Humpback Whales Research

The Ocean Friendly Research team I am a part of now!!....thanks to Oscar, Jorge and Keith!!

Visiting the Humpback Whales in the Bay of Banderas, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.....saw a LOT of whales......great boat trips.....mostly cloudy....and hardly any wind so did not get a chance to do the kite aerial photography.

But there are other very important parts of the research.....like uniquely identifying each whale by the pattern on its tail (fluke). Each photograph will have a GPS stamp on it so we can tie the location to the ID and things like water temperature, salinity, singing, etc.....yes they are recording the songs also....mostly the Males sing...here is Jorge reeling in the hydrophone that was put down about 15 feet below the surface to record the songs.

Botanical Gardens

About 20 miles south of Puerto Vallarta is a most magical Botanical Garden! Lovely setting on a river and a very fine restaurant! We were treated like royalty really as the owners are personal friends with Keith and Oscar.

Kapping the Humpback Whales

I am in the San Antonio, Texas airport on my way to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico!! Oscar and Keith will pick me up and we will be on their boat tomorrow photographing the Humpback Whales with a camera hanging from a kite. I met Oscar a couple years ago in Holbox, Mexico when we were there filming the International Whale Shark Conference. He introduced us to this technology of Kite Aerial Photography (KAP). Since then I have visited him at his home in Puerto Vallarta and accompanied him on several boat trips out in the Bay of Banderas to see the Humpback Whales. They are having their babies now and there is a lot of activity. He sent me these photos yesterday!!!

Oscar is a marine biologist and has been researching the Whales for almost 20 years now. I will be helping him put all his data into a Geographic Information System (GIS). He now has a GPS on the camera so we will be incorporating that as well. I am so looking forward to being in Mexico again and I hear the Pacific Ocean is shaking around now so who knows what we will see or feel??!! MOre later....love, cynthai

Polar Bear Plunge - New Years Day

On New Year's Day at exactly Noon (there was a countdown), about 100 locals jumped into the 72 degree San Marcos River near the headwaters in San Marcos, Texas. This is my first time

to do this 12th Annual event. My daugther Bonnie, (left) and her friend Rachael participated as well. The air temperature was about 50 so the water actually feels warm...its weird...and the excitement makes you forget you are about to JUMP IN! There is no turning back as the current is strong and we had to be careful not to step on the endangered Wild Rice.
After the plunge we used a large blanket for our "dressing room".
The River Foundation serves Black Eyed Peas and Hot Chocolate to the Plungers. There were Hot dogs as well. This was a great way to break into 2010 as I will be spending a LOT of time on this river in the upcoming months. I have registered for Graduate classes and it just so happens the River snakes through campus.....Weeeedoggieeeeeee!!

Louisiana

OK I know it has been a LONG time since I posted....no excuse other than just got out of the habit.....Plus my travels have slowed down as I am spending more time closer to home! But I have made a few trips to my home state of Louisiana......One of the cool things about having the Van is you can just camp anywhere you can park....in Louisiana we can drive and park on the hard sand beaches!! Holly Beach is off the beaten path and after being devastated by both Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008, there are no accommodations! And besides there is nothing like being right ON the beach. A few beach homes are being rebuilt...amazingly nice and expensive looking homes.

About 10 minutes after we arrived a couple from North Louisiana caught a large redfish. They offered it to us as it was too big to eat really....they turned it lose and it swam off.
Louisiana is VERY flat and well water is everywhere....this is a Marsh...full of alligators and
and so much waterfowl that its easy to see why they call this state the "Sportsman's Paradise"

Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico...what you can't see in the photo are the hundreds of Oil Drilling Rigs out there....at night the lights look like a far away city!

Bathroom addition

Got straight to work on the bathroom addition to the studio.............the slab was a bit complex to pour as it has a slanted drop floor to accommodate the composting toilet that will be built on top......Laura Beth helped and was a HUGE asset as she knew a LOT about working concrete because she has helped finish 3 slabs in the last month at the ranch for various projects. She showed up with tools and her rubber boots! I will be posting more photos of the Composting Toilet construction as I know many of you are interested.....I was thinking to create a separate blog for that and so will let you know if I do that.

Capitol and Book Festival

Austin, Texas is the State Capitol of Texas and I took the opportunity to go see a dear friend who was featured at the Annual Texas Book Festival held on the grounds of the Capitol.

Melinda Esco has written her first book entitled "Texas Wineries". She tells the historical and current story of growing grapes and making wine in Texas as a business. This small book will inspire you to go on a wine tasting tour! I particularly like the little graphic roadrunner that runs through the book! Congratulations Melinda!!

The 3 Witches of Eastwick!! 10 yards of Tulle and Voila!!

Moi as the Recycle Galactic Queen!

And the winner of the Costume Award....Meg as Frieda Kahlo!!!!

HOME!!! after 4 months

I arrived "HOME" just in time to celebrate Laura Beth's 24th Birthday....all 3 of my daughters were here and we had a little family celebration!! It is really nice to be home! And even nicer to see my family!!!

Caverns of Sonora

I have passed these caverns probably 100 times while traveling on Interstate 10 in West Texas on my way to Big Bend and have never stopped....soooo in keeping with this journey and sampling the most beautiful places that North America has to offer, I took the opportunity to stop and tour it. The $20 tour lasted almost 2 hours and covered about 2 miles of passageways. It is a limestone cave carved by water between 1.5 and 5 millions years ago and somewhere between 1 and 3 million years ago the water drained from the cave. The mineral formations, known as speleothems, all formed after the water drained from the cave. They are still forming and growing today.

There were several pools of water and the deeper we descended into the earth the wetter it got...it was warm and felt like 100 % humidity.

The most amazing (to me) of the calcite crystal formations are called helictites. They have a curved or angular form that seem to defy gravity, growing sideways or up.......supposedly there is a room not open to the public that is full of these formations!

Tallest Peak in Texas - 8,749 feet

Driving up to the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas.....finally....I have always wanted to hike the highest peak in Texas....an ancient fossilized marine reef!

There was a photo of the mountain with the well established trail superimposed on the image that shows you the path of the strenuous 3,000 feet of elevation gain....a total of 8.4 miles round-trip.It took me exactly 3 hours to climb it...I know because I took my cell phone with me and had the time plus I could make a phone call from up there.On top there is this shiny steel marker that looks odd in contrast to the natural beauty of the mountains.....there is an artillery can there with a book inside where everyone signs. There was also a small bag with a water bottle inside. I was the first person up there for the day and within the next 15 minutes there were 3 others. Then for the next 3 hours I did not see a soul.View of the Plains of the Chihuahua Desert from on top.....the whitish areas are the Salt Flats and the green circles are crop irrigation. View of El Capitan. The air was not very clear today as you can see... at the beginning of the hike there was a sign similar to the one at Grand Canyon depicting the direction of the air pollution.

Towards the bottom of the trail were a few rare Texas Madrone trees....identified by their smooth reddish bark and evergreen leaves....the brilliant red berry-like fruits were ripe and a nice treat for the birds...edible for people too....I tried one...the red outside part was sweet....the inner seed part was not so much. This tree is common in the Pacific Northwest and they call it by its scientific name -Arbutus.

The resident wildlife include Elk, Black Bear and Mountain Lions though I saw none of the above...I was packing my bear spray on the hike just in case.......I did see several small deer upon my evening arrival though.