Imitations: Ana

Ana's an actress, so it's no surprise that she can do a mean--even hypnotic--imitation of Mr. Hunter.

October 2003

Welcome to Nassau

Mr. Hunter looks pretty pleased to have arrived at the Nassau airport, doesn't he?

Lynden Pindling International Airport

New Providence Island, The Bahamas

July 2012

People I Have Asked: Cristobal, The Equator Guy

Mr. Hunter in the hands of Cristobal, who gave us a presentation on the equator at the Quitsato Equatorial Sundial.

The world map
has been reoriented.

Here's a YouTube video showing a similar lecture by Cristobal on the Quitsato project.

Latitude 0°0’0”

Quitsato Equatorial Sundial

Cayambe, Ecuador

June 2011

The Million Moustache March

Krumbs and Erik grew moustaches in honor of... Pat O'Brien?

No moustache for David, but Mr. Hunter doesn't discriminate on the basis of facial hair.

2005

Meet Eugenia

You've seen some of the journeys Eugenia has taken with Mr. Flat.

Here's Eugenia posing with the original Mr. Hunter, 

along with another notable character: Kermit the Frog.

This reminds me.  Have you ever checked out the Kermit on Tour blog?

It's a fine, fine scrapbook of the journeys of another travel buddy.  

Eugenia's not posing with that particular globe-circling Kermit the Frog, 

but still.

June 2008

Meet Montel

You've seen the photos of Flat Mr. Hunter's "travels with Montel."

The real Mr. Hunter has posed a number of times with that noted theatre director, Montel Williams (aka Dave).  In this picture he took a peek into Dave's cube.

"I am NOT Montel Williams!"

October 2008

Meet Lynlea

Here's the original Mr. Hunter posing with the fashionable Lynlea.

Thanks again for taking Flat Mr. Hunter to Israel, Lynlea!!

November 2008

People I Have Asked: Wilson

Wilson was our guide for the first two days of our Ecuador visit.  We had a great time with him, even if he did try to throw Mr. Hunter into the fire!

Thanks, Wilson!!

Wilson put Mr. Hunter on the dashboard of his car
as we drove away from Hosteria La Cienega.

Hosteria La Cienega

Cotopaxi Province

Ecuador

June 2011

Hosteria La Cienega

After our exertions on Cotopaxi, we were all hungry and ready for a break.  

It took awhile to drive back down all the bumpy dirt roads since we'd been up near the refugio on Cotopaxi, but once we turned back onto the Pan-American Highway, it was a short ride to the place we'd be lunching: Hosteria La Cienega.

Beautiful sight: the driveway is lined with eucalyptus.
Eucalyptus aren't native to Ecuador, but we saw various kinds
of eucalyptus trees all over the place.

This symbol repeated on the backs of the dining room chairs.

Hosteria La Cienega

Eucalyptus trees

Mr. Hunter rests on some eucalyptus leaves.

Naranjilla juice --
and a naranjilla fruit beside the glass

We all ordered soups.  I had vegetable soup.
And there's some more salsa de aji in the middle.

At Hosteria La Cienega,
they served a big bowl of popcorn to go with our soups!
It was tasty.  This is our guide's bowl of ceviche.

After our late lunch, we walked around the grounds of La Cienega, 

which is a hotel as well as a restaurant.  We stepped into the chapel, wandered around the gardens, and even got to look into one of the hotel rooms.

Mr. Hunter and one of the carved chapel doors.

The chapel

Mr. H liked the papery bark on this tree.

The bust of Mr. Hunter
poses with a bust of explorer and naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt.
Von Humboldt slept at La Cienega in 1802.

This couch in one of the sitting rooms
 reminded me of one of my favorite picture books:
Spectacles, by Ellen Raskin.
More on that in a separate post.

Our guide pretended that he was going to add Mr. Hunter to the fire!
I should point out that we saw a number of guests hanging out in different sitting rooms,
and more than one of them mentioned that they were COLD.
(Haciendas can be chilly -- hence the need for fireplaces and stoves.)

Hosteria La Cienega

Cotopaxi Province

Ecuador

June 2011

At the Cotopaxi Indigenous Market

Our next stop in preparation for our little Cotopaxi climb was just outside the entrance of Cotopaxi National Park, where there was an indigenous market.  We walked around to get ourselves further acclimated to the altitude, and we also did a bit of shopping.

I bought a scarf made by this lady, whose name was Laura.

She seemed to be intrigued but also puzzled by Mr. Hunter.

Trying on warm hats --
which will be useful when we get onto the mountain.

Cute hat, Mom!

Mr. Hunter hangs out with some other carved faces.

Cotopaxi National Park

Ecuador

June 2011

Making Friends in Ecuador: Elvita

Our guide, Wilson, drove us south along the Pan-American Highway to get to Cotopaxi National Park. The plan for day two included climbing a bit of Cotopaxi volcano,  and in order to prepare for the altitude we stopped at a couple of places in order to drink some coca tea.  

We met Elvita at the first coca tea stop, which was basically a convenience store/gas station. She spoke no English, and I have a very few straggling words of Spanish, but with Wilson's help, she and I ended up having a nice little conversation about how beautiful her country is.  I remember the words "linda" and "hermosa" coming up, which reminded me of place names like Linda Vista and Hermosa Beach.  

Elvita and Mr. H
Off to the right of Mr. Hunter (your right, not his)
is some Ecuadorian chocolate we bought: Chocolate Superior La Universal.  Yum!

Here we are drinking our Delisse-brand coca tea.

None of us felt any strange side effects from drinking it, and none of us who drank the tea felt any altitude sickness once we went up the mountain.

somewhere between Quito and Cotopaxi

Ecuador

June 2011

People I Have Asked: Patricio

 Patricio was the proprietor of Hostal Restaurante Mirador Rio Blancos.

Some of the delicious food we enjoyed at Mirador Rio Blanco...

Two kinds of deliciousness:
the yellow juice is arrasha
(my sister-in-law said it tasted like star fruit);
the dish in front holds aji.
We were served various kinds of aji throughout our trip.

Yuca frita - like french fries,
only yuca (yucca) instead of potatoes

A pork dish that featured pineapple and coconut.
The flavors reminded me a bit of Thai food.

Cinnamon pork.  

A hint of the river valley view outside.

The front of the restaurant

The front of Mirador Rio Blanco.
You'll notice that the outside of each hotel building
has a type of local bird painted on it.

Hostal and Restaurante Mirador Rio Blanco

Los Bancos, Pichincha, Ecuador

June 2011

Mariposas of Mindo

Our first stop in the Mindo area was at a mariposeria (butterfly farm).  

Mr. Hunter put on a little banana "cologne" to see if that might entice a butterfly to say hello.

Hello, King Swallowtail!

Me, Mr. Hunter, and a Caligo Eurilochus

Caligo Euirlochus is also called a Blue Morpho.
Here's what one looks like when its wings are open.

Hosteria Mariposas de Mindo

Mindo, Ecuador

June 2011

A Girl Can Dream

Ever since I was a little girl, I've dreamed of seeing a Space Shuttle launch.

My wish came true on June 5, 2002, when I got to view the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-111.  

Me and Mr. Hunter a few minutes after the launch.
That's the smoke from the launch plume in the background.

Space Shuttle Endeavour clears the launch pad!

My father worked on an experiment that flew to the ISS on the previous shuttle mission (STS-110) and that was set to come back down on Endeavour.  Because he'd worked on this experiment, he got VIP passes to both launches.  I can't even begin to express how thrilling this was.  That VIP section was at the wondrous Saturn V building, located about three miles from the launch pad (39A).

My mom and dad went to the initial launch of the experiment, in April 2002, and then my mom and I traveled to Florida for the Endeavour launch.  Space Shuttle fans will know that, ahem, endeavouring to actually be at Kennedy Space Center for a shuttle launch is partly a matter of luck, especially if you don't live in Florida.  

STS-111 was originally scheduled to launch on May 30, so we'd traveled to Florida on May 29 and had our return flight scheduled for the morning of June 5.  We went to that first launch attempt on May 30, but it got scrubbed. And then we had to wait each day and call a special NASA number to find out: would the shuttle go tomorrow?  It kept getting delayed, delayed, delayed.  Finally we called the airline to see if we could change our airline tickets without having to pay a ton of money.  Miraculously, we could.  Which meant that we could be there on June 5, when the next launch attempt was scheduled.

Even once we'd actually made it back to the bleachers outside the Saturn V building (they were comparatively empty, since many would-be shuttle watchers had had to go home), we had to wait it out to see if the weather would cooperate (no "anvil clouds"!) and if no technical issues would arise. You can literally get to the last few seconds of a countdown and see the launch get scrubbed.  But our luck -- and Endeavour's luck -- held.

My mom with the countdown clock.
We'd just heard that they anticipated no weather issues,
so we felt like maybe, just maybe,
we could let ourselves believe we'd see a launch.

Endeavour speeds into the sky behind a pleased Mr. Hunter.

It's tricky with a shuttle launch.  It happens fast.  I knew that I wanted to take pictures, but also I wanted to simply watch the shuttle ascend toward space.  So I snapped only a few photos, including a couple of quick attempts at getting Mr. H in the same frame with the shuttle.  (At the time, all I had was a film camera.)

The whole experience was actually a Zen sort of exercise.  I couldn't anticipate for sure that I would see the launch, but I also had to trust that I might.  I remember realizing that I felt more in the moment because of this.

Me, Mr. Hunter, a bit of the countdown clock,
and Space Shuttle Endeavour on the launch pad in the background.

The shuttle burst forth from the launch pad so quickly that its initial movement was too fast for my perception.  My first sight of Endeavour in flight was actually just after it had cleared the launch pad.  I remember suddenly seeing this space between the launch pad and the shuttle.

My parents had seen the previous shuttle launch in April, and I'd asked my mom, "How did it sound?  Was it loud?"  She told me that no, unexpectedly, it hadn't been loud.  This set me up to think that it wouldn't be very loud at all, so then I was surprised and pleased at the sound of the launch when I experienced it for myself.

In the first seconds of the launch, we couldn't hear anything, but then the sound began to travel toward us across the water.  I have synesthesia, so when I hear things I also get visuals of how these sounds look.  The sound of Endeavour launching from three miles away was a black sound to me, coming low across the water in waves, and there were spaces in between the black.  I remember standing on the bleachers and feeling the sound reach us.

I remember also how bright and sharp the light from the engines' fire was.  It was the sharpest, most piercing light I'd ever seen.  

Hard to see in a photo this size, but in the bottom right,
an alligator has just raised its head out of the water.
We'd noticed it before the launch, too, when it flopped up out of the water --
presumably catching something to eat.

        ..........the alligator is right up there ^

        

Back at home a few days later, my parents and I went out one night to see the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavour cross our corner of the sky.  It was funny.  For some reason I'd grabbed a pair of binoculars, just to see if they'd give me a better glimpse, and I could actually discern the white triangle of the shuttle as it passed overhead.  I felt such a connection to that shuttle.  I remember my mom and I saying affectionately, "That's our shuttle."

Our Endeavour has finished its career now, and there's only one more shuttle launch to go before the fleet is retired.  It's a bittersweet time for a lot of us whose hearts have tagged along on these space shuttle journeys.

Anna Fisher,
from May 1985 issue of Life Magazine
via My Delineated Life blog

I include this image of astronaut Anna Fisher because when I was a girl, I saw this photograph in a magazine and was so inspired that I cut the picture out and kept it my box of special things, inspiring things.  For a long time I dreamed of becoming an astronaut.  By the time I'd hit my thirties, I realized that I probably didn't have the nature for it this time around.  But I was lucky enough to see a shuttle launch, at least, and even though I stood Earth-bound on the bleachers near the Saturn V building, a part of my soul sped up into the heavens with the astronauts.

Hail Endeavour!

Saturn V Building (and Launch Pad 39A)

Kennedy Space Center

Cape Canaveral, Florida

June 2002