Baja California reprise

alainFSD

dat is alweer een schitterend reisverslag ,moet er heel mooi geweest zijn om dat allemaal in levende lijve te mogen aanschouwen

Inderdaad Alain, de naweeën zijn niet zo leuk, vooral als, je weet dat mijn reismaat nu twee weken vakantien houdt in CA en dan de reis nog eens dunnetjes overdoet in de hoop veel meer bloemen te zullen zien. Den dezen moet helaas weer gaan werken terwijl Paul van zijn pensioen geniet op de enige correcte manier, steeds meer cactussen gaan bekijken in habitat, ons lang leven.
Ik denk dat je de hoogte van die Ferocactus vrij correct inschat, meestal gebruikten we elkaar als maatname om de hoogte van een plant te kunnen inschatten, dit was één voorbeeld
PAul komt pas eind maart terug naar Europa, de gelukzak !

Om het een en het andere te verduidelijken post ik hier Paul's verhaal van onze laatste reisdag :




22 February - San Diego - Sea World

We woke up with a shock as Alain's watch showed 8 a.m. Palm trees were swaying in the wind and torrential rain came
from the skies. San Diego was crying because Alain is leaving tomorrow.

We carried on with our plan to see Sea World anyway, as the theme is 'water' anyway. US$60 for the day though - not
cheap!

It was really quite miserable and we were surrounded by people in plastic capes all moping around - many of the
staff. Still, we put a brave face on it - took loads of silly pictures and made ourselves and some of the staff and
visitors laugh with our antics. One of the volunteers at the sea lions asked where we came from. Belgium, said
Alain. Oh yes, he said, Luxemburg is in Belgium, isn't it? No, said Alain, next door, but it's pretty small. Oh
yes, the guy came back again - I heard that they were trying to sell it on E-bay last week!

And so it went on. We visited the dolphins in action, saw the seals perform took loads of pictures of flamingos who
had overdosed on pink dye, saw some sad looking egrets who looked as though they had swallowed the dye as well and
by around 1 p.m. decided to go home. At the exit, a lady asked us if we would do a survey. What did we think
of .... etc. The Polar Bear display? Where was that? The Penguins? Are they near the Polar Bears? The Baluga
Whales? don't tell me, near the bears. And the Orca display in 45 minutes? We thought it had been cancelled, due to
the rain?

So, off we went to the bears, only to be met by another hostess. Do you guys like beer? Do we!!! Beer is a religion in Belgium !!! Well, here is a
ticket for the Anheuser-Busch beer tasting in the Hospitality Center (Anheuser- Busch is one of the USA largest
brewers). So we made a little detour to the bears and learned that AB make an excellent stout. This delayed us a
bit so we went to the Orca Show by Shamu and his mates, making sure that we were just above the first 16 rows which
were officially designated the 'soaking zone'. Took loads of pictures and beginning to feel a real affinity with
these colossal animals.

The Arctic and Antarctic displays where 'awesome', really the only way to describe it. I guess I can now do a
convincing talks about 'Penguins in their Environment'. The displays were really excellent, kind of 'Universal
Studios meets David Attenborough' and with the zoo keepers more like Hollywood actors, acting with a convincing
passion.

Before we knew it, it was 4 o'clock and time to go back to the Motel to meet Mark Fryer, currently President of the
San Diego Cactus Society. We had 'met' before on cactus forums and he was set to come with us to Chile in 2003,
until his wife announced that she was pregnant with their second child and financial realities prevented him from
joining us. He'd make an excellent travel companion.

We went out for a few beers and a burger and I'll be sure to come back South to San Diego pronto, as he is between
jobs, bursting with enthusiasm for cacti & showing me habitats and lining up visits to C&Js, Grigsby and lots of
other smaller, specialist places. He was being groomed to take over at C&Js, but the difference he made to their
business while he was there, meant that the asking price for the business kept going up.

I'll try to set up a 'high lights tour' of nurseries at the end of the March tour, but only as a 'plan B', if we
run out of things to see in Baja. Today's rains seem to also have occurred in Baja, along the western coast, giving
an extra boost to the flowering. Mark knows Jon Rebman at the University or Botanic Gardens here (not sure which)
who is working on a Baja project that our pictures and observations could contribute to. It'd be a nice thing to
get involved with and repay Jon in a way for his GPS that we received via Brain Bates in Bolivia that helped us so
far.

During next week, I'll send Cliff & Ian a spreadsheet and .kmz file of the cactus stops from this trip. The GPS
data was taken from Alain's GPS at the start and from Angie's (I have misplaced mine, perhaps in Chile, at Flo's)
later on, when we discovered how to get different readings to the previous stop and identical to Alain's. Perhaps
Ian has the cables and know how of how to load this data into his GPS, so that we can tell if we're close to any
previously visited spots. I suggest that we aim to 'fill the gaps' in our stops on the way down, but I'll guarantee
to take you back to stops where we saw certain plants on the way back, if we haven't already seen them before.
The alarm is set for 5 and we're a bit down; Alain because he has to go back to reality, me because I'll miss my
travel buddy and in a way wouldn't have minded a two week break in the UK to see Angie, Anton & Chris, my Mum &
sister etc. But the thought of other exciting things to explore and of Cliff & Ian coming over in 2 weeks will
cheer me up, after I have done 3 weeks worth of washing at a future Motel.

Cheers
PK

Very nice pictures !

Erg mooi foto's weer Alain!
Jammer dat het voorbij is hè? Vooral als je reismaat nog verder gaat!
Hoeveel foto's heb je in totaal gemaakt? Gelukkig maar dat het nu digitaal kan, en dat je geen hele tas rolletjes hebt moeten kopen!

Groetjes Rialle