Happy New Year everyone

Greetings to all our friends and relatives who follow our blog.  It's December 31, 2011.  Just another few hours from now it will be 2012 and we're starting the new year with a bang.  Not literally, of course.  In nine days we will be on our way to the Philippines to visit relatives for three weeks. 
I thought you might like to see some photos of our last visit in March 2008.

Kota Beach on Bantayan Island.  This was our bungalow

Caught by surprise my first morning in Cebu waiting for breakfast in an outdoor restaurant at Tambouli Bay resort.

Plantation Bay Resort on Mactan Island

Our hosts in 2008 and in 2012;  thanks guys!!

Kota Beach in 2008, alas the little palapa is no longer there.

The most comfortable chair in the resort and no mechanical parts.

The wonderful view of the ocean, and the restaurant at Kota Beach; outdoors of course.

Getting the idea now?  Very like Mexico but warmer and more humidity because we are closer to the equator.  I would post a lot more pictures but these are not shrunk enough to add a great deal more photos. 
Happy New Year from Holoidaysonholiday

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hola y Feliz Navidad mis amigos.

It's December 23rd and Mike is busy making hor'deurves (sp) for a cocktail party over at Cruz Marie rv park with friends Linda and Frank and some other special guests.
The sun is shining although it was very chilly this morning (according to Mavis) so I got up, went to the bathroom and headed right back to bed for another hour, mostly just to keep warm.
The inside the rig temp. right now is 75 degrees F.  That isn't too warm today; (Mike says it is...) I'm wearing my hoodie.  It is very nice outside though, with a lovely moderating breeze blowing around us.

Last Tuesday we went golfing at a private golf course in San Pancho.  San Pancho is only 12 km from here and we travelled down with Jack and Daphne from Oyama.

At the 9th green

Mike scored a 39 and I (surprisingly) got a 52 on my first round ever at Las Huertas.  Yes, that is a good score for me.  It was a perfect golfing morning.  More photos of this lovely course in another blog yet to come.

Today, our neighbour beckoned me to come with my camera to the tree beside their rig.  Here's what we found.

Same fella, just a close up of him sitting very quietly so as not to be noticed

Here's wishing all our family and friends and other readers of our blog a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year

The Holoidaysonholiday

First Post....from Mike

The First Post

A new author on the beach in Lo De Marcos.

Hola and hello from the beach and RV park in Lo De Marcos.  The better half is out shopping for vegges for supper and left me in charge of the blog.  You will have to excuse the grammer but thank goodness for these things called spell checkers.  As you can see from the picture above (and below) the beach and the weather is quite nice for this time of year although the ocean water has cooled down quite a bit from when we were first here. 

The former author but still smiling.

There probably won't be a great amount of text in this write up but I will include quite a few pictures because if you're like me, I like to look at pictures.

Looking over the 4th hole.

To the left is a picture of the golf course at the Field of Dreams which is seven km to the north of Lo De Marcos.  We have bought memberships for 4 months and golf 3-4 times a week.  A Can-Am (The cactus cup) was held last week on Dec 13 and the better team (us not them) came up on top.  You can see our picture on the Jaltembasol website.

We also have neighbours who visit us on a regular basis although they normally stay outside the gate.  Apparently, one of the neighbours came in two weeks ago and was enjoying the grass before he (a horse) was asked to leave by Walter.

Some of the neighbours.

Mavis, Bev and Ruby spent the better part of a day sewing pillow for the Cancer de Mama clinic held at La Penita RV park in February for Mexican women who have have breast cancer.  The pillows are used under the arms to relieve some of the pressure and hopefully, make movement a lot easier.

Heart pillows, 3 of 13.

Ruby and Bev, hard at work.

On December 13, the author hit a milestone-60 years young.  The Canucks won the Cactus Cup at the Field of Dreams. and we celebrated with a dinner at Salvadors at the beach in Rincon de Guayabitos.  The company was great, the food was great, the cerveza was great, and thanks to all for the celebration.  There were two birthdays, mine and Carol's (who is way younger than me).  The staff at the resturant made a special dinner.  You have to see the pictures to believe what they did, and yes, I did eat my vegetables.  They were carrots.

Salvador's of the beach.

Great presentation....made from carrots.

Self explanitory.

Just a few more pictures of some of the wildlife around here.  Time to go to the beach.  The one with the camera out the window is taking pictures of hummers.  They had one in their rig 3 weeks ago and took a video of the bird.  Its on their blog-http://southbound canucks.blogspot.com

. 

One of many.

The hummingbird picture hunter.

And last but not least, the Christmas wreath we have on Dos along with Hobo.  We hope to have another blog before Christmas, but if not, Merry Christmas to all and have a restful and wonderful break. 

Merry Christmas from Hobo.

Thanks to my proof reader......

San Xavier Mission, near Tucson

On our way out of Tucson, heading south we stopped at the San Xavier Mission.    The mission was one of many opened by Father Kino in his travels through what is now Arizona, establishing missions to convert the natives to Christianity.
We joined a tour group but I had trouble hearing what was being said but the church is a fine example of early mission architecture.  It makes a nice stop.  

View from the roadway

The church in the middle with the mortuary chapel on the left and the  convent on the right

the front of the church

The choir loft 

Statue on the exterior of the central structure

Lovely cupola painted by native hands

It was very serene in the church.  I could have sat there for some time in meditation.  The church is located on Indian land and there is a small community right there with a school that is supported in part by donations from the public.  Donations also help with the upkeep and maintenance of the church.

Hello from Lo de Marcos

I promised I would put some more pictures of our trip to Tucson.  These photos are from the Reid Park Zoo.  It isn't a large zoo but it was fun to see the animals and birds and watch the reactions of others visiting.

Giraffe eating pumpkin; she's a beautiful animal

This is her companion.  She is also filling up on pumpkin

This is the third female at the zoo.  She's enjoying some fresh grass

 This is Herbie the tortoise.  He's not very old because he was quite small

This mysterious creature is actually a slumbering rhino.  We went back  before we left to see if it had moved.  No.

These two didn't see eye to eye about something because they were ready to go at each other's throats.

Something was making him/her mad.  Look at the hair on it's back.  I was happy to be behind  the glass.

No zoo would be complete without a flock of snoozing flamingos

Mama lion watching the crowd watching two of her three babies nursing

Looks like he's still napping

Show's over for today

Just when we wanted to shoot them they moved, but the colours are still wonderful

There were three anteaters here, all in separate compounds.  Wouldn't like to run into them in the dark

These were two sisters.  They are black panthers.  Seen up close and not through glass, their spots  are visible

Hope you enjoyed our trip to the zoo.

Some photos of Tucson attractions before going into Mexico

We've been here in Lo de Marcos since last Thursday, November 17.  We spent some time in Tucson exploring the area and some of the great places to visit.  We went to Biosphere 2, Kitt Peak Observatory,  the Reid Park Zoo and San Xavier Mission.


You can find information on Kitt Peak Observatory and Biosphere 2 on the net so I am just going to give you a camera's view of all of these attractions.

It was a windy day

Path down to the facility

The different climate zones are housed in this huge framework

This area represents the oceans and has a viewing station underneath

This is one of two 'lungs' that are used as life support for the  scientists who lived here in the '90's

Inside the Lung

Outside in the fresh air again

The area is outstanding; high desert and cannot be seen from the highway.  Worth a trip for a guided tour.


Now, some photos of Kitt Peak Observatory which is west of Tucson off of the Old Ajo Highway.  It is on native reservation land and is 12,000 feet above sea level.  The view from up here is truly outstanding and Tucson can be seen on a good, clear day.  Our son and his partner had come up here the winter before and warned us to wear warm clothes.  Good thing we did; as we rounded the last corner to the entrance there was icy snow on the road.  We had a docent (guide) give us a talk about the origin of the Observatory before we went to see some of the telescopes.  We came back from viewing the solar telescope and had another docent give a small talk before taking us to one of the over 20 telescopes in operation at Kitt Peak.  If you want to experience the night sky be prepared to pay big bucks for this experience.  

Kitt Peak 4m telescope seen from as far away as Tucson

Yes, there was snow and it was very cool

A nice view from the solar telescope site
  

The Solar telescope (yes it is)

Inside the viewing room of the 2m telescope

The large white turret is the 4m telescope

Yes folks they have a solar telescope and it is a very interesting huge piece of machinery and mirrors.  After viewing the inside of the solar scope we walked out and around to a small round building that housed the camera that received the images from the sun.  I saw spots, and for a moment thought it was just the floaters in my eyes but I was assured that yes those were sunspots and there was a solar flare happening as I watched through the camera.  The sun is right now at the top of the solar activity cycle, which may or may not account for strange blips on your TV and interference with other communication devices. 


 I would like to point out that Kitt Peak is a teaching observatory and that it is open for the public to use.  If you have something you want to study, you have to submit an abstract with your intentions, etc. and hopefully they will find a telescope that you can use.  One famous amateur actually discovered a comet up here at the Observatory.  His last name was Levy.


I'm going to sign out now, but I'll be back tomorrow with the trip to the zoo photos in another blog.