part is pretty easy with digital - I took almost 1000 bird photos in Baja. But I'm still having trouble with the second part.

I'm reminded of the quote "I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter." -- Pascal.

I would show you less photos if I had time to narrow them down more. And as well as taking time to narrow them down, it also takes a certain ruthlessness that I still have to work on. Once you've thrown out 90%, there's usually something you like about each of the ones left. And also probably something "wrong" with all of them.

There are still a lot of these that aren't as sharp as I'd like - hand holding a 400mm lens in low light will do that :-( And there's still a lot that aren't properly exposed. Shooting raw and adjusting with Lightroom (or equivalent) helps a lot (thankfully) but it still isn't a replacement for a good exposure originally.

I'm linking to the full size slideshow because I didn't think the smaller embedded slideshow did them justice.

Baja Pelicans Video

I managed to capture a few video clips of the pelicans dive bombing for fish in the marina in Loreto: QuickTime version

If you have trouble playing this version, try the Flash version (lower quality).

Beach Time Photos

view album

Beach Time

My continuing annoyance with the noise pollution and the realization that my sojourn here was almost over combined to lead me out of town to camp on the beach. (Plus, I'd feel better if I used the camping gear I'd brought.)

I planned to avoid being out in the heat of the day and to not have to carry a lot of water. I left about 4 pm, still hot but late enough not to have to worry about getting sunburnt. I headed down the beach out of town. Without a car it's hard to really get away from people entirely - there are houses scattered all along the coast around Loreto. And there are spots where vehicles can get to the beach and then drive up and down it.

But still, it was a relief to get away to where the loudest noise was the sound of the waves on the beach. The beach is a mixture of sand and rocks. Huge numbers of shells and shell fragments were mixed in. Dried starfish collected in some spots. There's some garbage, but given all the people, I would have expected to see more.

For some reason there are large numbers of sea slugs washed up on the beach - some still with signs of life, some dead. They varied in size from an inch or two up to seven or eight inches. They were a mottled brown and I couldn't find them in my book of local marine life. I wonder what caused them to be here? I read so much about environmental problems that I wonder if there is some kind of pollution that is killing them. Then again, maybe they die after they have bred as some creatures do.

Other creatures or portions thereof were more or less explicable. Fish heads, tails, and bones were obviously the castoffs from fishermen. A pelican with half a wing missing, the white bones sticking out, was she the victim of a shark? She paddled away. I wondered how long she'd survive like that. A pelican with one wing hung around our hotel in Galapagos, but I suspect it was fed by the staff.

A bat faced ray with a wingspan of 5 or 6 feet had washed up. The skin from the top of it's wings had been removed with straight cuts, the work of someone's knife. A baby shark about 2 feet long lay at the edge of the water intact although missing it's eyes. The victim of fishermen or natural causes? The "hammerhead" from a hammerhead shark lay further up the beach. On one of the islands I'd seen part of a sea turtle shell. Hard to understand why people are still killing these creatures.

I still find the concept of the "marine reserve" here a little strange. Everything is still allowed - sport and commercial fishing. You just have to buy a license. (As you also have to do to snorkel or dive.) I guess the license cost reduces the fishing, especially commercial, but it still seems contrary to my idea of a "reserve". I guess it's a bit like our provincial parks that the hunters would say exist so they have somewhere to hunt.

I took no book to read, no journal to write in, no ipod to listen to. It's been four weeks since I've watched TV. I walked till sunset, made camp, ate a cold snack. I retired with the sun and rose with the sun. Beach time. I woke several times and gazed at the stars. Something yipped off in the distance. It didn't sound like a dog, maybe a fox. There were a few hoots that might have been an owl. It was very peaceful among the cactus. I could hear the quiet murmur of the surf.

I stopped in a hollow enclosed by bush and cactus just back from the beach. It was unlikely anyone would stumble on me here. A few minutes later, in quick succession, three different kinds of birds stopped by to observe me. Seemingly satisfied with my presence they continued on with their business.

I woke just before 6 am. The sky was starting to lighten and I threw on my clothes, grabbed my camera, and headed to the beach to catch the sunrise. There was a bank of fog offshore, hiding most of the islands. The sky gradually turned pink and brightened and finally the disk of the sun appeared through the fog and finally rose above it to start warming the day.

I returned to my hollow to pack up my few things and eat another a meager cold breakfast. My pack was light - I had my smallest tent, sleeping bag, and thermorest, waterbag, and little more. I wandered back along the beach enjoying the quiet early morning. It wasn't quite the end of my trip but it seemed like a fitting finale to my time here.

Travel Reading

Who are you that wanted only a book to join you in your nonsense?
- Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore

I started this trip with Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age by Bill McKibben. It seemed like a suitable counterpoint to an emerging technology conference. It's a good read, he's a good author, but as much as I agreed with many of his arguments, I just can't quite swallow his conclusion - that we should "stop" here and not pursue certain technology (e.g. nanotech and human gene manipulation) any further. Part of the problem is that I'm a techie geek - I live for the next great thing. Saying "no more" is about as popular as it would be to a kid in a candy store.

He claims things are "good enough" now. But couldn't/wouldn't people have said that at any time in the past? And likewise would most people want to go back? If not, then presumably they should have been in favor of going forward. Sure, we've cured many diseases, but what if you get one of the diseases we haven't found a cure for. Where that cure may require nanotech or gene manipulation?

There's no question that the future may bring changes that take us so far from what we now are as to be unrecognizable. But is that necessarily bad? Going from stone age jungle villages to a modern city is a huge jump too. And some might argue, not a step forward. But the fact that it's a big jump doesn't necessarily make it "bad".

I read a lot of science fiction and it explores all kinds of possible futures, many of them strange and inhuman. But "bad"? I don't know. Is it possible to say in an absolute sense that one culture is better or worse than another? In a way this theme is also explored in Theroux's book below.

For a change of pace, next I read The Escapement, the third and final book in the Engineer series by K. J. Parker. Although the descriptions talk more about power, politics, ware, and economics, what I liked best were the engineering - pre-computer geekdom. In that sense it reminded me of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Although it's classified as "science fiction" it's actually more like "alternate past". There's no magic and no technology that doesn't actually exist. The details of medieval technology are fascinating. I can't vouch for their accuracy but they seem well researched. I also enjoyed K. J. Parker's other Fencer and Scavenger trilogies, but this one is definitely my favorite. It also has an immensely dry sense of humor that I love - enough to make me snort out loud on occasion.

Next up was The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck. This is a non-fiction account of a trip he and Ed Ricketts, a marine biology, made from San Francisco to Baja collecting marine biological specimens. It's a good mix of nature, travel, adventure, and philosophy. I really enjoyed this book and it was great to read it while I was in the area. Here's a sample quote:

A squadron of pelicans crossed our bow, flying low to the waves and acting like a train of pelicans tied together, activated by one nervous system. For they flapped their powerful wings in unison, coasted in unison. It seemed that they tipped a wavetop with their wings now and then, and certainly they flew in the troughs of the waves to save themselves from the wind. They did not look around or change direction. Pelicans seem always to know exactly where they are going. A curious sea-lion came out to look us over, a tawny, crusty old fellow with rakish mustaches and the scars of battle on his shoulders. He crossed our bow too and turned and paralleled our course, trod water, and looked at us. Then, satisfied, he snorted and cut for shore and some sea-lion appointment. They always have them, it's just a matter of getting around to keeping them.

Currently I'm in the middle of three books:

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts was recommended by Timothy Ferriss of The 4-Hour Workweek. It's aimed more at beginning travelers, or at least beginners to off the beaten path, extended travel, but I still enjoyed it. I really liked the quotes at the start of each chapter, many from Walt Whitman, like the one starting this post.

The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux. I'm enjoying this, but it's a bit depressing to read about the problems of an area (tropical islands in the Pacific) that we like to think of as paradise. It fits this trip as he's traveling on his own near and on the ocean - as I've been doing.


The Phenomenon of Life Book One by Christoper Alexander. The sub-title is "An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe". Alexander is known to software people as the inspiration for "design patterns" from A Pattern Language and other books on architectural design. He has an interesting thesis and lots of interesting examples, but "the nature of the universe" might be pushing it a little far. It's thought provoking and I like to find parallels with software design. I wonder what I'll think after all four volumes! Here's a quote:

I have come to believe that architecture is so agonizingly disturbed because we - the architects of our time - are struggling with a conception of the world, a world-picture, that essentially makes it impossible to make buildings well. I believe this problem goes so deep that it even makes it extremely difficult to build the most modest, useful building in an ordinary way.

Many of us are not especially aware that our conception of things - our picture of the universe - could have any concrete or immediate effect on activity as architects. We go about our business trying our best to make good buildings - in whatever fashion we understand "good". The task is difficult. We struggle with it. But we are not aware, perhaps, that we have any special picture of the world.
...
How could it possibly be true that this conception might interfere so deeply with our efforts as builders, that it makes it all but impossible to make a building well?

Oops, actually I'm reading a fourth as well The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (fiction). It's good, but it hasn't really captured my attention so it's going slower than usual.

In case you're wondering how/why I keep that many books going at once - it's my normal procedure. Generally I only read one fiction book at a time, usually reserved for the hour or so before going to sleep. Then I like to have a couple of non-fiction books of different types so I can suit my reading to my mood. I've mostly been reading Alexander over breakfast, Theroux and Potts during the day, and Penney before sleep.

Around Loreto

Here are some photos of Loreto and area:



click to enlarge / go to the album

Life in Loreto

More on life in Loreto.

Last night I had a little trouble finding a place to eat supper. I was a little later than usual and so several places had already filled up. And several of the restaurants (Mandiles, Islas, 1697, Panchmama) are closed on Tuesday's (which probably contributes to the others being busier). I thought I'd try El Taste, which is a chain. It doesn't get great reviews but Shelley and I had eaten lunch at one last year and it was ok. It was quite a pleasant evening outside, but inside El Taste it was stifling and stuffy. I was the only customer. I couldn't imagine sitting in there for any length of time regardless of the food so I walked back out.

I ended up back at Canipoli. I really like this little family run place. The tables are in a quiet shady courtyard with a fountain in the middle. There's even a view of the church tower from some of the tables. One night when it was cool they brought me a blanket. The kitchen is open and you can watch them prepare the meals. So far, a delightful place. But the service really sucks. Two young girls, maybe 12 years old, presumably daughters, wait on the tables. But they also tend bar and since virtually every tourist has to order margarita's they tend to get tied up with making them. You seat yourself, and then wait 15 minutes to get a menu. Then you wait another 20 minutes to order. I watched several groups of tourists get impatient and walk out. One night Shelley and I had ordered a bottle of wine (just the house wine - no choices) and it took about 45 minutes to arrive. It looked like one of the kids eventually ran to the grocery store to get it. Last night the food also took forever. I suspect it sat somewhere forgotten, since it arrived cold. I know what to expect and I take it in stride, but even for Mexico it seems pretty bad. It's worth going, but don't be in a hurry!

On the days that I haven't been diving I've been getting out for a run first thing in the morning while it's still cool. Last time I went for about an hour, north out of town on the road and then back on the beach. The beach is mostly good firm sand, but the soft or rocky parts give you an extra workout. It's great to watch all the birds - gulls, egrets, herons, pelicans, etc. And running along the beach you get to watch for interesting things washed up - puffer fish, sea slugs, shells. Although there are crabs here, even Sally Lightfoot's like in Galapagos, there don't seem to be many along the beach. Eventually I found a few tiny ones under rocks.

After my run I was sitting on the deck on the roof of the hotel cooling off, looking at the ocean and half a dozen dolphins went by in the bay. They were fairly far away but it was still neat to see them.

I went diving again today. Rafael, who runs the dive shop, is determined to reduce the weight I'm using. I started with 24 lbs, then went to 22 lbs, and today 20 lbs. Rafael keeps saying he only needs 16 lbs. (You need so much weight because of the buoyancy of the thick wet suits, but it's ok once you get down because the pressure compresses the wetsuit. Less weight is better once you get down because you don't need as much air in your BCD.) But with 20 lbs I had a heck of a time getting down, even swimming down headfirst. I could feel Rafael pushing me down from above! The problem was at the end of the dive when we did our safety stop at 5m I couldn't stay down. I had to be head down kicking constantly. Rafael ended up giving me his weight belt. He can't understand why I need so much weight. Beats me. I wouldn't be surprised if I was doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what. I was being careful to get all the air out of my BCD which is the usual cause of the problem.

It was a beautiful calm day on the water. Most days even when it starts calm it gets windy and rough by noon, but today it stayed nice and calm.

Ramon, our boat drive driver, always brings his fishing rod and in between dives he fishes. But Rafael says he never catches anything, so we were surprised today when he hooked one. It was a decent size white fish (maybe 2 ft long) but as he was lifting it out of the water the hook came out and the fish swam away. Personally, I was just as happy. Although I eat fish occasionally, I'd much prefer to see them swimming around under water. I think Ramon was pretty annoyed though!

He was also asking me about where I was from and what I did, especially considering I was here for so long. I told him I had a computer software company. He wanted to know if I was the "hefe" (boss), miming this by saluting. I said yes, and his next question was how many employees. He was quite surprised when I said about 50. "You pay them every month? How much?" I gave him a rough figure and I could see his eyes get wider as he calculated the monthly payroll. I don't blame him. I don't like to think about it myself. He wanted to know if they were all working while I was here. I said, of course, they don't need me. He laughed and agreed, of course they don't need you, you're just the hefe. He figured it was a good arrangement for my staff to work and me to travel. I agree :-)

After diving I figure I deserve ice cream. My primary ice cream place was all out after the long weekend, but luckily I have a backup. They're not as generous, but maybe because of that, they had lots of ice cream left. They also sell home made popsicles. I tried a strawberry one the other day - delicious, made with real strawberries, not artificial flavoring.

Thoughts from Loreto

I've spent quite a lot of time lately posting photos but I realize I haven't really written much. Pictures are marvelous, but they can only go so far to explain what it's like to be somewhere. And they say very little about what's it's like inside my head.

It seems like a long time since the conference in San Diego. And it seems very different here from there.

The first week here, with Shelley, was a lot like our usual travels. We were keen to fill up our days, to see and do as much as possible in the short week we had. Not that we were rushing around, just that we wanted to take advantage of the time.

After Shelley left, things have slowed down. Other than the diving I've done, I haven't tried to fill up my days. First thing, when it's cool and quiet, a run or a walk on the beach. Then breakfast and a good book. A few hours on the laptop over a latte at the coffee shop. A stop at the bakery and the supermarket. Some quiet time in my cool hotel room during the hottest hours of the day. The wireless doesn't reach my room, which is perhaps a blessing. But I can still download from the cameras and review the photos I've taken. Then back out into the sun, which is the perfect excuse for an ice cream :-) Another couple of hours on the laptop over another latte at the coffee shop. (Luckily it's a different girl in the afternoon so I'm not quite so self-conscious about spending so much time there!) And then it's time to look for somewhere to have supper. Some days it's a Pacifico beer and fish tacos at the Giggling Dolphin, other days it's a classier dinner at 1697 or Panchomama over a glass of wine. Then back to the hotel to read for a while before turning in for the night.

I could be trying to get out of town for a hike in the dessert, which would require some kind of transportation. I could be trying to arrange some sea kayaking. I even brought camping gear so I could go out overnight. But I'm not sure I'll get to any of that. Perhaps it's laziness. But the reason I wanted to stay here for a longer period was to just be here, without trying to do so much. To see what it was like just to live somewhere different. I've traveled lots, but I've never just lived anywhere other than Saskatoon.

Doing some work is part of that. It's not that I have to work. There's nothing that couldn't wait. But my work is part of who I am. No one would find it strange that a painter would want to paint. So why should it be any different for a programmer to want to program? It is different, programming is not as artistically creative. But it's still creating and it still gives me pleasure to accomplish things, as mundane as they might be. So far I haven't accomplished a lot of work - one of the drawbacks of a slower pace! But I've managed a few things.

Loreto is a mixed up place. On one hand it's a 300 year old Mexican town. On the other hand it's a booming area for Americans to buy real estate. It's also somewhat of a tourist destination. The cruise ships even stop here. And the locals aren't examples of some quaint old Mexican culture. They're teenagers with monster trucks with monster sound systems driving up and down the malecon honking their horns and talking on their cell phones. And yet, there is still some old culture around. Still people going to church.

Like everywhere, cars rule. Even the "pedestrian" shopping street allows cars. I'm not sure what qualifies it as a "pedestrian" street. I guess because it's narrow with no sidewalks. Which actually makes it more dangerous for pedestrians than the regular streets.

The street where they should ban cars is the malecon, running along the waterfront. This could be such a peaceful enjoyable place with the boardwalk along the water and the restaurants with views of the ocean. Instead it's a constant stream of cars with their stereos cranked to the maximum level of distortion. Having supper and watching the sunset over the ocean sounds great, but the horrendous racket spoils the scene. And in case you think this is just the teenagers, it's not. Whole families from parents to young kids drive up and down or park to watch their friends drive up and down. But these people aren't looking at the view, they don't need to be on the water front. Give them a street somewhere else, that I don't need to be near. Leave the ocean in peace for those of us who want to walk quietly and watch the sun set.

Nor do they seem to realize that the town square could be much more than it is. There are a couple of restaurants and the Posada de las Flores hotel beside the square, but there's room for shops, more restaurants, a bar, a bakery, ice cream, another coffee shop. Instead there are several buildings that have appeared abandoned since I was here a year ago. The result is that the square languishes somewhat sadly forgotten.

Still, there's lots to enjoy here. The sunshine, the birds singing, the bougainvillea, the ocean, the goofy pelicans, the restaurants and the coffee shop (which wouldn't be here without all the gringos).

Baja Dolphins

I shot some video of a school of dolphins we saw on the way to a dive, using the Canon SD700 IS. (I didn't embed the video here because it's too wide to fit into the blog format.)

There must have been a school of fish they were feeding on since the pelicans were diving for fish as well.

Note: You probably want high speed internet to watch it.

If you're interested you can read about the hassles I had trying to post this video.

Michael Clark - Adventure Sports Photographer

Check out his web site and his newsletters. Awesome photos, even climbing and adventure racing ones. And a review of the new Nikon D300 that makes me drool (sorry, I can't help being a geek).

Following links from there I found a great video promoting Joe McNally's new book - The Moment it Clicks.

I love the amazing photographs these guys take.