How I got to Ecuador

I finally made it back to Logan in Boston via Cincinnati. Had a wonderful night there at the Quality Inn - was able to do laundry, in case Kerry had no power in Foxboro when I got there and had a very restful night and lovely breakfast. People were so nice there, including the driver of the shuttle from the airport who made a stop at the gas station for me to get some cash at an ATM - of course, I´m sure he was hoping for a tip and with no money he wouldn´t have gotten one! Actually I never made it to Cincinnati as the airport is in Lexingon, KY across the Ohio river. As I flew out the next day and looked down at the winding river, I kept thinking of Uncle Tom´s Cabin and the scene of slaves swimming that river to get to the free state of Ohio!

I met a very interesting young man on the plane back to Boston. He had been in KY doing his weekend Army Reserves duty. He works in computer securities in Boston in the Government Center. But he stayed in the Reserves after they put him through school and plans to stay in it until he will retire from the military in 20 years with a pension! And he basically does the same job for the Army when he does his summer and weekend duties. I asked him how he planned all this out. He said his dad had been in the reserves. This young man wanted to go to BU but didn´t have the money. So opted for the Reserves and THEY sent him to college. I just thought it was pretty amazing planning for a young 20 something to set up.

Kerry had arranged for me to wait at Logan (barely 45 minutes) until Jackie and Paul, her in-laws who had been with us in Puerto Morelos and been diverted for 2 nights in Atlanta, flew into Logan. They had their car there and drove me to Kerry´s to switch suitcases. A lovely neighbor had plowed a path to their door, but I had to shovel to my car to get the suitcase! Rushing around to make the switch and get Paul and Jackie home, I neglected to take my 2 pairs of sandals from the Mexico bag and went off with only hiking boots.

They drove me to Quincy to the Adams Inn where I would be able to get a shuttle ride in the am to the airport for my flight to Miami. It was packed with guests who lived locally but had no power! I was so luck Kerry had insisted on booking me a room from Mexico. I would have losts hundreds of dollars of flight costs if she hadn´t spent hours with Delta getting me home. The Boston MTA wasn´t running on Sunday so I have NO idea how I would have gotten to Foxboro and back with out her arranging things!!! She takes such good care of me!

So after a great night´s sleep I headed at 7 a.m. back to Logan for my flight.

Made it to cincinnati

So the adventure has started!  Our flight from Cancun yesterday was cancelled due to huge snowstorm in NE. Kerry managed to get me to Cincinnati last night and spent a wonderful night actually inKentucky relaxing and able to do laundry in case there is no power T Kerry,s, assuming I make it there today!  I have to switch suitcases and get to the airport by tomorrow for myflight to Miami to meet Betty who will have her own difficulties getting out of MN.   Dontcha just LOVE traveling!!! Sitting in a wonderful lounge chair set up in the concourse while I wait for my flight. Brueggers Bagels is providing free Internet. I just LOVE America!!! More later hopefully from Boston, then Miami and then, hopefully tomorrow Guayaquil, Ecuador! Adios!

Headed south to Mexico

Tomorrow, Feb. 1, 2013, I head off from the Cape to Foxboro to meet up with Kerry, Jason and my grandchildren, Jackson 4, and Sarah, 2.5, to head on Saturday to Puerto Morelos, in the Yucatan for our annual week at El Cid. This year Jackie and Paul Whiting, Jay's parents, will join us for 5 days. It should be great fun ! I'm going to learn how to post using my new iPad while I'm there with lessons from Jay and Kerry! Because the following week after we all return to Boston, I will head to Miami to meet Betty from St. Paul, MN, and we will head to Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina for some new adventures for 6 weeks!

Stay tuned!

Arrived in New York: Thursday, 9/13/2012

I have a few thoughts to put down as I wait in NY for my connecting flight to Boston.

After my beach day yesterday, I met the “female nomads” for a lovely dinner outside the hostel. They had already negotiated with the maitre d’ for free drinks and a discount, since it was our last night. Had moussaka (too big! As usual), Greek salad and red wine. Delicious! Topped off with ice cream.

We then, Maureen, Mica and I walked up the hill across from the Acropolis to see a Greek music and dance program. As we walked down the path, by this time it was dark – 9:30 show – and a stretch had no lights. There were two Greek men walking a dog and they said they would show us where the theatre entrance was. I was a bit disconcerted but Maureen charged on ahead talking with them. Mica said, don’t worry, she would protect us! She probably weights 110 lbs soaking wet! But strong!! She’s the marathoner. She said she would fend them off while we ran away and then she’d run like crazy and catch up with us!! But they were just being helpful and showed us what must be like a back gate. We could finally hear some music but everyone else must have gone in the other entrance. Only about 40 or so people there. E15 for the 90 minute show. It was interesting at first, authentic costumes from around Greece. But then it kind of got repetitive – the steps varied a bit but all line dances and similar. There was a really old woman doing the singing and then she’d plop back down on her chair and wait. But I enjoyed it for a final night in Greece!

Said we’d meet in the a.m. for breakfast before I caught the bus to the airport around 8:30.

Some things I forgot to mention and observations:

People are very kind! When I was headed to the beach on the tram, I couldn’t figure out where to get a ticket – thought I paid on the tram. There was a woman sitting on the bench, she tried to show me and then just handed me a ticket, showed me where to stamp it before I got on and I headed out!

I’ve had more trouble with buses on this trip, figuring out the system and schedules. I had that bad evening in Rome after I left Doug and the driver wouldn’t let me on the bus, even if I paid, and there were no kiosks open to get a ticket. I had that very long, painful walk all the way to Termini to catch the metro back to Anna’s!

Observation: Greek women, it seems to be when they pass a church, cross themselves 3 times. Is this a superstition? The woman next to me on the plane crossed herself when the plane took off and landed.

Sr. Trai Nyiem e-mailed me from Paris that she had gotten in touch with her former roommate in Athens, Katerina, and sent me her phone numbers. I had the desk call her that night but no answer. And they couldn’t call a cell phone from the desk. So I never did connect with her, but I only had one day left anyway. So maybe another time!

Kerry et. al. will meet me at Logan and we’ll head straight to Wellfleet for their anniversary weekend. Can’t wait to see them all!! “Nana! Nana!” Can’t wait!!

It was a wonderful trip, had some great time with Doug, met a number of unforgettable people, and hope to see some of them again for sure!!

Down to my last day – Weds. Sept. 12, 2012

I had a beautiful relaxing day! The other “femalenomads” headed off to visit Acropolis and other ancient sites. I took the tram leisurely for about an hour and ½ out to a beach at Voulu. It was lovely, hired a bed and umbrella for E2.5 for the day and dove in. It had a lovely sandy bottom, something I haven’t found in Greek beaches so far. So for me this was the best beach so far. It wasn’t too crowded, the water was refreshing and I spent several hours reading, swimming, dozing, lazing (is that a verb? Word?) The young woman at the travel agency who had been so helpful told me to maybe take the tram one way (it makes lots of stops) and the bus back. That’s what I did. Meeting the other 3 at 7:30 for dinner and then to the Greek Dance Theatre in an outside theatre across from the Acropolis at 9:30 for E15. I’ll get packed up first. Just found out it looks like my flight is 1:00 p.m. rather than the original 2:00 p.m. But I know right where the bus is to express to the airport. For some reason it won’t let me check in online so I’ll have to do it there.

I think the key to traveling longer, and not getting so tired, as I did after the six week China/Japan sojourn, is to take a day of rest – like today! I could probably keep going for another week or so and then rest. But home for now. Two of the nomads are going on to a couple of islands and then maybe a month in Turkey!! Would SOOO like to have included Turkey on this trip but it just seemed too much. Another time! We’ll keep in touch and I’ll hear how and what they did while there. They were in Dubrovnik (they said most beautiful city they were ever in!) and through Albania where the people were incredibly nice! So much to see! So little time!!

BTW, I remember from 1965 we saw a beautiful outdoor Sound and Light show in English with music where all the various sites were lit up and they told the history story. I hadn’t heard anything about it. Finally found out, online of course, that they stopped doing it in 2000 – they thought it might be damaging the sites. I don’t think the lights can hurt marble but what do I know. Glad I got to see it when I did.

More later!

email from Anna in Italia....

Ciao Susanna,

so how are you? I imagine you still in Greece on wonderful beaches.


We concluded our week with Thay with the conference last Thursday. Everything was very good, the retreat was so good for me: the Darma talks by Thay and the sharings in particular.


Send news when you can,

a kiss from Rome

Anna

Tuesday in Athens, Sept. 11, 2012

Sleep was interrupted at 1:30 a.m. when a new roommate showed up (it’s a 4 bed room). But think she left already this morning. After breakfast I headed off to the Hopon/Hopoff bus again and rode to the Acropolis stop. As I headed up the LOOONG climb, I saw a handicapped elevator sign, so decided my limp was a handicap and followed it around the base. Came upon a construction elevator going STRAIGHT up a cliff! Rode it up with an elderly German couple – it was pretty breathtaking! I didn’t get up there until about 10 as I had chatted too long at breakfast with Kendall, a woman from Long Beach I’d met the night before. She said she’d leave a note if she was interested in going on the bus out to see the sunset at Sounion on the southern tip of this peninsula at the Temple of Poseidon.

So there were already crowds of tourists up top but I tried to ignore them and enjoy the moment. The two temples on top are amazing but the British Museum really needs to return the Elgin marble statues stolen in the early 1900s from this site and return them to Greece! Something like over 40 statues were taken! They are working on some reconstruction but I think Greece needs to focus on other economic needs rather than reconstructing sites for tourists right now!! I ended up spending a couple of hours taking in the wonderful views out over the city and the temples before returning to the hostel. Stopped and had a wonderful Greek salad and souvlaka for lunch and then took a rest at the hostel before meeting Kendall, Maureen and Mica (two Canadians from Vancouver traveling together – Kendall had met them on the walking tour of sites today – I wasn’t up to that much walking.

We ran (hobbling/run for me!) to make the 3:30 bus out to Sounion. It was a gorgeous ride along the coast with beautiful views of the Aegean with tons of people in swimming and windsurfing! It took almost 2 hours (a bargain for E6.5) to get out to the remote hill where the temple was. They only give you a senior discount if you are from an EU country so paid the full E4 to get in, E12 at the Acropolis. We got some cold drinks and headed up to walk around the temple. It doesn’t look restored and was in much better condition than the Parthenon (although it didn’t get a bomb thrown into it by the Venetians or somebody like the Parthenon did!) Very few people there so we had a lovely visit and headed home just as the sun was setting on the 7 p.m. bus. The travel agent here in the hostel was wonderful! I was going to pay E48 for a bus tour out there and she said I didn’t need to do that – just take this local bus – and it was much better. We were on our own time schedule.

Kendall is a social worker, working with troubled kids and adults in Long Beach, CA. She’s over here for a month’s holiday and will head to some islands. She loves traveling on her own and has done a lot of it. She met on the walk Maureen, a retired American Airlines employee, traveling with Mica, also retired, from Vancouver. They are traveling for several months, will head to some islands and maybe Crete from here. Mica’s amazing, 55 years old, has run 10 marathon and will run in London in April. She said there are 5 majors and this will complete the 5 for her. She’s run Boston several times. Amazing!! I think Maureen said she’d hiked that trail from France into Spain last year – took her 5 months!! They will travel for a month or so in Turkey after Greece! Mica lived 16 years in Fiji Islands (but she is Sikh) and then moved to Vancouver when she married. She and Maureen are both now divorced and passionate travelers. Hope to connect with them again sometime!

Ate wonderful food and wine next door to the hostel (they give us free drink and 15% off). They told me they ran into Stephen Baldwin on their walking tour and showed me pictures he took with them. Apparently he was with some religious group, carrying a Bible. He was very friendly and willing to take pictures. They were all excited! At the next table to us at dinner was a Greek Australian musician with his younger date who chatted us up and invited us to where his friend would be performing. We’re already going to the music folklore program tomorrow evening up on one of the hills near the Acropolis. But they may go see him another night. Fun!

Got an e-mail from Sr. Trai Nyiem (Akemi) from Paris with her former Athens roommate’s contact info here. Tried to call her to maybe meet up with Katerina tomorrow sometime. The other 3 are headed to the Acropolis tomorrow but I was going to try to find a beach out by Pireaus maybe for the day. There were beautiful beaches out that way.

Yassas for now!