|
|
How Do I Talk About Dating And Sex With My Teen?
Tips for Parents on Teaching Respect & Healthy Dating
Below are the seven most common questions parents ask me when I am speaking in their schools or with their community organizations:
Without sounding like you are lecturing and without...
The Dangers of Bingo
Let’s face it; bingo is hardly going to arouse a thrill-seeker into taking it up in attraction to its high risk stakes. Over sixties, playing bingo in a community hall does not seem to register with the seedy possibilities of a stake-out...
The face of America is changing
Americans are getting older but not in the way our parents and grandparents did. We are living longer, healthier, more active lives.
The face of America is changing. Look around you. We are all getting older. It’s not just happening in our...
The Service in Here is Terrible!
Mea Culpa
Dear Reader (I assume the singular and hope for the plural) I have completely re-written this article in the light of comments from my coaching muse, Roger Mills. Roger feels that there were too many ‘negatives’ in the original. The...
What do you WANT? What do you DESERVE?
INTRODUCTION
This article is used for discovering our needs from life, our desires for where we want to be and who we want to become. Remember life is not about finding out who we are but about creating who we want to become, the things we will...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Treasure in the Andes
I awoke to strange surroundings, my first view of the plaster-peeling room in which I had spent the night being afforded by the early-morning sunrise on the Bolivian Altiplano. After arriving near midnight in the frigid darkness of the high desert, my thoughts had been only of how quickly I could unpack my sleeping bag and crawl in. Now as I peered out of the window, it became apparent that I was in a quadrille, the famous architectural style of squares-within-a-square that is a hallmark of the former Spanish Colonial Empire from California to South America. My "room" consisted of a small shack, which with a series of other small, straw-thatched, adobe huts, defined the walls around a central courtyard paved with flagstones. There was no heat source, and thus my morning dressing routine required only that I emerge from my sleeping bag, it having been too cold to consider removing my several layers of clothing the previous night.
The courtyard upon which I gazed had been the home of a Polish mining engineer who came to seek his fortune in the fabled land of the Inca, drawn, as many before him, by stories of fabulous wealth. The first reports of silver to reach the Spanish Colonial authorities came from a Spanish priest in 1537, although the Inca had undoubtedly extracted the precious metal for their own use before that. I had also come to seek my fortune in this place, not by extracting tons of silver ore, but by unraveling the geological history as a subject of thesis research. In fact, I was living my dream of working as an exploration geologist amid remote, rugged surroundings, as the only Norteamericano for a hundred, and probably three hundred, miles.
I exited the courtyard through a low wooden door that represented the only means of egress, and found myself on a narrow, cobblestone street bounded by the adobe walls of other quadrilles. The stygian darkness that accompanied my arrival the previous night had concealed the size of the town. I trudged up the street, panting for breath in the thin, 12,000-foot air. Upon reaching the outskirts of the village, which required only a few minutes, I assailed a ridge and, upon reaching the crest, took in what the view afforded. I surveyed a desolate landscape devoid of trees or vegetation, save for the small, wind-worn tufts of spiked grass that dotted the hillsides. The Bolivian Altiplano stretched to the horizon in all directions, broken only by jagged mountains that floated in a shimmering, salt-tinged mirage in the distance. The bright blue sky similarly stretched everywhere to the horizon, unblemished by the smallest cloud, until merging with land in the parallax of distance. The blazing white sun constituted the sole occupant of the sky, and although its rays burned my skin and faded my clothes within days, no warmth seemed to emanate from that orb.
Instead, the biting wind tore through my layers of clothes, chilling me even as I was being sunburned. The thin air, lack of vegetation to provide perspective of distance, the expanse of blue sky, and blazing sun combined to induce a detached, dreamlike state of near-hypoxia in which concepts of distance and time ceased to have meaning.
The village below was laid out in a grid, consisting of four streets by five streets, and apparently little changed since the 16th Century. There was no electricity, no running water, and no source of heat except bundles of mesquite acquired at some remote location. The source of water that was available was frozen except for two hours in the afternoon. A haze of mesquite smoke hung over the village, nestled in a shallow valley within a larger depression. The village appeared to have some natural fortification, hidden by a ring of volcanic hills. The valley breached the ring of hills along a fault zone, which fractured the rock into three giant spires. In local lore, these three great rock spires were known as Tres Gigantes, or the Three Giants, and appeared in pictures with the patron saint of the town. Who knows but that the founding saint, Saint Christopher, might have been the same Spanish priest that first reported the presence of silver to the outside world?
The surrounding hills were white, the volcanic rock having been altered to the consistency of powdered sugar by acidic solutions. But rather than tasting sweet like sugar, the powdery rock was alkaline, like corroded battery cables. Far from being associated with the feelings of defeat and failure evinced by a dead battery, this natural acid-bleached rock constituted the bulk of the silver resource at the site and was a source of great excitement. The countless miners who toiled to wrest high-grade ore from wide silver veins would have found it impossible to recognize this as silver ore. How ironic that for centuries, miners had removed silver ore from the district until all thought it exhausted, when in fact the vast bulk of silver occurred in this white, crumbly rock, unseen to the naked eye. As often occurs in life, great treasure may lie at our very feet if only we could but recognize it.
About the Author
I am a geologist and have visited several countries in Latin America and Europe, and worked on various civil engineering and mining-related projects throughout the world. I have published in journals with a scientific perspective, but thought it would be fun to write about some of my travel experiences on a more informal level. I have some other pictures and geology-related items at my web site, at: http://sedward.home.netcom.com/petrography.html
sedward@ix.netcom.com
|
|
|
|
|
Cruising World |
The Moorings. Catch the Late Train to Dubrovnik. It's not too late to book a winter escape to Dubrovnik, Croatia, or anywhere else, for that matter. ... |
www.cruisingworld.com |
  |
US Sailing Lessons and Online Sailing School |
Contained in this Cruising Sailing Lesson are videos on how to sail and tie knots along with JavaScript calculators for estimating sailboat characteristics, ... |
www.cruising.sailingcourse.com |
  |
Travel-and-Leisure - Cruising-Sailing Ezine Articles |
EzineArticles.com allows ezine or email list publishers to upload or download free expert content that can be used within email newsletters or websites. |
ezinearticles.com |
  |
Travel and Leisure: Cruising Sailing Articles from EzineArticles.com |
http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Travel-and-Leisure:Cruising-Sailing Free Content For Your Ezine or Website http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/ ... |
ezinearticles.com |
  |
CRUISER LOG the complete sailing and cruising yacht resource. |
Circumnavigating yachts and general cruising, sailing and boating information. [The Navigation Bar feature is not available in this web] ... |
www.cruiser.co.za |
  |
Cruising, sailing, yachting, boating and weather links. |
The Cruiser Log link list of cruising, sailing, yachting and weather related web sites and pages - all marine related links to websites. |
www.cruiser.co.za |
  |
Colsmith Cruising/Sailing |
Collection of links related to sailing, with a particular emphasis on catamarans, vacation spots, parts and boats vendors, and other useful information. |
home.att.net |
  |
Sports, Outdoor, Water - Cruising/Sailing Holiday Brochures |
Birdwatching, Cricket, Cruising/Sailing, Cycling, Diving, Extreme Sports ... Cruising/Sailing Holiday Brochures, Displaying: 1 to 10 (of 48 Brochures) ... |
www.catalink.com |
  |
Cruising/Sailing - Sports, Outdoor, Water from Travel Brochures ... |
All Holiday Subcategories, Birdwatching, Cricket, Cruising/Sailing, Cycling, Diving ... Cruising/Sailing Brochures, Displaying: 1 to 10 (of 46 Brochures) ... |
www.travelbrochures.co.uk |
  |
Cruising/Sailing - Sports, Outdoor, Water from Travel Brochures ... |
All Holiday Subcategories, Birdwatching, Cricket, Cruising/Sailing, Cycling, Diving ... Cruising/Sailing Brochures, Displaying: 31 to 40 (of 46 Brochures) ... |
www.travelbrochures.co.uk |
  |
Cruising: Sailing solo |
Cruising: Sailing solo. Wednesday, November 9, 2005. The perks and drawbacks of sailing solo. By Peter McNally. For Peter McNally, a 48-year-old single ... |
travel.ninemsn.com.au |
  |
New List: 98-07-07: CHANGE: Worldcruising - Global Cruising, Sailing, |
We're currently in the process of extending our reach to access a large database of cruising / sailing information through the Internet. ... |
scout.wisc.edu |
  |
Travel » Cruising Sailing » Absolute Article Directory |
Absolute Article Directory: Travel, Cruising Sailing. |
www.absolutearticle.com |
  |
Cruising South African Sailing :: The online destination for ... |
http://cruising.sailing.org.za/. Navigate. · Home · The Grab Bag · Cruising Abroad · Boat Registration. Cruising Menu ... |
cruising.sailing.org.za |
  |
Pembrokeshire Cruising sailing school |
RYA sailing school, training, yacht charter and cruising holidays in Pembrokeshire, Wales. |
www.pembrokeshirecruising.co.uk |
  |
Cruising Sailing |
when it comes to a great vacation, having acruise with the family can be a great choice. and, |
www.rumorist.com |
  |
- Cruising-Sailing |
By Carey O'Reily | On August 20, 2005 | In Cruising-Sailing | Rated ... By | On July 28, 2006 | In Cruising-Sailing | Rated ... |
www.articlebar.com |
  |
Tagged Feed - Cruising, sailing and boating FAQ's delivered in RSS ... |
Cruising, sailing and boating FAQ's delivered in RSS news feeds. -. All you ever wanted to know about sailing, cruising and boating but did not know where ... |
www.feedalley.com |
  |
Sailing Specialties - Cruising, Sailing & Sport Fishing Boats |
HOME. #1 in both Sales & Service! Discount sailing lessons for new boat buyers - provided by Sail the Sounds. Hunter 27 · Hunter 38 · Hunter 44 AC ... |
www.sailingspecialties.com |
  |
Absolute Stock Photo - People - Cruising - Sailing - Sailboat ... |
Photo of People - Cruising - Sailing - Sailboat - Transportation. sailboat gulf of mexico ocean sea horizon sailing water sailing sails texas boat boating ... |
www.absolutestockphoto.com |
  |
|