Mahjong "Green Dragon" 麻將青發牌

This earthcache teaches about a truly remarkable geological/geographical phenomenon that occurs here and defines, to a large extent, the life of the Cambodian people. The cache is located where the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers merge. Tonle Sap lake lies upstream on that river. During the dry season (6 months of each year), water from the lake flows down the river to this point, draining from the lake until it has an area of "only" about 1000 square miles. but during the wet season, so much flood water flows down the Mekong that the flow reverses in the Tonle Sap, filling the lake to around 10,000 square miles. In most of its area, the filled lake is shallow, and the result is a huge area suitable for rice cultivation. My wife and I were visiting on a trip with iDE, an international charity we support. Later, on their tour, we had a chance to visit one of the floating villages on Tonle Sap Lake, and see how the people live there. Sorry about the poor focus in some photos.

Our trip to Africa this time was mostly tourism, with two of our grandchildren, but we also spent a day each with three of the charities we support in Zambia. Aside from the safari we did on each of the trips, Victoria Falls was the main tourist attraction of the trip, and we enjoyed seeing it again. As usual, I brought along some fellow travelers in my geo-bag, so they could enjoy it, too. We actually saw it from both the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides, and visited a geocache in each country there.

The City of Segovia, Spain is known especially for its Roman Aquaduct and its medieval castle. The entire city center is a World Heritage Site. One of the geocaches we visited here was a particularly interesting one based on the aquaduct, which has both above-ground and underground sections. The route of the underground aquaduct is marked by a series of bronze plaques, which we had to follow in order to claim the cache. Near the end is, to my eye, the most beautiful castle I've ever seen. My fellow travelers and I had a good time here. 🙂

We were able to visit the Acropolis in Athens, and the most special of the special places there, the Parthenon. This is an amazing structure, and I thought that my fellow travelers might enjoy having their pictures taken here. I apologize that some of the photos I took have the TBs out of focus, but it was a very bright, sunny day, and I couldn't actually see the image through the camera very well. IAC, they all seemed to enjoy the visit. 😉

We made a two-week trip to Ethiopia with one of the international charities whose projects we sponsor (iDE). We got an overview of iDE's work there, and then visited clients near Addis Ababa, Ziway, and Jimma. Rounding out the trip was a two-day visit to Lalibela -- the "touristy" portion of the visit. This is a nice community, and we enjoyed being here (except for my 30+ insect bites that kept showing up even the day after we were back home). The main reason tourists come here, though, is to visit the famous churches, created here in the 12th century by King Lalibela. Each of these ten or so churches was carved from a single rock with hand tools. You can see in the attached photo how the rock from which this under-ground-level church was carved continues in the surrounding area. It's an amazing accomplishment, and beautiful to see. Most of these churches are dedicated to particular saints, and are still in use, especially at the times that the church has particular festivals dedicated to that saint. Christianity came pretty early here, but there is also a large Muslim population. Ethiopia sets an example that the rest of the world might well emulate, with these populations not only coexisting in harmony, but sharing each others special celebrations. 🙂