Postcard from Alamos- March 1, 2015

Mary and I are off again, once again in Mexico, with Toby and the van. We left Prescott February 21, and expect to arrive home on the 24th.  Our planned route is Tucson, San Carlos, Alamos, Yecora, Basaseachic, Madera, Casas Grandes, Banamichi, Caborca, Gonzaga Bay, San Felipe, home. 

So far, so wonderful.  This comes to you from Alamos, where we have been since Thursday.  We leave Monday, heading up into the Sierra Madre Occidental just as a storm blows in.  Per Weather Underground, we'll get plenty of rain (maybe even snow!) no matter we find ourselves.  So more lodging, less camping, and we'll be wearing all those just-in-case warm things.

In Tucson, we had a fun weekend visit with Hal and Liz Kingslein, friends from our recent trip to Vietnam. Monday we crossed the border at Nogales. After acquiring visas and a vehicle importation permit at Kilometer 21, we headed south to San Carlos, and set up "camp" in the carport of Bill and Katie Kluchko's casita.

Highlights of San Carlos were the views,  Napule canyon, the Estero El Soldado, and the great food and conversation served up by our hosts.

Thursday morning we drove through Ciudad Obregon and Navajoa (home of the Martin factory that made Mary's backpacker guitar!) to Alamos, an old town in the foothills of the Sierra Madre.  From the 1700's through the early 1900's, the Alamos area was one of the richest silver mining districts in the world, and was for some time, the capital of Sonora.  After the mining ended, the town shrank, and the old colonial mansions fell into disrepair.  These lovely old buildings are now mostly restored and owned by wealthy Americans.

We are staying in a little casita at a place called El Pedregal.  Our hosts David and Jennifer McKay lead birding trips all over Mexico. If you're interested, check out Solipaso on the web.

In Alamos, we have enjoyed relaxing at El Pedregal, walking the cobblestone streets, morning birding outings (one guided), taking in the weekly Home & Garden Tour, and driving back roads with skimpy directions. This morning's search was for the sewage ponds (agua negra), generally a great place to spot birds. 

When the ponds weren't where they should  have been, all the ranch families hurrying to mass understood my questions. I didn't catch the finer nuances of their very helpful answers. I got clues like arroyo, huerta,  and finca, but didn't put them together right.  Kind of like the Sunday puzzle.  After three conversations, and three turnarounds, we found the ponds.  This always happens when I'm a bit lost  in Mexico, and is for me, one of the enjoyable and memorable parts of most trips.

That's it for now.  Although we've had great WiFi so far, I'm guessing we won't have it again until next week, when we reach La Posada del Rio in Banamichi.  Until then, we'll be in the Sierra Madre, on both the Sonora and Chihuahua sides, watching for birds and topas, swerving around potholes, and trying to stay dry.

Love, Toni

Photos (if you've been following us on Facebook, you've already seen most of these):
Liz, Mary, Hal, Tina, Stacey

Napule Canyon
Roseate Spoonbills
Katie and Mary
Toby
Bill and his boys
White Ibis
Casita at El Pedregal
Rufous-bellied Chachalacas
Female Elegant Trogan
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
18th century Alamos church
Streak-backed Oriole
Looking for agua negra
Amapa

Postcard from Sai Gon- January 8, 2015

It's 5 p.m.Thursday in Sai Gon.  Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 8:30 a.m.. 27 hours later, we'll be home. Because of the 14-hour time difference, it will still be Friday. Long day.

We will have spent three nights in Viet Nam's largest city. Take away the millions of motor bikes, the tropical climate and the relaxed atmosphere, and Sai Gon could almost be any big international city. 

Almost. Guessing Sai Gon would still feel pretty exotic if we hadn't already been in Viet Nam for over two weeks.

Although we saw the mandatory sites in our first few hours here- the cathedral, the post office, the opera house, the Continental Hotel, the War Remnants Museum, we spent two full days on trips out of Sai Gon. 

Yesterday we dipped into the Mekong Delta and learned a bit about the life of the people there. Visits to family workshops taught us how to make a different kind of rice paper, how to make Vietnamese fish sauce, and how to make something very like Rice Krispie Treats, including popping the rice in very hot sand.  We spent some time on a branch of the Mekong River, which starts in Tibet, and purchased fruit from the floating markets. On the way down we stopped at a type of cafe that offers a hammock to go with your weet iced coffee. These are called Ca Phe Vong. 

Today we visited the Cu Chi area, where we visited the tunnels at Ben Duoc and later had lunch with two former Viet Cong and the oldest man (91) in the village. The Viet Cong had an extensive multi-hundred kilometer network of tunnels. The tunnels we visited were used to stage and execute the 1968 Tet offensive, and at that time, sheltered 10,000 troops. The map in one of the photos is from an underground meeting room, and is the actual map used to plan the action.  Most everybody went through a short section of the highest level of tunnel, and a few of us duck-walked through a tunnel at the lowest level.

The main message the vets wanted to get across was that the war was over and they bore no animosity to the American people, including soldiers who fought in Cu Chi.  This message has been pretty consistent from north to south, and is reinforced by the way we are greeted wherever we go. People smile, wave, ask to have their photos taken with us.  It feels genuine.

This has been a pretty amazing trip, and we still have a lot to digest. For us, the best experiences are always people-to-people, and that's where OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) shines. We enjoyed a surprising number of home visits, with people from different classes, and with different histories. Plus there were always completely unplanned, unscripted interactions with folks we met along the way. This level of interaction is something we could not have easily created for ourselves. 

If you plan to visit, allow time. Although Viet Nam looks small on the map, travel moves at the speed of a 100cc motor bike in traffic.  Thanks for travelling with us. 

Love, Toni 

A bit more from Da Lat- January 6, 2015

Da Lat is a popular summer retreat from the heat of Saigon, and, even for new construction, the architectural style is French colonial villa. Yesterday afternoon we took a short train ride from the art deco train station to the over-the-top Minh Phuoc Pagoda, which includes a dragon constructed from 10,000 beer bottles and an enormous bronze bell which can be rung to take your wish to the Buddha. We sent ours for the family of Lisa Trevor, our beloved sister in law, who will be buried today.

Postcard from Da Lat- January 5, 2015

Da Lat City is in the Central Highlands, at an elevation of 5,000 feet. It is the fruit, vegetable and flower capital of Viet Nam, and the only place where strawberries and artichokes are grown. The area is also the source of most of Viet Nam's wine and coffee. FYI, Viet Nam is the world's #2 coffee exporter.

Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 6:30 a.m. for our flight to Saigon, so this will be brief. Today's big outing was an agricultural tour of the Da Lat area. Stops included a flower greenhouse (there must be thousands of acres of greenhouses here), a coffee farm where we sampled weasel coffee, perhaps the most expensive coffee in the world (look it up!), and a silk factory, where we saw the process from worm to final product. The highlight was a tractor ride  to  a dusty K'ho Chil village. Look up the Montagnards, and their pre- and post-1975 history. That's it for tonight.

Love, Toni