Actun Tunichil Muknal

The rain god Chaahk was a powerful and fickle power to the Mayan people, especially in times of drought, and human blood was a potent source of nourishment for the gods. The limestone caves across Belize were sacred places for him, as the rivers flowing from them were seen as his influence extending from the underworld of Xibalba.

Actun Tunichil Muknal, meaning “Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre” contains both artifacts and human remains from the Classic Mayan period. For hundreds of years, priests came to this cave to conduct bloodletting rituals and human sacrifices.

Many of the stone formations within were shaped to produce musical instruments, altars, or to cast shadow silhouettes of faces and animals on the cave walls.

Entering the cave today involves a 3km scramble underground along a meandering river to the site. The final cave opens up like a natural cathedral that contains 14 skeletal remains, all assumed to be high-status individuals sacrificed in times of war or drought. Frequent flooding over time has calcified their bones, fusing them to the ground and leaving them with a sparking and otherworldly finish.

Experiencing this site was an intensely spiritual experience that left a mark on us - truth be told I think we are still processing it and likely will be for years to come. Though the priests who worshipped these gods are long gone, they were human beings similar to ourselves but utterly different in circumstance. The undeniable power of the place, combined with the things that happened there, are haunting.

Please note: All these photos were shared afterwards by our guide Basilio from a collection built up by local guides. After a number of mishaps with clumsy tourists, photography is no longer permitted in the caves.

The Eclipse

 Portland is a beautiful city which we had a great time exploring, but our primary purpose was to experience 99% totality in the eclipse. We were clearly not the only people with that idea but the spot we found was less crowded than we had feared (though we were in place by 6am just in case) It's also hard for anyone to get their head in your way when you're all looking at the sun, so personal viewing space was not a problem.

 The eclipse itself was incredible but in many ways different than I had expected. I had NOT thought the quality of the light would get so strange and diffused, or that you would feel a change in temperature so quickly. Somewhat naively I HAD expected a large shadow to move across the ground when in reality there is just a gradual darkening, because even 1% of the sun is pretty bright. My personal highlight was during near-totality when everyone was cheering and Kathryn shouted "WOOOOO!! UNIVERSE!!"

 I had also (somewhat foolishly) opted against getting a fancy (and expensive) solar filter. While we had no camera damage of any sort, all my photos were just giant flares. Fortunately, Kathryn captured some pretty cool blooms and edge glows like the picture above. As luck would have it, the fellow next to us that we'd spent the morning chatting with had a sheet of filter in a piece of cardboard you could drop over the end of your lens, and Kathryn used that to take a more classic eclipse photo as shown below.

Apologies for being so late getting these pictures up, the fall has been kicking both our butts, and finding the time and energy to even share a few pictures is tricky to do.

Happy Canada Day!!

 We have a longstanding pattern of enjoying Canada Day together very much, and were both quite pleased to have enough of the day off to enjoy out and about together. We started off on Granville Island, since I'd never spent Canada Day there and wanted to see what it was like. Near the shipyards they had some chalk out for people to decorate a maple leaf, so we got our picture taken doing just that.

 Granville Island was a pretty fun place to spend a few hours. We had some nice Indian food, listened to a little music here and there (though most everyone seemed to be perpetually doing sound checks) and ran into some fun entertainers like the two shown below. Costumes on stilts seems to either be a big thing in Vancouver, or just has become a big thing since we moved here, but its a very neat way of making visible and fantastical costumes.

 Afterwards, we went downtown to the Olympic Cauldron and a  few other spots, but it was SOOO crowded down there that we beat a pretty hasty retreat out of the area, and opted for a walk along the seawall. There was a VERY large Canada flag on display in Stanley Park and we spent a little time sitting in the shade and watching a cricket match as I hazily tried to remember what I ever knew of the rules.

Met up with some very nice friends in the evening to watch the fireworks from the Vancouver Rowing Club and have a great chat. All in all an excellent time and a proud day for our country on its 150th (though obviously as an archaeologist, Kathryn considers it closer to Canada's 10,150th)

San Jose: Strangeness

Every city has its peculiar features, customs, and parks, and here are our favorite bits of weirdness from San Jose. First off, many stores have a hawker standing outside shouting into a microphone in an attempt to draw people to their store. This was new to us, but not THAT strange. What WAS strange was walking around in the evening and watching two competing butchers shop employees engage in a rap battle about who had the best meat...

 La Sabana park was a nice little green space we walked into one day to stretch our legs and get out of the downtown core. The park itself is very nice with several food vendors, boat rentals, and pony rides. What I found strange was the giant sculpture of a pile of bones in the middle island, without really any signage or context. Luckily, Kathryn was only too willing to have her picture taken in a Hero Pose to commemorate her apparent battle with the beast.

Peculiar to Costa Rica in general (especially in Guanacaste in the north-west) but most apparent to us in San Jose, is their variation of bullfighting. The sport is hugely popular at the end of the year and was literally on the TV of every restaurant we visited and nearly every channel at the hotel.

Now, as you will all know, Kathryn and I are pro-animal in most every way and expected to be appalled by Costa Rican bullfighting, but instead became utterly hypnotized by it. Before you judge, here's rule #1 (and pretty much the only rule):
1) Nobody is allowed to hurt the bull.

In each event, a bull (who is admittedly hungry and has a rope around his midsection to make him grumpy) is ridden into an arena where he inevitably bucks off his rider. Then dozens and dozens of people (who are PAYING to be in there) try to get his attention and somehow earn fame in the process. We saw "winners" being given groceries and whatnot, but many people apparently do it for the thrill. Eventually, when the bull is bored of chasing people around and starts to tire, people on horses lasso and remove it. Bulls that perform well are brought back year after year and generally have a far better life than Canadian beef cattle.

John Cleese and Eric Idle: Live

John Cleese and Eric Idle are (of course) among the founding members of Monty Python's Flying Circus and currently doing a live tour together. This was clearly too good an opportunity to pass up, so Kathryn and myself made sure to not only attend, but make sure we snapped up good enough seats that we could have one look at a pair of comedy legends that changed our lives. And of course the promo artwork for their tour was done by a friend of a friend of ours, because its a very small world indeed.

 I don't think its possible to overstate the impact these two men had on both of our lives. I remember watching reruns of Monty Python on PBS with my dad as a young 'un, and their style of comedy made a clear impact on both my and Kathryn's personal senses of humor. From the dead parrot sketch to wink-wink nudge-nudge. From the ministry of silly walks to the end song of Life of Brian.

Of course those sketches were all a long time ago and both men are now in their golden years, but are still certainly worth the time to go see if you have the chance. It was also sad to hear that Terry Jones has dementia now and that so many stories involved friends (Graham Chapman, George Harrison etc) that have passed away. Ultimately, the show contained a few more video clips than either of us needed, and the history of Monty Python is so covered that its hard to find new things to say, but just being in the same room with two of our childhood heroes for a couple of hours was a once-in-a-lifetime treat for us both.

Three Very Different Nights Out

After months with few performances of interest in town, we had 3 nights out in the space of 10 days recently. We started off with Metric, who we saw open for Imagine Dragons last year and were totally taken with. Kathryn is not tall enough to enjoy floor tickets at concerts, but she got us some great seats to enjoy the show from. David Suzuki showed up as a surprise guest and the picture below captures the intensity and energy of the evening, even if the performers are almost impossible to make out.

 Shortly after that, we went to see Chris Hadfield perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra doing a mixture of songs and anecdotes about his time in space. While he mostly plays smaller guitar pieces, there were also several classics by Holst and modern composers on a space theme which made the whole night quite fun. The Orpheum Theatre is quite striking in its own right as well, and I thought a picture of the venue is more distinct than the performers in this instance.

 Rounding out our trio, we saw Noel Fielding live at the Vogue theatre, and while I will totally admit we forgot the camera at home that night and the picture below is not ours, it is representative of the weird nature of his act. He starts out normally enough with a bit of standup comedy, but the show gets gradually weirder until the end where a member of the audience dressed as a night, Fantasy Man (played by Noel) and a harlequin (think deranged jester rather than romance novel) travel to the plasticine world to fight a minotaur (and a reverse minotaur with a human head) and a lecherous triangle to save Noel the dark side of the moon. We really enjoy his work in the Mighty Boosh and it was fun to see him live :)

Traditional and Unexpected Glowing Objects in the Neighbourhood

 It's the festive time of year full of holiday cheer, final exams, and bright lights. The first two items have been consuming more than their share of my spare time lately, so we're a little late bringing you this update on the third item. The west end of Vancouver gets some pretty nice lights, as we have mentioned in the past, and this year was no exception.

 The middle of December had a festival called "Lumiere" which featured some nice light sculptures, the highlight of which is the life-size orca sculpture by a Slovakian artist which is covered in tiny LED lights and turned on nightly. It's a very pleasing addition to the area and we're both hoping it becomes a permanent installation.

 But winning the prize hands down for "Most Unexpected Glowing Object in the Neighborhood" was A-Borgg who decided to do a photo shoot in the park near our home on the same night as my work Christmas party. Yep, that is a 9-foot tall robot covered in LED lights. He is available for all your rave party/wedding needs, and apparently has a giant gun that shoots CO2 over the crowd... because of course he does. I love our neighborhood...

New Years Visitors and the Polar Bear Swim

 We had some great visitors to begin the new year with my cousin Sarah and her husband Aric passing through Vancouver just in time to start the year out by leaping into the sea. We hadn't seen these two since their wedding, so it was really nice to have a full afternoon to catch up and have a proper visit.

 On our way to the water we had the fun of seeing the hovercraft parked on the beach. We always enjoy seeing this thing in the area, so naturally the one time it was open to visitors we were too busy and cold to wait in line for a proper look.

Rounding out our day, here's our GoPro camera footage which Kathryn shot as we charged into the water. Since its in a dive housing, the audio is pretty terrible, so don't crank up your computer volume to try and hear our mutterings and curses, but its as close as you can get to being there without actually having been there.
For those of you that are impatient, things actually get moving around the 1 minute mark.

Khatsalano Street Party

 For the 4th year in a row (and somehow the 1st year we actually heard about it), part of Kitsalano shuts down for a massive street party 10 blocks long with a typical turnout of over 118,000 people. Below is a shot up the hill into the crowd from one end of the street party. Note that there is an equally large party happening on the other side of that hill, so quite the shindig.

 Any event like this attracts its fair share of buskers and street performers, but we were particularly delighted by this fellow who was blowing  enormous bubbles for donations in the middle of the crowd. He was quite talented and able to blow smaller bubbles into the larger ones as they formed. There was also an excited gaggle of children hanging around waiting for any bubbles to stray into their reach.

 Another main draw for the street party is the collection of music stages which have a variety of performers which change every hour. We had never heard of them before, but Kathyrn was particularly keen to see 'I, Braineater' shown below. They are a group of artists/aging punk rockers who put on a pretty good show and were certainly all involved in the show. The chap in the creature costume on the left was playing the drums 20 minutes later and singing as we left, so they certainly keep things varied.

Darth Vader and an Octopus Swim into a Bar... Stop me if you've heard this one...

Here's a joke. Darth Vader and an Octopus Swim into a Bar... Stop me if you've heard this one...
And that's pretty much the joke because that's what Geordie and I ran into at SEA STAR WARS at the Vancouver Aquarium.  Every once in a while this venue pulls something quite clever from underneath the fat seal. This featured a custom made Scuba Darth Vadar suit complete with  light saber. It was really well done.  Lots of Death sea star puns and goodness.  It was narrated by Princee Leia.   Below Darth Vadar menaces us underwater.

Mr Vadar's spotter was of course a storm trooper. Whose skill in spotting exceeds his marksmenship.  Fantastic costumes all around.  A real crowd pleaser.

And there is Octavius a great big Pacific Gian Octopus (now deceased) using the Force to combat Scuba Darth Vadar.  Seems like a better plot than episode 1.  Octavius got too big for his regular tank so they plopped him into the great big one.  The white on his head is from bumping into the rocks and glass.  Octopussies are really curious and was really keen on Darth Vadar. 

Poking Around in my Head

 After many years of working short contracts with no coverage, I've actually been with a company long enough to get on the health plan, so as soon as my dental coverage was in place I booked a long overdue dentist visit. Modern dentists can take x-rays and then have them available on a computer almost immediately and, in a neat twist, can then email those x-rays to you the same day. Below are some teeth, and no cavities at all :)

Small clusters of teeth are all well and good, but it gets truly weird seeing a panoramic photograph of the inside of your own head. There's some obvious distortion in the corners as my jaw is not remotely that square, but its a pretty neat image all the same.

 Stranger still is poking around that image adn finding the back of your own eyesockets in the picture which I have enlarged below. It is a strange thing indeed to see your own eyes through your own eyes.

The Strangest Tourist Trap in Coombs

The Old Country Market is a tourist trap in Coombs. It has all the proper things that you expect. Cotton candy, ice cream, hot dogs, dash and diner, market with over priced stuff, hippies telling tarot cards, and clothes.  The huge draw is the 'Goats on the Roof'.  I really like goats.

On top of the main buildings of the tomfoolery is a green roof. The grass and plants are naturally mowed down by a small group of goats.  Even their little goat house which I am informed is called a 'shed'. They are clearly lords of all they survey.  Did I mention  I like goats.?

Hopefully the roof has some kind of system to deal with goat....leavings so it does not drip down onto your cans of Spaghetti Sauce and tacky lanterns.  We spent about 10 minutes there and most of that was trying to find parking.  Took some goat pictures and a shot of the inside and bailed.  Worth it to see goats on a roof. Not worth it for over priced basic groceries, ice cream and stuff.  Goats in any way are highly enjoyable.

Niagara Falls - The Side Show

On the way to the glorious bit of natural beauty that is the Falls is carny central.  I like Niagara Falls but could really give all the touristy midway crap a miss.  Tacky and kitshy.  But for others it's there thing so i guess I am stuck with it. It was neat for about 40 seconds and then got jarring.  That Toucan below has just removed your soul and stored it in his hat.

Full of haunted houses, 4D, cotton candy, souvenirs, fudge (which was totally bought) and other nonsense.  Below is a fairly typical scene.  It was off or shoulder season so it was pretty quiet.  I can see it really hopping in the Summer. 

No tourist trap area would be complete without a mini-golf course. Especially if it is dinosaur themed with a smoking volcano that periodically spouts fire.  T-Rex there ruled over the whole thing.  The falls were gorgeous but I feel like it detracts from nature's beauty having all this about.  At least it is not physically at the falls themselves, them being a short walk away. 

Grandma Endorsed Lumberjacks

I won't tell if you hmm 'The Lumberjack Song". It's in my brain right now. Grouse Mountain has a Lumberjack show where the tree choppers can show off their mad skills. And they are mad.  They practically float up the trees.  It's very informative and fun. It is Kathryn's Grandma endorsed!   They switch up the order of things to keep it fresh. I've seen it twice now. Perhaps three times.

Log rolling is a fun event. I think everyone has seen 'The Log Driver's Waltz' The NFB did back in the day. This show cases how they roll and balance.  These logs were foamy and the water barely chest deep.  Still, everyone loves it when its not you getting the dunking.

My take away is that you are not supposed to run with scissors but running with dynamite is fine.  There is some weird arm thing going on in that photo.  Reds suspenders and Nikes kind of detract from the traditional lumberjack look.  There were no survivors.

This Be Sasquatch Country

Can't stop here! This be Bat, um, no, I mean SASQUATCH country! Yes. Harrison Hot Springs is one of several places that claim to be home of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti or whatever large hominid or mountain men roam the back country.  There is one sitting with me on a bench. I feel a little creeped on.

Geordie liked this weathervane. Very nice and reminiscent of certain grainy video. One of many Sasquatch themed thingamees about town. Souvenir stuff abounds too.

We finally spotted several in the local Canada Day Parade.  There seemed to be many types and all friendly. One even gave candy out. Sasquatch remains an excellent bit of Canadiana and local mythos.

People in your Neighborhood

We finally got some halfway decent weather in time for Car Free Day.  Our street shuts down to traffic and local artisans and business expand to fill the space. It makes for good people watching, dog watching and street meat.

Geordie and I stopped to listen to a guy rap about sandwiches while a pickle in a cowboy hat grooved. They guy in the red was really working it. It was a very enjoyable performance which made everyone laugh and clap in appreciation of sandwiches and dancing pickles. No drugs were involved in the taking of this picture. The homeless guy in the middle really ties the weirdness of our neighborhood together as retirees, hippies and the down and out all party together with a cowboy vegetable.

I don't like clowns. This particular one we see near Stanley Park fairly often. But on this Sunday he was plying his trade on Denman St. Kids balloons and mild acrobatics. Still not a fan but I appreciate the scuba fins.

Fisheye Fun

 Just taking a one-post break from our recent holidays to share a new Christmas toy with any other photography folks out there. Kathryn was incredibly sweet and got me a fisheye lens for xmas, so here's a few test pictures from the very first day. The #1 reason anyone wants a fisheye lens is for photos that make your pets have really big eyes and noses, so here's a quick portrait of Kodiak, taken from about 1 inch away.

 The other neat feature with fisheye lenses is the fact that they can see and capture 180 degrees  and allow for some fun perspectives. This photo of a bridge in Stanley Park was taken from nearly underneath, but because of the warped and extreme perspective you can see the sky above it and the ground below it. This wouldn't work for every situation, but I think its a neat one here and in a handful of other situations.

The primary reason I wanted a fisheye was for taking spherical panoramas. I have tried doing these with my regular lenses, but they required 60+ photos to fit in all the perspective and were invariably distorted in the end and a pain in the ass to stitch together. With the wide angle of the fisheye I was able to capture the picture below with only 8 pictures and with time can probably learn to trim that down to less. This panorama is from the beach at English Bay infront of our apartment and you can click it to see a larger version.