Good things do Happen!!

Another day, another series of little stories to share with you all. I’ll try not to get too long winded as if I do that, I’ll never actually get these posts done 🙂 At the end of my last tale, we had just wrapped up day 1 with a great view of Riyadh at night, and head headed off to slumber to get ready for another day of fun. Andrea had to work once again, but only for a half day, but it was long enough that we had a chance to head out for a little more exploration with Patrick and Helena in their SUV. The target of our exploration this time around was to be the Wadi , or creek-bed that lies around Riyadh and the DQ. This area only gets rain a few times in the year, but when it does, it causes flash flooding sometimes. This is the area where it would happen, but for most of the year, it is actually a roadway of sorts. Read on for a little bit about that as well as some other things I did on Christmas Eve. As usual, don’t forget to check out flickr for more great shots!

Click here for pictures from the Quebrada de Cafayate. Let me start off by saying that I´ve never really been to any real canyonlands. I´ve not been to the Grand Canyon, or Moab, Death Valley, etc. etc. So I have no way of knowing whether the magnificance that I experienced in the Quebrada de Cafayate is paralelled or not. However, you can rest assured that this humble narrator was duly impressed, and moved beyond words at several points of our canyon tour via bus with a coca-leaf loving local expert guide. Impressed to the point that I have even contemplated changing my plans for next year. Rather than spending 6 months in New Zealand, I strongly thought about instead returning to South America. For one, it would be much less expensive, not to mention there is no shortage of things to do, and would certainly be an enriching cultural experience. That being said, for now, I´ll stick with the plan. I have a (hopefully) long life ahead of me, and can certainly return another time. On with the tour.

Hello gang. Well, right off the bat, it looks like I’ll have to apologize for the non-catchy title. I simply can’t think of a better title than what you read at the beginning. Since I’ve been back from my extended trip to NZ, I haven’t really taken any substantial time off from work. Actually, scratch that, I haven’t taken any time off apart from stat holidays. However, since Jody’s cousin Renee was getting married in BC this summer, it gave us a great excuse to book a nice week of vacation over on the far left side of Canada. The trip ended up not costing us too much, since we flew out on points, and then stayed mainly with Jody’s folks on Gabriola Island. As a result, we managed to squeeze in a couple fun activities while we were there, and spend quality time with the family playing extreme bocce, watching the Olympics, and enjoying some great home cooking. There are of course many pictures up on Flickr, which you can check out at your leisure. I also put together a map of one of our activities, a hike up Mount Benson, one of the nearby ‘peaks’ in Nanaimo. When you’re done checking that stuff out, come on back and read on for more details on the week.