Puerto Vallarta

Our goal was to go somewhere warmer and do some paragliding and scuba diving. We ended up flying to Puerto Vallarta. Mostly because we could get a direct flight from Saskatoon, which at least minimizes the fossil fuel and carbon cost of air travel. And it's within driving distance of most of the paragliding sites, if not ideal for diving.

We had no desire to hang around P.V. but we stayed a couple of nights just to get organized. We stayed in a small unassuming hotel in the old town, away from the beach, but easy walking distance. The hotel turned out to be close to the riverside park, which was run down and littered with garbage, but at least a little bit of nature, which I far preferred to the endless tourists and bars on the malecon. (Let alone the mega resorts and high end malls.) Near the beach the river splits and forms an island which is pedestrian only (no cars) which is a nice. The restaurants are quieter since they're away from the beach. And some overlook the river so you can watch the egrets while you drink your local Luba beer.

I love the rampant greenery and flowers of warm countries. So different from the prairies.



Considering it was in the middle of a city, there were quite a variety of butterflies. But with the warm temperatures and the abundance of flowers, they were in constant motion. I didn't spend much time chasing them, but managed to catch a few shots.









And I think this one is a moth.



I didn't see any geckos or lizards other than a few iguanas on the trees over the river.





It was good to see the usual brown pelicans and frigate birds. And the Snowy egrets along the river with their black legs and yellow feet.



And a few token tourist shots.







We managed to get out running both mornings we were in P.V. I thought the malecon would be deserted first thing, but that's the coolest part of the day and it was full of old gringos out walking. As opposed to us old gringos out running :-)

See all 18 photos in this batch

In Flight Entertainment

For me, the best in flight entertainment is a window seat and a clear day.

My window seemed quite clean and unscratched for a change, but I was facing into the sun and that tends to exaggerate any marks. On the positive side, it made for some nice shine on the ice. (It was -39c when we left and we were delayed while they thawed out one of the brakes.)





The erosion makes interesting patterns:









The tops of these ridges made snowflake like patterns:



And of course, the mountains are the ultimate results of erosion.



Coming in to land over the forested hills on a hazy day.

Calendar Photos

As I've done for a number of years, I made a calendar for family and a few friends using my photos from the year. I try to choose photos with fairly general appeal and ones that hopefully stand up to being displayed for a whole month (the bugs went on the covers). I'm not sure if I'd call them my overall favorites, but close. I might include a few spiders if it was just for me :-)

Here are the photos I used, from front cover to back cover.





























I try not to inflict my photography on people too much since we're all inundated with a flood of pretty pictures these days. But if you'd like a copy of the calendar, just let me know and I'd be happy to get you one.

Running in 2019

"he wanted to run, to feel the sun on his face and the movement of air and the sweat race down his chest. He wanted the peace of the effort, and the certain knowledge that it was a good thing to be doing. Not all acts brought with them the certainty of goodness, but running did."
- Robert Crais, L.A. Requiem

My watch tells me I ran roughly 1500 km in 2019. That averages about 30 km per week. I'm satisfied with that. It's more running, more consistently, than I've done for a long time. Especially given our Saskatchewan winters, and my propensity for travel.

I am grateful that my body cooperated, with less of the nagging issues that have limited my running for the last few years. I give some of the credit for that to various run-walk strategies. I started the year doing 6 min run, 1 min walk and gradually moved to 9 min run, 1 min walk. Nowadays, unless I've got an issue, I only do run/walk on longer runs (over 10k), but I still regard it as an useful tool for lessening the impact of running. I'm still limiting my running to three times a week (Tue/Thur/Sun). Occasionally I'll add in an extra easy short run on Sat. It's a laughably far cry from an elite's 200km a week or more. But I'm not sure I could ever have managed that.

I've been trying to get in a little bit more faster pace lately. Doing most of your running at an easy pace makes sense to me, especially as I get older :-) But if I'm not careful I get a little too accustomed to that pace and it starts to seem "unnatural" to run at a faster pace even when I'm in shape for it. So I try to do some faster running, but not too much (whatever that is).

I started the year (more or less) with some beautiful runs in Big Bend National Park in Texas, just across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

And I ended the year (again, more or less) running on Vancouver Island and through the vineyards (and hills!) of the Okanagan.

In between were lots of regular runs around Saskatoon. I am always thankful for the trails along the river where I do most of my running, including the dirt trails that allow me to spend at least some of the time off the unforgiving pavement.

This year I managed 40 km in just over 4 hours, a half marathon (21k) in under 2 hours, and 10k in just over 50 minutes. The question for the coming year is whether I can do better than that before aging inevitably slows me down. Only a few years ago my 10k time was 47 minutes. It's not a war I can win, more of a delaying action. But occasionally I feel like I've won the odd skirmish along the way.

Of course, I'd like to run more. 30km per week is only about 3 hours. It's not really enough to get good. There are times when I probably spend more time reading about running than I actually do running. But it's a balancing act, if I do too much I get problems with knees or hips or feet and then I end up running even less. Sometimes restraint is the hardest thing. I'd much rather go out and push a bit than do a short easy run to let my body recover. It's like having a bowl of ice cream and only eating one spoonful.

I've always been reasonably light on my feet (helps to be skinny) and I continue to work on my form - keeping my cadence up, not over striding, and in general running as relaxed and smoothly and quietly as I can, and not letting that deteriorate when I'm tired. In the winter I usually warm up on the treadmill barefoot. Running barefoot tends to improve your form, and my theory is that doing that first helps sets the pattern for the rest of the run.

And above all, I try to be thankful every time I go out and run, not to take it for granted, to be happy that I can run, and not depressed because I can't do as much as I'd like.

Happy New Years to everyone and best wishes for 2020.

A Frosty Walk Home

Ice Crystals

One of my staff (thanks Barb!) stopped by my office to tell me there were nice ice crystals that I might want to take photos of. (They know me well!)

The ice crystals turned out to be on the side of the smoking shelter outside. It's unheated, a bit like a bus shelter but more enclosed. (Considering Saskatchewan winters, you have to really want your nicotine these days.)










The details are interesting if you get a chance to look at them on a larger screen.
(Click to view larger.)

There were crystals on the inside and the outside of the glass, making it problematic to get both in focus. And it was hard to make a decent background out of a parking lot. Wide angle would give the best depth of focus but the worst background, so these were all token at full zoom on the little ZS100 (250mm equivalent) They're converted to black and white in part to make the background less distracting.

Ucluelet

We wanted to visit the aquarium so we drove over to Ucluelet for the day. Waiting for the aquarium to open I took a few photos around the dock.

Interesting reflections with a common merganser going by



This Black Turnstone (I looked it up later) was skittish and didn't really want its picture taken. In flight it had a beautiful pattern on its wings. I took photos of related Ruddy Turnstones in Belize last winter.



This crow was working on getting the marrow out of a bone of some sort. It didn't care if I took photos of it. (That's frost on the wood.)



Across the bay I spotted the white head of a bald eagle in a tree but it was too far away for decent photos. There were also jelly fish floating in the water beside the dock.

This sparrow (Lincoln's?) was also a cooperative subject, although it didn't stay in one spot for very long.



We visited the Ucluelet aquarium quite a few years ago when it was in the previous tiny building. At that time they were raising money for a new building (we donated). It was nice to see the new building - quite an improvement. It's not a huge fancy aquarium like the Vancouver one, but it's run by a non-profit society and it's interesting because it's a catch and release aquarium so everything is local. One of the tanks has been running for years. It started out with a bare chunk of concrete. The water is circulated from the ocean and the concrete is now completely covered and encrusted with a huge variety of creatures that colonized it from the water.

I would have loved to take more photos, but the sides of the tanks weren't very clear and taking photos through the surface doesn't work that great.

This sea urchin was poking out of the water, and very colorful.



A different anemone from the kind you see in the tide pools



And this starfish was just below the surface. The details on these creatures are fascinating.



This is a closeup of the top of a starfish



I didn't quite manage to get all of this snail in focus



We had lunch at the Black Rock Oceanfront Resort restaurant that had a great oceanfront view.

We also did a few hikes in the area on the Wild Pacific Trail. It doesn't seem fair that the Salal is flowering when it's full on winter at home.



This looks a bit like another flower, but I think it's just leaves changing color



The sun was melting the frost on these cedar branches



Another Bald Eagle in the distance. When we tried to move closer it flew away.



And a few reflection shots because I can't resist them. This is the reflection of a log





See all 16 photos in this album