Featured Photo: Tinge of Tangier (Tangier, Morocco; Africa)
Tangier, Morocco is a bustling frenzy of activity at street level. Children run and play within the maze of narrow streets, often blending with the pleading persistent voices of the swarming market sellers. The aged rooflines leaning into deep blue sky presented a steady, quiet contrast to the lively crowds just below. Not just another continent, the African city felt like another world.
“It’s a jungle out there” has been cliched to the point that the phrase almost always brings to mind a complex urban landscape. But sometimes…
It really is a jungle.
Our views from Yokahu Tower extended more than ten miles, out to Luquillo, Fajardo and San Juan and into the North Atlantic waters that border Puerto Rico’s northern shores.
To the west, Los Picachos and Pico de El 
Yunque rose from amongst the 240 known plant species native to El Yunque National Forest. Far to the east, beyond our sight but visible from El Yunque Peak on the clearest of days: the Virgin Islands.
As we breathed it all in, I remembered swimming years before in the seas of St John and Virgin Gorda, only vaguely aware that Puerto Rico was just over there… to the west. Now I stood on Puerto Rico’s main island knowing that I’d once 
chased eagle rays through waters just over there… to the east. As my brain slowly arranged it all in geographical order, it struck me that whether surveying jungle, ocean or mountain, a little on-the-spot perspective is more effective than any map in connecting them all across one beautiful and ever intriguing planet.
Updated from September 29, 2010.
The uniformed lady shook her head and informed me that my planned walking route into Chinatown was no good. “It’s all hill,” she said, not realizing that she’d just confirmed my decision.
San Francisco’s drastic changes in elevation are no exaggeration. Cars systematically park with wheels turned in to the curb. The Metro buses and trolleys run strategically up and down the steepest slopes. Women do not where high heels without ready transportation available, but it’s a great walking city and navigating San Francisco is excellent exercise!
Chinatown is always worth a wander as is the Embarcadero along the Bay. After a ferry crossing, Alcatraz is an engrossing ramble rich with eerie histories, and Golden Gate Park holds miles of parkland and gardens.
I walked alone this time, meeting people, taking photos, and just breathing it all in. I enjoyed wandering with vague purposes and grand appreciations and found myself gently nudging some lingering memories from my last visit there with an 11-year old boy who is now, surprisingly, a college sophomore.
A bike ride to Sausalito and late ferry ride back to the city, a run across the Golden Gate Bridge, an exotic pet store in Chinatown, breakfast crepes on a pier… We jammed a lot into our time there some nine years ago and even more in the years that followed. Life stayed “busy” the whole way through.
I’m so glad we took the time to hang off the sides of a few cable cars together.
Updated from August 16, 2009.
Consider the Fairmont Hotel for your overnight stay and enjoy elegant accommodations and memorable dining. The historic Tonga Room features live music on a floating stage and periodic “rainstorms,” complete with thunder and lightning.
