Day #256 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…The oldest tagged bird in the world…Wisdom returns to Midway Island…

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    See the source imageWisdom was 69 years old in this photo and had yet another chick. She is so beautiful. Not our photo.

“Today’s photos are from March 16, 2015, while living in Kauai, Hawaii for four months, reveling in the nesting Laysan Albatross, their chicks, and the many nests in the neighborhood that we visited almost daily. For that post, please click here.

When this photo popped up on my Facebook feed last night, my heart skipped a beat with enthusiasm to find that Wisdom, the oldest tagged bird in the world and history, has returned to Midway Atoll in Pacific Islands. Here’s what the “Pacific Islands, US Fish, and Wildlife Service wrote:

“She’s back! Wisdom, a mōlī (Laysan albatross) and the world’s oldest known, banded bird in the wild, has returned to her home at Midway Atoll. More than that, she and her partner are taking turns incubating an egg!
The beaks of the Albatross are used for preening and for signs of greeting. Or, they may be used in aggression if an intruder threatens them or the nest.
Wisdom and her mate return to the SAME nest site each year – a behavior called “nest site fidelity.” When chicks grow up and are ready to find a mate themselves – they often return to the site where they were raised. How amazing to think that Wisdom is surrounded by generations of her family at Midway Atoll! At least 69 years young, we estimate she has laid between 30-36 eggs in her lifetime.
Over three million seabirds, including approximately 70% of the world’s mōlī, rely on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway National Memorial within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
This mom or dad was clacking at the chick hidden beneath the greenery. It was pretty funny. If only we knew that they were telling the chick

Learn more about Wisdom, her newest egg, and Midway Atoll: http://ow.ly/khrr50CBXsr

Credit: Jon Brack/Friends of Midway Atoll NWR.”

Also from Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

“Wisdom sits on her nest, November 2020. Credit: Jon Brack/Friends of Midway Atoll NWR
Wisdom, a mōlī (Laysan albatross) and the world’s oldest known, banded wild bird, has returned to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway National Memorial. At least 69 years old, she is the first observation of Wisdom at her nest, on November 29. Biologists have confirmed that she has laid an egg. Wisdom and her mate are taking turns incubating the egg.
“Showing off again?” the albatross of the left asks.
Culturally, albatross species are kinolau (body form) of the Hawaiian deity Lono. Each year, millions of albatrosses return to Midway Atoll in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to nest and raise their young. The birds’ return to land for mating coincides with the beginning of the makahiki season, occurring between October and November, and an essential aspect of some practitioners’ ceremonies and practices during that time.
Wisdom and her mate, Akeakami, like most pairs of albatrosses, return nearly every year to the same nest site. This behavior is known as “nest site fidelity,” and it makes places with large colonies of nesting birds, like Midway Atoll, critically important for the future survival of seabirds like Wisdom.”
This pair has thoroughly enjoyed time together, often engaging in their usual mating rituals. It’s amazing the lifetime mating pair find each other at the same location year after year.

This story caused me to swoon with delight. Having spent four months on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, with over a dozen such nests in a neighborhood near our holiday home, where many of our new friends lived, we visited almost every day during the nesting, chick hatching, and growing period.

Without a doubt, this was a highlight of those four months, including the blissful times we spent socializing with the many wonderful friends we made. Among those friends was another dear Louise, from the UK, but lives in Kauai most of the time.
This is a chick, shortly after hatching, which we’d taken a few months earlier. They were hatched during the first week in February.
Knowing how much we love and appreciate albatross, Louis wrote to me that she was headed to Midway Atoll as part of a regular annual group who embark on a journey to the relatively unpopulated Midway Atoll described as shown:
“The atoll, which has a small population (approximately 60 in 2014, but no indigenous inhabitants), is designated an insular area under the authority of the United States Department of the Interior.”  For more on the atoll, please click here.
Louise will be participating in this process well into January but won’t have access to WiFi. Surely, she’ll share photos when she returns. We’re looking forward to hearing from her when she returns.
A fluffy chick tucked away for a nap. 
Ironically, shortly after I saw the story about Wisdom on Facebook, one of my YouTube subscribers commented on our video here. Please click the link below to see a chick swallowing a meal from mom or dad, who’d been out to sea for days, fishing, and storing the food in her/his gullet to share with the chick up their return. Amazing!
To have had the outstanding opportunity to watch the life cycle in Kauai in 2015 and then, witnessing hundreds of thousands of nesting albatross in Steeple Jason Island, Antarctica, we feel a close affinity with these remarkable birds. Please click here for that post and note our photo below:
It was stunning to see all of these albatrosses atop their nesting pods in Antarctica in 2018.

 We still pinch ourselves in awe over the outstanding experiences we’ve had in the wild, which, if all goes well, we’ll begin repeating in another 40 days (actually 41 days until we arrive in Marloth Park due to two days of travel time.).

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, December 4, 2019:

Three years ago today, in 2017, in Pisco, Peru, we spotted these children playing at the beach with views of colorful fishing vessels. For more from the year-ago post, please click here.

Day #255 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Sunshine and fresh air…WiFi issues???…

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Savusavu Bay and Nawi Island, in Vanua Levu, Fiji from a site atop a hill in the village.

Today’s photos are from this date in 2015 while winding down our three-month stay on the island of Vanua Levu in the village of Savusavu. Please click here for details.

We haven’t been outdoors in eight months, except when I went to an ATM a few months ago when we needed cash for medication we’d ordered and about six months ago when I went outside to collect a package from Amazon India from the security guard the gate.

The hot springs where many locals cook their potatoes and root vegetables.

Since that time, for added precautions, we’ve asked the front desk to deliver the few packages we receive directly to our room. We’d be more than willing to spend time outdoors, but it would only be in the parking lot in the bright hot sun with the awful air quality per today’s report below from this site.

FORECAST

Mumbai air quality index (AQI) forecast

Day Pollution level Weather Temperature Wind
Monday, Nov 30

Unhealthy 153US AQI

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Tuesday, Dec 1

Unhealthy 159US AQI

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Wednesday, Dec 2

Unhealthy 163US AQI

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Today

Unhealthy 164US AQI

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 weather icon 84.2°77°

4.5 mp/h

While touring India many moons ago, the air quality ratings were often listed as “dangerous.” It was tough to breathe at that time. Although it may be easier now, why go out into that? After all, I have asthma and heart disease, both inflammatory conditions that can be exacerbated by severe smog.

The view from our veranda in Korovesi, Savusavu, Fiji.

Thank goodness we’re taking generous doses of Vitamin D3, but our lack of sun exposure may not be much worse than when we lived in Minnesota during the icy cold winter months and seldom spent much time outdoors, other than walking our dogs. Under those circumstances, exposed skin absorbs Vitamin D from the sun, not when bundled up in warm clothing.

We’ve been deluding ourselves into thinking that indoor air in this air-conditioned hotel room in Mumbai is any better than the outdoors. After reading several articles online over these past many months, it’s evident why we’re both sneezing all day long. Tom has no allergies, and yet he sneezes often. It’s due to poor air quality in buildings, including hotels in India, especially in a highly-populated area like Mumbai. See this article here about indoor air in India.

The bay where many sailors moor their sailboats.

We’ve asked the maintenance staff to change the air-con filter a few times, but that didn’t seem to help. Besides, sitting in this tiny room, day after day, month after month,  an enormous amount of dust accumulates from our skin, shedding, a disgusting thought but a reality. Dust mites are a real thing, although an awful idea. See here for details.

With people all over the world stuck inside their homes for extended periods during COVID-19 lockdowns, it wouldn’t be surprising that many with dust allergies may have suffered more than during “normal times.” I suppose if we’d lived in a house staying indoors for many months, we’d probably have had our house fumigated for dust mites when the lockdown ended.

The busy village hops with business most days.

Ah, the challenges of living under these circumstances aren’t going away anytime too soon. The WiFi has been going out at least once an hour over the past two days. We’ve reported this several times to the front desk, who reports,” We’re working on it.” We had to stop streaming shows last night when Netflix and Hulu kept stopping with streaming issues.

Then, of course, walking in the corridors continues to be quite a challenge with so many guests staying on our floor, not wearing masks, slamming doors in the middle of the night, and having loud parties throughout the night that have kept us awake over many nights in the past few months.

Tom, in front of a giant palm frond on the property.

We can’t get out of here soon enough. Dare I mention…40 more days?

Stay well.

Photo from one year ago today, December 3, 2019:

In 2016, we arrived in Penguin, Tasmania, where we stayed for six weeks. This is the view from the living room window of the beautiful holiday home we rented. It was a delightful six weeks and remained one of Tom’s favorite places in the world. For more about the year-ago post,  please click here.

Day #254 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Looking forward…Funny photos…

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A few days later, another exciting visit occurred. Little decided to check out the inside of the house. I was in the kitchen chopping vegetables when he entered and looked up to see this! Neither of us couldn’t stop laughing about this for days. Check back for that photo soon for a hearty laugh.

Today’s photos are from a post on this date in 2018 while living in Marloth Park and experiencing our favorite all-time warthog experience. Bear with me as we share this one more time, laughing all the while. See the link and a video here.

I struggled a little with the thought I might be boring our readers one more time while re-sharing my favorite post from South Africa in 2018. The heading for the post was as follows:

Pig on the porch…Pig in the parlor…Warthog “Little” comes to call…

The previous day, Little gingerly climbed several steps up to the veranda, looking for pellets.

This same experience left me reminiscing all this time while in lockdown in India for the past eight months, thinking about how much we miss living in the bush. It was only a short time later, we had a similar heading reading:  “Pig on the porch…Pig in the Parlor…Pig in the pond,” when our favorite warthog, Little, did all three in one day, also adding lounging in the cement pond to cool off on a hot day.

We named him “Little” for our new readers due to his tiny tusks when other warthogs of his size generally had much more enormous tusks. After using his name over and over, he came to know it. I could call out in the garden when he was nearby, and he’d come running.

Once he was situated, we brought him some fruit and veg.

Pigs are known to be smarter than dogs:

“Pigs are smarter than any other domestic animal. Their ability to solve problems, like the pig I.Q. test on The Joy of Pigs, is well-documented, and they are considered by animal experts to be more trainable than dogs or cats. … Pigs are difficult to classify.”

I sat quietly in the chair next to him, wanting to make him feel at ease.

People underestimate the intelligence and learning ability of pigs. Still, as a lifetime pig enthusiast, I knew they were trainable and never hesitated to teach “Little” and a few other favorite warthogs in Marloth Park to respond to my voice, a somewhat high-pitched squeal of my own. For a PBS story on pigs and their abilities and intellect, please click here.

I fell in love with a pig. Throughout each day and night, my eyes scanned the garden looking for him. Little became so attached to me and I to him that he’d look into my eyes (warthogs have poor vision) while I spoke to him before he’d ever touch any pellets, carrots, and apples, I may have dropped on the ground at his feet. But, he easily made himself well known to me each time he arrived by snorting and digging up the dirt in the garden.

That day, he was determined when he climbed the steps, feeling more at “home.” He’s come up the steps to the veranda a few times in the prior weeks, but then, it had been two consecutive days. 

On this date in 2018, I was busy inside the house, chopping carrots and apples for our wildlife visitors. It was summer during a drought. There was barely any vegetation for the animals in the conservancy. Most homeowners and visitors purchased game-warden approved pellets, lucerne (hay), and vegetables to supplement their sparse diet during these difficult times.

Sure, some animal activists complain we shouldn’t feed wild animals, and I get this concept. But, watching them die from starvation and thirst made no sense when most of us occupants in Marloth Park were more than willing to spend money and take time to feed them until the bush was lush again after the rains.

There’s always time in his busy schedule for a pellet break.

None of the wildlife we observed ever stopped grazing when everything was green again. They grazed, drank from the cement pond, kept clean with fresh water, and still stopped by for some pellets. But, coming to us for pellets seemed to be the same as giving your dog a treat.

But, not only did Little and the other warthogs bring us considerable entertainment and laughter, other wildlife touched our hearts every single day. The thought of returning to such daily adventures warms our hearts. Will we see Little again? Warthogs wander for miles each day, and he may find us again in our new location. Now, we can only hope and pray we’ll be able to get there in 41 days.

Little contemplating a nap after his big meal. He slept for about an hour.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, December 2, 2019:

Today, it was six years ago that Tom was checking out the views from one of the two houses we rented in Pahoa, Big Island, Hawaii. Only days later, our family began to arrive for the holidays. For more, please click here.

Day #253 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Apprehension follows enthusiasm…

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The bright sun creates a sparkling sea, which we’ve cherished every day that we’ve been in Maui. There had only been one overcast, and rainy day in the six weeks we spent on the island, although it rained for short periods for many days, to become later sunny.

Today’s photos are from this date in 2014 while wrapping up our six-week stay in Maui, Hawaii. For more on that day’s story, including our final expenses for the stay, please click here.

We’d be foolhardy to assume we’ll be able to board that flight to South Africa without incident. When we arrived at the Mumbai Airport on March 20, at 1:00 am while waiting in a queue for hours, four days before the official lockdown, we were turned away for the flight to South Africa, as they were slowly closing their borders in a highly inconsistent manner.

All these photos shown today were taken on a sunny Sunday early afternoon.

We ended up having to return to our original hotel in Mumbai, which informed us they were closing the next day.  It was a nightmare. We haven’t forgotten a minute of those first few days until we eventually settled in this hotel. For that whole story, please click here.

Miracle of all miracles, when almost every hotel in Mumbai had closed, the Courtyard by Marriott Mumbai Airport remained open. Over the next few weeks and months, we were worried this hotel would be forced to close as well, often asking the reception staff for a status update. For this, we are very grateful.

Hibiscus bloom year-round in the islands.

In yesterday’s post, I whinged, whined, and complained over issues we encounter daily, mainly with other guests not wearing masks and social distancing. Later in the day, I felt terrible for perhaps sounding ungrateful. The hotel staff has been excellent, albeit inconsistent at times, and the hotel itself is lovely. To see yesterday’s whiny post, please click here.

Please don’t write and beat me up. I’ve done it enough to myself already. We are grateful to have been able to live in this safe, clean, air-conditioned hotel room for the past eight months, precisely 253 days to be exact, as shown above in the heading. We’re grateful for the staff’s kindness, the food, although limited due to our design, the comfortable bed, and the excellent WiFi. We’re thankful we’ve been able to afford living here for what will prove to be ten months by the time we leave, hopefully on January 12, 2021.

And yet, a few new blooms magically appear in the tropical climate.

We always promised to tell our readers “like it is,” and sometimes that isn’t “pretty,” The reality remains, we could be turned away at the airport again on January 12th. With COVID-19, everything can change on a dime. In the next 42 days, South Africa could again lock down their borders if cases escalate and if coincidentally it falls on the date we’re leaving. Also, India could prevent international flights from entering its borders.

At least, if we knew we couldn’t fly a few days earlier, we could redo our mindset and come up with an alternate plan, hopefully unlike the fiasco we encountered as mentioned above on March 20, 2020, in the middle of the night while exhausted and frustrated.

The shoreline from our condo’s beachfront.

We’ve both decided to temper our enthusiasm with a bit of trepidation and uncertainty in the interim. Over the next few days, we’ll come up with a Plan B, should we be turned away at the airport once again. Once we make that decision, we’ll share it with you here.

To arrive in Marloth Park, Mpumalanga, South Africa, in the late afternoon of January 13, 2021, is, at this point, a lofty dream. Pulling this off may prove to be a challenge. Thus, at this point, we’ll continue to take the necessary steps to proceed with those three flights safely and without incident.

The blooming season in Hawaii has long since passed for some flowering plants and trees.

Even so, one can easily worry about contracting COVID-19 while riding in taxis, at the airports, or while on airplanes. None of this is easy. None of this is fun. But, we cannot stay any longer in strict confinement when on January 12th, it will have been almost ten months.

We can only maintain a glimmer of hope that all will transpire as planned and that we’ll arrive at our blissful destination, full of hope, joyful anticipation, and plenty of excitement.

The bananas in the yard grow bigger each day, soon ready for picking.

A heartfelt thanks to so many of our family/friends/readers for all of the encouragement and support we received on social media, through email, and comments on our site. We appreciate every one of YOU!!!

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, December 1, 2019:

One year ago, we arrived in Nevada to visit family. Son, Richard is a Vegas Golden Knight’s superfan when he had this mural painted on a wall in his backyard pool area. We’re looking forward to attending a game with him on December 8th. For more, please click here.

Day #252 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Time for some “whinging” (British for complaining)…

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Big Daddy Kudu by candlelight as darkness fell. Soon, we’ll be there once again.

Today’s photos are from this date in 2018 while living in the bush in Marloth Park, South Africa. For more on the story, please click here.

We see this same gecko almost every day on this same tree area in front of the veranda.  It appears to change colors from time to time.

The glow from booking plans to return to Marloth Park, South Africa, departing India on January 12, 2021, hasn’t diminished for me as I count down the days (Tom prefers not to count down). Right now, it’s 43 days until we depart in the middle of the night for the airport. May I say this with tongue in cheek?

  • 3,715,200 seconds
  • 61,920 minutes
  • 1032 hours
  • 43 days
  • Six weeks and one day
    Giraffe in the neighborhood. We never tire of seeing these beautiful animals.

Whew! It can’t go fast enough for either of us. There are few times in our eight years of world travel that we’ve wished for time to fly quickly. After all, when one gets to a “certain age,” we certainly want time to move slowly, but somehow it does not. Wishing or not, we seem to have no control over our perception of the creeping of time.

Besides the obvious, why are we so impatient after over eight months so far? There are a few reasons which we’ll share here today. I need to whine, whinge, complain a little, so please bear with me. If someone had told us that we had to spend even 43 days in a hotel room, with a worldwide pandemic raging around us, unable to risk going outdoors, literally stuck in an average-sized hotel room, only able to order room service and walk the corridors, I would have said, “No way!”

A determined walk along the fence by the Crocodile River.

But, here we are, and those 43 days loom over us like a very long time, especially right now, after eight months of doing this. Part of what has made the concept of these extremely challenging the next 43 days is that Indians have planned weddings for this period when COVID-19 lockdown restrictions impact the usual March through October season.

Subsequently, this hotel is packed with careless wedding guests with nary concerns about wearing face masks, social distancing, taking any other COVID-19 sensible precautions, and who smoke in the stairwell and their rooms in this non-smoking hotel. In reality, Tom and I should stop walking in the corridors now and not begin walking again until we arrive in South Africa.

The Crocodile River after sunset.

However, after working so diligently at my 5 miles, 8 km, in the corridors, each day, for all this time. If I stop now, I will lose all my vital conditioning in the next 43 days. I don’t walk to entertain myself. I walk to improve my cardiovascular health and avoid sitting in a chair for 16 hours a day.

It baffles me. When guests check-in here, they are explicitly informed there is a strict mask-wearing, other than when inside their rooms and the mandatory social distancing policy in this hotel, to protect themselves and other guests and the staff. Imagine how hard it has been for all employees who have slept here every night for many months, unable to leave the hotel to avoid infecting others from going out into the city or to their homes.

A beam of light reflected off the camera at sunset on the river.

Every half hour when I leave the room to walk, I encounter no less than six guests not wearing masks, often coming face to face with me when they storm outside their rooms without a mask. The staff has become very conscientious in wearing their masks properly, although we had to remind several of them to cover their noses early on.

We don’t allow the room service person in our room. The cleaner has to put on clean gloves before entering our space and keep a mask on while cleaning our room. Our cups and glasses must be washed before cleaning anything in our room. Previously, they’d wash the glasses after scrubbing the bathroom wearing the same gloves. We had to squawk about all of these for them to get it right.

Mom and four piglets stop by several times a time.

We’re tired of all of this. We’re tired of telling no less than 25 guests a day to put on a mask when we see them barging out of their rooms, often without even a mask in hand or heading to the elevators without a mask. I’m tired of complaining to the hotel managers. They, too, are frustrated. People don’t care.

We’re tired of guests staying in the room next to ours, never turning off their phone’s ring or vibration during the night, often waking us every 10 minutes. The two room’s beds back up to one another, and the walls aren’t soundproofed. We can hear everything.

Bushbuck baby, maybe dad and mom often stopped by at the bottom of the steps for their pellets.

We’re tired of the room on the other side of us with their door slamming all night long when the guests head to the stairwell to smoke at 2:00 am, 3:00 am, 4:00 am. We’re tired of the noisy wedding night where the entire hotel seems to vibrate from the loud music often until 4:30 am.

Gosh, please give me the sounds of the noisy hadeda birds (listen here) flying overhead at dusk, the exciting roar of a lion in the middle of the night, the insistent chirping of a hornbill pecking at the window for more seeds, or the hysterical sounds of warthogs snorting in the garden.

Tom took this early morning photo of a wound on yet another warthog which appears to be healing. Warthogs are sturdy and hardy animals that often survive serious injury without any intervention by humans.

Forty-three more days, forty-three more days…

Photo from one year ago today, November 30, 2019:

Chase, Susan’s adorable Yorkie. One year ago today, I saw my dear sister Susan, who’s since passed away. For more, please click here.

Day #251 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…We’re on the move!!!…Soon, that is!!!…

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Some freighters can carry as many as 18,000 20 foot containers. This freighter was being guided through the Panama Canal at the Miraflores locks.

Today’s photos were from this date in 2017 when we transited the Panama Canal for the second time in our world travels while on a cruise in South America. For more photos and the story from that date, please click here.

Each day during the over eight months in this hotel room, we’ve checked the status of flights out of Mumbai, India. As previously mentioned, a few international flights were departing, but there were no flights to countries we were interested in visiting, now or shortly. Technically, India’s borders are still closed, barring a few flights.

Target practice for the “rope throwers” who toss the cables to the ship to guide them through the channel. Contests are held for the workers who compete using this target with big monetary prizes.

Yesterday, once again, we checked after reading that Emirates Airline was opening up some flights out of Mumbai. Immediately, with our hearts racing, we searched to see what we could find. When I commenced the search, as always, suddenly we spotted flights departing Mumbai to Johannesburg beginning in January.

The flights in the early part of January, close to the New Year’s holiday, were more expensive and, of course, would be very crowded. We decided to see if we could book the shortest travel time, for the best price, with the fewest stops. Much to our sheer delight, we booked two seats on a flight departing on January 12, 2021, only 44 days from today!

Another container ship in the lake was awaiting entering the channel.

This took quite some time to accomplish as we investigated the vital “other parts” of our journey to include the following:

  • First, we booked a flight from Mumbai to Johannesburg with the intent of booking a flight to Nelspruit/Mpumalanga/Kruger’s tiny airport, leaving us with only a one-hour drive to arrive in Marloth Park. We found we were unable to book these flights together, as we’d done in the past. No such option was available. The only way we could avoid driving the six-hour drive from Johannesburg to Marloth Park was to book a separate flight from Johannesburg to Nelspruit for the following day, on January 13, 2021, requiring we stay overnight at a hotel near the airport. Based on the time we’d arrive in Joburg, get through immigration, and collect our bags, there was no available flight.
    Silver Seas luxury cruise ship in Miraflores Lake.
  • Next, we had to confirm that car rentals are available at Nelspruit/Mpumalanga/Kruger Airport to ensure we’d have a way to get to Marloth Park. We didn’t book the car until after the two separate flights were confirmed.
  • Next, we booked the flight from Joburg to Nelspruit directly through Airlink’s website.
  • Then, we returned to Expedia on our website to book the car for 30 days. We’ll return to Nelspruit every 30 days to renew the contract if we can’t do it over the phone. Our credit cards provide free insurance on rental cars for the first 30 days only. It was worth it to us to avoid paying nearly double for insurance for the vehicle.
  • Next, we had to find a place to live, especially since it would be a little over six weeks until we’d arrive in MP. There are many school holidays in South Africa at the beginning of the New Year when many South Africans travel. There was no one we’d consider contacting other than our dear friends, Louise (and husband Danie), about renting one of their several properties. We rented from them in 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019 and became close friends in the process. See their link here.
    A barge with a tugboat is used for moving materials that have been dredged in the channel.

During this entire process, Louise and I were going back and forth via texts. Once we pinned down the flight from Mumbai to Joburg, we could give her the date we’d be arriving. We’ll be there in the late afternoon of January 13, 2021. With the greatest of ease, she suggested affordable single-family homes we may like, one of which was our first bush house in 2013 and another she indicated that they’d since acquired.

We chose the second option, worked out the dates and pricing, and she booked it for us for 88 days. During those 88 days, we’ll make a plan for moving forward. When the 88 days end, we fly somewhere for more outstanding African safari adventures and return a week or two later, to book another house, either the same or another, depending on what’s available.

Private watercraft pay fees from US $800 to US $3,200 (depending on size) to transit the Panama Canal.

In other words, we plan to make every effort to stay in Africa for an extended period depending on how visa situations work out in the interim.

Today, we’ll book a one-night hotel stay in Johannesburg, where we’ll catch up on an entire night’s missed sleep. We’ll have to leave this hotel for the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 1:00 am for the upcoming 4:00 am flight. We’ll need to get COVID-19 tests that will be good for 72 hours for entry into South Africa. There are numerous companies here in Mumbai that will come to the hotel to conduct the tests for both of us. It’s too soon to arrange for that now.

The Miraflores locks as we enter.

We’ll share details of our upcoming bush house in another post. As an aside, the cost of both flights for the two of us was a little over US $1000, INR 73962, and the rental car was slightly under US $400, INR 29585 per month. We have some free nights accumulated we haven’t used from Hotels.com on our site, one of which we’ll use for the hotel in Joburg.

Are we excited? Yep! Over the moon! We’ve only got 44 more days until we board that first flight (with a four-hour layover in Dubai) and one more day later until we arrive at my favorite place in the world, Marloth Park, South Africa.

Our ship, as it ends its transits through the third and final set of locks.

“Little, is that you?” Of course, I’ll be searching for my warthog friend (among other friends, both human and animal) the moment we arrive!

Photo from one year ago today, November 29, 2019

Since it was a travel day on this date, we posted this solitary photo from that date one year ago. Six years ago, we’d seen photos of this car, a 1959 Cadillac convertible (woody) hanging from the ceiling at Hard Rock Café in Lahaina. On our return drive from Kaanapali Beach, we stopped to take a few photos of our own, as shown. For the year-ago post, please click here.

Day #250 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Our 2013 hotel criteria…Has it changed?…

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Out for a drive in Maui, we stopped to walk along the beach.

Today’s photos are from the post on this date in 2014 while we stayed at Maalaea Beach, Maui. For more photos and details, please click here.

As the long days and nights continue in this long-term confinement, we tend to dream about places we’ve visited in the past and places we’d like to see in the future. Have our criteria changed much over the years? From this post on November 11, 2013, we had outlined our measures for staying in hotel rooms throughout the world.

Maui has one beautiful beach after another.

Now, on day #250 of living in a hotel room, we thought it would be interesting to see if our criteria have changed in the past seven years since we originally uploaded this post. Here they are:

  • Free WiFi
  • Laundry options in the room or the building
  • A sofa in the room (it’s tough to sit on the bed typing on my laptop for hours posting photos and writing)
  • Convenient location: to our next destination (when possible), for sightseeing (if time allows), and for local modes of transportation for dining out, grocery shopping, etc. (Not applicable now).
  • Kitchenette or full kitchen for more extended stays (Not applicable now)
  • Reasonable cost (in most cities, a decent hotel room will run from US $175, INR 12941, to US $200, 14790, per night or more with city taxes and fees. (Prices have increased in the past seven years from this original amount as mentioned)
  • Air conditioning (we seldom, if ever, will travel in cold climates)
  • A safe in the room
  • Good view. For us, this is important. If we’re to pay US $200 a night, we want a good, if not great view. (Not applicable now)
  • Great reviews from recent guests for a 4.0 rating or higher. Tom will read from 30 to 50 recent reviews to satisfy our objectives.
    Many beaches are left in a natural state, with vegetation growing along the shoreline.

Newly added to this list based on our past and recent experiences include:

  • Complimentary breakfast
  • Complimentary coffee and tea
  • Complimentary bottled water
  • Comfortable bed
  • Sufficient plug-ins for our equipment
    The colors in these hills look more like a painting than real life.

At this point, we feel we’ve had enough hotel experience to last us a lifetime but, not knowing when we can depart Mumbai, staying put in this hotel provides us with the fulfillment of most of the above criteria. In the future, if and when we’re able to travel in the future freely, these same criteria will be applicable and to our standards.

For the time being, we had booked this hotel room until January 3, 2021, when by luck, we checked for future pricing and found, on our site at Hotels.com to discover this hotel was selling rooms for US $50, INR 3698 per night for the bulk of December and US $57, INR 4215 per night for the balance of December, all the way to January 3, 2021. We couldn’t get these prices booked quickly enough.

In a matter of minutes, the clouds began to disperse for a better view of the mountaintop. Notice the buildings at the top of the mountain.

Now, we continue to watch prices to extend our reservations further as needed as we wait this out. As always, especially lately, we’ll play it by ear.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, November 28, 2019:

Upon arriving in Mombasa on Thanksgiving Day in 2013, we took this photo from the ferry as another ferry took off. Notice the crowds. For more photos from that day in 2013,  please click here. For more of the year-ago post, please click here.

Day #249 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…A great memory from 2016…A good Thanksgiving after all…

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It had been a long time since I’d done a seminar, but in my career in my old life, I had done many.

Today’s photos are from this date in 2016 while sailing on Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas on the circumnavigation of the Australian continent when we were asked to do two seminars about our world travels. For more on that story, please click here.

Four years ago, we were asked to conduct a seminar on world travel on a cruise ship? We did the first seminar on this date in 2016 and a few days later did a second seminar when asked by the ship activity director to do another when there were many requests from passengers who’d missed it.

Tom chimed in on several occasions and did a fabulous job. Fluffy hair, that day! I love him anyway!

Of course, we were pleased and flattered. We both enjoyed meeting all the people that flocked around us for the remainder of the cruise, asking question after question. We are so grateful for every one of you! I have no doubt many of those participants are still following us now, four years later.

After we’d done the seminars, we spent some time inquiring about the possibility of conducting such workshops on future cruises, but the compensation offered was not worth it to us. Many speakers on cruises think they are getting quite a perk to speak on their favorite topic and return repeatedly.

Note our talk scheduled at 11:15 am on the ship activities program.

For us, it wasn’t a worthwhile undertaking. The cruise line pays only for transportation to a specific port of call and the time spent on the ship. Once the “talks” are completed, the speaker(s) are dropped off at the next port of call to “fly away.” This didn’t work for us at all. It simply wasn’t worth it.

Of course, all the days and nights socializing with many Australians and a handful of Americans, including two couples with whom we spent most “happy hours” and many dinners. However, we thoroughly enjoyed those two experiences on that 33-night cruise. It was a fantastic cruise that we’ll never forget, among others.

I love the look on Tom’s face in this shot.

Now, with COVID-19 raging worldwide, the prospects of cruising again anytime soon are limited. A few days ago, we posted a story about enthusiastic cruise passengers volunteering for “test” cruises to see how a cruise line will handle COVID-19 breakouts during a cruise. Here is the link to that post, entitled “Ten reasons to avoid test cruises.”

As for yesterday’s Thanksgiving, we made it through with ease and nary a moment of disappointment. We heard from so many family members, friends, and readers. It proved to be a busy day while we responded to everyone. We couldn’t have felt more loved with the many good wishes and concern for our well-being during our peculiar situation.

Tom managed the video presentation while I talked. We were (we are) a good team.

Did we miss the Thanksgiving dinner? Not at all. I had my usual chicken dinner (tonight is salmon night), and Tom had only breakfast and some bananas he’d saved for later. We now refer to his daily bananas as “banana cream pie,” making our mouths water at the prospect of any pie at this point. However, I’ve only eaten low-carb/gluten-free pies in the past many years.

Now, with my drastically reduced carb regime and my lowest morning fasting blood sugar reading this morning of 82 mg/dl, 4.6 mmol/L, in 20 years, I continue to be ecstatic over my recent health improvements. For the first time in 20 years, this morning, I didn’t take any blood pressure medication. Of course, if it rises over time, I will revert to small doses of the drug to keep it in check. Time will tell. In the interim, I will proceed with the utmost caution, checking it several times a day.

There were over 100 people in attendance at our first seminar, with many more at the second, a few days later.

Subsequently, in the future, I doubt I will be eating any of those “low carb” modified desserts that may raise blood sugar/blood pressure as I continue to strive to maintain these good numbers well into the future. Eliminating such sweet treats may add many good years to my life.

Today? Another low-key day. In the evenings, we’ve been watching a fantastic show with many seasons and episodes, streaming on Hulu, ‘This is Us.” In the past, we’d considered streaming this popular show but never got to it until now. If you haven’t seen it, we highly recommend it. Any recommendations you may have for Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu, please send them our way!

Happy day to all, and again, thank you for all the warm and heartfelt wishes over the holiday!

Photo from one year ago today, November 27, 2019:

About 8 inches of snow fell in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, staying with friends Karen and Rich. For more photos, please click here.

Day #248 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Happy Thanksgiving to family, friends and readers in the US….

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No photos from a previous post are included today, other than the “year-ago” photo below.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American family, friends, and readers who are celebrating this special day of thanks. For our non-American readers/friends, here’s what Thanksgiving is all about:

From this site: Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia, and the sub-national entities Leiden, Norfolk Island, and the inhabited territories of the United States. It began as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. It has similarly named festival holidays to occur in Germany and Japan. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and Brazil, and around the same part of the year in other places. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday.

Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and other times. The Thanksgiving holiday’s history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.

In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and reaction to a large number of religious holidays on the Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays when people were required to attend church, forego work, and sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church holidays to 27, but some Puritans wished to eliminate all Church holidays, including Christmas and Easter. The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or threats of judgment from on high called for Days of Fasting. Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving. For example, Days of Fasting were called on account of drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and plagues in 1604 and 1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1705. An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day on November 5.”

In our old lives, this holiday had always been the second most important holiday we celebrated each year, with Christmas being the first. The days of loved ones gathered around our big table are long gone. But, we’ll never forget the love, warmth, and good food on this memorable holiday.

I’d cook for days, making enough pumpkin pies and “leftovers” for each couple or attendee to return home with at least one enough food for another meal and an entire pie as a reminder of our Thanksgiving celebration.

But, today, with COVID-19 rampant throughout the US and the world, this year’s holidays will be very different. With tremendous controversy over how many should attend a private home celebration, with restaurants closed and many observing COVID-19 precautions or not, this is a difficult time for all.

In touching base with our family and friends, we feel comfortable everyone will be practicing safe standards in their homes and outside their homes. Nothing would be sadder than to discover more family members who have contracted the virus during the holiday season or at any time in the future. We pray for our family members and friends, as well as for yours, to come through the holiday season unscathed.

And for us? Many have inquired about what we’ll do today, which is already midday Thursday, November 26th in India. Not to sound as if we are feeling sorry for ourselves, we are doing nothing. Turkey is not served here. No special foods are being prepared, and if they were, I doubt many would be befitting my way of eating.

I must diligently continue with my recent reduction in carbs to nearly zero each day, which has allowed several significant health improvements over the past month. Thus, if a special dinner were offered, I would only eat the turkey. Plus, Indian cooks wouldn’t be familiar with preparing the typical American dishes, even if we chose to eat such a meal.

Tom is still working on reducing the weight he gained in the first several months of lockdown and continues to eat only one meal a day, a big breakfast that holds him through the day. So, unless we’d been able to prepare it ourselves, a special meal means little to us at this point.

Instead, we’ll focus on what we are thankful for on this day, as we often do during this challenging time in a hotel room.

We are thankful for:

  • The safety and health of our loved ones and for us, while we maintain the status quo in this confinement now, eight months in the making.
  • I am being together to provide love, comfort, and entertainment for each other, every single day.
  • Our health during this lockdown. We were concerned that it would have been an awful scenario if one of us became ill and had to seek medical care outside the hotel, with COVID-19 raging in Mumbai.
  • Ways in which to entertain ourselves with streaming shows, with good WiFi, and thanks to a VPN (a virtual private network) that allows us to use Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. Being able to escape from the current reality mentally has been exceedingly crucial during this extended period.
  • Financially, we have been able to afford to live in this lovely hotel for the past 248 days.
  • That this hotel has stayed open during numerous lockdowns.
  • Due to Amazon India, we can purchase any supplies we need. Without this, we’d have no choice but to head outdoors, where massive crowds are in the streets.
  • I was reordering my few prescriptions. The front desk will call and order any refills for medications we may need, and it is delivered within 24 hours, without a prescription.
  • We are posting each day and all the significant concerns and support of our family/friends/readers. Thank you all!
  • Laughter, our saving grace…

Please have a safe and meaningful Thanksgiving for those who celebrate, and may every one of our readers experience love and thankfulness on this day and always, wherever you may be.

Photo from one year ago today, November 26, 2019:

With no new photos posted one year ago, we posted a photo from a walk on the beach at the Indian Ocean in Kenya in 2013. For more, please click here.

Day #247 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Crucial COVID-19 treatment information…

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Stunning homes along the channel as we sailed out to sea from Fort Lauderdale.

Today’s photos are from this date in 2017 as we were sailing out to sea on Celebrity Infinity from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a partial circumnavigation of South America, ending in Buenos Aires, where we stayed for one month in a hotel, awaiting an upcoming cruise to Antarctica. For the story from that date, please click here.

A while back, we voted as to whether we should include COVID-19 news and treatments that we may discover along the way. The results of that vote were 51% against, 49% for. Subsequently, we have diligently stayed away from controversies and conspiracy theories revolving around the pandemic.

Cargo ship at the port.

Today’s comments do not consist of a controversy or a conspiracy. It is a simple medical fact…sugar is not an essential nutrient and is particularly harmful to seriously ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients. If only one of our readers or a loved one benefited from this information, this post would be well worth any backlash or negative comments we may receive from naysayers.

Unless one has been living under a rock for the past ten years, the dangers of consuming sugar have been reiterated repeatedly. Again, sugar is not an essential nutrient. If we never finished any sugar in our lives, we’d never be missing a single nutrient vital for life.

Bridge in Fort Lauderdale.

As we all know, sugar (and high-carb foods that convert to sugar in our bodies upon consumption) is highly detrimental to diabetes or those with metabolic syndrome. Most recently, as I’ve strictly reduced my carb consumption and watched my blood sugar and blood pressure dramatically reduce to a point where I’ve been able to stop two 20-year medications, it has been evident to me, which I shared in this post a few days ago.

After spending no less than two hours a day researching ways in which I can improve my cardiovascular health, I discovered two things of the major causes of cardiovascular disease: Smoking (I was an occasional smoker in my youth) and sugar (in my case, the consumption of too many carbs/sugar in my diet from a lifetime of eating a low fat, high carb diet). It took 30 to 40 years for my cardiovascular disease to manifest.

People were waving to ships as they made their way out to sea.

So, this morning a podcast popped up on my phone from Dr. Robert Cywes, a highly reputable surgeon who’s become involved in saving lives through diet, which is known as the “Carb Addiction Doctor,” entitled, The Absolute Evidence, The Truth About Cardiovascular Disease, Sugar or Fat by Robert Cywes. The content of this podcast is found here:

Well, what does the above topic have to do with COVID-19? A lot. As Dr. Cywes explains, hospitalized COVID-19 patients who become unable to eat due to being intubated or too sick to eat are given IVs containing GLUCOSE, PURE SUGAR.

View of houses on the channel.

If you or a family member are pre-diabetic, diabetic, or suffering from a metabolic disease (and many other conditions), this massive dose of sugar can send the patient into a state of high blood sugar/diabetes, requiring treatment with insulin which only exacerbates the virus to the point that may contribute to death. Why do we keep hearing about poor outcomes/death for diabetics and patients with other comorbidities? Many are being pumped full of sugar, only increasing their risk of death.

No, I am not a medical professional, nor do I profess to know more than the average person. When I had open-heart surgery in 2019 in South Africa, I made sure it was stated in bold type on my chart that no IV was to contain glucose. But, it’s not rocket science to figure out that massive infusions of sugar are detrimental to many patients, and the sugar is not needed. There are simple, non-glucose alternatives if fluids are required, containing healthy fats and protein, or a short-term treatment; plain saline is generally safe.

So, there it is, folks. Listen to the above podcast. Do your own research. Talk to your doctor. Tell the hospital staff if you or a loved one are hospitalized. Save a life.

That’s all I have to say.

Photo from one year ago today, November 25, 2019:

When we didn’t have any new photos to share, here is a six-year ago photo we posted in 2019.  This view from the second-floor balcony at Whalers Village in Kaanapali Beach was breathtaking. For more photos from this post, please click here.