A Day in Macau

We decided to head over to Macau for the day, a place we hadn't been to before. The TurboJet ferries leave every 15 minutes so it's an easy hour-long boat ride over. Unfortunately, not much of a view though as the windows were quite dirty and they get splashed constantly with sea water.

Rabbit Lantern exhibition in Macau

It was a bit of a challenge to walk from the ferry terminal to some of the historic sites but we eventually found a walking route across a maze of busy streets that line the harbour front. (We took a shuttle bus back.) 

Our first stop was the Ruins of St. Paul's, a church that was built in the early1600's. The ruins, and this one front wall, were restored from 1990-1995. 

Mount Fortress is right beside the church and built a few years later to protect Macau from pirate attacks from the sea and was key to resisting the attempted Dutch invasion in 1622.

On a much more modern note, the architecture and design of the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino is completely over the top and made for some interesting photos. 

The window washers at the Wynn Hotel have a never-ending job!

Andrew's reflection fascination is rubbing off on me.

Chinese New Year's is coming soon!

Hong Kong - City of Contrasts

This is the second stopover we've done in Hong Kong and we are enjoying it just as much as we did the first time. Part of what makes it so fascinating is the contrasts.

Bright shiny new buildings looking very futuristic, high-end fashion stores, expensive restaurants and hotels. Immersed into a landscape of dingy alleys, run down buildings, food stalls and people hawking cheap knock-off goods. Just around the corner, when you least expect it, is a small church nestled in the middle of it all.

At times there are so many people you can barely move and it's overwhelming. A couple minutes later you might find yourself in a small oasis of quiet.

The lakes in Hong Kong Park with wild looking high rises in the background.

Tai Chi Garden in Hong Kong Park. Photo taken from the observatory tower.

A church amongst the chaos.

We spent our first day walking, walking, walking. First stop was the aviary in Hong Kong Park. It's a very large space built into the hillside (you can see the side of it in the photo above of the Tai Chi Gardens). I'm using one of Andrew's cameras on this trip which has a very long zoom lens so I'm taking way more photos than I usually do. It's all set to automatic so photos are definitely not the quality that Andrew gets but still pretty good for me!

I loved the bright blue around this bird's eyes.

These two were hilarious! The one on the right was posing nicely for me, the other one was oblivious.
The right one kept bumping the other one as if to say "Hey, pay attention! She's taking our picture!"

Turtles in the lake in Hong Kong Park.

Colourful cacti in the Conservatory in Hong Kong Park.

After lunch we went to the zoo and botanical gardens. Amazingly, all this (including the aviary and conservatory in Hong Kong Park) are all free to access.

The ring-tailed lemurs are so cute!

The mid-level escalators make going uphill much easier!

Packing for Adventure

Andrew and I are off and away again!

Paragliding and trekking in Nepal; scuba diving in North Sulawesi, Indonesia; and a few days in each Hong Kong and Singapore. In addition to bringing our own gear for these activities, we're also bringing Claudio's tandem gear for him. (Claudio is our paragliding friend and instructor from Drayton Valley, AB and will be our paragliding guide in Nepal.)

The packing list that I did for a previous trip definitely came in handy for this trip and I knew where it was because I blogged about it. So, this is for my future use but if it helps anyone else, that's great!

The storm before the calm.

Decisions, decisions.

• 2 pr pants for trekking/camping/paragliding
• 1 pr pants (nicer)
• 2 short sleeve t-shirts
• 1 long sleeve t-shirt
• 2 long sleeve button-up shirts
• 1 good tank top
• 4 underwear (Exofficio)
• 2 sports bras
• 2 regular bras
• 3 pr hiking socks
• 1 pr other socks
• 1 pr shorts
• light weight dress (reversible)
• skirt
• tights
• grey fleece jacket (nice)
• black fleece jacket 
• buff 
• jewelry
• good shoes (light weight flats)
• minimus running shoes
• sandals
• sunglasses

• travel face cloth
• small travel towel
• toiletry kit
• lip balm
• sunscreen

• Marmot Dri-clime jacket
• Patagonia Alpine Houdini jacket (rain)
• Patagonia Houdini jacket 
• insulated fall jacket
• wind/rain pants
• long underwear

• paraglider
• wing repair sheet
• helmet
• flight deck
• InReach
• Flymaster
• radio and radio pouch
• flying gloves
• ski gloves (warm for paragliding)
• sunglasses (different than above)

• small First Aid kit (including travel meds such as immodium, gravel, pesto-bismal, cold & flu meds, ibuprofen, cough candies)
• small repair kit
• small water bottle
• large water bottle
• hydration bag

• hiking boots
• hiking poles
• Patagonia backpack
• sleeping bag
• over bag
• sleeping pad
• coffee to-go mug
• headlamp 
• toque
• light gloves
• handkerchief
• Aquatabs
• toilet paper
• various sized Ziplock bags

• computer
• Kindle (loaded with travel guides and many books!)
• iPhone
• cords for various electronics
• converter plugs
• GoPro x 2 & accessories
• camera
• Andrew's larger camera
• Power rock

• purse
• daypack
• passport
• reading glasses
• regular glasses
• travel umbrella

• wetsuit
• mask and snorkel
• fins
• dive socks
• dive computer
• dive filter for GoPro
• gloves
• mask defog
• night strobes
• surface marker buoy (inflatable tube)
• dive certification card
• dive log book
• bathing suit x 2
• neck cooling band

** We will rent BCDs and regs for scuba diving; and tent etc. for trekking.

SIV Course - Lake Berryessa

The main reason Andrew and I headed to California this fall was to take a paragliding SIV/maneuvers course with Let Fly Paragliding instructed by Dilan Benedetti. He came highly recommended by our friend, Lorenzo Romano.

It was a great course but, trying to get a video done, I never wrote a blog post about it! Also, Andrew did a great job of describing the course in his "Incidents in Flight" post.

Here's the video -- unfortunately, we didn't take the good camera out until the third day so some of it was taken with iPhone which is not the greatest when zoomed in. Oh well, you get the idea anyway!

Because I'd taken a previous SIV course, Dilan asked me to write a review for him. Here's what I wrote:

Last year I took my first SIV course. I thought it was pretty good but I had nothing to compare it to. A good friend recommended my husband and I take the next one from Dilan at Let Fly Paragliding. My first clue that this course was going to be a bit different than the first one was that there was a scheduled briefing the evening before. The next clue was that the briefing was going to be 2 hours long. We learned A LOT in those 2 hours! General information about the course, terminology that we needed to familiarize ourselves with, and an overview of what we could expect during the next 3 days. 

On the morning of Day 1, Neal (tow operator) provided a thorough briefing on how to launch on tow, how to be towed and how to release. Before each flight, Dilan ensured that everyone knew exactly what was going to be asked of them and what the outcome should be. The tasks and skills progressed in a very logical and individual way as the course went on and some students progressed faster than others. Dilan pushed me beyond, but not too far beyond, my comfort zone each time and I came away feeling more confident in my skills and in my glider. 

Debriefings at the end of the days reinforced what we had done during the day and WHY we needed to know these skills. The detailed briefings and debriefings, the progression of one skill moving into the next skill are not things that happened on the first course I took and I really appreciated the attention to detail that Dilan provided. 

Since taking the course, we’ve had an opportunity to meet and talk with several other pilots who have taken SIV courses and, without a doubt, Dilan’s courses get the most consistent great comments, especially from pilots who have taken courses from both Dilan and others. 

Both my husband and I would highly recommend taking an SIV course from Dilan and to “let fly!”  :-)

3 Days in the Owens Valley

Enroute home from the Mexico part of our trip, we wanted to get in a few more days of paragliding before having to pack our gliders away until we can get somewhere warm again in the new year. The Owens Valley seemed the obvious choice. While it's notorious for strong spring and summer thermals, it mellows out in the fall. 

Between cloud cover and smoke from the fires on the west side of the Sierras, it made for dramatic views of the sky but not dramatic flying. Most of us got at least a couple 20-30 minute flights and Andrew got one cross country flight of just over an hour.  We flew at the Paiute and Flynn sites. Thermals were not the best (small with sharp edges) but I must be getting somewhat more comfortable in the air as I didn't find them too bad and stuck with it for longer than I normally do. 

Regardless of conditions, we got some instruction from Kari Castle (multiple-time world and national champion in both hang gliding and paragliding as well as numerous other records) and we were with a fun group of people! 

David was our fearless driver. The photo doesn't do it justice but serious skill is needed to navigate
 the rocky, twisty, steep road up to (and down from) the Paiute launch. 

Checking out the conditions on launch. 

John, who we met on the SIV course a few weeks ago, was able to join us for the few days.
It was great to see him again.

Nice torpedo position on launch, Russ!

Kari and Cookie in the air.

A pilot from another group -- but I liked the photo!

Andrew in the air. Paiute LZ is lighter coloured area in bottom right of photo.

Andrew . . . and my wing tip.

I want to be like Cookie when I grow up. She's 74 years young!  :-) 

I always enjoy watching more advanced pilots. 
This tandem pilot was doing wingovers on approach to landing at Paiute. 
Note: Pilot was Dave Turner of "North of Known" fame.

Hanging out in the Flynn's LZ, waiting for the last pilot to land.

Kari has several large rocks in her yard and wanted this one
but we all decided it was just too big and heavy! 

Andrew practicing the art of kiting upside down
in order to get dirt and sand out of the wings before packing them up for the trip home. 

Beautiful evening light from Flynn's LZ.

Views From the Water

Not only are the views below the water beautiful, so are the views above the water. 

I love the variety of colors and layers in these rock cliffs along the coast north of Loreto.

Unique rock formations rising out of the water. This was one of our dive sites. 

Arroyo Blanca - a great location to drop off snorkelers while we dive nearby and then wander and take photos between dives.

Trying to get decent photos of birds is always a challenge! We love seeing the blue footed booby.

Sea lions doing temperature control . . . 

It's a game to figure out what you can see in the rocks. This one looks like a monkey face. The closeup shows the birds on the nose of the monkey. 

Links to videos of diving and ocean life around Loreto that I did this trip:

Diving Baja 2017

Loreto Dolphins

Loreto Dolphins - 2 

Sea Lions of Loreto

Sea Lions of Loreto - Part 2