The Last Day In Costa Rica

Posted on February 28, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

Farewell Dinner

Ron and Andrea Hein, our traveling buddies. They live in Los Angeles and New York.

Ron and Andrea are in the entertainment business. They are very private so I can’t tell you who they really are, at least in writing.

This is their buddy Billy O’Connor.

Our new Manhattan friends, Paul and Sandra Graf. Ronny and Barry Baker of Chicago. They met at the University of Illinois. She picked him out of the yearbook. Her friend found out who he was and introduced then. The rest is history.

Joe and Kandy Ginsburg of Chicago. Her mother met him in an elevator and said “I’m fixing you up with my daughter.” He called her the next day and said, “I’m asking you out for tonight. I’m giving this one shot. If you are available, fine. If not, just forget it.” She went. Love at first sight even though she couldn’t remember his name.

WE WENT TO VISIT A COFFEE PLANTATION.

Andrea and I snuggle with the coffee beans.

Meet Elise and Tim

Posted on February 27, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

I hope you noticed the new artwork I am using for DigiDame. I decided a few days ago to expand my scope to include travel and networking activities. Eliot has been bugging me for months to do so because there is a lot to share with all of you who are over 50. I also should be looking for a sponsor and turn this blog into some sort of enterprise. We’ll see what happens.

Right now I’m in San Jose, Costa Rica. We just completed our six day cruise through the Panama Canal. There were only 66 guests and 66 crew so we all got to know each other pretty well.

I wanted to focus on Elise and Tim, the Tauck Tours group leaders, who made a career decision seven years ago that many of us never would have had the guts to do when we were their age. They simply decided to give up their corporate jobs (she worked for Verizon, he for AT&T) and find work where they could spend more time together. Elise told me Tim was her best friend, and vice versa.

They didn’t like the fact that they only saw each other early mornings and again at night when they were both exhausted from their day jobs. So they both quit and decided to work as a team in whatever they do. They got lucky and now they travel the world together.

These two are to be admired. They are kind of like Steve and Eydie, Lucy and Desi, Burns and Allen. You can’t have one without the other. They did a marvelous job this week entertaining us, providing pertinent information, and being professional chaperones. They worked around the clock making us all happy.

When I asked Elise what her parents said when she told them she was leaving their hometown to seek greener pastures, she said, “They thought we were nuts. Most of our families have traditional jobs, so they don’t quite understand what we do. They think we are on a permanent vacation. The truth is we work much longer hours then we did before, but we love what we do. We have never looked back with any regrets. We now have so many grand opportunities ahead of us.”

The reason I wrote about Elise and Tim is because so many of us get stuck in ruts and couldn’t break out. They did. Now we have to be sure we live the life we want to with our remaining years.

I Always Travel With My Wires

Posted on February 26, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

If you are an active Internet person and use a smartphone or tablet a lot, I have two helpful hints that can make traveling much easier. I carry a nine or 15-foot extension cord with me so I can stay in bed and be connected to electricity all the time. The cord doesn’t take up much space and gives me the flexibility to move around my hotel room without worrying about how much charge I have left on my devices. Most of the hotel rooms I visit never have the electrical socket in a convenient spot.

The second item I won’t leave home without is a small grounded electrical adapter with multiple outlets. You plug it into one of the outlets in your room and then you have additional sockets, plus a built-in surge protector in case you overload the circuit. I always plug my hair dryer and flat iron into the adapter so I don’t blow the electricity in the room.

Today we hiked through a remote island in Costa Rica. We came across a mountain top lodge and, when we entered to cool off, this was the first thing I spotted.

I would never survive here. Everything I do is on my smartphone – my digital books, newspapers, magazines, emails, audio books, Words With Friends, apps, websites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, plus, plus, need I say more?

Some photos from today’s nature walk.

Several Zodiacs took us to the private island in Costa Rica named Marenco.

We traveled with several naturalists who carried spotting scopes to zero in on birds and monkeys.

Visiting The Embera People Of Darien Province, Panama

Posted on February 24, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

The Darien is one of planet Earth’s last great bastions of pristine tropical nature. It’s been named both a World Biosphere Reserve and a Natural World Heritage site by UNESCO.

We arrive by Zodiacs, rubber inflatable boats.

It was a five minute ride from the Tere Moana.

Our greeters once we reached Darien Province, Panama.

The people we met.

Embera crafts for sale.

Going Through The Locks At The Panama Canal

Posted on February 24, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

This is the fourth day on the Tere Moana, a 330-foot cruise ship. I’m starting to believe this is my private yacht. It is totally luxurious. The photos go from day to night.

The Panama Canal is 48 miles long and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade.

Stopovers On the Panama Canal

Posted on February 23, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

Please check out yesterday’s post. All you have to do is scroll down.

Yesterday we visited the tropical islands of San Bias Province, home of the Guna Indians.

Located along the Caribbean coast of Panama, this area is reminiscent of the South Seas. We anchored off of Achutupo Island where we met some of the Guna people and examined their handicrafted molas (elaborately embroidered cloths depicting birds, animals, and mythical figures, in cut work appliqué). For $40, we bought a new art piece from the Matisse of the Gunas.

The small cruise ship we are on has interruptions in its Internet transmissions. I’m told every ship going through the Panama Canal has the same experience.

The water is very bouncy, so I am learning to tolerate the constant movement. It really rocks when we are sleeping. Objects fly off the shelves if they are not secured down. The thing I hate the most is not having 24/7 Internet access. I am able to travel all the time because I can work remotely, but not this time. Hopefully the conditions will improve.

This is what we do when we are cruising along:

Panama News

Posted on February 22, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

<The making of the Panama Canal extension. I'm not sure the video will work. If it does. It looks like I am in a helicopter over the construction. The truth? I took a video of a movie on a TV set in one of the Panama Canal Museum. This is a DigiDame trick.

Breakfast on the back deck of the 330 feet Terre Moana.

Trend spotting: more and more seniors now treat themselves to sophisticated cameras for recreational use. This is one of many examples I have seen on this trip.

Internet Very Spotty

Posted on February 21, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

We are cruising on the Panama Canal. I’m not sure this post will ever go through, so this is a trial post. I may have trouble for the next few days. We are aboard the 90-passenger Tere Moana. They said the currents may be very choppy tonight. Ugh.

Eliot, Andrea, Me, and Ron
.

Don’t Miss This Kickstarter Campaign

Posted on February 21, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

A very talented waterscape photographer (a friend of mine, from Florida,) just launched a Kickstarter campaign with his collaborator, an Earthscape Artist. Entitled, “Between Worlds,” Jason Henthorne and Andres Amador, want to raise money so they can pay for their post production as well produce a book of the their work.

I promised Jason coverage in DigiDame.

“Between Worlds” is a documentary film that follows the four month long collaboration between international award-winning photographer Jason Henthorne, known for his black-and -white, long-exposure landscape photography and Andres Amador, self-proclaimed ‘Earthscape Artist,’ who creates works of art on beaches measuring up to 100,000 square feet large during low tides.

For the film, documentary film-maker, Brad Kremer of Cross Media International, went on location to capture the process of two creators of very different styles and personalities blending their art forms. The project took Henthorne and Amador to the rugged and scenic beaches of Northern California.

The film features the scouting sites, preparation, executing the artwork, and photographing the result within the landscape as well as revealing aspects of the lives of both creators, concluding with the final gallery unveiling of the artworks produced.

Check it out:
http://www.henthorne.com
http://www.andresamadorarts.com

Hello Panama City

Posted on February 20, 2015 by loiswhitmanhess

We were told that Panama City is the 18th largest City for the amount of Skyscrapers.

We flew here today with friends, Andrea and Ron. The flight from Miami was easy. We start touring tomorrow. Tonight we had dinner on the terrace over looking the Pacific Ocean.