Taking The Public Bus In The Seychelles And Other Death-Defying Adventures
This is NOT the bus we took. It IS a public bus but not the one we risked our lives by taking. (grins)
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I enjoy taking public transit when we travel. It gives us a tiny slice of the average local’s life, it is less expensive, and…it is often an adventure.
That ended up being VERY true when we visited Victoria, Seychelles.
The first thing we learned was very few people took Euros (we were informed by online folks that they WOULD take Euros and that was incorrect). So we had to change money into the local currency.
Bus passes were sold at the terminal. There was a bit of a line up for them. But that was okay because buses left for routes once every hour or so and we had the time.
We got on the bus headed toward Fairyland Beach. This route had steep hills and the driver drove…aggressively.
He rode the bumper of the car ahead of us. And he drove QUICKLY, stopping and starting suddenly. We had to hang onto the seat back in front of us for dear life.
Even with that precaution, I exited the bus with a new collection of bruises. (grins)
There were turns so tight buses and large trucks had to take turns to navigate them.
At one point, I turned to the Dear Wonderful Hubby and whispered, “We are going to die.”
But we didn’t die. (laughs) And now we have a great story to tell.
Just know that taking the public buses in the Seychelles is NOT for the timid or the easily bruised!
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Baobab Trees In Madagascar
The naturalist in Madagascar, along with the driver, took the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I to see some Baobab Trees.
Due to time restraints, we couldn’t see the HUGE ones. Those were located farther away.
But the Baobab Trees we did see were dang impressive.
The trees, when not chopped down by humans, live for centuries. They’re a source of water for people and animals and they support an entire ecosystem.
We had watched a gazillion documentaries about these amazing trees and it was a bit surreal to finally see them in person. I was grinning from ear to ear during the visit. (grins)
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Enchantment In Madagascar
The Dear Wonderful Hubby arranged for a naturalist to accompany the two of us as we trekked around the wild parts of Madagascar.
This naturalist has appeared in countless documentaries. He has accompanied hundreds of scientists as they completed their missions. He has lived amongst the trees and creatures of Madagascar most of his life.
Yet he still became super excited when he spotted certain frogs or insects or plants.
And I found that utterly enchanting. It added to our own excitement over seeing the wonders of nature.
(I LOVE beetles and Madagascar had SO MANY of them. That made me super happy. – smiles)
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The Hornet And The Grasshopper In Madagascar
Trekking around Madagascar with the Naturalist was like living in a nature documentary. There was life all around us. We witnessed births, deaths, courting rituals and struggles for survival.
For example, we watched as this hornet dragged a stunned grasshopper across a patch of sandy soil.
The hornet, the naturalist explained, had laid its eggs inside the grasshopper.
The hornet then dug a hole and stuffed the grasshopper into the mini tunnel.
The grasshopper would serve as a food source for the hornet’s young.
That’s some circle of life sh*t right there. (grins) I LOVED it.
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Muse Food – Look Upward
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I spotted this vibrantly colored bird in Mazatlan, Mexico.
It is human nature to gaze around us at our eye level. That’s quick. That’s easy.
That’s…dangerous. Because threats can come from the sky. And they can come from below us.
As writers, we tend to describe the scene from our character’s eye level also.
And that can be…uninspired. Because there are likely interesting things happening above their heads and below their feet.
Look upward.
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Mango Season In Madagascar
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I last visited Madagascar in December and it was mango season!
The mangoes were falling off the trees and rotting. That was how plentiful they were.
(According to our guide, it was a disastrous year for lychee, however. The guide blamed that on climate change and the huge decrease in the number of bees.)
The Dear Wonderful Hubby absolutely LOVES mangoes. He picked a gazillion off the trees and gobbled them up (you’ll notice the mango juice on his fingers in the photo – grins).
Our guide told him the mangoes he was eating were juicing mangoes, not eating mangoes.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby replied with a grin, “All mangoes are eating mangoes for me.”
The guide shook his head and laughed.
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Muse Food – Revisiting Puerto Vallarta And Circular Storytelling
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I have been fortunate to visit Puerto Vallarta, Mexico many, MANY times.
We always walk along the Malecon and we usually stop for a moment at the child riding a seahorse scupture.
It is different every time we visit. In the early years, it didn’t have the Puerto Vallarta sign around it. Now, that sign is painted a bit differently every visit.
I like that. I like seeing the changes.
As I like seeing the changes in characters in circular storytelling. When we place characters in a similar situation as they experienced at the beginning of their story, it emphasizes the growth and changes they have endured. That’s fascinating!
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Cats Are Loved Worldwide
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I enjoy taking photos of feral cats when we travel.
We’re not alone. Everywhere we went, other people were cooing over the cats and trying to take their photos.
This young semi-feral cat in Qatar, for example, was meowing pitifully.
And a local man was pleading and pleading with him.
I didn’t understand the man’s language but I understood what he was trying to communicate.
He gestured to the full container of water. “You have water, little kitty.”
Then he gestured to the full container of delicious-appearing food. “You have food, little kitty.”
As you can see in the photo, there was a ‘tent’ set up for the cat using sinfully soft carpets. Shelter had been provided by his human.
The cat’s hair was spotless and he looked to be super healthy.
But this semi-feral cat had a complaint and his poor human was almost desperate to uncover what it was.
THAT is how much this semi-feral kitty in Qatar is loved.
(smiles)
And THAT is how much kitties are loved all over the world.
***
Claiming Cure
A proud cyborg medic meets his human match.
***
Cyra has tasks to complete before she dies.
There are patients to heal, a dangerous mission to undertake, and a world to save. She doesn’t have time to entertain uninvited guests.
Especially one coldhearted cyborg medic who thinks he’s better than her.
The male might be breathtakingly handsome. His sternly set lips might be extremely kissable. And his touch might draw out a passion she didn’t think she was capable of feeling.
But he’s also a distraction, one that might doom millions of innocent beings to a painful, horrible death.
Cure isn’t emotionless. He feels…greatly. Listening to that malfunction has caused other beings pain and suffering in the past.
He refuses to allow his desires to cloud his judgment now.
His resolve is tested when he’s forced to associate with the most provoking, alluring medic in the universe.
Cyra is his genetic match, the one being in the universe he is fated to protect, touch, claim. She’s clever and beautiful, and the need to hold her almost downs his systems.
But now is not the time to indulge his great wanting.
Cure has an assignment to complete.
If he fails to accomplish his goals, everyone he cares for, including his human female, will die.
***
Claiming Cure is a standalone Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features two skilled medics determined to ignore the toe-curling attraction between them, a perilous impossible mission, and foes seeking to ensure they never heal another being ever again.
Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC
Amazon Canada:
https://www.amazon.ca/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/claiming-cure/id6499055867
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/claiming-cure
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1553992
Topics: Qatar, Travel | Comments Off on Cats Are Loved Worldwide
Muse Food – Mounted Police And Setting The Mood
I was completely enchanted by these mounted police in Qatar.
And…I shouldn’t have been. Because they ARE the police. They have the ability to arrest me and others and perhaps do worse to us.
Those beautiful horses? I suspect they have been trained to kill.
But someone from North America, like myself, associates them with parades and other peaceful events. We don’t view them as possible weapons.
If you want to change the mood of a story, that can be as easy as changing a small detail…like the mode of transportation the rule enforcers use.
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Lemurs In Madagascar
The Dear Wonderful Hubby arranged for the two of us to go on a private tour with a world renowned naturalist in Madagascar. This naturalist has appeared in many documentaries and often shows scientists and other visitors the land he clearly loves and knows VERY well.
He took us to the Amber Mountain National Park and…we saw lemurs! (And a gazillion other critters and plants)
We saw two large groups of them. They were in the trees but clearly visible. They were cuddling with their babies and chattering. There was much fruit eating and some sh*tting (NEVER look upward with your mouth open. The naturalist told us how some visitors learned that lesson the hard way. – grins).
Very few visitors, unfortunately, saw lemurs even though our naturalist tried to help the other guides find them. But many of those groups could be heard from far away. And those visitors were unable to move off the main paths.
Wild lemurs prefer to avoid humans.
One lady was exhausted and crying because seeing lemurs in the wild was her purpose for the tour she’d taken and it was unlikely she’d do that. I felt bad for her.
But there is never any guarantee of seeing wild animals. Stars. The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I have trekked around countless Northern Ontario (Canada) boreal forests and he has yet to see a moose in the wild. I’ve seen countless numbers of them but only when I’ve been without him. Not seeing any wildlife IS a possibility. (Which is why I love that I love plants and trees also. They are usually stationary.)
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