Or, "Another spoiled North American gets a passaporte stamp."

Sorry to Cynde for the following jab at one of your posts :

Well what to do for Christmas? Stay close to home and celebrate with friends and loved ones...nah. I thought I would cash in some more of my trust fund and take an eco tour in an exotic location.

I picked "Totonio’s La Fronteria Eco Buster" package as it offered what I was looking for namely :
.5 star accommodations


with mostly fresh local foods


prepared by the finest local culinary artists


I was looking for that special adventure, this one offered tens of miles of hiking and climbing through a really user friendly rain forest in the Andean mountains.



The tour offered, Macaws,( Red & Green), Toucans, at least 10 different types of smaller parrots, monkeys, alligators (caymans-small by SFL standards) and a wide variety of snakes, spiders, ticks, chiggers and leeches. (I had to pay extra for the 3 mile "river walk with the leaches", but believe you me, it was worth it!)


(Meryl, sorry this one of two green Macaws didn’t come out so good, or at all for that matter)

time to let the friendly leeches back into the river.

But all good things must come to an end (before they kill you)


Hey just kidding folks, not a tour at all but the grunt aspect of what I do, which is to turn this

into this:


Sick eh? I think so too. But 6.2 out of 10 of us North Americans get our electricity from this stuff, please use as little as possible.

dave, very nice pics and thanks for sharing a little of what you do (now maybe andy will believe that you actually work and don't just play all over the world)...i am a little perplexed though as to when could have possibly posted something like that?...must have had wayyyy too much wogga wogga...or it could have been me trying to drink like andy does...taking the stopper off the bottle and forgetin' the ice...as i haven't really enjoyed the holidays since santa died 6 years ago...

Dave,,,Thanks! It's the thought that counts! Now fill me in alittle on what that actually is that the rainforest turned into? And what it has to do with electricity? Looks like a bad attempt at a pyramid? Is there coal in them there hills? Looks too dusty for coal? Well we are glad your back.... Happy Holidays....I just shut out a light if that helps! Looks like a very exciting day(s)work,,except I'd pass on the leeches..

Ok Dave, My daughter sez that the area in question is a patch of cleared trees. Do you, as a geologist, tell the people where it would be beneficial to "cut the trees?" What would this have to do with rocks...(not the one's obviously in MY head)...Or are the tree's cut to expose an area to mine....Sooooo many questions...soooo little mind! It does look like fun work though...monkeys,parrots, gringo's......

"Pave paradise and put up a parking lot".....lyrics to an old tune from my generation. Kind of says it all. Great lesson for all, Dave. Thanks for taking the time to post it all and keep us on our toes. Carole

There Meryl, a parrot of some kind, blown up from the first photo.

The last photo is a coal surface mine, about one mile across and 1000' deep. The little dots in the picture are those giant trucks, the ones with the 20' diameter tires.

I'll try to "blow up" the monkey.

Thanks Carol.

I can't spell in spanish of english, the title should of course read Navidad & Frontera.

cheap little digimo cameras do have their limitations

Cynde, gt an fda link on these little guys?

Hey Dave, you know that pic of the two Macaws....the one that didn't come out so good?
Well, I didn't give you permisssion to post it & I'm sure it's one of mine!
If it isn't it's one helluva coincidence as I've taken several shots over the years that look identical to it.
Not too sure that I like the idea of you trying to "blow up" the monkey either!
Nice "arty" last shot though, of the fungii on the sharks fin protruding from the stags horn coral. (I just love your work!)
Oh, I nearly forgot...it's good to have you back mate.

Lord Andy, happy birthday.

Bad photos - I was one of those guys with an old big box minolta and a bag full of rokar x lenses taking slide photos. I have thousands of slides of nothing in addition to this new digimo collection.

And thank you for such a rare compliment. Part of the eco-tour was a four hour class on jungle floor arrangements. I seem to have a flair for it.

dave, oh my gosh. the fda has been looking for that for the last 10 years!!...where on earth did you find it??? i must let them know immediately. andy is quite correct in that is is "the fungii on the sharks fin protruding from the stags horn coral" and it is quite dangerous (but only if you consume more than 1 million maxograms in one sitting)... but location location location please so that i may alert them immediately

Very nice mushroom,shark fin collage! Thanks for the blow ups....I missed the little green guy in the first picture...The red cap took its splender away!