Touching the Wind

By Lourdes Odette Aquitania Ricasa

Lourdes Odette Aquitania Ricasa loves to play the piano, paint, and write. She is a world traveler who has been to 257 countries and is one of the prolific writers of our time.

Explore-in-depth coverage takes you beyond the classic cities into the heart of the islands of Indonesias verdant green and purple hills of Tana Toraja, the Dani tribes of Wamena, Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), the splendor of Iran and Turkmenistan. The excitement continues almost to the North Pole, polar bears at Svalbard in the Arctic, and to the penguins at the bottom of the earth, Antarctica. On to Lake Baikal in Siberia and to the remote islands of Reunion, Rodrigues, Cape Verde, St. Pierre and Miguelon.

She resides in San Clemente Beach, California, and is currently working on her sixth book.

Cover design by Rica Rudio.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781496963246

Lourdes Odette Aquitania Ricasa

Lourdes Odette Aquitania Ricasa is an artist and a world traveler. She has traveled to 257 countries and territories and is a platinum member status of Travelers Century Club. www.travelerscenturyclub.org. “World travel . . . the passport to peace through understanding.” Staying in style—whether it is a thatched hut, a bed-and-breakfast place, an old refurbished monastery, a stately castle or a royal palace—her words deliver. Her writing helps you get under the skin of this incredibly diverse universe. It evokes time, heat, indolence, diligence, and joy through the sheer force of its imagery and voice. Whipped in full motion, words glow with brilliant coolness. Some poems translated to Spanish are linguistic diamonds.

Book preview

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2015 Lourdes Odette Aquitania Ricasa. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse    03/09/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6323-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6157-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6324-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015900550

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Part I

Gentoo Penguins of Antarctica.

Antarctica, A Dream Escape

Driven To Poetic Heights In Antarctica

Seven Short Days in Antarctica

Siete Días Cortos en Antartida

Okinawa, Japan

Xining, Qinghai in The Tibetan Plateau

Part II

Sacred Sites of Asia

Part II

A Swayambhunath temple, Kathmandu, Nepal

Timelessness in the Kingdom of Bhutan

Part III

The Himba Woman Takes Hours for Their Skin Care

Illuminated with Spirit In Namibia

Iran and it’s Echoes of Splendor

I Want to Talk to You

Club El Plata at Zaragoza, Spain

Ringing in Year 2011

Combination of Attachment and Fascination

Part IV

Market sellers in Rabat, Morocco

Imperial Tea in Rabat, Morocco

Exclamation Point

Bermuda, an Island in the Wizard Of Oz

The Mokolodi Reserve with Pulsing Colors

At the River Ebro

I Took Him Around the Point

A Small Luxury

Cape Verde Island

Café Iruna and Ernest Hemingway

At the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

Holy Week in Zaragoza

A Little Thrill

In Hondarribia, Spain

I Felt I Had Recovered

Part V

The Dani tribe in the Baliem Valley, Wamena, Papua

The Dani Tribes of the Baliem Valley in Wamena

Lake Sentani, Jayapura

My Heart was Just Beginning

Mi Corazon Estaba Apenas Comenzando

Here in Ushuaia’s Heartland

Aquí en el Corazon Centro de Ushuaia

How a Song Bird Found Joy

¿Como un Pájaro de la Canción Encontraba Alegria?

The Echo of your Laughter

El Eco de su Risa

Long Distance Love

Amor de Larga Distancia

Where is there to Go?

¿Donde Hay Que Ir?

I Hardly Know You

Apenas no lo Conozco

Clearly Not an Infatuation

Claramente ni Siquiera Un Capricho

Naked Joy

Alegria Desnudo

Vibrant Spain

Vibrante España

The Flame of Love

La Llama de Amor

Part VI

Crab fishing at the Mesurado River, Liberia

Painting Lessons in Monrovia, Liberia

Fascinating Cuba

Are You Frustrated with the Stars?

¿Esta Frustrado con las Estrellas?

The Touch

Reflections of Love

An Illusion

To Say Good-Bye Again

Vitoria de Gasteiz, Spain

You Keep Saying

He Knew Well Enough

The Splendor of Olite, Spain

Cote Basque, France

Lerma, Spain

Surely Right

For Tomorrow

Just Because

Ezulwinii, Swaziland

Overwhelmed by Longing

How Long Ago in Prague

I Saw a Highway Sign

February 14 and Later

Part VII

Riley Rudio at Futbol Camp Nou Barcelona, Spain

Super Vacation with Riley in Barcelona

Riley is now Thirteen

Riley and El Recreativo Futbol in Sabadell

Learning Futbol with Riley

Teen-age Riley

Part VIII

Miss Radiant Pearl, Rachel

Rachel, My Love

Rachel at Ten

Finding an Oasis

In the Circle of the Night

Taking a Safari

One Evening

Picking Up

Unflagging Hearts

Memories of Mozambique

Morning Walks at Nyerere Road, Nairobi

Music Says It All

Part IX

A Collage – Love and Laughter Around the World

Books of Laughter on Electricity

A Man With a Simple Heart

The Week After

Stretching Toward the Galaxy

Suavamente

Thinking

Somos Pecadores (We Are Sinners)

Today

Part X

Radio Interview Antena Radio 99.7 Zaragoza, Spain

Radio Interview: Antena Radio 99.7 Frecuencia Zaragoza, Spain - March 25, 2013

Overwhelming Brilliance

Where Do I go from Here?

Swirling

Naked Glory

The Sands at Paradise Cove

Two Confessions

A World of Stone

Nocturnal

We Did

Love Potion

The Power of Calm

If You were to See the Blue Bird Now

My Current Crush

Different Scenarios

Avoid Troubles

No, It is Not a Dopey Joke

Rather Than Warming Fires

You And the Antique Piano

Part XI

Painting Lessons in Mauritania

Art Lessons in Nouakchott, Mauritania

Yellow, Orange and Red in October

Luck at Ethiopian Airlines

An Escape

Upstart New Orleans

The Momentum

All Recorded

Casa Blanca to Madrid

My Heart in Bujumbura, Burundi

I Saw You

Ardently, a Vision

Between Us Two

Silent Courtship

Kigali, Rwanda

And Zaragoza

Swept On

Like a Ship

That Windy Day

The Day Begins

Beating Time with our Hands

Jaime’s Birthday

The Moon

Squinting

Soaking In

Pink Insulation Foams

Part XII

Television Interview Top Matin Show Brazzaville,

Republic of Congo Invited By Serge Ondon Titan

Looking into the Eyes of a Congolese

Fantasy in Quiapo

Kakamega to Nairobi

The Black Nazarene

The Contractor

Glances of a Soldier

Cold in the Pyrenees Mountains

Proceeded to Examine

An Element

Normally

Violins and Saxophone

Ironic

The Fifth Day

What Would it be Like?

Speed

Part XIII

Orphanage in Bujumbara, Burundi

Visiting an Orphanage in Bujumbura, Burundi

Speech At: Kamenge Youth Center in Burundi

Spitsbergen

Green Crush in Honolulu

Jarandilla de la Vera

Jerk Loose in Split

Libreville

Down Along the Evening Trail

Should I wear Mosquito boots in the Congo?

Sigh a Little in El Salvador

Versailles and Paris

Miles Through the Meadows of the Tena Valley

Elmira, Happy Birthday

La Alberca

Part XIV

Vegetable seller, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

A Mgnificent Showcase of Forest, Kota Ambon

Reda With the Winning Smile

My Quivering Heart

More of Spain

Panticosa and the Pyrenees

Crosing the Volcanic Island of Reunion

Talofa From Pago Pago, Samoa

Apia, Western Samoa

They Will Find their way to you

Ambon, Indonesia January 20, 2013

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea

Club Faru Bandos Island, Maldives

Fujeirah, United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi & Dubai

Like a Mantra

Here in Africa

Under an Ebony Tree in Douala, Cameroon

Drinking Wine in Jerez

Dubai and Sharjah

A Hidden Gem in the Indian Ocean, The Seychelles

Singapore and Dili, East Timor

Singapore

Street Food of Seoul

A Visit to Makassar

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

Artist Point

Ke’te’ Kesu In Tana Toraja

On A Train to Zaragoza

An Artist and World Traveler

Part XV

Invitation to An Artist’s Exhibit

Pages from my travel diary: Svalbard

Odette Ricasa’s Holiday Newsletter Year 2011

Treasured E-mails from Africa:

Coming from Namibia

The Los Angeles Marathon March 2011

Odette Ricasa’s Holiday Newsletter Year 2012

Part XVI

A Beautiful Wedding in Hawaii

Speech at Robert Ricasa’s Wedding

Trip to Saint-Pierre & Miguelon May 2013

Trip to Turkmenistan Travel Report:

Part XVII

Welcome to the World Traveler, Odette Ricasa - Monrovia, Liberia

Monrovia, Liberia 17th PCL Compound Giant Billboard sign: Welcome World traveler:

Travel Report: Freetown, Sierra Leone

Excerpts from Freetown, Sierra Leone

Travel Report: Jeju Island, South Korea

Robert Ricasa’s Speech at Richie and Christine’s Wdding

Odette Ricasa’s Holiday Newsletter Year 2013

Wedding Speech for Richard Ricasa & Christine Zelenka

Part XVIII

San Clemente Toastmasters

San Clemente Toastmasters

Part XIX

Richie’s Fourth Run - at the New York Marathon

Richard Ricasa at the New York Marathon

Part XX

Sports Youth Enrichment Camp, a voluntary project

Sports Enrichment Camp Philippines Youth Game Plan

Part XXI

Television Interview Adelphia and Time Warner

Television Interview with Adelphia and Time Warner

Part XXII

Philippine Times Article

Odette Ricasa’s Holiday Newsleter 2014

A Dot in the Map, Rodrigues Island

Part XXIII

Guatemalan women on a leisure walk

Part XXIV

The FilAm L.A. magazine

Part XXV

Two Hundred Fifty Seven Countries, Islands and Territories

Part XXVI

Certificate 257 Countries

Part XXVII

Weekend Balita

About The Author

Edited by Carolyn Norback

Walpole, New Hampshire U.S.A.

Front cover:

Cover design by Rica Rudio.

Photo of Paro Taktsang monastery in Bhutan,

courtesy of Nino Mohan of Worldview Tours.

Photo inserts:

- Potola Palace and Sacred sites Swayambhunath temple

courtesy of Dr. Stefanie Komossa, Bonn, Germany.

- Playing the piano in San Clemente by Tet Valdez

and Evangeline Roldriguez, TETBEE Photogaraphy.

The FilAM magazine article by Cecile C. Ochoa.

Includes paintings and sketches by the author.

Twelve selected poems translated to Spanish.

Dedication

For:

Rick

Rica and Joe

Richie and Christine

Robert and Chrissy

Riley

Rachel

And my parents, Sixto and Luz

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

Gustave Flaubert – Rouen, France

"Sighs are air and go to the air

Tears are water and go to the sea

Tell me, woman: when love is forgotten, Do you know where it goes?"

Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Seville, Spain

Introduction

Lourdes Odette Aquitania Ricasa has done it again. Surveying the globe, putting into words and integrating it with vivid accounts of a lifetime of visits. The reflections are done with honesty and an intelligent eye. She effortlessly weaves tales, writing passionately and engaging on matters that grasps our imagination.

This is a sequel to her brilliant books. The poems and stories are fascinating and carries a lesson for our society. It is an insightful journey into the experiences of peoples in different environments.

The glimpses into the deep-rooted traditions of the villages are amazing with so many people in so many corners of the world. It exhibits a full measure of the author’s strengths.

Where Ricasa really excels is in the detailing of events wherein our lives has penetrated.

Lorraine emailed me your poem and I will blow it up and frame it….and one day I will get you to autograph it!!!

You are amazing and your descriptions of Santiago (Sao Tiago) was fabulous in your poem !!!! It was like hitting the pin right on the head.

- Beatrice Ramos Virginia Beach VA, A Bzy Bea

Odette, I thought you would like to know something very nice said about you from someone who also traveled very recently to

Antarctica… a friend of a friend. I commented that you are still my 5W heroine! Eloquently and accurately reported. I felt as if I was back in Antarctica!

- June Knight Shassere, Atlanta (Decatur) and Sharon

Often people don’t get to fully understand how they have influenced other lives because no one ever tells them. I want you to know: You are a big, big influence on my life. I admire you and all the things that you have accomplished, the Power House that you are, especially in the world of writing and travel.

- Evelyn Aviado Portugal, The Beverly Hills Courier

All of your recollections are so lovely to read and think about. I admire the manner in which you travel! You are in a class of your own!

- Mela Sarda, Torrance, California

How absolutely wonderful. I was transported from a cold damp winter in the UK to warm sunny Turkmenistan. Thank you for my adventure.

- Brenda Boyd, Gloucestershire U.K.

Thanks Odette as always for sharing your travel experiences with us. You indeed make the experience come alive for those of us who were not actually there.

- Michelle Sanchez-Ramdass, Trinidad West Indies

I have made wonderful friends and acquaintances through your group, Network for Travel Club. It’s very rare to find a place where you can meet new friends at my age, so I am very appreciative. Plus, we all have our love for travel in common, which gives us a head start in getting to know each other.

It is a big undertaking and I’m impressed that you can do it and travel so much! You have made a difference in people’s lives and for that you can be very proud and have a feeling of great accomplishment!

- Barbara Douglas, Los Angeles, California

Your description make pictures in my mind. How beautiful.. I have more than 30 pages of these that I treasure in my heart. It makes my soul sing every time I read it :).

- Susan Kaplan, Valencia, Spain

Wow, Odette, I couldn’t believe with your 250 countries experiences, you would be absolutely star struck by Anartica!! Your poetic description of this incredible. The area left me under the same spell as you– thunderstruck, I would say!!!! How beautifully you expressed it in your marvelous description of this singular experience.

- Myrna Specktor, Mar Vista, California

You have a way with words that allows the reader to see and hear the sounds and people you describe – now if only we could TASTE the food!

- Irene Salazar, Los Angeles, California

Oh, this sounds like paradise! Not just the food and the countryside, but how lovingly you describe the people. I do think the Samoans have the right idea about life. Sometimes I find our serious and progressive civilization quite tiring!

- Catherine, Munich, Germany

I read your journeys with a mixture of pleasure, envy and applause.

You write very well. It seems it comes very natural and easy.

- Edmundo Uguet Tarragona, Spain

You are an amazing women: a poet, a writer, a painter, a pianist, art collector and a world traveler. Am I missing anything??? I call it a true renaissance women/person with such a breadth of talents and interests… Your books are fascinating.

- Zofia, Poland

ahouse_Part_I_-_gentoo_penguins_of_Antarctica.jpg

Part I

Gentoo Penguins of Antarctica.

Antarctica, A Dream Escape

A traveler’s tale: We came as ambassadors of the LAST great wild frontier. The bottom of the earth, a land mass as big as the USA, is the coldest and least populated continent on the planet, where penguins, seals and birds are the only Permanent Residents.

Antarctica is like nowhere else on earth. There is nothing to make a living, no trees, no food, no shelter, no clothing, no fuel, and no liquid water. Nothing but ice. It belongs to nobody. Explorers from Russia, Norway, England, New Zealand, U.S.A., Australia, France, etc. All wanted to stake a claim for the territory. In the end, an international treaty was signed by countries that forbids commercial exploitation and dedicates the entire place to peace and sincerity. YES!!!

Science is the life blood of the bases. It pervades everything. Scientists on a temporary stay are housed in research stations with their continuous work, counting birds in the area and drilling through the surrounding ice to photograph sea life. Over the years they have yielded extraordinary insights into our world.

The sun was fire-gold and leaden. The weather: zero to eight degrees Celsius. Ice and weather, not clocks and calendars determined our itinerary and time schedule.

Our expedition ship, the Sea Spirit with a huge blade at the bottom would cut through the ice. When it was time to stop, the anchor was lowered mechanically to the bottom of the ocean.

We crossed the Drake Passage. With no trees or structures to lessen its impact, a violent vortex of currents sent the waves as high as one hundred twenty feet. Lying weakly on my bed, I was nauseated and disoriented because I refused to take medication. Once we crossed it, we moved to calmer seas. My nightmare was over.

A Welcome party was the first itinerary. Captain Oleg surprised us and hosted a webinar: We have two Very Important guests on board during this trip. He introduced the descendants of the famous Polar Explorers: Jonathan Shackleton, cousin of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Falcon Scott, grandson of Captain Robert Falcon. We cheered and raised our champagne glasses to a raucous toast.

Our daily excursions were by zodiac (a small inflatable boat powered by an outboard motor) landings. **We dressed in heavy clothes. A glove not tucked into a sleeve, a gap around the neck if you forgot your scarf, and the weather will punish you fast. The cold starts off as stabbing. Then it sears the skin and eventually sends the nerve endings into confusion. I took a glove off to take pictures at one point and after, my fingers turned white. I thought I almost lost the ability to move them.

Dragging the unwieldy, suffocating bright yellow Quark Expedition’s parka weighing ten pounds, bright orange life vests, rubber boots and water repellant pants, Shane, our expedition leader announces Gangway at 9 AM. Dr. Jeet grouped us in tens. We went down to the boarding platform where we had to immerse our boots in a tub of saline water, a step to make sure we do not bring any foreign object to the open seas. Boarding the zodiac, we swished our legs sideways, first to the pontoon then to the rubber side bench. Once aboard the zodiac Neptune with five Yamaha engines, I became conscious of the wind whisking across the frozen ice then to my face. The wind acted like a giant broom. I clung to the rope tightly taking care not to veer off into the waters below zero.

Merel, our driver reminded us If you are tossed overboard in the waters, we will throw a rope that has a bag with a light… My heart jumped to my throat.

Awe-struck by the immensity of the landscape, the slopes continued to rise in a romance between the ice bergs, the seabirds and the ocean.

I was hypnotized by the orange and pink light. Over the horizon were sepia toned rocks, smooth as polished white marble. Ice that are sometimes flat, at times cathedral like with columns of stalactites. It was such a glorious highland to rejoice.

Magnificent ice cliffs stood guard over the continent as if warning all intruders. Looming in front of us, the cliffs extended vertically as high as two hundred feet. The clouds and the mountains blended in a giant curtain of white, as if a cherubic angel might appear at any moment. The horizon blended into the sky so perfectly that I could hardly tell where the ice ended and the sky began.

I leaned into the wind trying to decide whether the surroundings were real because of the vast ice formations, glaciers, and tabular ice of two thousand square miles, icebergs and ice floes. A labyrinth of passages caused by small currents of air melted might be sculpted into strange shapes by the wind such as scalloping in some caves. Crevasses were chaotic running crazy, paving zigzags every which way. Albatrosses with wingspans up to twelve feet circled above.

I pinched my arm and asked myself: Is this life elsewhere in the universe? Is this the geographic South Pole, the notional axis around which the earth spins? Is this where the magnetic poles line together?

I paused, put down my camera and soaked in all the experience.

My heart beat fast as a sparrow’s. Intoxicated, I wanted to grab handfuls of music in the air, write a symphony, play the piano and shout to the world Come and see this!

I wanted to scamper for my canvass, color paints and brush, paint this dream escape and make it an (Obra Maestra), a MASTERPIECE.

I melted in a profusion of unexplainable excitement. This must be when God created the earth as described in the BIBLE.

Our guide enumerated a litany of instructions: You are not allowed to coo, talk or attract the penguins or any wild life. Stay away five feet. Walk only where the poles are marked with flapping orange flags. Do not wander beyond the designated places. Remember the time of the last zodiac run, otherwise you will be left to freeze overnight in the cold.

Testing my physical prowess, wielding a walking stick, our boots tramped over pale golden rocks and chocolate colored boulders and crusty ice. Richard from London and Piero from Milan stretched a helping hand, a challenge that required careful footwork.

The fishy smell was noticeable. In this big spot there was enough wind to whisk away the ranker smells. Thousands of Gentoo, Chinstrap, Adelie and Rock hopper penguins were chattering to themselves and opened their beaks operatically wide. They balanced their laborious way, stumbling and falling. Farther out they floated in the gaps between the ice chunks, scrabbling with their flippers to pull them through. Some were in the sea huddled floating on ice floe, a perfect scene for cartoonists. Grayish, straw brown skua polar birds were perched on rocks.

An adrenalin buzzed when I heard a thunderous roar, It’s going to rain! Merel laughed and explained it is the ice breaking, the ice striating from the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea. Some icebergs were long and flat topped, peculiar to the Antarctic region at Half Moon Island. They seemed to form an endless procession across the horizon. Their fantastic shapes resembling giant cakes with white icings.

At Wilhelmina Bay we were two feet away from groups of humpback, and killer whales. They spun their tails in a choreographed position. In groups of three, four or more, they transformed from gray to silver in the snow blown light. Shaking in fear, I exclaimed We will be thrown overboard. They will swallow us! No, no. With no natural land predators, such as polar bears or man, whales in this water behave much differently —showing little fear of man.

At Port Lockroy, everything was radiant. Believe it or not, it had a Post Office where you can buy postcards and stamps. Mail it right there!

Deception Island is a flat cinder beach with the remains of a Norwegian whaling station and the British Antarctic Base.