Dale Sievert AKA Gulliver

Gulliver's Travels
​Utah and Colorado--April 2024

   Bob Kattner and I went to Missouri to view the solar eclipse in April.  However, it took us over 4000 miles to do the trip, and it took us eight days.  That is because we detoured to my favorite state, Utah, then turned east to see a few places in Colorado.  In Utah we visited Arches National Park and nearby Canyonlands National Park.  In Colorado we visited Mesa Verde National Park, then detoured up through Telluride, then down the "Million Dollar Highway" from Silverton to Durango.  Lots and lots of magnificent scenes were enjoyed by us.
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In Dead Horse Point State Park overlooking Canyonlands National Park

Landscape Arch, 306 feet wide, in Arches National Park National Park

Los dos hombres guapos enhancing the view of Double Arch in Arches National Park

Double Arch in Arches National Park

The Windows Section in Arches National Park

Delicate Arch, 75 feet high, in Arches National Park

Park Avenue in Arches National Park

In Canyonlands National Park

The Manti La Sal Mountains appear in the distance between two "fins" in Arches National Park

Also in Canyonlands National Park

Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park, which overlooks the Colorado River

Newspaper Rock, a huge area of Indian petroglyphs

Jug Arch, along the Colorado River near Canyonlands National Park

Fisher Towers, near the Colorado River and Arches National Park

Corona Arch, along the Colorado River close to Canyonlands National Park

Bowtie Arch, very close to Corona Arch

Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park has about 150 rooms and was abandoned in the 1300s.

Along the highway between Silverton and Durango, Colorado during a snowfall

Epilogue

   I find it impossible to get jaded in Utah.  I have been there 15 times, nine times to Arches National Park, starting in 1969.  One morning at sunrise Bob and I were in tears and found it difficult to speak, as the deep red rocks in the first light created an overwhelming scene.  It exemplified my favorite quote: "Life is not measured by how many breaths we take, but by the places and moments that take our breath away."  We found such a place.

Next up: Spain

Gulliver's Travels
​Bolivia - March 2024
​

Bolivia  March 2024

   I was last in Bolivia in 1977, so I decided to finally see three things I missed back then: Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world, Potosi, the largest silver mine in the world, and Sucre, one of the prettiest cities in South America.  

   Bolivia, with 424,000 square miles, is about six times larger than Wisconsin.  It has 12.2 million inhabitants, a bit more than double that of Wisconsin's.  It is landlocked, along with its neighbor Paraguay.  The Andes Mountains dominate the landscape, so one sees a lot of beauty when traveling there. 
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   I flew into the capital city of La Paz, at an altitude of 11,900.  It is situated in a huge bowl, which makes for a beautiful setting.  I remember it was quite grungy-looking in 1977, but I was impressed by its beauty today.  
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Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world, at 4086 square miles, which is at an altitude of 12,018 feet

There is often a couple of inches of water on the salt during the rainy season.

Sculptures are constructed from blocks of salt.

Eventually, I suppose the rain will dissolve the salt.

A nice spot for sunset

Fumaroles in Valle de Rocas at 16,000 feet altitude

A bit hard to breathe due to sulfur fumes

Cool rocks in the Siloli Desert

The Andes Mountains extend the entire length of South America.

Another scene in the Siloli Desert

Flamingos live around Chiquana Salt Lake.

It's tough for plants to survive at 14,000 feet, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Landscapes can be beautiful even without vegetation.

This is one of the coolest plants I ever saw. Its name is Yareta, or the scientific name of Azorella compacta.

The city of Potosi is the highest city in the world at 13,420 feet.

Potosi mountain holds the largest silver mine in the world, which produced 60% of the world's silver production in the 1500s when it was the base for Spain's fortunes.

Each miner owns a tiny portion of the mine today, but it is grueling work with picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. The only light is that which is on his headlamp.

Courtyard in Sucre, a city of 360,000 at 9154 feet high

Church in Sucre

Hiking down a 3000-foot drop with "a friend"

A few years ago a mining operations uncovered dinosaur tracks all over this cliff face. They are difficult to see but are shown in more detail in my next picture.

From a long, long, long time ago

Indigenous women in Bolivia often wear the neatest hats.

People watching is fun in Bolivia.

A scene not likely to be found in Manitowoc

​Epilogue

   Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid supposedly didn't do so well in Bolivia in the 1800s.  I did a lot better in March 2024, primarily because I left my guns in Waukesha.

   Bolivia frightens a lot of people, who then go to Europe or Florida or Arizona, instead.  The Bolivians are about as nice and friendly as most other places I visited, so expand your horizons and go see some truly fascinating places.  If you are still frightened, take a guided tour.  You won't be disappointed.
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   Next up is Utah and Colorado, which Bob Kattner and I visited before heading to Missouri to see the solar eclipse.

Gulliver's Travels - Botswana February 2024

 Botswana is another of those places in the world I've been itching to visit for the last 20 years or so.  In February I scratched that pesky itch for two weeks, and it felt good.

  
   Botswana is often called the most successful economy in Africa, generally avoiding the too-common grinding poverty of the continent.  Its 2.63 million inhabitants (half of Wisconsin's) are thinly spread over 581,730 square miles (about nine times the size of Wisconsin).
   The main reason for my visit was to see the famous Okavango Delta.  It is formed by the Okavango River flowing from its source in Angola a thousand miles away to empty into the Kalahari Desert, where it disappears into 5800 square miles of sand.  That makes for an oasis in the wet season, home to about 200,000 large animals, including 18,000 elephants.  It is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, along with Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Nile River, Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, the Sahara, and the Red Sea Reef.  I've seen all of these but the reef of the Red Sea, though I saw the sea itself.  
   After visiting the delta, I went to Victoria Falls, just across the borders of Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Too bad the list did not have eight places. 

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An elephant herd in the Okavango Delta taken from a helicopter

Traveling the numerous waterways in the delta is done with makoros, small canoe-like vessels...easily capsized by hippos if they so desire.

Taking the "youngin" for a walk

Elephants are quite the social animals.

Water lightens the load an elephant carries.

I did NOT jump in for a swim with the hippos.

Nor did I wander over to say "Hello" to the group

On a long walk through a grass meadow with a huge termite mound in the background

A friendly boy riding his burro (or whatever they are called in Botswana)

A female lion 30 feet away

Two adult females with their young after having "breakfast" on some poor impala

What a ride the young baboon had!

No, I did not yell out to them, "Hey, you big baboons," as they are very aggressive.

This group of impalas was wary of a suspected leopard in the bushes.

Impala

These two young rhinos were practicing fighting to sharpen their skills.

I was going to get a really close photo, but I wisely decided to use my telephoto lens, instead.

What we call ZEE-bras are called ZEB-bras in Africa.

A lonesome giraffe made for a nice photo.

Nope, I did not pet the croc.

Nor this cape buffalo, as it is the meanest animal in Africa.

Wildebeests, a favorite snack for crocs when they cross rivers

Some type of fowl testing its fate in lion and leopard country

Victoria Falls, 354 feet high and 1.1 miles long, is the largest sheet of waterfalls in the world, and marks the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia.

One gets wet walking along the path opposite the falls.

But so many rainbows are seen, so nobody cares.

EPILOGUE

One by one, I am checking off my "must-see" places in the world.  I am wondering, when few...or none...are left, how will I feel?  Perhaps it will be like the old Peggy Lee song that I loved, "Is That All There Is?"  In the song, she said, "If that's all there is, then let's keep dancing."  I like that, as I often go dancing, to Madison and Louisiana for Cajun and Zydeco music and more recently to swing music gigs.  My mother danced until she was 90, square dancing and ballroom dancing.  So, maybe it's genetic...and I'll keep dancing for another eight years.  But before that, I'll just keep traveling, my next trip being to Spain and Algeria in October.
   Next up in Gulliver's Travels is my March 2024 trip I took to Bolivia.

Southern India -- January-February 2024

     ​For decades I had been wanting to travel to southern India to see some of the massive number of Hindu temples that have such intricate carvings and designs.  My friend, Karen, from Madison and I spent three weeks earlier this year to see some of the best ones.  She attended school there for several years as a youth, so we spent some time visiting her old haunts that added interest to the trip.

   I had been to India on three previous trips, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the overall conditions to be significantly better than earlier.  Economic development is clearly evident in many places.  However, there are now 1.4 billion people in India...and I felt as though I saw about one percent of them (that is,14 million people)

 Though India is generally brutally hot and humid much of the year, we experienced that only for a few days.  And we had little rain, so overall we had good weather.
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Catholic Basilica of Santa Cruz, built in Gothic style in 1902 in Kochi in Kerala State.

Mother and baby

Costumed figures in a traditional arts show at the Kerala Kathahaki Centre

Rice terraces and Hindu temple in Coondoor

India must have even more monkeys than people.

Sri Chamundeshwari Temple in Mysore, showing a gopara, a main gate to many Hindu temples that are painted gold

Hindu sites can have some frightening figures.

Another gopara in the same temple

Maharaija Palace, built from 1897 to 1912, once the seat of the Kingdom of Mysore

On the grounds of the Maharaija Palace

The interior of the Maharaija Palace

Chennakesava Temple, built in 1258 A.D.

Arulmigu Manakula Vinayagar Devasthanan Temple in Puducherry, dedicated to the god Ganesh

At Meenakshi Temple in Pondicherry with fellow travelers Kate and Nina, who often made sure I didn't have any "older fella" issues

Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a meditation center begun in the 1920s

A Catholic church amongst a tea plantation

We stayed in this private house in the so-called Backwaters of Kerala.

Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace in Bangladore, built from 1778 to 1789

Cows are sacred in Hindu India, so they are frequently found on city streets.

Three-wheel vehicles, commonly called "tuk tuks," are ubiquitous in India, providing interesting rides for a dollar or two for rides of from ten to 20 minutes.

Statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Bangladore

Outside the town of Shravanbela Gola is a hill with 212 steps leading to a Jain religious site, a religion whose followers do not believe in any gods.

This 42-feet high granite monolith is dedicated to the Jain figure Bahubali and was carved in 1432 A.D.

Sri Chennakesava Temple in Belur, built in 1117 by King Vishnuvardhawa

Intricate carvings in soapstone, a soft rock that hardens when exposed to air

Depicting the union of a man and an animal-like creature

Holesaleswara Temple, built from 930 to 1120 A.D. in Belur

The temple carvings depict intricate stories.

Krishna's Butterball, a 20-feet high, 250-ton granite rock in the city of Mahablipuram in Tami Nadu State

Karen and I with some locals at the Government Palace in Bangladore

Now I know where to go if I have problems going.

EPILOGUE
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India is a place to go to be fascinated.  The temples of the Hindus (comprising about 80 percent of the population) are unbelievably intricate, complex, and beautiful.  The saris and other garments of the women as well as the shirts of men dazzle the eyes.  The foods are the exact opposite of the menu of McDonald's (though I find virtually nothing of either to satisfy my palate, so I tend to lose weight at both).  I could go on and on.

   But the sheer number of people there gives me pause.  India has 1,450 million people, or 1.45 billion, vs. 334 million for the US.  That means India has about 18 percent of the world's roughly eight billion people.  That is hard to fathom, so consider this: if you were to travel to the sun, 93 million miles away and the world's eight billion people were floating single file in space along the way, you would encounter 86 humans every mile of your journey, of which 16 would be Indians.
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    I do not worry much about climate change because I believe that one or more of the thousands of firms and individuals seeking to solve this basically technical problem will succeed before the earth and its inhabitants are destroyed.  One caveat: we might prevent that success by imposing confiscatory taxes on the inventors high enough that they throw in the towel in their efforts.  However, the current expansion of the world's population from 2.25 billion (in 1942 when I appeared) to eight billion today is a far greater challenge, not only for humans, but especially for countless species of plants and animals who have gone extinct or might in the near future.  Seeing tons of Indians but no tigers certainly brought this into focus for me.

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I almost forgot to tell you
this thief stole my bag of cookies right out of my hand...and refused to give it back!

BALI - INDONESIA

Bali, Indonesia    December 2024

   Bob Hope and Bing Crosby went there and made a movie in 1952, "On the Road to Bali," so I figured I better do the same.  I watched part of the movie...not good.  The island itself was much better.  It's smaller than one might expect from all the hype it gets.  It is only about the size of Delaware, at 2230 square miles, 70 miles from north to south and 95 miles from west to east.  But it packs in a lot of beauty and interest into that small area.  And 4.2 million people are jammed in there, so it is less bucolic than advertised.

   I DID have over 400 photos of the island on my SD card in my Sony camera.  I was editing those photos on the plane on the way home.  Then I forgot to take it with me when I arrived at O'Hare, leaving it on the floor of the plane.  Someone on the cleaning staff clearly found it.....and posted it for sale on Ebay or some other place where expensive items are fenced, as Turkish Air couldn't find it.  Thus, the only photos I have to post here were taken with my much lower quality cell phone camera.  

Lempuyang Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Icwara

Rice field in the city of Ubud

Pura Desa Temple

Hindu monks at prayer

Statue in the Monkey Forest

Ulum Danu Beratan Temple

Ulum Danu Beratan Temple

Tegalalang rice terraces

Temple gate of Besakih Great Temple

The famous Kopi luwak coffee is made from the green coffee beans eaten by this animal, an Asian palm civet, after it is "processed" in its intestinal tract. Yummy!

Plowing a rice field

Restaurant in city of Ubud

Ubud Palace, built from 1800-1823

Legong Dance held in Ubud Palace, telling of two kings who turn into monkeys

I bought some neat wood for use in my moss gardens.

Epilogue

   Too bad I couldn't provide some good photos for this post, along with the names of the several temples I lost, as my camera that was "stolen" had all that information.  Anyhow, Bali is a place with fewer thieves than the US, as I was often told how safe it is to be there.  With about every third house having a private Hindu temple, it didn't surprise me to hear that.  Bali is also reputed to be a very peaceful place, with relatively little aggressiveness and confrontation between people...and I can attest to that through my observations.  I often hear the United States is "the greatest country in the world."  After two weeks of peace and beauty, then an immediate theft upon arrival in the US...it makes me wonder.

Madagascar - Part 2

   Here are some more (I hope fascinating) photos of strange and interesting Madagascar.

Being terrified of heights, I (wrongly) assumed I'd never be able to do what the photos show--one of the greatest thrills I ever had in my life.

The guide behind me did not actually help me--but he did have a (hidden) cattle prod that he threatened me with.

This precarious swinging bridge was 80 feet long(approximately as long as eternity)

Olivia took this photo when she was 30 feet above the bottom, so the bridge is actually about 80 feet above the bottom (it looked about 800 feet from my vantage point).

No, I did NOT walk on these rocks.

There are seven species of baobabs, each of a different shape and height.

Baobab Alley, filled trees as old as a thousand years

Two seedlings decided to grow together, how lovely.

A crocodile farm where crocs are sold to zoos and for consumption

Too many to join in a group "discussion"

Plowing a rice paddy with a hand-made plow

Turning over rice stubble with shovels, rather than a plow

Planting rice

Ox carts are common in Madagascar.

Planting some kind of seeds

Planting rice seedlings

Fierce capitalistic competition in action

Colorful garb on a woman living in the bushlands

Ubiquitous potholes lead to enterprising kids earning tips for "repairing" them

Community brick-making is common in Madagascar.

Epilogue

  Madagascar certainly was one of the more interesting countries I have visited.  Being a farm kid, I was highly interested in their agricultural methods, harking back to our country's colonial farm practices.  The tsingys intrigued me for a very long time, so that itch has been scratched.  So, too, for the lemurs and baobab trees.  None of this stuff is in Wisconsin or any other state, so at times it is necessary to spend a few bucks to see something really interesting.  Madagascar is such a place.

 Madagascar - Pt 1
October-November 2023

   Lemurs, tsingys, and baobab trees...I just had to go see them in Madagascar.  So, I went to see all three with my granddaughter, Olivia.  We were not disappointed.
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   Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, is the fourth largest island in the world.  It was formed 180 million years ago when it split off from supercontinent Gonwana, leaving Africa a bit smaller.  It is 226,658 square miles, much bigger than Wisconsin at 45,496 square miles.  It has 29 million residents to Wisconsin's 5.9 million, giving both the same population density of 128 people per square mile.  However, Madagascar is growing at almost two percent per year, which lead to 70 percent of its forest cover being replaced by farmland---and the decimation of its legendary lemur population and other animals.

Black lemur, one of 110 species in Madagascar

Unknown lemur species

Ringed tail lemur

With granddaughter and the boat we were on for four days

Temporary villages are built on flooded sandbars, then abandoned with a flood.

Countless dugout canoes ply the rivers of Madagascar.

Washing clothes...and bodies...at a village riverbank

Olivia made fast friends in a river village.

A typical village hut....with no AC.and only solar power for rare lights

Charcoal is made (by cutting down Madagascar's forests) and sold to riverbank traders.

An iguana climbing a river shrub.

This man cut tall grass for sale as roof thatch at a local market.

Our vehicle boarded this barge to cross the river (scaring Olivia).

The man is building his house.

A tsingy forest, filled with karst formations of limestone that are extremely sharp

In the indigenous Malagasy language, tsingy means "that which one cannot walk on," as the rocks are extremely sharp.

And so ends part 1.  Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!
Dale

Dale Sievert

Iceland 
Part 2 of 2

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After a fresh snowfall

Sellfoss Falls

Unnamed church

Godafoss Falls (Waterfall of the Gods)

Sod house

This church was built in 1905 by farmer/merchant Magnus Sigurosson

You might call this gauche. I think it's cool.

Road on the north coast of Iceland

Private chapel and farmhouse

"Quite a nice cemetery in which to end up in."

Another one of the private churches I saw in Iceland

Hallgrimskirkja, the cathedral in Reykjavik, 244 ft high, built in 1986

Iceland has an enormous amount of moss.

I found a pot of gold at the base of this rainbow and donated it to the church in the distance.

Epilogue

Iceland is beautiful, barren, interesting, windy, unique, cold, icy, etc., etc., etc. Plenty of reasons to avoid it, but even more reasons to visit it, so go!

ICELAND - PART 1 of 2
September 2023

DALE SIEVERT

   In September 2023 I spent 12 days circumnavigating the island of Iceland.  It's relatively small, only 65% the size of Wisconsin, with a mere 400,000 people.  However, it has vastly more waterfalls than Wisconsin, some 10,000, and it felt as though I saw two-thirds of them.  It is reputed to be about the safest country in the world, which is maybe why I never saw a single squad car.  It is also reputed to be one of the happiest countries in the world.  I found that highly questionable, as I did not notice an abundance of smiling and laughing folks.  Scotland and New Zealand, I thought, beat out Iceland there.  And why, I thought, would anybody be so happy when it is so verrrrrry dark for so verrrrry long (in the winter, that is).....and where I saw only about 50 trees. In total.  Finally, how can they be so happy when the winds ranged from 30 MPH on "calm days" to 90 MPH (I actually saw that on a map of the country showing wind speeds at every location--and I experienced that, so now I have another reason NOT to go to Florida, knowing what a hurricane feels like).

   I had read that Iceland is incredibly beautiful, maybe the best in the world, so I was actually quite excited to go there.  About 30% of the areas I visited were proof of that, but the other 70% was quite barren and unkempt-feeling (though I can see that many people might like that "rugged beauty.").  And then there is all that RAIN.  Still, I am glad I went, as the good parts far exceeded the "bad parts" of the trip. 

Keiro Crater, formed by a sinkhole rather than an eruption

A geothermal field, one of many that provide heating and electricity in Iceland

This geothermal complex sends nearly boiling water 40 miles in pipes where it arrives at 80 degrees.

Really hot! Really foul-smelling!

The red pipe carries the water for 40 miles.

Just a nice waterfall whose name I forgot.

If you ever wish to live on a farm, this might be the place for you.

Another waterfalls, with 9998 left to show

Some really nice buttes

Then again, you might want to be Farmer Jones here

Black sand beaches near Hof formed by eroded volcanic rock

What a place for sheep to graze, with such a beautiful icefield to peer at

Eroded volcanic rock makes for beautiful scenes all over Iceland.

Still another also-ran waterfall to add to the scenery

Like the hikers on the left, I walked to the glacier in the distance.

This was the view at the end of the trail.

Gullfoss Falls, or Golden Falls in English, is the most popular falls in Iceland.

This ends part 1 of ICELAND!
Stay tuned for next week's "Iceland Part 2"
See you then!
(Pretty exciting huh?)

Not Dale Sievert

Dale Sievert

Poland--April 2023
​
   Zywert (Sievert), Leszcz (Leschke), Bac (Bonk), Szczpinski, Nowak, Woda, Osesek, and Glyzewski (Glish) were the surnames of my Polish ancestors, who emigrated to America from 1866 to 1883.  I estimate that I have 92 percent Polish ancestry, so I travel to Poland a lot. 

This April I made my fourth trip there, along with my cousin and his daughter.  My mother, who spoke fluent Polish (but, unfortunately, did not teach it to me), went to Poland with me in 1983 and 1987.

   Poland was initially formed of West Slav Lechites, referred to as "people who lived in open fields" in the early Middle Ages.  Duke Mieszko is considered as the founder of Poland when he adopted Christianity in 966 A.D.  Poland rose to be a great European state during the Jagiellan Dynasty, lasting from the 14th to the 16th Century.  It hit its first low point from 1795 to 1918 when the country was swallowed up by Russia on the east, Austria on the south, and Prussia (a German state) in the northwest, where my family lived. 

Poland arose again on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, following the loss of WW I by Germany and Austria.  Finally, Germany again did horrors to Poland from 1939 to 1945, killing many millions.  In 1983 my mother and I spoke with several survivors of WW II, all of them shedding copious tears, quite a moving experience.
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Warsaw Old Town, rebuilt following the destruction of WW II

Birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus, 1473-1543 in Torun, who established the heliocentric view of the solar system

St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow, built in 1347 in Polish Gothic style

Wawel of Krakow, begun in 970, with the castle added in the 14th Century

An avant-garde restaurant in Krakow requests men to use urinals according to what they drink: Mleko (milk), vodka, piwo (beer), or woda (water).

With Jozef Zywert, Dale's third cousin, at the Zywert ancestral farm since the late 1700s. The house was built in the 1870s.

The church in Wiecbork where Dale's great grandparents, Lorenz Zywert and Antonina Leszcz were married in 1860

A monument in Gdansk to the Solidarity movement, started by Lech Walesa and others during the strike at the huge shipyard in Gdansk

A Russian Orthodox church in eastern Poland near the border with Belarus.

Old house in eastern Poland near the border with Belarus

Another Russian Orthodox church

This meat counter had seven different types of kielbasa, or what we call Polish sausage. None of the kielbasa I ate in Poland had any resemblance to "our" kielbasa "including taste".

The Lublin Castle was built and rebuilt until 1828, after which it served as a prison until 1954, used by the tzars, Nazis, and communists--not a nice history.

The Folk Culture Museum in Kolbuszowa, where some 80 buildings of the 18th and 19th Centuries were moved

Russian Orthodox cemeteries intrigued me.

Sadecki Ethnographic Park, housing some 60 buildings of the 19th Century

More cool old buildings

The High Tatras of the Carpathian Mountains along the border with Slovakia

Church in southern Poland

Morskie Oko Lake in the High Tatras The High Tatras of the Carpathian Mountains along the border with Slovakia

​Epilogue

   Pope John Paul II, a Pole, was pope from 1978 until 2005.  I often told Dorothy of the sacrifice I made when I married her in 1966, as I, being 92 percent Polish, and a Catholic, might just have followed John Paul as pope following his death.  He was known for his extensive travels, as am I, so our reigns would have meshed well.  Ah, the tradeoffs life presents to us all....
   Next up, my September trip to Iceland, so see you then.