2011 Christmas Letter (aka annual Travel Blog)

Boas festas meus amigos dexembro 2011

That’s Portuguese for “happy holidays my friends”. No, I wasn’t in to Portugal. I went to Brazil in fevereiro, that would be February, as a leader-in-training for Global Citizens Network (GCN), a non-profit that sends small teams of volunteers to indigenous communities throughout the world to work on projects designated by those within the community. The projects provide opportunities for team members to interact with and learn from people of diverse cultures. I’m hoping to lead a trip for GCN in 2012 and you are all invited. (www.globalcitizens.org).

In northeastern Brazil’s Pernambuco area our tiny group of three explored new sites and project options for future GCN teams. We first met with the warm and delightful Xukuru people. They fought long and hard to win back land that had been taken from them by the newly arrived Portuguese. The Xukuru desire to live in peace and equality. Their leader, Cacique Marcos, was chosen “naturally”, not elected. He’s a charismatic-born leader taking after his father, the former cacique, who was killed while fighting for Xukuru lands and his mother, who is a tireless advocate for their people. From there we headed south to see some agricultural projects around the city of Amariji. The people were very welcoming and excited about the prospect of having assistance in developing some community gardens. We toured fields of all kinds of lettuces, green vegetables, and herbs, white yams, umbu (unique to this region), eggplant, beets, and neem. The fruits were endless—pineapple, cashew fruit, guava, papaya, jambu, mango, breadfruit, bananas, and abui. I ate fruit I’d never heard of before, and learned that cashews, my favorite nut, are attached to the bottom of a pear-shaped fruit cradled in very hard shells.

I had just enough time to acclimate at home for a couple of weeks before heading down to the British Virgin Islands for two weeks of sailing and diving—for work. Yes, my life is tough. After another two weeks at home, I again departed for warmer weather, joining my cruising friends, Tom and Rose, in the Bay Islands of Honduras. My interest was in scuba diving, but I’d also be joining them on an overland trip to Guatemala for Easter week. I’m not a church-going person, nor are my friends, so I didn’t understand the motivation until I got to Antigua. Semana Santa is celebrated with daily processions and beautifully adorned curb-to-curb street carpets. These magnificent carpets of colored sawdust and various other materials momentarily displayed on well-worn and irregular cobblestone streets draw thousands of people to Antigua annually for Semana Santa. They weren’t really curb-to-curb, but they were easily eight feet wide, extending as long as fifty feet. Stencils were used to exact many of the designs. And though this is a once-a-year event, I saw at least one shop whose sole business was making these stencils. We saw families working almost every day, making as many as five carpets, sometimes two a day, all dependent upon the parade route.

Maps denoting the day’s procession routes are distributed each morning. The churches parade a wooden statue of Jesus bearing the cross on his shoulder, gazing to his right. That’s the side you want to be on to connect with his eyes saying prayers you hope are answered. The statues are mounted on a long wooden platform that is carried by up to 100 men dressed in purple robes, some talking on their cell phones or eating a sandwich, but most are more solemn. Numbered notches are spaced evenly along the undersides of the platforms where the men are meant to place their shoulder to carry the heavy burden. Every few blocks a new team would seamlessly transition in, and though we were told this was done by height, we saw a number of men almost squatting to carry their portion of the load. The men were followed by women carrying a shorter platform bearing the image of the Virgin Mary.

Moments before the procession arrived, the carpet makers would be putting the finishing touches on their masterpieces leaving no time to admire their creations before the men carrying the Jesus figure would trample it. The Jesus and Virgin Mary statues were followed by a marching band and behind them were the street cleaners and garbage trucks very efficiently whisking away the debris. Moments after the music had wafted away; little evidence remained of these colorful carpets.

Experiencing Semana Santa was worth the two-day long trip each way to and from Antigua. Back in Roatan, there were fish and coral to see. I dived with Tom and Rose, fellow cruisers and a local dive shop when Tom and Rose were busy doing their daily chores. We went out to dinner at the ocean side restaurants and enjoyed the Wednesday night cruisers potluck on a deserted dock.

Over Memorial Day weekend, a skeleton crew sailed Redhawk, the boat I’ve been racing on, from Lake Superior to Lake Michigan for a change of scenery. Within an hour of the mechanic blessing the newly installed engine, we powered her up in the dark and started on our way up the Keweenaw Peninsula. The motor purred like a kitten, far different than the old one. We had a few incidents along the way—a loose alternator belt that we found out was the wrong size, a fire in the alternator, and a docking that was more like a jet airplane taking off rather than coming in for a landing when the boat’s owner, at 2 a.m., forgot that the gear shift for his new engine was now opposite of what it had been for the past twelve years due to the new motor. Somehow the boat’s keel stopped us with little incriminating evidence. We did get the boat to Kenosha safely, and had an almost eventless race in July from Chicago to Mackinac Island, and a relaxing Labor Day weekend in Marinette MI.

I taught a few sailing classes in the Twin Cities, but most of my work this summer and into September was in Bayfield WI and the beautiful Apostle Islands. I ventured farther out this year to explore more of the islands and expanded my personal knowledge of where to anchor and what’s possible given the wind and weather. I enjoyed several performances at Big Top Chautauqua, not missing the opportunity to see Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits, a throwback to the 60’s!?! Returning in October for Applefest, I felt like a quasi-resident after spending so much time there.

Fall was filled with me taking more classes, visiting my niece Laura in LA along with Brian, her husband of three years, and trip planning. My nephew, Justin and I are headed to India right after Christmas for three weeks—Taj Mahal here we come!

That’s my annual travelogue. I hope you’ve enjoyed life as much as I have this year, and are truly happy. After all, life is too short to spend it any other way.