Hoi An

The streets of Hoi An are quiet until visitors arrive each morning from around the world

After the frenetic pace of Hanoi, it was a relief to walk the streets of the Ancient Quarter of Hoi An, where only pedestrian and bicycle traffic is allowed.

The Japanese Bridge first constructed in 1590 is the emblem of Hoi An

This little town was once a busy port and trading centre with merchants from Japan, China and Europe establishing wharehouses here until the river silted up and the traders moved up the coast to Danang.

Selling bananas along the waterfront

Inside the historic home of a Chinese trading family

Hanoi: Parting Shots

Temple of Literature 

The name was intriguing!  The site of a university, established almost a thousand years ago, was definitely worth the $5 admission fee. Here, all through Vietnam's long history, the best and brightest students came to study, write poetry and take exams on their way to becoming mandarins.

Gates to the Temple of Literature

Dinh Hoang 

We visited the art studio of an award-winning Vietnamese painter, Dinh Hoang, on our last day in Hanoi. He works in a variety of media but I was particular captivated by the way he blended figurative and abstract styles in his work. In honour of our visit, Dinh gave each of us an original painting of a rooster to take home!

Mark admires Dinh's work as his daughter, Khanh Linh, looks on

Traffic in the Old Quarter

A 20 second clip of the scooters on the streets of the Old Quarter. See if you can spot the family of four on the same motorbike!

Halong Bay

Halong means "dragon descending" in Vietnamese

Halong Bay, with about 3000 karst islands in the Gulf of Tonkin, was recently named one of the "Seven Natural Wonders of the World". It's also a UNESCO World Heritage site and, as we discovered, the #1 tourist destination in Vietnam.

View from the top deck of our cruise boat

Enjoying the view with my fellow voyageurs Mark, Chuck and Paul

A dramatic sky as the sun descended

So long Halong!

Weekend in Hanoi

Serene Hoan Kiem Lake near the Old Quarter

Hanoi, described in the Lonely Planet as the "grand old dame of the Orient" is an ancient city for sure. But you get the sense of a place on the move; a city with a graceful colonial past and a dynamic, industrious future.

A city of 7 million people on 6 millions motorbikes

The old quarter of Hanoi, where we are staying, is a maze of narrow streets crowded with small shops, food vendors and far too many motorbikes. There are so many mopeds parked on the sidewalks that everyone walks on the road, mingling seamlessly with the traffic. It's a little unnerving at first but you get used to it soon enough!

Hong Kong

The first stop on my 5 week journey through SE Asia is Hong Kong, a world-class city of some 7 million people.

My first impression was of its modernity: a huge new airport; sleek towers of glass and steel, wrapped in neon lights at night; fast, efficient public transit; a bustling place where almost everyone walks around glued to their smart phones (our taxi driver had 5 set up on his dashboard!).

But there is another Hong Kong, a city of smaller, older apartment buildings and local markets: a market for flowers; another for jade; one for cheap electronics; and even one for song birds (rather sad to see).

Three days isn't enough to fully appreciate the complexity of such a vast metropolis, but my friends and I have much more to see and do in the coming weeks. Next stop: Hanoi, Vietnam!

Four amigos on the road: Mark Goldberg, Chuck Baran, Simon Bell and Paul Zago.

FON Bowling Party

To celebrate the end of another successful workshop season, Focus on Nature held its first bowling party as a way of saying THANK YOU to our many volunteers.

In 2016, our volunteer instructors and assistants conducted 88 full-day workshops in schools and community centres, reaching over 2200 children - a new milestone for Focus on Nature!

Our volunteers bring their wisdom, experience and love of the outdoors to classrooms, giving all children the opportunity see the world with new eyes.

It has been a wonderful experience working with such a dedicated group of people who are making real difference in the lives of young people in their community.

Horseshoe Lake & Gull River

I spent a week in the Haliburton Highlands this September at a cottage on peaceful Horseshoe Lake.

Each morning I got up early to watch the spectacular sunrises over the misty lake.

 The evening moonrise over the lake was not as glorious but very serene.

Sometimes little "nature interventions"  happened unexpectedly, like these mating  dragonflies that landed on my hand one afternoon.

When I went exploring the Gull river, which flows out of Horseshoe Lake, I saw a beautiful Great Blue Heron, in full mating plumage, lurking in the shadows.  I had never seen such 'blue' coloration on a GBH before.

Normally wary of humans, this fellow let me approach quite close until a dog arrived and then he was gone.

The Gull River is also the site of a world-famous white water racing course and I was fortunate enough to see an actual race in progress while I was there. 

The skill and strength of the kayakers was very impressive and fun to watch!

Canusa

The flowerpot border wall

Trump wants to build a wall. How about a wall of flower pots like the one I saw yesterday at the Canada/USA border in Stanstead, Quebec?

Gail and Martin straddle the border in the Haskell Library

The border passes through the village library and theatre and then down Canusa Street. On one side of the street are American homes, on the other they're Canadian!

Stop and then take a left turn to drive down Canusa Street.

Community of Hearts

I had the distinct pleasure of leading a Focus on Nature workshop with the young adults at Community of Hearts. While they may live with challenges related to their mental disabilities, these folks were very enthusiastic about learning photography and showed great talent in making well-composed images.

We spent the morning walking, laughing and shooting photos of flowers, goslings, graffiti and our own shadows along the Speed River. It was a blast! They have a great sense of humour and a big capacity for compassion.

And like the students at our school workshops they were proud of their work and keen to share their slideshows with the others in their group.

Thank you Community of Hearts. I hope we'll be able to work with you again.

Happy Birthday, Gail!

We celebrated Gail's birthday yesterday, here in Barbados, where she's been staying for the past 3 months. 

I won't say which birthday (it's not polite to reveal a woman's age!) but it was a milestone. 

Gail's birthday wish was to have dinner on the beach with her good friends, Dianne and Sam Mahon.

With tiki torches and fine wine we made it a night to remember!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful woman. I love you so much!

Caribbean SOS

My idyllic day on the Tobago Cays (see previous post) ended in a near-disaster. Gail and I had hired a local water taxi, the Papa San and its driver Jerome, to take us from nearby Mayreau Island to the Cays and bring us back in the afternoon.

After a great day of snorkelling around the reefs, on the return 20 minute journey the outboard motor on the Papa San suddenly died.  The waters were quite rough on the windward side of Mayreau, rocking the boat as Jerome tried restarting the engine to no avail. We were out of gas!

The rocks and waves at Monkey Point

As the current drew us towards the rocks of Monkey Point and the ominous frothing surf of the surrounding reef, we started to get a little nervous. "Don't worry", said Jerome as he tossed the anchor overboard. Only one problem: the anchor wasn't tied to the boat and with one big wave the rope slipped through Jerome's hands and the anchor disappeared into the deep. No cell phone and no lifejackets. Now what? 




A boat came around the point heading for Union Island. Gail, getting quite panicky, took off her white shirt and started waving it as we all yelled as loud as we could. No response.

Towed home

The rocks loomed larger. The waters looked angrier. Gail was beside herself. I was thinking about our best options: stay with the boat or get our fins on and start swimming hard.

Another boat appeared and we waved and screamed even louder to no avail. Jerome put his flippers on and started beating his legs against the current. It seemed to have little effect.

Then a third boat appeared around the point. This time our waving and yelling paid off. The boat slowed and then wheeled towards us. Rescued!

Bigger boats are better!

Our rescuers were from a new resort development on Mayreau and their boat, unlike ours, was a large zodiac with a huge outboard motor. They threw us a rope and obligingly towed us slowly back to the Mayreau pier.

Lesson learned? Yup. The next day we went back to Tobago Cays but this time on a large catamaran with lunch served on board. It was twice the price but worth every penny.

Tobago Cays

This uninhabited group of tiny islands, and the protective reef around them, are a national marine park in the Grenadines. I'd heard it was popular with "yachties" sailing the Caribbean sea and a great place to snorkel in the crystal clear waters.

I decided to make this the place to spend my sixty-sixth birthday and I was not disappointed!

Green turtles, stingrays and every kind of tropical fish abound in these shallow blue waters.

Bonaparte's gulls flew overhead and iguanas chased each other around the beach as I enjoyed my rum punch! It was a day to remember.

A near-disaster awaited but I'll save that story for my next blog post.

Emerging Nature

Emerging Nature is our newest exhibition of photographs taken by students in Focus on Nature workshops and camps. It runs for the month of March at the eMERGE Centre in Old Quebec Street Mall, in downtown Guelph.

Jacob and Family at the reception.  Photo by Evan Ferrari.

The opening reception had a lot of media attention! Read the article published in GuelphToday.

If you can't make it to see these remarkable images in person, then do visit our Flickr site to enlarge them on your screen.

Green Heron

Who is that bird walking about in the bougainvillea? Why it's a green heron! In fact there is a pair of herons and they're building a nest in the tree beside our apartment in Barbados.

Green herons are a small heron that is familiar along the shorelines of lakes and marshes in Ontario but I didn't know he was a Caribbean bird as well. In Canada they are very secretive and difficult to see as they crouch perfectly still in the shadows waiting for a fish or frog to come near. But here they appear to be well-adapted to having humans around. So well that this pair will be raising a clutch of chicks right next door to us!