Here are the, slightly smaller, pics:
Me making my way to one of my schools in the morning rain.
Crystal waiting patiently for the garbage truck to swing by. The truck announces itself to each area by playing a loud song over its speakers. This is good, because i reminds you that it is on the way, but it has routes all around our village and only sometimes passes by our specific drop off point....which means that we hear the song almost every night, but only sporadically does it actually come by our house. So, almost every day we run to the front door with garbage in hand...look up the road for the truck.....wait to hear the song.....realize it is on a back road and not ours...and put the garbage away. The next day....same thing again.
And here it is....accepting our waste.Those were recent pics of around home, now we get to the trip. We biked 20km across the mountians to the coast, 10km along the coast, and another 20km across the mountains again and then another 10km back up our valley. An awsome trip....wet, drenched and a bit damp on Sunday, but Saturday was optimal weather and granted us stunning views.
Our valley. This was taken after the initial climb, in the distance you can see a bridge crossing a river; the mountains in the distance are the foothills of the Central Mountain Range. What we were biking across was the Coastal Mountain Range.
Trevor taking a break after the initial climb.
Crystal doing similar...perhaps trying to balance, perhaps trying to pose....who knows!
Another of Crystal....
Crystal biking up one of the myriad hills that we met along the way.
Our bikes taking a rest...we stopped here for a small breather and a snack. About halfway across the mountains. We were already anxious about seeing the lovely blue ocean...enjoying the ride, but excited for the destination.
Another pause along the way (we did more than justtake breaks...honest!) looking back at the road less traveled.
Ocean. Finally! Here we try to find a calm place to stop for lunch and to shade ourselves in a waiting rice paddy.
Trevor, returning after lunch at the same place.
Tropic of Cancer monument.
Awsome flower - petals evolved themselves out of the game and stamens elaborated. These dotted the coastal roadways.
ABOVE and BELOW: The view from our campsite.
Our tentsite. We camped by a lovely stretch of beach, protected by erosion barriers (which are actually amazing seats), that started dry, and ended saturated.
Crystal just before dinner taking in the ocean view.
Said ocean.
Said ocean, part 2.
Crystal unpacking her bike and getting our campsite ready. This was taken as the evening was setting in. We went to sleep in the gusting wind and watching a massive thunderstorm across the ocean. It was spectacular to watch, but as we sat for hours sharing some wine and a moon cake we noticed that it was moving very slowly towards us....we tried to ignore it, tried to tell ourselves that we would stay dry. But......not so. We tried to sleep without the fly (the heat with it on was immense) but were awoken by a sudden blast of water. Water that puddled. Water that pooled. Water that saturated everything in the tent! out we (Crystal) went to put up the fly, and asleep we fell in a damp and sloshing tent.
Trevor in the morning rain getting his bike ready for the trek home.
...our campsite was illegal, sort of, and directly across from a police station. We stayed under the radar for the whole night and never had to explain ourselves to any officer of the law!
Our bikes in the morning, with a postcard view behind them.
We woke up, packed quickly in the downpour, got on our bikes and hit the road. Very soon afterwards we came upon a ubiquitous mini temple, saw that it had a roof...andtook advantage of our fortune. We made our breakfast, drank some hot coffee and planned our attack for the route homeward.
The route homeward. This is the road that took us back through the mountains and back to our valley.
Us, in the (still) rain.
ABOVE and BELOW: Along the way home we came upon a wonderful sight - hot springs. After a night of being drenched, a day of biking against the wind, up stunning hills, in the bullet-like rain, we found ourselves eager for a nice soak in the hotspring. It also turned out that nobody else was there, so the place was ours....privacy and solitude in the geothermal glory of the hotspring!
Our valley. This was taken after the initial climb, in the distance you can see a bridge crossing a river; the mountains in the distance are the foothills of the Central Mountain Range. What we were biking across was the Coastal Mountain Range. 
Trevor taking a break after the initial climb. 
Crystal doing similar...perhaps trying to balance, perhaps trying to pose....who knows!
Another of Crystal....
Crystal biking up one of the myriad hills that we met along the way. 
Our bikes taking a rest...we stopped here for a small breather and a snack. About halfway across the mountains. We were already anxious about seeing the lovely blue ocean...enjoying the ride, but excited for the destination.
Another pause along the way (we did more than justtake breaks...honest!) looking back at the road less traveled.
Ocean. Finally! Here we try to find a calm place to stop for lunch and to shade ourselves in a waiting rice paddy.
Trevor, returning after lunch at the same place.
Tropic of Cancer monument.
Awsome flower - petals evolved themselves out of the game and stamens elaborated. These dotted the coastal roadways.
ABOVE and BELOW: The view from our campsite.
Our tentsite. We camped by a lovely stretch of beach, protected by erosion barriers (which are actually amazing seats), that started dry, and ended saturated.
Crystal just before dinner taking in the ocean view.
Said ocean.
Said ocean, part 2.
Crystal unpacking her bike and getting our campsite ready. This was taken as the evening was setting in. We went to sleep in the gusting wind and watching a massive thunderstorm across the ocean. It was spectacular to watch, but as we sat for hours sharing some wine and a moon cake we noticed that it was moving very slowly towards us....we tried to ignore it, tried to tell ourselves that we would stay dry. But......not so. We tried to sleep without the fly (the heat with it on was immense) but were awoken by a sudden blast of water. Water that puddled. Water that pooled. Water that saturated everything in the tent! out we (Crystal) went to put up the fly, and asleep we fell in a damp and sloshing tent.
Trevor in the morning rain getting his bike ready for the trek home.
...our campsite was illegal, sort of, and directly across from a police station. We stayed under the radar for the whole night and never had to explain ourselves to any officer of the law!
Our bikes in the morning, with a postcard view behind them.
We woke up, packed quickly in the downpour, got on our bikes and hit the road. Very soon afterwards we came upon a ubiquitous mini temple, saw that it had a roof...andtook advantage of our fortune. We made our breakfast, drank some hot coffee and planned our attack for the route homeward.
The route homeward. This is the road that took us back through the mountains and back to our valley. 
Us, in the (still) rain.
ABOVE and BELOW: Along the way home we came upon a wonderful sight - hot springs. After a night of being drenched, a day of biking against the wind, up stunning hills, in the bullet-like rain, we found ourselves eager for a nice soak in the hotspring. It also turned out that nobody else was there, so the place was ours....privacy and solitude in the geothermal glory of the hotspring!
...then we got back on our bikes and made our way back home. Some stuff is still drying, but most is fine. It was a quick 2 day blast through the mountains and along the ocean, but what an adventure! Good timesto be had in the wilds of Taiwan.
If anyone has a copy of Conrads' "The Secret Agent" I may want to borrow it when I return as mine got a wee soaked and is now more like a single block of paper than an actual book. It started good......what will become of Mr. Verlock?!?!?
