Garnerbiker's Journey on planet Earth

This blog started as a trip journal for the summer of 2011 Europe trip of 69 days. My wife Katherine, and I decided to use the entire summer break that teachers get, and go crazy. Everything was new to us. I was surprised at the blog's following. It has now become a tradition to travel on our breaks and blog about it. I write mostly as a journal for myself and students, but also give travel ideas to others that might want to travel like us, or go to the places we have seen. Take a look at what's on here. The experiences that I have had through travel are continuously shaping my life. I recommend you get out there and do it!

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Friday, July 22, 2016

Paris Post

22-07-2016 Paris Time

Our flight to Paris took us through Chicago and then on a Boeing 777-200 across the “Pond.”  Both flights were really comfortable, with the Paris flight only being half full with tons of space.  However, I do not think either of us got more than 1-2 hours of sleep.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Jean Claude Cochet, Anne’s father.  The last time we saw him we were at his house in the country for a delicious Christmas Eve dinner, and that was 4 years ago.  Wow!  He was excited to see us for sure, as well as us to see him.  We waited just for a short while and Thomas met up with us from the Metro.  We then all piled in Jean Claude’s van and drove to Anne and Thomas’ apartment in Paris.  The drive was long, about an hour to the 15th arrondissement, and we encountered lots of traffic, but that gave us time to talk in the van and catch up.



No naps for us!  Anne came home from work for lunch and we had some wonderful Lebanese food, talked more, and went on a short walk with Thomas while Anne went back to work.  Thomas is a great tour guide, being a born and raised Parisian.  He is an encyclopedia of eclectic knowledge. He can talk about everything from architecture to history to gastronomy to real estate prices to the Starbucks with the cheapest prices…I think you get the point.  Then we hopped on the Metro to meet Anne at a restaurant owned by one of Thomas’ clients.  The restaurant has a menu that changes weekly so it can provide farm-to-table organic food.  It was just what we needed.  The owner was even there and we chatted for a few minutes.


It is always fun catching Tomas off guard.  Got it!

The next day we went on a huge walking tour, just Katherine and myself.  We met Thomas at his gym located on the Champs-Elysees.  No joke!  There is a super fancy gym right in the craziest fancy shopping area in France, and Mr. Thomas trains people there.  He took us inside and we met clients and coworkers. 

From there, we walked around even more, back to the apartment sightseeing along the way.  I was beat!  Many miles walking in flip flops is not a good idea, but it sure conditions your feet.  We stopped by a sporting goods store called Decathlon.  It is a GIANT, American big-box style store with the best display of quality merchandise I have ever seen.  We grabbed a few last minute items and headed home, stopping by the market and boulangerie-pâtisserie for dinner supplies.  Thomas’ mother would be joining us, which excited us since we missed making her acquaintance on the last trip.


Bread choices are serious business.

Thomas tossed a chicken in the oven and Anne prepared the starters. Yum!  Dominique, Thomas’ mother arrived, we were happily greeted, and the chatting began.  Dominique was excited to show us a book she just edited about old style bread baking and preparing.  Her job was to translate it from English to French and it looked amazing.  We hit if off once she heard the Cuban music we chose to play.  She too, is a Buena Vista Social Club fan.  All was good after that!


Anne inspecting the awesome bread and Katherine is really pondering the moment.


Friday was our last day before heading to Chamonix for our trek.   We made a massive postal delivery.  We have a bag that has to meet us in Munich in 2 weeks with the dress cloths and items we will not need on the trek.  This was all crammed into a duffle bag weighing 38 lbs.  Yup, that’s a lot of shipping weight to Germany.  68 Euros worth.  Hopefully, it will be waiting at Robert’s apartment when we get there.

The other item is going back to the USA which is a gift, so we will keep a lid on it.  Just stuff you can’t get in the USA from a brand that does import there.  Let’s see if it makes it.


Packing!  All 4 bags were laid out and gear is accounted for.  I am writing this as we wait for Anne and Thomas to finish work for today.  When they get back, we will load the Citroen Saxo and head to Anne’s parent’s house.  Our dinner will be with them tonight, and then we will get dropped off at the train station for our ride to Chamonix-Mont Blanc.  Expect lots of photos in the upcoming posts.  


Thomas' super organized nuts and seeds.  No messing around here.

Water Filter Packing from Katherine Mathiasmeier on Vimeo.





Lane Wedding

18-07-2016 Lane Wedding

The snorkeling right off the beach was great!


Our good friends Chuck and Julie got married at Secrets Silversands Resort.  Katherine and I had never been to an all inclusive resort before, and this was a great place to start.  Wow!  The venue was totally beautiful and the weather cooperated.  We had a luxurious room, great food, swimming pools, sailboats, and friendly service.  

Many of our friends showed up for the event and we made a few others.  

Katherine giving Chuck a pep talk.  Ha!



Julie’s dress was something spectacular.  It was all made of BALLOONS!!!!  Chuck and Julie have a close friend that builds anything and everything out of balloons.  Check out these pics!  Even the flowers are made of deflated balloons with wires for support.  


The dress was on display at the reception.  How cool!



Our three days at the resort flew by, and soon enough we had to leave.  Leaving was an easy venture in the shuttle to the Cancun airport, to Houston, and back to Las Vegas.  Andrew picked us up and we unpacked everything when we got home.  This meant dump the dive gear, wash clothes, and add the formal clothes for the Salzburg Festival.  The next morning we left the house at 8:20am.  What a quick turn around!  Now off to Paris.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Chichen Itza

14-07-2016  Chichen Itza

The minivan picked us up at 5:30am to shuttle us to Chichen Itza.  It was mostly dark and quiet in the neighborhood, except for the few that were still out trying to party “just a little bit longer.”  People watching made the ride was entertaining, looking out the window at this madness.  We then arrived at a gas station meeting point to switch over to a larger, comfortable tour bus that took us the rest of the way to the archeological site.

Last night, I spent a bit of time reading about the Mayan complex of Chichen Itza (sounds close to Chicken Pizza.)  What amazes me is how much we don’t know about it.  Our guide Marco (an archeologist) spoke to us a bit on the bus’ microphone along the way.  The “way” is a long highway cut through total flat jungle with nothing on either side except for a wall of green.  Marco has a Master’s Degree in both archeology and anthropology and is married to a Mayan girl.  He was a great guide who spoke in a captivating manner and gave us tons of information.  One thing I took away from him is that he mentioned he liked to “dig” and that there is just so much more to be unearthed in the area. However, having to put food on the table, he would starve doing that every day and must guide tours instead.  



We arrived at the complex around 8am and were the first big bus.  Marco mentioned that later in the day the entire lot would be packed.  He said that in the summer the site gets between 9000 and 11000 visitors every day!  The humidity was off the charts and the main temple seemed to stand alone.  The sun was hitting is just right and people gathered around to take pictures.  On the Fall and Spring equinox, the ledges and staircases cast a special shadow that make a serpent slither down the diagonal of the building from the heavens.  Pretty cool, but we were no where near the right time of year for that to happen.  On those days 80000 visitors show up.  I guess we will have to settle for pictures on the Internet.

Marco was all about numbers!  What we have found out so far from archaeologists, is that the Mayans were obsessed.  Everything lined up in some way or another with numbers, or the stars, or even magnetic North.  That one still gets me, and I will have to read up on it, is how in the world they found magnetic North without and metal around!?!?!?  The Mayans tied things to their calendar, women’s fertility cycles, and constellation.  There are lots of 9’s and 13’s in the architecture.  And, as Marco mentioned more than once, we are still figuring things about about them on a regular basis and have no idea how they did some of the things they did.  



The games:  Wow!  Any of you ever play a sporting game with a ball where the winner’s captain gets beheaded as the result?  Well, they did.  Teams would play in this ball court for the king and royalty for hours and up to a day until someone scored.  The ball used was a giant heap of natural rubber weighing up to 12 pounds!  The captain was the only one that used a stick, no feet or hands or heads, but you could use any other part of your body to fling to the captain who would attempt to bat it through the ring.  First ball through the ring wins!  We met a guy, one of Marco’s friends that plays in a modern Mayan tournament (without the decapitation of course.)

Oh yes, there were decapitations.  The scary wall, as I would call it, was where they would line up their enemies, chop their heads off, put them on a stake, and make the other enemies watch.  How pleasant?!?!  Don’t mess with these guys.


Our tour gave us some time on our own, and I had to get to the Sacred Cenote.  A cenote is a natural sinkhole in the limestone where freshwater pools.  Some you can dive in, and some are (or were) used for sacrificial offerings by the Mayans.  This particular one was dredged in the early 1900’s and they found all sorts of stuff down there:  bones, gold, jade, and weapons.  Today, the area is roped off for good reason.  The walls are vertical, and there is no getting out.



Our Chichen Itza trip came to what seemed like a quick end as we boarded the tour bus back to Playa del Carmen.   Once back in town, we got some more money from a working ATM, got dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel, and chilled.  The sales touts are not that bad around here compared to what you read on other travel blogs and reviews.  Shopkeepers kindly ask you to come in and see their merchandise, but stop after one “no, gracias.”  Turkey… now that’s heavy sales touting.  Those guys never stop.

Tomorrow, we are taking a taxi the 45 minutes North to Secrets Silversands where Chuck and Julie are getting married.  Having a Facebook event made for it, we can see other party members post their room numbers and when they arrived.  Pretty cool.  I am sure it will be a great time.  My goal is to find the little catamaran sailboats pictured in their media, but not mentioned on the “activities list” and take one out for a ride.  

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Playa del Carmen

13-07-2016  Playa del Carmen


Today was super simple, pack up your dive gear, chill, take ferry across to mainland, get hotel, chill, get ready for Chichen Itza ruins tour.  So nice.  Good food.  Nice Maya inspired room for sleeping.  Way to go!





Cozumel, Day 4

12-07-2016 Cozumel, Day 4

Well, it’s our last night on the island, and what a great day it was.  Our third day of diving was magnificent with two perfect dives, for us…. 

There was a little scare with one of the divers.  We were on the return from a deep (90 feet,) feature rich area with coral bommies, when a diver had a problem with one of his fins.  While trying to manipulate his fin below me by 10-15 feet, he descended a good 20 more feet very quickly while we were approaching our safety stop.  This is when air is beginning to run low and we are trying to smoothly exit the water back to the boat.  I gave him a few seconds to fix his problem before I was going to head down, while I had plenty of air.  As I was about to do so, Jorge, the dive master did a 180, and headed right for him.  They were both pretty deep by the point the fin was back in place and buoyancy was reestablished, and would have to make a slow ascent.  Jorge uses air like a boss and was diving enriched air, so he would be fine sharing if needed.  Katherine and I were diving air, and were close to our no decompression limits and probably would have gone into deco if we had descended to help.  Thankfully, all was good, except for a little embarrassment from the diver, but upon exit he had a very bloody nose and possibly mouth.  Not cool.  There was no mention about the blood, which I saw, and we all were cautious back on the boat.  Lunch went well, and there were no issues with the diver.  He said he was going to sit out the next dive, but when we were gearing up after lunch, he was donning his gear, so I guess he decided he was OK.  He was, or at least until we said goodbye after the end of the dive.  We dropped the diver off at his resort dock, and that’s all I know.  Things happen fast while diving, and when you let your guard down something is bound to happen.   

We brought all our gear back to the villa, rinsed it out, and now it is hanging to be packed away for the ferry ride to the mainland tomorrow.  

The dives were nice, indeed. We saw a group of nurse sharks, a lettuce sea slug, a few turtles, anemones (which are my favorite), and lots of coral of varying types.  It is always great to see the mysterious black coral which was farmed like crazy in the 1950’s and 60’s.  It is making a a resurgence, but slowly.  


Dinner was at El Coctelito and a grocery store run was made.  All in all, it was a great day to end the diving part of our trip.  We can’t wait to get back out again.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Cozumel, Day 3

11-07-2016 Cozumel, Day 3

Today was just as awesome as the others.  We had two great dives without a problem, great food , and an intriguing island to chill upon.  We hit up Palancar Caves and Santa Rosa Wall, both rich sites to spend your time.  Jorge and Felix were our guides and we had a blast.

Lunch was at Planacar Beach and dinner at Los Otates.  Delectable! 

Tomorrow, I get my last chance at dive video for the trip and will hopefully put together a real edit of the last 3 days.  Then we are off to Maya Riviera for Chuck and Julie’s wedding.  Get some!

Great cell reception, thank goodness!



Bikes at sunset.  This is the way to go.

Breakfast cooked here is perfect!

Ahhh, the villa.  

Posole, Key Lime Pie, and Al Pastor Tacos were consumed at this establishment. Yum.





Monday, July 11, 2016

Cozumel, Day 2

10-07-2016 Cozumel, Day 2

Today’s diving was a real treat.  We made a great breakfast in our room and headed out to the landing behind our villa.  We knew the routine.  Get on the boat, check gear, listen to the dive briefing, and get in.


The small dive boats come right up to get ya!

Our guide Jorge was calm and chill.

Our first dive was calm with only a little current.  I saw groups of permit fish which I have never seen before, especially this large!  

We stopped for lunch at the beautiful Palancar Beach.  Our dive operation takes divers there for the surface interval every day.  The boats tie up on the shore and we all walk over to the restaurant.  

K chilling on Palancar Beach.

The second dive had a lot more current which took us from the site Cedral to Santa Rosa.  We covered a lot of distance on this one.  This time we found him… The Splendid Toadfish!  This little guy hangs out under rocks and ledges and is endemic to the island.  My video didn’t turn out that well, but I am sure that I will find another which hopefully isn’t camera shy.



When we got back to the villa, we rinsed our gear, cleaned out the camera, and crashed!  The nap was only an hour, but we needed it.  When we woke up, it was time for dinner.  We went back to Cafe Dennis, the trusted old favorite.  Supposedly, it is the oldest restaurant on the island recommended by many divers.  Yum!


Tomorrow should be more of the same, but with clouds in the forecast.  This should be ok as my underwater lights make the video look normal.  

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Cozumel, Day 1

09-07-2016 Cozumel, Day 1

Our departure from Las Vegas was at 1:30am PST.  This “red eye” flying is getting old!  I am either getting too old for it, or I am unable to come up with ideas in which to cope with it.  The flight brought us to Houston, Texas at 5:30am CST.  We had to wait for a while and then boarded the flight to Cozumel, Mexico.  It was a lengthy wait on the tarmac with minimal AC for an hour before the plane backed away from the gate.  What was that about?  As soon as the plane took off, it chilled down and we were on our way to Mexico for three days of diving and some good friends' wedding. 

We arrived at the Cozumel airport after a smooth flight and were greeted with great weather.  Yes, It’s the middle of the summer, but it’s not that hot and humid, and a shore breeze is always a perk.

The shuttle took us to Villa Aldora where we got our room and set up camp.  I tried to lay down for a mini nap and then woke up with sweats.  The AC went out!  So, the very nice manager, Chris, changed us to another room, the only available one that had good AC and wouldn’t cause any hassles with other’s upcoming booking for accommodations.  We were bounced to the ocean view 2 bed with a full kitchen!  Now we’re talking!  

Down on the patio, we met two young software engineers from San Francisco; Bazel and Emil. We hit it off well with them and talked about our dive trips from the past.  Maybe tomorrow we will end up on the same boat?  We’ll see.  

Dinner was at a local and tested favorite just a short bike ride away.  Luckily for us, there was a great cover band doing a wide range of songs;  Mexican favorites, as well as a little U2, Beatles, Skynard, and other.  The female lead singer with a cool Mexican accent gave the songs a new cool flavor!  I am still kicking myself for not bringing the camera.  I promise, the next few days it will be attached to me at all times.


It’s early, but we have had a long day and I want to be as close to 100% on the dives tomorrow as possible.  Here we go!