Paleobird's Next Big Adventure

[QUOTE=Owly;1007271]Same people. The Gap sued them, so they changed the name.[/QUOTE]Ah, I see.

I ran across a couple of their tour groups while I was in Africa. The only thing I didn't like about them was that they took people into the parks like the Siringeti in big double deck buses instead of the smaller quieter jeeps the other tour companies used. The Gap tours mega buses would plow into an area in a cloud of noise and flying dirt and totally disrupt the wildlife that everyone else was trying to watch respectfully at a distance.

One time there were two lions stalking up to a watering hole where there were a bunch of zebras and wildebeests drinking. They were slowly moving in to set up their dash to try for a kill when in zooms the Gap bus. The lions went running off one direction and the potential prey another. Those of us who had been patiently and quietly sitting there hoping to see something interesting were left shaking our heads on a cloud of dust.

My guide said the Gap bunch were always doing that and that all the other guides found them really annoying.

it's nearly getting to the best time of year to do the inca trail -- I hear that January is particularly exceptional, but not too hot.

I'll talk to my friend about how he did it. He and his friend had a guide and several porters who were amazing. He said that he saw things that few people saw, and one that he described to me was deviating from the normal train to MP, and the guide said it was "very much worth it." They were crazy with headaches and having the cocaine tea (or whatever that is), and were up very early. THey were a bit bitchy about it.

But, up the climb to hit this one spot right at mid-day. the guide was really pushing them, because he kept saying "we have to get there at midday!" and they were like "jesus, really? on time? out here?"

But here's the thing. Apparently there's a notch cut into the top of a mountain, and form it, you look down over MP -- it's never photographed from this direction. As you walk up to the notch, it's all covered in cloud, and nothing looks like it's ending. And it's like this every morning.

But if you get to the notch right at midday, the cloud clears just enough to explode the top of the mountain in rainbows (everywhere!), and then they race across MP. He said it was the most extraordinary thing he's ever seen in his life, and has zero pictures of it. He said it was as if the place was made of rainbows, emeralds, and aquamarine in the sky. Just . . . something else entirely.

He's not a religious man (in fact, a staunch atheist), but he was fairly certain that this was a supernatural place. Or at least, made him feel that way.

Oh, That gave me chills.

oh Zoebird! Thank you for relating his story. It's easy to forget their is magic in the world!

[QUOTE=zoebird;1008738]it's nearly getting to the best time of year to do the inca trail -- I hear that January is particularly exceptional, but not too hot.

I'll talk to my friend about how he did it. He and his friend had a guide and several porters who were amazing. He said that he saw things that few people saw, and one that he described to me was deviating from the normal train to MP, and the guide said it was "very much worth it." They were crazy with headaches and having the cocaine tea (or whatever that is), and were up very early. THey were a bit bitchy about it.

But, up the climb to hit this one spot right at mid-day. the guide was really pushing them, because he kept saying "we have to get there at midday!" and they were like "jesus, really? on time? out here?"

But here's the thing. Apparently there's a notch cut into the top of a mountain, and form it, you look down over MP -- it's never photographed from this direction. As you walk up to the notch, it's all covered in cloud, and nothing looks like it's ending. And it's like this every morning.

But if you get to the notch right at midday, the cloud clears just enough to explode the top of the mountain in rainbows (everywhere!), and then they race across MP. He said it was the most extraordinary thing he's ever seen in his life, and has zero pictures of it. He said it was as if the place was made of rainbows, emeralds, and aquamarine in the sky. Just . . . something else entirely.

He's not a religious man (in fact, a staunch atheist), but he was fairly certain that this was a supernatural place. Or at least, made him feel that way.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Pebbles67;1009018]Oh, That gave me chills.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Kymma;1009023]oh Zoebird! Thank you for relating his story. It's easy to forget their is magic in the world![/QUOTE]
I think I could use a little magic right about now. Maybe I will just put the whole to sell/rent.etc. question aside for a bit and go climb Machu Picchu and experience the rainbows.

Nothing like a long walk to help with the letting go process and grief.

This taking car loads of stuff to the Goodwill is like an addictive rush. It feels so free and *light* as you drive away. I got a lot of stuff packed up and out today. My Dad's house is now completely cleaned out. Only major furniture left like beds, couches. At my game night out last night I was talking with a friend who is in escrow buying a new house and is very much interested in buying a bunch of my excess furniture so that could work out well. It's funny how these things just seem to mesh sometimes.

Next comes the "lightening the baggage load" at my house. Even in ten years of living in the same house, I have accumulated entirely too much stuff that I don't need.

I love that process, too. It feels so light, especially if the stuff has gone someplace useful. I spent the weekend doing some of that with our paperwork. We used to have a four drawer file cabinet that was full, now it's down to a couple of boxes taped up in the garage that we have to keep for 10 years - all labelled so we don't have to open them again, just burn them - and one narrow file box with insurance papers etc. The cabinet, plus an old china cabinet and a desk will all go to an online auction site.

Today, though, I'm at work surrounded by papers as I try to sort out a conference presentation I'm giving in 2 days :eek:.

All this talk up there about hiking the Inca Trail reminded me that I had put together a photo journal after I did the hike a few years back. I talked to PB to see if she'd be interested in seeing it (she was), so I tracked it down online. The original place I had posted it had been bought out, the new place had rearranged everything, and it took me a while to get them all back in the (I think) correct order, then to share them I had to create a website....

Long story short, [URL="http://incatrail1.shutterfly.com/pictures"]here is the link to see the pics from my Inca Trail hike[/URL]. I took a couple of thousand pictures, then edited the good ones down to just a handful and added a caption to every single one, since one of my pet peeves is people who just upload every picture they took from a vacation. I like quality content. So...check it out if you're interested. Also let me know if there are any issues.

[QUOTE=Paleobird;1009159]I think I could use a little magic right about now. Maybe I will just put the whole to sell/rent.etc. question aside for a bit and go climb Machu Picchu and experience the rainbows.[/QUOTE]

I think that is a great idea.
It might be too soon to think of selling.

[QUOTE=Paleobird;1009476] Even in ten years of living in the same house, I have accumulated entirely too much stuff that I don't need.[/QUOTE]

We just moved after 25 years in the same house.
Imagine the stuff