Save the Manatee - kill a boater

A visiting friend, Jason and I, decided to take a quick road trip to see the manatees. A few years ago I took Jason kayaking at Crystal River, but we figured it would be best to just stay in the area since he would be leaving shortly anyway. with the cold weather, there were plenty of manatees around that were taking advantage of the warm water discharge from the TECO power plant. Besides these large animals, there were also some hammerhead sharks that were swimming around and occasionally jumping out of the water. It was warm enough the day we went that I'm sure many of the animals had gone out foraging for food, but there were still dozens around to check out.

One more off the list.

I just got back yesterday from a 9 day trip to Peru to hit the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I had a great time, but am fairly swamped with several projects right now, so it may be another week or tow before I can update the pics (I still have the second half of my my 20 day September trip to post including Costa Rica and Seattle), so hopefully I'll have a little more time later. In a nutshell, this was one of my top 5 destinations, and I'm glad to have had the chance to do it. for personal reasons it was bitter-sweet for a year's end. Anyway, I'm glad to have done it and simply wonder what the next adventure might be.

People who spell chili with two L's probably keep llamas for pets

Cusco Day 2

This morning I got up early to walk around the city for a while at random. After walking through the main square and cathedral, I headed up the hills to Sacsayhuamán. It was pouring rain when I get there and I didn't have the time to really walk around the ruins in detail, but I was able to get an enjoyable view of the city and overall feel of the area.

While some of the others of the group were shopping, I had to unfortunately spend part of my day dealing with a luggage SNAFU involving the bag containing my camera and a few other essentials that were left in Lima, but fortunately everything was eventually settled, so I was able to enjoy the rest of the city. After getting my good camera back, I headed visit the Coricancha, the site of one of the most important temples in the Inca empire. The Church of Santo Domingo was built on the site, using the ruined foundations of the temple that was destroyed by the Spanish in the 17th century, and shows how Inca stonework has been integrated into the structure of a colonial building. Major earthquakes have severely damaged the church, but the Inca stone walls, built out of huge, tightly-interlocking blocks of stone, still stand thanks to the sophisticated stone masonry. I wandered the area for quite a while, eventually coming across the markets and other various places off the beaten path.

Here are links to all of the (mostly unedited) pics taken on the trip. I recently upgraded my Picasa Web Album space, and figured I might as well use it. There are about 3500 pics total in the first three albums. Peru album 1 Peru album 2 Peru Album 3 Peru HDR

Llama: The Other, Other Burger

Day 1
Cusco

Earlier this year I started to get involved with a meetup called the Tampa Adventure Group. I had attended a few various events and had rumors of a trip to the Inca Trail being planned. This was one of my top 5 destinations to visit, so I kept an eye on the calendar and made sure to snag a spot as soon as it became available. So after traveling from Tampa and overnighting in Lima, we made it to Cusco on the 8th for two days of acclimation to the high altitude at 11,000 feet before starting the Inca Trail. Most of the day was spent just wandering around the city, dodging people selling trinkets, art, etc, and taking in the sites.

Here are links to all of the (mostly unedited) pics taken on the trip. I recently upgrade my Picasa Web Album space, and figured I might as well us it. There are about 3500 pics total in the first three albums. Peru album 1 Peru album 2 Peru Album 3 Peru HDR

Even when you're running the world, you can't get off.

I decided to participate in the annual Turkey Trot in Clearwater as my Thanksgiving activity. I had some dinner plans for the afternoon in Sarasota, but wanted to get in a good run. This was my first 10K since the Midnight Run in Dunedin July 4th (it seems most of my big runs are on holidays sometimes). This run was just a few days coming off of the Florida Ragnar Relay race across the state, but I was able to do a somewhat decent time of 52:16.

Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.

This weekend I joined members of the Brandon Running Association in a relay race across the state called the Florida Ragnar Relay Race. There were about 100 teams of 10-12 competing in a race from Tarpon springs to Daytona Beach. I had heard about the event in previous years through friends, but since I started taking running seriously in April, I wanted to start doing a few more events. Normally when I run alone, even in a race, it is easy to not push too much, but I found myself going forth as much as possible since I didn't want to let down anyone in the team. I got a personal record in terms of race times for each of my segments, essentially a 5K and two 10K portions. We had a very strong overall showing among our team member with only one realy injury casualty, Stacy. During an early morning part, she took a hard spill that scrapped up her knees and hands, but was still able to finish off strong. Overall, of 105 teams we came in 24th with a total time of 30 hours, 23 minutes, and 26 seconds for a distance covering 191 miles.

I had personal records for each of my legs, as recorded by my GPS.
Leg 1: ~5K (3.2 miles) 23:40
Leg 2: ~10K (6.6 miles) 52:45
Leg 3: ~10K (6.1 miles) 51:23

Before I left for Peru, my running coach asked me to put together a video for the team party using photos and videos taken by out members. I have put together a few small videos in the past, but this is the first one that is of any length, so I hope it comes out ok.