Chickens!

So another interesting thing about Kauai is that it is overrun with chickens. Moa chickens. The story that I've heard is that when Typhoon Iniki tore the place up back in 1992 the chickens of locals got loose and have since gone feral. Cue Crocodile Hunter voice, "Feral Chickens!" Anyway they are everywhere. I only put a few pictures in here. Some are from the hotel, which is next to the water, and the others are from Waimea Canyon at around 4400 feet.

Waimea Canyon Hike

Took a hike around Waimea Canyon today. Wowsa. This island is pretty incredible. The number of different types of scenery you can run into even within a few miles is just incredible. The scale of the canyon is unbelievable. Even standing in front of it, the place just doesn't look real. Humans aren't built to comprehend things this big.

Woof Woof!

Check out these near sunset photos from Northwest Kauai on Barking Sands beach. The big, nay, massive cliffs are the beginning, or the end, of the famous Na Pali coast. I hope to get round the other side for some hiking later on in the week.

The sand dunes here are at least a hundred feet high in places. Walking up them in the loose sand is quite a chore.

Enjoy!

Cap'n! Thar be whales here!

I didn't see any, but I did hear whale song on my dive today. How cool is that? I also saw a few sea turtles, which is always special. Oh, and I saw a Dragon Moray. Let me repeat that: Dragon. Moray. Eel. I started to reach for a d20 right then and there...

Aloha from Kauai!

A day off, a few miles and a few thousand feet. Enjoy the view. I did.

Hitchin'

The mighty have fallen!

Hitchin'

New photos from the office

Check a few posts down. I took a few more photos of the DC-8 and the ER-2 as well as our new arrival, the WB-57.

Cataratas, Colibries, Y Mariposas! Ah, mi!

Took a little trip up to Volcan Poas the other day. Of course it was clear and beautiful the day before but while I was there it was cloudy and beautiful. I didn't get to see the crater or the lake but I did get to see some very nice flowers. I also got a nice, 30 minute hike away from the other tourists, which was nice. Other than the volcanic aspect it was really like a hike in the Appalachians during Spring. Really, as nice as the higher elevations of Costa Rica are, they are very similar to the Appalachians. I'll appreciate them even more the next time I go visit.

La Paz was fairly interesting. An American gent bought the land and made a little tourist stop to showcase the butterflies (mariposas), the frogs (ranas), the hummingbirds (colibries), and the orchids (orqideas) of Costa Rica. A little too organized for my taste but the guide was nice and there were some stunning flowers.

The waterfalls (cataratas) were pretty amazing. There were lots of steps. Lots.

All in all not a bad day, except for the family from California...

Mmmmm coffee.....

This morning I went on a little tour of a local coffee plantation. The place was setup mainly to show off the process of growing, harvesting, processing, roasting, and packaging coffee so it wasn't quite like a visit to a real plantation but it was educational enough.

Interesting tidbit: Most of the caffeine extracted from coffee to make decaffeinated pseudo-coffee is sold to places like Coca-Cola and RedBull. So if you're a fan of that sort of thing and not of coffee at least pay your respects the next time someone offers you a cup of joe.

Hotel Melia Cariari

The hotel I'm shacking up in is very nice. Most of it is open to the elements, though here in San Jose, at 3000ft the temperature rarely gets above 85 and it dips into the 60s at night. All in all it is very pleasant. Mornings are clear and warm, then the rains move in around noon and last through the afternoon. Night drops at six and the skies begin to clear. By eight the moon and starts will be out in force.

A few snaps:

Working in Paradise

Sadly enough NASA and UAH won't just pay for a nice vacation in Costa Rica for me. No, they insist on getting some work done while we are here. The nerve of some people.

A typical work day here begins at about 3:00 am. Exactly. We generally get through around 3:00 or 4:00 pm. Everything in between is a blur as flight plans change constantly, instruments act up, computers crash, and things proceed as barely controlled chaos. Once we leave the airport there's still an hour or so of email and wrap-up to be done back at the hotel too. So all in all it amounts to about a 14-15 hour day.

Here's a few photos from work life here (keep checking back as I'll add more to the same gallery in the next few days):