three yahoos out hiking

And when I say hiking, I don't mean anything particularly rigourous.  Truth is, none of are in as good of shape as we should be.  So I won't pat us on the back for getting out on a hike per se, but I am happy that we didn't simply sit around the house while in the desert.

Conrad picked the hike, but I requested something not too far a drive and perhaps down in the direction of Palm Desert instead of heading up into Palm Springs.  He opted for a moderate trail starting from Homme-Adams Park.  Some climbing, nothing too severe. 

It was a nice little loop on a mild day.  Heck, Van even had a trio of younger gays say "Hey Daddy" to him (but I mean, hands-off, he's taken!).  Not the most scenic in terms of the trail itself, but some good views over the city of Palm Desert and the valley beyond.

But otherwise, just three yahoos out hiking in the desert, enjoying a long weekend down there.

a break in the South America posts

More from Chile and then Argentina to come, to be sure, but why not have a break in the South America posts.  After all, we've been back in the US almost a week now.  Wow!  That's a little weird to think.  Two weeks ago today we were in Valparaiso for the afternoon.

We came down to the desert on Thursday for the four-day weekend.  We have a few activities planned in relation to Modernism Week, but mostly we're just enjoying relaxing time together at the Rancho Mirage house.  Not all laziness for us, though - we got ourselves onto a moderate trail in Palm Desert this afternoon for a nice little hike.

And with that little weekend glimpse given, back to the blogging of the South America vacation!

day one in Torres del Paine

We had gotten off the plane (oh, that bloody early morning flight from Santiago) and then rode a lengthy shuttle drive and arrived at the hotel in Torres del Paine in time for lunch and in time for an afternoon excursion.  We were off to see a mighty waterfall first, then do a mild hike to a viewpoint of the horns.

The park is set amidst peaks and glaciers, and the lakes and rivers and waterfalls all have that extraordinary blue of glacial melt. 

The waterfall was indeed mighty,

but more impressive, I think, was the wind.  Oh, what a wind.  I knocked us about a bit, and I am not a small man.  It drove spray at us, but it wasn't a cold wind, happily.  We enjoyed the waterfall then pressed onward.

The hike was about forty-five minutes.  We kept coming to vantage points and thinking, wow, this is it.  But there was further to go and a new view to see.  The horns are not the towers of the park's name, but they are impressive nonetheless. 

What was funny to realize, though, is that a few days earlier, when we had been east of Santiago, we were at an elevation about as high as the top of the tallest peaks we saw.  Weird to wrap our heads around that one.

I think that was the most relaxing time we had on the trip, in a sense.  As we hiked, we de-clumped and strung ourselves out along the trail. 

There weren't too many other people around.  We were able to drink in the view and chat in different combinations and just have time to ourselves.  An ideal afternoon, all in all.

Day two brought more amazing views and a broader survey of the park, but had we only had that afternoon in the park, I would have been very happy.

hike to Kaena Point

Most people go to Honolulu to see Waikiki. Lovely place. Beach, sand, people-watching, great shopping. Done it. Or done it enough. I mean, come on, if you've seen my blog, you KNOW I am not a sun-worshiper and beach vacations (Maui with the Kayiwas aside) are not what I go in for.

So there I was, last weekend, in Honolulu for a second time this year (yes, bragging a little), and what do Conrad and I do? Get out of town and head for a remote point on Oahu. Kaena Point is the westernmost spot on the island, and on a clear day, apparently, one can see Kauai. Wow.

It was a sunny warm day, but the hike was not uphill. Instead, we walked along a seaside dirt (sometimes mud) road that only the hardiest of vehicles could negotiate, and even then they would have to stop 3/4 of a mile short of the point itself. We later learned that it was almost 3 miles each way, and the road, while not uphill, was far from even. Our legs were not happy at the end of the night.

No matter. At Kaena, the mountains stopped, but the rocks continued off into the water, reaching to the neighbour island. We rested a moment or two,
then investigated the rock pools, hoping for some interesting sights.



I had expected more, frankly - no sea stars or anemones or big octopi to startle us. I just don't know the tidal pool fauna there, though, so maybe my expectations were unreasonable. We did, however, see a lovely angelfish. We think it was an angelfish. It really stood out, and we watched it some minutes.

Also fascinating to watch were the waves. I hope the photos give some sense of their size.




Not 20 feet, we can guess that much, but certainly they were taller than human height. The Point is not a place for surfers, but how cool would it have been to see someone riding those? Very. We did see a number of people surf fishing along the shore as we walked. The waves are almost hypnotic despite their power. Most interesting was seeing, from a distance, the clash of waves from somewhat opposite directions meeting at the point. We saw instances that looked as though one wave curled over the other. Really neat to see.

The Point is mostly sandy above the rocks, roped-off breeding ground for a couple of birds. Immediately above the rock pools, though were some patches of bleached out coral. Something whiter than me, though not by much. Quite a contrast to the darker rock (lava, we would presume).

Not an easy hike, though it seemed it beforehand. A mai tai each at lunch may not have helped either. Still, we were glad to have tackled it and enjoyed a good long afternoon without too many others around.

Hill Country 2: hills and country

The wine tasting I mentioned really was just happy coincidence. Conrad and I did want to get out to see the Hill Country countryside itself, in fact. Given some gorgeous, pleasantly warm weather, we set out on the Saturday morning to the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Popular place. The parking lot had almost reached its limit an hour after we got there, and there were streams of people hiking up the rock. Still, we found space to ourselves and a nice sense of being alone.

Enchanted Rock is a pink granite dome. Well, there are better, geologically-correct explanations, but that's pretty much it: a bald dome of rock and some smaller granite formations.


We set out hiking.





In fact, we weren't well prepared for a hike. No sunscreen (that's why I'm all zipped up and capped), no proper footwear. We probably could have reached the summit, but we thought it wiser to take a different direction.

As it turns out, there were plenty of interesting rock formations to admire, especially against the stunning blue sky; our path was partly guided by a desire to get closer to some of them.







Also noteworthy was the flora: fairy ferns, prickly pears, and more.





A moment or two to rest and stretch out some,and then it was the hike back down to the shelter of the car and a drive to Llano for lunch.