Trip to Catalina Island

12/24/2022-12/27/2022

It was a beautiful day on December 24, the Chrismas eve and we headed towards the Catalina Island. It was an hour drive from San Diego to Dana point and one hour fifteen minutes via catalina express west in pacific ocean. The Dana point itself was great place to explore with beautiful ports and lavish restaurants. It was easy to get a parking pass and park nearby in the parking lot after you pay parking fee.

Santa Catalina, one of California’s Channel Islands, lies southwest of Los Angeles. It's known for its wildlife, dive sites and Mt. Orizaba, its highest peak with altitude of the 2097 ft. The resort town of Two Harbors lies to the north. To the south, in the city of Avalon, palm trees and cabanas line Descanso Beach. Avalon’s circular, art deco Catalina Casino is a cultural center with a movie theater, ballroom and museum.

Catalina express leaves the Dana point at 2:45 PM and its an hour and 25 minutes ride. Dana point is an  hour drive from north county, San Diego. The island is 22 mi (35 km) long and 8 mi (13 km) across at its greatest width. The Catalina Island is about 30 miles from Dana Point.

In the pacific ocean , way to catalina island. It was a nice blue water and cool breeze. Drinking hot chocolate and watching seamless and endless ocean was not only  fun but shows the beautiful nature in the water. I remember the whale watching trip I had at San Diego couple of years back,  and trip in south-china sea at Shenzen in the year 2007.

The golf cart is the main vehicle in the island for transportation that has about 4000 people. I love the concept of using golf around the Island as it conserve the environment. There are about 100 cars (my guess) When we reached the island, we took the taxi to go to the hamilton cove, the home for next three days.

Bison Tour: The Bison were brought to the catalina island in 1924 for shooing the movie, the vanishing american. Bison became the dominating animal in the island ruling widely in the north west side of the island. Its fun to have a bison tour where you will navigate the north west and west of the island where Bison rules and see the beautiful nature. There are currently about 100-200 Bisons ruling the Catalina Island. The trip take you to north west of the Catalina Island and further towards north west, where you can see the Los Angeles in the clear day. We also saw the amazing dwarf fox - they were really small whose ancestors are huge in the mainland.

Bison ruling the Catalina Island.

Zipline Trip. Zipline was fun from the top of the mountain ( so called ). I met the same driver who was driving hummer for the Bison Tour. The guy has a good history of the Catalina Island and talks about fire on 1915 when Island was half destroyed develo. He also talks about casino which is literally a ball room and the history of tiles manufacturing in Catalina Island and how Bison were introduced in the Island. The second part of the zipline was pretty long and exciting. It didn't excite me much although you can see the pacific ocean and it was long when you are ziplining. I had similiar experience of zipline in The Big Island, Hawai. 

Parasailing. This was totally a new experience for me. I find it very much fun and exciting as you put your safety belt and the captain start to let the rope go ahead with parachute. It will go upto 400 ft above high , you will see the tiny boat,  long rope and the port of Catalina Island. I find it very safe and relaxing on the top of the pacific ocean in Parasailing.

Glass bottom boat - fish watching trip. This is an almost an hour trip where you have opportunity to see thousands of the fishes from the bottom of the ship. Its amazing to see so many types of fishes and different types of living things below the ocean. Its very exciting trip that mesmerizes the complexity associated with the nature and how things are working perfectly, amidst of the natural complexities.

Food. Food was amazing in the Island , we tried few different types of food but sea food is dominating in the Island. It was usually very busy and hard to find the restaurant in the chrismas eve and christmas day.

Downtown catalina island

This was an amazing trip and I vow to return to Catalina Island in the future in this decade. The things remaining in my bucket list are day hike, submarine boat trip, trip to two harbor city, museum trip and botanical garden trip.

Sky Diving in San Diego, California

It was  the  decision that I took at the end of the year,  December of  2021. I had always wanted skydiving after seeing cool Hollywood television series every Sunday in Nepal Television when I was growing up, back in Himalayas, Nepal. I searched google , did some basic research on safety and  figured out that it's 0.003 casualties per 1000 jumps in  ten years, that's nearer and dearer to me than anything else. It's less than 1 in 107 dying in a car crash and 1 in 289 in gun assault in the United States.

I was quite surprised but not shocked to find the cost of a complimentary product - video/photos are literally equal to the cost of jumping, I know we live in Instagram world and I do not use facebook and Instagram. I made up my mind and within a minute, I bought a package for $393. Half of the cost is video and pictures. It's a lifetime experience, I am determined.  I checked the weather and Saturday looks sunny with 65 as highest. Now the clock starts to tick and I was just waiting for the Saturday noon.

I was a little  worried about what clothes I should wear although the site has a good FAQ and everything about sky diving. I went to REI and bought a blue t-shirt and altrahike shoes. It was just a coincidence to buy those gears that I had needed for some time.

It was a 30 minutes drive south from the place where I live. I reached the place at 11:40 at 13531 Otay Lakes Rd, Jamul, CA 91935. Everything was self directed. Although the guy at reception  forgot to give me the T-shirt, I got the T-shirt in my mail after a couple of weeks. It is a nice T-Shirt.

The first thing I needed to fill was waiving hundreds of pages of liabilities. I was quite uncomfortable signing the pages many times and each page request for waiver of liabilities. Every time I read it, "we don’t cover this, we are not liable for this." It was really scary - believe me, that part was more scary than jumping from the plane in 13,000 ft. altitude. 

After that they gave me the badge for photography. I looked at  the trainers' pictures - there were 12 of them and I realized that every 20 minutes the plane flies whether it has 2 passengers or 20 passengers at the maximum.

They gave me basic training about safety. Later, I met my instructor, Chris - a middle aged man who does this for fun and has been doing the same in the Army. I didn't stop short of saying, I used to work in Nepalese Army for 9 years, The bond becomes even closer. He walked me through what's going to happen. I was even more confident

As we started to move towards the plan for the flight, it was even more exciting. We were marching like the soldiers. The plane has long horizontal seats on two sides where two individuals can sit, the door looks pretty rudimentary.

Everybody was instructed to put on the seat belt, there was only one pilot driving and cock-pit was pretty open, the other side of the pilot seat was empty.

My instructor and I were sitting face to face and he showed me the beautiful parts of Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California. It also had a majestic view showing the pacific ocean in the rim. The plan was hitting 50-60% in grade, the sky was blue and clean and we are waiting for 13,000 ft. in altitude. Chris asked me to sit in his lap and he fixed all the clips. It was quite an experience being dependent on someone for your life. But honestly, you are doing the same when you are flying in the airplane or somebody is giving you a ride in motorbike.

There was a couple behind me, she looked very stressed and nervous. She asked me “ Have you done this before” , I said to her , “No, first time”, She said you look very calm, I said I am really excited. Her face looked nervous and she was nervous. I keep on making things calm and easy and keep on exciting them. We were only three for tandem jump.

Then in front of my eyes, they opened the door which is in the back side of the plane. The  solo jumper started to jump in the air like a spider man - quite amazing, huh ? I feel like I was watching a spider man or matrix - resurrection ( actually this weekend I watched both of those movies in theater, I found Dr. strange in spider man and wondering you will take me to the amazing land of Himalayas, Nepal)

I realized that our time is coming and Chris told me that I have to lean towards him when we are falling and jumping. Also, I was instructed to put my legs close together and lean my feet up towards the sky.  I didn’t know why but it's all about gravity in the free fall and I was not sure if I could do that right or not. As we reached the door of the airplane, I believe I did right. When I saw the pictures and video later, I found I was doing a back-flip at 13,000 ft. altitude. How exciting is that ? It's truly more beautiful than the matrix - resurrection. I love you Keanu Reeves! and Trinity

It was really really  fast for the first 15 seconds but it was the moment I was looking for. Every second counts as you fall down and you feel like you are in the phantom of space where nothing really exist and your mind doesn't have time to think anything else, forget about your body or existence. I really enjoyed it, it was too short, it was like being more than in the metaverse, the real metaverse, not the digital fantasy that you created in the computer programs. 

I really enjoyed that part of the fall and certainly I was in the sky looking downwards and my cameraman was in front of me. For a long time he was asking me to see the camera but I didn’t realize, I keep on seeing his eyes. I just came out of the metaverse, how could I realize the reality. Finally I realized I had to  see a camera, so I did it. After a few minutes I had a pressure in my shoulder and certainly the parachute opened, after that it was simply an easy and relaxing flight as you watch the beautiful terrain of southern California and lower your altitude. The parachute swings to and fro and falls down gently towards the ground.

Chris told me to put my legs a little up when we were landing, we landed perfectly. It was amazing, it was a great experience, it was something you should think about, it was a life changing experience and yes, I am going to do it again!!.

The video: Dec 11, 2021, San Diego, CA

I thanked Chris and my photographer for being so close to my life. I am done, that's all about my sky diving 101 ? What do you think ? I expect to do the second one in the Himalayas, Nepal  near Everest at least from 20,000 ft from sea level.