Top of the Hill

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been riding my bicycle here in Aruba. Was on the road again this morning, this time with a camera. So, here’s a look at my machine:

bikedownaAs you can see, it’s a full suspension mountain bike. This is more of a down hill rider than an all-purpose mountain bike. That rear suspension makes it heavy, which is good for my cardio workout. Plus, it takes all the abuse of riding on some of the rougher trails. Then there are the disc brakes.

bikedownbI prefer the disc brakes. They’ll stop you on a dime and in my experience work better in wet conditions. My bike in the States has your standard friction brakes on the rims. They do the job, but if I ever upgrade that unit, I’ll go with the discs.

No here’s a view from the top of the Savaneta water tank hill. Climbing up that grade requires all the gears. Take a look.

bigtopaHard to beat that view here in Aruba. I take it easy going down. There is a herd of goats that grazes the area, a bunch of lizards, and various other creatures that have a habit of darting out at the last second. Plus, if you blow a tire or experience some other mechanical failure the tumble will not be pleasant.

Bon dia from Aruba.

Published in: on August 9, 2009 at 1:46 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , , , ,

Headwinds

Today was the first day riding my bicycle here in Aruba in a long time. I remembered the steady trade winds that Aruba is famous for. Similarly, I’ve been riding more than 125 miles per week in the States before arriving here. Nonetheless, those headwinds literally held me back. WOW! 15 TO 20 knots on the bow is enough to double the workout, which is a good thing. I figured I would ride into the wind on the way out, then turn with the wind for the ride back. This plan worked generally, but I was puffing that first half hour or forty-five minutes to the point where I was contemplating a good puke just to relieve the manifold pressure. Anyway, sailing back was easier but I burned out earlier so I was unable to take full advantage of the push.

If you need to train for a road race and want some challenging conditions, come to Aruba and ride mostly to the south, south east. Works every time.

Published in: on August 8, 2009 at 12:09 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , ,

Grumpy and Fade

Grumpy and Fade are two more cats that live in my neighborhood on the island of Aruba. Grumpy is the little black cat in the photo below. He’s always making trouble with his pal, Fade, whose colors enable him to blend in with the hues of the walls in the area. Take a look.

fadegrouchJust one look at Grumpy and you can see he’s trouble. At the same time, I’ve seen these two napping in the afternoon, minding their own business. You have to feel sorry for any small creature in their theater of operations. These two can be vicious when it comes to small birds, lizards, and such. Of course, they’re cats: lovable one minute, killers the next.

Bon dia.

Published in: on May 15, 2009 at 12:27 pm  Comments (1)  
Tags: , , , , ,

Aruba Panorama

My wife is an excellent photographer and created a beautiful 360 degree panorama of an Aruban landscape the other day. She took a series of photos then stitched them together with her computer wizardry. (Don’t ask me how this is done. I understand the darkroom but not the digital process.) At any rate, the final product is too large to put directly here on the blog. However, here is a link to it:

http://www.danielputkowski.com/main/aruba360/aruba_360.html

A viewer must use the link directly as you will not find it anywhere on my regular website. You can click on it above or copy and paste it into the address bar of your web browser. (Or so they tell me.)

So where was this photo taken? Well, we were headed out to the Natural Pool in “Old 918,” which would be my Chevrolet Silverado previously mentioned on this blog. The road to the natural pool gets gradually worse until you come to a sort of “last stop” for regular vehicles. Of course we proceeded up the worst hill as Old 918 never shies from a challenge. It climbed that hill like a roll through the mall parking lot. Now we were basically one ridge away from Aruba’s eastern edge; the windy side that is. We stopped for a look around. My wife hopped out with her camera and walked about 50 yards away. As she started taking photos, another truck, the red one you see, started climbing the hill. Naturally, he stopped to chat with a fellow pickup aficionado.

Back to the photo. As it loads, the extreme left of the photo would be looking south by slightly west. Scrolling to the right you gradually look west, then west by north, then north, then north by east, east, and finally a piece of south by east before turning west again. I think so, anyway. But check out that landscape? Hardscrabble rocks and cactus, Hooiberg (the haystack like mini-mountain), distant sea, tiny hotels far off, the WEB plant making smoke, it’s all there.

Enjoy and bon dia from Aruba.

Many thanks to my wife who is a genius at such things.

Published in: on April 5, 2009 at 10:49 am  Comments (2)  
Tags: , , , , , , ,