I drove to Oceanside from Bisbee last Friday. It was a peaceful quiet drive though it took much longer than I expected. I ran into monsoon rain from Bisbee to Tucson and then a dust storm outside Tucson that dirtied my clean Subaru.

I spent the night on my friend’s Catalina 42 in Oceanside Harbor. Karie and Dave have been married for just over a year. Both sailors, they live on Serenity, their boat, and sell real estate in the Oceanside area.

They invited me to come early to Southern California and crew on their boat for a club race from Oceanside to San Diego and back the next day. We crossed the start line on Saturday at 11:50 am and arrived in San Diego around 7 pm. We had an uncomfortable and long trip.

First of all, the wind was coming from an unusual and unexpected direction which meant we were sailing almost directly into it. We also had swells with wind waves on top and wind up to 18 knots. The boat rocked and rolled for most of the trip. We kept getting headed every time we came close to shore which made us tack out 3 miles many times which increased our mileage tremendously. I even felt sick though not terribly so.

We anchored overnight in Mission Bay which was calm and warm. We watched a nearby roller coaster with rolling cars and people screaming loudly. We also saw fireworks around 9 pm shot off by Marine World. All from the deck of Serenity.

Karie and Indy at Mission Bay

We had another member of the family on board. Indy the dog, a labradoodle (sp?), who also lives on board.

The return sail on Sunday was glorious. Beautiful weather, warm, quiet seas and light air. Delightful! AND we saw two blue whales!!! I took three videos of one of the whales coming up to breathe and finally diving down. In the video you can see the flukes as they come out of the water at the end of the dive. I’ll try to post the videos and put the link here so you can watch them. I’ve posted one photo where you can barely see the top of the whale.

Blue whale

We arrived back in Oceanside Harbor in the afternoon on Sunday. Dave cleaned up the boat while we took showers. Not what I’m used to but Dave did most of the work. I cooked salmon quesidillas for dinner and we had cherry pie for dessert.

Last Saturday I went hiking in the Chiricahuas with Mark, Margie, Karl and Carolyn. We met at Margie’s house in the Warren district around 8 am. We piled into Margie’s car and she drove us to the Monument. It took about an hour and a half with a short stop at a small restaurant in El Frida to pick up baked goods and breakfast foods.

We entered the Monument and stopped at the Visitor Center. We didn’t have to pay the entrance fee because both Margie and Mark have season passes. Someone got out a map and we decided to take the Natural Bridge Trail which is a little less than 5 miles round trip. No one had previously been on the trail.

The notes about the trail state that it is the least used trail in the monument…probably true because we didn’t see any one else. The trail climbs through oak and juniper woodlands to a ridge then drops into a pine forest. It ends at an overlook for a small water-carved bridge located across the canyon.

I really enjoyed hiking…it’s been awhile. We hiked to the overlook and then stopped for a relaxing lunch break beside a dry creek where we were visited by a Mexican Jay.  The return trip to the trail head was hot when we got out to the ridge top. Fortunately there was a little breeze as big white clouds moved in from the south. The views from the ridge were spectacular as we looked across at the Sulphur Springs Valley and down into the steep canyons.

The pictures below are mine.

Walking the trail

Together at the Natural Bridge overlook

These three photos were taken by Margie.

View from the Natural Bridge Trail

We made it! (caption by Margie)

Mark, Nancy, Margie, Karl on the ridge

My friend Mark, partner with Jack, celebrated his 50th birthday last Saturday night. In actuality he’s been celebrating all month! Jack knows how to create a party and how to celebrate. They’ve been to Seattle, went to Phoenix to see Wicked, and now a BIG party on the day of Mark’s birthday.

Jack threw the party at their house in Bisbee. Lots of decorations, food and drink, champagne and chocolate cake, sparklers, disco dancing, 70+ people… Family and friends flew in from Cleveland, North Carolina and New York City. Mark’s brother, Gary, stayed in the guesthouse behind my house here in the Gulch.

I took a lot of photos. I’ve posted a couple here and will post more later. My camera battery lost power shortly after the party started so I ended up using Jack’s camera. I haven’t downloaded those pictures yet.

Mark with Abby, his friend from New York City, arriving at the party

Turning 50!!!

Decorations!

Monkey business

Lots of flamingos attended the party

The next evening I was invited to a picnic up on Juniper Flats outside Bisbee. We watched the sunset, ate leftovers from the party and had another glass of wine.

Watching the sun set...picnic at Juniper Flats the next evening

Celebrating 50…a milestone of sorts. A half-way mark. A proposition. Mark is a lucky man indeed to have so many friends celebrating his life and birth. That’s a good place to be when you turn 50…to have many friends, to be loved and love in return and to celebrate being here on this earth. Many people turn 50 with dread, with a sense of ‘life is over’, with cynicism, not having a lot of friends and with nothing to look forward to.

I enjoyed  taking photos, visiting with friends and meeting new people, celebrating and dancing until after midnight to 70s disco music. I’m sure half the people of Bisbee heard the tunes blaring from the loudspeakers by the hot tub.

Best wishes to Mark for 50 more years of enjoyment, living well, living your destiny and love, love, love.

The following are pictures Jack sent to me (with captions!)…we had a lot of fun!

tres chicc! Having fun with Jack

fiery& foxy

cuddle puddle

I am still incorporating the experiences of my trip. There has been some discomfort as the changes sweep through me. It’s hard to sit with it sometimes and it’s difficult to accept that I don’t have the words and understanding to express what is going on.

So I sit and work to incorporate what I learned and launch the next phase of my life. Thank you Ann Linnea for the insight.

I want to save the life I’ve found…so I write and I sit and I ask for help. What will be the next phase of my life? I don’t know.  Sitting with the ‘not knowing’ is difficult, scary and I feel particularly vulnerable. So be it.

You must give birth to your images.

They are the future waiting to be born…

Fear not the strangeness you feel.

The future must enter you long before it happens…

Just wait for the birth…for the hour of clarity.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

Yesterday afternoon we were visited by a Mojave Rattlesnake. I was working at the computer and I heard Dylan coming to the back door. Suddenly I heard him exclaim loudly….something had happened. I went to the backdoor and was attempting to open it but couldn’t. We keep it locked and the lock is hard to open…luckily. Dylan yelled to me to not open the door because there was a rattlesnake just outside the door! What luck that the door wouldn’t open…I surely would have been bitten because the door would have opened to the jaws of the curled up snake that was in attack mode.

I called Police Dispatch who called Animal Control. As we waited for the officer to arrive the snake didn’t move…it remained motionless in its curled up mode.

Mojave Rattlesnake outside our backdoor

Hector, from Animal Control arrived shortly and took out a large plastic bucket and a short-handled snake catcher…a pole with a loop at the end and an elastic cord that tightens the loop to secure the snake’s body. When Hector saw the snake he immediately said it was a Mojave not a Diamondback. He informed us that Mojave rattlesnakes are twice as venomous as Diamondbacks and are very aggressive. He didn’t have his long-handled snake catcher (it was broken he said) and I could tell he was nervous…he thought that the snake was going to lunge. He asked Dylan to get him a long stick and Dylan brought him a rake. You can see from the picture below the state the snake was in.

Mojave Rattlesnake ready to attack

Hector was an expert and caught the snake without it lunging at him. I think he was surprised that it didn’t. I took a video of the capture which needs editing. I will try to post it later.

Dylan and I both came very close to being bitten by this snake. Fortunately we weren’t. Dylan, who’s dad owns this place with his partner Maralyace, said that this is the first time a snake has visited in the five years that they’ve lived here. So I take this experience seriously.

I’m not a new age type of person. This experience though had a big impact on me and my life. I believe it was a sign of some sort…snake energy coming into my life. I feel different today…more energized, focused, happy. I woke up wanting to be more creative, to discover new ways that I can express myself in my life.

I don’t know if it was having a near death or serious injury experience or if it is true that snake energy came to change my life. Whatever is true I feel different.

I googled ’snake energy’  and I found a site that lists information about different animal totems. Here is the information about the Snake.

SNAKE

Wisdom, Healing, Initiation

The symbol of eternity

This a powerful totem — it is
the symbol of transformation and healing.
The Snake is wisdom expressed through healing.

It is a protector and guardian totem,
along with its sister totems, the Dragon and the Serpent.

If a snake totem has come into your life, your creative forces are awakening.
Your intuition will sharpen and be more accurate.

Snake energy is the energy of wholeness, cosmic consciousness, and
the ability to experience anything willingly and without resistance.
It is the knowledge that all things are equal in creation.

It also signals a transition in your life.
New opportunities and/or changes.

Snake is fire medicine, the medicine of transmutation.
On a material level, it is vitality; on an emotional level, it is ambition and dreams;
on a mental level, it is intellect and power; on a spiritual level (the highest level),
it is wisdom, understanding and wholeness.

Snake magic is heavy magic.
Become the Magician and transmute the energy and accept the power of the fire.

The Snake is one of the symbols of Thoth.

Last Thursday I moved to my new home for the summer in Brewery Gulch. It is a wonderful home in the Gulch owned by two artist friends, Chuck and Maralyce. Chuck is a photographer and Maralyce is a clothing designer. They own a gallery here in Bisbee called Panterra Gallery. They have a website if you’re interested in checking it out.  Just google Panterra Gallery in Bisbee.

I am happy to be settling into a home for a few months. I have everything that I need here…internet access, big screen tv to watch movies, filtered water, washer/dryer, a front porch to watch the early morning light, a comfortable bed, good energy, a great kitchen, peace and quiet.

310 Brewery Gulch, the entrance

310 Brewery Gulch, the back entrance

My Spanish class ends on Tuesday. I’m doing a presentation on Chile for the final. Once the class has ended I start my next phase here in Bisbee. I’ll have time for more social life, swimming and aerobics, cooking, reading and contemplating my next adventure. Will I go back to work in the fall or travel?

So for now I watch my nickels, live conservatively, enjoy life here in southeastern Bisbee and wait.

It’s taken me a week to bring myself back here…at least enough to be able to write a short post. ..part of me is still in Peru and South America.

I arrived on Saturday and Sunday my body refused to let me do much more than lie on the couch and sleep. I could only get up for about 10 minutes then I had to lie down again. It was a strange feeling having my body in control…after three and a half months of traveling I could travel no more.

This week has been a transition. Sometimes it feels like a pinball is bouncing around inside of me and I’ve been nervous and insecure. I’ve felt vulnerable and out of sorts. It’s a strange experience having part of me in one place and the other here….and my insides don’t have their usual protection. Talk about swimming around in a new fishbowl!

I am staying in a sweet, peaceful and lovely apartment in the lower half of my friend Sandy’s house in Bisbee. No words can say how appreciative I am to have this space for myself for a few weeks. It is the perfect place for me to re-enter. I wake up to birds chirping and the sun shining. I sit out on the deck outside my door and watch the sun rise up off the mountains of Mexico and Arizona…watch the colors change. It’s kinda like the sun rising on my new life here with its new colors, shapes and friends.

I am happy to return to Bisbee…I felt this strongly as we drove from Tucson to Bisbee through the desert to this small community tucked away in the Mule Mountains not far from Mexico…it is a hideaway in a state of its own.

I started an intensive Spanish class on Monday. We are in class from 8:30 – 3:00 each day with about 3 hours of homework. It was a quick jump from returning to immersion in Spanish class but it has worked out well. The structure and focus is helping me and I love being immersed in Spanish…it reminds me of Peru and Ecuador.

I miss my friends, the culture, exploring new places but I know I will continue traveling. For now it is time to settle for a time back ‘home’.

This afternoon I fly out of Quito to Los Angeles then tomorrow morning I fly to Tucson where a friend, Mark, will pick me up at the airport and take me back to Bisbee completing the circle.

I am glad I´ve had two days in Quito…it has helped me start the transition to leave South America. I have loved this trip and I´ve had some amazing experiences. I´ve learned a lot about myself and two countries, Ecuador and Peru. I visited incredible sites and had wonderful experiences that have changed my life. I am curious to discover what my experience will be when I return to the U.S. and Bisbee. Time will tell.

I hope to return to South America. I plan to continue my Spanish studies this summer. I will be staying with friends and housesitting this summer in Bisbee. I am not sure of my plans for the fall. That is unknown at this point.

I will continue my blog and update previous posts and finally add photos for the last two months. Take care my fellow travelers…follow your heart and enjoy your life.

Sunday was my last night in Cusco. Jo, Lisa and I had returned to Cusco from Machu Picchu in the afternoon and we agreed to meet at 7 pm for dinner. Jo knew a good restaurant where neither Lisa nor I had been. It had comfortable seating and good food and we enjoyed a glass of wine, dinner and dessert. Afterwards we played Hearts, a card game I used to play when I was a child. We had played while we were in Aquas Caliente and we all enjoyed it. Jo had the cards and that night Lisa won the game. But no one really cared who won…it was the comraderie and the happiness that mattered.

It was a fun evening and I felt happy to be with these two amazing women who both have traveled the world over the course of many years. I learned a lot from them and we had wonderful times traveling in the Sacred Valley together. I will miss you both.

I will add more later…

Lisa, Jo and I caught the local bus from Cusco to Urubamba Friday morning. We then took a collectivo to Ollantaytambo which arrived there mid morning. Jo and I went immediately to the Hearts cafe to order large mugs of good coffee and a big breakfast. Lisa chose to go to her favorite local restaurant where she could get a typical Peruvian meal. After a relaxing breakfast we walked to the train station and took the train to Pueblo Machu Picchu which is also known as Aquas Caliente because it has thermal baths located next to a small river running next to town.

Taking the train to Pueblo Machu Picchu

The train at Aquas Calientes also known as Pueblo Machu Picchu

The hostal where we had our reservations turned out to be a dismal affair. So Jo and I set off to look for another hostal while Lisa watched our bags at a cafe overlooking the small plaza. After looking at four places we decided to take a room in a hostal that had four beds and a clean bathroom with a shower with hot water (we ran the water to make sure). All for $5 per night per person. We were staying two nights so it was a good price for us.

The trip to Machu Picchu was an expensive one for all of us. It cost $70 for the roundtrip train ride, $? for the entrance ticket into Machu Picchu, $? for the bus to the entrance and we also had our food and lodging expenses.

In the late afternoon Lisa wanted to take a soak in the local hot water tubs which were located next to a small river running next to it. So the three of us hiked to the springs which were located just outside of town. Lisa and Jo changed and went into the tubs. I decided to wait in the adjacent bar and watch our things. The tubs were filled with locals and they didn’t look clean to me. Lisa and Jo stayed in them for only a short while. Then we walked back to our room.

The tubs at Aquas Calientas

On the way we looked for a restaurant where we could have dinner. Each restaurant had someone ourside talking about the food and the price. Both nights we were disappointed. We fell into bait and switch tactics which were being used all over town. We caught on and demanded to get what was promised but it left an unpleasant taste in our mouths.

After dinner we went to a very nice restaurant, ordered drinks and played Hearts for a couple of hours.

The next morning we lined up on the street next to the river at 5.30 am to catch a bus to Machu Picchu. Some people walk from A.C. up Inca steps to the site which takes from 1 to 2 hours. We decided to take the bus. We arrived at the site and entered it by walking along a narrow path until the site suddenly opened up in front of us. I saw green, many ruins, high peaks, and felt a profound energy.

My first sight of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was an incredible experience. We arrived before 6 am and hiked in the forest on Huayna Picchu in the morning up and down Inca steps with great views stopping at small ruins to rest, have a snack and even to meditate…we ended up at the Temple of the Moon then retraced our steps back to Machu Picchu.

Jo walking down Inca steps on Huayna Picchu

Close up of Inca steps on the way to the Temple of the Moon

By that time there were many tourists but not so many as I thought…but we definitely didn´t have the place to ourselves. I did get some time to connect to the site and its sacred geometry and the stones that have been resting there for so long. It is a profound and magical place and I feel that I am still reaping the rewards of my visit. It is still with me in my body, spirit and mind.

The classic view of Machu Picchu

Peru itself was a profound experience. I am still having difficulties finding the words to describe my experience…hopefully I will discover them.
For me it was astounding that there existed a society that built a place like Machu Picchu…that held in high importance the land, nature, sacred cities and buildings and all else. To know that people actually were able to do that for awhile gives me hope that it may exist again in a new way…that we can build societies that hold sacredness dear in their hearts and literally to build their lives around those principles.