Fiordland

We left the sunshine and blue skies of Okuru on the west coast of the South Island for Fiordland where deep fiords penetrate the coastal mountains, where it rains most of the time, a place so different and beautiful that it was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1990. It’s in the far southwest of the South Island, but there’s no coast road to Fiordland from Okuru. We had to drive a circuitous route inland many kilometers, then south through mountains and valleys of the Southern Alps and then west to Fiordland.

Haast River

Port Douglas - Part 1

The two-lane road north from Cairns to Port Douglas winds 50 km (31 mi) up the coast past sugar cane fields and beach resorts, and through small towns and tropical rainforest. We passed a large group of wallabies (known as a mob) grazing in a large pasture along the road. I parked next to a lawn bowling complex and, camera in hand, walked around the corner of the building and began taking pictures. A man came out of the building and told us to come inside, but to stay behind the fence because "wallabies can be aggressive if you get too close." Inside the open-air facility, twenty people were bowling in a tournament. One of the women bowlers said that a few weeks earlier, a man taking photographs in the pasture was attacked by a male wallaby.

Agile wallabies

Eungella to Cairns: the Eastern Highlands

Consider the platypus. It has a duck-like bill covered with specialized receptors for finding its prey; a beaver-like tail covered with fur that is not used for swimming; and otter-like webbed feet for swimming (front) and steering (rear) armed with straight claws for digging (front) and curved claws for grooming (rear). Females lay eggs and nurse their young, but lack nipples. If you didn’t already know that it exists, you’d be hard pressed to believe that it does. Platypus were “discovered” near Sydney by European settlers in 1797 (of course, Aboriginal Australians knew about them for millennia). Bewildered, the local governor sent skins and drawings to Great Britain. British zoologists who examined the specimens in 1798 thought they were a hoax perpetrated by Chinese taxidermists, who were selling mummified monkeys with fish tails as mermaids at the time (link).

Platypus in Broken River, Eungella National Park

Guadalajara

Guadalajara is Mexico’s second largest city with a population over four million in the city and surrounding metropolitan area (link). It’s less than an hour’s drive from Lake Chapala. We took a bus from Ajijic ($50 MXN, about $4 USD) to avoid dealing with traffic and parking. The bus dropped us at the Antigua Central Camionera (old bus station*), which is more than a kilometer from the city’s Centro Histórico, the colonial center of the city, so we caught a taxi from the bus station.

Plaza Guadalajara looking toward the Palacio Municipal (built between 1949 and 1952)

The Centro Histórico is laid out like a cross from west to east when viewed from above (link). The cathedral lies at its crux surrounded by four plazas: Plaza Guadalajara at the head of the cross; Plaza de la Liberación at its base; Plaza de Armas to the south; and Plaza de la Rotonda to the north. The circular fountain in the Plaza Guadalajara is shaped like an oyster with rose petals alluding to the city's two nicknames: "Pearl of the West" and "City of Roses." The stairs lead to an underground parking garage.

San Sebastián del Oeste

Drive east into the mountains from the high-tourist areas of Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta and you will discover a rural Mexico moored to centuries of traditions, culture and architecture. At 4,600 ft in the Sierra Madre, San Sebastián del Oeste is only 40 miles northeast of Puerto Vallarta, but it is centuries removed in time.

Sierra Madre from Puente Progreso