Category Archives: Travel

Costa Rica – Transition Day – Dominical to Drake Bay, Oso Peninsula

November 22, 2011 jd 2 Comments

By Judy Pinegar

Guess what … it was raining this morning and all last night. We left Dominical about 8:30 AM with plans to get breakfast in Uvita. But we all must have blinked at the wrong moment for soon we were past that town wherever it was and still hungry. So we saw a sign for the Lookout Hotel and Restaurant and ventured up the unpaved road to the top. It was beautiful, and their rooms start at $55… shoud’a stayed there! Breakfast was also excellent a combination of German and Costa Rican food.

Tearing ourselves away from the view, a few minute conversation with the hostess confirmed that driving to Drake Bay on the Oso Peninsula was probably a bad idea. She suggested a boat from Sierpe (only 45 minutes away), down a long river and across the open ocean to Drake Bay was the better plan. She even handed us a very not-to-scale map to guide us. Luckily a gas truck helped us to find the town. Sierpe was a very mellow town on the river and we arrived just in time to catch the 11:30 boat for only $15.00 each!!

The ride was something else, a beautiful river, jungle on all sides, gradually getting huge before we entered the ocean. We stopped for pictures of crocodiles, for a tour through a mangrove forest with a very narrow passage, and in the middle of the ocean the boat suddenly stopped cold in the water. Someone said “Well at least there aren’t any crocodiles here, and the reply was but “Watch out for the sharks though?” Turned out to be a piece of wood caught on the propeller, soon extracted and we were safely on our way.

Arriving at our destination we quickly noticed that there was no dock, so the last few yards were going to be wet. Yes indeed and we were on the beach. Soon however hotel staff arrived to carry our luggage, and we were welcomed to lunch upon arrival. We are staying at Hotel Jinetes de Osa, which I would recommend.

So after spending a few hours on a hammock, listening to the waves crashing 10 feet away and seeing through the typical jungle plants to beautiful birds, flowers and butterflies, I was conscripted to write this piece. Hasta Luego until manana and la Isla de Cano.

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications.

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Travel

Costa Rica – Dominical Costal Area – Watta Waterfall

November 21, 2011 jd

November 21, 2011

By Judy Pinegar

Waking in Dominical, Costa Rica at 6:45, far before our usual time, at first we thought that the rain that had poured down during the night was still with us… but no, it was gone and the weather report said clear, but we knew better than to expect that by now.

So we packed our daypacks and waited on the veranda for our ride to the gates of Cataratas Nauyaca. It was a $50 fee for each person consisting of a full day’s tour, horseback riding, breakfast, horseback riding, hanging at the waterfall(s), horseback riding, lunch and more horseback riding back to the entrance!

But the trail (though awful, rocky and wet for the horses) was beautiful, in the virgin rain forest jungle, crossing a very green river (over a bridge) and through at least three additional streams flowing into the river. Upon arriving at the waterfall, called Santo Cristo Falls, we discovered it was a two level fall, the higher was about 200 feet high with several tributaries into a very rocky basin. You got wet from the mist, just standing there.

Walking a fairly steep trail to the lower falls, which were broader and not so tall, but falling into a swimming pool area, the adventurous (not John and Judy) jumped right in. (I would have if it had been warmer but the temperature was in the low 70’s and the water was a little cooler). The guides set up a rope and inter-tube relay to the far side where the really adventurous climbed the cliff through the spray of the face of the waterfall, and jumped to the left, falling into a pool, reentering the swimming area. By this time it had started to rain, but everyone was so wet from the mist off the waterfall or the swimming that no one seemed to mind.

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Upper Cataratas Nauyaca

Breakfast was good, although simple, fruit and bread; lunch the typical “casado” of Costa Rica: chicken, beans rice, potatoes and salad. At the meal station they had a bunch of monkeys that they fed with bananas in the morning, and also two beautiful scarlet Macaws.

But the horses!! I swear everybody had a good one except me, and she was a devil!! Her name was Tequila and she acted like she had had a few shots! She did not like ANY of the other horses… If one tried to pass her she would bite, or lunge in front of the other horse to prevent overtake. If they even got close from behind she would sort of walk zig-zag in the trail to prevent either from passing us, and when they tried we would be into a race!! The first half of the trip (this being maybe my second time on a horse), I sort of let her go, but that just made her worse, so in the last half I was pulling on the reigns and shouting (in Spanish)!! Luckily we got back in one piece.

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications.

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Travel

Costa Rica Transition Day – San Jose to Dominical

November 19, 2011 jd

Sunset beach off of Dominical, Costa Rica

By Judy Pinegar

Waking earlier than usual (8 AM), we found another totally new menu for breakfast, this time including French toast which Ted reported as excellent (we didn’t have any). Our ride to the rental car agency (usavecostarica.com – good prices) arrived at 9:30 as promised, and we were taken to the other side of San Juan. The nice people there answered all our questions, set up the GPS and even helped John buy a cell phone or $36 (Others had quoted us over $100 to $300!).

In very short order we were on the road, although Ted scrunched into the backseat of SMALL 4-W Suzuki was a sight to behold! (And it got worse as the day wore on… not sure that was the right way to economize.) Starting out due west we came to the famous bridge over the Tarcoles River. Stopping at a restaurant with a parking lot guard (the site is also famous for car break-ins) on one side of the river, we walked on a very narrow sidewalk toward the far side of the river to see the famous crocodiles of the Tarcoles River. Although some are reputed to be up to 18 feet long, the largest (of about 8) that we saw was probably only about 14 feet long… but quite impressive all the same! It is said that the better way to view the beasts is in a boat with the guide dangling a dead chicken overboard… then you see some real action… but this was good enough for us.

Looking down on a crocodile off the bridge over the Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Then off we went down the coast, past Jaco (say Hako), to Quepos, where we decided to have some lunch. The restaurant, El Gran Escape (recommended in Frommer’s was wonderful, with 6 kinds of fresh caught fish. John and I both had wonderful mahi-mahi – mine a fish sandwich and his – the catch of the day meal. Fantastic I would recommend it to anyone, and you could tell it would be a “happening” place later in the evening.

A few more Km’s and we were at Dominical, sort of a surfing village, unpaved roads, very close to the beach. We stayed at Cabanas San Clemente, on the beach, which I would only recommend to the bargain hunter willing to go sort of primitive. Unfortunately after a mostly dry day it rained quite heavily from Quepos onward and only stopped as the sun set over the beach. John took beautiful sunset pictures though. The water is not really warm, but much warmer than the Pacific in California… I am sure with some sun tomorrow I will be willing to go in!

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications.

Note most of my pictures are taken with a Samsung G20 camera with built in GPS. The GPS tagging really comes in handy when you get home and wonder where you took that picture. -John

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Travel

Costa Rica – INBio Park and the Jade Museum

November 18, 2011 jd

By Judy Pinegar

Well I was down with a head cold and John thought that he was right behind… but Ted came up with some medicine to be used pre-cold and we took it. Seems quite nice so far!! Wonderful, totally NEW breakfast again! So after a bit of a sleep-in for me and Breakfast for John and Ted, we agreed to split for the day. Ted needed to go see his attorney, and we were going exploring in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Our first stop was INBio Park, a natural history museum, a living monument to the biological diversity that has made Costa Rica famous. Paved trails lead through re-creations of several distinct ecosystems in Costa Rica. We saw several Iguanas (see picture) and other creatures.

After that we went to the Jade Museum. Jade was the most valuable commodity among the pre- Colombian cultures of Central America, worth even more than gold. The museum holds a huge collection dating from 500 BC to 800 AD. Most are large pendants, primarily of human or animal depictions that were part of presumably massive necklaces.

The museum also had a large collection of pre-Colombian terra-cotta vases, bowls, and figurines. Some of these pieces are surprising in their modern design and advanced techniques. Particularly fascinating are a vase that incorporates real human teeth and a display that shows how jade was imbedded into human teeth for decoration!!

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications

For all your real estate needs
Call or email

John J. O’Dell® GRI
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE #00669941

Travel

Costa Rica, Coffee Everywhere

November 17, 2011 jd

A squirrel joined us for breakfast this morning

By Judy Pinegar

The day began with another full breakfast at Hotel Aranjuez in San Jose, and except for the made to order omelet and the typical rice and beans, every dish was a new item! Wonder how many days they can keep this up?? Today our table was visited by a local squirrel, exciting all us tourists, so of course we took a picture too.

We decided to visit a coffee plantation in the nearby hills of Jan Jose, over 3000 ft altitude. We picked the Doka Estate, out of Alajuela as they offered tours even if it rained. The drive was supposed to be 45 minutes to an hour, but after about an hour we found our taxi driver had never been there either. Luckily I had the phone number and our taxi driver had a cell phone, so we got there 5 minutes after our reservation, and the tour hadn’t left yet. True to the ad, it was a “seed to cup” tour. We learned it takes a full year to grow the seeds into a plant, ready to be transplanted to a bigger container, and another year to grow the plant to be ready to plant in the field.

The plant is more of a shrub than a tree, the top of each one can be reached by the arms of the picker (migrant workers from Nicaragua or Panama), who picks each berry individually, only when they are red, so a plant has to be picked many times, from October until February of each year. They fill a basket, tied around their waist, which when full weighs 25 pounds. A very good picker can pick 30 baskets a day, and gets paid $1.00 per basket!!

After that the berries are taken to a wash bath where they are re-measured, then dumped into a water bath. The good quality beans sink, and are exported, the bad ones float and are sold in Costa Rica!! They are then again processed so the outer red shell comes off leaving from 1 to 3 seeds and again are sorted by size into three categories (biggest is best). After that they are “fermented” for 3 days in a large open vat with some water. It is a natural fermentation, the guide didn’t know what caused it, but I assume it was natural (or wild) yeast, as she said nothing was added. The alcohol and some water is then siphoned off and shipped to another company that makes coffee liquor.

The remaining beans are then dried for 3 days on a concrete pad in the sun and are raked to turn over, every 30 minutes 24/7! After that they spend another day in a gas fired dryer, rotated constantly. They are then stored in bags for 3 months (the berry is still “green”). Then most of the beans are exported in that condition as the gourmet coffee companies (Starbucks gets 60 % of this plantation’s crop), like to do their own secret roasting and blending.

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Entrance to the Doka Plantation

Then we saw a roasting room where three levels (light, medium and dark) or roasting is done. This is a very small plant as the only coffee they roast is that sold in their own tourist shop, and are the very highest quality of beans. The low quality beans are sent to another Costa Rican company to roast for the locals and all export beans are sold green.

Tastes of their 7 blends were then offered (John and Ted imbibed; I just toured the gift shop). An interesting fact was that to make decaffeinated coffee the beans are shipped to Germany, where they were decaffeinated through a water process at NO cost, because the German company sells the Caffeine all over the world for other purposes. Doka Estate only pays to ship them over and back to Costa Rica. But again this is a very small % of the crop. All in all it was a very interesting tour taking about 2 hours whicha I would recommend to any visitor.

You can buy their coffee by mail order here is their website Doca Coffee Plantation

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications
.

For all your real estate needs
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John J. O’Dell® GRI
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(530) 263-1091
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Travel

Costa Rica Vacation Day One, San Jose

November 16, 2011 jd

Post office building San Jose, Costa Rica

By Judy Pinegar

Well, really day two, but getting in last night an hour before midnight doesn’t count!! The trip didn’t start too well as they held us for an hour in Sacramento while they fixed some computer problem. This caused us to miss our connection in Denver to go to Houston. When we got there we were told we had been rescheduled on Continental, but arriving at that gate we found it was NOT reserved. We were then put on “standby” but luckily got on anyway. Then somebody had a medical emergency (heart) on our plane, but (also luckily) there were 3 Doctors on board.

The Hotel Aranjuez in San Jose is very nice and inexpensive too. Wonderful FULL breakfast included with a double room (actually two beds and a bath) for US$ 48.00. It is within walking distance of the main downtown, which is what we did today. …oh and RAIN…did I mention it was raining… (pouring) most of the morning? John and I were prepared, but several hours into it Ted realized his windbreaker was not waterproof (duh)…but tiendas (shops) abound so we found a nice waterproof Adidas jacket with hood.

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Rafael Angel Calderón Museum

Our walking tour started with the Rafael Angel Calderón Museum, Costa Rica’s (CR) President from 1940-44, and the social reforms he helped to create in that time period. Educated in Costa Rica and Belgium as a medical doctor, Calderón soon turned his back on the conservative coffee elite to address widespread poverty and poor health conditions among the working poor. He became the first Central American president to primarily focus his attention on poverty and deteriorating social conditions.

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Travel

A Patchwork to Celebrate the150th Anniversary of Italy

July 8, 2011 jd

By Judy J. Pinegar

In north eastern Italy, on the flat landscape of the Venito region, with the spectacular Dolomite mountains in the distance, sits the city on Vicenza. It is home to one of the premier art showcases around the world, called Abilmente, with a spring showing on March 3-6, 2011, and a fall showing to be held October 20 to October 23, 2011 at the Fiera di Vicenza (Fair of Vicenza) located at Via dell Oreficeria 16, Vicenza, Venito, Italy.

A feature of Abilmente are the “Workshops”(or Ateliers), spaces where the practical aspects and exhibitions combine. The settings will highlight the work of leading artists in each sector, providing plenty of ideas to others. There are chances to participate in several courses held by the leading associations and artists in each sector. The planned workshops are: “A Voyage into the World of Color”, “Patchwork” “Natural Dye” “DIY Fashion: Bijoux and Accessories” and “Creating with Paper”:

This year in honor of the 150^th Anniversary of the Union of Italy, there is a special Creative Workshop (called Patchwork Atelier). Here the Associazione Nazionale Quilt Italia, the star of this workshop, presents the Italian cultures, images and landscapes of the regions that have united to make Italy a truly great nation. The show will display, through original pieces of patchwork quilt, the distinctive features that characterize each individual region.

The website for Abilmente, http://www.abilmente.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1764 contains information about how to come to the show including prices, maps and information about where to stay, for the October 20-23, 2011 fall showing.

So fashion your 2011 fall tour of Italy around a visit to the Venito region!!

Photos courtesy of Abilmente:

Written by Judy J. Pinegar
Writer, if you need something written for your blog, you can contact me for further information

For all your real estate needs call or email:

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

Travel

The Festivals of Emilia Romagna, Italy

June 13, 2011 jd 1 Comment

Picture courtesy of Cultura d Europa

By Judy J. Pinegar

Emilia-Romagna is the heartland of central Italy, with a reputation as a great gastronomic center, sometimes called the “bread basket” or the “fruit bowl” of Italy. Pigs still outnumber humans in many areas. So there is no surprise that all of the festivals in the area have food as one of the main draws, and some of the festivals are all about a particular food

March – Fiera di San Guiseppe e Sagra della Seppia (Fires of Spring and Festival of the Sepia) is held in the town of Pinarella and beaches of Cervia. Every year this traditional celebration called a Focarina, the burning of the winter months and greeting the coming of spring. Large fires are built, and the festival ensues, accompanied by singing, music shows, animation and traditional markets. At night fireworks are sent up over the sea. The food focus is on seafood including sepia, a genus of cuttlefish which also produces the dark pigment used in making the brown color sepia.

June – Fiera di San Giovanni (Feast of St John) La Fiera di San Giovanni è l’evento più importante per Spilamberto; si svolge ogni anno a cavallo del 24 giugno, festa di San Giovanni Battista, patrono della città., held in the town of Spilamberto, honors St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the city, but also presents the local agricultural products, crafts and foods of the area. The festival includes performances, sports competition, exhibitions, and children’s workshops. The historic street market, Obici contains many original and quirky items for sale. Si tratta di un’occasione per celebrare il patrono ma anche per presentare i prodotti tipici del territorio e l’attività delle numerose associazioni locali, che ogni anno si impegnano attivamente insieme all’Amministrazione Comunale per valorizzare la manifestazione.The Fiera di San Giovanni is also a trade show for poultry, rabbits, and pigeons is one of the largest and most important shows in all Italy.

August – Ferrara Buskers Festival, held in the city of the same name draws 800,000 onlookers, is the largest show in the world dedicated to “the art of the road”. The name Buskers refers to street-performers: music, theater, dance, juggling, etc. They come from around the world. All are well-known and well-respected in their trade in their home countries, and have incredible and unique talents to share. Throughout the festival it seems anything is possible at any time. They are only paid by the generosity of the onlookers, so bring your change!

September – Sagra della Polenta e dei Frutti del Sottobosco (Festival of Polenta and Berries), held in the city of Novafeltria, the air is perfumed with the smell of polenta topped with wild boar sauce, sausage or mushrooms. The polenta is made from stone ground corn, at least 13 different species! Frutti del Sottobosco means all those delicious goodies hiding in the undergrowth… like local porcini mushrooms and truffles. Other specialties include piadina, a thin Italian flatbread cooked on terra cotta,and homemade jams all washed down with the local Sangiovese wine.

September – Festival del Proscuitto di Parma (Festival of the Ham), held in the city of Parma brings a typical 100,000 visitors, who consume 1,000 hams, and 60,000 meals. For the occasion the Piazza Garaboldi is turned into a open air Proscuitteria, where the King of Hams is served together with the best wines of the area. There is also street theatre, stalls of local products, and painting exhibitions. In a tradition called Finestre Aperte (Open Windows), the ham factories give tours to let thepublic watch the production process and take part in free tastings. They explain the production secrets of the pig legs that, due to a magical combination of climate, tradition and passion, become Parma Ham.

October – Fiera del Tartufo Bianco di Sant’Agatha Feltria (White Truffle Fair of Sant’Agatha Feltria), held in the medieval town of that name, and also called the Truffle City, the festival welcomes over 100,000 people annually with intoxicating smells and exciting treats for gourmets. There are cultural exhibitions, performances, and entertainment. Other foods from the area are also featured, mushrooms, chestnuts, honey herbs and products of sheep farming.

November – Zucca in Festa (Pumpkin Festival) held in the municipality of Delta, has organized events and markets of local crafts and products, food stands, and everywhere specialties made from pumpkin, soups, stuffing, in pasta or bread, baked, fried and cooked into sweets. The pumpkin is called a “violin” and has firm, sweet orange flesh. They even make a distilled pumpkin grappa.

Written by Judy J. Pinegar
Writer and is available to write for your blog or magazine
You may contact her at Email Judy

For all your real estate needs call or email:
John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

Travel

The National Building Museum – Washington DC

June 9, 2011 jd

Photo courtesy of http://www.wheretogetapassport.net/

By Judy J.Pinegar

Although it now houses the National Building Museum, and serves as one of the ballrooms for the Presidential Inaugural Ball, the beautiful brick building was originally designed to be the US Pension Bureau. Constructed between 1882 and 1887, it was designed by Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, who studied both architectural design and engineering at West Point. The exterior of the building is modeled closely on the sixteenth century Palazzo Farnese in Rome.

As Megs planned the new home for the Pension Bureau, he has several goals in mind. First he wanted it to be fireproof as it would house pension records and funds. He therefore employed brick, laid in a running bond with narrow joints tinted to match, giving the effect of a smooth continuous surface. Second, to honor the veterans who worked and visited the Pension Bureau, Meigs used a variety of military imagery on the building’s exterior in the form of a terra cotta frieze which is 1,200 feet long, 3 ft high and features Union infantry, cavalry, artillery, navy, quartermaster and medical units.

Entrance to National Building Museum Photo by John J. O'Dell

Meigs also wanted to produce a modern, healthful environment for the clerks at the Pension Bureau. His innovative plan included omitting doors between offices and the Great Hall. Fresh air would enter the offices through three missing bricks underneath the exterior windows, pass over the clerks at their desks, and enter the Great Hall. Slightly heated, the air would exit through openable clerestory windows above the fourth balcony. In 1885, Meigs determined that under prime conditions the volume of air in the Great Hall would turn over every 2 minutes. 1n 1886, Meigs reported that after one year in the new building, time lost to sickness had been reduced by 8,622 days!

The building was also designed with a document track around the inside perimeter of the Great Hall near the offices. Originally a basket capable of holding 125 pounds of documents would hang from this allowing easy movement of paperwork from office to office on each floor. In addition there was a dumbwaiter used to move paperwork vertically, among the four floors of the building.

The Building Museum - Interior photo by John O'Dell

And as a final touch Meigs made the arcaded columns inside the building be used to collect and store information of interest to “historians or antiquarians of the age when ruins of this building… shall be opened to the public. Collections of maps, reports, and records from the War Department and a copper facsimile of the Declaration of Independence were among the documents enclosed in the columns, which remain closed to this day. In 1995 the Museum employed an endoscope to explore inside a small hole one column, which had been damaged by vandals in the 1960s. The exploration revealed construction catalogs, journals and newspapers from 1883!

Judy J. Pinegar is a writer
She has written for many blog sites and magazines

Travel

Alexandria, Virginia, & The Ben Lomand Manor House

May 24, 2011 jd

Civil War Federal Troops Brass Band May 2011 - Photo John O'Dell cell phone camera

After a late sleep and a relaxing morning, Pat drove us to Alexandria, very close to Washington, but on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. It was a very quaint, very touristy town (reminded us of Nevada City), filed this day with Anniversary Celebrations of the Civil War, 150 years ago.

The town was heavily involved at the time, both confederate and union soldiers had occupied the area. There were many people re-enacting roles from that time, civilians of all types, physicians and nurses, soldiers in both the grey and the blue, provost marshals (sort of like military and civilian police combined).

Federal Soldiers - Photo John J. O'Dell Samsung CL65 camera

There was a military brass band, and we had just missed the appearance of “Robert E. Lee,” (Lincoln was noticeably missing from the celebration; I guess it is a town with a lot of confederate sympathizers!) One of the fascinating facts we learned was that for every soldier in the Civil War killed in battle, two more were killed by infections. Even bringing the soldiers together in units caused sickness, as people raised in more isolated areas of the country had not had smallpox, or some of the other killer diseases of the day. Another problem was that the soldiers contaminated the drinking water with fecal waste from their animals and themselves, so dysentery killed many people.

Confederate soldiers - Photo John J. O'Dell Samsung CL65 camera

We also visited a wonderful “frozen in time” apothecary shop with original exterior and interior, the glassware was original too, and some of the jars had the real dregs of the medicines that were in them originally! Apparently the family that was operating it during the Civil War retained the store and it was continuously in operation for 150 years. At the end of that time they locked the door and walked away, so it was discovered later in mint condition.

A wonderful seafood dinner concluded our day, and afterwards a stroll to the waterfront where we witnessed a fascinating magician’s presentation, holding us enthralled for a good 15 minutes and leaving us totally mystified at the end.

On Sunday we got an even later start, and this time drove to Manassas, to see the newly opened Ben Lomand Manor House. Originally a plantation owner’s house, it was rented to a Scottish family, raising sheep, when the war began. The family was allowed to stay (in only one room of the house) after it became a hospital and ended up selling its sheep and produce to the confederates.

Here again, the worse enemy was infection. One man was shot, but the bullet only pushed his coat button and some of his clothing inside his chest. The surgeons (he had two as he was a higher ranking officer) removed the button and cleaned the wound. But days later gangrene started in inside his chest, and within a few more days he was dead. The man portraying the surgeon, showed us a real surgeon’s box from 1861, the limited number of tools they had to operate with were amazing. We even saw an original tourniquet, a metal tube used for tracheotomies, and a saw that cut a round hole in the skull to relieve pressure on the brain from head wounds.

When one of the first battles of the Civil War was nearby, the Confederate forces took over the house for use as a field hospital. The dining room was converted to a surgery operating room, and all other rooms became recovery rooms for soldiers. Assuming the soldiers lived through the surgery, the recovery beds were a couple of blankets on top of a layer of straw on the floor of the house. If they survived this “recovery” they were sent elsewhere to a general hospital for rehabilitation, as more wounded poured into the field hospital.

There were also some slave cabins, and other original outbuildings on the plantation, and a beautiful heritage rose garden with some very old varieties of roses and other plants of the day. An interesting note is that as the confederates left the area, the union took over the house as a military headquarters. Because the young union soldiers considered the family “traitors” for selling to and helping the confederates, they apparently wrote graffiti all over most of the walls in the house, some of which are still visible today.