All posts by Paul Goldberg

Panama - Columbia

Panama – Day One

After an uneventful overnight flight and transfer to Central Hotel in Panama City. We set out to walk around places we remember from a year ago. This are of Colonial Panama City is very contained consisting of three East-West avenues named A Central and B connected by many cross streets. 

Our introductory information had several suggestions for free time including a Mola Museum which seemed new to us. As we strolled we came across it and decided to take a look. Although the material had suggested there was an entry fee, it was free admittance. We wondered why we had not seen it last year and on asking we learned it had opened three months ago. Here is a link to a picture of a Mola.

We wandered back to the hotel and encountered a photo shoot in the lobby https://photos.app.goo.gl/WCDANnEYRKrxDxJd8 

We met with some of our group, down to 15 from the original 21, and had a short walk around the area and 6 of us went to a roof top bar CasaCasca to watch the sunset over a round of adult beverages.

After dinner and a good nights sleep we are ready for the first day of the trip. 

Panama - Columbia

The Trip Begins

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We completed the first and maybe most difficult part of the trip, driving to LAX late afternoon. We picked up the car in the morning and after parking it on our site we took the Jeep and went to Missy’ 15th Hole at Rancho California RV Park across the highway from us. I cannot remember how many has owners/chefs this place has had in the 5 years we have been coming here. Carol and I hope Missy will be around for a while, not that there is anything wonderful being offered, just that it is tasty and pleasant to . eat there. A vast improvement on her predecessors. 

We finally closed the suitcases and loaded them into the rental Mazda allowing ourselves a generous four hour  to fill the gas tank and return the car and get to LAX Terminal 3. We got it done in 3 hours.

We are in the Lounge and it is time to head on down to the gate. More to follow.

Panama - Columbia, Paul Goldberg Blog

Life in Jojoba Hills

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Our winter home base, Jojoba Hills SKP Resort, is a place of transitions. Members leave for travel, return from travel, change their location in the park and leave the park either to be closer to family, or because the they are no longer willing or able to live the RV lifestyle. Last year 8 members died in the park. Visitors come and go and as fast a space opens up due to a departure a new member arrives and enters the community bringing different talents interests and abilities. It has been said that if the park has a need of a talent or skill not found here, a new member will arrive to fill the need. 

Sometimes it’s a matter of a current member finding an ability that has laid dormant for a lifetime waiting for the call. I have found my niche in the tech side of things. I wonder how it is that I am chairing a committee to research a new phone system for the park. I will not be doing this alone, the entire JCATS crew are in on the task. For those who have not seen that acronym before Jojoba Communication and Technology. Not sure where the S came from.  We service and maintain the TV, Phone and Internet service to each pedestal in the park. From college days I learned to wire phones in my dorm room because the phone company never provided a long enough cord and there were no jacks. TV I have had to learn since the system encompasses 283 sites spread over acres. Internet is the easiest, usually, because the signal propagates over the phone lines and either it works or it doesn’t, mostly. Running these wires through an RV is another matter and often we suggest bypassing the internal wiring and bringing a cable in the window.

No surprise to myself I also serve on the Finance Committee and the Marketing Committee. In between meetings and travel I play bridge. 

We are preparing to go on another trip in a week. We leave for Panama on the 9th to complete the trip we had to leave last year. Watch this space for details as we travel. In addition to Panama we will go to Bogota and  Medellin before returning to LA  on the 27th. Our return from Ethiopia landed us at LAX on Friday at 1 PM after 48 hours in transit and we spent a miserable 5 1/2 hours driving a normal 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive to Jojoba. This trip lands us in LAX at 1 PM on Friday. We have taken a hotel room near our son for Friday night and will drive home Saturday morning after a good nights sleep. 

Paul Goldberg Blog

Two Days with Friends from College

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Each year the Londons come out to Palm Desert for February. We look forward to spending time with them when they are here. This year they had a large house with spare bedrooms and bathrooms and we were delighted to drive over the mountain and have two days and an evening with without having to drive back over the mountain in between.

We started with the Palm Beach Air Museum located adjacent to the airport.

We are in front of one of the few remaining B-17 Flying Fortresses from a fleet of over 12,000 built during WW II housed at the Palm Springs Air Museum.

Carol and David in the radio room of the plane

Our next event was a jazz concert by Houston Person at Pete Carlson’s Golf & Tennis. Yes that’s right the venue is a Golf and Tennis shop by day and often after dark a jazz venue.

The Jazz was wonderful as was the venue. We were surrounded by a seemingly endless array of golf accessories not to mention clubs and ball. 

Before that we stopped at Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert. There we fell in love with an exhibit of photography themed around History, Memory and Social Justice. We recognized many of the photographers and enjoyed experiencing work that we had not seen (or didn’t remember seeing).  

The next day, Thursday, brought more interesting  stops. First we went to Sunnyland, built by Walter Annenberg where 8 of the last 9 presidents visited and made use of the house for important conferences and just to relax. We toured the gardens and the visitor center which did not require advance purchase of tour tickets.

After swinging by the house to freshen up and meet David we set out for the Palm Springs Art Museum, where we arrived just in time for a docent tour with Ann Loeb, the same docent we toured with a year ago. wonderful energy and excitement about the art she chooses to feature.

The picture is mostly to provide an overview of the space from the mezzanine looking up to the 2nd floor. We decided to take in a special exhibit where we found this sign:

Carol and I were quite excited as we drive through Anza just about 12 miles from our home park often and are less aware of the Cahuilla Indians than we might be. 

After a light meal in the gallery courtyard cafe, Carol and I said good by to the Londons and headed over the mountain to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort. 

A small story of coincidence: Last May we attended my class of ’64 Reunion and I served as Class Marshall. A photographer  took pictures of all of us in the regalia of top hat and cutaway. I have sort of been waiting to receive the promised print. When we arrived at Toby and David’s in Palm Desert, David handed me an envelope addressed to him, mailed just before they left Providence with my picture and a letter of thanks to David! I sent an email thanking the university alumni association for the unique delivery method, only wondering how they knew we would be together, on the west coast in February.

 

Morocco, Morocco and Ethiopia

More Morocco

It seems I got us through the desert and lost interest in keeping up the blog.  I will use pictures to complete the trip with the family here.

Sunset in Rabat on the Shore Josh, Alexander, Cory, Rhoma

Off road in the Sahara

Camp in the desert

Tea with a nomad in the Sahara

Not sure this needs a caption

A synagogue in Marrakesh. Yechiel shows the old wrapped Torah

Fresh from the deep fryer, oh so good!

In the weavers guild

Silk from the Yucca

The oldest tannery 

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[Show slideshow]
Fun in the Film Museum 

More pictures to come

Morocco and Ethiopia, Paul Goldberg Blog

Returning to US

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We are in travel mode heading back to California. We have been in Morocco with our family for 2 glorious weeks, about which much more later. We spent 3 days in Tel Aviv at the 
David Intercontinental on the beach relaxing and recovering in preparation for 10 days travel in Ethiopia. The latter was among the roughest travel we have undertaken. After three luxurious nights in  the Addis Ababa Sheraton we went to Bahir Dar, Gondor, Lalibela and finally Axum. More about that later too, but note we moved every other day until Axum which was the departure point for the long days of travel we are in the midst of.

Wednesday morning we flew on a Dash 8  from Axum to Addis Ababa. Eyob, our guide, split the group, taking those of us flying onward immediately, the Poleshuks and Barb, to the International Terminal for our Ethiopia Airlines flight to Tel Aviv. We left the hotel at 8 AM Ethiopia time and arrived in Tel Aviv at about 8 PM TLV time total travel 13 hours. We said goodnight and farewell to Joyce and Vic as we went to our rooms. They flew out early this morning. 29 hours later our next flight is 1 AM to Paris 5 hours and following a 5 hour layover we finally arrive in LAX at 1 PM after a 10 hour flight. 49 hours from departure in Axum we will rent a car in LAX for the 2+ hour dive to Jojoba Hills. 

The original plan was to do the whole trip with no break, but I messed up and added a day in Tel Aviv by mistake. I am grateful as we both needed a good nights sleep in a comfortable bed. Vic located this hotel, Sadot, on TripAdvisor and we are happy. It is quiet, comfortable and has a free shuttle to the airport. Breakfast is excellent. The hotel is on the top 2 floors of a mall in a medical center, not a tourist location, but perfect for our needs. 

Ethiopia, Morocco and Ethiopia

Shabbat in TLV on to Ethiopia

After all our walking during the day we decided not to go out for dinner. But where to get food on Shabbat in the hotel. The main dining room wanted $83 per person for a buffet! We went to the bar and ordered some cold appetizer plates and drinks and called it dinner. All things considered it wasn’t a bad meal. In the morning we decided to walk to Jaffa and have lunch at Pua Cafe (or Puaa Cafe) in the Flea Market. Even with active GPS it was a bit of a struggle finding our way. I kept thinking I knew where it was and putting the phone in my pocket only to miss the next turn. We got there, we enjoyed the meal and the ambiance and resolved to walk back to the hotel. Total distance over 4 miles. 

We had an early bedtime as we needed to get in a cab at 5:30 AM to catch our plane to Addis Ababa for our tour in Ethiopia. As planned we met Joyce and Vic in the airport and boarded the flight for a 4 hour trip which actually took just over 3 hours. The flight path was down the length of Israel and out over the Red Sea until making landfall in Eritrea. Everything was uneventful until it was time to pick up luggage. They had a separate carousel for Budiness Class luggage and one of our bags was there already as we cleared the formalities. And we waited for the other. And we waited. Joyce and Vics luggage was secured from the main carousel and still no sign of our second bag. I started to file a claim and our bag turned up in the hands of the person who was to guide us to our bus. It was found on the economy carousel. 

We arrived at the hotel a bit stressed and tired but happy to meet Jan our tour director in the lobby. Touring starts early afternoon.

Morocco and Ethiopia

2 Days in Tel Aviv

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With Shabbat to follow.

We arrived late at night into a fierce electrical storm with driving rain. Our cab driver got us to the hotel in plenty of time and by 3 am we were sound asleep.

Thursday morning the rain continued only slightly abated. We had some laundry that needed to be done. The David InterContinental laundry list started with $5 (that’s US dollars) for a pair of socks! Looking at $200 for what we needed done.  Google offered us several laundry options within a  20 minute walk. The first one I got to was a do it yourself laundromat, not what I was looking for. The next, Day Laundry Tel Aviv, was full service, located in what appeared to be an alcove just off the street.  “It will ready by 2 tomorrow we close for Shabbat at 4!” Carol and I returned at 3 PM on Friday to pick it up. NIS 70 (about $20) for everything. 

Later in the afternoon, on Thursday, the rain had let up some more so Carol and I set out for a walk to buy a Bar Mitzvah present at a Judaica shop we had found on the web and with the help of Janet in the Executive Lounge of the hotel. The walk took us through the Carmel Market which stretched on for several blocks. We found the shop and found a wonderful gift which we will carry back with us. We returned through the market and resolved to return the next day when it was supposed to be clear.

Friday morning I peered out out 19th floor hotel room window to see this view of the sky and the Mediterranean.

We set out to go to the Center for Contemporary Art just adjacent to the Carmel Market. The exhibit of work by Jonathan Monk was well worth the time we spent there.

We walked back along the sea and watched people getting into the idea of sun even if the temperatures had not climbed over 60 yet. The pictures of surfers and sun bathers are nothing special.

We had one more walk to take, Carol wanted a pharmacy and I located one about 15 minutes walk. I was surprised when we got there as it was in the Shalom Tower. It had been the first tall building in the Tel Aviv in our visits in the 70’s and was a tourist stop to go to the top. Today it seems rather ordinary. The pharmacy was closing early for Shabbat but they let us in to get what Carol wanted and a bit lighter in purse and a bit heavier in stuff we left to walk back to our hotel. 

If anyone cares about such things, we took about 10,000 steps (about 4.5 miles) today and the evening has not started. 

 

Morocco, Morocco and Ethiopia

Pictures! Rabat to The Sahara

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Here are some highlights in pictures through our time in the desert. 
Still to come Marrakesh and a Balloon flight.

Gathering with Tour Leader Malek
Yechiel, Cory, Dan, Rohma, Josh
Alexander, Carol (Mom, Bubbeh), Malena
Blue Quarter of Rabat, former Jewish Quarter
From Port of Rabat
Same locale

Josh Alexander, Cory, Rohma

Synagogue in Fes
Yechiel with Torah in Fes
Oldest Tannery in Fes Medina
Vegetable Silk in dye center
Trying out some head scarves.
Chanukah special deep fried in olive oil!
Into the Sahara
Camp in the Sahara
Tea with a Nomad
A ride in the desert

Some Gnaua music and dance

Boys being boys!

 

 

Morocco, Morocco and Ethiopia

Further Behind

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From Fez we drove to Erfoud  for an overnight in prepartion for our two nights in camp in the Sahara. I am enjoying spending time with my family more than taking time to keep this blog current. Also once we headed out into the Sahara in Toyota 4x4s we had no data service at all. 

The camp in the Sahara exceeded expectations with lovely tent cabins with running water – hot water by afternoon – and electricity provided by solar panels and batteries. There was no heat and no insulation. The temperatures dropped into the high 30’s at night. The comforters on the bed along with heated water bottles made sure we were warm so long as we were under the covers. The dining area was heated by the presence of our bodies. Somehow I managed to leave the sweaters and warm hat I had packed for this part of the trip on the bus with our main luggage and just had my regular cool weather gear along. I survived. We rode camels, we hiked in the sand and we traveled in the 4x4s off of any road shown on any map. 

The drivers of our 4 vehicles seemed unwilling to follow any of the other cars and often we were out of sight of the other 3, running parallel tracks, only to meet up in our assigned sequence at the next major intersection. We visited with nomads and semi nomads spread over the area. The semi-nomads are families remaining behind while the herdsmen take their flocks farther afield for better grazing, or those for whom the breaking and setting camp has gotten to be too much. 

We rode camels and walked in the dunes. The grandchildren, all teens and 20’s romped in the sand. They soon found that unlike beach sand the Sahara did not stick to their clothes or skin but just slipped off. We visited a Guanra music  house where Dan got to try a new stringed instrument and we got to try the local dancing. 

We were cold in the evening and in the morning. The beds kept most of us warm at night, but getting out of the bed required freezing in temps below 40 in the room and hot water was scarce until the sun came up to warm the solar heaters and the pipes from the heaters to the plumbing. We warmed when the sun was well up in the sky. 

The second morning we  joined our 4x4s for the ride to Erfoud where we rejoined the bus for the 5 hour ride to Ouerzazate. This is a modern city built by the French in classic Moroccan style. Our hotel had all the luxuries and a pricey bar. The biggest industry in Ouerzazate is movie making and the movies made there include Cleopatra and Lawrence of Arabia and many more that we have never heard of. It is still an active center of movie making with three active studios. We toured one that has clearly lapsed into museumhood and does not appear to be active.

I have skipped over Day in the Life. More about that later.

Two days there and then off to Marrakesh.