A couple of weeks ago, I shared that the audio version of my first business book was available for free (you can find that post here). I still have some tokens left for the free audiobook, so if you’re interested, just let me know — it’s in English.
Now, I’m excited to announce that the same book is now available in Spanish! And for this week only (March 10–March 15), the eBook version is free on Amazon. After that, it will return to its regular price.
If you’d like to read the Spanish edition, click here to download your free copy while it’s available!
Another FREEBIE will be posted in about a month — stay tuned for more details!
I’m excited to introduce my first “serious book”, which is all about starting your own business. Over the years, I’ve created several businesses—some were just learning experiences, while a couple became major successes that now allow us to split our time between two countries and travel the world for months at a time. My very first venture actually ended in bankruptcy, but I learned from that failure and went on to build stronger, more successful businesses in the decades that followed.
That journey led me to write “Jump Start Your Own Business: 12 Steps to Independence.”
I have a limited number of FREE Audible copies of the book that I can share, and I only ask two simple things in return:
1️⃣ Send me your email so I can send you a token for the audiobook. I promise never to share or sell your email—no spam, ever! I’ll also add you to a list of people who might be interested in future books I publish. Please put “Free Audible” in your subject line, to be sure I catch it properly and return your code.
2️⃣ Please leave a review on Audible—especially if you enjoy the book! 😉 Reviews are incredibly important for authors, and your feedback helps the book reach more readers.
This book was just released, and I’d love to start gathering reviews to help it gain traction. If you’d like to check out the print version, you can find it here on Amazon (and of course, feel free to grab a copy!):
We visited HānI Bee Farm earlier this year. I have always been fascinated by bee farms, and my interest has only deepened over the past couple of decades with increasing reports of their alarming decline. Now that I’m writing books (more on that in future posts), I even considered writing one about starting your own bee colony.
However, I soon discovered that beekeeping requires a significant amount of work and ties you to your home as much as any pet would. Given that challenge, I realized it wasn’t a practical endeavor for me—and there’s far too much to learn for me to write a book on the topic at this point.
I highly recommend a visit to this bee farm if you are in Oahu, Hawaii, or plan on visiting. Here is a brief video of the bees we saw on our tour.
Feliz Año Nuevo – Happy New Year 2025. New Year’s is an important holiday in Ecuador and other parts of the world. The tradition is for Ecuadoreans to say goodbye to the past year’s misfortunes, and make plans for the New Year by burning monigotes at midnight, symbolizing the past year. Monigotes are large dolls stuffed with straw, and sometimes fire crackers. This year, there were 29 neighborhoods who entered the annual Amistad Club Cuenca (Cuenca Friendship Club contest was judged by member clowns). The first prize wins $3k (Mutualista Azuay “Los Con Y Sin Camello”), second place earns $2k (El Vergel “Con El Apagón qué Cosas Suceden, Qué Cosas Suceden con El Apagón” ), third place wins $1500 (El Vado “Ecuador Neceita un Flautista”) and 4th place wins $1k (CDLA Tomebamba “El Jinete Del Apocalipsis Versículo 2024). This year, we were only able to see 3 of the 4 winners, largely to the rain that developed in the evening.
Of the 29 displays, we saw only a third of the entries. One was a pet park (top), where the poop would light up at night. There was another display with gladiators (center row and lower-left), but we had no clue what the message was. The 4th prize winner displayed the apocalypse theme (lower right). It was a unique city tour, seeing many neighborhoods surrounding Cuenca that we had not seen before.
This year, we hired a driver to take us to see some of the neighborhoods outside of el centro, and by 6 pm, many of the displays were still under construction with no signs installed yet. As such, the themes were not clear to us (Middle, Middle left, middle right). The central image depicts patients trying to jump out of the windows at IESS hospital (the local government run free hospital). Apparently, the wait times to get an appointment at IESS are so stretched out that many patients cannot get health care in a timely manner.
The structure to the right of the IESS Hospital is the city hall building with candidates/supporters of former president Correa (bottom and middle left). This past year, IESS was underfunded and unable to serve their clients effectively, since Correa took the money from the hospital to fund his other programs.
When we reached El Vergel around 7:00 PM, the sound system electronics had just fried due to heavy rains. Ironically, El Vergel won second place, with its theme “With the blackout, things happen”.
This past year, Ecuador won 5 medals at the Olympics in Paris, their most successful in summer olympics history with a gold medal in speed walking (bottom center), as well as 2 silver and 2 bronze medals in wrestling and weightlifting, Trump won the US election and is universally lampooned (upper right), Luisa Gonzales is an Ecuadorian presidential candidate supported by Correa (bottom left).
The Tele Terror monigotes (lower left) depict the time when gunmen tied to various gangs and armed with explosives, grenades and long-range guns stormed a TV Station in Ecuador. Rosa Argudo, the union national secretary for IESS, which is the Social Security System for Ecuador, was investigated and fired for irregularities (lower right). Five of Argudo’s relatives who worked at the hospital were also investigated. Rosa was asked to justify how she could afford $900k of real estate located in Quito, Manta and Cuenca on her $1200 a month salary. It was pouring rain by 7:00 pm where Noboa is sitting on top of a volcano (top right).
A group of 10 expats friends celebrated together at Jodoco’s for New Year’s Eve dinner, which had a special menu for the occasion. It was delicious, starting out with a langostino appetizer and ending with some beautiful desserts. Susan, Sandy, Ellen, Evelyn, John, Julie, Don are shown in the photos at dinner. It was pouring rain while we were at dinner, but lightened up at the end.
After dinner, the rain was light enough to enable us to walk over to see the display at El Vado, the third place winner. The satirical theme was Ecuador needs a Pied Piper. The Pied Piper in this case is Rafael Correa (top left). The “rats” symbolize the corrupt government officials, and the ashes burnt leading to the Pied Piper. Guillermo Lasso, former president of Ecuador (bottom left) disbanded the National Assembly in 2023. There has been 4 Minister of Energy ministers in 10 months due to drought, and the latest is Andrea Arrobo, a hydrogen specialist the first woman to hold the post. We recall the reign of silence when Correa was in power, when his critics were silenced, thrown in jail, and heavy fines were imposed on satire during the New Year’s Eve festivities.
The people in Cuenca are quite politically aware, so they poke fun of the system at festivities such as New Year’s Eve and the Mascara Parade (Fool’s Day). Daniel Noboa, President of Ecuador, is shown with the King Felipe VI of Spain in his recent visit to Cuenca in November for the Ibero-American Summit (bottom right). Typical Monigotes available for sale (middle right).
Even with the rains, the crowds showed up. Families came together to start up the new year, some carrying their Monigotes to be burned at midnight. Our Irish friend Ellen was poking fun at the leprechaun (Lower left).
Our Santa in front of the lit Christmas tree at San Francisco Plaza was adorable (center). Burt is flying his drone to videotape the Christmas tree(top left), Julie, John, Burt and Evelyn getting ready for the countdown (bottom middle).
We had heard that globos (hot air balloons) were illegal in Cuenca after two churches burnt down a decade ago, yet here they are being launched at Parque Calderon. There were plenty of police present, but no attempt was made to stop the floating balloons of flame.
Because of the heavy rain, we watched fireworks from our apartment window and toasted with champagne to welcome in the new year.
In October 2024, I joined a 3-day drone workshop in the Utah Badlands. In many photo tours I take, I am mostly just wanting to be taken to photogenic sites where I can apply my skills to come back with interesting photos. In this workshop, I had hoped to learn more about how to get the most from my drone.
Weather and the short time of the workshop conspired, and I felt I did not learn as much about improving my drone images as I had hoped. Neverthelss, I did return with a few interesting images, as the panoramics above show. I did however, learn how to catch my drone in the air on return, which was critical when flying in the crowds of the Pase del Niño parade in Cuenca a couple months later.
One style of image I have enjoyed creating with my drones is called a “Little Planet.” To create this type of image, you instruct the drone to take 35 photos, moving slightly between each, until the photos cover a full 360 degree sphere. Some specialized software can then stitch them together to create images like the four shown above.
Pase del Niño is considered the largest parade in Latin America, depicting the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. This year, it was estimated that 200,000 viewers watched from the sidewalks, rooftops and balconies, with as many as 50,000 participants. At the start of the day, there was a mass on the morning of Christmas Eve, at the new Cathedral. This year, the Cardenal Luis Cabrera carried the Traveling Child to the transport in front of the church after mass. In the 1960s, a priest from Cuenca traveled across Europe, with a doll of the child Jesus, which was created in 1823. The trip included a visit at the Vatican, at which time Pope John XXIII blessed the doll. When the priest returned, the local newspaper declared “The Traveling Child Has Returned !” A parade was then given in honor of this blessed doll, which became the annual Pase Del Niño Viajero parade.
Accompanying the Niño Viajero (“Traveling Child”) are the Grenadiers de Tarqui, the honor guard service of Equador. For the first time, we saw military with machine guns standing alongside the honor guard service regiment (lower left).
The parade itself is actually a collection of smaller parades, mostly from Cuenca and surrounding towns. Each group has their own image of the Christ Child and some villages prepare for this event a year in advance. Many villages celebrate for the 3 months leading up to the Christmas Eve pageant with a series of mini parades. A few of the statues of the Christ Child are shown above.
It was a hot morning this year, and people were parched. There was an abundance of food for kids and adults. Hornado de Chanco is a favorite (left center). For more than 55 years, the Cornejo Solano family has donated a drink equivalent to an alcoholic Ecuadorean egg nog called chicha, served by the bomberos (firemen) at the back of their firetruck (top left) along the parade route. Some people brought empty liter bottles to fill and take home.
As always, the children were a delight. There were lots of kids on horseback, dressed as Santa, elves, cowboys, and action heroes. Some were riding on the floats, while others marched along the procession.
The little girls participate in the parade at a very young age, and some are quite shy in front of the camera. Violeta became one of Evelyn’s WhatsApp friends, when she saw her photo (Top right). There is no shortness of cuteness.
The parade is a family affair, with many coming together to create their own colorful floats. The younger kids can ride on the floats or accompany their parents on horseback.
Then, there are the watchers. Our friend, Lorena, viewed the parade from a balcony at Hotel Alcazar (top left). Other viewers were getting their Kodak moment with Santa at the chocolate shop. Then, Evelyn posed with the statue of the Niño Viajero at San Sebastián Plaza (bottom right) where the official parade started late morning. People stood in line to receive their blessings. Even the horses were decorated (middle right).
Fireworks occur almost every evening to celebrate the holidays. This is the view from our apartment living room window.
Pase del Niño Viajero 2024 — Christmas Eve in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Above is a two minute video to help capture the atmosphere of the parade, which lasted over eight hours.
For the last event of the year at IdiomArt, Sarah HB, the director of the Cuenca Intercultural Community Center (AKA IdiomArt), set up a tour to Gualaceo, just outside of Cuenca, to see where one of the 50 families in the area makes fireworks for various festivities around Ecuador. MIPA – Museo Interactivo de Pirotecnia Artesanal en Gualaceo has a museum showing the history of fireworks, demonstrates the process how various fireworks are still made by hand, then gives members of the private tour a chance to feel how tedious the process is. The chemicals and colors created have been passed on for generations. Miguel demonstrated how to fireproof the string used in many of the displays(top left), a mural of his father, who was also in the pyrotechnics business (top right). To heat up air inside the globos so they can float, pieces of fabric are dipped in wax, then lit beneath the globo (bottom left, hot air balloons made with silk paper).
After the tour of the museum, we had a chance to interact and blow things up. Our group sent up two globos (hot air balloons with good luck messages — seen in the video below), set off rockets, volunteered to be the dancing cows (upper right) and dogs (lower left), with fireworks lit on their backs. Evelyn (top left) can be seen carrying a bamboo pole with pinwheel fireworks. Sometimes, the group might see a castile in action. For sure, you can see castlles (castles) at Corpus Cristi and some religious festivities throughout Ecuador (see our 2018 Corpus Cristi blog here).
Here are members of the tour group organized by IdiomArt.
Fireworks at MIPA Pyrotechnics in Gualaceo, Ecuador. The tour includes helping launch globos filled with hot air that floats to the sky, dancing cows and dogs, then snores, and finally exploding boxes of fireworks that MIPA Pyrotechnics makes.
Merry Christmas to everyone. Here’s a drone shot of this year’s Christmas tree in Cuenca.
Wishing everyone Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. We’re back in Cuenca, Ecuador for the holidays and working on a new project during our retirement years.
This post is a bit different from our normal blog posts, since it does not involve travel. Instead, this announces our new business venture — publishing books!
The covers of the first two books are shown above. These are educational coloring books, intended for children age 4 through 10, though I already have a video sent from a reader showing her 3 year-old niece having fun with one of the books.
I was a dinosaur fanatic when I was a kid, and thought I knew all the dinosaurs, but there are several here that I never heard of! Thus, part of the education is simply learning about new dinosaurs the kid likely never knew about before.
These books differ from most coloring books though, in that the focus is on Education and Fun. Every drawing is paired with a page of text that describes the dinosaur, how it lived, and what was unique about it.
For example, here are the pages for a Baryonyx:
And here is the page pair for Diabloceratops:
The text on the back cover of each book explains the philosophy behind the books:
Discover a fun and educational twist on coloring books! Each book in this series features a detailed description of a dinosaur, including what it looked like and how it lived, alongside a picture for your child to color.
Older kids can read the descriptions on their own and learn all about their favorite dinosaurs. For younger children who aren’t reading at this level yet, this is a wonderful chance for parents or older siblings to share quality time together. They can read the dinosaur facts aloud while the younger kids enjoy coloring.
These books turn coloring time into a fun learning adventure that brings families closer!
Both of these books are available on Amazon now, for immediate purchase.
Book authors live and die based on reviews — both the number of them, as well as the quality of the review. I would LOVE it if you would leave a review on one or both of these books on Amazon, which will help them be seen in searches of coloring books for kids.
Many more books are coming, with two others already in the production stages. Keep a look out for future volumes — both additional coloring books with new surprises, as well more serious topics for adults, which will be created additionally in Kindle and Audible formats, as well as both paperback and hardcover. For us, there seems to be no end to finding new activities to do in retirement.
The 2024 Shinnyo Lantern Floating Festival is an enlightened ceremony that honors our fallen soldiers and loved ones lost. It brings closure for family members regarding friends who recently passed. We will never forget our own friends Wayne Spencer from Oregon, Frank Grillo from Ecuador, and several other close friends who have passed recently. The candle-lit floating lanterns provide a guiding light to those who have departed.
This year there were floating lanterns launched for the victims of the Lahaina fires in Maui, the Oceans, victims of war and conflict, natural disasters, famine, disease and epidemics, and the forest. The one hour show starts with the sounds from conch shells, blessings, a live broadcast from Maui, taicho drums, the bows ritual, a prayer from Her Holiness Shinso Ito, lighting the lanterns, then floating them out to sea. The show was Liivestream and can be seen on YouTube or you can click on the link here.
Master Shinnyo Ito was founder of Shinnyo Buddhism and brought the traditional floating lantern ceremony to Hawaii. He chose the date as Memorial Day because it would be meaningful to both cultures. This was the 25th year of this event, and Her Holiness, the Global leader of Shinnyo-en Foundation, joined the celebration. It was estimated up to 50,000 people attended and more than 6,000 lanterns were launched to sea.
The 25th annual Shinnyo Lantern Floating Festival was celebrated on Memorial Day on May 27, 2024 at Ala Moana Beach Park to honor our fallen soldiers and loved ones. Video and photos provided by Mei Xue, Burt and Evelyn Johnson and Livestream from the festival.
Similar to India, the Ganges River in Nepal is a sacred place where Hindus want their bodies cremated and their ashes spread, so they can ascend to heaven for rebirthing. Above is the Pashupatinath Cremation Complex in Katmandu, where a typical cremation ceremony is performed in public daily. Travelers are invited to watch from across the banks of the Bagmati River, which ultimately joins the holy Ganges. The ceremony starts with the coffin or body carried on a stretcher to the temple for its final visit, blessed, and then carried down the steps to a plank on the river bank. The clothes are removed, the body washed with the water from the river by family members, redressed, leaving only the head exposed, before being carried back to the final pyre. The body is carried to the pyre up to a kilometer away, then body is carried in a clockwise direction 3x, placed on the pyre, before the oldest son sets the kindling nearest the head on fire. The body is burned there, which may take several hours. The ashes are then removed and spread into the river.
Katmandu Durbar Square, a former royal palace, is an important site for Buddhist and Hindu rituals. Our guide explained the four faces of Buddha, each facing a different direction, east, west, north and south. Each hand gesture is significant. For example an open palm facing downward signifies generosity.
Buddha was born in Nepal, and his teachings included “Be a lamp unto yourself”. Buddhism in Nepal lost its popularity to Hinduism when Nepal rulers passed laws making conversions to Islam and Christianity illegal, and promoted Hinduism.
The National Art Museum of Nepal is the largest museum in the country, and houses weapons, statues, artwork, murals and collections of Nepal’s cultural heritage. It is well preserved and worth a visit.
The Newari artisans from Katmandu Valley are tremendously gifted with carving intricate designs onto wood, stone and metal. They make masks, sculptures, doors, furniture, puppets and jewelry. In Bhaktapur, two ornate royal coaches with wooden wheels are still brought down the narrow streets during major celebrations (middle). We were going to a restaurant, but the 4 entry steps had been removed to allow these coaches to pass. There were lots of young kids everywhere in Nepal.
The art of Nepal is heavily influenced by religious themes. For the paintings, it may take years to learn to properly make the strokes. A skilled eye can spot the paintings that were created by students vs masters. It relies on skill of the paint application, not creativity, as a student cannot deviate from the folk stories and scenes. An apprentice may work for 7 years to learn the craft before they can graduate to a master level.
The Nepal flag is the only flag in the world that is not rectangular (bottom right and bottom left).
As a side note, we overdid the travel this past year. Burt spent 3 days in the hospital in Katmandu as he was allergic to dust (pollution) and could not recover. Evelyn was suffering from extreme hip pain, so for the first time, we cut our trip short. We envisioned Nepal to have clean air and clear skies because of so many trekkers, but it turns out that Katmandu is one of the most polluted cities in the world.
Heavenly Himalaya, the tour operator we used, and our guide Dipak (top middle) who normally guides trekkers, were flexible and modified our tour to accommodate our health issues. We also cancelled our tour to Bhutan, where we had intended to attend two major festivals.
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