Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Fishing Vessel

This view from the lookout provided an opportunity to demonstrate the zoom and pixel-grabbing power of the Bigger Cahoona's vacation lens and sensor.  Above we have a 28mm view; 300mm from the same position below:

Then I cropped in and sharpened to get more detail and see what's happening on the boat.  Not bad, considering the distance as captured per the top pick above:

Now try THAT with a camera phone!

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Sandiaojiao Lighthouse

We drove along up the coast, stopping for a while at the Sandiaojiao Lighthouse to look around.  View below is trailhead leading to the lookout in the distance:

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Sculpted Cement Panel / A Real Earthquake

They do a lot of this over in Taiwan - intricate cement sculptures or panels with words and a drawing or two. (see this post of one captured in a temple)  According to the Google translator on my iPhone, the top line says "The beauty of Guishan Island", and underneath, "Leaning Tail and Mole Tail" (?).

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Guishan Island happens to be Turtle Island.  This is because of its profile, which that day we could barely make out through the haze from the shore.  Just so happens, however, that we were among the last to be able to see the turtle shape of the island, because just a few days after we returned to our mountain home in Tzuqi a huge (7.4) earthquake tore through the region and a large portion of it collapsed into the ocean.  Two more days on the Northeast Coast and we would have witnessed the thick of the destruction, but where we were after returning to the village it was only about a 4.0.

We'd been through small earthquakes and tremors before in Taiwan...the kind where you're in a building and the light fixtures will sway but not much else.  So when, at 3:30 in the morning on April 3rd, I heard a text come in from the President (the President's Office sends these out whenever a disaster is potential or imminent) I didn't think much of it.  In my sleepiness I felt our bed sort of bounce around but thought that it was either my imagination or just another tremor that we regularly experience over there.  So I went back to sleep.

Later in the morning we'd just had breakfast and were getting ready for one of our daily hikes on the mountainside.  I was outside tying my shoes when, at 7:58 a.m., two things happened at once:  another text came in from the President, and a rumbling sound started.  It got louder and louder, and as the rumbling increased the ground started to shake.  The shaking got worse, and the ground even began to move not only up and down but also laterally a bit.  The doors across the street - the kind of roll-ups made for businesses - were closed and could be seen bowing in and out, making a loud racket as the ground and building surrounding them swayed by several inches in all directions.  Chenjean was in the shower and had to hold onto a towel rack so she wouldn't fall down.

Now THIS was different!  The whole episode lasted what seemed a long time, but was probably just a minute or so.  That is a LONG minute, however, when the very ground under your feet is suddenly unstable and bouncing around.  You stand or walk on the ground, and expect it to stay right where it is.  Not this day...

Not more than 30 seconds after it was over we went inside and saw the coverage had already started on national TV.  Turns out it was the biggest earthquake on the island in 25 years, and that's saying something.  We were fortunate to not be traveling to or from the Northeast Coast that day, because some of the very tunnels we went through just days before collapsed and trapped many people inside.

So was it over on April 3rd?  Hardly.  A day later we traveled to Chiayi, which was much harder hit by the quake, and spent the night in a hotel.  Now Chiayi is a fair-sized city so the buildings in town ranged anywhere from three to twenty floors in height.  Our hotel happened to have fourteen, but we were on the twelfth floor close to the top.  A little after 2:00 a.m. an aftershock struck and swayed the building so badly that things were falling off the shelf in the bathroom, and my roommate (DeQuan) thought we'd topple over like some of the buildings we'd seen on television over on the East Coast.  I slept through it all, probably even better because of the swaying motion, like I do on cruise ships.

So there you have it - our first real earthquake, and it was a doozy.  Thanking God that we weren't literally thrown into the worst of it on those days.

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Objects of Worship (?)

Not entirely sure what this was about, but am guessing that it's tied to religion in some way.  Didn't look closely, but if those pages are the fake money they use to burn for the use of one's ancestors, then it must be a similar "sacrifice", perhaps to the ocean or another god.  Plausible, since it was weighed down so the paper wouldn't scatter, and since no one bothered it since it was placed there.

Found another one a short distance away:

 

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Fellow Wildlife Seeker

Seems we weren't the only ones hunting for the wildlife!  Pregnant female, looks like.

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Brittle Stars

This was, to me, an astonishing find.  When DeQuan said he saw a brittle star I flat didn't believe him until seeing it with my own eyes.  Aren't brittle stars found way deep in the ocean, living off what drifts down from above?  These amazing starfish must be incredibly adaptable.  And they were fairly ubiquitous, seen wherever the water was deep enough during low tide.  This I will count among our most memorable wildlife finds anywhere.

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Sea Slug

...and this sea slug is but one example.  Perfectly camouflaged among the rocky formations, this guy is one of several that we saw.

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Rocky Shore with Tide Pools

Water and sand through the eons, plus considerable daily tide level changes, has created some really unique formations.  It may look like there might not be much room for life in the little tide pools below, but there's plenty there...

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, A Little Help Along the Way

Now that we were ground level on the beach there was plenty to explore.  As we shall see later, there was plenty of life in those tidal pools, which is what the "kids" were looking for.  But first they had to get there...

Taiwan 2024 - Northeast Coast, Focus-Shifted Shots through Shrubbery at Beach

On our way down to the beach level a good opportunity arose to snap a pair of focus-shifted pictures through this shrubbery.  The effect would probably only be noticeable on a larger screen, such as a laptop or bigger.