Author: drewwfaust@gmail.com

We drove west from Playa Del Carmen to Mérida on Tuesday and stayed in a wonderful AirBnB with a pool, three dogs, and a full kitchen. Our hosts David and Ann were great company and we enjoyed great conversations in and around their pool while listening to music and snacking. I did most of the snacking.

They’d rescued three local dogs of various backgrounds. Here’s Katie,

and Eddie,

and Henry (who fell asleep in Leena’s lap).

We headed to Mayan ruins in Uxmal on Wednesday. The initial pyramid is impressive and has a surprising acoustic twist. If you clap your hands in front of it, the echoed reply sounds like a bird whistle or a woodwind instrument note.

We walked around the side and Leena got this amazing shot. I mean seriously, how do you get the ray of sun right into the pyramid?

A court for the Mesoamerican ballgame.

You’re allowed to climb the second pyramid, 70 steep steps without a railing. The little guy in the picture is me. We were careful!

A rewarding view from the top back at the first pyramid.

Iguanas are everywhere in the Yucatán.

The Yucatán peninsula is mostly limestone, and one of the features of limestone areas is caves. Couple that with low elevation and groundwater and you get cenotes, natural sinkholes filled with water.

I went for a dive last week at Dos Ojos cenote. This was a cavern dive, which is essentially a limited cave dive. A cavern dive always has a natural source of light and is within 200 feet of an exit. We did two dives exploring different parts of the cenote that were each about 45 minutes long. It was a totally different experience from an open water dive in the ocean. If you’ve ever toured a cave, imagine doing that while floating weightless. Incredible.

After Uxmal, we visited Cenote Kankirixche (good luck with the pronunciation!) and had a lovely swim.

We day-tripped down to Tulum to see some 13th-century Mayan ruins.

Oh, hi there. We took a dip in the ocean in the background.

Oh, hi there iguana.

Even Leena had to watch her head through the exit.

We reconnected last week in Playa Del Carmen and have been exploring the Yucatán peninsula. Leena was here a few days before me.

Street art:

From a beach bar.

Small ruins in Playa Del Carmen.

Back at the playa.

An Agouti (rodent).

On Saturday morning, we visited Playa Animal Rescue and helped by walking and playing with some of the dogs. This is Joy, born in a litter around Christmas.

On Monday, we went to the Inter Playa futbol match versus Reboceres. We arrived a bit late and were surprised that it’s free to attend. They’re making money from concessions, though they also allowed BYOB.

With no scoreboard or clock it was a bit tough to follow. Inter Playa scored on a penalty kick around the 30th minute. Around the 40th minute, a foul was called while Reboceres was setting up a free kick. There was a lot of commotion and a pretty sizable delay before play continued.

As the teams lined up for the second half, I noticed that Inter Playa were playing down a man. Looking at match results, there was a red card during the game against Inter Playa though it’s not clear when it happened. But I’m sure it was what caused the protestations and delay around the 40th minute.

Towards the end of the second half, you could sense the urgency of the Reboceres players as time was getting short. We were fairly certain it was a tenuous 1-0 lead. It was; Inter Playa held on for the win.

The Masters is one of the hardest tickets to get in sports. They run a lottery for tickets each year and I’ve entered most years since they started doing it. Last June I got the lucky email: I’d gotten four tickets to the Monday practice round. Though we planned to take off and start traveling at the end of 2017, I knew there’d be a trip through Augusta, Georgia on April 2nd, 2018.

While living in Portland 16+ years, we made many trips to escape to the sun during the long rainy season. This included a March trip to Spring Training in Phoenix most years. We decided to add a couple of more weeks to our US travels and spent March 14th to 18th at Spring Training.

That left a couple of weeks until the Masters. I went to New Jersey to see family and was hoping to get in some golf with Dad. We got out on Monday and had a nice day in the mid 40s though my game was very rusty. On Tuesday and Wednesday it snowed 10 to 12 inches. That ended the NJ golfing but I was able to help Dad put up some shelves in the kitchen. I went through some boxes of my stuff at the house. That was really nostalgic, especially the box of notes and cards mostly from my high school years.

I messaged an old high school friend (Colin) through Facebook on Thursday and suggested we meet at another high school friend’s (Pete) brewery. Sometimes last minute plans work out. It was great to see Colin and surprise Pete. We hung out for a couple of hours and caught up. They’re both running their own businesses and doing great.

Dad and I drove down to Hilton Head on Saturday and Sunday and spent the week playing golf. My friend Don from Portland flew in Wednesday night, and my brother David joined on Thursday. We drove up to Columbia, SC, about 75 minutes east of Augusta, on Sunday night.

We drove over Monday morning, and after some traffic and parking, went through the gates about 9a. The weather was perfect with a high temperature in the 80s.

In front of the clubhouse with Dad and David, then with Don.

We started walking the course and caught up to Rory McIlroy on the 6th hole. We decided to follow him (and Wes Bryan and Matt Parziale) for the rest of the day. Rory looked really good.

Rory on the 6th green.

Rory at address on the 7th tee. He split the fairway. I’ve been to a handful of golf tournaments and I’ll note two things from this shot: 1) You can get really close to the players, and 2) It’s very nice to be 6’5” at times like this.

Rory from the 9th fairway.

Rory putting on 13.

Rory with the full release!

The greens of Amen Corner (11, 12 and 13).

I knew the course well from years of watching on TV. I’d heard so often about the dramatic elevation changes that the only one that really surprised me was the drop from the 10th tee. I somehow thought the 7th hole went a little left, but it’s a straightaway par 4. I also learned the layout of the course – how the holes fit together. Amen corner is a great spot, and you can understand why the wind on #12 can be so vexing. The 11th and 13th fairways are perpendicular to each other, collide at the 12th green, and it’s the lowest point on the course. As we’ve heard from announcers for years, the wind swirls in there. With a 155 yard shot, guys are hitting short irons high in the air and are at the mercy of any unexpected shift in the wind.

We grabbed lunch – just $11 for two sandwiches, chips and a beer – and went through the merchandise tent.

We headed back out to 15 and 16 to watch groups come through. We saw Sergio and Luis Oosthuizen on the 9th.

Jordan Spieth working on and around the 16th green.

Here’s some guy who loves golf but will never play in the Masters. I bet he could do better than a 13 on this hole though.

We had seen on an information board that Tiger was on the range in the early afternoon, and I knew from some research that he’d played 9 holes starting at 3:30p in 2015 on the Monday practice day. We soon saw a large gallery and figured it was him.

We caught up to Tiger on #7. He was playing with Fred Couples and Justin Thomas. Everyone in pink!

Walking to the 8th tee.

Jordan Thomas is a small guy, but he almost goes airborne at impact. Talk about leveraging the ground for power!

We followed them through 9, watched Tiger for a bit on the practice tee, then called it a day. It went by quickly but it was perfect.

We made plans to head back to the US in mid-March, and Fiji is right there between Auckland and Los Angeles. So we made a stop. For a week.

After some research, it became pretty clear that a resort would be the way to go in Fiji. It’s not usually our thing, but it was pretty nice to have everything at our fingertips. We spent the days by the pool and at the beach. I tried some SUP (standup paddle) and did some kayaking. We swam a bunch. There was a silly 9-hole golf course that I played a couple of times. We hiked around the island and visited neighboring resorts. One was kid-free, and I must admit, that was a very nice dinner spot…

We did a three-hour snorkel tour one day which was a bit disappointing to me. We went to one decent spot (in view of the island where they filmed Cast Away), and after an hour of snorkeling they took us over to a resort and dropped us off for 45 minutes. We went to the pool and took a quick swim. Then they picked us up and took to another resort (on yet another island) and dropped us off again for 45 minutes. We again went to a very nice pool and hung out. I think we were supposed to buy the very overpriced drinks. I would have liked to snorkel more…

Fiji is quite beautiful and as you might expect from an island in the South Pacific, has a number of beautiful sunsets.

The main pool at Plantation Island Resort.

A sunset.

Small fish in the ocean right off the beach.

Local brews.

Not a sunset! Just a cool-looking evening sky.

Local gang of cats at Musket Cove, a neighboring resort.

Oh, another sunset.

It rained really hard one night while we were at dinner at Lomani Island (the other neighboring resort), and they didn’t have an umbrella to spare for our 15-minute walk home. So we got soaked and made sure to get an umbrella the next day. With that insurance policy, it hardly rained again while we were there.

I have that umbrella and a flower on my head. As you can see, I’m delighted with this arrangement.

More sunsets. These next two were taken just a few minutes apart (from our dinner table!) as the sky changed colors. No filter, as they say.

Oh look, another sunset.

We stopped at Castaway Island Resort on the snorkel tour, though it’s not on the island where they filmed the movie. That island was in view though.

Just after sunset on our last night in Fiji.

Your blogger, roughing it!

We returned to Auckland with a very long day of travel. We were up before 5a in Nelson to drive two hours to catch the 8a ferry from Picton to Wellington. After the three and a half hour ferry ride, all that was left was an eight-hour drive to Auckland.

We spent our last day in New Zealand taking a 40-minute ferry to Waiheke, an island with beaches and wineries east of Auckland. The view back to Auckland from the ferry.

Alex tasted lots of wine. OK, maybe some of this spread includes glasses for me and Leena.

The ride back to Auckland with a brilliant sunset sky.

We checked out the World of Wearable Art (WOW) museum in Nelson. The wearable art is pretty interesting, and you can see plenty of pictures with some Google searches.

The museum also has an amazing collection of classic cars. Some highlights; sorry, I don’t remember the make/model on many of these.

This car had some of the most elaborate fins ever.

An early VW Beetle.

Triumph Spitfire

Mini Cooper

This Mini Cooper set the land speed record for its class of car (not sure how the classes are determined). Apparently the idea was hatched by a couple of Kiwis over a beer. This article’s a bit out of date – they upped their record in 2016.

Project 64 (Mini Cooper)

Beyond the front showroom was a big warehouse with lots off additional cars. I like that a Smart Car makes the floor.

1971 BMW. My brother Steve owned a very similar (if not the same) car at one point.

Back to the Future.

1967 Ford Mustang; Steve McQueen car.

Future stars in the shop.

We had to get up early (what a chore!) to catch a ferry from Wellington (north island) to Picton (south island). The ferry actually goes west. Go figure. Anyway, the sunrise was lovely.

Some shots from the ferry ending with the arrival in Picton.

We took the scenic route on the drive to Nelson and did a small hike with a view.

Our AirBnB in Nelson said it had a panormic view. Indeed!

Nelson is the “geographic center” of New Zealand complete with a marker. It’s conveniently on top of a steep hill.

Our friend Alex joined us in Nelson after some travel delays made her chase us down to the south island. We were supposed to connect in Wellington.

We spent a day hiking in Abel Tasman National Park, starting with a water ferry to Anchorage.

Split Apple rock.

We saw a seal colony and as Leena pointed out, though this looks like a poop emoji, it’s actually a seal.

The hike starts with an ascent. A view back to the beach where we were dropped off.

A kiwi!

Some more shots from the lovely hike. We covered about 15km on the day.

It was low tide when the hike ended, extending the beach for hundreds of meters.

We spent a couple of nights in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. I plugged the address of our AirBnB into Google maps and we headed to a place on Beach Ave. We couldn’t find the lock box as described. I open the gate and circle the house. It’s like we’re casing it! Then Leena checks the address and it’s an entirely different Beach Ave 20 minutes away. Ha ha. Imagine, multiple Beach Avenues in a coastal town.

So the actual place was great. It came with a turntable and a stellar vinyl collection.

We went up Mt Victoria for some lovely views of the city. One of the information signs said that the wind blew 30+ knots on 174 days a year. They had a cyclone come through just a week ago. On Wednesday? Totally calm.

We headed up a funicular to get a few more views.

We took on our most ambitious hike of the trip so far with the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It’s a day hike on one of New Zealand’s Great Walks and very popular. They’ve had over 4000 hikers complete it in a day. Monday wasn’t the greatest weather: overcast with showers predicted for the afternoon. We could have done it Tuesday, but the forecast wasn’t any better.

As we loaded into the shuttle to head to the trailhead, our driver gave us a debrief about the trail, the day’s conditions, and what to do in an emergency. She definitely wanted everyone to know that they were hiking a mountain pass and made sure we all had appropriate clothing, food and water.

The crossing is 19.4 km. It starts at 1120m and reaches a max elevation of 1886m and ends at 760m. That’s a climb of about 2500 feet. It typically takes six to eight hours. We started at 8:46a and there would be shuttles back to town at 2p, 3:30p and 5p (or whenever the last hiker arrived).

At the start:

A look back about 15 minutes into the hike.

A look up at the Devil’s Staircase, the first major climb of the hike. We’re heading into the clouds.

At the top of the Devil’s staircase, you cross a flat ash/sand crater for about 10 minutes before beginning the ascent to the top. It was getting windy and we started to see some hikers heading back. Leena asked why and they said it was too windy at the top. The 30-40 mph wind we were in? “This is nothing.”

We continued up and conditions got pretty gnarly. Winds were gale force, we were wet from the moisture of the cloud, and it was steep with very loose footing on the scree. I hung onto Leena through the most exposed and windy sections (I’m about twice her weight). Temperatures were in the low single digits Celsius (30s Fahrenheit). Neither of us had gloves so fingers were soon numb.

After the second major climb, you descend down loose scree for about 15 minutes into a crater. You pass Emerald Lake and Blue Lake. My picture of Emerald Lake didn’t come out, but here’s a look at Blue Lake.

You then have to climb back out of the crater, another cold, windy and exposed climb. As we began the descent, we came out of the clouds enough to get a few nice views.

There’s even a bit of blue sky!

The descent has lots and lots of staircases and a long walk through the forest.

We finished just after 3p and caught the 3:30p shuttle back to town.

At the end of the day, my iPhone health app gave me credit for 228 floors climbed, a new record.