Chichen Itza

We spent our honeymoon in the Mayan Riviera of Mexico and while there, took in the ruins of Chichen Itza on the very same day it was declared one of the official wonders of the world. This giant pyramid known as El Castillo dominates the centre of the cleared area and is breathtaking to see. After some injuries by clumsy tourists it is no longer open for climbing but the view from the base remains unforgettable.
The Mayan people were brilliant astronomers and the ruins of this observatory were very captivating to me. There were statues of the heads of Mayan astrologers around the outside and the main dome had been designed to look like a snail. For any apocalypse nutters out there, we had it tiredly explained to us that the end of the Mayan calendar is the beginning of a new cycle and the world is no more likely to end on any December 31st than the end of 2012... just because you're out of calendar doesn't mean you're out of time.
This is the top of the Templo de los Guerreros (Temple of the Warriors) which has a reclining statue at the top and was flanked on the sides by hundreds of columns.
The Mayan people were fascinating and their lack of written language combined with their cruel decimation at the hands of zealous Spaniards leaves many of these places as enigmas I wish we knew more about.

Lobstering

My father's family has been catching lobsters in the North Sea since the 50s and when Kathryn and I went out to visit in 2006 I was sure to include an outing in our travels. When the tide goes out on some rocks near my uncles house, the lobsters that have gone in there to feed at high tide are stranded and you can find them if you poke under rocks just right. My uncle is doing just that in the picture below.
This picture shows you the gear involved in lobstering. The hip waders keep the water out of your feet and the pair of gaff hooks help you keep your balance on the slippery rocks as well as poking around under rocks looking for lobsters and pulling them out if they are defensive and attack your gaff.
Once you find one and can pull it out from under the rock you have to grab it out of the water and put it in a backpack of seaweed. This can be trickier than you'd think as they thrash quite a bit when you grab them and can be easily dropped if you don't know what you're doing. Kathryn is shown below as a mighty hunter that also ate most of that lobster.

Flashbacks Intro

So to spare our few brave readers the next 9 months of duck photos before we get on a new adventure, I thought we'd share some old pictures from before we started this blog and some of our trips and travels prior to our move.

Our first adventure together was a long-weekend camping trip to Kenora in 2006. Just the two of us for a few days out relaxing and seeing if we could put up with each other for extended stretches. Turns out we both liked it quite a bit and a trend was started.
The following year we took a summer expedition to Europe, starting in England and working our way through the former western block before ending in Istanbul. Kathryn was supposed to go on to Israel for summer work, but there was exceptional conflict in the area that year and her funding was pulled. Since we had gotten engaged a few weeks earlier we were quite happy to return home together and not have several months apart at all. Below is the pair of us seconds after our engagement in the tower at Dunstanborough Castle.
And the following year we had our honeymoon in the Mayan Riviera of Mexico. The picture below was taken at our resort before we went riding around on a tandem bicycle.

Frost Lagoon

There's been a string of cold, bright days in Vancouver over the Christmas break which has lead Kathryn and I on a number of nice walks in the morning and evening as the air is very crisp but everything is pleasant and light out. For the first time we can remember, the stream and pool of Lost Lagoon are freezing up tight.
Below is a macro photo of some of the frost on the lip of the bridge in the previous picture. Its been lingering between -5 and +2 degrees most days but rarely getting warm enough to really melt the ice back, so the opening in the ice has been getting ever smaller.
This reduction in open water has forced many of the local ducks into very tight spaces. We found more than a dozen wood ducks in a small hole in the ice and brought them some cracked corn to keep up their strength and get some closeup pictures at the same time. They are lovely little ducks that look like china dolls but they are typically very shy and its been a real treat to get some decent pictures of them.