Eyes

Our cat Nibbler peering out of a box he got into.

The Geese Are Back

The geese are returning from their vacation down south.

Apache Trail

So sad, this is our last full day in Arizona. We had to drive back Phoenix so instead of taking the fast and boring Interstate, we took the scenic view. Our first scenic stop was at the Tonto National Monument cliff dwellings near Roosevelt, AZ. These dwellings were built and inhabited by the Salado people in the Tonto Basin. See this location in Live Maps.

Tonto National Monument cliff dwellings

While we were still at the dwellings, up in the sky was a group of hawks flying around. I was lucky to have my camera pointed at them at the right time when these two were diving straight for the ground. It's basically a game of chicken where one tries to crash the other into the ground. They released each other a fair distance from the ground, so no one got hurt.

Dueling hawks (enlarge)

From Roosevelt, we took highway 88 back to Phoenix. This section of the Apache Trail has 30 miles of unpaved dirt road that takes you up narrow winding paths, but all with incredible views. I was tired of driving all week long, so Martha took the wheel while I took the pictures. Most of the road is a two lane road, but there is a one lane section that takes you up a steep cliff side. There are only a few places where two cars can pass each other. We were on the outside of the road, making it even more interesting.

One lane road on the Apache Trail

Towards the end of the road, there is a an overlook we stopped at for this beautiful view.

Scenic view towards the end of the trail

Crepuscular rays in the distance

Seattle

Yay! Jose and Ili are here for Ili's spring break. They will be here all week long. They arrived last night, but since they were tired from their flight, we didn't do anything. However, today we went all over Seattle. Ok, maybe not all over, but it sure felt like it.

The first thing we did, was go to the Space Needle. The weather was cloudy and rainy and I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth paying $15 per person only to see clouds. But, we got lucky and actually had a pretty decent view of the city and the Puget Sound. In the picture above, you can see part of Elliot Bay and in the distance the rainy clouds. After some minutes, it got really, really windy and the clouds and rain moved in.

After getting tired of hanging out in the clouds, we took the monorail from the Space Needle to downtown. The rain was starting to pick up a bit, so we quickly walked over to Pike's Market. After having lunch at Beechers Hand Made Cheese across from the market, we walked around and looked at the shops. I took this picture in Post Alley during an unexpected moment of sun.

After getting done with Pike's Market, we went to Discovery Park and walked to the beech and went to see the light house. By the light house, we found a Harbor Seal that was all by itself. It was somewhat hard to spot at first, but we were able to distinguish it from the rocks after a while.

Smokey

Our last pet named Smokey was put to sleep today. He was about 15 years old, suffering and very sick. I'm sad that he's gone as he was a very faithful and loving dog. At least he isn't suffering any longer. This great picture of Smokey was taken by my brother Jose in December of 2004.

January at Marymoor Park

When I moved to Seattle, I was told that it hardly ever snowed here. Yet, this is the third time it snows this winter. I suppose I can thank El Niño for this.

On the may back from the grocery store, I drove through Marymoor Park in Redmond. I'm not sure what these geese are doing back here in January, I thought they came back in a couple months. But hey, I'm not a biologist. I like the way they are all looking in different directions.

This windmill is near the entrance of the park. It overlooks the Sammamish River which I bike next too in warmer weather. See this location in Live Maps.

Cow

One of our neighbors down the road has several sheep and cows. Next to our house near Tecaxic there is a big field where he takes his cattle to graze. In this picture, one of the cows is eating some dried leafs that are on our backyard fence.

Shito

Our cat named Shito, also known as Mitsubishi, Catso Fatso and an assortment of other names passed away today. I am sad that he died, but at least he is no longer suffering. He had been sick for quite some time now and just last week we found out that he had a sort of leukemia. He spent the last days of his life at the apartment in Mexico City with Mom, Dad and Roberto. He was approximately 11 years old. He will be burried in the back yard of the house in Toluca along with our other good pet Lisa.

In this picture, he lays in the dog house as lazy as could be on a sunny winter day. (December 26, 2005).

Taronga Zoo

Last Tuesday the 16th, we went to the Sydney Zoo. Taronga Zoo is located on the north side of Sydney, so we had to take a ferry to get there. The ferry left from Circular Quay and took is directly to the zoo. On our way over, we were able to see the Opera House from the back side, which you can't see unless you are on a boat.



For some reason, it had never occurred to us to visit the zoo. However, when we were deciding what to do that day, I realized that we would not get to see all the Australian animals if we did not visit the zoo. So in the hopes of seeing all the famous Aussy animals (kangaroos, koalas, etc), we headed off to the zoo.

The ferry over to the zoo takes about 15 or 20 minutes to get there. As I already mentioned, you get a different view of the opera house and also get to see several of the houses in north Sydney. From the looks of it, this might be the more expensive side of town. Once arrived at the peer, we had two options for getting to the zoo, the first was taking a sky rail, and the second is a bus. We decided to take the bus on the way up to the entrance and we would take the sky rail on the way back once we were done at the zoo.

The first animal at the entrance of the zoo is the Koala. It seems that at the time we arrived, it was their nap time, because most of them were asleep. We were lucky enough to see one or two that were semi awake and eating some eucalyptus. From the picture below, you can see that Koalas are nice, fuzzy and look very cuddly. However, you would not want to hold one of them because they have very sharp claws to hold on to the trees.



I won't go into all the animals we saw or this would take forever. But, we were able to see most of Australia's known animals with the exception of the platypus. We also got to see the most poisonous snakes and spiders in the world. I don't remember the exact numbers, but there was a sign that said that Australia contained 11 out of the worlds most 15 poisonous land animals.



After having lunch at the zoo, and finishing up the rest of the animals we had not seen, we headed to the sky rail and left the zoo. Before returning to the city, there was a trail we could walk along a small peninsula next to the zoo. This trail has several overlooks and access to a few beaches. Being the adventurous type, we walked along the coastline, hoping among rocks instead of walking the trail (pic below).



After finishing our hike, we headed back to the pier and waited for the ferry to come . As we waited and on our way back, there were two military black hawk helicopters that kept circling the bay over and over and doing maneuvers. We wondered what on earth was going on and later that day we saw on the news that there had been anti-terrorism exercise that day.



Since it was not quite supper time yet, we walked around on the side of the harbor bridge and made our way up a hill to view the sunset. By the time the sun had set, our stomachs were talking to us and decided to find some food. A short walk from where we were, there are a series of pubs and restaurants so we walked around a bit to see what sounded interesting. After walking around in circles unable to decide on a restaurant, we finally made up our mind and had dinner at a restaurant where you get to pick your meet and grill it yourself. It is a good thing no one was in front of us because we were both very hungry so we got to grill our food fast.

On the way back to the train station, we could see the opera house all nicely lit up at night. I sure wish I had a tripod to take a good picture. However, I was able to take this one that is not as blurry as the others.

Royal Botanic Garden

After walking around the Opera House and enjoying the view, we headed towards the Royal Botanic Garden. It is located to the south east of the Opera House and there is an entrance next to the Opera Hose. This park has many trees such as this impressive Moreton Bay Fig tree (ficus macrophylla). Apparently, this kind of fig starts growing on a host tree and eventually smothers its host.



This park also has many eucalyptus trees and several other weird ones I have never seen. I'm sure many, if not all, of these are unique to Australia. I wish I had the space to put all the trees on this post, but there were just too many of them. However, here is one really funky tree I just had to post. This is called a Queensland Bottle Tree (Brachychiton rupestry). You can imagine where it got its name from.



Besides having awesome trees, there is also a multitude of strange birds that could only be unique to Australia. Below one of the fig trees we walked by we saw several white cockatoos that were eating figs that had fallen off the tree. Cockatoos weren't the only bird we saw. As some of you might know, Australia is home to some of the coolest and weirdest animals. We saw several other cool birds, but I have no clue what they are called. Below the cockatoos, there is a picture of another of one of the cool birds we saw.