Paradise Found

When I first looked at my itinerary for the Florida Keys, I did not have high hopes for the island of Islamorada. For one thing, I had never heard of it - being a geographer, I wasn't happy about that. Secondly, I couldn't fathom why the agency suggested I spend more time there than in Key West, which seemed about as cool as you can get. It seemed to be an in-between sort of place - near plenty of more interesting looking locations. How wrong I was!

The glass-bottomed boat

I arrived by way of Key Largo. Decided against wandering the town and opted instead for a visit to a coral reef in a glass-bottomed boat. It was a gorgeous day. The sea was the deepest turquoise blue imaginable, the sky likewise. A healthy number of tourists and I boarded the rather neat-looking  stream-lined craft, so excited. Finally I was going to see a coral reef! Then came the warning. 'We have to warn you that the sea is very rough - in fact it is at the top limit in which we are allowed to sail. If you are prone to sea-sickness we recommend another sailing', came forcefully through the speakers, along with kind offers of anti-sickness medication and various precautions. We all decided to go for it! It was an amazing experience...we got to see the reef, lots of brightly coloured fish and even a shark lurking by some brain coral. But it was incredibly rough, the ship lurched in four directions at the same time, seemingly impossible. We were all sitting looking downwards through the window panes in the hull - it was a very dizzying experience. I have sailed bravely several times in storm force gales across the Bay of Biscay. I have been one of about half a dozen only on a UK-Spain sea crossing who was not violently sick. I have eaten dinner whilst glasses and crockery from the bar have crashed to the floor as the ship confronted giant waves. But I have never felt so queasy as in that glass-bottomed boat...so I was secretly quite glad when we got back after three hours of torture!! I kept looking at other people's faces to see if I was the only stoic on board. Everyone looked VERY pale, some singing and cheering as we disembarked! However, it gave me a burning desire to learn to dive, at least to snorkel. This was uppermost in my mind as I drove over spectacular bridges, the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic on the other, both sparking like topaz.

I was to stay at the Postcard Inn. It was like a small resort with apartments facing the beach, simply but beautifully decorated in pastels and seaside style. There were small private beaches, a heated pool, lots of bars, a marina, shops and diving facilities. But what it had above all else, why it seemed like paradise, was atmosphere. Laid back and unpretentious, within an hour I didn't have a care in the world. I walked around in a swimming costume and robe and flip-flops (rare indeed), I went swimming in a warm sea at sunset, tried out snorkelling and have never felt so good or relaxed in my life. I could stay there for a month and not get bored. Only negative - I had signed up for a diving course, but couldn't it as I hadn't had the foresight to bring a doctor's certificate to say I was okay. However, I did get to overcome one huge fear! I actually put on a wetsuit!!! I hadn't realised...instead of looking like a beached whale, because it is close fitting and tight, I actually looked a stone lighter!! Wow!!! Wish I could wear one to the local Mall! That would show the snotty shop assistants as they tell me with a smirk they don't have that outfit in a an XL......

I don't think I have ever been more reluctant to leave anywhere - but I pressed on to Key West. Another great, great place. I felt as if I was Bob Marley, so laid-back and hung out. Lunched at the Hard Rock Cafe, saw the town from a very expensive Pedicab, enjoyed to the maximum the 'Silver Palms' hotel and loved, loved it. I could, without a doubt, live on the Florida Keys...as long as I could make a quick getaway from an approaching hurricane! The wildlife was stunning, the whole area just gorgeous and unforgettable....and I haven't even mentioned the best day of my life....my dolphin encounter...to come.

Racing through Mangroves and The Everglades

The rest of my time before I sauntered down to the Florida Keys was spent giving full reign to my passion for wildlife and scenery. Had a wild ride in an airboat through mangrove canals. The driver seemed to fluctuate wildly between slow, leisurely glides, then, as soon as he spotted a small lake, cackled cruelly and accelerated crazily, culminating in several wheelies, seemingly in ever-decreasing circles, drenching us well and making sure we all grasped that hairline difference between excitement and stark fear!

Another circle and we happened across a family of racoons - clearly with reliable wristwatches as they knew we were coming, and posing happily for us as the driver gave them tidbits. I held my first alligator that day too! Went for a great ride in the afternoon, down more alligator alleys, through the brown swaying emptiness of the Everglades, and a more stately boat trip around the Thousand Islands.

This was noisy. Pelicans? Gulls? No - a coach load of about fifty raucous Colombians got there first. There are the noisiest people I have ever come across. Oblivious of the few other travellers, they conversed loudly and crudely, blocked views, spoke and laughed over the commentary so we couldn't hear a thing - and generally spoilt things for the rest of us. I was glad when we got back...just one of those experiences that ensures the balance of good and bad is kept in equilibrium!

We visited this fascinating but vulnerable island

It didn't matter anyway - the next day, though I didn't know it yet, I was to discover paradise......

Wandering Wild in Corkscrew Swamp

The weather wasn't really on my side as I headed south for a few days around Sarasota and Naples. Crossing the spectacular Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay, which looked to be a unique experience, was, instead, a foggy, drizzly, traffic-bound crawl....this holiday really was turning out to be the opposite of everything I had planned and anticipated. The hotel in Sarasota wasn't much better - one of those with nothing to offer but a very predictable breakfast served on paper plates with plastic cutlery - lining the main busy highway, gloomy and miserable. Naples was the opposite. I seemed to be in the poshest hotel in town, with gold-plated lift doors, chandeliers and all things over the top. Not for me.  Luckily, I finally had one sunny day to see the glories of the area - long, shell-white beaches, gentle seas, great shopping and quite a cool feel to the place - even a couple of dolphins cruising near the beach in Naples. One day of this is enough for me, however. The binoculars were jiggling about in the case and my bird book kept finding its way to my bedside table, pleading to be needed. Enough of damp Sarasota and horribly pretentious, flashy Naples. I had to see some wildlife.

Like logs as far as the eye could see

 My first great adventure was at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Serendipity strikes when you least expect it. Just as I arrived, at an odd hour, I spied a huge tractor-like jeep - which I learned was a swamp buggy, with just a couple of people perched high on top. The driver looked forlorn. She cheered up a lot when I showed interest and offered me a three-hour ride in the buggy 'to places the public don't see'. How could I resist? We eventually found another couple of very enthusiastic bird watchers and set off. This jeep is such fun. We crashed through metre-deep swamp, gurgled our way through swathes of mud, and eased our path through several different swamp habitats, most of the varieties to be found in Florida, in our quest  to see wildlife. We were rewarded with more than I could ever have imagined!

Wood Stork

Alligators lurked and eyed us from the murk, some draped fashionably with swamp weeds. Turtles lazed like yellow and green plates on the ponds, whilst I saw birds that at last required checking in the bird book. Wood storks with strange gnarled heads, owls who were happy to stare us out, graceful spoonbills, my sister birds with their flashes of neon pink, hawks, birds with funny names like grackles and shrikes...it was just amazing and I learnt loads. This is when I am in an almost Zen-like state of excitement, just like when I am painting. I live in the moment, lose track of time and reach a sublime level of happiness. It's what I live for and love.

Travel journaling is hard work. No time for any fancy arty stuff (though I always have a caseful of materials!) - just got to get it all down. Luckily the US is the best place possible for information. Visitors centres, to be found anywhere of interest, are packed with information, guides and all sorts of goodies. Local tourist centres are also excellent. My trusty Pogo mini printer works almost constantly after dinner, getting red hot. Many a night I am struggling to finish and fighting sleep - but I never, ever regret the extra effort. It's always worth it - I can relive my experiences over and over again, especially on gloomy rainy days like today in Lousada.

Florida - first few days full of surprises!

I had a lot of preconceived ideas about Florida......I thought it would be flat, with crime-ridden sprawling cities lit up by almost constant lightning. I couldn't have been more wrong. While some aspects were true - some of the cities are pretty big, others wildly over the top, flashy and pretentious - Florida also has wild, desolate places full of amazing wildlife, tropical beaches to die for, and a unique, very enviable lifestyle.

I spent my first few days with my former Internet now very real friend Dee and her husband just north of Tampa and, as well as exploring, here was an opportunity to at last give full reign to my art store addiction - visiting as many as possible with the patient Dee bearing up admirably watching the shopping cart get higher and higher.

First trip to Michael's!

Another opportunity to eat from a huge range of different cuisines, massive breakfasts and supermarkets I could live in.....Dee and Jim live in a charming, very peaceful house by a lake - so I was constantly rushing back and forth with the binoculars "Oh look, there's a sandhill crane", or a hawk eyeing me from a nearby perch, or pine warblers, or herons, osprey, stunning red cardinals and much much more. I think you get the idea. My hosts were patient with me, were great company and I miss them still.

NUMBER ONE GREAT DAY was the day they took me to see the manatees. I had heard of these weird, lumbering sea creatures, said to be the origin of the mermaid myth, though any creature less like a mermaid would be hard to conjure. The weather was cool, so they were gathered at the outlet to a large power plant on Tampa Bay. Hundreds of them. They also seem to be the origin of the term 'to hang out', for that is just what they do. They kind of hang suspended in the water, going with the flow - what a great life! I was enthralled and captivated, a great day, rounded off by a visit to a strawberry parlour in the middle of acres of strawberries, and a restaurant serving food from the South buffet-style. I was reluctant to move on, but my itinerary called and so I had to head south......











I loved the Spanish Moss. Draped like Mrs Haversham's wedding dress over seemingly willing trees, the trees became sun-dappled, secretive and mysterious, like peering through net curtains.

Indian Summer 2

Out birding with my good friend Binoy. We cruise for hours along the backwater canals....

Now replete, I am still thinking that it is almost impossible to get across the real experience of being in India, as there is so much more happening than just a visual feast. You have to feel the soft, balmy breezes lightly brushing your skin in the cool of dawn, sway along with the rustling palm fronds to a gentle rhythm, dodging the odd coconut dropping like a brick from high up in the tree make a huge plopping splash in the water, as straight as an Olympic diver. Drift out onto the water hyacinth-filled lapping lake to hear the distant chanting from the Hindu temples interrupted by the raucous laughter of iridescent turquoise kingfishers. Feel the intense midday sun from which there is no escape except a refreshing shower. Best of all is a special feeling I only get when I am there - that this is spiritually where I feel internally most at peace, where I feel spirituality in the very air, surrounded and protected by soft, gentle people who seem to take everything in their stride with an enviable dignity that invites immediate respect, yet with a sense of humour as free as a child's. Somehow here I can accept with more grace the cycle of life, the loss of loved ones and our own inevitable fate. Watch the colours of sunset as they turn from yellows into oranges and burnt golds, into the reds onward through the spectrum through deep magenta until, about half an hour after sunset, the sky has turned into a deep violet and the water steely indigo. Some photos and some journals - hopefully they speak louder than words.......

Dawn is misty, still and cool, though the birds are already awake and the fishermen already on the water

From yellow through orange and red.......

...........and into violet and purple

One of my more noisy neighbours - a
ring-necked parakeet

The forest glows emerald green, yellow and lime after the deluge

 

I got to experience the monsoon rain. It starts quite gently, as a few refreshing droplets, but quickly escalates into a downpour like no other, like buckets of water being emptied from above. This is accompanied by a deafening pouring noise, then swiftly made worse by the simultaneous pourings and drummings from numerous roofs and gutters, forming instant lakes and marooning me in my bungalow within minutes. But it's still warm and it's not at all uncomfortable. Then, the clouds clear and the forest seems to glow in its greenness - colours are vivid and luxuriant, the air fresher and cleaner. Parrots squawk with delight overhead as they feast on the last of the year's mangoes high on the tops os the trees, whilst bright green barbets utter shrill shrieks which penetrate the undergrowth. Everything here in Kerala is about bright, lurid colour, from the ladies' saris, to the temples and colours of people's houses and the heaps of bright in-your-face powders found in the market place so I am in neon heaven!

When it rains, it pours...............

Two of my favourite bamboo trees on the farm.....

Most people know of my encounter with this chap......

Finally just a couple more typical pages from my journals.....

The yellow trumpet bushes are in full bloom just by my bungalow

The tiniest cows in the world - Vechoor cows -  the head came out a bit large! I can vouch for the yummy home made yogurt they provide me with every breakfast...plus a little treasure which Anya gave me with love and I will always keep....

Indian Summer

This is what remained after a meal out - of butter curry and naan bread. I can still taste it in all its deliciousness..notice the lack of cutlery, I much prefer eating with my fingers now!

I had a wonderful time in India this summer - I stayed with Anu and family by the backwaters for five idyllic weeks. I miss them still - the days were languid and laughter filled, with plenty of love and hugs. I caught up with all my local bird friends and would still find it very hard to account for how the time passed so quickly. The highlights must be the sari I was given for my birthday, being in the monsoon for the first time, the visit of the Peace Boat from Japan and strolling once again through the streets of Fort Cochin. It's my second home. There just aren't enough weeks in a year to be everywhere I would like to be......

A typical spread - three times a day!

I could easily write a book about my time there - indeed I already have several bulging journals full of photos, drawings and a million memories - so it's almost impossible to select a few to 'represent' my experiences. Bear with me, please. I'll start with the utterly delicious food - Mummy's home cooking, Keralan Syrian Christian backwater style (lots of coconut) but also everywhere you go. I learnt to eat with my fingers this visit - I swear that food tastes MUCH better when eaten this way - somehow you have a closer relationship with it, in all its succulence. It really is finger-licking good.  I also eat more slowly and with great relish. I eat lots, but never feel the need to snack as it is so satisfying, so I always feel healthy, too.

My all-time favourite dessert - Coconut mousse...but I also love payasam and coconut pancakes and banana patties and and and.......

Dhosas for breakfast with Anu!

So I'll end there, with more to come - this has made my mouth water, I've just got to go and eat something!

Catching up with myself

Blogging is hard. I am full of admiration for those folks who manage to do it so regularly and don't let life get in the way at all. I have always been a girl, rather like the moon, with phases....ranging from intense activity to complete apathy with all sorts in between......you can guess what my last phase was as I haven't posted since May! I do find that if I am worried or tense about something, I find it really hard to write and post - I wonder if other people have the same problem. Anyway, here I am back with renewed promises to do this more regularly and to find the courage to publish my work alongside others who are clearly better at it than me!!! I have won a few battles with the Inner Critic, but I haven't won the war yet....but I am trying.

I loved my visit to Santiago de Compostello - a delightful easy-to-explore city, brilliantly preserved but full of life - you really feel the past in every nook and cranny.

Where have the last few months gone?  The usual helter-skelter of travels, plus looking after my home when I rent out to holiday-makers and now I have started teaching again. It was flattering at 65 to be asked back to my old job teaching English at the Psychology Faculty in Porto - nothing too heavy, two ten-week courses a year. I'm loving it, have lots of interesting students and not a moment of regret. Still not in a position to start planning my next world travels, but things are more optimistic, and I am really hopeful that things will turn out well. First stop will be Florida in January, staying with a new friend, then I will drive off and do what I love. Exploring. Just me and a car plus maps, travel journal, camera and guide books. Plus a bird identification book and binoculars. This is all I need to feel totally fulfilled, and I can't wait to hit the road again.

        For (the few) who do like to see some of my art and my journalling, I have been able to complete some pages and some pictures....I also have to fight of my worst enemies of all - LAZINESS, SLOTH and a tendency to ALWAYS find some way of DISTRACTING myself from what I really want to be doing. I would so love to know what the cure is - there are no medicines for this in the local pharmacy!

....and a few recent pages from my journals.....

I used the following idea later for a painting - I dream constantly of the South West USA.........

...and a tribute to the wonderful Isabel as well as my return to teaching after four years!

Back to Silveira

The sunsets here are unforgettable

View of Belver castle from the river beach

I have fallen quite unashamedly in love with the hamlet of  Silveira - when I go there now I feel I have come home and enjoy strolling round the village, having a chat with the locals and making sure all is well. It must be related to what we as people need at various stages of our lives. Here, I am at one with nature, entering a new stage of decluttering and simplifying.

Lynn's lovely lily pond

Chatting to the neighbours. The goats' cheese here is delicious - creamy and smooth.  My last visit was at the end of September. The prickly pears were at their best - plump with deep yellow-orange cactus lets......this turned out to be the last hot, sunny weekend of summer - it all ended with a perfect evening out with friends and a gorgeous sunset.