Another road trip through the mountains.

Cumi drove for 12 hours to get us to the coast (near Peru) for a family reunion of her father's.

We stayed with her aunt and uncle. The first floor is a rental. They have the second floor as their residence and the top floor is guest quarters. This is a beautiful home on a dirt road. (soon to be paved.)

It is diffucult to tell the flowers apart.


Ater mass and the cemetary (this is a latin cultural, don't forget) we all went to the beach front.

All 70 of us had lunch after the cemetary and before the beach front. The place had only one waiter! So I gathered up four of the young men and said: "No hay sufficiente mesors. Quien ajuda? Ven a cosina!" We served the soup, cleared, served the entree, cleared, served the dessert." I got a free glass of wine for my leadership. It was well worth it! I got to meet the entire family with my waiter's apron on.

Having a good time at a local fiesta. These are cherries dipped in chocolate.

This is a short demonstration of public dancing before the main show.

This photo demonstrates how hard it is to break into showbusiness in Tumbaco.

But the audience is not that tough!

This is the finished work. Our palm tree had not been trimmed in years. I bought a bow saw and tied it to a pole and did the work myself. Papa trimmed the palms with his machette. (Mine was in the shop.)

This is bullfighting in Ecuador! Everybody gets a chance at the bull. Just climb in the arena when the excitment moves you. The bulls are never killed. Mostly teenage boys (and me) participate. I didn't have a cape so the bull wouldn't charge. Next time I will go by the cape booth and rent a nice red one. Then see what happens..........

MtRose in the Winter

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Reunion

Here I am as the Prior of the Chamber of Masters of the Royal Secret.

This is the place where soldiers of light and liberty become soldiers of freedom of thought and religion. We call that "lustration."
Mark and I are the two who get to carry swords, and USE them! The theater is large, so we need microphones.

These five are brothers from my blue lodge who took the 32nd degree from my team.

Messed up photos Celtic Festival

Celtic Festival

These helmets are just right if your head is a zize XXXL.

This is the weight throw of 2 stone or 28 pounds.

Irish dancers.

Does my kilt make me look fat?

Yosemite and Half Dome

Standing on top of half dome.

Welcome to Yosemite Park! Yearly one or two die on the Sub-dome or Half-dome climb. I had clear weather and except for the crowd, had a great climb!

This is the view while on the cables. I also descended outside the cable with my seat harness and D ring securly attached to the steel cable.

It is scaryer than it looks. At first view I considered that maybe I had bitten off more than I could chew. But went up anyway.

Unknown climbers on top.

The trail to half-dome is 9 miles from the parking lot (18 miles round trip) and an ascent of 5000 feet---up and down the trail---up and down the trail.

This is the trail to sub-dome about 10:00. I left the parking lot at 4:30 with my head lamp on full and hiked in the dark for two hours so I would complete the entire hike before sundown.