Weekend at the Coast

Last weekend, I took a couple much needed days away from work to enjoy some unseasonably hot weather on the northern Oregon Coast. I knocked out five hikes from the "60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Portland" book - over 30 miles in two days - and camped for the night at Cape Lookout State Park. Below are some shots of the weekend. It's hard to believe that all these pictures were taken less than two hours from downtown Portland.


Early morning on the Coast.


A lighthouse perched on a rock, off the coast. I think I would've liked to be the lighthouse keeper here, if only for a couple weeks.


Awesome bridge on the Drift Creek Falls trail.



View from below the bridge (check the upper right corner of the picture), with very cool (literally, the spray was welcome relief from the heat) Drift Creek Falls in the foreground.

Belize and Guatemala

Over Christmas break 2007, I took a quick two week run down to Belize and Guatemala to escape the chilly Oregon winter. My thoughts on both countries:

Belize: if you like the beach and want a short, cheap, and somewhat exotic trip from the USA, I can't recommend Belize enough. The country has an awesome mix of jungles, beaches, and spectacular underwater scenery - I spent about half my trip on, in, or right next to the water, much of that with a snorkel in my mouth. The diving wasn't quite as good as in Egypt, but it's a whole lot closer and easier to get to. Belize generally has good food, as long as you like rice and beans (and cheap lobster!), and it's not too expensive although definitely it's a lot pricer than Guatemala. I probably won't go back, as I discovered that I'm not much of a beach person, but it was fun nonetheless.

Guatemala: I only spent three days in Guatemala, all at the Mayan historic site Tikal and the nearby city of Flores, so I can't really comment on the country as a whole. But, what I saw was fantastic. It had long been a dream of mine to climb a Mayan pyramid - I got chills sitting atop Templo IV at Tikal all alone watching the sunset, with monkeys and birds rustling in the canopy all around. That one hour was worth the whole trip. Plus, Guatemala was cheap, had great food, and it was really fun to use my Spanish again (I definitely got a sense of nostalgia for South America...). I'll be going back someday to Guatemala to see the rest of this beautiful country.

My New Home

After returning from Iceland in September 2007, I moved from California, where I had lived for the previous five years, to take a new job in Portland, Oregon. I desperately needed a change of scenery... and, even more desperately, a full time job after two years of piecing together a part-time living between trips.

I've been in Portland for nearly a year now, and I've never felt so "at home" anywhere before, a bold statement considering all the places I've lived. Yes, the weather stinks sometimes, but the outdoors opportunities within two hours of my apartment are virtually endless. I've been devoting a lot of my time to getting to know my new home, and have no international travel plans for the immediate future, although the direct Portland-to-Tokyo flight is tempting.

Here's a shot of Mt. Hood, my local peak, that I took on my first Oregon hike after moving up here.

Iceland

Nearly a year since my last post, I'm getting around to blogging again. My first task is to update the site for my trip to Iceland last summer, August 2007. I spent three weeks on the island.

I enjoyed my Iceland trip, but not as much as I thought I would. It was beautiful on sunny days, and misery on rainy days (it didn't help that the high costs of the country necessitated that I sleep in a tent every night of the trip). And, in a way, it felt like "wilderness lite", after visiting Patagonia, Canada, and even parts of the USA. I can see how it is so attractive for Europeans, though, since the choices for true wilderness travel are much more limited on their continent.

Highlights of the trip included: the drive across the interior of the island along the Kjoler Route, puffin watching on the beautiful Westmann Islands, and the two sunny days of hiking I got in at Skaftafell National Park.

Lowlights of the trip included: whale watching in Husavik (paled in comparison to whale watching I've done in other places), extraordinarily high food prices, and the weather.

I'm so glad I went to see Iceland but I don't think I'll go back, mainly due to expense of getting there and the fact that the raw nature in North and South America is more spectacular.