Travel – Page 2 – Mark Pastor

San Miguel de Allende

Saturday – Arriving at San Miguel

We arrived late afternoon. The house is beautiful. This is the courtyard of the house.

We then ventured out to get some groceries and have dinner at Don Felix.

We wrapped up a great first day with a view from our top balcony.

Sunday

A morning surprise: Balloons!

This morning we were delightfully surprised by the sound of hot air balloons overhead. At first we thought it was just some local noise we weren’t familiar with, but then we realized it sounded just like summer weekend mornings back home.

Today we spent most of our time walking to and around the city center. We also took care of necessities such as food shopping and preparing dinner. It’s a beautiful town even though I feel there is so much more to see and do.

Tuesday

Morning coffee in our yard

Today was sort of an artsy day. Leslie and I started this morning with exploring our garden and taking close up and other interesting photos.

After breakfast we set out for a walking day. First we walked from the house to Fabrica la Aurora.

Fabrica la Aurora

Then we walked to Mercado de Artesanias.

We did some shopping and then had lunch at “The Restaurant” – an amazing meal. Then I walked home, taking a new route to see a different part of town.

Wednesday

Touring Guanajuato

We had a fantastic tour of the beautiful city of Guanajuato. Our tour guide, Fernando Ibarra (415 145 4316) was incredibly knowledgeable and speaks English extremely well. He walked us around the city giving us the background of many of the key places and in doing so he conjured up vivid imagery of historical moments, people and places. The city is amazing in its beauty but also it history and infrastructure. There are tunnels below the entire city for vehicle traffic, but the tunnel network, complete with intersections and winding turns has no relationship to the roads above it.

The Mummies of Guanajuato

(To be verified) These mummies were buried during an outbreak of Cholera during the early 1800s, and subsequently disinterred between 1870 and 1958 because burial taxes were not paid.

Alex and Claire being attacked by mummies

To be continued…

A Laboring Birthday Trip

Well, there was labor in the form of backpacking, and there was Labor Day. And there was my birthday.

This post is about the fantastic trip Matthew, Leslie and I took in early September. We drove to Sawtooth Mountains (Redfish Lake Lodge) via Dubois, Wyoming where we were able to visit with Leslie’s mom and stay for a couple nights there on the way to Wyoming.

The story is told here: https://markpastor.com/september-vacation-2021

South Dakota for Sis’s 60th

Last weekend I joined friends and family to celebrate my sister Lauren’s birthday. Read more…

And here is more info on the trip to South Dakota.

Election Week on Lake Powell

A small, Covid-careful group of us decided we would rather not be stuck watching news media during what we predicted would be a crazy election week. So we loaded up the cars and moved (temporarily) to a home (well, a house boat) on Lake Powell. We were indeed isolated from the media, but so wonderfully connected to nature’s beauty. What a wonderful week it was.

Cast of Characters

After spending the night of November 1 on the boat in Bullfrog Marina, the morning of November 2 was filled with hours of waiting for the Marina to open and then get us oriented and trained on the boats.

We piloted the boat to the mouth of Slick Rock Canyon where we anchored for two nights.

November 3

After a delicious-as-usual breakfast, the group took off in the speed boat for a 3-hour tour up Escalante Canyon.

You can see from the inset in the map above that we did have an incident (see “stuck in the mud”).

The photo to the left shows a partially disrobed Leslie jumping back into the boat after heroically dislodging us from our grounded state.

We beached and picnicked at the end of Clear Creek Canyon where we saw some incredible views along the way.

And then we went back ‘home’ for a relaxing evening. These pics are from the drive.

You can see the houseboat in the left portion of the image above.

After a safe return, our spiritual leader cast spells of good fortune upon us.

Most of us were comfy and cozy for the evening in our boat.

November 4

Several of us took a small hike around Slick Rock Canyon…

… then we moved the houseboat from Slick Rock Canyon to Hansen Canyon.

Our scouting party had a little problem with a sandbar. The houseboat came to the rescue to pull them off the sandbar.

November 5

The next day we ventured to Forgotten Canyon in search of the Defiance House Ruins.

Here are pics from the hike…

… and here are pics from the ruins.

There is a storage room and a Kiva.

At the entrance is where the petroglyphs are.

Here is the view from the ruins. A great vantage point to strengthen their defense.

After exploring the ruins, we hiked back to the speed boat and explored some of Moki Canyon.

November 6

On the last day of this adventure, each of us relaxed in our own way in the morning. Leslie went paddle boarding, I took a hike along the canyon, and Cynthia and Lou took a stroll along one of the fingers of the canyon.

What a wonderful time it was.

Mount Sneffels

Leslie and I conquered one of her bucket list adventures… Mount Sneffels. It was a tough hike with a long very steep scree field followed by an even steeper boulder field, followed by a slightly technical passage with enough exposure to make it interesting. The hike took us a lot longer than I thought it would – about 9 hours, because you just can’t rush progress, up or down, on that scree field. Now I know why most of the hikers I saw were wearing helmets. Well… we did it! And lived to tell our tale. The vistas were spectacular.