Mormon Temples and Tabernacles

Salt Lake City Temple

Logan Temple

Logan Temple

Brigham City Tabernacle

Paris Tabernacle

I am not a religious person and do not wish to make any comment about religion on this blog.  I do however like to view nice architecture and learn a thing or two about other people’s beliefs so here are a few photos of some Mormon buildings throughout Utah.

Antelope Island - Utah

The bison are a funny colour in Utah!

The causeway over the Salt Lake

A view to while away the hours

With the sun beating down at 90f and the water glass flat and reflecting the mountains beautifully it was a time to sit back, relax, take in the view and drink lots of water.  The bison were doing the same, as well as standing in the water to cool down, the pronghorn were lapping up the sun, the owls sat in the shade and, well, just sat, and a gopher snake slithered by to say hi.  After such a strenuous day it was time for an all American meal to replace all those burnt up calories – surely you must burn loads whilst sitting in the sun???  With enough food to feed the herd of bison on the island the left overs of beef, salmon, chicken and 3 scones, that were big enough to have as a meal on their own, were packed into boxes and saved for tomorrows picnic.

Avis Car Rental

Good and bad.  Bad because the vehicle was filthy on collection and even after a second clean the upholstery was covered in dog hairs.  Plus, on day three, of a 4 week, one way hire, from Bozeman Montana to Las Vegas the engine maintenance light came on.  Good because after 1000 more miles and in Logan, Utah, the vehicle was exchanged with no quibble and from a very helpful and friendly assistant. Thank you Avis Logan, boo sucks to Avis Bozeman!  

Bridger Teton National Forest

At 3.4 million acres it was unrealistic to think that we were going to see all of it, but on a dirt track road a measly 30 miles into the forest was all we could manage.  With the fall colours and the snow on the mountains it was a very scenic 30 miles and with a picnic lunch at a babbling brook it was also a very relaxing day.  Add in bald eagle sightings, we think, and the wildlife tally is starting to look quite impressive. I cannot recommend anywhere to eat in Afton but thank goodness for burger king – I haven’t eaten there in years but it was very welcome!

Teton National Park

The Teton Range

Jackson Lake

Valley and mountains

Deer

Historic cabin

From Cooke City, north of Yellowstone, all the way through the park and exit the south entrance into Teton National Park.  The weather was a little grim in Yellowstone on the journey, unsurprising with snow forecast next week, but luckily the sun was shining over Teton.  The scenery of Yellowstone slowly changes from mountains and valleys into flatter forested plains until you enter Teton and before you are shear, majestic, sharp, from lake to sky, mountains. The mountains are young in world terms, created 10 million years ago by massive earthquakes the mountains rose whilst the valley floor dropped and further erosion sculpted the landscape creating dramatic jagged peaks and uninterrupted views.  The pronghorn were gathering in the valley getting ready for their winter migration - unfortunately my little fuji F10 just hasn’t got the zoom power to pick out a pronghorn from large numbers of yards away, but I do have my binoculars and they are very pretty animals with lovely markings on their face and body.  The above deer was way way closer as I had disturbed it whilst walking besides Jenny Lake. 

Bear tooth scenic byway

Great views

No human disturbance for miles 

Mountain lakes

Snow

The change of weather

From Cooke City, Montana to Red Lodge, Montana via Wyoming the Bear tooth scenic byway is reported to be the most scenic drive in the whole of the US, and it did not disappoint.  From 7,000 feet rising to almost 11,000 the sun was brilliant all the way, though however strong it shines it still has not managed to melt all the snow off the tops of the mountains or in pockets by the sides of the roads.  This was grizzly bear country but unfortunately we were not fortunate enough to see any, but we did see our first ever ground hog - sneakily sticking his head out of his hole, right by the side of the road.  A pit stop in Red Lodge, with a great lunch and a bit of shopping and we headed back along the bear tooth.  The weather was changing and the clouds were closing in, within 30 minutes the temperature went from 70f to 40f and we drove into the cloud and rain, but thankfully we also drove back out of it and the temperature rose back to 60.

So close to the centre of the Earth.

Old Faithful

Dead trees

Porcelain basin

Mud pot

Steamboat geyser

A spring

Mammoth hot springs

The fountain

Yellowstone Wildlife

Cooling off

A grazing herd

Resting

You have to look real close but there is a wolf right in the middle

Always room for the small stuff

Yellowstone National Park

Bison in the valley

Artist Paintpot

Valley and mountain

Geysers in the valley

Peaceful views

Yellowstone Lake

Awesome!  There are no other words to describe it.  I think this has to be the best place I have visited in the US so far.   The weather has been amazing for the whole four days in the park, beautiful blue skies with not a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the 70f during the day, just a little colder at night (well a lot actually but that is what jumpers are for).  The National Park is truly amazing, a wonderland for nature lovers, for photographers, for geologists, for hikers and just anyone that wishes to witness such a vast area of varying topography and natural wonders.  There are high mountains and vast valleys, lakes and rivers and waterfalls, steaming fumaroles, spouting geysers, bubbling mud pots and psychedelic springs, and even the grand canyon of Yellowstone.  I have seen bison, individually, in herds and up close and personal next to the car, deer, elk, coyote, osprey, trumpeter swans and even a wolf.  I have heard the earth grumble and roar, seen water spurted into the air over 50ft and steam even further, seen mud bubble and boil and blob out of the earth, so acidic it is melting the surrounded rock, seen amazing colours created by microscopic organisms living in water hotter than boiling point and smelt the smell of hell in numerous areas (hydrogen sulphide).    

On the Road

The intrepid explorers

The beast of burden - with heated seats and everything!

Bozeman Montana and I meet up with my mum and dad, and collect the biggest hire vehicle I think possible, for the next month of traveling some in inland USA.

Denver, Colorado

A pit stop in Denver and what more can one ask for.  Friends, dog, washing machine, comfy cozy bed, internet, a fridge, shopping, dinner out, fresh bagels, transport to and from the airport and a clear sunny morning to see the snow capped Denver hills.  My only sticking point is that stupid me forgot to take my camera to dinner and now I do not have a nice photo to display of all the lovely people that came out to dinner on Friday night, but hopefully it will not be too long before I am diving with them all again and can have longer to catch up.  Thanks again Jill and Brian, you are the best.

Ecuador

I survived my 10 hour, in fact 11 hour, bus journey from Cuenca to Quito and after 8 weeks I have left Ecuador. I cannot believe how quickly 8 weeks have flown by, and even more surprisingly that it is now 3 months since I have been at work, and I do not miss it one bit :-)

Ecuador is a great country, with such diversity in a small area, from the coast and the Galapagos, to the mountains and volcanoes of the Andes, to the rainforests and the Amazon basin, with good cultural heritage from the Canari and the Inca to the modern day indegenious peoples. It has been a great start to my travels with a good mix of volunteer work, holidaying with friends and plain old travelling. Travelling around has been easy and inexpensive as has finding accomodations and eating out, with my cheapest room being $7.50, which was a single room with private bathroom and my cheapest meals being $1.50 for soup, a main course and a drink. I haved picked up a little more Spanish, and although I got by okay with the little that I do speak it would have been good had I been able to speak a little more.

8 weeks down, 44 to go!

Quito Crime

As I am happily sat in Denver, Colorado, and more importantly my Mum is somewhere over the Atlantic, I would like to share a little travel tale and maybe share a warning to other travellers. If you remember the first weekend I arrived in Ecuador and had a little fiasco catching my first bus to travel south from Quito and finally had to buy a second ticket and was very happy to be on a bus and on the move, well my joy was wiped out when that evening I realised that I had had my day packed rifled and someone had stolen some of my things. I had basically been scammed by the bus conductor - just before we left Quito he grabbed my bag and put it on the overhead luggage rack, I wasn't all that comfortable with this but as it was the conductor I thought that maybe it was okay - but it wasn't. I lost my ipod, my sunglasses, my rain jacket and my beloved pen knife. I cried, I wondered what the hell I was doing travelling, and most of all I was so angry with myself for being so stupid - it was my bag, I should have just kept hold of it. I also thought about going home - but as I was only 3 days in I thought that that would be rather defeatist :-) The next day I realised that they were only things, I had not lost my passport, I had not lost my credit cards and I was not physically affected, so now I had no valuables to worry about. Over the next weeks and the more people i met the more I realised just how common crime was in Ecuador, but mainly in Quito, there were first hand tales of the same thing happening to other people, someone had had their whole bag stolen, one girl had had her bag sliced whilst sitting on a bus and had had no idea that it was happening, more than one person had been mugged whilst walking around in Quito, and one peace corp volunteer who had been in Ecuador for 15 months had been robbed no less than 5 times, all whilst visiting Quito, though she was very upbeat about the whole thing and was still in Ecuador. It did not ruin my trip but it sure did make me vigilent at all times and I always caught a taxi if I happened to be out at night.

Cuenca

The cathedral
Front view
Street corners

Another street corner


Canar and Inca Ruins
Roof Tops

Ecuadors third largest city but a long way from Quito, both in distance and feeling. Cuenca is an old Spanish colonial city and was made a world heritage site by UNESCO, to preserve its historical interest - it was built on the ruins of Tomebamba, a Canari city destroyed and deserted by the Incas. The city is built on a grid system, with narrow cobbled roads and beautiful architecture, and is dominated by the new (year built ?) cathedral over looking Parc Calderon and opposite the old cathedral, 1557. There are plenty of places to eat, both of the 1.50 lunch variety and the more expensive international eating establishments, there are some good museums and the people are a mix of busy business people and indegenious peoples all going about their daily lives. The overall feeling is more of a quaint, safe town than of a city and you could quite happily pass a few hours or a few days just sat opposite the cathedral and watch the world go by. My visit was made even more enjoyable by bumping into some friends from the Andes volunteer project and going to dinner and catching up on their travel progress. The only down side? The airport is closed for re surfacing so it is a 10 hour bus journey back to Quito!

Chugchilan to ................

Time to head a little further south, but when I was sat watching the sun come up to catch the 6am bus from Chugchilan I wasn´t sure how far I would get in a day. The route out of the Quilatoa loop was just as magnificient as the route in, travelling the south route to complete the full loop, with further fafabulous views of mountains and canyons and rural life and also a very clear glimpse ot the twin snow peaks of I think Iliniza. The south route was just as slow as the north and it was four hours until I reached Latacunga. I was going to continue traveling south until I was too weary to continue. One bus Latacunga to Ambato, 1 hour, another bus Ambato to Riobamba, 1.5 hours and then the decision whether to get another bus to Cuenca, a further 6 hours. What the hell, I went for it, a full day, four buses and 12.5 hours later I arrive in Cuenca, very tired and in need of a bed. The ride from Riobamba to Cuenca was another drive through spectacular Ecuadorian countryside, it would have be better to chop the journey into segments but I am now running out of time here in Ecuador and I had wanted to end in Cuenca, so a long journey over and three nights to enjoy.

The Quilatoa Loop

An afternoons activity
The shower wall - outside
The view whilst doing your business
Quilatoa Lake
Me :-)

The guide books make travelling into the Andes, off the Pan American Highway, sound oh so complicated but the scenery was supposed to be breathtaking and when I got speaking to an Irish guy that had just travelled back from the Loop and he said it was so beautiful it almost made him cry I thought that I would have to give it a go. It turned out to not be so complicated but it was a gruelling 4 hour bus journey to Chugchilan, where I would stay for 2 nights. Gruelling due to the slowness of the bus due to the poor up keep of the roads but the vistas were amazing - words cannot describe the shear beauty and grandeur so you will have to wait for the photos to see if you agree with me. The bus was full of indegenoius peoples, so full the ones standing had to duck when we passed a police car, who mostly survive from subsistance farming in the area. The lands are all farmed with terraced sides of mountains, as high as you can see or lopsided animal pens due to the steepness of the hills, with the bus having to beep its horn on numerous occasions to shift the pigs, cows or llamas in the middle of the road. The bus also serves as the school bus with many children getting on the bus in Sigchos, all eating ice creams, and then getting off the bus at various locations along the route - many getting off even though there was no sign of any kind of habitation. My accomodation was the Black Sheep Inn, an eco friendly inn, with composting toilets and bottled walled shower cubicles, perched on top of a hill with magnificent views across a canyon on the surrounding mountains. This was also my base for visiting Quilatoa and its crater lake - a lake formed in the base of an old volcano, that sparkles like the ocean but at 3200m. The guide books need re writing to not put tourists off visitng this magnificent area, the landscape has been the best so far in Ecuador.

Saquasili

For all the weaving
Sitting down for dinner
Tomatoes
Bananas
Leeks
Rope
Guinea Pigs

What a great place name, until that is that you try and prounounce it to get a bus there :-) but it is cool, I am now feeling like a local and am happy to jump on the bus without buying a ticket, just as it is leaving the bus station - okay, so it had Saquasili in big letters on the front of the bus, but I did feel more like a local. Why did I want to go to Saquasili? It was reportedly the biggest indegenious market in the whole of the Andes - and boy did it seem that way, with every man and his dog, sheep, cow, goat and pig, heading there. There were 5 huge squares, spread throughout the town, just teeming with people and things being bought and sold. Cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, fruit, veg, grains, flowers, baskets, clothes, hats, shoes, pots and pans, even beds and furniture. It was mainly indegenious people, lots of small people, even I felt tall, all wearing their ponhos and hats that just seem to perch on their heads. The women carrying their children on their backs and in more that one instance carrying a whole sack of potatoes inthe same manner. I purchased a scarf and found out that the indegenious people in the Andes speak a different language to the indegenious people in the Amazon, not wholey surprising I suppose but I have now added another language to my repetoire of thanks yous - Pagarachoo in the Amazon and just Paga in the Andes. The lady I purchased the scarf from found it very funny but I think she was happy that I tried. Big groups of people would be sitting around shelling peas or removing corn off the cob, happily chattering away and selling their wears. Other groups would be sat at the many stalls selling weird and wonderful food or queuing up for a very strange looking tonic that I believe was able to cure many ailments. Far more interesting than going to the local supermarket.

Photos

Sorry for not updating any photos for my last few blogs, a combination of me upping the quality of the photos on my camera and the very slow internet connection here means it is far too painful to sit and wait for them to upload. I promise I will update some photos as soon as I can.

From Green to White

Cotapaxi
The top is missing
Llama
Extended views
I made it!
Back to Quito for my last luxurious night in a posh hotel, some serious unpacking and repacking to leave my dive stuff and any surplus to requiments items behind in Quito, a great meal out with my jungle buddies and some sad farewells and I am back in travel mode and back to the buses. Heading south again, with a rough idea of my travel plans but with no fixed itinary, I land in Latacunga, still high in the Andes, and am booked into a hostal for a few nights to explore the local area. First trip is to Cotapaxi National Park and to see the snow capped volcano, reaching 6000+ metres. The tour took me into the park and a walk around the lake followed by a very bumpy drive up to car park based well below the snow line of the volcano and what seemed like a short distance from the refuge centre. Along the drive there were wild horses, I saw the condor, llamas and further up the mountain a wolf (or maybe a fox). The short distance to the refuge centre grew and grew as I climb the very steep path up the mountain and struggled to catch my breath as walking to 4600m is quite tough, especially when you are fighting to keep your breakfast down - not sure if that was due to the altitude or my malaria tablets (no there are no mosquitos at this height but I´ve just come out of the jungle remember). The views through the park and along the walk to the refuge centre were spectacular but were soon obscured as the clouds came in very quickly, but disappeared as fast as well. As I reached the refuge centre and the snow line of the mountain it started to snow, more of a sleet, but how amazing, in one week and in one country I have gone from sea and beach to rainforest and was now stood in the snow and able to make snow balls and see a glacier. The cloud and the rain settled in for the walk down but what took nearly an hour to walk up only took about 15 minutes to walk down.

Life in the Rainforest

Pilchicocha Lake
View from the Capoc Tree
Amazing sunset
Poison Dart Frog
Warrior of the Jungle!

The lodge covers a large area and as well as the lake and raised walk ways there is a butterfly farm, many many trails through the rainforest, a 45m tree house, or viewing tower if you want to be boring, built around a capoc tree and three 45m look out towers connected with above canopy walk ways. The best time to see, hear and feel the wildlife is early morning, late afternoon and at night, so with 5am wake up calls and 8pm night walks and canoes there was plenty of time mid day to rest - if you hadn´t eaten too much or wanted to visit the butterflies, or go in search of the pygmy marmasets or watch the spider monkeys, or, or or. Night walks produced many spiders, grass hoppers, crickets, tiny snails, lizard type things, fire flies along with all the noise of the forest including an owl and the movement of monkies. The night canoe was very peaceful with many fireflies flitting about the forest in the distance and a very large caiman that scared the beegeebers out of me as we canoed into it and it launched itself into the lake. The mornings and afternoons had many bird sightings, far too many to name them all but among the more common ones were toucans, parrots, hawks, kites, woodpeckers, vultures and many many more. We also saw and heard many groups of red howler monkies, along with the spider and capachin monkies around the lodge and the tiny tiny pygmy marmaset, that is so small it can only eat the sap from one particular tree. We had an Ecuadorian and Quichian guide for all activities so we learnt many things about the plants in the jungle and the way of life of the local people that still live in and for the jungle. There was also a visit to a local women´s house where we were shown how she lives, her house and garden and all the plants and their uses that are just common day to day happens for the local people. We were also privelaged to share with her some cooked yucca, breadfruit, plaintain, all served with hot sauce and washed down with chica - the local alcoholic beverage made from corn. A great experience all round and a great lodge and location.

From Blue to Green

Saying goodbye, to Jill and Brian, who, lucky people, get to stay and dive another week with another group of Denver divers, many of whom I know and love to dive with but for this trip just got to wave a blank hello to them out of the airport window, we head back to Quito, and altitude, for the night before flying to the other side of Ecuador and into the rain forest. A short 30 minute flight has us landing in Coca, north east of Ecuador and then onto a motorised boat for the 2 hour trip down the Rio Napo and into the deepest darkest (ok, maybe not darkest but it is thick in places) rainforest. The river is very wide, fast flowwing and is a tributary into the Amazon. Ecuador has just 2% of the Amazonian rainforest and unfortunately there were many signs along the river of the infiltration of the oil industry. A further 30 minute walk through the rainforest and a paddle across a tranquil lake and we are arrived at Sacha Lodge, our home for 4 nights. It is a great set up with all rooms spread out and raised above the very wet forest floor with a great communal area with large dining room downstairs, bar upstairs and viewing tower at the very top. There is plenty of decrotive wood from banisters to railings and it just looks really good. The rooms are spacious with private balconies complete with hammock and chairs which came in very useful when the spider and capachin monkies were frolicing right outside our window - or fly screen as there were no windows. This was also great as not only did you get a through breeze in the room to disperse some of the humidity but come 6pm when the sun went down the noise of the jungle was just great.

Galapagos Details

Photos courtesy of Mr. G Busby

Hammerheads
Eagle Ray
Whale Shark
Knew I would forget something - Penguin - also saw lots of dolphin
Huge shoal
Sea lion and salema

So for anyone interested in the more mundane side of the visit the trip started with a flight from Quito to Quayaquil then to San Cristobel Galapagos. All fruits, veg, nuts, produce etc. had to be disposed of before boarding the plane, the bus driver was very happy when I handed over my string of oranges, and the aircraft is sprayed for bugs before landing in San Cristobel. A lot of changes have happened over the last few years within the Galapagos National Park and boat trips have been changed and diverted to try and stop over visiting certain areas, however it sounds like the number of boats have actually increased a lot but what they offer has changed - diving now is limited in certain areas and to certain times for particular boats. For now the park fee is still set at $100, though how long it will remain at this I do not know. I dived the Aggressor II, Albatros, one of the few dive boats that is allowed to travel to the north Islands - Darwin and Wolf - which are the best places to get a chance to see the whale shark. This is also where you get to see the schooling hammerheads, though we did see hammerheads at other dive sites, just not in huge numbers. The liveaboard dive boat was layed out great with a spacious lounge area, a big and well spaced out dive deck, good for the 14 divers the boat takes, the cabins were nicely layed out, with big showers, there was a sun deck, hammocks and the all important hot tub. When you combine this with 3 good meals a day and snacks between dives you have a great floating dive hotel - the best way to dive. Dives varied from 1 to 4 per day, depending on where we were and what other land activities were happening, the water temperature ranged from 65f (brrrrrrrrrr!) to 78, and there is no night diving in Galapagos - too many feeding sharks! The land tours were onSeymour Island, Batolome Islands, Isla Platas, Santa Cruz and San Cristobel. The terrain varied from dry shrub land for the nesting frigates and boobies, to volcanic with nothing living on it, to beach with nesting turtles, sea lions, birds, and crabs to rocky shore lines with the sea lions and marine iguanas and then the islands with that very strange creature, the human. A very varied and intersting trip with divemasters acting as naturilst guides for the land trips and the odd evening, when we could stay up past 9pm, watching dvds and learning more about this marvellous and unique place on earth.

Galapagos, Galapagos, Galapagos!

So good I wrote it twice, and then once more for added emphasis. What can I say, the diving was amazing, the weather fantastic, the company fun and entertaining, the food plentiful and nourishing, the land tours spectacular and I spent a week on the ocean. Great! The hammerheads were plentiful, the Galapagos sharks around, the whale shark a late comer to the party but a very welcome guest, the sea lions were playful, the shoals of fish were numerous, the little critters were supported by the sea horse, the frog fish and the nudibranchs, eagle rays were in squadrons, turtles stopped being pointed out as everyone had seen so many, the frigate birds and blue footed boobies had eggs and young, the land iguanas were yellow, the marine iguanas spat the salt water out of their nostrils, and the giant land toirtoises just kind of stood there and did nothing. The best thing for me was watching a sea lion play and hunt a shoal of 1000+ salema (a stripped fish about 8inches long) that was a moving bait ball, flowing backwards and forwards and opening and parting as the sea lion swam in, around, above and through the shoal until one salema finally took a wrong turn away from the shoal and the sea lion went for the kill and was very happy with her meal. I also swam in, through and around the shoal and once you are inside the light is dimmed and there are just stripes swimming all around your mask - amazing. I`m sure I have missed something that I saw but you get the general gist - it was a great trip, truly spectacular.