stubsadventures

The Pearl Islands (Las Perlas), Panama

The Pearl Islands, are, quite simply, heavenly. That statement encompasses many aspects: how they look, the people who live there, the ocean that surrounds them, the animals that inhabit them and I could go on.

A short 20 minute flight from Panama City, yet these islands are a world away. Although the flights are short, and despite the fact that several ferries can shuttle you there if you find the flight expensive, they are, relatively unvisited compared to the San Blas Islands we had just left, which, once you’ve seen both for yourself, is quite shocking. Although San Blas is beautiful, sandy and filled with awesome islands, they are, at least to me, quite boring. An island you can walk around in less than five minutes and a beach with no fish to snorkel on, can only inspire me for so long.

The Pearl Islands however are filled with birds, rock, a wide variety of trees and marine life and some very interesting history, which includes a chapter linking it to Pablo Escobar. While wadding in the beach just off of our hotel, a sting ray came right up to our feet. Most people come and go from the islands, stopping for a one day, sometimes one night visit, mostly to walk around, dunk in the ocean, drink at the bar and move on. I was staying for five nights. Although there are numerous islands that make up the Pearl Islands, I was staying on Contadora Island at The Point Hotel.

This particular island is 1.39km2 but I still left feeling like I could have stayed busy there for a few more weeks. On the island is an abandoned hotel, at one time that hosted over 300 rooms, now empty, the hotel was built from the drug trade here. When its owners plane blew up (with him in it), shortly after leaving the runway on the island, it never really recovered and is now vacant, looted and being left to the elements, as is the ferry that once shuttled passengers from the main land. The hotel can be yours, for a cool $45 million US. At one time, this hotel and island hosted many presidents, prime ministers and was the getaway of choice for many celebrities. Christian Dior has a house on this tiny island. The island hosts homes worth more than $10 million but just down the road will be a run down school with long since used play ground equipment. The contrast is hard to ignore.

One of the coolest things I did was sail (with a guide) to an island with no name. The snorkelling was awesome here and I saw a nurse shark, hiding under some rocks. This island has a colony of Booby birds (no joke) and quite a few varieties of crabs lurking around.

Although I did manage one dive, I have to admit it was a bit of a disappointment. Although there was one very impressive school of fish that was staying close and some interesting rock formations, the area lacked color and in general a variety of anything. The water was warm though, and I’ll never complain about spent under the sea.

Stubs.

Hitting the ground running in Panama

Panama is off the wall. I have been to many countries that run on “island time” but no where like here. Today, a flight to the Pearl Islands was three hours later than scheduled. Not because the other plane was late arriving, not because of weather delays, just… because.

It was a bit of an aggressive start, flying to Houston with a five-hour layover, arriving in Panama City at 2am. At 530am, we got picked up at the airport and promptly went on a 2.5 hour drive to the Caribbean coast through the San Blas Hills. Here, we went on a tour of several of the San Blas Islands just off the coast. Not many locals speak English here, which can make things challenging at times. Being good at hand signals really comes in handy.

The first night in Panama was spent on a private cabana, on a quiet island, fast asleep at 5pm, sleeping clear through the night.

The food here is simple and delicious. Most of the fish are cooked fully, minus the tails and you just pick the meat off the bones.

After one night in San Blas, a quick 2.5 hour drive back to Panama City. Downtown Panama City is insane. That’s just the right word for it. You could compare driving to some European countries with traffic circles everywhere, horns blaring constantly and the aggressive driver wins every time. It really is something to see. It never ceases to amaze me where there just aren’t crashes at every turn.

Unfortunately, I forgot an essential cable to upload some photos from my main camera. I have some pictures that I took from some of my back up cameras but I will have to wait to complete the blogs. Until then, a few shots.

Stubs

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 23,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

A whole bunch of awesome stuff

I’ve been a little bit busy. That being said, I’ve still found time for some pretty awesome adventures, during which I snapped a few pictures.

Golfing
This is something I started doing this summer, the first time being on PEI with my family. After that, I was lucky enough to go play a round at Silver Tip Resort as a fundraiser for the Rocky Mountain Adaptive Sports Centre, which is a charity I’m becoming very fond of. Check them out, they do pretty amazing stuff. Then, this fall, my team and I played a round at the 9 hole Banff Springs Course. Both it and Silver Tip were just beautiful places to spend a day. I may be awful but I am really starting to enjoy golf.

Powderface Ridge Hike, Kananaskis, AB
This was a cool hike Caper and I did one afternoon. It was not the intended hike we started out the day looking for but once we found ourselves following the signs, we though, what the hell. The hike is a strenuous one, you gain almost 2000ft elevation. Caper was a champ. She had a great time and had energy the whole 14km we hiked that day.

Sparkling Hill Resort. Vernon, BC
This may be one of my favourite new places. This is a pretty upscale resort but the atmosphere is so relaxing. The spa is the main reason we went there and it didn’t disappoint. There is a wide variety of amazing and unique steam and sauna rooms that you can access as a guest. There is an outdoor infinity pool that was made to melt stress away. Although it was a short visit, I cannot wait to get back and hopefully spend a few days there next time.

Waterton National Park, AB
Back in October a few of us went down to Waterton to dive. It was my first time actually diving in that lake and I was pretty excited, despite the severe wind gusts that didn’t exactly start the dive off on a warm note. The wreck doesn’t have too much left anymore. It’s a pretty popular dive site (most are in Alberta because there are so few), so visibility wasn’t the greatest because there were two other groups diving and one of them was doing training. Despite the not ideal conditions, we managed to get two dives in and I got a few shots of the boat. The coolest thing left, by far is the boiler.

A trip to the East coast of Canada

A trip home is never dull but it sure can be exhausting!

Starting off in PEI, we stayed in a lighthouse for two nights, which is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. West Point Lighthouse is unique in it’s style and the fact that you can actually rent a room INSIDE the lighthouse tower! The fact that it is apparently haunted by Lighthouse Keeper Willy was not enough to keep us away. You actually pass through the museum and there are artifacts in the hallway just outside the door. Early in the morning, you can hear people coming to visit the top of the lighthouse. Although Willy did not make an appearance, the lighthouse has a special place in my heart, and I really look forward to going back one day.

After West Point, we headed to Cavendish for a quasi-family reunion, which was awesome. I played golf for the first time in my life and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. Playing with my family and having some laughs along the way made it that much more enjoyable.

One of my favorite stops in PEI is Greenwich National Park. This is visually one of my favorite places in all of Canada and the best part is – it’s not iodinated with big groups of people. So, in addition to having an amazing national park at your doorstep, at times, you feel like you’re the only person there.

From PEI was a trip to Cape Breton to spend time with my grandparents. After Sydney, we drove the Cabot Trail, which I haven’t done in years. The beauty, spirit and energy of Cape Breton never cease to amaze me. There are no words really. Cape Breton just makes me happy.

Back on the mainland, it was time to celebrate the wedding of two good friends, which we couldn’t have been happier about. Seeing old friends, having laughs and probably a few too many drinks was just what the doctor ordered!

I have been trying for years to get back to White Point Beach Resort. Very early on in my time with the Boys and Girls Club, I had a conference to attend there. Only about 21 years old, I remember being completely taken back by the beauty of that place and I vowed one day to go back. Finally this year, the star aligned and I found myself back in one of those oh so amazing beach front cabins. The beach at White Point is stunning but the other awesome part is that it’s so close to Liverpool, Lunenburg and all of those beautiful south shore locations.

One evening, we had a rented a sail boat to sail through Lunenburg harbour and the views were stunning. Years ago, Poncho and I had hiked the sea caves in Lunenburg and this time, I got to see them from the ocean, which was pretty cool.

Did a dive in a little harbour in LaHave, NS. The place used to be the dump site back at the turn of the century, so there were lots of cool little treasures to be found there. Saw some seriously huge lobsters which was kind of cool and also three one-armed lobsters, who were no less feisty with one less claw!

Stubs

An adventure to remember

It wasn’t if Josh was going to come to Alberta, it was just a matter of when.

Although it seemed to arrive quickly, preparing for this trip was actually months in the making. I knew Josh needed to come to my site. His story is too interesting to not share, his attitude is infectious and his zest for life rubs off on anyone around him. Learning as much as I have about spinal cord injuries in the last few months, I’ve been passionate about spreading the word, educating people on how easy it is to end up on the receiving end of a spinal cord injury. One aspect of my job is to impress the importance of personal protection and I felt from day one that Josh could have a great impact on people and the way they viewed their personal safety.

From the beginning, the challenge was to pack in a big punch in a short period of time. The Rocky Mountains are vast and full of adventure, so it can be difficult to impress them upon someone in a short period of time. We were determined to have new experiences since his injury with Josh and it seemed natural to figure out a way to get him on an ATV. At first, the pictures can seem a bit crazy, even wreck less but in fact, we took a lot of time to figure out the safest way for us all to share this with him. We all went slow, chose appropriate routes and managed to have lots of laughs along the way. Dream big, that was the motto for this trip.

A trip into Banff and Lake Louise was also a must. I was thrilled to find out that the Banff Gondola was accessible, so what better way to get a quadriplegic to 7300ft, than a cable car to the top.

We then took a quick 900km road trip to Christina Lake, Alberta, which is where I work. Josh’s speech was to remind people what can happen to your job when you have an injury off the job, to share his experience and what he’s learned about spinal cord injuries throughout his journey thus far. It was received so well, I was thrilled. People were really floored by Josh, his story and his courage. I had dozens of people talk to me later about the conversations they had with their friends and family about Josh’s story and the dangers of diving head first into water.

Saying good-bye was bitter sweet, however, I’m fairly confident it won’t be long before he’s back putting the wild in the west.

Stubs.

A getaway to Emerald Lake Lodge, BC

After several weeks of craziness, it was time to get away and have some quiet time.

Emerald Lake Lodge had been on my bucket list ever since I had seen a picture of it years ago. The lodge itself is fairly pricy to stay at, so I had been waiting for the perfect occasion to go, and this was it.

Only about two hours from my place, it was a short but pretty drive through the mountains to Yoho National Park, BC. You can’t drive to the lodge, you park and then a shuttle brings you and your belongings up. Of course Caper dog was with me, she enjoys the fancy hotels the most.

The lodge itself is beautiful and the lake is something you would think a person dreamed up. The minerals in the lake make it a stunning emerald color. There’s a great trail that goes along the lake which we explored several times but the highlight was the several hours hanging out in the canoe. The shoreline is awesome and this time of the year, there is a layer of pollen floating on the top of the water that adds a beautiful artistic flare to the lake surface.

It was here in Emerald Lake, that I had the scariest experience I’ve ever had in the wild. Standing peacefully next to the lake away from the other tourists, I heard two, very clear, very distinct cougar growls. It was close, and it wasn’t happy and those were the only two facts I needed to get out of there. I’m not scared of much, and fact is, if you are loud enough when you are in the woods, most wild animals once they hear you will do their best to get out of your way. Cougars will hunt you. There are many cougars in the hills that I live in but have never had an encounter to date.

I’ve added a few other pictures, one of the bear that wandered into my yard a few weeks ago. A pretty big black bear and Caper was the first to spot him (or her)! The others are a few of the yard as we’ve been putting lots of work into making it more colorful!

Stubs.

Relaxing on Quadra Island, BC

The islands off of BC’s mainland are numerous and extremely special. Each one has its own personality and charm. They are all relaxing, filled with places to explore and for the most part, filled with very lovely people always willing to chat or share inside information. Any time of the year you can come to one of these islands and it feels like spring. The grass is green, mist is in the air and you can’t escape the fresh smell.

Quadra was an easy trip after a cheap flight came my way. Flying to Comox, driving to Campbell River and then taking the ferry to the island, including stopping for food and drinks was less than four hours. A cabin on the ocean was a pretty ideal way to spend four nights.

There are several shops on Quadra filled with gifts made locally. There are some little grocery stores and a few awesome restaurants. I stayed at Taku Resort, located right across from the picturesque Rebecca Spit Provincial Park.

Some of the highlights were… seeing dolphins!! On two separate occasions I spotted a small pod of dolphins, which was a great thrill. Another highlight was the fascinating visit to Nuyumbalees Cultural Center. This center was filled with some of the most beautiful masks and incredible articles of history. The staff members were so sweet and happy to take the time to share their stories and history with us personally. It felt like a real honor to have almost a personal tour of the center. Outside of the center and around the island are really amazing petroglyphs.

Stubs

Family road trip

Josh has been itching to star in a blog for some time now. After all of our mini one day road trips it was time for us to get some serious miles in.

Bob and I flew to Pittsburgh to meet up with Josh and a few other guys. It being my first trip there, I was really pleasantly surprised by the city. The architecture is actually pretty awesome and the city is the kind of place you could walk around and just look at buildings.

The first night Bob and I ate at a local well known pub called Fat Heads, which was a cool spot. As we were sitting there, Bob noticed that a bunch of the LA Kings were also eating there. It was a great start.

The next day, while waiting for the other guys to arrive, Bob and I got to check out the Pens and the Kings practice at Consol Arena. When we first arrived and sat down, we were the only two people sitting in the stands in the entire arena. It was a pretty amazing feeling. I’ve been able to see a few NHL games in my life and it’s by far my favorite sport to watch and this was a cool change from the pace and volume that comes with a game. You can’t help but admire the skill these guys have. We had the chance to walk around the arena and it seemed like we were totally alone. You kind of felt like a kid in a candy store. After watching the practices, we went for lunch at a restaurant owned by the Penguins and as if on cue, Mario Lemieux and his wife walked past the outside of the restaurant just walking down the street.

Once the other guys arrived from Toronto, we hit our first game. Pens vs. Kings, followed by a road trip to Columbus, Ohio where we had other cousins and family. We got to catch Pens vs Blue Jackets. The next day, some of my cousins who I don’t get to see often came to the hotel to swim in the pool. I have a pretty massive family on one side, so to get to spend time with them in something I really enjoy. Especially the young ones, they’re all so cute!

Two nights in Columbus and we were headed back to Pittsburgh to catch the game vs the Black Hawks. After the game, we got to have a tour of the Pens dressing room which was epic. The entire facility is incredibly impressive and it was even better experiencing it with my brother and Josh.

Check out the pics, it’s as cool as it looks.

Stubs.

African wrap up

It is hard to describe the effect that a place like Africa can have on you. It’s everything about the place. The landscape, the people, the animals and sometimes simply the elements of the earth. There is an energy that draws you in and simply just makes you happy.

My time on the safari left me with memories that I’ll take with me forever and a wish to one day make it back to that amazing continent. It’s not often I travel somewhere and immediately look forward to returning. Micronesia matched Africa in that way.

Tanda Tula Safari Camp was, in my eyes, perfection. Simple, elegant and well thought out, a traveller looking to have a close to nature experience but still enjoy the comforts of life, I highly recommend this slice of heaven. From the moment you arrive, you feel like you’re part of a family. The attention to detail is impressive without being lavish, you are, after all, still in the African bush. The staff were honestly mind-blowing. They actually cared about ensuring you had the best adventure possible. When they asked you if you enjoyed your day, they meant it. They shared their cultures, stories about their families and were genuinely interested in learning about each person who stayed there. If ever traveling to South Africa, look them up. You won’t be disappointed.

The pictures tell the best story of my adventures. Enjoy.

Stubs.