The fiesta was, by all accounts, a huge success. Swimming with dolphins, jet skiing at Playa Médano, snorkeling at Playa Santa María, partying at Cabo Wabo and a dinner cruise at sunset were just a few of the highlights. Check out the story, and tips on planning your own Cabo getaway, in this month’s The Buzz Magazines.

Here’s the slide show, compliments of Wendy Yu, one of the invitees.

Enjoy!

One of the menu of outings offered by the Society of American Travel Writers in its pre-conference lineup was “Eco-Adventure in El Diente,” and with a name like that, how could I resist? Especially with the excellent training provided by Jamie, who nearly killed me in my first exposure to rock climbing this spring. It wasn’t until I went online today and googled it that I realized that where he failed in May, he may have succeeded in October.

El Diente (The Tooth) is about to bite me...

My account of my May adventure will appear in the Dallas Morning News this fall (posthumously, perhaps) so I asked Jamie to provide a few tips for beginners as I prepare to punish myself on the cliffs of El Diente. (El Diente pic compliments of Marc and Kristi, who climbed there a year ago and made it sound like a piece of cake in their excellent blog… Thanks, guys!)

OK, so after reading Marc and Kristi, and after going through Jamie’s tips (below, for the very brave), I’m feeling better about the climb. Honestly, it’s the mountain biking that I’m kind of freaked out about. I’ll keep you posted – if I’m not in traction.

Read on for Jamie’s excellent tips. And if the climbing bug bites you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Climbing tips for beginners

From veteran climber Jamie McNally of Austin

1.  It’s all about the feet.  Most people think you have to have loads of upper body strength to be a good climber. Not so. Footwork is much more important than often realized, even on steep or overhanging terrain. Think of using your legs to propel you up the rock rather than using your hands and arms to pull.

2.  It’s also about balance. Your first inclination when climbing is to cling to the rock. Resist the urge. You want your weight distributed over your feet. This means that your center of gravity, especially on slabs, is often further away from the rock than is initially comfortable. But if you press too close against the rock, your weight will shift and your feet will often slip.

3.  Use your bone structure to your advantage. Climbing is often a race against muscle fatigue. One way to avoid flaming forearms is to climb with straight limbs as much as possible. You can hang from a chin-up bar a lot longer with straight arms than you can with arms bent at the elbow. Try it. Think of straightening your limbs and using your skeleton to rest on each hold while only using your muscles to move between holds.

4.  Trust your shoes. The sticky rubber on the bottom of even cheap climbing shoes is otherworldly. Dime-sized edges, rounded nubbins, and near-microscopic rock crystals are all stellar footholds. You can even stand on near vertical slabs.

5.  Don’t be afraid of cracks. Today in Texas (and in a lot of other places) most people start out climbing in gyms and learn pretty quickly how to grab different types of holds. This type of climbing is intuitive and feels natural. Climbing cracks requires a totally different technique that seems unnatural and is often painful at first. As a result, in some places, crack climbing has become a lost art. But learning to jam hands, fists and feet into different-sized cracks will improve your climbing and open up a world of rock that would otherwise be unavailable to you.

Here are some of Jamie’s photos from a recent climb at ERock.

One of my very favorite partners in adventure is my sister Tami. Like me, she tends to live just a tiny bit on the edge of what other people see as possible. She wants to do it all, and so every day ends up being an adventure.

Like the night we tried to do too much, ran late and ended up wandering lost in the Ojito Wilderness by starlight.

Not to worry, she assured me. It doesn’t matter that we’ve lost the trail. We can just follow profile of that mesa. We’ll end up there eventually.

We were looking for the hoodoos, those peculiar rock formations that loom like giant goblins over the landscape. She had been hiking in to this spot once a month to study the night sky for her shamanic astrology practice, and this time she was including me. It was a magical place, sacred to the Zia Pueblo, and I was thrilled.

Nonetheless, the thrill was wearing off a bit as I, jetlagged and sleep deprived, stumbled against a cactus and grabbed for the duffel bag that kept sliding off my shoulder.

“Wait, there’s not supposed to be a dropoff here,” I heard in the distance.

Not reassuring.

Things worked out, as they always do with Tami. We didn’t find the hoodoos that night but we stumbled across something almost as nice, given the hour: a cleared-off campsite with a fire ring and a clear view of the horizon. We spread our tarp and our bags and laid back to wonder at the constellations.

Really, we had just been trying too hard, I thought to myself. It’s all right here.

The fiery edges of the sky woke me before dawn and I grabbed my camera to capture it. We made our way to the hoodoos and caught them in the gold-red light of early morning.

Finally I turned my camera on the most beautiful sight of all: my sweet sister perched on the overlook, contemplating the wonder of it all.

A little tour of the magnificent Ojito Wilderness, just after the monsoon rains. Enjoy.

Catalan, an anchor of the newly thriving Washington corridor, has caught the eye of many a writer in the couple of years since it’s opened, right up to the New York Times, and master chef Chris Shepherd is a big reason why. His bold, no-holds-barred, what-the-hell style has earned him a following that’s as passionate as his own commitment to his art. But what really drew me was his staunch advocacy of the buy local movement. He plans his entire menu around what he finds at the local farmers’ markets and what local growers can provide him.

“It’s not just the right thing to do; it means better quality,” he explained when I met him on Friday. He was already cooking up plans for Sunday’s feast, and when he invited me, of course I couldn’t resist.

It all started when Farmer John Laughlin showed up on his doorstep with a wild boar. Laughlin’s farm kept getting raided by these wild hogs, and nothing he did could drive them away.

“Finally, he decided to bring them in and fatten them up,” Shepherd said.

One of those boars ended up on Shepherd’s menu, and he decided to make an occasion of it.

It’s hard to imagine an animal as inelegant as a wild hog becoming the chief ingredient for an occasion as classy as this one, but Chef Chris pulled it off. “We’re going to take you on a little trip around the world with this wild boar,” he promised – and he did.

My friends and I showed up at the appointed time and were greeted with kumquat-infused vodka iced tea (“There was a little lady with a bucket of kumquats at the market, and she was excited that we were willing to pay an exorbitant price for them. We just soaked them in some Dripping Springs Vodka… it seemed like the right thing to do.”

Now I am not a huge eater of meat, especially of the red variety. And I confess I did have some passing thoughts about the boar who gave his life that we might feast. But Shepherd reassured us on this point. “As Laughlin likes to say, ‘Our pigs have only one bad day.’” I was also impressed with his commitment to use every ounce of the 300-pound creature, from the snout to the tail. But that would take awhile. First, there was the feast.

The tour began in Mexico, with a savory pozole that called to mind my days living in a village in the south of Mexico, where the ladies gather on the plaza every Friday to serve this style of “white pozole.” This savory soup, topped with fresh chopped cilantro and onion and a squeeze of lime, highlights the pork, unlike the tomatoey version served in Jalisco that dominates Mexican restaurants here.

As an aside, I must mention Shepherd’s fascination with street food of different countries. His menu of small plates is a tour of street food from around the world, topped with the flakiest empanadas imaginable. His flair with the commonplace gives his work an imaginative twist that can only be seen to be appreciated. But commonplace his meals are not. If the delicious freshness of the pozole weren’t enough, there was the 2006 Jacques Puffeney Arbois Rouge Trousseau “Cuvée Les Bérangeres” to accompany it – the first in a lineup of pairings that elevated the excellent to the exquisite.

Next we took a sharp turn to the Far East with a tender, flavorful Wild Boar Satay.

“Every Southeast Asian country calls this their own,” said Shepherd, who came out between courses to visit with the group. The Oklahoma native’s entertaining, down-to-earth style is as much an attraction to these meals as the generous spirit with which he infuses his cuisine.

The satay was followed by another Eastern palate-pleaser, Indonesian Boar Rendang, a rich stew with a melange of spices and topped with a delicate arrangement of sweet potato leaves — so delightful to the palate that I could have stopped right there and called it dessert.

But that was not to be: heading back toward the Mediterranean, the Wild Boar Bolognese with Crispy Eggplant was my personal favorite, with butternut squash layered in with a cheesy mixture that I confess I was enjoying too much to remember his generous explanation.

By now I was ready to grunt and roll into bed. This was followed by a full-circle trip back down home to Mama’s Sunday Night Boar Meatloaf, paired with an elegant Italian red. And it’s not nice to say no to Mama.

This is when I really should have said enough is enough. But dessert was nigh, and how could I refuse? Local Pear Crumble, with boar bacon and maple gastrique, topped with vanilla ice cream, awaited, along with a sweet Rhone wine.

At the risk of severe overindulgence, I partook. I could always fast on Monday. But Sunday, down to the last drop, was divine.

The New Houston: It’s not what you think

It was the perfect New Houston moment: A Pavarotti-like voice pulsed over the green lawns and the sparkling lake of Discovery Green. A sumptuously dressed cast beamed Macbeth from an inflatable screen, towering over a thousand people of all ages, colors and sizes. Some lounged in lawn chairs or on blankets spread on the green grass; some watched from the patios of nearby restaurants. Some munched hamburgers; others drank beer.

This was the Grand Opera’s first Citycast, performed at Wortham Center and broadcast live on public radio and at public places including Discovery Green, the new showpiece of art, culture and green technology that Houston wrested from a jumble of parking lots in 2008.

This was not the Houston of the cattle drives or the oil tycoons or the petrochemical industry, which is what most people think about when they think of this city, if they think of it at all. Which is a shame, because they are missing out on one of the country’s truly great international metropolises.

To read the rest of the story, click Meet Houston.

To read the rest of the package – “Live” and “Play” by Natalie Bogan; “Work and “Learn,” by Bill Hensel Jr.; and “Eat” by Dai Huynh, click Southwest_Spirit_September_2009. Warning: it’s a large file and will take some time to download.

Three of the travelers shared some spectacular photography, which I’ve put together in a slide show for you here. The first two photographers, Fred Tooley and Patti Allender, went on photo safaris in East Africa; the third, Suzanne Shelby, went on a big game hunt on the South African border with Botswana.

Sharon Tooley and Suzanne Shelby shared some tips, lessons learned from their travels, which I am including below; they’re an excellent resource for those who might be contemplating a trip to Africa. Meanwhile, sit back and enjoy the splendid photo tour that their labors yielded.

East Africa by 4×4

Sharon and Fred Tooley of Houston, Texas, travel as often as they can and always on a very tight budget. Fred is an architect and Sharon is graphic designer. This May they took a 1,600-mile 4×4 ride through the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, starting in Nairobi and making a loop through the great parks of Kenya and Tanzania.

Sharon penned an extensive guide to travelers; read on and be prepared.

Flight details:

We flew British Airways direct from Houston to Heathrow and then British Airways direct from Heathrow to Nairobi. Our tour company was able to secure a good fare through one of the airfare wholesalers that they use. Several months after we purchased our tickets, Continental offered a r/t fare between Houston and London that would have saved us $200. per ticket. We were OK with that because having the same carrier (B/A) for the entire trip allowed us to check our bags straight through to Nairobi–giving us a better chance of having our bags make it to Kenya the same time we did…and they did. Continental doesn’t fly to Nairobi so it would have meant a carrier change to take advantage of the lower priced tickets.

Itinerary Summary:

Our trip dates were May 15 through 27. We did take a bit of a risk since this is still at the very end of the rainy season. Our tour representative had told us that “rain doesn’t stop a safari…it’s just the mud that’s problematical”–we did see a couple of “mud disabled” vehicles but for the most part we saw very little evidence of rain. Scheduling our trip when we did, however, did introduce us to a cool, green, lush Africa when we were expecting heat and dry arid plains–it was worth the scheduling risk. And, we were there during the beginning of the “Great Migration” which we witnessed in the Serengeti.

Day 1: Arrive Nairobi
Day 2: Nairobi to Naivasha
Day 3 and 4: Masai Mara National Park
Day 5 and 6: Serengeti National Park
Day 7 and 8: Serengeti to Ngorongoro
Day 9: Ngorongoro to Arusha
Day 10 and 11: Arusha to Amboseli National Park
Day 12: Amboseli to Nairobi
Tour Company: Kensington Tours (listed as “One of the Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth” by National Geographic)

Accommodations:

Nairobi Safari Club—Nairobi, Kenya
Navaisha Simba Lodge—Lake Naivasha, Kenya
Masai Mari Kensington Safari Tent Camp (a Kensington camp only for Kensington clients)
Serengeti Kensington Safari Tent Camp (a Kensington camp only for Kensington clients)
Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge—Ngorongoro, Tanzania
Serena Mountain Village—Arusha Tanzania
Amboselli Serena Safari Lodge—Amboselli National Park, Kenya

Without exception, we had 5 star experiences at all.

Miscellaneous expenses to include in the budget:

Inoculations: This is what our primary care doctor wanted us to have…check with your individual doctor for his or her recommendations. Tanzania requires a Yellow Fever vaccination, however.
Our second shot in the Hepatitis A series (we’d had our first earlier in the year)
Polio
Typhoid
Meningococcal meningitis

Medications:

Prescription Anti Malarial medication (meds started several days prior to our departure, the full time we were in country and taken for one full week after our return)

“Cipro type” antibiotic prescribed by our doctor in case of serious illness while in country

Visas: (purchased in country)

Kenya: $25 per person (this was a pleasant surprise for us, the cost had been $50. pp a few weeks prior to our trip

Tanzania: $50 per person

Trip Insurance (included in the cost of our Kensington Tour:

This was a big “chunk of budget” but it would have been an even bigger hit had we been forced to swallow the full price of the trip, that was payable in full prior to departure as well as airfare, should for unforeseen circumstances had we been forced to cancel.
The medical insurance portion of the policy was, as far as we were concerned, mandatory. Our tour fee included the services of “The Flying Doctors of Africa” to air-vac us out of the bush and to Nairobi should one of us be injured or become seriously ill. However, we wanted insurance that would air evacuate us back to the US to the hospital of our choice…i.e. Methodist or St. Luke’s, Houston Texas. The cost of the policies are based on age and levels of coverage.

Miscellaneous tips

It’s important to verify with your tour company prior to signing a contract: do they cover all entrance fees to the national parks in your itinerary? Those fees can range from $20to $60 per day, per person. Our tour was all-inclusive. It included all accommodations, breakfast, lunch and dinner each day (even tea in Arusha), all transportation and all entrance fees to the multiple national parks that we visited two times per day, each day.

* Pack light. Everything needs to be lightweight and preferably quick-drying. There are very good packing lists for safaris available on line. Also, we used the laundry services available in two of the lodges that we stayed and it was inexpensive and good. Don’t pack black or dark navy clothing–they attract Tsetse flies…and we experienced them and felt their blood sucking vengeance. In Africa, regular flies are known as “sweet flies” as opposed to the Tsetse…think Houston mosquitoes on steroids. They were only a problem in the Serengeti and only when we were on foot in camp or stopped in the vehicle–as soon as we were traveling, the wind sent them on their way.

I griped and complained about packing my lightweight hiking boots but after a 3 inch acacia thorn to the toe on my first wildlife adventure hike (wearing my nifty Keen sandals), I was glad to have my boots along for all other day hikes.

* Having a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) Camera makes photo taking pure joy. We used a small point-and-shoot digital camera in Costa Rica; however, the nature of wildlife photography makes it much more successful to focus on the subject with a good SLR. Plus you are not hiking, so the camera weight is not that much of an issue.

* Take the information seriously about packing a fleece and a jacket…it was very cold in the early mornings and evenings around the camp fire at night in the camps.

* I always travel with an inflatable neck pillow when we fly and found that taking it on the long road trips from camp to camp made the bumpy roads (they call it the “African Massage”) less punishing to my head and neck.

* Keep a Journal–Fred ordered “African Safari Journal” by Mark W. Nolting and it became our constant companion on the trip. It was small and lightweight. It had not only ruled pages for actual journal entries but exceptional mammal and bird checklists, illustrations and descriptions of mammals, birds and reptiles as well as an illustrated map directory, including maps to each of the National Parks and a language section with keywords in Swahili, Shona, Tswana, Zulu and French—all of that in a half-inch thick book that fits in your jacket pocket.

What we would change about the trip:

We’d make it a few days longer, stayed an additional day in Ngorongoro, and we would have taken advantage of the 4-day Seychelles extension that Kensington offered so that Fred could have fly fished. Oh well, there’s always next time.

We would travel with as many school supplies as we could carry without penalty for overweight baggage. A tip for anyone traveling to Africa: go to the Dollar Store and buy bulk loads of pencils and ballpoint pens–the children beg for them. Bandannas are also sought after. I bought a beautiful Masai bracelet and a pair of carved candlesticks at amazing prices because I threw in my bandannas with each purchase. We took two dozen bandannas between the four of us but wished we had taken twice that many. We gave most of them to the school we visited in the Masai Mara and would have loved to have more to give to the children we met during our trip. School supplies in Africa are incredibly expensive and one teacher told us the kids often have to practice writing with no pen or pencil.

Big game hunting in South Africa

Suzanne and John Shelby of Houston made their trip to South Africa in July. John is a veterinarian; Suzanne is an architect by training and a full-time mom by trade. Here are her words of advice.

* Don’t try to do this trip on your own.  Research outfitters that specialize in your interest (i.e. Photographic Safaris, Big Game Hunts, etc.) We hired a Professional Hunter (PH) and fantastic guide, Henry Van Schalkwyk, who can be reached at wildlife@lantic.net. His knowledge was so integral to the success and enjoyment of the trip. It would not have been the same trip without him.

* Remember that our summer is their winter…pack accordingly. Plan on wearing layers so that you can peel away as the sun warms up the day.

* Check with your doctor for any special prescriptions or immunizations in advance.

* Pilanesberg National Park Reserve http://pilanesberggamereserve.com/index.html Incredible landscape and many, many animals to see.

* If hunting: Be sure proper paperwork is filled out before arrival to South Africa and make sure you have contacted the U.S. Customs Dept prior to your trip.

* Consider renting a Global Satellite Phone for the trip.  We rented ours through our cellular phone company.

* Be prepared.  Relax and enjoy a trip of a lifetime!

The 1,200 acres of high-plains wetlands were saved from development to create the Swaner EcoCenter, explains Annette Herman, Executive Director.

Images featured the elegantly woodsy Swaner Ecocenter surrounded with waving grasses, long-necked waterfowl, blue skies and the dramatic Wasatch Range. So it was no small surprise that Nora, our guide, pulled into a shopping center right across from WalMart and dropped us off. “It’s right over there,” she said. “I’ll park the car and then come join you.”

I contemplated getting a gelato first, or maybe window-shopping at the little boutique. Then I remembered why I was there.

It turns out the the pictures didn’t lie. This is no ordinary shopping center, and the Swaner family is a big reason why. The ecocenter sits at the heart of 1,200 acres this family bought and saved from development and, land which has been restored into a surprisingly wild habitat right off I-80. It’s tucked into the Newpark Town Center, which is striving for LEEDS environmental design certification (the ecocenter has already set the standard with a platinum LEEDS designation, the highest ranking). Located as it is on the edge of this mixed-use condo community and resort area, it’s ideally located to reach out to shoppers and residents who might otherwise not give a thought to visiting an educational center dedicated to nurturing and raising awareness about the environment.

Here’s a sneak preview:

Most visitors and many residents don’t realize what a thriving literary hub San Antonio has become over the years, and Gemini Ink is a big part of that. It’s also due to the generosity and the open-spiritedness of nationally known writers like Naomi Shihab Nye, Sandra Cisneros, and John Phillip Santos, to name just a few, who give workshops and encouragement to beginning writers and those who are in the process of transition, like yours truly. Because of them, I am a better writer.

Gemini Ink showcases the work of literary lights like Peter Mattheissen, Margaret Atwater and Annie Prioux, bringing them to town for a free public reading and smaller, targeted events. Its Writers in Communities and University Without Walls programs also give a forum to local and regional writers like me, and I’ve greatly enjoyed my association with them over the years. It’s put me in touch with some excellent writers and community folks, some of whom I remain in touch with today.

The fall program is packed with great classes and is just getting underway. Check it out here and consider attending an event or two. Some are free readings and workshops; others require a small fee.

All of which leads me to a backhanded self promotion: I’ll be conducting a day of two workshops on blogging on Saturday, Sept. 26 and would welcome your participation if you’re in the area. It’s not free, but I promise to make it worth your time.  Here’s my plug: