the Devil Cape

Congrats to the new Light Fellows! You are going to have an awesome time :) full of many great adventures. Feel free to contact me with questions at any time

Here are some pictures from last quarter, when Alex took Cat and I on an adventure to Yehliu, a park full of crazy rock formations that look like the surface of the moon or some alien planet.

It's easy to forget, but every once in awhile you will run into a fort or word or food reminding you how varied Taiwan's history is, full of all different kinds of people, from the aboriginals to various settlers/invaders/colonizers/visitors/immigrants or whatever. Most obviously the Chinese and the Japanese, more recently American missionaries and workers from SE Asia, but also since the 1500s Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese.

"Yehliu" is a phonetic translation from the Spanish word "Diablos" in the phrase Punto Diablos -- the Devil Cape. (I do not think these words sound alike at all. Maybe a linguist could explain.)

The town itself is pretty standard as port towns go, grubby and fishy smelling but has its charms if you're feeling nostalgic. Cat looking pretty at the harbor:


Also the town is entirely about fish. Here were some of the food options we walked by:


Cuttlefish


funny looking 3-eyed crabs (eyes are actually their butt, but could've fooled me)


The park itself is wonderful for exploring, and, fun surprise, as TaiDa students we were let in for free! Free to experience the rocks:



Here is my friend Cat experiencing the rocks (on an emotional level? Or intellectual? i would have to guess spiritual):



Yehliu is a big tourist spot as tourist spots go in Taiwan. Even though we went after school on a Monday, there were still lots of Japanese and Mainland tourists. No comment needed:



Yehliu is mostly of interest to people because the rocks look like things. Here is the main rock, it looks like a queen's head:

Here is the ice-cream rock:


There were some other things but I'll let you see for yourself (don't forget to look for the fairy shoe, the gorilla, ...).

This kind of tourist spot is perfect for Asian tourists, because the main point of going is to take pictures of things. Especially, things that other people have heard of. Or, of you doing funny things in front of the things they have heard of. (So that you can show the people -- who have heard of the things -- that you have been to the places with the things they have heard of!).

This kind of tourist attitude normally annoys me, like in the Vatican when 3 Asian men alternately took each others photographs in front of each painting without even looking at any of the paintings. (Since there were three of them, that was 3 photos per painting - each with a different person rotated in to get a picture of all three possible pairs).

At Yehliu though, I'll admit we got kind of into it:


Popping out among the mushroom rocks.

I can see how in some ways, at least, going to tourist places for the photographs can help you be more alert and observant of what you're supposed to be looking at.

Do you think that Cat looks like a turtle in this picture?


Invented that one myself.

But besides taking creative/repetitive tourist photos you could also just explore! We found a fossil:



And then we just kept walking and walking, leaving the crowds behind to explore spots where only locals came - to fish:


All in all, we walked around for several hours and played amongst the weird rocks and enjoyed the fresh ocean air and scenery until it got dark.



Then we totally lucked-out and caught a bus to Jilong (Keelung) after waiting for only a few minutes. Jilong night market is THE BEST.


The stalls were organized, and it wasn't too crowded but still had sooo many different snacks. And of course, they specialize in seafood! All Taiwan night markets are amazing but this was my best night market experience so far, and perfect after all the exhausting rock experiencing.

All thanks to Alex's planning, and this was on a Monday. Just imagine how awesome the other days of your week could be if you came to Taiwan!