The knee is healing, but slowly. Every now and then it swells up and I have to give it all the treatments recommended. Still doing Yoga every alternate day or so, and trying my best to do poses that don't end up in sharp pain. Walking has also become an on and off thing. For an active guy, this knee issue has been a curse. My happiness was directly proportional to my step count and yoga attendance. ... and as a saving grace in recent years, music.
Have been sitting in the same place mostly listening to music or singing. That said, our hiking group leader who is recovering from surgery wanted to cheer up both of us by going on a small "walk" on flat terrain at the local Byxbee park. We have not walked this as it was not a challenge. "It is a walk, not a hike!" was our previous rhetoric. Given walking is now a blessing and hiking is ruled out, we went last weekend.
What was supposed to be a 3 mile walk ended up being 6.5 miles as we got some fresh enthusiasm watching the birds and the beautiful flowers all along the path. We also had a tea break in the middle of this!
It is good to be back with friends and on any walking path. We start slow.. hopefully the knee improves over time and normalcy returns.
Given the current situation, this was a morning well spent! Next time, will take the SLR and the telephoto lens with me to capture the birds better.. these are all iPhone photos..
We did get a lot of "bench photos" for our collection!
A short video clip.. you get an idea of the birds and sounds.. this place was 30 minutes from home. We have never been to this place.. we mostly hit shoreline and back. It was just beautiful.
There was only 20 or so parking spots and we did have to wait for someone to leave so we could park. So go early and carpool where possible!
It has been almost two months since any blog entires. It was not intentional. We had a great summer beginning when every weekend saw a new hike, nature photos and happy smiling faces.
Then things changed, in a fraction of a second. My wife went to Windy hill hike with a friend and did the simple common mistake of not looking where she is walking. In a spilt second her shoe gets stuck in a root on the path and her ankle was twisted. She decided it was "just a sprain" and decided to go on a larger hike during memorial day weekend which made matters a lot worse.
After many X-rays, MRI, bottles of Ibuprofen,Voltaren,Icy-hot,dencorub,CBD oil, etc. etc.. (it is actually a long list), ankle braces, doctor appointments, chiropractor visits, even Bikram yoga with me and my MIL later... she is almost walking normally again within the house and on solid concrete floors.
Every week was "it will get better in three weeks" and almost three months passed. We are still happy with the progress. If the queen is not happy, the kingdom cannot be happy. Given the blog is usually positive, I just stayed away from it.
My new job also got interesting. A lot more work came up in the last 6 weeks. After being in startups for 15 years, a big company has a very different feel. Some things work more efficiently. There are systems in place for everything and that is great. Some things are incredibly slow which is to be expected and I had to significantly reduce my internal clock speed to set realistic expectations. Think I am reasonably adjusted now, we will know in a few quarters (you expected me to say "shortly" didn't you! have learned my lesson).
Then things got interesting everywhere else. We had a flying visit from the BIL's family for three days during the July 4th weekend and more sickness around the house. We are all on the mend now and that is why I decided to catch up on blogging.
First for some small things. My co-sister decided to bring us a gift when they visited. We have a lot of hummingbirds in our backyard. So asked her to get us a hummingbird feeder. I had plans to get a regular bird feeder. We recently had a bird hit our window and die right there. Wanted to give back something to our backyard birds for the hours of entertainment they provide when we drink tea on the swing and watch them.
Got a couple of shepards hooks, posted them inside flower pots and set it all up. As an added bonus set up a water fountain as a project, working with my two nieces. It was an instant success.
Here are some photos and videos..
I have never seen a baby hummingbird.. we all call it "baby hammu" and it is incredibly cute!
The rest of the sparrows, finches, crows, doves and squirrels are all gathering around this small area and I just watch the backyard as I work. Making powerpoint slides becomes easier when these critters are around!
Never even got to edit all the photos from the July 4th trip. Will spend an hour a day and get back to blogging and the photo editing! My connection to music also got stronger over the last few months. Will write about it later!
Yesterday, during my yoga class at home (done with a teachers voice recording for instruction) there were a lot of banging noises at regular intervals. Thought someone was throwing stones on my window or a tennis ball.. was already on the floor series and wiped out, so it was easy to ignore and keep going with the class.
This morning was a different story. As soon as the class started there was a thud. Then I saw this bird come and fly full force against the window and hit the glass..
It did it again. . . and again.. so I had to pause the audio, take a 15 minute break to film this angry bird that was distracting me from yoga.
Even took a slow mo video of it. It is a very determined bird.. the way it preps on the edge of the fence in the same location and launches itself at the window. We never furnished the guest room after finishing construction 4 years ago.. so it just has this Dhoti on push pins for a curtain. maybe that is giving it a very strong reflection? Don't know. Have never seen any bird behave like this before.
I have seen a bird fight with its reflection on our Prius side mirror and go shit all over the window..
but this one is weird!
After resuming the class I just got used to the bang and thud every 2 minutes..
This bird made at least 40 attempts that I counted over a 90 minute period. If only my focus and determination to ignore this noise and keep doing yoga matched that of the bird's to come hit the window!!!
Then again on a positive note, it is end of September and we still have 3 months to go in 2020.. but my yoga attendance has been great as there is no travel!
the birds are all back.. including the hummingbird family. Hope to get some pictures over the weekend just sitting down in one place in the backyard, camera in hand.. it is a meditation of sorts. Keep focusing on one place hoping the hummingbird will come to that flower again!
In spite of all the antics, the bird made me go outside and watch it post class for 30 minutes and I realized it was not one bird.. there were two taking turns!!
After being in stay at home mode for six months, we (read San) really wanted to go somewhere for a drive. So two weekends ago we decided to drive towards Santa Cruz on Labor day Sunday to at least wet our feet in the beach. What we didn't know was that the beaches were open only on Saturday and they closed it for Sunday and Monday. So after a 45 minute drive towards Santa Cruz, we drove back without ever getting out of the car.
There were fires burning then but it was clear that morning. Still no chance to realize the get out of the car and walk around goal.
This weekend we decided to go visit Stow lake in Golden Gate Park as one of our friends posted some amazing pictures. We have visited this park many times in the past, mostly to go to California Academy of sciences. The first time was in 2002 when San was pregnant with Jr. It was the first place we took my MIL to visit. At that time we walked near this place and went to a Japanese tea garden.. but missed the lake and boating area!
By the time we went there the boat rental was closed, but we did go for a nice walk around the lake and enjoyed some fresh air. The lawns were extremely crowded with families sitting on blankets and kids walking the dogs, but the walking paths were relatively people free. 90% of the folks wore masks with the exception being a few runners. We stayed clear of them. We removed our masks only to take a few selfies when no one was around.
The selfie camera in iPHone is not as capable as the actual camera as you can tell from the rest of the photos..
The colors in this place are so vibrant the photos came out great..on the iPhone. Was editing the photos on snapseed and fell in love with this frame that seems to work for nature photos..
Loved this frame..and the bridge that was erected in 1893!
then the birds in the lake gave us a few more chances to take a break and take pictures..
an evening well spent.. now that we have had one visit, we plan to start going to other places on short drives where we don't have to step out anywhere, use public restrooms or come in contact with strangers..
The daily walks around the neighborhood and stay at home / Parking lot yoga is still on.. The air has also cleared up nicely so far. It almost feels like life came back closer to normal.
The previous post in this series of the Belize trip is here..
When we were waiting in line for the Ziplining on day 3, I overheard another family talk excitedly about the Belize Zoo. They had come to the cavetubing / ziplining place from a cruise ship and were complaining about how they didn't get a chance to pet a Jaguar.
Had I heard it right? Did that kid actually say "pet a jaguar?" . On our way back I asked our guide and he said "yes, we have a Belize zoo. In fact we will be crossing it on our way back to the resort. This is not your typical zoo. It has only Belize animals in it which were mostly rescued or abandoned by the parents. I also believe for an extra fee you can pet a Jaguar but you have to book it ahead of time. You can ask the guide who takes folks to the zoo when we get back"
The first thing we did after going back to the resort was to find out if we could squeeze in the Zoo, the next afternoon. Altun Ha was a half day affair so we could technically do both the Zoo and Altun Ha in one day if we left early. Lucky for us, the only other family there with kids who happened to also be from California heard this and said "count us also in" . There was still some juggling to do for the resort manager.
A couple from Rhode Island who were with us for the Altun Ha visit had to be dropped back before we left for the Zoo. As luck would have it, they also changed their plans and said "we would like to go to the Zoo as well with this group!". So we had a 10 people group going one shot and that meant more time at the Zoo.
The resort packed us lunches as well. We went straight from Altun Ha to the Zoo on day 4.
On the way we saw prisoners to the Hattieville prison being transported in open lorries. Belize was weird. They call the prison the Ramada Inn. The prison had a gift shop!
The Zoo had a simple entrance.
The place was started quite accidentally by this lady who suddenly ended up having to take care of 20 animals! We met the lady and she was walking slowly through the zoo. Her story is truly inspiring!
The thing that caught my eye near the Zoo entrance was this mural..
We paid the 50$ extra to meet the Jaguar and were told that there is a time window for it. Our guide went with us to the Zoo and he knew the place very well. He knew what we wanted. See every animal in the zoo within the 3 hour window. We also had to wait for the Jaguar encounter. He said "No problem". He also gave us details about the animals that was not there in the exhibit notice and that was interesting.
The highlight of course was the Jaugar.
Indians : Cows :: Belizians : Jaguars
If there is a term "holy cow!", there is a "holier Jaguar!". They revere this cat! It is a god there.
This one was a cub raised in the zoo. It was abandoned by its mother. The villagers caught a Jaguar hunting their dogs and brought it to the Zoo and they did not know she was pregnant. The cub was raised in the zoo and kids could hold it, but that was 11 years ago. Now the cub is a fully grown Jaguar and the term "petting" is not fair.. or so we learned. What happens now is that you go into a cage within the Jaguar enclosure and while the rest of the zoo visitors watch, the Jaguar jumps on top of the cage after doing somersaults and you get to touch its feet and tail.
You also get your forehead licked by the Jaguar through the gap in the cages, should you choose to do it and can also feed it Chicken pieces. Jr and me did get our foreheads licked by the Jaguar. It was like a sandpaper scratch! Did not expect a cat's toungue to be so rough.
When the Jaguar was called back, we got up and I promptly hit my head on the cage. It is still recovering..
The video of the Zoo below starts with the Jaguar enounter..
This Zoo also had a baby Tapir which was incredibly cute..
and a few other Tapirs. It is interesting to see that Tapirs are found in Malaysia and Belize.. they look different.. kind of like the Indian vs. African elephants.
There was a sad story behind every animal. This one's mom was shot.
They had Toucans, which is a bird local to Belize. They were beautiful.
The other thing that was unique to the zoo was an albino Coatimundi.. which was very rare. Coatimundi's are a very local animal..
There were many other unique local Belizian animals and birds (vulture, Jabiru stork etc.) and a lot of them were too far away or were sleeping in the afternoon.
These were not my best animal photographs given they were taking with a zoom on an iPhone X and edited in Photoshop (which did not work at all) or were taking with the 24-105 lens on the Canon at 105mm. Those actually turned out much better!
Next time, I will haul my 70-200mm and the extender on long trips. My family said "what is the point of having a 2000$ lens and leaving it at home?!".
The rest of the pictures are in the picture galleries..
We had an amazing time at the Belize zoo and would strongly recommend it as one of the "not to miss" activities in Belize. Go and get the Jaguar encounter booked ahead. They allow a max of 4 people at a time into that enclosure and the wait can be long, but it is worth it!
Friday, April 7, 2023 at 8:10PM ;)
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