That Was Not On the Itinerary

By Stephen McCue

That Was Not On the Itinerary by Stephen McCue

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781681390376

Book preview

That Was Not

on the

Itinerary!

Tales and Photos from a

World Traveler

Stephen McCue

Copyright © 2015 Stephen McCue

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2015

ISBN 978-1-68139-036-9 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68139-037-6 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Alaska

Aruba

Canada

Cuba

Montserrat

St. Martin

St. Vincent

Ecuador

Peru

Greenland

Iceland

Bulgaria

Czech Republic

England

Estonia

Finland

France

Hungary

Italy

Spain

Ukraine

Bahrain

China

Israel

Soviet Union

Tibet

Turkey

UAE

Botswana

Egypt

Kenya

South Africa

Tanzania

Zimbabwe

Bali

Fiji

French Polynesia

Galapagos

Hawaii

New Zealand

Introduction

Congratulations on your purchase of this book. It means that you have a passion, or at least a great desire, for travel. If you are expecting, however, a travel guide, then this is not the book for you. On the other hand, if you are looking for an experience on the sometimes fun, sometimes tense, fearful, or just plain gritty scenarios that can occur during travel, then this is the book for you.

I was infected with the travel bug from Sharon, my beloved wife of more than thirty years, and I must say, it is truly a divine gift. This gift has driven us to traipse around the world to over one hundred countries, which fostered some funny, some gritty, and some plain scary tales. Lest one thinks that all travels will encounter these bumps and detours, fear not. In those instances, of the standard garden variety travel fare, I have included a few selected views shown in the galleries of the associated region where Murphy was not in attendance. But as for the others, sit back, relax, and step into our shoes to travel with us to view the world in less than rose-colored glasses, but oh so worthwhile.

North America and Caribbean

Alaska

Having always had an attraction for exotic animals in their natural environment, we found ourselves disembarking in Alaska from a most wonderful cruise up the Inland Passageway, and making arrangements for a seaplane flight to observe grizzly bears. Boarding a de Havilland Beaver seaplane at the largest seaplane port in North America located in Anchorage, we took off toward the southwest through the picturesque Iliamna Pass across some of the most rugged terrain on the continent. As we started our descent, my mind began to wonder if the rather large fee of this excursion would be worth it. We had already seen a couple of grizzlies in Denali National Park on a hillside about a quarter mile away. Would we see more? Would we get close enough to satisfy ourselves with good photographs? Having now been told by the pilot that we were approaching a landing at Brooks Camp, my hopes began to rise as this location has seen many National Geographic and wildlife photographers.

Touching down on the lake, the pilot informed us that he would wait momentarily before beaching us as he had some traffic in the pattern. My heart soared, for there, straight in front of us where we were to beach, not one hundred feet away, was a full-grown sow and her cub! Now, this is getting close. Once the bears passed and we beached, we disembarked and walked down to the ranger station to be briefed on how to behave properly in bear country. We were then instructed to walk the mile or so through the woods to the staging platform used to control the number of viewers at the falls so as not to upset the bears. While waiting there for a brief rest, we watched with fascination as a large male grizzly slowly sauntered down the shallow stream, looking for salmon. Running into the obstruction of the floating bridge for humans, he cautiously climbed onto it.

Kodiak bear fishing for salmon at Brooks Camp.

View of Portage Glacier.

Finding nothing of interest, he decided to return to the cool waters of the stream via a most graceful dive ending in a large belly flop. From there, we were soon released to continue our hike to Brooks Falls, where we spent a glorious afternoon watching a multitude of bears fish for salmon by utilizing a fascinating variety of techniques.

Some dove under the water to catch a meal, some trapped them in the shallows, some splashed fruitlessly and clumsily about, but the most elegant technique was held by a large and experienced male who sat blissfully on an outcropping in the middle of the falls and would catch the salmon in midflight as they jumped upstream. With the delicacy and finesse of a fine chef, he then held the head of the salmon on the ground with one paw, held the tail between his teeth, and neatly and precisely filleted the fish from tail to gill with one slice of his razor-sharp claw. A most impressive sight and a fitting capstone to a most memorable and worthwhile day in the wilds of Alaska.

Pelican in Oranjestad.

Aruba

Ah, the Caribbean island of Aruba. Warm breezes, beautiful azure water, relaxing lifestyle to say the least. What a better way to escape the cold of a Midwestern winter with the snow covering the ground, and every inch of your skin covered to protect yourself from the biting wind blasting down from the north at a howling thirty miles per hour, shoving the wind chill temperatures to zero or lower. Looking for an escape, Sharon and I booked a Caribbean cruise that put us on the tropical isle of Aruba on New Year’s Eve. Not knowing what the local festivities might be on neighboring islands, I can say that, if you wish peace and quiet, you most definitely will not find it New Year’s Eve in Aruba—even if it is still midday. As we were doing a bit of shopping, I noticed that there appeared to be some smoke and commotion coming from a couple of blocks over that appeared to be a fire. Not wishing to get in anybody’s way that might be assisting, we let common sense rule over curiosity and remained on the main street where we were shopping. Little did I know at the time, there is no escaping the source of the commotion. Stopping in a café for a leisurely lunch, we saw a huge crowd swelling down the street slowly approach us. As lunch was being polished off, the mass of humanity had approached close enough to discern that in the middle of it was a slow-moving truck, and it was filled with fireworks. And I do mean fireworks. There were workmen in the back of the truck busily laying a solid red carpet the entire length of the street! As we paid the bill for the delectable lunch and exited onto the street amid the sea of merrymakers, a tremendous din of noise and smoke began at the end of the street as the fires of Dante’s Inferno were ignited. Did the people move to a safe distance as one would expect? Of course not. It appeared that

New Year’s Eve fireworks being prepared along the Main Street of Oranjestad.

New Year’s Eve fireworks going off amid crowd

gathered on Main Street of Oranjestad.

the goal of the merrymakers was to remain as close to the exploding hell as they could, much like the running of the bulls. If one has never experienced the noise, smoke, and flash of tons of explosives in a semi-uncontrolled manner, one should make a point to celebrate New Year’s Eve on Aruba. It will truly be a moment in time you will never forget.

Two polar bears sparring in Churchill, Manitoba.

Polar bear in Churchill, Manitoba.

Canada