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Current status: 93/100 goals - 100/100 weeks
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| The day trip that I was taken on gave some incredible views of an active volcano. |
| See an active volcano |
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| 5 - Completed |
 Big Island, Hawaii United-States - No specific date |
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I climbed up Mount Vesuvius in Italy many years ago, but would love to see an active volcano.
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Vote now for "Add 5" extra goals
Sunday, July 13, 2008 |
There have been hundreds of suggestions for extra goals which could be added to my list, many of which sound absolutely fantastic. It has been pretty tricky to narrow it down to only 20 to choose from.
There are so many wonderful places to go too, many of which I have never considered before. I think that is one of the big problems when you start travelling, and see some great places, and meet others who have travelled too. The more you see, the more you realise that there is out there that you would like to see. So instead of getting shorter, your list gets longer and longer.
Anyway, there are a few travel goals on the list, a few activities, and a few experiences too. This list of twenty needs to be trimmed down to five, which will get added to the 95 that I already have.
So get voting, the top five make it to the list. Voting ends next Sunday, 20th July.
http://www.100goals100weeks.com/getInvolved_AddFive.php
The twenty possibilities are as follows:-
Cover yourself in honey bees
Climb Big Ben
Learn to ride a unicycle
Spend a week in a silent retreat
See an active volcano
Live someone elses life for a week
See Kakadu National Park, Australia
See Angel Falls in Venezuela
Climb "7 peaks in 7 days" from the 53 Colorado 14ers (14,000ft+ mountains)
Spend a night in a haunted house - alone!
Ride an ostrich
See the giant redwood trees in California
See the Red Paperclip house
Attend a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl
Visit Red square in Moscow
White water rafting
See Burg Hohenwerfen, 'Schloss Adler' in film Where Eagles Dare
See a plane land at St Maarten Island
Become vegan for a month
Adopt an animal (preferably an endangered species)
My favourites are (but don't let this influence your voting!!):
Learn to ride a unicycle
Ride an ostrich
See Burg Hohenwerfen, "Schloss Adler" in the film Where Eagles Dare
"Add 5" voting now ended!!
Monday, July 21, 2008 |
Voting for the "Add 5" extra goals has now finished. I have been watching the voting with interest, and have not been too worried about which ones make it into the 100 list, as I think they are all pretty exciting.
However some of the movements are interesting, and it would seem that some people have their own particular favourites, and are very keen for them to be in the top five. A couple of the goals seem to have come from nowhere to appear at the top of the list, whereas others which were early leaders for a while have dropped away. On a couple of occasions a goal has appeared to have several hundred votes in the space of a couple of hours, when other goals have received none!
So in the interests of fairness I asked my web-designer-guru to weed out all the multiple votes from the same IP address, and the final results are as follows.
The five goals added to the other 95 to make up the total 100 goals are as follows (click on the link or the picture to find out more):
 Goal Number 95 - White water rafting
 Goal Number 96 - "7 Peaks in 7 Days" (from the 53 Colorado 14ers (14,000ft peaks))
 Goal Number 97 - Ride an ostrich
 Goal Number 98 - See an active volcano
 Goal Number 99 - Spend a night in a haunted house - alone!
Thanks to all who voted, or made suggestions.
Goal 27 achieved - Kilauea volcano.
Saturday, January 17, 2009 |
I was up very early this morning and packed my stuff for the day in darkness before driving the 20 miles back to town to meet up with Danny, the guide from Hawaii Forest and Trail, who would be taking a group of twelve, including myself, on a tour of the Kilauea Volcano.
This had been organised by Becky at the Big Island Visitors Bureau, in response to contact from Debbie in Oregon about my visit here.
We drove across the island, and Danny told us stories of the history and culture of Hawaii, as well as facts on volcanos, and the formation of the Hawaiian Islands chain.
Our first volcano stop was to overlook the huge Kilauea Caldera, a crater which is three miles long and two miles wide. Smoke seeps out of cracks in the floor, and the whole scene is quite other-worldly.
  
Next we took a walk through a lava tube, which is formed when flowing lava develops a skin over the top, but continues to run underneath the surface, forming a tube of flowing molten rock. When the lava stops flowing, an empty rock tube remains, and these can often be miles long.
We also took a look into the smaller Kilauea Ika Crater, and behind that we could see the huge plume of sulphur dioxide which the volcano has been producing for months.
  
Or final stop of the day was to see the spectacular point where flowing lava reaches the sea. At the water's edge, the lava instantly boils the seawater, which causes a huge steam cloud. We were very fortunate to be able to see this, which has been occuring at this point only for a matter of weeks, as for the previous few days the wind has been blowing in the wrong direction, and the road has been closed due to the danger. However, today the wind shifted, and the road was opened again - perfect timing. Where the lava meets the water there are often explosions, with new rock being thrown high in the air.
As the lava meets the water, it is cooled and solidifies, and becomes new rock, and the Big Island continues to get bigger - what an amazing process to see in action.
  
The whole experience was quite incredible, and the views stunning. Huge thanks to all who have helped make this possible, Debbie for acting so efficiently as my personal organiser, Becky for arranging the trip for me, Danny for his incredibly well-informed guiding services, and all at Hawaii Forest and Trail, and Barbara for her kind offer of accomodation for my stay here.
Another active volcano... and an earthquake!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
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On our last full day in Quepos, Moe and I were keen to go out on the horses again, and John and Jelene were kind enough to take us back to Finca Tranquila, despite not wanting to come riding a for third time. Raoul had our usual two horses ready, andpromising not to be too long, Moe and I were off.
We crossed the river again, and then chose a different track to the first ride we had taken out that way. With this being our last opportunity, I was keen to do as much galloping as possible, and Lucero and Vanessa seemed willing, and we covered distance pretty quickly.
My decision to wear shorts started to look a little mis-guided, as my calves started to develop a couple of new saddle-sores to add to my previous ones, but after turning for home the horses were still keen, and we galloped much of the way back. It was a wonderful experience, and I felt so much more at ease at speed.
Every now and then I would look over at Moe galloping along beside me, and despite the fact that we weren't on a beach at sunset, this really felt exactly like I had hoped my horse-galoping goal would feel. I was in control and felt (reasonably) confident, and best of all, I had a wonderful partner at my side on another horse.
We stopped at a little bar and tied the horses up, ordered a couple of beers, and chatted with the friendly locals. The second beer allowed the horses to cool down properly, and then we crossed the river and headed back to the stables.
John and Jelene had been drinking too, and were lounging around by their friend Skip's pool. We joined them, and unfortumately two beers and high spirits got the better of Moe, and I ended up in the pool fully clothed. Sadly, my camera was in my pocket, and was completely flooded. I think there may be a few less pictures on the blog for a while.
The next morning we took the little twin-prop Piper back across to San Jose, and as John had a meeting to go to, Jelene, Moe and I ended up with a vehicle and driver for the rest of the day. A trip to one of the volcanoes was soon decided upon.
I wonder if I could have simply taken the last year of goal-achieving off, and then then just come to Costa Rica to catch up. Once again I have revisited a previously achieved goal at the impressively active volcan Poas. It is a spectacular crater, with huge clouds of sulphuric steam rising out of the lake in the center.
  
Eventually we had to say our goodbyes to Jelene, who was staying at the luxurious Hilton Hotel. Our driver Alex dropped us off at our previous San Jose hotel in the city centre with a slightly worried "Are you sure you want to stay here?" I don't think he was used to dropping his clients at such cheap digs!
At one point during the evening in the hotel room the bed started shaking and lurching. We looked at each other, thinking the other was doing something to shake it. But neither of us was, and we realised that we had just experienced our first Costa Rican earthquake!
It turns out that it was a 6.1 magnitude earthquake, more details here:-
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010wzae.php
The wonderfully luxurious holiday is now over, and we flew back to Miami last night, picked up a car and have just driven overnight to Tampa airport, where Moe now flies back to Canada, and I take a flight to Colorado.
It has been a fantastic week in Costa Rica, and I can't thank Jelene and John enough for their kindness and hospitality. They have certainly allowed Moe and I to experience some things that we certainly wouldn't have done otherwise. And my thanks also to Moe for being a wonderful travel companion for the last three weeks. I am certainly going to miss her when we go our separate ways. But I am hoping that maybe this isn't quite the end of this story just yet. Watch this space!!
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Latest comment about this goal from the Forum
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Tanna
by HoneyM
Ian, If you want to be able to walk into an active volcano without all the saftey/prevention brigade taking the thrill out of it I have heard that Mount Yasur on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu can be walked right into. It pretty much erupts continuously.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Yasur
It at the TOP of my list!
Plus the island of Tanna is the home of the Cult of John Frum .... facinating.
Good luck!!
Emma
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"No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams."
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Jesse Jackson
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Go Hawaii