Yaviza Monkey

On that morning in 2010 in Yaviza, while we waited for the piragua that would take us on our river journey, we took a short stroll, and crossed the footbridge over the Rio Chucunaque. We chanced upon this scene - a wild monkey, called mono prieto, visiting a small house.

Marcha de la Reforma 2010

On May Day 2010 I went to the Capitol in Sacramento to see a march in support of amnesty for illegal immigrants. (The organizers termed it differently.) Similar events were being held in other cities.

I'm hazy on the specific history, but Arizona had recently passed a law that the marchers were especially displeased about. In any case, the weather could not have been better for a stroll around the Capitol grounds.

I myself was especially displeased about the display of the Mexican flag in this march supporting amnesty and open borders. Mexico not only has strong immigration laws, it actually enforces them. How intolerant!

Whole families came along for the march.

The marchers absolutely loved the police horses. I took this video of marchers gathering around the horses for a photo.

Here's a question for those who want to deport every illegal immigrant. Let's suppose the parents in this family came to the United States illegally, and their children were born here. Are you going to demand the deportation of the parents, meaning their children must also leave?

What about this girl, she has to leave?

Remember, arguments are often won by emotion not reason, and there are a bazillion photos out there that tug the heart strings far more than the two above.

Also, while I'm not going to cover the entire issue of illegal immigration in this short post, I want to note that the matter is very complex, and calling for total amnesty or total deportations isn't the solution.

The march continued...

As I prepared to depart, I saw these three wannabees who had tagged along on the march. They seemed so desperate for acceptance, but the rest of the marchers ignored them. As for the man with the red and black Zapatista Army of National Liberation flag, I doubt he has ever gone to Chiapas and put himself in any serious danger in support of this obscure group. These three men were worse than irrelevant, they simply bored me.

Bok Kai Festival

Bok Kai Festival 2006

Marysville was founded early in the Gold Rush, and it soon had a large Chinese community. The Chinese built a temple to their water god Bok Eye in 1854. Following the destruction of this temple, a new one was built nearby in 1880, and the Bok Kai Festival has been celebrated in Marysville every year since then.

I went to my first Bok Kai Festival in 2006, and returned this past February 25th for the 132nd Festival.

The Bok Kai Parade has many participants from the community, including politicians, high school marching bands, and groups such as the Shriners and E Clampus Vitus. The parade ends with the 175-foot dragon named Hong Wan Lung, carried by airmen from nearby Beale Air Force Base.

Most spectators left when the parade ended. This was a good time to visit the Bok Kai Temple.

Part of the festivities is the lighting of ceremonial "bombs" which contain a good luck ring. Here, a couple lights the bombs from atop the levee that stands between the temple and the Yuba River. The temple once overlooked the river. Then came the runoff from hydraulic mining operations upstream - countless tons of gravel. The levee was built to save Marysville, and today the river flows higher than the temple.

While we took a late lunch at the China Moon Restaurant, in came a lion to bless the restaurant.

We followed the lions to the Silver Dollar Restaurant.

The parade is on Saturday, followed on Sunday by Bomb Day, but I'll have to see Bomb Day another year.

TRT-909 Track Renewal Train

The past three posts discussed the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad at three locations in the Sierra Nevada in the 1860s. That effort was primitive when compared to modern rail construction technology.

While passing though Loomis recently, I chanced to see the crew of a TRT-909 Track Renewal Train at work. In this complex and well-coordinated operation, the crew pulled up the old stakes and track and wood ties, and placed in new concrete ties and track and stakes. The amount of track replaced in this one day with the TRT-909, would have taken weeks to lay in the 1860s.

First Photos of 2012

I had to get up early today to take these photos of the sunrise over San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

I then drove to Point Reyes National Seashore. Taking a solitary stroll along Drake's Beach, I found this Northern Elephant Seal taking a nap. These bulls can reach two to three tons.

Yaviza Wanted Poster

Someday, maybe, I'll write about a journey I took in 2010 by piragua, up a winding jungle river, to a remote Indian village in the Darien Province of Panama. For now, I'll simply write about this wanted poster nailed to a tree in the small town of Yaviza, on the banks of the Rio Chucunaque, where the river journey began. One can drive from Alaska to Panama and the road ends at Yaviza. Panama has not continued the road to Colombia largely due to the activity of Colombian FARC guerrillas. The guerrillas operate across the border (from Yaviza, about twenty-five miles) and sometimes they seek safety within Panama. The Panamanian government is stepping up their operations against these incursions, hence the reward offered in the poster.

In October 2010, a few months after I took the photo, the Colombian military attacked a FARC camp near the Panama border, and killed five guerrillas, including Gilberto Torres, shown at left in the photo.

Another Visit to Occupy Sacramento

Wanting to get a better sense of this Occupy movement, I returned to Caesar Chavez Park in Sacramento on Saturday, November 5. This day's event was the Boycott the Bankster's march on two local banks.

I saw that the Industrial Workers of the World - the Wobblies - is still around. They had set up a table with informational literature. I counted only three of them, each carrying a flag. One flag had the iconic Che Guevara image in black against a red background, with the words "Hasta La Victoria Siempre." Another flag, with red background, had "IWW" and its logo crudely drawn on it. I didn't recognize the red and black third flag, but found on a later Internet search that it was the Anarchist Communism flag.

Yeah, just try your anarchy in a communist totalitarian state. Che would have had you executed on the spot.

I saw a few Guy Fawkes masks.

And profanity.

Speakers with bullhorns gathered the people around and gave them instructions for the march. Stay together. Don't smash any windows. Don't enter the banks.

The crowd then took off for the banks. Staying to the back, I struck up a conversation with another photographer, and thus found a kindred spirit, a conservative who just wanted to check out this Occupy thing. We discussed politics and economics as we walked.

The crowd briefly lined up outside the Bank of America building, but soon made its way to Wells Fargo Bank, which had plaza outside the entry more amenable for an assembly.

The gathering was largely peaceful. However, at one point a speaker started to rail about the money inside the bank belonging to The People, and for a few moments I wondered if some of the protesters would demand entry. The Wells Fargo guards had locked the doors and were allowing only bank customers inside. (How many customers saw the protest and avoided the bank?) But things cooled off and the crowd went back to listening to speeches and chanting and singing songs.

A few California Highway Patrol troopers and Sacramento Police officers on bicycles were monitoring events.

The protest was winding down and I decided to leave. I walked by two Sacramento Police officers and told them that I greatly appreciated them for what they do. They smiled and said thank you.