(Back from the Past) Yehliu Geopark

(from 13/5/2008)

One of the good things of being in a land so far from home is that you end up finding other people that is more or less in your same situation. Well, because I am the last to arrive, I am the one who feels more lost, but that's another story. And because of being so far, it is not strange that they begin organizing events. I think I arrived in the precise moment when ASIAA postdocs decided to start doing something and opened a wiki where everybody could propose things to do, give advice to newcomers, plan outings, etc. This last Saturday, we went to a little coast village northeast of Taipei: Yehliu.


This place is famous for the strange shapes that the sea has sculpted in the rocks of the park. So, walking next to the sea and crossing bridges like this

you can find things like

mushrooms

dragons

shoes

aliens?

turtles.

This park is known for the "queen's head",

which seems to be losing material every year and will eventually fall down. There is a watchman/woman stationed close to it all the time to stop people from touching the rock when they take pictures. It is a continuum of whistles

There was more than this. Before entering the park and doing some physical exercise (at least, I did, walking from one side to the other), we still had time to eat some seafood. Chinese-style, but everything was very good: shrimp, clams, taiwanese oysters, fish. It feels strange to eat it with chopsticks (I still think some food is not made for them), but it is part of the fun. Afterwards, we visited the local little market


It is always a gift to be able to stand next to sea and fill my lungs with the sea air. The wind was blowing hard and the surf was sticking everywhere. I can't remember how many times I had to clean my glasses.

Another interesting experience is also riding the bus on the winding mountain roads that surround Taipei. I was told that it is even worse in roads narrower than the ones we took, but because they drive with little regard of anything, you end up going from one side of the bus to the other. And you'd better watch out when the driver hits the brakes, if you don't want to shoot out like a rocket.