I understood that there are about 133 islands that make up French Polynesia.  Most people begin their journey into Paradise at Papeete, Tahiti and continue on by boat or island hopping, small planes.

Raiatea was one of my last stops.  Friends of mine had just left and the owner of the hotel where I stayed had some old, wobbly bicycles he loaned to guests.  I wobbled myself around the small island, and found that free dives and snorkeling near the reef surrounding the lagoon was of most interest to me.  I helped to refull the fish tank in the hotel’s dining room that afternoon.

The manager mentioned that, for a small fee, the man who ran the mail boat would take me to Taha’a where he had a girlfriend.  I was shown how to make French bread and bake it in the islands huge stone ovens for which the island was famous.  It is now known as a center of fire walking.  Beyond this island is the atoll of Tetiaroa and Marlon Brando’s “vision”.  Construction of The Brando Luxury eco-resort is slated for late 2011.

There is concern that heavy construction could have a negative effect on the population and almost pristine environment.  47 deluxe bungalow villas (each with a private plunge pool), a spa, scuba diving, island activities and archaeological tours of royal Tahitian sites will be included.  The airstrip is being refurbished and extended to meet all safety requirements.  A platform on the coral reef will provide protected access to the island.

Tahiti Beachcomber SA is overseeing the project.  Richard Bailey, CEO was a good friend of Brando’s and worked with him for many years on their joint venture.

The hotel features “sea water air conditioning systems” (SWAC) drawing on an inexhaustible supply of completely renewable clean energy with zero impact on the environment.  His company works closely with the Tahitian Ministry of  Environment.  They stive to protect marine life and educate the public.

www.thebrando.com

Charlie’s interpretation was a jumble of words, complex phases and disjointed thinking which had to come from the author.  I could only stop dead in my state of confusion and breath slowly.

There are authors and writers.  There are thick books which contain amoung their pages, the work of several people, each with their own agenda.  They are the people who “eat dictionaries and anthologies” for breakfast, then spit out long words and sentances that tend to defy comprehension by mere mortals.

A very large book (size, weight and content) sits on my work table challenging me to read it, sneering at the very thought that I will understand it.

Hundreds of years ago when I was in 4th grade, I had a fabulous English teacher, Nellie Wi bbing.  She was and remains one of my mentors opening literary doors to me, and helping me to win “The Book Award” for reading and writing the  most book reports.  I gobbled up glorious words, savored them and stashed them away for future use.  My favorite word was “philoprogenitiveness” which meant love of your children (I couldn’t find it in my dictionary).  I never use it…

Now, I am confused and wonder why stories, reports and perspectives can’t be written in a more simple and direct manner?  Are the writers just filling pages?  Do they covet their words to a point of no return leaving the reader suspended from the pages barely hanging on only to crash into confusion as they fall?

Aqua Expeditions has captured the Amazon River Bandits.  The CEO of the company, Francesco Galli-Zurgaro through Peruvian news agencies, announced the capture of six armed “bandits” who robbed passengers on July 26th on the river vessel cruising the Amazon in Peru.

All of the crew and passengers involved were not harmed, and passegers continued with their Peruvian travel.

The Aqua riverboat accommodates twenty-four passengers, and cruises are continuing as planned reports travel publication Travel Pulse.

Mr. Galli-Zurgaro’s company has instigated measures to prevent any further incidents which includes the “discreet stationing of security personnel on board”.

Aqua Expeditions feels the quick action in apprehending the “Amazon pirates” will bring a close to any future situations. 

www.aquaexpeditions.com

The Department of State warned U. S. Citizens not to travel to Mexico in April, and those already in Mexico should return home at once.  Schools and commercial venues in Mexico closed.  They reopened on May 7th and 11th.  By the end of May, most museums, bars, discos, night clubs, movie theatres and convention centers were up and running.

Consider what happened to Mexico’s tourism industry which helps to support much of the population directly and indirectly.  Their “tourism stimulus package” initially cost approximately $165 million dollars.  The World Health Organization is not restricting travel, and noted that it’s unfair to accuse Mexico for overreacting.

There are great bargains on tour packages, hotels and resorts across Mexico.  Check out the travel offers with your travel agent.

www.visitmexico.com or www.mexico

Many of us within the travel industry overlook the unheralded work of this UNESCO activity.  Often, we’re unaware as we  visit one or more of the 890 diverse sites in 148 countries that these sites are under international protection.

Travelling the world, I’ve watched native dances from Spain throughout Africa, Egypt and Canada, never realizing that “Intangible Cultural Heritage” (traditional dance and linguistics) is part of the program.  Sites are submitted as nominations each year (47 this year).  In the first 10 years hundreds of sites and 34 new countries joined the World Heritage Sites Incentive.

Mankind often appears to be in such a relentless race to update and modernize rather than preserve our past.  I read of a man who tore down one of the Mayan pyramids to build a hotel with the building material!

The World Heritage Committee in Paris leads the assessment process along with deligations from 21 of the 187 member nations participating on a rotating basis.

Under the “endangered list” are the Galapagos Islands.  Many cruise companies want to dock there and the fishing industry has caused concern.  Fortunately, this has been stabilized for the time being.  The Belize Barrier Reef (the “Blue Hole” of Captain Costeau where I foolishly decided not to dive as the depth is unknown) is endangered due to mangrove cutting and land development (in both cases).

Within the next 3-5 years we’ll continue to be faced with climage changes and the impact on natural sites and biospheres (top of the list).  The World Tourism Organization (WTO) is on board raising tourism awareness worldwide. 

Somehow, words from the poem “In Flanders Field” by Lt. Col. John McCrae, MD of the Canadian army whom my grandmother knew, echoed:  “Take up our quarrel with the foe – To you from failing hands we throw – The torch; be yours to hold it high!”  It is up to us to help in preserving the precious gifts of the past which we have inherited.

http.//whc.unesco.org

As I commented when I wrote about the Zero Point Field, we create our own reality.  The focus here is “consciousness is the prime foundaton of reality”.  Ergo ” is this not a way of saying the same thing?”

About every 50 or so years we intelligencia have  a mad urge to explain ourselves in relation to our concepts of what is and what might be.  The arena usually becomes as the essays point out, “Circular debates ending in belief system statements.”  Of course, this leaves them open-ended so we can continue endlessly.

It is written that “The Chasm that had been opened between scientific material universal consciousness; a dead mechanical universe vs. a living universe is being closed!  The change in thinking leads towards a mechanical universe (shades of 1984) vs. God.  And, during the last 300-400 years we’ve grown up along with our science to appreciate science and spirituality

To paraphrase Poincare: logic, therefore, remains barren until awakened by intuition. Quantum physics was the next leap led by such great minds as Einstein and Bohm.  Part of their discoveries was that the observer affects the observed:  “The iceberg in the ocean only appears separate from the sea.”

With the philosophy essays are, “Part of a new paradign realization process will be the continued rift between science and spirituality.  As one stumbles through long words and obtuse phrases, it smells of creativism, positurst reductionism, a “lifeless universe” and that lonely feeling that makes your stomuch hurt.

PSI is very slowly being accepted into mainstream studies as a measuring device.  Don Carroll, who summarized the book wrote “(We) need to name and measure which has its purpose, but as we are warned … “science is based on osbservation, and if science cannot measure, and observe repeatedly, the events are considered suspect.’

Trish Pfeiffer and John E. Mack, MD edited Mind Before Matter.  My brain is still maturing, but I applaud another “Thinking Man’s Book”.  Well done.

www.intuitive-connections.net

Japan Airlines (JAL) recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of their Los Angeles to Tokyo service.  Cabin service is, of course, important, but you also have to get up and walk around.  I can handle a tourist class seat for three hours.  On my flight from Los Angeles via Tokyo to “KL” with Malaysian Airlines, I crawled out of the plane at Tokyo and begged for an opening in business or first class.  I was willing to pay the difference.  It didn’t happen.

JAL has a 4-class service with tourist, business and first, but on the new 777-300ER aircraft on US routes to Asia they have first, executive and Premium Economy Class seats along with Economy class.  The four class cabin features 8 JAL Suites in lst class, 77 JAL Shell Flat NEO’s in Executive class and 46 JAL Sky Shell Seats – the world’s first shell type seating in the premium economy class.

Oh, to occupy a lst class JAL suite!  It’s 20% larger than the old JAL Skysleeper Solo Central seats, upholstered in pale grey leather with 5″ wide, thickly padded armrest.  In the upright position, there’s an ottoman on which to raise your feet.  Should you be travelling with someone else, and travel in a pair of suites, you can raise or lower privacy partitions located between them.  Enjoy Bose noise cancelling headphones and a 19-inch personal TV screen with movies, music or video games using JAL”s audio-visual on demand entertainment system.

Many moons ago I flew first class to London on Pan Am’s first grand 747 with dinner “upstairs” on a real table with 3 other passengers, linen tablecloth, china service and silver tableware  We were served “real” food.  Today the food seems to be made of plastic and tastes weird.

Now, on long hauls, you can order what you want when you want it in first class.  There are many airlines with menus and choices – vegetable, Kosher, meatless, etc.

On my last trip from Los Angeles to Honolulu I sat at the very front of the plane, in a middle seat.  I fell asleep having taken a connecting flight to Los Angeles earlier.  On awakening I found that my head had rested on the shoulder of a rigid Japanese gentleman who had braved my heavy head for hours.  I thanked him in Japanese.  He grunted, “Ah ha!”  And so ended my sleep.  We’ve come a long ‘way, baby.

On my medical information sheet I indicated that I suffer from hyperthyroidism, Graves Disease and macular degeneration.  I was told that I was an “excellent candidate” for the operation.

Following each operation my eyes were blood red.  My computer wasn’t touched for weeks, and I could not drive.  My distance sight was gone.  For the first time in my life I was given prescription glasses which I had to cover with dark glasses because of my sensativity to light.

On my sixth visit I complained about a problem with clear vision, and I was told that my thyroid was trying to get rid of the new lens by coating them with “gunk” (my own special word).  According to my doctor I was “one in a million”.  After weeks of applications of special cream and a prednisone sterate, I developed “floaters”, black bits of “gunk” broken up by the sterate.

When the floaters were down to about 16, I named each one and formed soccer teams.  As the “floaters” lessened I decided that the players had gone to Spain or Italy’s teams.  When I laughingly told my doctor I could see that he considered me quite mad.

Now I can read almost everything and work on my computer for hours.  Driving?  I can see and read everything except long street signs.  The warning that I might have to have my lens “zapped” with a laser about every six months to remove the “gunk” is no longer applicable.

We all want to have instant gratification when we read advertisements promising beauty in a box, glamor over night or immediate clear vision.  Nothing really works out that way.  Even with the best physicians, it takes patience and faith.

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/461817

The Zero Point Field caused me to clear my mind again.  It presents a new confrontational yet inspiring concept with which I am at home because “it contains a blueprint of our existance.”  We’re all connected to each other by an endless sea of energy from man to matter according to Lynne McTaggart.  The “Field” is our alpha and omega.

Accepting that there must be a connection between mind and matter (although I have never been able to bend a spoon with my mind), I’m aware of the power of the energy of the mind.

As pointed out by Rene Descartes, “The human mind is separate from the lifeless matter we call ‘body’”.  We’re all aware of the survival of the fittest where only the strong survive, an evolutionary accident without any particular meaning.  It comes down to science vs. religion, and scientists are falling over their own interpretations.

Matter, to me, is held together by energy.  Einstein’s group couldn’t reconcile new discoveries in quantum physics with Newton in reality and created a scientific monster.  Zero Point Field may provide a bridge between spirituality and science.

Clinical studies on Salamanders showed they might have an unusually strong connection with the energy field around them as do humans.  Similar research done on clairvoyants gave startling proof when they were given co-ordinates of places, then without being there, each clairvoyant could describe the area.

Hall Puthoff of Stanford University concluded that time and space do not exist on the level of the Zero Point Field.  True?  Do past, present and future apparently flow together in the energy field?  Could time be a relative notion?

One human being is connected to another through energy, and together, we create reality.  Ergo: I am one with everyone and I understand the Zero Point Field…a bit.

www.oden\a magazine.com/doc/8/the_amazing_promise_of_the_zero_point_field/

Now, I feel that I must return.  The Panama Canal is being expanded to almost twice its width, update and preapred for a new world of the 2000’s.  We visited Canaima Park near the Canal, and drove inland to see the falls.  There were only the very rich, and the very poor. 

Gamboa Rainforest Resort is nestled among the vast Soberaina National Park Rainforest, some 30 minutes from Panama City.  At last a fascinating and emerging part of the world!

You can take a boat ride or go fishing in the Panama Canal, they provide jungle adventures via an aerial tramway, take a visit to Monkey Island, do a bit of bird watching on Pipeline Road and enjoy kayaking at the Panama Canal.

The resort itself has a breathtaking pool and spa where you can kick back and relax, and it’s being called “stunningly beautiful luxury.”  See you there…

www.gamboaresort.com/index_english.html

Am I an alien?  It didn’t bother me because most of the members of my family were more than “mere” mortals sailing fleets of ships, climbing tall mountains (I got half ‘way up Mt. Kenya), building mansions, painting and writing.  They were fascinating.

My father didn’t blink when I blew up the chemistry lab at boarding school.  He was secretly delighted as a chemical engineer, because I was developing a new formula for bleaching hair.

Yes, I admit that I gave normal birth to my son and daughter.  However, as soon as I could, I turned my son’s interest toward sci-fi.  I always had someone with whom to go to  alien movies!

Yes, I am deeply concerned about preservation of our natural resources and “the greening of the planet”.  I also consider what will happen if we wake up one day and find that our planet can no longer support human life.  The endless debris floating in space concerns me, and I want to find a “nasty” black hole out there and dump it all in…

When I flew on the Concorde (alas, no more) I got a taste of flight at mach speeds, and wondered what I might see in the blackness beyond my tiny window.  Fortunately, Sir Richard Branson will soon offer “space” flights to folks like me who can afford the price tag.

We have come so far with our journey into space.  What next?  I’m ready.

Recently, Charlie drew my attention to The Crystal Star which he calls “a knock off” of ‘Star Wars’.  It tells of the ten years following Darth Vader becoming peaceful, and then dying in “Return of the Jedi”.  He enjoyed the book, but said, “You can tell that it was written by a girl because it was all about family, hugging and friendship stuff”.

Princess Leia had twins, and a boy named Anakin after Luke’s dad.  The children were kidnapped by one of Darth Vader’s Imperial Justices.  Luke and Han were off investigating a research vessel which was by a white dwarf that was about to fall into a black hole.  He added that, of course, being by a black hole reduced the Force considerably, so Jedi defenses were almost non-existent.

According to Charlie, “Some being from another universe had come through the black hole, and was drawing from Jedis near the hole to regain its strength in order to go home with the power from the Force”.  As my son mentioned, most of the story is about the twins trying to escape from their captors.  The twins were five, and Anakin was a brave three and a half year old.  Of course, the family dog (Six Legs) was cute, and defending them.

My son said that “the kids found not only were they part of a slave trade with a bunch of other multi-species children, but the Imperial Justice Representative was planning to train them for the Empire Reborn!  Ceethreepio, Artoo Deeto, Chewbacca and the cool starships were all there.  But Charlie missed the whole “Star War’s ” atmosphere.  This was a real family presentation complete with a friendly dragon who loved to play.  Princess Leia of Alderaan, Freedom Fighter, Destroyer of the Empire and Founder of the New Republic seemed to have been well represented.

Throughout the tons of science fiction books I’ve read in the past, there seems to be few female writers.  Maybe…just maybe, I should become an Alpha Female and try my hand at it?

All ships and boats have a “soul”, and when you understand the spirit of a ship, it opens doors.  When does a ship receive that soul?  On its christening, of course.  And so it was June 5, 2009 that two Costa Cruises’ ships were christened at what was called “a massive party”.  The 114,500 ton Costa Pacifica and the 92,000 ton Costa Luminosa (the fleet’s first flagship) were christened together on a moonlit night in Genoa, Italy which has been Costa’ homeport since 1854.

That morning Costa VIP’s, along with dignataries from the area made speaches.  By cocktail time 9 planes of the Italian Air Force put on an airshow.  The piers were filled with residents and guests.  Red, green and white plumes were released skyward amidst cheers.  The sounds of the voice of the late Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma filled the air.  In Italy, forget the champagne.  They toasted the event with prosecco.

4,000 guests attended a gala dinner prepared by two of Italy’s finest chefs.  The christening started at 11 PM with a show, “An Italian Portrait in Music and Light” starring Noa, an Israeli singe – he christened the Pacifica.  Valentine Vezzall (an Italian Olympic fencing gold medalist) christened the Luminosa.  Despite the fact that some questioned two ships being christened at one time, it was certified.

There were circus acts, cutting of the ribbons and two bottles of prosecco completed the celebration.  The ships are not twins, but both breathtaking.  The Costa Luminosa has more streamlined decor, but each is understated luxury and pleasure at sea.

Many thanks to Theresa Norton Masek, editor in chief of Vacation Agent Magazine for all of the information.  When are you going to run away to sea?

There are few areas of Lower Town which I’ve not walked, and I know the St. Lawrence Seaway well as it was the entrance and exit for the Allan Line ships which my family owned.

The Image Mill is the world’s largest multi media projection screen.  Moving images are projected against the grain silos in Lower Town at the Port of Quebec.  The project was part of the 400th anniversary of the historical city.  The technology is brilliant, and the effect amazing.  The “show” takes 40 minutes and includes much reworking, improvement and enhancement to 20% of the original show.  The screen is 600 meters wide and 300 meters tall…the equivalent of 25 IMAX screens, and the effect is 3D.  It was, of course, the star attraction of the city’s 400th anniversary!

The screenings are Wednesday to Sunday starting mid-July until September 13, 2009 at the present time.  We have Ex Machina to thank for this extraordinary show, and the awesome Robert Lepage born in Quebec in 1957.  He’s a director, scenic artist, playwright, actor, film director and, at the top of the list, an applause worthy visionary.

The Image Mill transports those watching through four centuries of Quebec history in four movements: waterways (recounting the days of Quebec’s discovery and exploration), road building (that period in which the land was cleared, then developed),  rail expansion (the years of industrialiation and railway construction), and air travel (the era of balloons, airplanes and communications)  The production begins at 10:00 PM.

You can view this enormous work from many vantage points in Quebec City and Levis (on the other side of the St. Lawrence), and the wharves between the old Port Market and rue Dalhousie, north of Quai Saint-Andre will offer the best view.  Check out www.theimagemill.com and www.bonjourquebec.com.

I went to a boarding school with Valentina who was from Cuba.  By then it was the late 40’s and some of the stories she told about politics frightened me.  I kept in touch with her, and in the mid 50’s my letters were not answered.

April 14, 2009 Travel Pulse published an article titled, “Obama Lifts Certain Travel Restrictions”.  It began, “President Barack Obama is allowing Americans to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family in Cuba, and easing other restrictions to usher in a new era of openness toward the island nation ruled by Communists for 50 years.”

About 1.5 million Americans have relatives on the island nation that turned to Communist rule in 1959 when Fidel Castro seized control.  Do I approve?  I may have a friend still there.  As such, I am emotionally involved.

My mother’s fabulous dresses are lost to the past.  No longer will she gracefully descend the marble stairs of the hotel in all her finery, no longer will she dance the starry nights away in Havana…but it is a beginning, we pray, back to individual freedom, a return to contact with the outside world and, as such, a better life.

Only time will tell.