chopstick goes for a sail
09-23-2013
, 03:14 PM
09-28-2013
, 04:35 PM
After leaving Portland, I headed up to Seattle to visit a friend and hang out:
It had been a pretty long time since I was in Seattle, and the last time I was there, I flew directly in, and hung out in the city. Driving in, I learned that Seattle has some traffic issues. And that's coming from someone with years of experience in D.C.
I also learned where all of the religious billboards come from:
Met up and hung out with my friend that evening, and did a little research on tires for the CRV. The ones that with it were 1-ply standard road tires, one of which had picked up a leak in the last couple of days. Because I was headed to the Dalton, and going over the Alcan (or Alaska Highway, as they call it now), I knew I wanted some heavy duty tires. After that research, I decided to go with BF Goodrich All Terrain On/Off road 6-plys. Very glad I made that decision, those things were beasts. They also upped my ground clearance from ~9" to ~10". Should have gotten those before I did the Alpine Pass back in Colorado. I bought six, and kept the 2nd spare in the rear area. Had lots of room because I kept both the rear seats down for almost the entire trip.
We went out to the waterfront and walked around on the rocks at low tide. Lots of crabs. Pretty murky water. There were some guys salmon fishing, but I didn't see anyone catch anything. You aren't supposed to eat the clams:
After buying those tires the next morning and having them put on, I headed into the city to meet up with my friend for lunch. He works right next to the Pike Place market, so we walked over there for halibut chowder and mac & cheese.
We got the mac & cheese from a place called Beecher's:
They make the cheese in these enormous vats that I posted a photo of earlier:
If you want to eat there, you can sit on a large butter churn:
The mac & cheese was pretty scrumptious. The cheese was a little runny for my tastes, maybe I should have let it cool down some and see if it congealed.
One of the cool things about the market is the bubble gum wall. People stuck a lot of gum on this one alley wall over the years, and then it became a thing to do. Now it's a full blown tourist attraction. It is absolutely covered in gum:
Covered!:
Not sure who thought this would work:
That's like putting up a target.
After lunch, I headed north to Canada. I had decided to cross at one of the smaller crossing points in order to not be stuck at border control all day, so I headed northeast to a little town called Sumas. The line for crossing was pretty short:
My quick crossing plan was foiled by the Canadian border agents, though. When I drove through the initial control, the booth guard asked me the standard questions. I answered "no" by reflex to the "any fruits or vegetables?" question, even though I had both an apple and a banana in plain sight. I don't know if that's what did it or not, because he never said anything about them, but he asked me to pull over in a little area past the booth.
I pulled over the waiting area, and hung out for about 20 minutes. No one came to see me, so I went into the little office they had and asked what they'd like me to do. They asked for my passport and ran it, and then asked for the car keys and told me to wait inside. I sat down on a bench with a couple other people. One immediately volunteered that he'd been there for 4 hours, and I mentally facepalmed myself.
After about 20 minutes, the agents came back in and told me I was good to go. They also told me not to get eaten by bears.
When I got back to the car, it was clear that they had done a thorough search. Everything was basically where it had been beforehand, but either open or moved slightly.
While I have friends that have some red flags for travel, I don't have any that I know of, so I'm guessing I was either randomly selected, or the fruit/vegetable thing dropped me into a profile category. Funny enough, they didn't take either the banana or the apple. Score!
So they let me into Canada:
and I knew where my first stop was going to be:
Hope, it's not just for Arkansas.
I continued checking out the candies in new areas, and thought this was a pretty funny one:
but this was my favorite:
In the next update: more candy, a bear, and a sweet mountain.
Bonus photo - view from the Kilauea Point Wildlife Refuge in Kauai:
It had been a pretty long time since I was in Seattle, and the last time I was there, I flew directly in, and hung out in the city. Driving in, I learned that Seattle has some traffic issues. And that's coming from someone with years of experience in D.C.
I also learned where all of the religious billboards come from:
Met up and hung out with my friend that evening, and did a little research on tires for the CRV. The ones that with it were 1-ply standard road tires, one of which had picked up a leak in the last couple of days. Because I was headed to the Dalton, and going over the Alcan (or Alaska Highway, as they call it now), I knew I wanted some heavy duty tires. After that research, I decided to go with BF Goodrich All Terrain On/Off road 6-plys. Very glad I made that decision, those things were beasts. They also upped my ground clearance from ~9" to ~10". Should have gotten those before I did the Alpine Pass back in Colorado. I bought six, and kept the 2nd spare in the rear area. Had lots of room because I kept both the rear seats down for almost the entire trip.
We went out to the waterfront and walked around on the rocks at low tide. Lots of crabs. Pretty murky water. There were some guys salmon fishing, but I didn't see anyone catch anything. You aren't supposed to eat the clams:
After buying those tires the next morning and having them put on, I headed into the city to meet up with my friend for lunch. He works right next to the Pike Place market, so we walked over there for halibut chowder and mac & cheese.
We got the mac & cheese from a place called Beecher's:
They make the cheese in these enormous vats that I posted a photo of earlier:
If you want to eat there, you can sit on a large butter churn:
The mac & cheese was pretty scrumptious. The cheese was a little runny for my tastes, maybe I should have let it cool down some and see if it congealed.
One of the cool things about the market is the bubble gum wall. People stuck a lot of gum on this one alley wall over the years, and then it became a thing to do. Now it's a full blown tourist attraction. It is absolutely covered in gum:
Covered!:
Not sure who thought this would work:
That's like putting up a target.
After lunch, I headed north to Canada. I had decided to cross at one of the smaller crossing points in order to not be stuck at border control all day, so I headed northeast to a little town called Sumas. The line for crossing was pretty short:
My quick crossing plan was foiled by the Canadian border agents, though. When I drove through the initial control, the booth guard asked me the standard questions. I answered "no" by reflex to the "any fruits or vegetables?" question, even though I had both an apple and a banana in plain sight. I don't know if that's what did it or not, because he never said anything about them, but he asked me to pull over in a little area past the booth.
I pulled over the waiting area, and hung out for about 20 minutes. No one came to see me, so I went into the little office they had and asked what they'd like me to do. They asked for my passport and ran it, and then asked for the car keys and told me to wait inside. I sat down on a bench with a couple other people. One immediately volunteered that he'd been there for 4 hours, and I mentally facepalmed myself.
After about 20 minutes, the agents came back in and told me I was good to go. They also told me not to get eaten by bears.
When I got back to the car, it was clear that they had done a thorough search. Everything was basically where it had been beforehand, but either open or moved slightly.
While I have friends that have some red flags for travel, I don't have any that I know of, so I'm guessing I was either randomly selected, or the fruit/vegetable thing dropped me into a profile category. Funny enough, they didn't take either the banana or the apple. Score!
So they let me into Canada:
and I knew where my first stop was going to be:
Hope, it's not just for Arkansas.
I continued checking out the candies in new areas, and thought this was a pretty funny one:
but this was my favorite:
In the next update: more candy, a bear, and a sweet mountain.
Bonus photo - view from the Kilauea Point Wildlife Refuge in Kauai:
10-13-2013
, 10:05 PM
One more candy photo before we leave Hope behind:
Canadian Milk Duds vs US Milk Duds.
I might have forgotten to mention, I originally planned to stay in Meritt or maybe Kamloops the first night in Canada, but when I saw there was a city called Chilliwack, there was no decision to make. Obviously I had to spend the night in Chilliwack because Chilliwack.
Not too far past Hope, I saw the first bear of the trip. He crossed the road in front of me, then hung out for this quick photo op before bearing off into the woods:
I continued on my way, and started noticing that Canada doesn't like hitchhiking:
These signs were at pretty much every onramp that I saw anywhere in Canada. I think I took that one just outside of Kamloops. Canada, I love your names! I'm cool with picking up hitchhikers, so it was a bummer to see that it was against the law in Canada.
On the plus side for Canadian signs, there was this one:
The corresponding signs in the US are a $1000 fine. I really don't like littering, so I was very happy to see that Canada takes it more seriously than the US does. I'd be happy with a $5000 fine, but I'll settle for this. I don't really care who uses the litter barrels, but it's pretty cool of them to try to reserve them for tourists.
After taking CA5 up from Hope to Kamloops, I kept heading north up CA5 until I got near Jasper National Park. I think someone mentioned earlier on that Jasper was worth stopping at, so I stopped for the night in Valemount:
Bummer. At least the sink in the bathroom worked. I can't read the writing on the right, but it probably says the same thing.
The next morning, I went a little more north, then hung a right onto CA16. First up was Mt. Robson Provincial Park:
I have another photo of me standing to the left of that sign looking up at the goat with my arms out in a "whaddya want from me?!" which is pretty awesome. That goat sign is a great photo op.
Here's another view of Mt Robson, sans goat:
My jaw actually dropped a little when I saw Mt Robson for the first time. It's impressive, and I recommend the detour if you are ever up that way.
A little into the park, you come across Moose Lake on the right:
which is a pretty sweet view with the mountains in the background:
There were no moose there, though. Bummer. The water was a funky color, kinda like a cobalt blue. Not really sure how accurately these photos represent it. I walked into the lake, of course.
Not too long after entering Jasper, there was a wildlife traffic jam. Unfortunately I was at the end of it, so all I saw was the traffic jam portion, and no wildlife:
Luckily, the wildlife started showing up not too long after that:
This guy had a bunch of velvet hanging from his antlers, so he was alternating between eating the goods off the tree, and rubbing his antlers against the branches to get the velvet off. There were about a dozen cars stopped on the side of the road taking photos, and he didn't care, he just kept doing his thing. After about 20 minutes from when I got there, he just moseyed on off into the brush.
I bet he would have made a tasty burger.
Not too far up the road from him, these guys were hanging out:
I took that photo right after someone further down the road spooked some of them. That's why two of them are running in my direction. They, too, would probably make tasty burgers.
There were lots of points in Jasper when I tried to take photos showing the beauty of the mountains, and the perspectives for the most part just didn't work out well. Probably because I have no photography training or idea of how to take a decent photo. I do think this one came out pretty well:
I really miss those tires. I've never had truly badass offroad tires before. Those things rocked.
Next update will include big beaver and a shredded Coke truck. I meant to catch up to present with this thread while in Kauai, but.. Kauai. The photos from the powered hang glider flight in Kauai are pretty sick. We flew right over the waterfall and valley from the famous sequence in Jurassic Park:
as well as other awesome stuff like the Ne Pali Coast, so you'll forgive me for enjoying Kauai instead of getting caught up while there.
Canadian Milk Duds vs US Milk Duds.
I might have forgotten to mention, I originally planned to stay in Meritt or maybe Kamloops the first night in Canada, but when I saw there was a city called Chilliwack, there was no decision to make. Obviously I had to spend the night in Chilliwack because Chilliwack.
Not too far past Hope, I saw the first bear of the trip. He crossed the road in front of me, then hung out for this quick photo op before bearing off into the woods:
I continued on my way, and started noticing that Canada doesn't like hitchhiking:
These signs were at pretty much every onramp that I saw anywhere in Canada. I think I took that one just outside of Kamloops. Canada, I love your names! I'm cool with picking up hitchhikers, so it was a bummer to see that it was against the law in Canada.
On the plus side for Canadian signs, there was this one:
The corresponding signs in the US are a $1000 fine. I really don't like littering, so I was very happy to see that Canada takes it more seriously than the US does. I'd be happy with a $5000 fine, but I'll settle for this. I don't really care who uses the litter barrels, but it's pretty cool of them to try to reserve them for tourists.
After taking CA5 up from Hope to Kamloops, I kept heading north up CA5 until I got near Jasper National Park. I think someone mentioned earlier on that Jasper was worth stopping at, so I stopped for the night in Valemount:
Bummer. At least the sink in the bathroom worked. I can't read the writing on the right, but it probably says the same thing.
The next morning, I went a little more north, then hung a right onto CA16. First up was Mt. Robson Provincial Park:
I have another photo of me standing to the left of that sign looking up at the goat with my arms out in a "whaddya want from me?!" which is pretty awesome. That goat sign is a great photo op.
Here's another view of Mt Robson, sans goat:
My jaw actually dropped a little when I saw Mt Robson for the first time. It's impressive, and I recommend the detour if you are ever up that way.
A little into the park, you come across Moose Lake on the right:
which is a pretty sweet view with the mountains in the background:
There were no moose there, though. Bummer. The water was a funky color, kinda like a cobalt blue. Not really sure how accurately these photos represent it. I walked into the lake, of course.
Not too long after entering Jasper, there was a wildlife traffic jam. Unfortunately I was at the end of it, so all I saw was the traffic jam portion, and no wildlife:
Luckily, the wildlife started showing up not too long after that:
This guy had a bunch of velvet hanging from his antlers, so he was alternating between eating the goods off the tree, and rubbing his antlers against the branches to get the velvet off. There were about a dozen cars stopped on the side of the road taking photos, and he didn't care, he just kept doing his thing. After about 20 minutes from when I got there, he just moseyed on off into the brush.
I bet he would have made a tasty burger.
Not too far up the road from him, these guys were hanging out:
I took that photo right after someone further down the road spooked some of them. That's why two of them are running in my direction. They, too, would probably make tasty burgers.
There were lots of points in Jasper when I tried to take photos showing the beauty of the mountains, and the perspectives for the most part just didn't work out well. Probably because I have no photography training or idea of how to take a decent photo. I do think this one came out pretty well:
I really miss those tires. I've never had truly badass offroad tires before. Those things rocked.
Next update will include big beaver and a shredded Coke truck. I meant to catch up to present with this thread while in Kauai, but.. Kauai. The photos from the powered hang glider flight in Kauai are pretty sick. We flew right over the waterfall and valley from the famous sequence in Jurassic Park:
as well as other awesome stuff like the Ne Pali Coast, so you'll forgive me for enjoying Kauai instead of getting caught up while there.
10-19-2013
, 03:01 PM
After leaving Jasper, I headed up CA40 to Grand Prairie. Not much to report there. I had a choice at one point:
Except that isn't really a choice at all, is it? Who doesn't take the scenic route, I mean really.
Not quite sure what happened to this Coke truck, which I think was headed to Grand Prairie:
Looks like someone traveling in a flatbed was going in the opposite direction and veered a little too close to the centerline. Or maybe the Coke truck did. Did not see any free Cokes on the road, so I assume he was traveling empty.
Went through a caribou wildlife sanctuary for part of the drive up to Dawson Creek:
and saw a few caribou, but didn't get any good photos. Most of them are just of a tiny dot somewhere in the distance. Maybe I need an actual camera that can zoom for real instead of just using an iPhone for everything.
Dawson Creek is the start of the AlCan (or Alaska Highway, I guess they call it now), so I took a left and headed up that way. Went through the town of Beaverlodge:
Where this enormous beaver tried to hitch a ride on top of the CRV. When I told him I wasn't taking him anywhere, he decided to vomit a rainbow:
but not even that was enough to change my mind. I crossed back into British Columbia:
and onward I headed to Dawson Creek.
The start of the Alaska Highway is right smack dab in the middle of town:
1523km to Fairbanks? No problem!
Yes, that's in the middle of a controlled intersection. Not much traffic there but enough that getting a photo standing on/near the marker is a bit of a pain. There's also a sweet little museum right on the corner of that intersection where you can learn all about the highway and how it was constructed. That kind of thing normally bores me, but they keep the exhibits story-focused with a lot of human interest detail, so I enjoyed it.
After kicking off on the Alaska Highway proper, I wasn't an hour on the road before I got the first windshield crack of the journey:
It started off only a few inches, but grew pretty rapidly. It wasn't obstructing visibility, so I decided to just deal with it. After it crossed the 12" mark a few days later, I was wondering how wise a choice that was.
A few hundred kilometers northward, Fort Nelson, Canada seemed like a good place to stop at an A&W restaurant for the first time ever:
Yep, poutine on the menu. No, I don't know what a whistle dog is. Or why the burgers are named after family names like Uncle.
I noticed that British Columbia continues to take a firm stance on poachers:
which I happen to think is pretty awesome.
From Fort Nelson, the highway suddenly veers to the west. Swinging down along the Tetsa River Provincial Park, I stopped for fuel and an enormous cinnamon bun at Tetsa River Outfitters:
where I discovered a flavor of Crush that I wasn't aware existed:
After my softball sized cinnamon bun, it was back on the highway. What do you think this sign means:
?
As a motorcycle guy, I know what they are trying to say, but I've not ever seen a sign for it before. Thought that was pretty funny, as it kinda looks like they are warning of motorcycles playing their music loudly.
Somewhere down around Toad River, it started to get pretty dusty:
and I LOLed when I saw a sign that warned about intense dust. Until the above shot turned into something more like this:
then I was not LOLing anymore, because I was too busy squinting into the dust clouds ahead to make sure I didn't have a collision with another vehicle. Seriously dusty.
The dust did clear up eventually to some sick views of driving through the mountains:
which I had time to appreciate, because you aren't supposed to go fast up there:
Yep, that sign says what you think it says:
I think my favorite part of that sign is how they change the background color in the second panel.
Except that isn't really a choice at all, is it? Who doesn't take the scenic route, I mean really.
Not quite sure what happened to this Coke truck, which I think was headed to Grand Prairie:
Looks like someone traveling in a flatbed was going in the opposite direction and veered a little too close to the centerline. Or maybe the Coke truck did. Did not see any free Cokes on the road, so I assume he was traveling empty.
Went through a caribou wildlife sanctuary for part of the drive up to Dawson Creek:
and saw a few caribou, but didn't get any good photos. Most of them are just of a tiny dot somewhere in the distance. Maybe I need an actual camera that can zoom for real instead of just using an iPhone for everything.
Dawson Creek is the start of the AlCan (or Alaska Highway, I guess they call it now), so I took a left and headed up that way. Went through the town of Beaverlodge:
Where this enormous beaver tried to hitch a ride on top of the CRV. When I told him I wasn't taking him anywhere, he decided to vomit a rainbow:
but not even that was enough to change my mind. I crossed back into British Columbia:
and onward I headed to Dawson Creek.
The start of the Alaska Highway is right smack dab in the middle of town:
1523km to Fairbanks? No problem!
Yes, that's in the middle of a controlled intersection. Not much traffic there but enough that getting a photo standing on/near the marker is a bit of a pain. There's also a sweet little museum right on the corner of that intersection where you can learn all about the highway and how it was constructed. That kind of thing normally bores me, but they keep the exhibits story-focused with a lot of human interest detail, so I enjoyed it.
After kicking off on the Alaska Highway proper, I wasn't an hour on the road before I got the first windshield crack of the journey:
It started off only a few inches, but grew pretty rapidly. It wasn't obstructing visibility, so I decided to just deal with it. After it crossed the 12" mark a few days later, I was wondering how wise a choice that was.
A few hundred kilometers northward, Fort Nelson, Canada seemed like a good place to stop at an A&W restaurant for the first time ever:
Yep, poutine on the menu. No, I don't know what a whistle dog is. Or why the burgers are named after family names like Uncle.
I noticed that British Columbia continues to take a firm stance on poachers:
which I happen to think is pretty awesome.
From Fort Nelson, the highway suddenly veers to the west. Swinging down along the Tetsa River Provincial Park, I stopped for fuel and an enormous cinnamon bun at Tetsa River Outfitters:
where I discovered a flavor of Crush that I wasn't aware existed:
After my softball sized cinnamon bun, it was back on the highway. What do you think this sign means:
?
As a motorcycle guy, I know what they are trying to say, but I've not ever seen a sign for it before. Thought that was pretty funny, as it kinda looks like they are warning of motorcycles playing their music loudly.
Somewhere down around Toad River, it started to get pretty dusty:
and I LOLed when I saw a sign that warned about intense dust. Until the above shot turned into something more like this:
then I was not LOLing anymore, because I was too busy squinting into the dust clouds ahead to make sure I didn't have a collision with another vehicle. Seriously dusty.
The dust did clear up eventually to some sick views of driving through the mountains:
which I had time to appreciate, because you aren't supposed to go fast up there:
Yep, that sign says what you think it says:
I think my favorite part of that sign is how they change the background color in the second panel.
10-19-2013
, 10:27 PM
Hmmm...
Quote:
A few hundred kilometers northward, Fort Nelson, Canada seemed like a good place to stop at an A&W restaurant for the first time ever:
Thank goodness you're finally getting out into the world.
Quote:
I noticed that British Columbia continues to take a firm stance on poachers:
which I happen to think is pretty awesome.
which I happen to think is pretty awesome.
10-21-2013
, 03:04 PM
So the original plan was to fly down to the DR last week and help sail the Morgan 38 to Puerto La Cruz in Venezuela. I bumped out the flight until the end of October to spend more time in D.C. visiting friends and family.
Last night, I started looking into flights out of Venezuela. I looked for flights from Venezuela to the Canary Islands, planning to try to get a crew position for the ARC Rally which goes from Gran Canaria down to St Lucia:
They leave Gran Canaria on November 24, so I'd need to be there by say the 21st or 22nd.
First I looked from the nearest airport to Puerto La Cruz, which is in Barcelona (yes, there's one of those in Venezuela). The only international flight out of that airport is a daily flight to Miami, which is fine. I can just fly from Miami to Gran Canaria. Except that this flight is completely booked for every day I checked.
Then I decided it would be fine to fly from Barcelona over to Caracas, and fly out from there. Either to Miami, or some other way to the Canaries. Almost every one of these flights out of Caracas to Miami or wherever are also almost completely booked. The few that aren't are absurdly expensive ($1.5-$3k) considering the normal fare is around $300-$400.
At this point, I was like "wtf Venezuela?" and started doing some Googling. That's when I found out that there is indeed something up, and it's currency arbitrage.
What I found is that pretty much all of the outbound flights from Venezuela are booked for the next six months because people are doing currency arbitrage due to a loophole in Venezuelan currency exchange laws:
Why Are Sold-Out Flights From South America Leaving Half Empty?
A New Twist on Capital Flight: Venezuela's Absurd Airfares
'Get a boat!' Venezuela flights booked full for months
Basically, if you hold a "valid" airline ticket, you can exchange 6 Bolivars for a dollar instead of 42 Bolivars, so everyone is buying up airline tickets, exchanging money to get dollars at an 86% discount, and then usually not even taking the flight.
So.. while I'm sure I'll like Venezuela, it looks like there is no way I'll be able to fly out to the Canaries or anywhere else from there, absent an absurdly expensive ticket. I also looked into taking a bus to Cartagena and flying out from there, but it's like 800 miles away, so that's not gonna happen. I guess I could fly to Caracas, then take a shorter bus to Cartagena, and fly out from there.
I sent an email to the guy who I'd be sailing down with and proposed these options:
1. I help him sail to Puerto Rico or USVI/BVI, then get off the boat and head to the Canaries.
2. I help him sail somewhere off the coast of Venezuela (Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad & Tobago), then get off the boat and head to the Canaries.
3. I fly down to the Dominican Republic, help him prep the boat a few days, then wave goodbye as he sails away. Chill in the DR for a bit, then head to the Canaries.
4. I help him sail down to Venezuela assuming we can figure out some way to get me to the Canaries before November 21 that doesn't cost many thousands of dollars.
5. Something else?
I don't want to back out on him, because I committed to helping, and he's a good guy. I also don't want to get stuck in Venezuela or end up paying thousands of dollars to get out because of the currency arbitrage craziness.
So, yeah. Waiting to hear back from him on what he wants to do. Ideally he'll just say "don't worry about it, it's cool" and I'll just stay in D.C., skip the flight to the DR, and find a spot on the Carib1500 which is leaving Hampton, VA for the BVI on November 1, then fly from the BVI over to the Canaries and sail right back over to the Caribbean.
I want to do right by this guy, who I consider a friend, but don't want to get stuck in Venezuela. LOLarbitrage
Last night, I started looking into flights out of Venezuela. I looked for flights from Venezuela to the Canary Islands, planning to try to get a crew position for the ARC Rally which goes from Gran Canaria down to St Lucia:
They leave Gran Canaria on November 24, so I'd need to be there by say the 21st or 22nd.
First I looked from the nearest airport to Puerto La Cruz, which is in Barcelona (yes, there's one of those in Venezuela). The only international flight out of that airport is a daily flight to Miami, which is fine. I can just fly from Miami to Gran Canaria. Except that this flight is completely booked for every day I checked.
Then I decided it would be fine to fly from Barcelona over to Caracas, and fly out from there. Either to Miami, or some other way to the Canaries. Almost every one of these flights out of Caracas to Miami or wherever are also almost completely booked. The few that aren't are absurdly expensive ($1.5-$3k) considering the normal fare is around $300-$400.
At this point, I was like "wtf Venezuela?" and started doing some Googling. That's when I found out that there is indeed something up, and it's currency arbitrage.
What I found is that pretty much all of the outbound flights from Venezuela are booked for the next six months because people are doing currency arbitrage due to a loophole in Venezuelan currency exchange laws:
Why Are Sold-Out Flights From South America Leaving Half Empty?
A New Twist on Capital Flight: Venezuela's Absurd Airfares
'Get a boat!' Venezuela flights booked full for months
Basically, if you hold a "valid" airline ticket, you can exchange 6 Bolivars for a dollar instead of 42 Bolivars, so everyone is buying up airline tickets, exchanging money to get dollars at an 86% discount, and then usually not even taking the flight.
So.. while I'm sure I'll like Venezuela, it looks like there is no way I'll be able to fly out to the Canaries or anywhere else from there, absent an absurdly expensive ticket. I also looked into taking a bus to Cartagena and flying out from there, but it's like 800 miles away, so that's not gonna happen. I guess I could fly to Caracas, then take a shorter bus to Cartagena, and fly out from there.
I sent an email to the guy who I'd be sailing down with and proposed these options:
1. I help him sail to Puerto Rico or USVI/BVI, then get off the boat and head to the Canaries.
2. I help him sail somewhere off the coast of Venezuela (Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad & Tobago), then get off the boat and head to the Canaries.
3. I fly down to the Dominican Republic, help him prep the boat a few days, then wave goodbye as he sails away. Chill in the DR for a bit, then head to the Canaries.
4. I help him sail down to Venezuela assuming we can figure out some way to get me to the Canaries before November 21 that doesn't cost many thousands of dollars.
5. Something else?
I don't want to back out on him, because I committed to helping, and he's a good guy. I also don't want to get stuck in Venezuela or end up paying thousands of dollars to get out because of the currency arbitrage craziness.
So, yeah. Waiting to hear back from him on what he wants to do. Ideally he'll just say "don't worry about it, it's cool" and I'll just stay in D.C., skip the flight to the DR, and find a spot on the Carib1500 which is leaving Hampton, VA for the BVI on November 1, then fly from the BVI over to the Canaries and sail right back over to the Caribbean.
I want to do right by this guy, who I consider a friend, but don't want to get stuck in Venezuela. LOLarbitrage
10-28-2013
, 09:56 PM
The owner of the boat I'm going to help deliver fairly soon sent me an email today with some news. He was moving the boat with the dinghy being towed along behind, and then went in reverse without pulling up the slack in the line. The line got caught in the propeller, and managed to crack the outer housing for the cutless bearing:
This is an underwater shot of the propeller and where it attaches to the rear of the boat. The propeller is on the left. It is attached via a propeller shaft that has some housing on it.
The arrow is pointing to where the top rear portion of the shaft log used to be. The black/brown area is the exposed cutless bearing and its immediate housing. The cutless bearing keeps the propeller shaft in place while allowing it to turn. The shaft log covers the cutless bearing and protects it. Now the shaft log needs replaced.
Looks like I may be hanging out in the Dominican Republic a little longer than planned until that gets fixed. That's fine, D.C. is getting too cold anyway. Rather hang out in the warmth of the DR than cold D.C.
This is an underwater shot of the propeller and where it attaches to the rear of the boat. The propeller is on the left. It is attached via a propeller shaft that has some housing on it.
The arrow is pointing to where the top rear portion of the shaft log used to be. The black/brown area is the exposed cutless bearing and its immediate housing. The cutless bearing keeps the propeller shaft in place while allowing it to turn. The shaft log covers the cutless bearing and protects it. Now the shaft log needs replaced.
Looks like I may be hanging out in the Dominican Republic a little longer than planned until that gets fixed. That's fine, D.C. is getting too cold anyway. Rather hang out in the warmth of the DR than cold D.C.
10-28-2013
, 11:01 PM
After passing through more of the Canadian Rockies, I made my way past Muncho Lake, which was an odd shade of greenish blue that provided incredible reflections in the water:
There were fish swimming around in there, and also signs saying not to drink the water. Some high degree of mineral content in the water is the reason for this.
The sky up there rivaled the Montana skies, and with the background of infinite mountains, made for a serene environment. Very pleasant to drive through:
This was also about the time I saw my first moose of the trip:
I should have gotten out and taken a stationary photo, that's from a slow drive by. That's a moose calf. It's missing one hindquarter, I guess something ripped it off in its entirety and went elsewhere to enjoy the meal. Good for Mr. Raven, I guess. Now he has his choice of innards.
A little up the road from Muncho Lake is the Liard River Hotsprings. It's a government run campground and hot springs:
There are quite a few signs about bears there:
They are even stapled onto other signs:
That one mentions that you should stay on the boardwalk. The boardwalk is through a marshy/swampy area from where you park to the actual hot springs:
It looks like grass on either side, but that grass is growing in about 6-12 inches of lukewarm water. There are little fish swimming around in there that have evolved to survive the warm water and high mineral content:
After walking for about 5 minutes, you get to the hot springs themselves:
It's a simple wooden building with changing areas and places to store your stuff. On the other side of the building is the water:
The area in the upper left with all the rocks is the source of the spring. I'd say the water was somewhere around 100F in the cooler areas and around 120F near the source. People were doing this thing where you pick up a rock at the cool end, and carry it up to the source, placing it on a bunch of other rocks the people before you have placed there. I'd say about 35% of the people who tried this made it to the source area. It was super hot.
I was really glad I stopped there, it was an extremely relaxing place to chill for a few hours. There were probably about a dozen other people there, mostly locals. I bet this place is just fantastic in the winter time. If you are ever driving up or down the Alaska Highway, make this one of your stops.
There were fish swimming around in there, and also signs saying not to drink the water. Some high degree of mineral content in the water is the reason for this.
The sky up there rivaled the Montana skies, and with the background of infinite mountains, made for a serene environment. Very pleasant to drive through:
This was also about the time I saw my first moose of the trip:
I should have gotten out and taken a stationary photo, that's from a slow drive by. That's a moose calf. It's missing one hindquarter, I guess something ripped it off in its entirety and went elsewhere to enjoy the meal. Good for Mr. Raven, I guess. Now he has his choice of innards.
A little up the road from Muncho Lake is the Liard River Hotsprings. It's a government run campground and hot springs:
There are quite a few signs about bears there:
They are even stapled onto other signs:
That one mentions that you should stay on the boardwalk. The boardwalk is through a marshy/swampy area from where you park to the actual hot springs:
It looks like grass on either side, but that grass is growing in about 6-12 inches of lukewarm water. There are little fish swimming around in there that have evolved to survive the warm water and high mineral content:
After walking for about 5 minutes, you get to the hot springs themselves:
It's a simple wooden building with changing areas and places to store your stuff. On the other side of the building is the water:
The area in the upper left with all the rocks is the source of the spring. I'd say the water was somewhere around 100F in the cooler areas and around 120F near the source. People were doing this thing where you pick up a rock at the cool end, and carry it up to the source, placing it on a bunch of other rocks the people before you have placed there. I'd say about 35% of the people who tried this made it to the source area. It was super hot.
I was really glad I stopped there, it was an extremely relaxing place to chill for a few hours. There were probably about a dozen other people there, mostly locals. I bet this place is just fantastic in the winter time. If you are ever driving up or down the Alaska Highway, make this one of your stops.
10-30-2013
, 09:26 AM
11-04-2013
, 10:17 PM