Traditionally when we go on holidays, we used to go to a travel agency where they could either help us build a trip with their limited options, or sell us a package (something still interesting).

Now the biggest travel agency is Internet. We we create our custom trip, filter options like dates, type of travel and get listings of suitable options.

At the same time we can check for reviews of either the website we are using, the hotels they suggest or even the destinations.

The idea of the is post is to give you some of the tools I use and stress the idea that we don’t need to book expensive hotels anymore, that a new bree of websites where you can rent apartments wherever you are planning to, could threaten hotels in the future.

Flights

Kayak will let you search for the cheapest dates to go to your desired destination or suggest you cheap destinations for your selected dates. Kayak has an incredible iPhone app and a pretty good iPad app.

Alternatives to Kayak: airfarewatchdog, yapta, farecompare…

If you are looking for a set of flights around the world, then I have to recommend you the one we used: http://www.roundtheworldflights.com/

Hotels…

Kayak will give suggest you hotels, and it uses the most notable hotel booking sites such as expedia, booking.com, etc…

If you want Cheap Hostels and Bed and Breakfasts, the we use: HostelWorld, it is great for that.

A cool resource for knowing if the hotel you are about to book is OK with tons of reviews, is: tripadvisor (also for iPhone and iPad).

Another cool tool for hotels (specially for the US) is room77 a website where they show you the best rooms for a specific hotel, with the views and so.

but… who want hotels?

Who wants to book a hotel when you can find a great located and flat or a room shared at an incredible spot…

We went to Paris booking an apartment with hometown, luxury apartments for a fraction of what you pay for a hotel, located at the heart of Paris (highly recommended). I also used Isabel’s apartments in a couple of occasions, also great apartments, even if the website is not that nice.

Here is where I want to go:  big websites covering apartments all around the globe.

The most notable:

•  Airbnb (my favorite): this one is the more professional website, the one with more investment in it. It is incredible the choice you can find there, apartments, rooms, everywhere!
• Homelidays: this one is strong in Europe. You can find a nice house in the beach, with swiming pool for a fraction of what you would pay for a hotel…
• Lofty: similar to airbnb but smaller.
• and one focused more in france: abritel

Now if you want to sleep for free, then you have to use couchsurfing: a huge network of people all around the globe that will let you use their couch to sleep for free.

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films…..

= a trip of a lifetime.

move, eat, learn

Rick Mereki : Director, producer, additional camera and editing
Tim White : DOP, producer, primary editing, sound
Andrew Lees : Actor, mover, groover

These films were commissioned by STA Travel Australia: youtube.com/​watch?v=-BrDlrytgm8

Thanks heaps to Adam Fyfe, Brendan, Simon and Crissy at STA.

All Music composed and performed by Kelsey James (kelseyanne.james@gmail.com)
Soundtrack available here:
itunes.apple.com/​au/​album/​play-on-move-soundtrack-single/​id456257170

Music Recorded and mixed by Jake Phillips

Colour Grade : Edel Rafferty and Roslyn Di Sisto
Online Edit : Peter Mirecki

Assistance in titles and production design : Lee Gingold, Jason Milden, Rohan Newman

Big Ups to Michelle, Kiri, Renee, Hana, Andre, Ross, Bernie & Julie for your patience and support and awesomeness…..

Huge Thanks to :
Marco, Juliana and Julio at GAP Argentina and Peru
Ariana Cardenas, Toni Figuera and cooltra scooters in Barcelona,
Abete Zanetti Glass blowing school, Murano, Venice (abatezanetti.it)
Annabel, Rosario and Carolina (Pitu) in France
Juane and Andrea from the Princeca Insolenta hostel in Chile

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. The response has been phenomenal and overwhelming. We never thought this little project would reach out to so many people

A new travel site called Rome2Rio launches today, the brainchild of two ex-Microsoftemployees, Michael Cameron and Bernard Tschirren. The site’s main innovation? It’s vehicle agnostic, in a way–you tell it you want to go from A to B, and it’ll tell you what combination of car, plane, train, or ferry you need to take.

In that way, it’s more like the “how to get there” in a Lonely Planet guide, points out VentureBeat in its story on the site today. Rather than piece together information from here and there, Rome2Rio aims for the all-inclusive experience of simply reading a paragraph in a guidebook.

And it goes further than that, too–to be truly useful, any travel site needs to let you book flights. Rome2Rio does that, presenting Kayak airfares, which you can click through to purchase flights.

Cameron and Tschirren told VentureBeat that the site is probably most useful in Europe, where the train systems are complicated and have varied pricing. “Hours of travel time and hundred or even thousands of dollars” could be saved, goes the claim.

The site joins the trend of creating technology that would make classic movie plots based on missed connections and poor communication–such as Planes, Trains, and Automobiles–obsolete.

(from fast company)

BARGAIN hunters will need to be craftier when booking a trip if they want to get the best prices this year. It’s no secret that airfares are up and added fees for everything from checked bags to exit-row seats are pushing the cost of flying higher. On top of that, hotel bargains are expected to be harder to come by as business travelers begin to return, diminishing the need for hotels to discount rooms in major cities.

But that doesn’t mean a year in front of your television. There are still plenty of ways to cut costs. Here are 11 strategies — and some useful Web sites — to help you save on travel this year.

1. SHOP “PRIVATE SALES” A growing number of Web sites, including SniqueAway.com, TabletHotels.comand Jetsetter.com have flash sales of 20 to 60 percent off hotel packages to travelers on an invitation-only basis. Jetsetter, for example, recently offered a Friday night in January at the Angler’s, a boutique hotel in Miami, for $255 a night, down from the $359 offered at the hotel’s site. Another site, TripAlertz.com, works like Groupon for travel, meaning that the more people who book a deal, the lower the rate. For example, a four-night, all-inclusive stay at the Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort & Spa was initially offered to members for $1,496, or 15 percent off, last month. After 55 bookings, the price dropped to $1,220. At TripAlertz and LivingSocial.com, which offers last-minute getaways, all you have to do is create an account to access the deals. A Google search for “Snique Away invite” turned up a registration form for SniqueAway.com that got me in.

2. BUY ON TUESDAY Most airlines begin sales on Monday evenings, and by the following day other airlines have usually matched the lowered fares on the same routes, said Anne McDermott, editor at Farecompare.com, which tracks price trends. Last month, for example, Virgin America had a sale on Dec. 13, with one-way fares as low as $79 on some routes, according to Farecompare. The next day, there were sales from AirTran, Southwest and American, with one-way fares from $59. Because sales are hard to predict, travelers looking for the best deal should start their searches three to four months in advance, when airlines begin to look closely at which routes may need a sale to fill seats.

3. SEARCH FOR COUPON CODES Practically every travel site includes a box at checkout for a promotional discount code. Sites like PromotionalCodes.com orCouponWinner.com organize such codes into categories so that you can search specifically for airline, car rental or hotel deals. A recent search turned up codes for deals like $94 flights between New York and New Orleans, 15 percent discounts on Avis weekly car rentals and $75 off of three-night Westin Hotels packages.

4. ASK FOR A REFUND Many airlines will refund the difference in price if the fare drops after you purchase a ticket (minus a change fee). Yapta.com helps get you that refund by tracking the price of your ticket and sending you an e-mail or Tweet when the price drops so that you can call the airline to claim the credit. A new site, Autoslash.com, offers a similar service for car rentals.

5. AVOID ROAMING CHARGES Skype and Truphone offer free apps for making cheap international calls using Wi-Fi, with rates that start at pennies per minute. You can pay as you go or sign up for monthly plans to make unlimited calls in certain countries for a flat fee: $13.99 a month for Skype calls to land lines and mobile phones in more than 40 countries, or $12.95 a month for Tru calls in 38 countries with TruUnlimited. Another option: the Vonage Mobile app for Facebook allows travelers to make free international calls over Wi-Fi to Facebook friends who also download the app.

6. CHANGE YOUR CREDIT CARD Most American banks charge currency conversion fees, typically up to 3 percent when you use your credit or debit card outside the United States. But there are some exceptions. Capital One does not charge foreign transaction fees, and Chase recently began waiving the fees on its British Airways Visa Signature Card, its Hyatt Card and the Priority Club Select Visa.

7. SAVE ON PARKING YOUR CAR Bestparking.com steers drivers toward the cheapest parking at off-airport lots near 79 North American airports. Rates are updated frequently, and sold-out lots are highlighted. A recent search for parking near Newark Liberty International Airport offered a snapshot of rates and locations on a map. The Renaissance Hotel lot was among the cheapest at $12 for 24 hours. There is also a free app for iPhone, Android or BlackBerry users.

8. WAIT A WEEK Avoid the crowds and save by traveling the week after a major holiday. A five-night ski vacation in Breckenridge, Colo., during the last week of December was priced at $1,988 a person, including airfare from Chicago, at Orbitz.com. For the following week, the same trip was listed at $1,037 a person. Similarly, a vacation including airfare from New York and five nights at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort dropped from $821 to $580.

9. NEGOTIATE Though many hotels say that they offer their best rates online, it pays to ask the front desk for a lower rate. My colleague Seth Kugel regularly uses this tactic, as he pointed out in a column last summer: “I arrive with a solid reservation but then check out five or six other hotels and go back and forth between them in an attempt to set off a price war.” The strategy saved him $20 a night in León, Nicaragua. I have had similar successover the phone with reservation agents at New York hotels like the Ritz-Carlton New York and 60 Thompson.

10. TRAVEL LIKE A STUDENT Student travel agencies like STA Travel, StudentCity and StudentUniverse have begun to extend their low prices to nonstudents and older travelers. While some of the deepest discounts are offered only to travelers enrolled in an academic program, recent college graduates can often save 10 to 25 percent with “youth fares.” For example, a recent search for flights in March on STATravel.com, which limits certain deals to nonstudents under the age of 26, turned up seats for $926 round trip on V Australia Airlines. The best rates for the same dates on Kayak.com were $1,187. Though it is not common for older travelers to use student travel agencies, it is possible to do so. There were no age restrictions for a discounted four-day Inca Trail trek with STA Travel for $674 a person, down from $899.

11. DON’T PAY TO CHECK A BAG Checking bags can quickly add up, with airlines charging between $15 and $35 a bag. Delta’s SkyMiles-branded American Express card allows you and up to eight others on the same reservation to each check a bag at no cost. And American Express introduced a travel-rewards card — the Blue Sky Preferred Credit Card — that offers travelers an annual $100 allowance to cover checked baggage, in-flight meals, entertainment or Wi-Fi purchases, and other fees, on any airline.

(by MICHELLE HIGGINS from NYTimes)

Posted from Mbour, Thies, Senegal.

Those of you who know me, know that I love traveling and that I am a technofreak.

I would like to share with you some tips in order to have a great trip diary, using the latest techonologies.

Checklist

Option A

When I travel I pack my nikon d300 with a 10-20mm and a 18-200 lenses. My nikon has a 16Gb memory card. Unfortunately most DSLR do not have GPS unlike the iPhone or other smart phones, but there is a work around. Keep reading.

I also pack my GPS (Garmin Oregon 300), rechargeable batteries and the charger sure. If you don’t have a GPS you should consider getting one, and they are now very cheap. You don’t need a fancy GPS, you just need a GPS logger. No bluetooth even. No screen, just a GPS logger, that when you switch it on it starts recording your trail, and once back home or with your laptop, you just plug it in and extract the .gpx file. I will explain what to do with it. You can but very cheap GPS at Dealextreme a Hong Kong based online shop full of gadgets at ridiculous prices… and shipping anywhere int the world is free. You can have a GPS for $35.

Now if you travel to remote places you can consider a good GPS with SOS function such as the SPOT.

Also if you don’t want to take the gpx file from the gps and use one of the ways I described further down there is a GPS logger (ATP Photo finder) that you sync the time with your camera, insert the SD card, and it tags them automatically. Not for Compact Flash and not for RAW images though…

If it is going to be a long trip, and I plan to blog properly, then I take my old sony vaio t series (10 inch screen) and an external 2.5inches Hard Disk.

Option B

Just your iPhone 3gs or 4. (Has a decent camera and GPS).

Option C

Both. Option A for more elaborated blogging, Option B for quick on the spot.

Which option?

Nowadays with an iPhone 4 you have more than enough to take good quality videos and photos. Take a look at this blog entry for tips on how to take the best photos with the iphone.

In addition to have a 5Mpx camera and shoot HD videos, the new smart phones have GPS so videos and photos are geotagged, and programs such as picasa (for Mac, PC and Linux) or iPhoto (for Mac) plot all your photos in a map which is great.

If you really like photography then you choose to take your DSLR with you, so then you have to take a laptop (and an external HD if it is an old laptop like mine) so you can take the photos out of the camera and put the in your blog, site or community. Or just to empty your camera.

I take both.

iPhone apps and Everytrail

When I first bought my first GPS (Garmin Vista) it was quite a job to be able to do something with the tracks you save. You needed a windows computer, nothing for mac, and the software that came with it was pretty bad.

Then Google Earth would allow you to import the tracks (.gpx files). It was great. It is still great!

Everytrail

Now there is a website that I love and I use as a main stop for GPS logging: Everytrail.

Everytrail is free. You can upload your .gpx file even directly from your gps, and there you can have all your tracks store, that you can tag, put some text, add waypoints with explanations, and edit them!! yes. You can make them public or private. Very very powerful tool.

Everytrail also gives you an embed code that you can put in your blog, where you see the trail you have uploaded, the waypoints you have inserted, stats of time, altitude, speed… and more.

Geotag your photos with Everytrail

Once I have written about my photography workflow. Now when I upload them to flickr, make sure you create a set for those photos in the same GPS track. So if you go out switch on your GPS logger, then all the fotos you take until you switch it off should be in the same set.

With Everytrail, you can select the flickr (or picasa, or uploading manually) set and it will import it. As the camera has a clock it will know when they were take it, and plotted into your trail map. Great.

Now you have to fine tune that. There might be a bit of missmatch between the time in the GPS, the timezone and the camera clock. You take one photo you know exactly where it was taken, drag it to the right place and , then click on “update offset based on this picture” and the rest will follow. Magical!!

Now you have your trail uploaded into Everytrail, you have corrected it, you have added notes as waypoints, and you have uploaded the fotos from flicker that have been geo tagged in Everytrail.

With Everytrail alone you have already a good blog for your trip, because you have a space to write, to give tips and to have the track an dall the photos along it.

In addition to this you can have the embed code and put it into you blog.

Everytrail in your iPhone

Everytrail is available for the iPhone. They have two apps, a free one and a paid one. They are not very good. There is a free app, though, that uses Everytrail as a back end which is absolutly great!

Trailhead iPhone app (from the north face)

Last August the north face released an iphone app (free) that uses everytrail track. This app is just awesome. When you start it you have two main options, start tracking (and it is reasonable on what you use of battery) or see nearby trails. You can track even if you don’t have GPRS or 3G. In this case you don’t see the maps (in the pro app for everytrail you can download offline maps).

Then when tracking, at any given point you can add a photo or a note (not a video yet).

So in summary, with the iphone alone you do what I explained before without the need of a camara, a gps, a computer and a website.

Blogging tools

When traveling often you don’t have internet. Blogging everyday is therefore difficult.

For that reason you should use an offline blogging tool. The best one out there is Windows Live Writer. For the mac you have Ecto or MarsEdit, but Live Writer is much better.

The advantage of using one of this offline tools is that you can write every day, add your photos and so, and when you have internet, then you upload everything.

If you are planning to use GPS info with everytrail, you should do it online though.

This offline tools are good for blogs such as wordpress, blogger etc…

I use wordpress and there is a great plugin called mappress for having a google map where you can easily add a waypoint with html code in it if you wish. It is handy if you want to show your readers where you are sleeping, or what to visit for instance.

Alternatively you can simply go to google maps, log in and under my maps, create a map. It is very easy. Then you can copy the embed code and past it into your blog.

Blogging sites

If you don’t have a blog, and you don’t blog regularly, they you can use one of the dedicated free blogs for travelers. My favorites are:

• Travelpod
• Mapvivo

Travelpod is a great place full of good tips and travelers. You have maps, you can upload photos, … it is a tailored blog for travelers.

Mapvivo is more of a travel diary. It is based on having a map and putting what you do in it.

Geotagging your photos at home

To geo tag the photos using everytrail is OK, but you will probably would love to have your photos in your PC/Mac geotagged as well.

Well there is a way to do it too, even if you camera has no GPS.  As I mentioned with a GPS logger, and a normal camera you can.

Select the photos you took within the period of geotagging. Then use one of these programs:

The best one is GeoSetter (just for PC unfortunately)

GeoSetter (free) allows you to take your photos, the log file of the GPS and geo tag the photos automatically. You can easily take one that you know exactly where it was taken, position it and the rest will follow. GeoSetter will write in the EXIF header of the file, so if you now import them to Picasa, iPhoto, Flickr, etc… they will have GPS information.

For Mac there is a paid program which does pretty much the same: Geophoto. It is even nicer, but not as complete as the Geosetter.

Also GPS photo linker. (tags Raw and it is free). Take a look at the demo, for me is the winner.

With this I modify my photography workflow. The first thing to do is to geotagg the raw photos, then apply DxO for corrections and to create JPEGs.

Here an example of the embed code from a trip with photos in everytrail in Puerto Rico. If you mouse over the bottom you can see a link to the stats and to the slideshow. Also mousing over the spots of the photos.
San Juan de Puerto Rico

Do you travel often? I do, and I always wonder how much is going to cost me the taxi from the airport to the hotel, always afraid if I would have the right amount or if the taxi is going to try to charge more.

Well take a look at world taxi meter website. It is not for everywhere but might be of help:

Going out on a trip? Would you like to have a web with all the prepaid phone plans around the word, which, by the way, you can contribute to?

It is there, in a wikimedia way: Pay as you Go

Just to tell you tht I am taking some time off. We are on holidays in Salou, in Spain, with limited Internet access.

Back in August ;-)

Condé Nast Digital Britain recently unveiled a series of apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, dubbed Condé Nast Traveller City Guides. There are four separate apps for Barcelona, New York, Paris and Rome priced at around $9.99 each.

The apps [iTunes link] are divided into six sections containing more than 500 searchable listings, complete with venue information, photos and editors’ reviews:

• Neighbourhoods: Browse all listings in a single neighborhood
• See & Do: Major sites, museums, parks, farmers markets and other attractions
• Places to Stay: Organized according to location, price range, type (i.e. fashionable, family-friendly or classic), and a key feature (gym/spa, internet access, etc.)
• Eat & Drink: Mainly high-end sit-down restaurants with some exceptions, like a well-known knishery and an East Village dumpling house
• Shopping: Features an array of products, including apparel, home, records and electronics from high-end to outlets
• Nightlife: Bars, music, dancing and other venues for late-night entertainment
• Word of Mouth: Recommendations from celebrated New Yorkers like designers Oscar de la Renta and Paul Smith, nightclub owner Amy Sacco and architect Carlos Almadada

The list of venues is well-curated; there are enough to appeal to a relatively broad array of tastes without being overwhelming. Users can bookmark interesting listing by adding them to a to-do list and share them via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

What’s most impressive about the apps is their Augmented Reality functionality (pictured above). Simply point your phone in a direction and it will bring up images of nearby attractions, which you can narrow down by type. You can also use GPS to pull up venue locations on a map.

The apps contain a number of other neat little features as well, including a handful of guided audio tours and magazine articles, a travel journal, a Flickr-integrated personal photo log, a timeline of the city’s history and essential travel information about local customs, transportation and the location of tourist offices and so forth.

What’s more, Condé Nast Britain promises to update the apps’ content every four months free of charge.

The only major drawback are the prices, which are hard to justify when free apps like restaurant-finder Urbanspoon also come with many similar features (although Urbanspoon’s Augmented Reality functionality is admittedly more basic and many users would rather read a review from a food editor than from the guy next door). In all fairness, Zagat’s TO GO app [iTunes link] also costs $9.99, but then it has a key feature Condé Nast Traveller’s does not: the ability to make restaurant reservations. It also covers almost every major U.S. city in one app.

(via mashable)

Stay.com turns travel planning into a fun and social activity. Have fun discovering some of the best attractions, restaurants and hotels around the world, collect places you find interesting in your own guide and share it with family and friends.

Forget about your already outdated travel books. Stay.com has updated information on thousands of places to visit for your next vacation or business trip.

Simply collect everything you find interesting in your own personal guide. This way you can bring along all the details you need. You can print your guide in a nice compact format which is easy to fold and put in your pocket.

A very cool idea!

From the 17 till Saturday we stayed in Barcelona. We met Quio and Anna, Sergio… we went to Salamanca for lunch with the family… relax.

Then to Geneva.

In our last day in Miami, we packed and checked out. Had breakfast and put everything in the trunk of the car. Then we headed to Key Biscayne where we spent most of the day.

We went to the lighthouse and to the beach, then we went to Boaters Grill, where we had some seafood before taking the car and drive to the airport.

End of trip. We took the plane, of course Iberia did not give us the right seats, but there was a very nice lady who gave us hers, so we could put Kai in his little bed.

We spent the day exploring other parts of Miami. Distances are big there. We went first to have breakfast at bayfront, in downtown. We did not manage to get breakfast at the hotel because we went down too late… but breakfast at bayfront was nice.

We walked around and went to downtown. After that we took the car and drove to little Haiti and the design district where we had lunch in a very nice Italian restaurant (no pizza). After lunch we drove to coconut groove, visited a commercial centre and finally went back to Miami Beach. That day we had dinner at the hotel by the pool. Very nice.

After having breakfast at the hotel, we took the car and headed towards Florida city and Everglades, in the south west of Florida. And incredible natural park that is like a the biggest delta of the world, coming from a lake and instead of ending in the sea like a traditional river it does so in this particular way, so a mix of salty waters from the sea and spring waters from the lake and rivers. The only place in earth where you can find together alligators and crocodiles.

There was a lot of people with incredible digital cameras just to photograph the birds. The wild life in the everglades was incredible, honestly. We took a boat the took us through the canal and to the lakes. Very nice experience, seeing all kinds of animals and birds.

We finished were we started: Fort Lauderdale.

When we arrived we took the budget shuttle that took us to budget where we took our car for the next 4 days.

First we had breakfast at bagels Einstein or something like this. Then was to visit fort Lauderdale. They said it was the Venice of Florida, and it is quite a Venice (huge extensions though).

We went to the river side, to the beach, where we had lunch, and then at around 6pm to Miami beach to check in at our new hotel: Indian Creek, no so centric, but with swimming pool and bigger rooms.

In our second time in Nassau we decided to go and spend the day at Paradise Island, 15 minutes by boat from Nassau. There you have the Atlantis hotel where we wanted to stay for the day and visit all the aquariums.

We realized that last time we did not see anything. Atlantis is huge! and you can spend a full day without managing to see it all. It is a sort of disneyland but in aquarium, with all sort of fish and sea life. To get it is 35 usd, but you can go around. We had a nice day there.

From Road Town to Nassau you have a full day of navigation. We spend the day in the MSC Poesia, in the pool area, having cocktails, having a swim, sun, … and in our nice balcony, reading… chilling out. There are plenty of activities to do, so you never get bored.

We arrived early to Road town. We took it easy though. Had breakfast and then left. The nice thing of cruising in the Caribbean and I guess is the same in the Greek islands and other small towns, is that with a day you have more than enough to visit them. I guess it is not the same in a Mediterranean cruise stopping in Rome, Barcelona and so, which deserve a dedicated trip.

Road town again was a nice colonial town. Small.

We did not take any of the excursions suggested in the MSC Poesia.Normally it works this way: they are expensive. When you go down to the harbor, you have a pile of tour operators offering you the same thing cheaper. If you go out of the port, there you find the good deals, so this is what we did. We took a tour around the island. It took us to several places and it was fun and nice.

We stopped at a rum distillery, very very crappy but I bought some old rum. See the photo, it looks like a dirty place anywhere in Africa… but the rum, that I tasted yesterday, was not bad. Not great either but a nice souvenir.

The tour took us also to a beach crowded by the cruise people. We were there only for 15 minutes, but we soon continued our tour. There we met a couple from texas. The guy had big land where a farmer was growing cotton and where had some oil excavations. They were nice people. We also went to a hill (not a lot in these islands) where we could see the tons of little islands that are part of the Virgin Islands (american, british…), and of course the harbor with our “little boat”.

All these little islands had to accommodate their ports to this big cruises. Now they are digging even more in order to be able to have the “oasis of the seas” from Royal Caribbean.
Road Town, Virgin Islands
EveryTrail – Find the best

We did not get to Philipsburg until 1pm (ship time). During the trip some places had different time zones, but in order to avoid problems the cruise always referred to the ship time (Miami time). The night before they let you a print out of the activities for next day. The time you get to port, the local time and the time you should be back to the ship. Also a list of all the ton of activities organised through the day in the ship. Specially for those who decide to stay on board.

Philipsburg was a very cute place. A long and narrow town, small and with the ocean at both sides.

The weather was variable. When the sun went out it was terribly hot, but when cloudy it was OK. It rained for a while.

When a ship of the caliber of the MSC Poesia arrives to a city like this, the town feels crowded and I am guessing that during the rest of the week, when no ships are there (normally they all go on the same day) it is a dead city.

Nuria had a bath in the sea and we had lunch there.
Philipsburg in British Virgin Islands
EveryTrail – Find the best

We are now at San Juan de Puerto Rico. The ship leaves at 10pm (ship time) and we head towards Philipsburg. I found free wifi here and I managed to upload all previous posts. From the ship it is impossible to upload photos…

I did not have the time and the occasion to take the photos of the big camera out, so no photos now, but I will update this same post later on.

San Juan is a beautiful place. I wouldn’t mind staying here a couple of days. Honestly.

I am now editing the post again, from home. I am adding a couple of photos from the iPhone.

Puerto Rico was very nice. The old town beautiful and full of life. So far and now with the perspective of being back home, I can say that Key West and San Juan (both US) are probably the destinations we liked the most.
San Juan de Puerto Rico
EveryTrail – Find the best

Navigation day. Puerto Rico is far from Florida. The day started rainy and a bit cold but as the day was progressing the sun took over and the temperatures raised.

We spent most of the day in the pool area. I am reading “the Help”, from Kathryn Stockett which is about maids in Louisiana on the 60’s.

It was the gala day, with the captain and the nice dinner. Everybody (except me) with suits, ties….

Before I went to have a hair cut here at the ship’s hair dresser. Wow, beautiful with great views  over the sunset.

After the captain’s cocktail we went to listen jazz for a while and then to the theatre. It was Island, a story with dancers, magicians and more. Very nice.

Half way. For most of the people the cruise is over, but we continued. We discussed weather it was worth to go down and visit Fort Lauderdale and we concluded that we will be here next Saturday and with a rental car, so it was the best day to enjoy the ship, which was again by the oasis of the seas. We had most of it for us. We spend most of the day in the pool area. We had a bath at the Jacuzzis with Kai. It was nice.

We arrived to Nassau this morning. now in an hour we will be leaving to For Lauderdale to start the second part of the cruise.

In Nassau we had a great day. The temperature is great, it is sunny… mmm…

We went down and after us 4 more cruises arrived. We are all here. the last one in the biggest cruise ever build, and I encourage you to Google it or to look in a previous post in my blog. It is called “oasis of the seas” from Royal Caribbean. It is amazing. Huge! Ours, the MSC poesia is the second biggest and it is noticeable smaller.

Anyway, we went down and met the a couple with a kid that we know who live in Brazil. We all took an island tour with a very nice chap who explained everything and kept us entertained for nearly 3 hours. First we went to the Atlantis hotel, a 900 million dollar hotel, with an incredible aquarium.  We just saw part of it but as we are coming back to Nassau in a couple of days, we will take the whole tour, which has tunnels with sharks and other fishes. The suit of this famous hotel costs 25.000 usd per night. It is a nice hotel, but I was not that impressed.

After that we visited several places and when we were done, we had a walk around town, had lunch (seafood, of course) and went to the beach. Now the sun is going down and from the balcony of our room I catch several wifi (paid) so I am going to pay for one in order to post all the blog entries. By the way in the last photo you can see all the cruises from the beach. The one of the left is the Oasis of the seas.

ps; I did not succeed with the wifi in the balcony…. I try once more from the ship.

From Montego Bay to Nassau you have quite a long distance. The day was all day navigation. The ship is packed with activities: in the pool area, theatres, etc… and it was a gala night. Everybody with suits and ties… I did not bring any… like in the titanic.

We spent most of the day in the pool area, reading. Nuria had a massage before the theatre and gala night.

This morning we arrived at Montego Bay in Jamaica. The previous two days have been a bit of miss organization from the side of MSC. First it was supposed to stop in Playa del Carmen and not in Cozumel. Petty because playa del Carmen is a nice place and the place where it stopped in Cozumel was not nearby anything (beach or city) so you had to take a taxi, and honestly, with a baby and in an island, you might find enough taxis where the cruise stops, but if you go to a beach, who guarantees you that you will find a taxi then, specially when there were 2 cruises and both dropping 3000 people in such a small place? Well, a solution could have been to hire a car, but just to go to the beach and for a couple of hours it is a petty. We felt people were not happy about it. Specially those who had booked excursions and where cancelled.

Then in Cayman island (Georgetown) again. They claimed bad weather, so the cruise could not properly stop. It took like 4 hours to take everybody in little boats to Georgetown.

Today, the cruise stopped at the port, we went down and were surprised that all the buses downstairs (a lot of them) where charging people to get them to town. Strange, but OK we are happy to pay 5 dollars each for that.

We went to downtown and you could see that Montego Bay is like any other place in Africa. Underdeveloped, dirty and not safe. Before, and when I go on mission, I don’t care, but with a baby…. it is a different story.

We walked a bit around downtown and were stopped several times by locals saying that we should now go beyond the couple of streets in downtown, as it is not safe. We decided to take a city tour with one of the tons of authorized drivers (JTB, Jamaica Tourism Board) who took us for an hour around Montego Bay, a very ugly city with NOTHING to see, a part from a nice old hotel on top of a hill with nice views. Plus the guy had no idea of anything. Anyway,the weather was not good either so no point in taking a taxi to the beaches so we decided to go to the ship. We had lunch in the 13 floor (buffet) in a table in the pool area with incredible views over the bay, and then we stayed until now in the pool area. Now I moved again to another table (facing the other side) and decided to write today’s and yesterday’s posts, even if I don’t se how and when I am going to be able to publish them, as the satellite internet is pretty slow, specially when uploading photos.

Now Nuria and Kai went to the room (Kai is hungry) and when they come we will enjoy a cocktail and try to connect to internet in order to try to check in with Iberia and the the right seats… which I doubt we will.

Montego Bay, Jamaica
EveryTrail – Find the best

When we reached Georgetown in the Grand Cayman, we were supposed to leave the ship by 10 with boats. There were 2 other cruises and the sea was a bit moved. In fact the captain could not properly anchor and had to stay all day in the same spot using the engine. Plus the boats used to go to land were the ones of the cruise, little boats for 150 people, all packed.

They distributed numbers and were calling. I think our turn came at 1.30pm and at 3pm was the last boat back to the cruise. Goood. Pretty bad organized. People complaining a lot. Probably they had local boats to help but with the other 2 big cruises there was not enough for all. Anyway, it was quite an experience to go in such a boat, with such a sea (it moved a lot) and with Kai. I would say it was interesting. Poor Kai did not complain at all. It was not very sunny but it was very hot.

One thing I did not like from MSC (our cruise organizer) is that they don’t care about babies or disable people. You cue like anybody else, and in our way back it was killing us to cue under the sun. Kai was suffering so we kindly asked to go to the front of the cue.

Well, in Georgetown there was not much to see either. It is packed of shops with jewelry, diamonds and watches. When I say packed is packed. We walked around but of course we did not have much time to do more due to the disembarking problems. I could not buy rum because they don’t allow you to buy food or drinks outside the ship… maybe I should ask if they can keep it at least until the last day.

All this places we are stopping by are great for diving. What a petty. We would have loved to dive, but looks like it won’t be this time.

Well so we stayed most of the day on board, which honestly is not bad. Judge by the photos… it is better than a super hotel.
George Town, Cayman Islands, GPS Garmin Oregon 300. Mouse over the grey squares for more info.

EveryTrail – Find the best

Early this morning they announced that instead of stopping close by Playa del Carmen and take boats to the port (that was the plan), we were going to go to the island in front, Cozumel and stop in the port. We did, and we went down but seeing that to go anywhere we should take a cab, we decided to go back to the ship and spend the day in the swimming pool area, which is great and is where I am now.

I bought a wi-fi connection at the ship, it costs 20usd for 60 minutes, but it is so slow, that I tried to upload the posts and I did not succeed, so I will try later using the web interface instead of this Windows Live Writer. I cannot access to my email at norai because uses port 8080….

We spent most of the day at the MSC poesia. It was good. We went to the deck 13 and took a seat on a table near the pool. Relaxing with amazing views. Nuria had a swim and I took some time to write on the laptop. With visits and all the activities they plan on board, you have little time to actually relax and type or read a book. I don’t know how many restaurants, bars, shops, disco and so are onboard. I am starting to know the ship now. I went to smoke a pipe to the Hitchcock room and to read a book while Kai and Nuria were having a siesta. We have walkie talkies to be in touch (of course… you know me…). Now there was a concert in the central area, there is the theatre later today and there is a huge screen in the pool area where there will be a film at 10pm. I have to check but I think there was a jazz concert in the zebra bar. Every morning they leave you a paper with the activities and offers. You can buy excursions, but we did not buy any, basically because we don’t feel we can do the sort of things they do with Kai: catamarans, snorkeling, etc… which is a real pity. Today for instance we would have gone diving, but… even if we do one dive each, I think it is too much to take a 11 week old baby in a small boat.

Tomorrow we’ll be arriving at Cayman Islands. Now, we are going to go to have a cocktail in the pool mohito bar probably and see the sun going down. I don’t know when I am going to be able to publish all these posts because the internet is not good enough for that.

Now for instance we are leaving Cozumel and I am in the balcony with the laptop. The sun is still up, a bit cloudy but the temperature is just perfect. It is a great experience to be outside in your own balcony with the sea by your side, the sun going down.

Just a quick note from MSC Poesia. We are in Key West. We arrieved this morning and we are leaving now to Playa del Carmen. I am writing from my iPhone using edge in roaming so no photos. I will write more as soon as I find wifi somewhere.

We continue from the previous post, but now from the MSC Poesia. We woke up early. We decided to leave the curtains open so in the mornings we could see the sun rising in the sea. We had our shower and went to the 13th floor where the breakfast buffet is. Incredible choice and views. The restaurant is all surrounded by windows so we sat close to one that felt like being in the edge to the sea. Beautiful.

After a full breakfast (eggs, sausages, bacon, pancakes,…)  we went down to deck 4 and left the ship. We spent the day in Key West, a beautiful small town at the end of Florida Keys.

We had buses organized driving everybody to town (5 min). We spent the day walking around that beautiful city, full of nice cars, nice Harleys and old people. We visited Hemmingway’s house and went to a small beach.

Houses in Key West are all colonial style. Beautiful lovely small town.

At 1.30 we went back to the ship and started our trip to Mexico. Nuria had a bit of sea sickness. Yes, this huge ship moves quite a bit…

It was the Captain’s cocktail and gala dinner. I did not bring any suit or any tie, but I went with a shirt. Everybody had their best dresses….

After the captain’s speech, there was the daily show but it is too loud for Kai so we left. Nuria rested for a while in the room and then we went for dinner. We always sit in the same table. The gala dinner was too much. I think we are going to put (more!!) on weight here.

Back at MSC poesia, we did the ritual of getting ready, have our cocktail and go to the theatre. Take a look at the video… the theatre is inside the ship, yes…

Key West with GPS Garmin Oregon 300

EveryTrail – Find the best

We had to leave the room by 11am. We agreed that The Clay Hotel had the best location possible in Miami Beach. We left the bags in reception and walked to Ocean Drive where we had a nice breakfast.

We went back to the hotel, took our stuff and put it in the car. We drove up towards port everglades, which is like an hour or so towards the north. We took it easy enjoying the road by the sea, stopping by to see the beach.

Once we found the budget agency we left the car and a shuttle dropped us at the port, where we checked in in an impressive place with security, photos for their record and so.

Once on board, we went to the cabin (8189) and when we saw it we couldn’t believe we were in a brand new room, with our own balcony, and all luxuries.

We went for a tour and finally to have dinner. The ship left at 19h direction Key West.

This video is the lobby, once we went to our room, we went and have a cocktail (I did) while listening to good music and waiting to depart.

After our great dinner in the restaurant in the corner of this busy street, the cafe nuvo we went to bed. We had a good night. Woke up several times (as usual) but OK.

The hotel is at the heart of Miami Beach, it is cheap a bit noisy but highly recommended. Just for sleeping though.

We wanted to have breakfast so we went out of the hotel at Espanola way (photo on the right), where all the bars and restaurants are, and walked along Washington Avenue to the north where you have a lot of shopping. A couple of blocks from here there is Lincoln a pedestrian road full of shops and places to eat. We had a hot chocolate with a huge cookie at Ghirardelli. (photo above) Then we walked Lincoln towards the ocean stopping by a bank to redraw some money, and then along the beach. Lovely day. Perfect temperature. Perfect day.

We walked down the famous Ocean Drive, with all the art deco buildings, full of  restaurants and hotels, beautiful people and incredible cars.Food here is cheap. We reached the bottom of Ocean Drive with a ton of leaflets on 9.95 usd meals.

We then went to the beach for a while, where Kai ate a bit and I had a bit of a “too much sun”, and went to have something to eat at Atlantic, in ocean drive.

Nuria had a lobster salad and I had a cubanito (excellent meat). We shared a huge mojito (photo above).

After lunch we went to the supermarket to buy some nappies for Kai (for the cruise) and back to the hotel.

Here I am, in the middle of the ocean writing again. I would have love to name this post something like our trip to Miami, but I can’t.

We woke up this morning and went to the airport. In the airport they told us that we did not have the right seats in order to get a crib. We booked this flight long time ago! and after booking it, we called Iberia to make sure we had the right seats in order to put the baby with a crib. Right.

In Barcelona the supervisor changed everything so we could get this seats. We took the plane towards Madrid, we learned that we had to change planes… and they call it technical stop… but it is a joke, not only you have to change planes, you have one hour to go to the other corner of Madrid airport… so quite a bad start…. landing in Madrid Kai crying because he was hungry (he had great flight by the way) and running to get the connection train and to the other terminal…

Up to here OK. We made it. Now, when boarding they tell us that the seats we have are not the right ones for having a crib… I could not believe it. That the flight is overbooked and we have to see once inside.

Indeed the row 29 or the Airbus 340 is just one more raw, so of course we complained… I could not believe that after booking in advance (you already say you are traveling with a baby), calling by phone, and in Barcelona asking again, and being the 8th passenger to board (we went in advance to the airport) we did not have the seats for the crib… a 12 hour flight with a 8 weeks old baby and no place to lay him… incredible.

The story does not finishes here. We discussed with the cabin crew, and the chief ot the crew, but the people occupying those seats did not want to move. Can you believe it? There are a couple of places where the crib can go, one with 4 passengers (all together) and 2 couples. They all argue that for a long trip this is the best seats, and I agree, it is not their fault, it is Iberia’s incompetency, but come on!! don’t they have a heart? Could you tell a mum with her 8 week old baby to go and fuck off?

The cabin crew tried but no success. I also cannot believe that they don’t have the authority to tell the to move. How legal or just how can they allow this?

Well here we are, in a 3 seat for us, and we managed to put the crib on the floor. I did not want to go to this rows myself because I would be capable of beating them in the face with the laptop until their mother cannot recognize their faces… sorry this is how I am feeling now.

Iberia sucks. It doesn’t mater if you are a frequent flyer, if you have a baby… Ah, and if you seat in the seats at the end of the plane, remember you will not be able to choose your food… so we had pasta.

Anybody knows how to put a claim? I guess I should count 1000 and continue our trip…

Anyway, I will continue from Miami.

We are now in Miami, at the Clay Hotel in Washington avenue. What a cool place! This is a little street packed with bars and restaurants and the hotel is in an old style Spanish house, very nice. A bit noisy but nice.

We landed with delay, we went to customs which is process in itself where you have to put all your fingertips (digitally now) and photo. Now you understand how this TV CSI series have this incredible databases… well, the airport is pretty old. We arrive when the sun was going down. Once outside the terminal there are shuttles that take you to the rent a car dealers. We took the budget one and we were worried because it was taking us damn far. Once you get there you understand… a huge place with tons of cars. We cued for 10 minutes and we got our car. We took the option of baby seat for Kai and an economy car. Wow though, the economy car we have is a brand new car as big as our volvo… with 1000 miles in the counter! Very nice. It will cost us around 90 usd for 2 days. It is OK considering we are dropping it 80Km north where the cruise starts.

Well, we fitted the seat plugged the iphone to have the GPS, searched for POIs of hotels in Miami Beach, and headed towards the Clay hotel. We had to pay 1.25usd of toll road. In 30 min we where at the hotel. The valet .guy took the keys and parked our car.

We went upstairs to our room, where I am now, I found a free hotspot (typical linsys open router) and here I am.

We went for dinner downstairs to this busy street. We had a Caesar salad and Nuria tuna. Californian wine.  We shared a desert. Delicious! The tip is now included (18%!!) in the bill, so it is a bit misleading in the US. When you order food the price you see is without the taxes and without the tip.

Tomorrow will be another day.

Wednesday, a day to take it easy, meet a couple of people and prepare the bags for the day after, for the long trip.

In the morning we woke up pretty late because we the night before we went to bed at 2am from Alberto’s place. We took the 55 again towards placa de catalunya and we went to pizza marzano to meet Vanesa. We had lunch with her. Menu was 9.90 euros but quality is pretty bad.

We catch up with her over lunch. It was very nice to meet her and let her. She met Kai too, sure.

After lunch we had to meet with my friends from Salo de la Infancia, but we were going to meet late and my brother wanted to come over to my mum’s to say bye, so we cancelled (or postponed) with them and walked up home. We prepared the bags and went to bed.

We spent most of the day with Raquel, Kike and Eneko. In the morning they came here to my mum’s and we took the bus number 55 to Plaza Catalunya.

We walked down portal del Angel and had a coffee in around placa del Pi. We walked down the Ramblas to the sea, to the Maremagnum where we had lunch at Wok. It was lovely. Nice temperature, close to the sea, sunny… and great company.

After that  we took the metro L4 back home and drove to the new terminal of the airport. There we had also some drinks and Kai had his first true laugh. Not just smiling and making noises but true laugh. Very funny.

Once they left we went to Gava de Mar to Marisol and Alberto’s house. They cooked for as a very nice cold soup and chicken. We stayed until late. Kai had one colic attach though, but dinner was great and they are doing great too, so I was great (once more) seeing them ;-) Gava de Mar is a great place, 2 blocks from the beach. We should come to visit them in summer.

On Monday we went downtown. We met Kike, the traveler at Zurich in placa catalunya.He is doing fine. We went for a walk until the sea, then the port and then up to borne where we had a final drink and he left. We stayed around to eat some tapas (delicious) and went back home to leave Kai and pick up Raquel, Kike and Eneko from the airport. We went to my mum’s and then walked to their hotel. A very nice hotel I have to say, not far from here.

We went for dinner to a Pans & co. and home to bed.

In the photos you can see Kai in the bus, drinking his cocktails. The first one is the “celler de tapes” or “lonja de tapas” at Borne where we had our tapas.

We woke up and… no sun today. This is starting to be like Geneva, where you never know if it is going to be sunny, cold…

We had Gerard and Nuria with Clara coming over. Clara is lovely. Look at the photo…

Then we went to can cortada to have lunch with my uncle (my mum’s brother) and her wife (Angelo & Angels).

We had calçotada, a typical dish of this season. Great.

Then we were going to meet my friend from Salo de la Infancia but we cancelled as weather was crap. Instead we had siesta and a relaxed afternoon at my mum’s.

Look at kai’s way to sleep. By the way, the t-shirt is a present from my mum. We bought it at la maquinista a couple of days ago.

We woke up and it was sunny. The day before it was raining and it was awful.

We walked towards downtown, stopping by Barbara’s parents so they could meet Kai as well, and then in Joanic we took the metro (L4) towards Barceloneta, where we walked to the beach and all along the beach until villa Olimpica. There we had paella, wine… mmm then we went to meet my uncle and cosine who live there.

Later one we met Barbara, Agusti and the twins, Nuria and Silvia. They are so nice! so beautiful, funny and lovely….

Finally they drove us to Mariajo’s place where we stayed for dinner and we met Joel who is 2 weeks older than Kai.

I took most of the photos with the nikon so … no photos here…

Barcelona is proving to be a challenge in terms of meeting all the people we have to meet. I posted a note in facebook and sent an email to all my friend telling them to call us if they want to meet us (well meet kai).

I wish there would be an easy way to do this. Currently people calls me, I check my calendar, add them and I keep creating busy slots. I guess I could create a writable online calendar (maybe with google calendar) and with a password allow people to allocate on free slots. Is that possible? I know that for events where it is one time inviting people it is easy, with tools such as evite (before) and facebook (now).

Anyway kai met his great grandmother. It was veeeery emotional. My grandmother is 94 and she was crying of joy. Kai of course is too young to remember this in the future, but I took a couple of photos. Maybe I should have taken a video. I will.

Before though, we went to la maquinista (sort of an open-air shopping mall)  where we had lunch and bought some stuff (like dodotis).

We also met my best friend Sebas and Nuria. We went out for drinks at a cool place (see the photos) in the new area of Barcelona called Diagonal Mar. I don’t know that district at all… I am ashamed. Then we went to where Seba’s Nuria works, the Hospitality school where we had a delicious gastronomic dinner. It was delicious and it is nice because you are served by students who are doing their test on you. The teacher is overlooking but it is a great deal because you get to eat very nice things at a very affordable price.

We woke up early, but we couldn’t leave the house until noon. Logistics are difficult with a 2 month old…

We packed the car and we headed towards Annecy after stoping by Nuria’s office because she had to drop some stuff there.

Once on the road, everything went smooth. Kai would sleep and wake up every 3 hours (so 3 times in total) to eat, so we stopped in the nearest exit to change his dippers and feed him.

Once in Barcelona the weather changed… raining… but there it was, my mum and my brother waiting for us. Finally my brother got to know Kai.

Now to organise ourselves in order to meet the maximum amount of people in these few days before taking the plane to Miami. By the way, I learned that we will have to change planes in Madrid…

The last few days I have not been posting in the blog because I was in Ovronnaz enjoying thermal baths for 3 days with Nuria and Kai. Yes Kai did try too ;-)

I wrote a couple of stories with the iPhone wordpress app but they were lost…

Ovronnaz is at 2 hours from here and it is surrounded by snowed mountains. When we arrived we went to our little studio and then to the baths. All buildings are like huge chalets and they are all connected. It was -6 degrees celsius and it was snowing.

I have never had the chance of being in an outside pool with all the mountains painted in white, bubble below you at 37 degrees and snow falling in your face. Quite an experience. I do recommend it. If you choose to go to this particular complex, make sure you choose one of the chalet buildings close to the services and with a studio which is facing south and not located in the ground floor.

It was quite a test to see how our little 7 week old Kai was doing. He did pretty well. I guess he is ready for the big one then.

I write again from the plane. Now having Tripoli on my right at less than 4 hours flight from Amsterdam. This time I use my old friend laptop (sony vaio) who comes with me in all the trips I do. I must say that aside of being noticeable old, it is starting to finish my patience every time that I bring it back to life (from hibernation, that should be quick) and takes ages to be operational. I really don’t know what it is wrong with it but it is very slow. Well I might have an idea, and it is that I keep putting stuff on it and the programs get saved on C and the space left there is nearly over. Anyway.

Today is a long day. After the week in Kigali (I am not going to give details on my work), yesterday being the last night, we went out for pizza. Close by the hotel there was a decent pizza place. Yesterday it rained most of the day. I asked the waiter which of the 100 varieties of pizza (seriously) was she recommending, and I went for it. After eating and having a chat with one colleague that just landed and had to have meetings all day today, we went to the hotel. I must have been 11pm. I managed to sleep pretty quickly (that is normal on me) but only for 2 hours. A one the “alert” alarm from my iPhone made me jump from the bed. It is like a nuclear attach sort of alarm, but an alarm that guarantees that you do wake up.

I went downstairs (I had to pack before going to bed) and waited for a couple of colleagues that are now traveling with me.

Our taxi driver (Peter Safari) was there. Like a swiss clock. As usual, one of the most reliable people out there. He took us to the airport. It was still raining. It took less than 30 minutes to go. We were a bit worried because yesterday, during the day, we heard a thousand versions of a story (that was real) that happened yesterday on the same day: fist that a plain just crashed in Kigali airport. All dead. The pilot tried to take off and he notice something wrong in the engine, he went back, they took a look and gave the green light, took off again and the engine go on fire, and in the attempt to return to the airport it crashed. Soon this version was changed. Only the pilots died. That they managed to land but they crashed with the VIP lounge and the pilots died. Then latter in the day a different version: that no body died but there were injuries, so an ambulance went to the airport, and the ambulance crashed with the pilots and they all died in the accident. Then that the CEO of Rwandan air (the company of the little plane) died in the crash of the ambulance when going to the airport, and finally, the one that looks the right one is that the ambulance killed a couple of people in its way to the hospital.

Anyway, there was an incident in the airport with a plane and we were a bit worried of encountering a crashed airplane.

The reality was somehow different. There was this accident and the little Kigali airport was pretty busy. When the little plane landed on an emergency landing it collided with the control tower, smoke started coming and the plane at 100 meters from this one had to evacuate (a bigger plane going to Nairobi), so in the airport we had the real version from all this people trying to get a place in our plane,which was the next one to Nairobi. At the end we manage to get our boarding passes (just on time) and here I am.

I don’t want to talk about the job we did during the week. I wonder if I am allowed and I would rather keep this personal, even if this is an official mission, I explain the personal experiences.

As I said it is going to be a loooong day. I woke up at 1am (11pm in Europe??) and I will be landing at 7.30pm. A friend will come and pick me up. Nuria is seek. She got the results from the hospital and she has the Swine Flu, so I feel terrible by being so far from her. She is in bed and because she is 8 months pregnant she cannot take any medications. I have tons of things to do in the office but I will try to get Monday off to be with her.

This stupid laptop wants to reboot every 5 minutes because it downloaded some stuff. Why all the stupid updates from Mocosoft require you computer to boot? Mac does not require you to reboot on every update!

I should consider studying the market for  a substitute for my dear old sony vaio t. The main requirements are: small (11 inches or so) great battery (more than 10 hours with wifi) and light. May be I should wait for January and see what Apple releases as a tablet. There are rumors that apple patented a pen touch screen with a pen (fingers cannot write…). I will have to wait. The vaio is old now. Is it from 2004?? Definitely one of the best investments. I have friends with netbooks and this is not the same… a high end ultraportable laptop is a different story.

Anyway, I am going to save this and let it reboot. I will continue listening to the latest audiobook of Malcom Gladwell, what the dog saw. Ciao.

Here I am again on board of a plain typing in the little iPhone keyboard. I am in Nairobi. Now the plain is goin to take off to Kigali (Rwanda) where I will go to the hotel, which will be suprise surprise because every hotel was full due to a confernce that it’s taking place now. The one I booked for the 8 of us costs only $29 compared with the $300 of the Serena. I found it in tripadvisor and reviews are ok. I will report later on that but I thin it has no Internet.
I met one of the 8 traveling in Geneva. He has been traveling with me today.
It is goin to be a hard and long day because we arrieve to Kigali at 8:30am and we start working.
On Monday morning before going to the airport I went to the office to have a meeting with an NGO who can help us writing the DTIS. I felt terrible (stomach ache) so wnt home. Then when going to the airport it was going worse and worse. Nuria was in bed all day. She went to the hospital to Have analyses for the A flue. I started withe sam symptoms but after entering in the plane in amsterdam I slept from min one sweting like a pig.
Now I’m feeling better I will have breakfast as I haven’t eat in the last 24 h.
Serving food now. Ciao.

Well well, here I am again, at many miles over the sea, well actually over the desert probably, in my way to Rwanda, Kigali to be precise.
Again, I was planning to go with my ducati to the airport, as I have done for the past few times. This time, though, the flight was at a more than reasonable hour, at 8.20am. Well, I was about to leave the house around 7am when I realized that the ouside temperature was –2. Dammed. I was already cold… and of course going to Kigali with hand luggage it makes no sense to be carrying the big motorbike jacket and trousers…

Nuria was awake so finally she drove me… :-)

Once in the plane they announced that in Brussels there was only one runway open for take offs and landings due to the wind. Well that means that we had to wait for nearly one hour in the plane in Geneva. Honestly we thought we were not going to be able to catch the connecting flight, we only hoped that the delays would apply to all flights, including the one going to Kigali.

That was the case, so here I am, in the first row of business class, after reading part of my ton of documents, had a great lunch and watched what was probably the last movie I had left to watch from this route. Now I was expanding my readings to some documents I have not printed but that I have on my Vaio.

I will be going back home on Saturday night. The flights this time were busy due to a One UN conference that it is taking place now in the Serena Hotel in Kigali.

Well, I don’t want to talk about job in my blog, just about my trips and my passions (technology, internet, social media, photography and so).

Photography it has been a while since I don’t add photos to my norai.net site. In fact it is a bit sad but when I come here, one of the most beautiful countries in Africa, I do not even take the camera… but believe me, the only thing I see is the Iris Guesthouse and the Ministry of Trade.

Well if I don’t want to talk about job then I can talk about other things:

I am going to be a father for the first time in December. Nuria and I are attending this courses in the Hospital to learn about the x day, and everything. Pretty interesting. Yesterday we did the breathing thing.

A couple of weeks ago after a lot of research looking for the perfect prawn we finally bought it. 

The choice was taking into consideration a set of issues:

1. All our friends, they started buying fancy kits, like the bugaboo, but after 6 months most of them ended buying one of this umbrella prawns, like the mclaren.
2. Size and weight are very important, as well as the fact that they can last as long as possible, preferably from 0 to 3 or 4 years.

The conclusion was bebeconfort mila, a 2009 model of this brand. An umbrella sort of prawn, which weights less than 7 kg, that you can fold with one hand and standing, and that is less than 1m so you can take it in the cabin of an airplane. Also where you can attach a maxi-cosi for the car (that we also bought) creatis.fix and eventually the other one that it is like a small bed for newborns (that I bought two days ago on ebay at a third of its price, second hand but used one month).

So now we have everything to take him around.

We also went to Ikea where we bought a lot of stuff.

Here we are in Bilbao. Today is Nuria’s dad bithday. 70! And like a kid.
No we are at a very nice restaurant that it is listed in the Michelin guide having a nice lunch. Tomorrow we’ll head to Picos de Europa.

Here I am, in Barcelona. I arrived at the new terminal T1.

Today we had a productive day. We met the Minister of Trade and her Chiefs.
Here you have some photos: the toilet in the floor of the Minister (they have no water and no electricity, only own generators), the Ministry of Trade Building and stairs, the bullet hole in the glass in the Minister’s meeting room… and a beer in the best spot we found in Monrovia, all in our UNDP 4×4.

Sunday. We had the day free after a meeting with our local guy here. We did plan the week and then Francis took us with his crappy car to have a tour around the city.
What can I say about it. It is a post conflict zone. The few big buildings that are still standing are all burned and destroyed. There are visible signs for war everywhere. Poverty is everywhere.
This is the poorest country I ever visited. I can not complain of not having hot water or no choice for food.
Judge for yourselves:

Here I am, in Monrovia, in the Corina Hotel. A 5 stars hotel… I’m joking. There are no 5 stars hotels here. This in fact a place with clean sheets, and free wifi. That is good enough.
The flight was long. Flying economy within Africa and in a 5 or 6 hours trip, with stop over in Accra is not the same as flighting in Europe.
Anyway, we had no problems to get into the country. We had no visa but we had a letter from the Minister so we just got it.
I would like to post pictures but it takes like ages to upload. I will try to put at least one.
Well, today is Saturday. It is a long weekend here. Monday is holiday. We work though. Tomorrow we might go to the beach but the weather is not that nice. It is cloudy. Not too hot.
I will write again tomorrow. I try to upload a photo that I took in the airport.

Nairobi. I am posting this from Monrovia in Liberia because I had no internet in Nairobi.
I arrived on Thursday, pretty late at night. There was a guy waiting for me. I had no problems to get into the country without visa with the Laisser-Passer.
The hotel was a bit crappy but OK.
On Friday when I woke up I went and have breakfast. Owen and Isaac came around 9am when we left to the Export Promotion Council. We had meetings all day. Eventually Mr Matanga (responsible for EPC) took us for lunch to the Intercontinental Hotel, then we went to the ministry of Trade.
I remembered I had been there before when I came for the WTO meeting. We met the PS (Prime Secretary) of the Ministry of Trade. Simone (a colleague from the the ITC) was also meeting the PS for the Ethical Fashion project.
We exposed our methodology and we are in. They want us to starts asap. The earliest we can start is September. They did not want to create a new body to oversee the process of the National Export Strategy development. The task will be managed by EPC which has a 50% representation of the private sector.
Anyway, I don’t want to go into work details. I had no chance to see Nairobi. Work only. Until late.
As an anecdote, I would say that in London there was a group of people with a guide. The guide was traveling with them from London, and yeap, they were also traveling in Business… they were going for a safari… nice!

Well, here I am at gate B37 Terminal 5 in London Heathrow airport. This time on my first trip/mission with the ITC, that I joined 2 weeks ago.
I am now using my iPhone and we are ready to board.
I will be arriving to Nairobi late at night and tomorrow I will be meeting a couple of colleagues. We have a pretty busy agenda for Friday. On Saturday we’ll be flying to Monrovia (Liberia) where we will spend 8 days.
Now I am boarding. Next post from Africa ;)

Here we are, in the rainy and foggy Hong Kong. We got here this morning, one hour ahead schedule, so at 5am local time more or less. After 11 hours of flight, 2 films and a failed attempt to sleeping in the economy class air new Zealand, we were fresh as a daisy. We took the bus A21 to Tsim Sha Tsui and we were counting the stops to get of in the 14th one, but obviously we missed it and we had to walk back with our huge backpacks for 5 minutes. In the bus we found a Czech Republic girl who had been away for a year, in Hawai and NZ, with amazing experiences. The Chungking Mansions does look not honor at all its name, quite the contrary. Inside the hall it looks like a labyrinth with tiny shops and restaurants We took the lift to the 12 floor, but when we arrived to the guesthouse no one opened the door. Umm, it was 7.30 am, but we had written to the owner informing him that we needed a place to drop our luggage. So we phoned him and after 10 min he came. We then went in the sacred search of a coffee shop so we could start the day with energy and have a look at the map and guide to see what we were going to do.

We had time until 19.30 when we were meeting Beth and Paul, our friends from UK who were here also this weekend. So with renewed energy we started our inspection of the area were we are, at the end of Nathan road which is very centric. We visited the gardens just off this road with people doing Tai Chi all over the place, some others were kind of dancing with a HK version of the Spanish castanets. We visited the parrots, the swans, the ducks, the flamencos… Then we went to the Harbour area to admire the beautiful skyline of HK island which is one of the most impressive of the world. We passed through the most expensive European boutiques all lined up close to the big hotels. We went to the Avenue of the Stars, which pays tribute to the chinese stars of the HK cinema. with a big statue of Bruce Lee to welcome you. We continued to the Clock Tower, the landmark form the Age of the Steam and part of the original Kowloon Canton Railway Terminus, demolished in the 70s. We had lunch in one of the million restaurants in the area. I had fish balls with chicken in noodle soup and dani had a set menu with han chicken with a tasty sauce, a soup, rice and vegetables with oyster sauce, all very good. We went back to the guesthouse for a nap, so we could be up after 9 pm, but impossible to sleep, so shower and out. Beth had some recommendations for cocktails and we all went to the Acqua bar, a fancy restaurant and bar in floor 30 of a modern and curved building first line of the harbor.We were there for the Symphony of Lights which is a multimedia show with 40 buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour depicting HK vibrancy in a myriad of colours. The views would have been fantastic in a clear day, but due to the fog and our excitement with the fancy bar and ever fancier cocktails we did not see very much of the show. The bill came and our card had a shock with a 130USD bill. Anyway , the place, the company, the cocktails and even the 5 pots of peanuts were worth it the price. But again it looked like our budget was exploding. We took the ferry and following Paul’s instructions we arrived to Soho were we had dinner in an Italian restaurant and then we headed to Lan Kwai Fong where night owls and partygoers are. All of them expats and tourists, not a single local, but the trendy area provided us with a fantastic night. Though the red berry mojito is not to be recommended. Then red taxy and to sleep.

Here we are, in Christchurch airport waiting to board. I am now on the iPhone. Looks like we get 15 min of free wifi here.
We woke up again in the jail backpackers and this time we had proper breakfast: the sausages that we still had and the beans ;)
We finished the bread and the orange juice and we checked out. We left everything in the car and walled downtown. Again we did not use the car a lot today. We visited the botanic gardens, walked around the park and then around 2.30 we had lunch in a sort of fast food japanesse. Very nice sushi. After that we went back to the jail where the car was parked. We cleaned it up (just the mess inside) and we put the gps to guide us to jucy, where we left it. It was a sad moment. All these Km together. Finally 6.989 Km. Woooow.
No problems at all with jucy. All smooth. They even reinboursed us the 5 dollars that we paid extra to have a clean car and the car was dirty…
They drove us to the airport and here we are. We take the flight to Auckland and then 12 hours to Hong Kong.

  We woke up this morning in our cell in the jail guesthouse and after having breakfast we decided to spend the day in Christchurch, so the car would rest for a day ;-)  The original plans were to drive to Hanmer Springs, a thermal village where nuria wanted to go to soak in hot waters and she also hinted that she would have a massage, of course, that and Japanese restaurants are something that you can be sure will always bring a big smile in her face.

We walked following the Lonely Planet walking tour (more or less, as somehow the interpretation of the map was mistaken 50% of the time) starting by the end, following the river. We started at Cathedral square which is the place to meet friends and where all the meollo is. We failed to visit the Cathedral as they were in mess and I think is disrespectful to go on admiring the architecture when the priest is giving his sermon. Very nice walk and very nice weather. When the sun is not shining it gets a bit cold otherwise is fine. We visited the Arts Centre complex which was actually part of the Canterbury College and later University. For the art aficionados it is Gothic Revival. You could enter old classrooms and the faculties which are full now with art studios and craft outlets, restaurants, nice cafes ( we had a tea and a coffee and met a group of Spanish ladies who were on a 22 day tour). Nuria went on her own to visit the Rutherford’s Den exhibit that celebrates the life and work of this kiwi who first split the atom in 1917. At 13 hours nuria felt suddenly terribly hungry and then the search for a suitable restaurant started. Given her high standards, we spent nearly one hour going around, and as most restaurants kitchens close at 14.30, the pressure kept on mounting. She thankfully found an Indian that satisfied some of her criteria and looked actually more like a very fashionable bar than an Indian. Our conclusion is that the previous business went bust and the Indians bought it and added a small kitchen in the back. We postponed the Botanical Gardens visit for tomorrow as I did not quite feel like reading the 10000 different varieties of plants and trees they have, and this is the intention of my other half.

In the afternoon, we felt like walking with a stone in our stomachs, we explored the interesting shops, bars, boutiques, design stores and galleries in High Street area. Some of the stuff is very very nice, and nuria would have bought many of those having it not been for the fact that we have some 24 hours air flight before arriving back home.

It has been a quiet day, just walking, having a couple of coffees here and there and walking again.

Tomorrow is our last day, and we will probably do the same, but this time in the botanical gardens area. At 5 we will have to give the car back to jucy near the airport and then wait for our flight to Auckland and then to Hong Kong. We have already booked our guesthouse for the 3 nights, after some 10 failed telephone connections to another one, so second option is good for us also. We might meet with Beth and Paul who are going to be there, on business trip. What a coincidence!!

After a long sleep for the driver (near 11 hours) in the Queen bedroom we went straight to the kitchen to fry our beef sausages for breakfast. We escaped a fine, as in NZ you have to park your vehicle in the sense of the traffic, and we always have parked where we saw a spot, so we have been quite lucky apparently not to get a fine, according to the owner of the backpackers. We had decided to spend the day in the Peninsula, inspecting every single little bay marked in the map. The windy roads took us to several beautiful bays, and the most amazing thing is that there was none in any of them, no tourists, no locals, well in Diamond Harbour, at the Jetty there was a woman walking her dog. Otherwise you visit these tiny villages where locals are gardening or are sat outside in their yard talking and watching birds fly around. In one of these communities, I got all excited at what I thought was an extraordinary encounter with a kea, the indigenous parrot. I made dani stop suddenly ( but at the fast speed of 20km/h, our teeth did not risk biting the windscreen), caught his camera and run outside to catch the famous bird which also run away. I took at least 5 photos of the poor animal, all equally bad, only to realize when I read the description of the kea, that this one was more a chicken style animal… We continued up and down the hills around the peninsula to get to a point with another road sign which read “film crew”. As we did not think that it was a movie, we were wondering how we could relate seal with film in terms of road work. The lady with the stop sign came to tell us it won’t be long and that we should drive slowly by the car they were filming. And yes, the new Porsche Cayenne Turbo without a dusk particle was shining 200 meters away with the front plate German and the back one NZ. So we were in the primacy of the ad shooting!! The car is beautiful, so if you are not concerned with the environment, your parking place, the amount of petrol it consumes and maybe the price, buy it and let me drive it!

We went to the next Bay, and suddenly the road converted itself in a a gravel one and half the size of the previous one. Fortunately for us, we only crossed with one other car coming in the opposite sense, so we have to go backwards for a while and then get the closest to the rock ( they had to get closest to the cliff). In Diamond Harbour we stopped for a tea break at a fabulous place with views to Littleton at the other side of the Peninsula. We could breath serenity and calm here. We stopped again at Littleton which is the Commercial port of Christchurch and apart from London Street, nothing really interesting, so we decided to continue to stop some 5 km further in Sumnet for the 30th time in the day. Another short walk and back in the car to the liveliest town in the South Island. We had booked our last two nights in NZ in Jailhouse, which was a jail some 50 years or so ago. But the backpackers did not appear in the GPS, so dani armed himself with patience to follow the copilot instructions and reading of the map…

We got there and with no mistakes! I am very proud of my orientation, though it was proven later on that it was a question of chance. We left our things and went to the car to drive back to the city centre, as the pleasant 30 min walk, was probably more of a pleasure with sun. We walked around to have a sense of the city, me starving, and dani fine. So we could not quite agree on the restaurant we were going to visit. I am always fixed with Japanese, and dani wanted steak. So in the end, Thai won and we both ordered Satay (chicken for me and beef for dani). Ummmmm, delicious!! Now we are in our cell, reading and writing with 2 duvets on, as it is terribly cold in this country as soon as the sun goes down. It is definitely a place worth staying, it looks like a real old jail, same style as the Rock in SFO.

We woke up in the “Tailor Made Tekapu Backpackers”, had breakfast and put our backpacks in the car, that this time was completely frosted in ice. Tekapo is at 760m of high and is probably the coldest place in NZ. The idea was to go up Mount John where on top there is an observatory and apparently a very nice 360 degree view bar called Astro Cafe. The walk up should take about 3 hours. What happened then? We did not ask and we ended up on top of the Mount John with the car… dammed. We wanted to walk and we were already up in the peak with the car! and it was early so the 360 degree bar was close, sure. Anyway, the views were amazing! From there you could see Tekapu lake and city, and even Mount Cook. Very very nice.

We went down and we refilled the tank, we took a couple of photos of the little historic church that has incredible views over the lake and the monument to the collie dog without which the grazing of this area would not have been possible. We started our way to Akaroa in the amazing Banks Peninsula, and is known as the Riviera of Canterbury due to its sunny and tranquil days. This peninsula is literally a volcano. If you see the map where we are now, in Akaroa was part of the crater some 6 million years ago.

To come here we drove through part of a tourist route, and at the end the highway 1, that has nothing of high way. Is like a Spanish “comarcal” with two lanes, one on each way so like every other road. What makes it a highway is that you have passing lanes in a while.

After a 1000 curves (Nuria was already feeling seek of my Fitipaldi driving) we arrived to Akaroa, a lovely little town in a bay. We landed in a backpackers called Chez la Mer, that is run by a couple of New Yorkers that came here long time ago in a sabbatical 2 year trip (after selling their house and quitting their jobs), so few years latter they bough this place. There were not regular doubles this time so we have the “queen” room, with toilet!! wow!

After leaving all our stuff in the room we went out for a walk. This town is lovely. Quiet, relaxed…. very nice. Then around sunset time, we came back to have our rigorous glass of wine with peanuts and this time olives. That is a constant in our trip ;-)

After a cold night at Omahau Downs (but with heating in our room ;-) ) in Twitzel we had breakfast and left direction to Mount Cook, around 50 Km of where we where. The earlier evening in the living room we had to light fire. It can get pretty cold here in this area, even if now is the end of summer.

The drive towards Mount Cook is just amazing. We follow a pretty flat land with the mountains at the end. Beautiful. Closer to the town you go by a huge lake and finally Mount Cook town. The mountains there are all with snow, and it is not that high in altitude. We went to the Information centre to see which walks were better for such a beautiful day like the one we had today, with not even a cloud in the sky. The one they recommended was the Hooker valley, where you have a view over the the valley, mount Cook and the lakes that the glacier has when it melts.

We drove to the parking and started our walk. It was a 3 hours walk and we took it easy. We crossed two hanging bridges and at the end we reached the lake, with pieces of ice floating around. Beautiful. A bit chili there, but very nice. We had lunch and then we had a siesta. After that we went back to the parking. I have recorded this path in the gps.

Because is was still early we decided to make another walk. This time to the Tasman Lake, also with many big blocks of ice floating. In fact there were 3 walks there and we made them all. This was the l onger glacier in New Zealand with 29 km that is flat at the end, so instead of melting like the rest of the glaciers it melts from the top. Then back to the car and we headed to Tekapu where we are now at the Tailor Made Tekapu Backpackers. It is a backpackers place too.

After getting here we went to the tekapu lake, which is superblue, and had dinner (salmon) at “the” local restaurant (315 inhabitants…).

By the way, I have edited the post of Nuria’s skydive (embrace the fear) of the 15th of May and I have uploaded a video ;-)
Mont Cook Glaciar in New Zealand GPS Garmin Oregon 300

EveryTrail - 

Saturday morning, raining like hell, good thing we went yesterday to the lovely Otago peninsula. It stopped for 2 minutes just to give us the time to load the car, and continue the road trip. Direction the Mackenzie country, NZ’s treasured highland. On our way, the weather started clearing up and timid sun shone. We stopped in Moeraki to go to the beach and the weird boulders formations, there were no panels by the public car park, so I do not know why and how they formed, but they are something special. Our next stop was Oamaru, the city dedicated to the penguins. We did not see them in the Otago Peninsula, or the West Coast, so I counted very much with this city with historical buildings and concentrated on the small mammals to see them. Well, for your information, penguins do not go ashore but after dusk, so too late for us. We visited all the buildings in the area, bought a nice tomatoes and olives bread, another panetone-style cake (the Italian version is much better) and two spirals al pesto for the visit. We went into the communal local radio where they showcased an astonishing collection of all radios and music gramophones and we also visited a place in the old town where they do whisky. Our plan for the day was to reach Mount Cook and sleep there, but there is a similar problem as in GVA anytime, too few offer for too much demand, so when I phoned, the “sorry, we are fully booked” sounded familiar and we decided that we were not going to pay 300 USD for the only other nice hotel probably available. So we booked at Twizel in the B&B, cottages, doubles, backpackers and all other possible segments of tourists. On our way here we were amazed by the views: mountains on the right, on the left, the Alps in front of us, and in between all these, nothing, just a road and a few cars, no houses or tiny villages all over the place. Such a fantastic landscape and noone. It is so amazing to be really in the nature with nothing else to disturb the contemplation. We detoured at Lake Ohau, and there you have a beautiful lake and a beach and we are the only humans around. We were there for 30 minutes, throwing stones to the lake and we did not see another soul.  Dani won by far the stone-further-in-the-lake competition. We continued and checked in at Omahau Downs, the place is very nice and our room has good views to the Southern Alps. And then we went to the city center to see what we could do. Ha ha ha. The guide at the information center did not feel like working or talking to a foreigner, so he briefly answered my questions and we left. We walked around for 5 minutes, see the city center and the conclusion was to go back to our nice accommodation and relax.

We have already booked the accommodation for tomorrow night, impressive as we normally do it either on the spot or a few hours before our arrival. We are lucky it is no high season.

We woke up in the house with great views over the ocean (hilltop backpackers) that we had for ourselves. We had breakfast and we took the road in the opposite direction to go to a couple of places that we missed in our way here: two waterfalls (McLean falls and Purakaunui falls) a lake and then we continued to a beach where the sea lions are. There we say a big one! Finally close to kaka point (yes…) Nugget Point, where a famous lighthouse is, with astonishing landscape and a lot of fur seals. Beautiful. All small and playing around.

After that we continued to Otago peninsula and we stopped at Dunedin, a major University city, and we are staying at Elm Backpackers. This is where I am now, writing because I found that they have wifi (yupi!) paid of course, so I am going to post the last 4 days… After leaving our stuff at elm’s we went to the Otago peninsula where we followed a crazy road to the far end, where the albatross and the supposed penguins are (we did not see any though).

Latter one we went back to Dunedin and we walked a bit downtown. Nuria wanted to have dinner at a Japanese so we did, Yuki Izakaya. Very nice. After that, to bed. The day after we have a long way to go to Mont Cook. We have already driven 5300km…. And if you want numbers, yes I have already taken 2334 photos with the nikon ;-)

We overslept today, at 8.15 when the alarm went off, I did not want to get out of bed. I could heard the rain furiously hitting the roof of our nice place. Dani got up complaining about the many bites he had all over his body, saying that he woke up twice cause of the itching. We had again another fantastic English breakfast, we forgot again the beans in the car…

All packed and ready for the Southern Scenic Route, leaving the blue Kepler mountains behind. The quiet road passes alongside farming lands and yes we finally see where all the 40 million sheep are, until now we have mainly seen cows, but Southland and Otago is were they keep them. We passed Invercargill without stopping and after a few incredibly inconsistent turns right and left we entered into the enchanted Catlins. According to the Lonely planet, in a clear, sunny day there is nothing more beautiful than this coast, surrounded by forest green, ocean blues and rugged bays. Unfortunately today was grey, Antarctic windy and raining, so we did not cross many tourists. We stopped at Fortrose to think about our planning for the day and go to the information centre. The village itself has nothing but this bar-restaurant-information place in a beautiful location. We were not hungry but decided to have the seafood chowder, delicious with local ale and local pinot gris, ummmmmmmm. By the time we finished it had stopped raining, so we felt already energized for the myriad of stops and walks ahead. Not much civilization, so no mobile network, so no accommodation yet for the night. We took the coastal road to Waipapa point and the historic lighthouse. We walked to the beach in search of the sea lions, apparently they were either surfing or sunbathing on a different beach. By the way this area could be very appropriately renamed Windland, as the wind blows you away if you are not watching your steps.  We escaped the rain for 1 minute, which could have been soaking wet given the wind. We continued to Slope Point, the most southern point in NZ and the closest we have ever been to Antarctica. We followed the yellow markers for 20 minutes crossing someone’s farmland to reach a sign with the name, and the km away from Ecuador and the ice continent. If winds were strong in the previous spot, they were superman-only-can-fly type in here. Cliff views up and down the coast, dani took the compulsory photo and we were pushed back (by the wind) to the car. Another common feature of this area are the windswept trees which let you no doubt of the direction and intensity of the wind, another photo taken. I am so happy dani has a digital camera!! Back on the road until Curio Bay, which is a curious place where there is a petrified forest. According to the scientists, fossilized trees similar to kauri lie embedded on coastal bedrock. They are remnants of a 180 million year old Jurassic era forest. They were petrified in a period of 2 months due to a mud flood which covered them in silica, I reckon I read. There were also signs here explaining that you could see the yellow-eyed penguin here, how to behave in such case and bla bla bla. Obviously the penguins were playing cards with the sea lions, somewhere else, I think the kiwis (birds) were also with them. We had a few more stops in our way, but as it was 17.45, we decided to go shelter searching instead. In Papatowai we found another fantastic place where we are right now. In a house with 4 bedrooms but only two souls in it, with great ocean and hills views, is called Hilltop. Really nice!! This one beats the one in Te Anau, really beautiful, cosy, and decorated!! It is called hilltop backpackers and apart from the stunning views over the Pacific Ocean is ranked by “the Observer” as one of New Zealand’s top 10 great experiences and wonderful memories. 

Fiordland is sliced by numerous deeply recessed sounds, technically fiords and since 1986 it is one of the 300 World Heritage Areas because of its uniqueness that must be preserved. The famous Milford Track has been described as one of the finest in the world, pity that was fully booked. So we decided that as we could not walk it, we will cruise it, and given the fantastic day we had yesterday, we expected the same for today, against all forecasted predictions. So up again at 7.00 am after a noisy night with a male big deer shouting out loud for a female to love him. And shit, it was raining!! So we started the Milford highway (a NZ highway is basically a sealed road with some 2-10 one lane bridges or unmarked areas of the road enough for a car). As the lonely planet said, the 119 km road is a top road trip for sheer scenic wonder, and I think that by now we have gone through definitely all the “one of the beast road trips in NZ”. But I confess that this one is for me, so far the best one. The trip takes 2 hours, but given my tendency to stop everywhere with a tourist sign post and something to read, and dani’s tendency to stop everywhere he could take a good photo, it took us more than 3 hours and this sprinting in all the spots to visit, overtaking slow Japanese tourist on the left, upssssss! We stop at Mirror lakes and could not quite understand what was the beauty about it, but it was raining heavily, as on the way back we stopped ans admired the reflection of the mountains in the lake. We continued our way stopping here and there to read the signs and take more photographs, so far 2000 until we reached the Divide, the lowest pass in the southern alps. And there we should thank the rain, as wherever you look, we could only see waterfalls, one bigger than the following one, all different, all special, all amazing. I had read that it rains 7 meters ( not cm or mm) per year, or approx 180 day a year. But that makes water cascade everywhere and the small streams become raging torrents. It was so beautiful, and so wet, I think my trousers got completely wet and then dried ( thanks North Face for the techno-fabric) a minimum of 4 times. And just 18 km before Milford, the Homer Tunnel, surrounded by a spectacular high walled, ice-carved amphitheater crowned by a glacier. After the 1200 m long tunnel, the fabulous Cleddau Valley with yet even more waterfalls emerging from every possible place. Afterwards, Pop’s views, with zero visibility thanks to the rain, but we did stop on the way back to see the Routeburn track, the Hollyford river and the divide. The last stop was the Chasm walk, ( a 30 min for tourist or 12 min for sprinters) where the forest cloacked cleddau river plunges through a narrow chasm, crating deep falls and eroded rocks. The noise and the strength of the water beating the rocks was quite scary. And then we arrived at Milford, 10 minutes before the expecting reporting time by the company counter. Before getting out of the car, we bathed ourselves with the repellent roll-on we bought yesterday in the pharmacy ( as I forgot ours in the restaurant in Kinloch and got two bites in my nose and cheek, plus uncountable numbers in my legs and ankles). As soon as we were out, we were welcomed by a thousand sandflies flying around trying to find a spot of our skin without the repellent, and they got dani’s ankles again as he forgot to apply the roll on there. Milford sound is stunning, with dark waters out of which raise rocky cliffs with beech forest. The supernice photos that you might see in the blog is dani exporting them from the nikon…. not the mobile phone… And just in front of the port Mitre Peak which is the highest mountain raising directly from the sea. The cruise is amazing, and I must say that probably is more spectacular with rain, as the waterfalls double in size and number. The whole 90 minutes cruise was heavily raining, getting very wet to film short videos and take photos of the waterfalls. And then as soon as we got back to the wharf, sun shining!! Well we had it all, rain with fantastic waterfalls and sun for the beautiful photos. We had lunch at the only possible place in town, the Blue Duck cafe, the eggplant (anyone, difference with aubergine??) soup and the samosas were quite good. Well, we went back for another 3 hours and a half trip with numerous stops and short nature walks to see rivers, waterfalls , beech forest… We got back to our lodge and cooked a variation of the menu, which is regularly either pasta and salad (lettuce and grape tomatoes) or fantastic NZ beef and salad. We enjoyed very much the curry chicken brochettes, with thick ham and garlic pita bread. The two constants of the dinner equation remain the same to keep it healthy: salad and red NZ wine!

After a succulent English breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon and fantastic beef-tomatoes-something else sausages we started driving back to Queenstown and then to Te anau. I started the routine of phoning 2-3 guesthouses, BBH backpackers to find a place to sleep. Te Anau seemed to be fully booked, so I continued phoning from my list without reading too much the description of the place, just the ranking. The 5th one was available so I booked, and only when I fully read the paragraph did I realize that it was not actually in Te Anau, but 9 km away. Dani’s look could have converted me in stone… We continued the road to enter Fiordland, NZ’s rawest wilderness area. So 15 km before Te Anau I entered the name of the place in the GPS, Barnyard Lodge and the very intelligent machine took us around the quickest, yet again another unsealed road. Dani did not say anything but I bet you he was thinking where the hell I had booked us in, and I was starting to get worried. But then 10 meters before the place a proper road!! We were so excited that we missed the entrance!! And then what a fabulous view in front of us. This is our Saint Patrick’s day gift: a rustic charming spacious log cabin, sitting on a hillside just opposite the Kepler mountains. I could not stop saying how lovely the view was, and our bedroom was at least 30 square meters with a decent bathroom. I have gained another medal! It was only 1pm, so we left our things and went to town, this time by the road, not the gravel path that all GPSs apparently send their brainless owners.

Lakeside,peaceful Te Anau is a beautiful place just to sit around and do very little. We aimed to have lunch, so we walked up the main street looking for nice restaurants that were not Italian style, no mistakes, I love Italian, but I always insist to eat local. We got to the Fat Duck and as it was, against all predictions, an incredibly sunny day, we sat outside. We ordered the fish of the day with a mango salad and white wine, of course. The wine was delicious, and the food imaginative, tasty and big size. Great choice of the guide reader!

At this point we already knew, as we had enquired in Queenstown, that we could not do the Milford Track as it was fully booked until 27 April!! A shame, taking it from the pictures and the commentaries, but given that is fairly easy and the amount of tourist doing it, it must look like Hyde Park at the New York marathon. What else can one do in the place that defines the boundary of two very different countrysides: to the east the flat and pastoral central southland and to the west the rugged forested mountains of Fiordland. Well, the Glowworm caves came to the rescue, so we booked the boat at 20.15. The 200 m long system of  caves is a magical place with sculpted rocks by the water and dioxide carbon with waterfalls, whirlpools and the glittering glowworms. Very nice until you get the explanation and the fast video with the worms in life, well bugs are not really something I like. We got back to our fantastic room at 11.00pm, straight to bed as Wednesday is Milford Sound, and the cruise in the fiord, already booked on Monday.

Today we left Queenstown and we headed to Glenorchy, not very far (around 45 Km) were we are now in a camping site, in a little bungalow. The scenery from Queenstown to Glenorchy is just amazing. Again we had perfect weather. Latter in the afternoon the clouds started to come but the rest of the day, just perfect.

Following the edge of Lake Wakatipu, the road that goes from Queenstown to Glenorchy is ranked as one of the most scenic highways in the world. Once we reached Glenorchy and we left everything in the bungalow we continued to Paradise (yes, the place is called like this). Paradise was a major location for “the lord of the rings”. At the very end of the not paved road there is one of the ends of the Dart Track. We stopped there to have lunch but the Sand Flies just killed us… horrible. We took a couple who was waiting for the bus after 5 day trekking in the dart track and then went direction to Routeburn, where we did a trekking on the lake Sylvain. Amazing forest and nice lake.

After that we went to Kinloch, just in front of Glenorchy and we had a te and a coffee with a home made ginger cake at the Kinloch lodge (actually the only building in the “town”).

Just to mention that the way to Paradise our little Daihatsu Sirion had to cross 4 rivers… yessssss. Now is like a dune. After running all day in non paved roads…

After the tea in Kinloch we returned to Glenorchy where we just had spaghetti for dinner. Now to bed. Tomorrow to Te Anau where we will go to Milford Sound. The weather there is not going to be good, but this is when we can go… we will see.

“I must no fear, fear is killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain” Frank Herbert.

Sunny again!! Yeap, today is the day. Breakfast and off we go to the NZone shop to pay (the visa card did not want to get out of my pocket) and for our briefing. We were quite a bunch of people, only 3 guys and about 15 girls, Girl Power!!

We signed the disclaimer ( if you are injured or killed, you cannot sue the company, and although they do everything to avoid this, shit happens) and watched the sample video. Then another tough decision for my friend visa. Do you want photos or a DVD with a video. Dani had it clear, no thanks, that is fine with the jump. But I was not sure, it would be cool to have the video, but the photos as well. Umm at 179 dollars each it was a little bit expensive, and that has to be added to the 299 that was the jump. Ummm, this is once in a lifetime, so go for the combo, and I will send some cool postcards and post the video for posterity.

After a 30 minutes drive, we arrived to the aerodrome and the girl in charge told us that dani, myself and Cloe ( a small french girl from Bretania) were to jump in approx 30 minutes. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I was so so nervous, jumping up and down, looking around like a paranoid being followed by 1000 penguins, and dani cool, as if that was his normal routine. And then we heard a noise like a whistle and there he comes at 100km/hour, a guy just landed in no time. F_ _ _ , I am going to break my neck!! The girl in charged smiled and said not to worry as those were the cameramen who were enjoying the perfect weather conditions and doing crazy things like that. We were supposed to land much more slower and with our bottom on the grass. And yeap, we saw 3 tandems landing easily like that. After the terrible waiting, she came again to tell us to get prepared. Ahhhhhhh!! Inside the hangar, we got our Skydiving suit, helmet, googles and the arnes. My tandem dive master comes, ” Hi, I am JPO, how are you?” Ji, ji, scared to death, but fine and with a big smile. Cool. Dani’s dive master was not there, and Cloe and I were already all prepared, so we asked the girl and someone came to fix dani’s gear. His dive master arrived last minute, late for his first jump of the day, oupsssssssssss

All ready, we followed Cloe’s divemaster who gave us the 10 second briefing. Ok, you have to do the banana, that is, your legs up and your head backwards looking for the camera man, take your arnes with your hands when you jump and wait until we touch you to release them. That is it? I asked. Yeaaaah. Ok, fine. And off to the tiny tiny plane, taking off from a cow field. The tiny plane had place for 8 guys sitting on the floor and with approx 3 cm of free space around us, like sardines in a tin. 15 minutes of flight with an incredible view, and some instructions from our masters. JPO had jumped 12000 times, and I had to ask him if he had double check the parachute. Not to worry, so far the previous time it worked fine. We started to get prepared, the helmet, the goggles, the gloves. Then he attached us together from 4 different points. Last minute instructions and the red that was red, turned to green. JPO showed me his watch that said 12, so supposed it was the time.Dani was the first to jump and in no time, the door was open and he was hanging out of the plane. I did not have time to say anything, he was out, my cameraman was on the aisle of the plane waiting for my scary face and JPO was pushing me to the door. Ahhhhhhhhh. And there I was, hanging to the void, and off we went. Huge scream of terror, turning up and down, I see the ground, the plane, the mountains, the lake, the plane again, blue…

It is an amazing experience, fear and happiness, purity and empty space, total freedom and adrenaline. JPO touches my shoulder, so I can open my arms. Obviously I forgot to look up for the cameraman, just looking around to the amazing space around me at 200km/h, the scenery is impossible to beat. And then 10 seconds of photos, and video, pulling funny faces and trying to move your arms around, which is extremely difficult. You can feel the air entering directly to your lungs, and you do not know if you should breath through your nose or your mouth, your cheeks moving with the air. After 45 seconds of free fall and without further notice a big tiron (look it up in the dictionary), scream as I though that it was the end of my life until I realized that JPO had opened the parachute. Ufffffffff, that is better. And then slower motion, we started a nice 5 minutes conversation about the mountains: the Remarkables to your right, Mount Aspiring in front of you, no you cannot see from here Mount Cook. Conversation turned to dani, who was just below us, aahh, your boyfriend there, or is it your husband. No just boyfriend but for over 10 years. Ouau, and he has still not proposed? No, we are not interested, we are fine this way. Ok, so do you feel like rollercoasting? Shall I do a few turns? Ok I said, try and see. And he turned to the right, ouuuuuuuuuu, and then to the left, ouuuuuuuuuuuuu. He said, you are brave!! Ha Ha, Shit not I am damned scared I though, but it was fun. So he continued and then he said, now your boyfriend is up there. Ahhhhhh. When approaching the ground you have to put your legs up, so we land easily ok? Yes, you tell me when, right? Sure we still have couple of minutes, enjoy the view. Ok, now we are going to land, that is the cameraman, so just by his side, put your legs up. And apparently they were so up, that he decided not to land on our bottoms, but on our feet, what was cool. Big smile for cameraman, and brilliant fantastic answer to the how was it?

After the brilliant jump and with the tummy completely upside down, we went to have a walk by the lake, it was warm and beautiful. By the pier 19, there is a park and because is Sunday, there were posts with arts and crafts. And two korean girls giving shiatsu massage, yupie!! I go for one, I need it. So 20 minutes of massage listening to live music, pink floid version of the Wall. Fantastic.

Then walk through the Queens gardens and back to the main street. Had lunch in the KFC terrace listening to the pre-San Patricks day from the Irish pub in front. And it was time to collect my photos and DVD. So here you have a couple of them. Before and during. We went to put some more clothes on, take the laptop and go back to the beach where a DJ was mixing chill out music. And that was the perfect sunset and brilliant place to write this post.

  Waking up to a surprisingly sunny and cold morning, we turned inland direction Wanaka alongside the Haast river, climbing up to Haast Pass and the Mount Aspiring National park. We missed the stunning Blue Pools as they were closed, but we could admired the views from the no so distant inaugurated road (opened in 1965). After 2 hours and a half of turns to the right to the left, we entered the Wanaka region, crowned with the colossal Mount Aspiring ( second to Mount Cook). We first encountered the twin lakes of Hawea and Wanaka, surrounded by hills and cliffs, amazingly beautiful. We continued till the village of Wanaka where we parked by the lakefront and walk around the small town. We had lunch with nice views, my salmon was delicious, though tiny for a main, and dani’s sheet-thick beef burger looked good but small, or maybe our stomachs are getting bigger… Saturday was the day of mountain bikes race and a big fair of cattle, agricultural machineries, camper-vans, and other interesting stuff. We wandered around with our ice-creams and big smiles, the sun makes us happier. We continued the 100 km to Queenstown, passing the highest pass in NZ at 1000 something meters, spectacular views and yet another windy road. And we arrived to the South Island’s premier tourist town, with a cinematic background of mountains and lakes, charming. This is the place to come  for whatever adrenaline activity you might think of. The offer is so impressive, you could stay for weeks and not finish it, you must have a platinum card with a big limit. We decided to go for a trekking around the area and drove for some 30 minutes along the road to Diamond Track, and easy trek with Diamond lake views and a lookout of the Lake Wakatipu and mountains. Extremely beautiful as you can see with the picture.

And then, the question: to spend or not to spend ( a huge amount of money). Since I was a kid, I wanted to do something: jump off a place with a parachute. In my dreams I never considered the fear, the cost or the need for a tandem dive master or even two to jump with you so you can count it afterwards. Here the opportunity was perfect, fantastic place, with lake, mountains, sun, what else can you ask. I had told dani that I wanted to do it, but he was not very keen on it, he did once bungy jumping and that was the end of the big shocks. After 100 hundreds “I do not know”, I decided that we had to do it. Dani as excited as with the tango, agreed (two things off my things-to-do-before-I-die list), so I phoned to book the 12000 feet jump for Sunday at 10.30. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

We woke up at 7.00 am for a quick shower and the luxurious full English breakfast without the beans. We literally run to the Fox Guides Company to pay for the half day trot in the glacier and got our numbers to change the boats. Our mountain shoes are not high enough for the experience, so I got at least a number 42, the first time, I asked for something smaller and I was given a 41 with the recommendation to wear two pairs of shocks, mine, plus another one suitable for a 45, as the half that should be tight to your talon, was nearly reaching my knee… We were the luckiest ever for the last month, as today was the first sunny day in one month!!  And with a big smile on our face, off we went for an easy-peacey outing. We were also given the simplest crampons ever, to attach to the 50′s boats, making the perfect match. One hour walk up perfectly done wooden steps (800 0f them) and we were in the glacier, following the guide making ice glace with his axe, so even the least unfit could walk. Actually a lady turned back to the car park as she could not follow us up the perfectly done steps. We liked it very much, but we reckon that we could have easily done it ourselves without paying for the guide. Our friend Pep, would have laughed at us. But here is our contribution to the local industry!!

After the 4 hours walk we went back to Fox Village and we returned to the Matthewson lake, as we thought that given the brilliant day, we might get lucky and be able to take a beautiful picture of the mountains reflecting in the lake. So we sprinted the 40 minutes walk in half the time, and we got to the reflection island just to realize that the wind has destroyed the perfect water mirror, so that was it for the luck of the day.

Back to our car, by the way we rented a Daihatsu Sirion in Auckalnd and dani has been driving it since then for 3500 km, and here the roads are not motorways. Quite a few are unsealed, and the one lane bridge is common. So the plan was to drive all the way to Wanaka, but somehow we got diverted in Haast. The copilot decided that it was worth it to continue through and end route to Jackson Bay where apparently you had the most unforgettable views of the southern alps. That was another extra 45 km off our targeted road and destination. Not happy with this, mid-way this first detour, the copilot decided to add an additional one to see the read hills and the Cascade River Valley, so another 25 km. So in a 90 minutes period we reached two end-of-the-roads. In my view it was worth it, the drive along the river was beautiful, with the impressive Red Hills because of the high magnesium and iron concentrations. We crossed another tourist car that was driving double our speed, and we found them at the end of the road. As the Australian said: This is remote eiiiii!! Indeed I replied.

The isolated fishing hamlet of Jackson Bay was also very remote, nice views of the West coast with the mountains in the far end. Apparently there are colonies of crested penguins near the road, and we definitely saw about 3 signs warning us, but to no avail. They must be still passing the summer in Antarctica.

It was already 6.30 pm, so our plans to sleep in Wanaka were changed. Haast would be a more relaxed and calm place to sleep with no accommodation problems. The first one was fully booked, but the Haast Lodge has a room free!! Yupie!

We woke up this morning with an outstanding breakfast: eggs, bacon and sausages, all this with orange juice coffee and tea. We felt like marquises.

After such a breakfast we had 10 minutes to check out. Normally here check out time is 10am. So we packed everything in our little daihatsu sirion (now we know each other better) and headed towards Franz Josef Glacier. We were hesitating where we should do a walk in the glacier, in the Franz Josef or in the Fox. Both are 30km from each other and strangely enough, they both grow every year!! a bit of a contradiction for glaciers that are at less than 200 meters from the sea level… Finally we decided for the Fox, so we booked a half a day trekking in the Fox for tomorrow morning. We also booked accommodation in Fox Glacier at Ivory Towers backpackers, where we are now. 

We parked in the Franz Josef parking and walked for about one hour. We even tried climbing on a waterfall in order to go closer to the end of the glacier far from the stop signal where you go on your own risk, but we decided to turn around as we will be going tomorrow with a guide. After the walk we did a second walk to the sentinel rock where you have a nice view. After that we took the car in direction to Fox Glacier and we stopped at the Matheson lake that has a dark water that reflects the mountains in an amazing way. The problem, of course, was that it was cloudy so we did not see much. We did a walk around the lake.  We ate in a very nice spot. I even took a beer. After that we went to the parking where there was kind of a shop plus food place where we have a coffee in a nice wood terrace facing the mountains (see photo). From there to where we are now. A nice backpackers in a little town (Fox Glacier) with a couple of bars, where by the way, at 8pm they have a jazz concert of a guy playing guitar. We might go ;-)

Tomorrow 8.30 am to the Fox Glacier.

We overslept, ummmmmm that was nice, warm and with a shower at night and in the morning, so different to the cold hut!! At 9.30 we were driving direction to Kaikourua when I decided to phone just to check if we could advance our booked tour a few hours. Surprise surprise, all day tours had been cancelled because of bad weather, the following day was going to be the same, so U turn to the West Coast. We were just a mere 700 km away from the Franz Joseph glacier, and given the windy roads, that could take the whole day. We said, let’s keep moving and we will see where we get. So back again on the same road but in different directions, leaving behind the wineries with that fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon. We were heading to Westport, on the west coast ( the europeans who named these cities did not have much imagination). On its way we traversed the Buller Gorge, with the impressive Buller river snaking around. Then direction to Punakaiki where the famous Pancakes rocks and Blowholes are our GPS decided to get seriously mad. As Dani drives, it is the copilot who tries to understand the map ( I am not very good with directions) and reads the road signals and follows the GPS. So following the map and my common sense I said to dani,next road to the left, and the GPS said to the right, ummmmmmm!!! Weird!! We continued a little bit, I entered the name of the village twice and tried to see what it said. Again, asking for a u turn and continue for another 200 km for the place that was just 40 km away. We pulled over and dani (the expert) had a look. We were on the correct road, the GPS wanted us to give us a huge detour around, as if we were not driving enough, we have so far driven 3300 km!!

Well finally on the right track we arrived to Punakaiki and went pass the city (the three houses) and directly to the main attraction. A 20 minutes tour take you around the coast to see very closely these rocks, which not even the geologists can determine how they were formed. They look exactly like thick pancakes piled up. The explanation was a little bit complicated to write here but basically over the last 100.000 years they have been formed due to the characteristics of the dolomite rock and the action of the tectonic plates underneath. In any case, they are a beautiful phenomenon to admire. Dani took at least 100 pictures, so I guess that one or two will be really good. After a quick snack at the Wild Cafe there we continued our trip down to, Greymouth, Hokitika and finally the Franz Joseph village. For a while we thought that this time we were going to sleep in the car, as all the places where I phoned were fully booked and when I finally found one with a double the connection failed due to poor network. And for the next 100 km no big villages so no network. I kept on trying and finally Montrose Backpacker answer and I booked.

Trying to connect to the internet, with the 2 free computers that are available I met Raul, from Erandio (Bizkaia) who is also travelling around with Lourdes from Santutxu (Bilbao, Bizkaia). What a coincidence!! THey also have a blog: nosgustapasear/blog and something else I have not retained, but we will check it out in Google.

Tuesday at 7 we where up, but I did not want to get out of my sleeping bag, as it was freezing cold outside. In the end I had to go to the toilet, so I decided to get everything packed and prepared for the next experience. At 9.30 our guide, Cam, arrived with the paddles of the kayaks that were sitting in the beach since the day before. We got our basic instructions on how to advance and steer the kayak, what to do if the kayak tip over, plus the weather warning of wind storm (which is not very good when in the sea) and off we went. Me at the front marking the rhythm and dani in the back trying to follow and steering to the right or left. The first half an hour was fun, a little bit windy and full of energy paddling at full speed, we were always the first kayak, and we often had to wait for the other 3. We stopped at another island with seals and we got really close (because the wind pushes us to the rocks) to them, they are so cute!! Then the sea got quite rough and the waves splashed against me, my part of the kayak was flooded with water and I was sitting in a tiny swimming pool…

At 12.30 we stopped for lunch, some cheese and chicken sandwiches, indescribable roll and a chocolate cake plus chocolate cookies made with beef fat ( disgusting, but very tasty). At that point I have had enough, but we were not even at half way!!! This was the longest kayaking in the Abel Tasman National Park ( we maybe should have read the full description). So we continued, my left arm was already insensible, but my fist were getting the shape of the paddle and it was becoming increasingly difficult to open them , my muscles were all tight!! Dani complained that I had to be more regular with the paddle, but I was in pain, and could not concentrate. We got to another bay and a house that had been sold for the bagatelle of 10 million NZ dollars, the poor guy could only get to his paradisiacal home by boat and he was unlucky enough to have his part of the beach designed motor boats recreational area, so imagine the peace and calm with 50 tourists every day queuing in front of your bedroom.

We crossed the worst mile in the area, in terms of wind conditions and possibilities of getting stamped against the rocks, and we arrived to split apple which is a rock that is split perfectly in two. We heard the Maori version of two worries fighting together with the tamahoe and one accidentally hitting the rock and the geologist version which is that water fissured into the rock splitting it in two. This was our last stop before the final, the last 30 minutes were never ending story part 4, but we finally got closer and raced into the beach, we nearly won, Cam arrived 5 minutes early, not minutes but a while before us.

We took the team picture, wash our feet, change clothes and to the car, as the plan was to sleep in Blenheim so on Wednesday we could get to Kaikourua for the whale watching in the afternoon. We had booked it on Monday for 3.30, but ideally we should arrive by 12.30 pm. We were tired so we got to Renwick, which is in the Marlborough area were all the wineries are. A nice place with a match box size bedroom, but at 9 pm we were in bed, already sleeping.

Glorious Sunday ended nicely in Nelson and we went to bed late for again another early morning. We had one hour and 15 minutes drive up to Kaiteriteri the starting point to our Abel Tasman trekking with kayaking. At 8.30 am we were there in the kayak booth queuing to get instructions on the adventure. We went to the beach where we got our briefing on what to bring and what to pack for the aquataxi to take for us. We only took the camera, cheese, ham, bread, 3 apples, 5 cookies, 3 litters of water and the hut booking confirmation. Off we went for 2 hours of speed boat with stops in tiny cute beaches and bays where some passengers disembarked for their own experiences. Mid way there we stopped in Tonga island where a colony of seals live, mothers and their pups, so beautiful, the seals swimming around us and jumping out of the water like dolphins. It was a sunny day, but in the boat we got frozen with the wind and water splashes. We finally arrived to Totaranui where our trekking started, 17 km of easy coast trekking passing little beaches until we got to Awaroa, where the main pass was. In this part of the world they also have tides, as we do in the Cantabric Sea. The difference is that in the Basque coast, when the tide is low you have a huge beach and when is up you have a 1 m beach, not a major thing. Whereas here with 4 m of difference, the low tide allows you to cross places where you had boats sailing before. We arrived before the low tide so we waited for an hour whilst we had our lunch and then decided to remove the legs of our trousers and cross ( the water reached knee level). The beach had literally mountains of clamp shells, that we are unsure from where came. Quite impressive.

We went then to the Awaroa Lodge for a refreshment and relaxing break listening to Norah Jones. The next tide crossing was at Onetahuti, and we arrived on time, we continued through the Abel Tasman National park till our final destination for the day, Bark bay, where we had our hut. We had our dinner outside, again cheese and ham with bread, and went inside before we could not feel our hands any more. The hut was pretty basic, two rooms with 14 bunk beds each, another room with 2 tables and that is it. Drinking water outside and 3 toilets some 50 meters away, not very convenient for my pipi trip every night… No heating, no light, so at 8 pm dani went to bed and after 4 solitaires with dani’s mobile I went. The room was chilly, as some girls in the upper beds left the windows open, grrrrrrrr Our sleeping bags are suitable for 7 degrees at comfort, and -5 extreme. So I guess we were somewhere in between cause I was not comfortably warm inside.

Two day trekking and kayaking in Abbel Tasman park in New Zealand, GPS Garmin Oregon 300

Mouse over to see info about key point for low tides and where we slept.

EveryTrail – Find the best

The backpackers place we stayed in Wellington was cool, but a bit noisy.  They were partying all night and our room was close to the party ;-)

Wellington was a bit like San Francisco, with hills and little Victorian houses. It is far nicer than Auckland. Anyway, early in the morning we woke up, had a shower and headed towards the Ferry that would take us to Picton. We had to be there at 7.30am. It was a bit hard to find but the GPS helped us once again. For those of you interested the gps is a Garmin Oregon 300 with the maps that I found from New Zealand that are Open Source for Garmin. They have proved to be great! All the Points of Interest (POI) are great so every day we put the city where we go, and once in the city the accommodation and we find the backpackers immediately.  The ferry we booked the previous day over the phone. We have a New Zealand sim card in Nuria’s phone and I would say that 50% of the numbers you dial are 0800 so free. The rest are not but is very handy to have a local number and a cheap way to call to the backpackers and other activities to book. The ferry was huge and it takes 3.5 hours to get to Picton in the south island. The day weather today was incredible!. Not a single cloud. We spent most of the trip ouside. The views when you enter the south island are incredible. I took a photo with Nuria’s phone so you can see what I mean. Once in Picton we went to the i-site (information office) and then with all the information in hand we called (a 0800-2-kayak) and booked a 2 day rando+kayak for tomorrow and the day after. First day you drive, they take you with a fast boat up north, then you walk all day and sleep in hut close to the beach. The following day you take the kayak and continue all day until where you leave the car. Cool isn’t it? The weather forecast is good, so we are so looking forward! One full day trekking and one full day with kayak.

After this we drove to the Marlborough wine region where we stopped in a winery, the Highfield winery, where we had first a wine tasting and then lunch, in a beautiful environment. Great food and great wine.

After lunch we stopped in a supermarket to buy some stuff for tomorrow and then we took the “Queen Charlotte” drive and headed to Nelson, where we are now.

Mordor of the Lord of the Rings, the three volcanoes together, the emerald lake and amazing scenery. The lonely planet recommended to do this tramping in one day, exhausting, but we were well prepared with our latest acquisition in Taupo: our Keen sandals, similar to Teva but with a weirder look. This trekking was the other only thing I wanted to do in the North Island together with the diving in Tutukaka, well so guess what, before it was tutu kaka and this time is Tongariro, Tururu! Since Wednesday the weather had not been very good, and actually Thursday while we were in the Coromandel it was pretty terrible. So Friday stopped raining when we left Rotorua, but in Taupo they already told us that Saturday was not going to be good for the Crossing. We headed to the national park and realized that visibility was probably about 10 meters, so not good. The night at the Skotel hotel was one of the best ones. This morning we got up full of energy for the trekking, but it was raining and visibility was nil. We went to the visitor center to enquiry about possibilities and hear and accept the inevitable. It was not advisable to do the crossing and definitely not worth it as we will not be able to do anything. The guide said that Sunday was not going to be better, so morally destroyed for the bad luck we decided to give it a miss and go to Wellington, which is a 4 hours drive alongside the Wanganui river, the longest in NZ. The rally driver was again happy to drive in this mountain roads like one of the locals, who were so impressed with his driving that gave us way to overtake them… In one of the turns a guide in the shoulder road tells us with mimics to slow down, and we did so, just in time to avoid driving over a group of sheeps that were crossing the road.

Some 40 km away from Wellington we found the Kapiti coast so we decided to stop for lunch at Paraparaumo, but the beach was not actually that beautiful so we continued another 15 km to the following nice beach and had a sandwich in front of the sea, with the seagulls waiting for some crumbs.

We found the hotel, and it is again a good choice, I am quite good selecting places to sleep now. This is an old typical house quite close to the city center, with a huge wooden terrace in the entrance and our room ( which was the last one left) looks like it was originally the garage. We left our bags, changed clothes, as there is sun here!!! and went to Cuba street where all the shops and bars are. We followed the walking circuit in the guide and arrived to the civic center where there was a jazz concert as we are in the Wellington Jazz week! So we sat and listened for a while, then continued our walk to stop for the summer ale and the Marlborough Chardonnay in a nice terrace. At 7 we were already starving and found a Japanese which looked good. We had the sushi and sashimi combo and then beef teriyaki and been tepanyaki set ( which came with salad, rice and miso soup, ummmmmmmmm, delicious!! Even better than .

Now I cannot move, I ate too much, so I am going to bed, tomorrow alarm clock at 6 am…

We woke up in the western environment of the cactus backpackers. Our little room was in a patio and the whole hostel was old but cool. We meet some people while having dinner. An Australian guy with an incredible accent and some other.

The weather was crap. It has been crap all day. Raining non-stop. So what to do? No sky dive as we would have liked. We walked around Rotorua and then headed to Te Puia, a Maori thermal reserve. The scenery is unusual. From the car park you start smelling this typical smell from the geysers and hot springs. You approach and you see a forest that looks like it is burning. Even with the rain it looked like burning in dozens of places, but it is just steam.

There was a typical Maori representation and we walked around until about 2pm. After having seen very unusual road signs like ducks crossing, cows crossing, kiwis, we finally saw one kiwi!! Our first encounter with NZ national mascot. It was confined to some 40 square meters, but there it was, in front of us looking for something to eat in the soil. It is a very different bird, more like a mammal than a bird.

WIth the kiwi in mind, we headed towards Taupo where we actually wanted to do the sky diving. It has a huge lake. The biggest lake in the north island. We walked around. Looks like tomorrow they have the ironman competition. It was very busy and crowded. Even if it was raining all times.

We went to see the Huka falls, a very nice waterfall with an incredible amount of water, and then later on we drove to Tongariro National Park. We stopped before to a “save’n pack” to buy some meat and wine for dinner tonight. We also stopped at a i-site information spot to ask whether or not it was worth it to make the Tongariro alpine crossing tomorrow as the weather is really bad and visibility is zero. They told us no. Not worth it. This breaks our plans. We are now at the highest backpackers of New Zealand, in Skotel Apline Resort in Whakapapa and we just had a jacuzzi after a nice steak with salad and wine. All backpacker hostels have kitchen, for those who do not know ;-) The fact is that to me the alpine crossing is one of the best one day trekking in this country (18 Km) in around 7 hours, we should take a bus in one end and another in the other end or the car in one end and the bus in the other.  The information i-site here opens at 8am which is too late, as we should start walking at 7am, but there is no point in walking if it does not stop raining and the visibility improves…. otherwise it is a waste. They say that this is the most beautiful one day trekking of New Zealand. There are 3 volcanoes. The ones from the Lord of the Rings.  If cannot do it tomorrow, there is not much to do here, and that would postpone our trip to the south island with no guarantees that the weather would be better on Sunday…. Sunday was the day we have planned to take the ferry from Wellington to the South Island. We want to spend only one week in the north one, and the rest in the south. Everybody agrees that the south one is astonishing.

We got up in Thames prepared to go around the Coromandel Peninsula with more than enough time to arrive in Rotorua by mid afternoon. Well, we miscalculated the time and did not consider the roads. The day was very grey, not a single spot of sky was to be seen in the whole day, what is even worst it started raining after lunch. I have to say that Mr. Dani Loewe ( for the french rally champion) enjoyed very much the driving. He tried to put backwards gear instead of second gear at least 5 times and excuses himself saying that if everything in the car was on the other side, why the gears follow the same model!! Our first stop was in Coromandel Town which looks pretty much like Thames, but it is smaller and with more heritage buildings, western style from 1873. We bought the original smoked mussels, the ones with garlic, smoked tuna, smoked mackerel and another smocked fish I cannot remember the name but was equally tasty. We snaked around the peninsula and skipped the far North only because we had had more than enough of unsealed roads and we did not want to spend the day driving. So we went direction Whitianga to pass by before the Otama and Opito beaches which are meant to be extremely wide. Well, they are, but with rain and 25 nodes wind, they look somehow very much different compared to the pretty pictures in the shops. Then to Cathedral Cave and Hot Water Beaches. Cathedral Cave was amazing, a cave in the rock, by the beach with the sea entering in this enormous cave from both sides, very pretty. The next stop was this beach were you can dig a hole in the beach and have your own personal spa. There are hotsprings at temperatures of around 60 degrees, from a spent volcano that left a flow of lava underneath. Well, the theory very nice, the practice is that the tide was high so we could not reach the place, the wind was blowing us off to the outer space and rain was threatening to make an appearance. We walked around the beach taking photos of the angry sea and then go for lunch to taste local food and what is even better local wines and beer. I am enjoying very much the NZ Chardonnay. After the fantastic Apple pie with a ristreto for dani and energy tea for me at the cool Hot Waves Cafe we went down to Waihi to drive through the Karangahake Gorge which is one of the best drives in NZ. Maybe, but the weather was not accompanying it, as it was raining and could not appreciate the scenery. And then to Rototua, 143 km more. Dani nearly had a heart attack, as it was already 5.30 and given the windy roads we only arrived at 8.00 pm.

The Cactus Jack lodge is a fun place, thematic ( western) and with interesting people. We met an aussy with a very strong accent, and another  one with a nearly perfect British accent because, he said, that his parents did not want him to learn the bad things in NZ. Well for me, accent is part of your culture and you should never be ashamed of, even when you say Bonjour and they ask you from what part of Spain you are from.

We went to bed quite late after our dinner and conversation with Dominique ( the Swiss) Adam and Jo the British on a tour for a year. We spent another hour trying to find the key of the cozy room we were given, and could not find it anywhere… The night was terribly windy and rainy, it woke me up a couple of times., so when the alarm clock went off at 6.45 took me a while. But it was the day for the perfect diving in one of the 10 best places in the world, finally!

We drove there and got a little bit lost in the middle, but the GPSs ( Dominique was also coming with us as he has missed the previous day because he overslept) helped us out. The sky was all cloudy and did not look very nice, but well not everything can be perfect. We arrived to the diving center at 8.10 ( we stopped over in the petrol station to buy something to eat for lunch), and there was Dominique listening to my friend ( the one who could have worked in the red district in Amsterdam) explaining something about 6 m waves and 25 nodes winds and blah blah blah. It took me 10 seconds to realize that we were not going to dive. She was going on and on about the weather and terrible conditions, and that it was dangerous and not worth it…I thought I was going to cry, the only thing I wanted to do in the North island was to dive in here, and now she was saying that the weather was not going to be good until Saturday. Saturday!! We are going to be close to Wellington on Saturday. I could not believe it, I was so angry, and there she was with her fake smile. Internally, I blamed her one thousand times, but it did not change anything, that was the end of my dream, no diving in NZ, SHIT!! or as the name of the village says for itself: Tutukaka ( Tutu : all in italian and Kaka shit in spanish) All Shit!!

Anyway, instead of diving, we took the road towards the woods. waipoua forest. They have the widest kauri trees of New Zealand. In the first stop you walk 20 minutes through the forest and there you start seeing incredible huge trees. Not because they are extremely high but because of the size of their trunk… In the photo is the widest one with nearly 14 meters girth and about 50 meters high. If you compare the high with the ones we saw near Sausalito in the US it is not that much (those were about 150m high), but this ones, seen from the bottom are something that I have never seen.

After the walks in the forest we headed towards the Coromandel peninsula, where we intended to sleep. We passed Auckland and we got there in the evening, around 7.30pm We slept in Thames, in a nice typical Kiwi house. Nice experience. We went to the supermarket and we had a proper dinner in the house, with wine and pasta ;-)

The following day we would explore the peninsula, but the weather it is not going to be nice.

So after our fantastic nice in Whangaroa, we drove back to Paihia so we could do the full day trip around the many islands in this beautiful bay. This time we had booked, so we had two places for Ms. Piez, close.

We started the tour following the dolphins, so some people could swim with them. These people were put on a net and then carried for some 10 minutes, until a nice spot was found, then off you go, try to follow the fastest dolphins ever…

For those staying on the boat it was quite fun, but I do not think that those in the water were of the same opinion. Then we continued until "hole in the rock" which is exactly that, a huge hole just enough wide to pass our big catamaran. There we saw a huge school of fish in front of the boat, swinging with the waves.

Back to the little islands we stop in a few of them to get an explanation of the story behind it. We had lunc h in Urupukapuka island were we went up to the lookup for excellent views, then back to the wharf and the little beach. I had a swim in these really nice waters, but dani considered that the 20*C was impossibly cold for him. Back to the boat, we continued our cruise with more explanations about the history of NZ and this area. At 16.15 we were back in Paihia and after an icecream and a walk around this lovely village, we headed south. Back to Tutukaka for the diving the following day at the Poor Nights Islands. This time I phoned and booked in advance, so everything should be fine for tomorrow.

We did not want to sleep again in the Holiday Park. It was ok but we preferred to get to know another place. So while dani was driving I was trying to read the guide and all the different pamphlets we have been piling in the car. I decided that Little Earth Lodge sounded nice and it was ranked very high in the BBH (90%) and it was also our guide pick. We got here at 18.30 and the place is beautiful. Set on a farm 4 km from town and next to Abbey Caves. The rooms are decorated with nice Japanese art and Balinese furnishing. So now we are going to have our dinner, noodles and fresh eggs from the chicken here!!

Dani has bought 2 and a half hours of internet, so we will be able to post this one and maybe check our emails!!

After a chilly night at Tutukaka holiday park, we woke up for a shower. Me, hating getting up early in the morning, could not see the machine to enter the 50 cents coin to have the 7 minutes hot shower, so I had a quick cold shower. We went to the diving center to check if it was ok for the day, but surprise, even being 7.45 in the morning we were told that it was fully booked. We could either find something else, but this was the only diving center in the area or wait until 8.30 to see if there were any cancellations. The lady was not very nice, I think, and she did not like us cause dani asked her straight away when she said that it was full, where we could find another operator. Anyway we waited patiently until 8.45, and then she came to tell us that unfortunately it was not possible, so we talked for 5 minutes, I confirmed my opinion about her other possible job in the red district in Amsterdam, and we left.

We continued our trip for 1 hour and a half to arrive to the famous Bay of Islands and we decided to go for a cruise, but being our unlicky day, it was too late for that, so either we waited for the half day one, not that good or the following day. We looked at different options and dani found another very attractive one, which was a 22 hour cruise with over night and fishing included. Obviously it was full for today, tomorrow and only available on Wednesday, way too late for us.. Too bad we had to continue…

We headed north to Cape Reinga, the place where the Ocean and the Tasman Sea collide and sometimes 10 m high waves are formed. It is as well a sacred place in Maori as this is where the spirits go to the everafter. The road there is terrible, no sealed, which means for us, no road, just grave and loads of stones. So that is why our rented car is full of tiny spots where the painting has come off and it is all rusty. And the road officer who signaled the speed limits was called Fitipaldi in NZ. In these kind of roads you cannot overpass 100 km/hour. Obviously if you go over 50 Km/h you seriously risk your life. Any way we arrived to the peninsula and stopped first in 90 miles beach. which in reality is 90 km beach, but still quite a long one. If you do not have a rental car you can go north by the beach, but at your own risk as I read that you can see cars that were swallow by the sand… We continued through the fantastic road and we eventually reached the end. It was worth it, so nice views. You can also see the Three kings islands, funny name but it was because they were discovered on the 6 January.

After the twilight we went back and stopped in the giant sand dunes. Amazing! It reminded very much the mountaineering skiing, when you have to go up a terribly steep slope and you think you are going to slide backwards at any moment. It was good fun, specially trying to slide down with my bottom on dani’s shoes. ( He was not wearing them).

Dani also realised that some of the photos he was taking with the nikon were overexposed and suddenly he understood why (now dani writing): After nearly 20 days of travel I realised that if I leave the bracketing on, it will not only use it when I want but always. That means that 2/3 of the photos I took when not resetting bracketing are not well exposed. I am so mad at myself!!! At least I found the problem with 1 month of trip ahead… Also I have to say that I have driven about 750km in just two days…

We returned via the same road, though this time it seemed that it was a perfect line, who knows… The cows, sheeps and birds were in the same places. We went to a very nice village passed Doubtfull Bay, Whangarei, where we found a nice Lodge to sleep, Sunseeker lodge. The lady who picked up the phone asked me something with the NZ accent imposible to uderstand : do you have a babyhi car?? WHATTTTTTTTTT?? DO not worry , I guess it is no. She is the kindest woman I have met so far in NZ, really helpful and nice. She even asked her son to phone Luke’s cafe to make sure it was open for us for dinner. The dinner there good and the drinks from the bar next door as well, with again a very kind old lady.

And now good night.

  We woke up early. The sun was getting into our hobbit bungalow. In front of the bed we had a huge glass with incredible views. The roof of the bungalow was like a boat upside down, with the peculiarity of having plants and grass on the roof. Nothing was symmetric. We had breakfast. We had still some stuff we bought the day before in a champion supermarket. We wanted to get up early (and we did) because at 2.30 pm we had to be in the airport, give the car back and take the flight to New Zealand. We left Vanira at 7.15am and we started our trip around the island, stopping at many places.

First (and following Karin’s advise) we went to the mountain in the iti island to see the views over the main island. Tahiti is the biggest of the islands in the French Polynesia. It is also like the Reunion island: a paradise for randonees. There are tons of valleys and rivers, waterfalls and the surroundings are beautiful! There are no nice beaches though. Only long rocky beaches with big waves where they do surf. The one we visited yesterday was famous but the water was pretty flat. The waves where now in the north east. We sat and watch the surfers for a while, while eating some peanuts.

We mange to be on time at the airport. Before that we stopped in Papeete because Nuria wanted to buy a perl. She bought it. Certified and very nice. I will post a photo when I can. We also bought a crappy one in the street market for me, for a fraction of the price, but I’m happy! Now we both have a perl.

We arrived at the ariport around 2.30pm, gave the car back and cued for hours to check in. So slow these guys!

Now, the day after, we have lost one day!!! yesterday it was 27 for us now is 1st of March. Incredible. We took the plane to Auckland and we watch movies and movies and movies. This I will blog later on today’s post.

Thursday and today is our last day in Moorea. At 10am we have to leave Motu Iti bungalow and before 9 we have to give back the car. We asked the lady of the house if she could arrange transport to the airport and she did. 1.35pm and flight is leaving at 2.20pm. So we have until 10am to enjoy the quietness of our bungalow and from 10 to 13.30 to sit down in the on-water terrace to write the blog.

First thing we drove to where we rented the car. In addition the the negotiated price and the 3 entries to the tiki village the previous day, we also got a voucher for a free perl in the shop around the corner. So we went and got it. The lady drove us back to Motu Iti and we packed, paied and moved to the terrace to write the blog.

At 1.25 the guy with the van came, with 4 other tourists and dropped us at the airport. Only us, probably he was taking the other guys around. At the airport, which can not be called airport… we saw Desiree, the nice lady from Air Tahiti that helped us with Steve for the lost bags from Steve. Looked like they had little faith in finding them. Poor Steve. He had a bible with 20 years of annotations in it… We waited a bit and then a little plane, very very very small from air Moorea, came. We had nearly a private flight (of 10 minutes because Tahiti is very close by). We were 4 in a plane of 20. It was quite an experience. Of course we saw the cabin (we sat in the first raw). 

Once we landed in Tahiti we realized that we were in the domestic terminal. Smaller than our flat. We walked to the main terminal (50 meters) and went asked where was the car rental section. We rented from a local company, Daniel rental. They gave us a peugeot 107, 4 doors and air conditioned. Nice car!! Tahiti is more expensive than her islands. We paid around 8.400 (I’m not sure now). The plan was to give a tour around the islands. Tahiti are two islands, and the south one is nicer and smaller than the other one. They are linked by road. The whole tour is around 160km and we wanted to go to the south island, west coast where the Vanira Lodge was located. Remember that we blogged about the Vanira lodge before. We never confirmed the booking with them because as you might remember (if you have been following us) we improvised on the routing we did in the French Polynesia. Anyway, we reached the Vanira lounge by 5. Traffic was pretty awful around Papeete. The property of this vanira lodge is astonishing. Incredible surroundings and views. Unfortunately the Karine was not there. Her husband (who built the bungalows) told us that she was having her dancing lessons and she was going to come back in an hour, so we took the car and went to the end of the road of the west side of tahiti iti (iti is small) to see where the billabong surfing championship is done. Now the see was pretty flat, but there is where you get the famous kumbaia wave. We saw the sun going down there. Beautiful. Then we drove back to Vanira (5 minutes) and there she was. Nuria made the arrangements while I went up to the bungalow to take pictures with the nikon of the end of the sunset.

The bungalow are ART. Every little detail is taken into account. All different. All beautiful. Ours was like a hobbit bungalow, a dream bungalow with views over the ocean. I have no words. I will try to put a photo but they are in the nikon and now I am writting this from Auckland from the Aspen Lodge and I want to buy some internet to post it and we are supposed to pick up the car now at jucy. I can always go back to the post and edit it.

The day ended with us going out with the car to buy some take away food at a place 1 km away from Vanira and eating in the terrace of our bungalow. Beautiful.

Wednesday, we woke up at our great bungalow seeing the lagoon. I wish we could wake up with the sound of the sea more often ;-)

We had our succulent breakfast on the terrace watching the waves breaking far away. We had bought loads of different things in the supermarket, so actually the 90 minutes walk was worth it. Like the stressed Europeans we are, we were ready for the rental car at 8.00, though it had to arrive at 8.30. But this is Tahiti and its islands, so time notion is very relaxed. It arrived at 8.55 and we went to the rental place to pay. We had to negotiate a bit to get the ac car at 7000 francs, which we thought it was a good deal, as in the paper it  said the cost was 9000. We also got for free the entrance fee to the Tiki Village ( which was 1500 francs per person). All set and without any control from the car rental company (Albert rentals) we left to pick up our new friend Steve, the Californian. He met the owner of a very fancy hotel when he was cruising the Marqueses and the Tuamotu for 1 month. This guy also knew the manager of a very good hotel in Moorea, the Pearl Beach Moorea Resort and Steve got an upgrade to a bungalow on the water, so he was extremely happy about it and wanted to show it to us on the way back.

So we started our tour around the island (62-km circle road) going up to the Belvedere view point, which is probably one of the most spectacular panoramas in the world. It has impressive views of the Cook’s and Opunohu (which is actually the one where Cook anchored in 1777) Bays and the mount Rotui (the sacred mountain of Ancient Polynesians) in between. We stayed admiring the views for a while and then went down the road to stop in Marae Afareaitu which is the oldest in Moorea and dates back to year 900. This one was bigger and better preserved that the ones we saw in Huahine. I also heard that the  Polynesian  islands were populated by navigators who  arrived in large double outrigger canoes from Southeast Asia1000 years ago. They formed a triangle between the Polynesian islands, Hawaii, and New Zealand, and that is why the culture, songs and even language are similar. We visited the Marae and served as a succulent lunch to the mosquitos smiling and welcoming us.

Next stop was the Agricultural college where we could visit the plantations. The tour lasted for 2 hours and it was too hot to walk, so we read the first 10 trees and we went straight to the pineapple plantation. The plants are some 80 cm tall and the pineapple is in the middle. They were quite small, but with a very sweet taste. Then we continued along the circle road trying to find a nice place to eat, but it is so small we reached the Tiki VIllage that was going to be our next stop.

In the village we saw the Ahima’a or underground oven where they cook the food for 4 hours. We were also shown different fruits and vegetable like the uru or bread fruit, papaya, starfruit, mangoes, the plantan banana which is to be cooked and others I cannot remember.  We got an explanation about the Monoi de Tahiti which is obtained by macerating Tiare blossoms in refined coconut oil. The flower is used fresh and macerated in refined coprah oil for a minimum of 10 days. We stopped at the theatre to watch the show with Polynesian dances, the best so far. and then we went to the pearl farm with a canoe just to show us the process, as the real farms are in the Gambiers and Tuamotu islands because here it rains and that affects the salinity degree of the water so it is not suitable for the culture. We continued to the south of the island looking for the mysterious Afareaitu waterfalls, that we never watched, though we tried really hard, risking the underside of our car as the road that leads to them was used for the last time probably months ago, given the size of the bushes on the 2 m road…

Never mind, we saw other nice views and on the east side of the island you can see Tahiti.

At 6pm Steve invited to his bungalow to have some rum with Rotui mango juice that we bought previously in the supermarket. The bungalow was spectacular, with a glass on the floor to watch the coral and the fishes. We did some snorkel and then after a very nice conversation we went for dinner and to watch the Polynesian show where I got  another flower necklace. We had the tourist dinner with a tuna tartare that was in my opinion delicious.  The waiters came at least 4 times to ask Steve wether he had finished, the poor thing had to rush to eat his tartare so they could bring us the beef… We were the last ones in the restaurant when we left and the waitress smiled very much when we finally wet back to Steve’s for a final staring at the stars. We thought we saw Orion, the planet Venus and the Cross at the end of the Via Lactea.

We had a lovely day with Steve. He is a great guy with a big heart. After a while we went back to our bungalow.

    Our last morning in Bora Bora and our first day in Moorea. Another piece of paradise lost in the pacific ocean. I started the post today with who needs roads in Paradise because in our way to the airport, with the boat, we crossed a truck! a truck in a boat and it reminded me the t-shirt my brother bought 15 years ago from "back to future" saying who needs roads, meaning the delorian traveling through time.

The next picture is nuria, blogging from the beach, in front of our bungalow in bora bora.

This morning we tried to fix our visa problem. Lately is refusing all payments… and we wanted to pay all the car rentals with the American visa gold because it has a great insurance. Finally we managed to talk to them. We called them with skype by buying some more wifi time. The connection dropped several times but they called us back fortunately. The fact is that we have reached the limit! how embarrassing!! and it won’t be reset until the 7th of March. The good news is that in 48 hours the UNFCU will transfer the funds to the visa account so we will have credit again. If I manage to have Internet before I will try to do it via e-banking. Something good about the US visa is that it is like an account. You can top it with money so you can spend more. Anyway, the fact is that this morning we took the "truck" or local "bus" to Vaitape, which is sort of the "capital" (more than two houses) where we took the boat to the airport. There I took the photo of the truck ;-)

Once in the airport we checked in and we had a mango drink. Bora Bora’s airport is without no doubt the most beautiful airport in the world. It is small, traditional, but having a drink in the little bar with the view over the lagoon and the mountains has no price. Look at nuria having her mango drink ;-)

After a while we took the plane, always these little planes with helixes, and went to Huahine and then Moorea. In Moorea we left the plane and surprise, in the Airport and looks like he was going in the same flight, starting in Huahine, Steve!! our Californian friend we met at Fetia’s. They lost his bags… incredible in a 20 minute flight…. We went outside but after 30 minutes waiting for the "truck" in the main road 5 minutes from the airport we were told that it might not come, so we went back to the airport and Gino took us in his taxi. The three of us. Gino will bring a rental car for us tomorrow here at Motu Iti, where we are staying now. We will have the car for 24 hours starting at 8.30. We will go an pick up Steve and go and visit the Island that has around 60 Km of circumference. They make us a good price. 7200 for the day.

Today when we arrived at Motu Iti guesthouse we were like… wooooow. Our bungalow is top of the class. Look at the picture on the right…. We are actually 2 meters from the sea with a fully equipped bungalow. Beautiful place this Motu Iti. The owner is a Japanese old guy with a lot of taste and attention to detail. He has a restaurant here also by the lagoon. We have free kayaks and just in front we have plenty of coral reef. We just had a shower after snorkeling a bit in front of the bungalow. Incredible. Nuria is having a shower while I am writing. In an hour or so we will go to the restaurant to have dinner.

Today after we arrived to Moorea we went walking looking for a supermarket to buy breakfast and something for lunch. 1 hour walking!!!! aarrghh. We did not mind as the views are astonishing and it is worth to walk around.

This morning sunny! wow!! We booked here at chez Nono a one day trip around the island to experience the most beautiful sites of this piece of paradise.

We woke up, walked to the supermarket to buy breakfast. We had breakfast in our table 3 meters from the sea and I went to the hotel besides (Matira) because I noticed that they had wifi, so I wanted to see if I could buy some time. I bought a 1 hour voucher so tonight I will connect and post everything from the last day in San Francisco until today.

Well 9.30 we go in a boat in a tour around the island. I did not mention this but often I take my Oregon 300 gps and I record everything we do, so if someone wants, I can send the paths or coordinate of specific points. The boat was sort of traditional. First we stopped in the Coral Garden to do some snorkeling. Beautiful. We saw a morena (I don’t know in English) and tons and tons of fish, nearly the 700 different tropical species that live in the islands.Really beautiful. Then second stop in the middle of the sand lagoon, and a unique experience… In Spanish they are called "rayas". Snorkeling with the guy of the boat "captain" who had some fish, and 10 to 20 1.5m rays came to us. Incredible experience. Water was at 1.2 m only so you could stand. They were coming to us, and even coming out of the water. At the beginning it was a bit scary but they are like dolphins. Very silky and soft. They were like dogs so cute. The feeling of swimming with 5 of this huge rayas beside you and other fishes was incredible. And more incredible was when the sharks came. The black dot sharks (I am translating from french "roquins de pointe noire"). These are not as big as the ones we saw yesterday when diving but in a 1.2 m depth of water with 10-20 rays and 5 sharks, feeding them was amazing.

We continued our boat outing and a group of 5 to 7 dolphins followed us and started playing, going to one side of the boat and jumping. Beautiful. This is really paradise. After that we headed towards a motu with white sand and an incredible view over Bora Bora mountain and they cooked for us one of the best meals we have had here. "Espadon" fish and raw fish with coco, and coco bread. All served in banana leaves and cooked traditionally with the coconut covers to feed the fire. Unforgettable experience.

After a while (with traditional songs, and showing the ladies how to use the pareo and dance the traditional sexy dances) we headed to another spot for snorkeling. The particularity of this is that I have never seen such an amount of fish together in my life. You could just snorkel within the coral and find hundreds of varieties of fish. The captain fed a morena.

After that we headed to our place where I had a shower and I started writing while Nuria is having a bath. Tonight we might go to "bloody Mary" for dinner we will see.

What is certain is that I have a boucher of 1 hour and that I will be able to post all the posts ;-) and check email.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving to Moorea. Motu Iti is the name of the guest house. Great way of traveling by the way. You get to know local people.

Sunday 22nd of February. Bora Bora.

After our great evening at the Intercontinental hotel with lobster a go-go and tipical Bora Bora dancing show, we went to bed, latter than usual, and the day after, Sunday, was going to be our first day in the pearl of the ocean.

At 7.30am we had the Bora Bora Blue Nui diving boat in our beach. The first night we slept in the house, with a little balcony in front of the sea, on the beach. From day two in a typical bungalow on the beach. Well, we took the boat. The day was not great. It rained a bit but we did not care,as it is not that important when you dive. Philippe, the instructor went to pick up another 2 people to another Intercontinental hotel and then to the school in one of the Motu.

We paid with our Swiss visa (29000 for 4 dives, 2 each with material and pick up service with boat). The US visa is giving us a lot of problems. It did not work when trying to pay the internal flights and it did not work for the diving. We are pretty pissed off with it as we still don’t have Internet and we don’t know which is the number to call in order to fix it.

After getting our material and paying, we went out of the island and we did our first dive. I had my new mare puck computer. Philippe told us that we were going to see two kind of sharks: black dot sharks and lemon sharks. Indeed, when we jumped into the water there it was, a 3 meter long shark…. my first “big fish” that Pep would say. We went down to 23 meter and there were like 3 sharks following us. I was damn scared…  The 200 bar lasted 50 minutes. It was amazing! Poor nuria did not see the sharks until she was just in front of one of them, and she said later on that the shark was coming towards her, 50 cm below her but in the same direction, and then she saw the mouth half open and was thinking that it could take her whole arm as an aperitif. This particular shark seemed to like her because it was wandering around very close a couple of times, it was quite something! There were tons and tons of different fish, including a big turtle. I cannot describe it with words. I think our next gadget will be a case for the digital camera (the casio) so we can take it down. So beautiful.

The second dive was not very far from there. We saw also a “morena” and sharks again. The current was very strong but the coral here was better preserved, we really enjoyed it. It is amazing being inside the lagoon with all those fishes that are static in groups like chatting, and they abandon themselves to the current, so we did.

After that Philippe took us back to our place “chez Nono”, where we had a shower, and we walked a bit to club med because Nuria read that they had a nice deal where you could stay in the hotel for a day, use the installations and have lunch there. Well, in the way there we realized that it was closed! and so are many other businesses! restaurants, the bora bora hotel… all closed. We don’t know if it is because it is low season. So we have to come back… but we stopped at a restaurant and we have lunch by the sea. Then back to our bungalow and siesta ;-)

In the evening we walked the other way up to “Bloody Mary”, a very famous restaurant where tons of famous people have gone: Cameron Diaz, Marlon Brandon, Rainiero, Julio Iglesias, Pamela Andersen, Bill&Melinda Gates, Prince Hussein, all those with no money, poor things. We tried to go but it was also closed, only on Sundays though. We might go tomorrow.

For dinner we went to “La bounty” also not very far from our place. I had pizza (yes… after so much fish I felt like having pizza) and Nuria had mahi mahi with vanilla sauce, we drunk nearly the whole bottle of white wine we ordered waiting for the food, but it was nice and we were still discussing the shark experience. We decided to finish it with the chocolate fudge cake with melted chocolate and cream, very healthy! So half drunk we went back to the hotel to be eaten alive by the lovely local mosquitos.

Diving in Bora-Bora with GPS Garmin Oregon 300. Mouse over to see the Diving spot.

EveryTrail - 

Rejane gave us a lift to the airport and there we waited with the Polynesian ladies who were in the same flight when we arrived wearing immaculate flower hats. As we wanted to go diving we thought it would be probably better to assure us a place for the following day. So we phoned and we managed to book with Blue nui dive. The plane arrived a little bit late, we were so excited to fly to the pearl of the ocean… The 15 minute flight took us to the best located airport I have ever landed in. It is in a motu (small island) surrounded by turquoise water.

The lagoon ( it is 3 times larger that its land mass) is one of the most beautiful in the world, shading from turquoise to deep blue and its string of white sanded islets. In the islands you see the Mounts Otemanu and Pahia all covered in lush greens. Bora bora is the oldest of the Society islands (7 million years old). It is almost an atoll, a stage half way between the Tumamotu atolls(10-40 million years old) and high islands such as Tahiti (2 millions years).Its huge lagoon, bordered by a very wide reef is open in only one place, or pass.

Before the Europeans arrival the island was called Mai Te Pora which means created by the gods, the name evolved to Pora Pora and then Bora Bora.The islands first inhabitants arrived around the 9th century after a long trip across the Pacific

Upon arrival to the airport a shuttle boat take you to Vaitape, which is the main city in the island, were all the shops, banks and other important things are. We picked up our back bags and the truck-taxi to the hotel was waiting for us. In 10 minutes we arrived and checked in. For the first night there was not beach bungalow available so we stayed in a room on the second floor of the main building just in front of Matira beach. Then we decided to go for dinner, as I was starving. I had read in the guide that Saturday was the marvelous night at the Intercontinental which happened to be across the street. This consisted of a seafood buffet and a Polynesian show. So we exploded our budget with the superior dinner, I had 2 lobsters, 6 oysters, raw fish,huge mussels in Provencal sauce and then dessert. When I only had eyes, fingers and all my concentration dedicated to the lobster, dani brought to my attention the young Polynesian guy standing by my side with a flower necklace asking if I wanted to go with him and dance. I doubted for a few seconds, as my lobster was going to get cold, but only once in a life time I was going to be given a beautiful necklace just for ridiculasing  myself in front of all the posh guest at the Intercontinental, so I say, of course yes. After watching some of the other terrible dancers, the tiny piece of shyness I could have disappear, and after 10 minutes of dancing and laughing I returned to my table to finish my sweety. Delicious! I could not resist, I had to go for the second whole one ( not halves!!). Unfortunately I spent so much time dancing and eating that I was too late for the mango, well I had cake and strawberries instead. And then the terrible moment arrived, dani proposed the famous Sinpa or going without paying, and surely we should have done so, or maybe charge it to room 123, but we have lived for too long in Switzerland and become responsible and soon-to-be-broke citizens… So whoever is reading this, please consider inviting us for dinner in April as I think we are going to live on water and bread for a couple of months…

2 walks in Bora-Bora with GPS Garmin Oregon 300. Mose over to see the guest house where we stayed.

EveryTrail – Find the best

Well yes, it seems like the rain follows us from Geneva. If the first night we thought that we were going to wake up in Australia, tonight I though that we were in the middle of the thunder itself. I woke up several times with the lighting, very nice, I thought, the storm is going to New Zealand, wrong, couple of hours later it was just above us. I do not recall hearing these impressive thunders in my entire life, the floor seem to be moving, scary. Then I started thinking, if there are no road signs, will they have a pararrayos??? The idea of being grilled like a roasted chicken in the French Polynesia started to kick in my brain. Then torrential rain until 8.30 when dani took the car back to Avis with Steve, the Californian who is going to rent now the same car. Now the sky is grey, but it does not rain. I can listen to all those birds that are always jumping by the roads, risking their lifes, or ours trying to avoid leaving a bird tattoo on the roads. This place is so calm and relaxing, you heard the birds and the sound of the ocean, with waves breaking just a few meters from the bungalow.

The floor of the bungalow is made following the traditional style, that is, a thick layer of white stones that are actually coral, with some big grey stones scattered  around and where in theory you have to walk. This is not my case, specially going to the toilet in the middle of the night with the only light of the storm  lighting, so I usually end up with tiny corals between my toes, which I am starting to consider as an spa treatment. I am looking at the white tiare (gardenia) that Rejane cut for our dinner yesterday. It is so perfect that it does not look real. And the smell!!

This is dani now. This morning I went with Steve to leave the car at the AVIS. The lady was waiting for me, and I told her I was bringing a new customer. We couldn’t refill the tank (we only did 95km at an average of 40Km/h) because the electricity was gone in the island (storm). In fact not at our guest house Fenia because they are in the middle of nowhere and they get the electricity from solar panels and the water from the rain.

The lady from Avis charged me 1500 for the petrol and we had to pay until the electricity came back for a while. The visa machine was not working without electricity. She called the supermarket because they have a power unit so I could pay them, but when we were going to go the electricity came at least enough time to complete the transaction.

Steve, who forgot the driving license at the bungalow and that did not result in any problem to rent the car, took me to the pharmacy where I bought some mosquito repellent. Then he drove me to the bungalow.

Steve is a very nice guy. After 35 years of working hard in California, he has manage to escape for a couple of months to visit all these islands. His trip is reaching the end, but he is enjoying a lot. He lives in the woods in a huge property with his own workshop to cut the trees and build the houses. He builds wood houses like the ones we love (wood and glass).

Now we just spend half an hour here in our bungalow with the owner Rejane. She is so nice. We paid her and now we will soon pack. At 5 we have to go to the airport to take the flight to bora bora. Maybe we can now go and walk a bit in the beach.

Our first night in paradise. We really believed that we were going to wake up at least in Australia… and the reason is that there was such a tropical storm during the night that being lost in the middle of the Pacific ocean you have the feeling that the strong winds and rain was going to take the whole little island somewhere else…. or that a big wave was going to take us surfing … we survived thought. Nuria woke up in the middle of the night because she said we were getting wet. Our bamboo-wood shelter is stronger than you would think.

First thing in the morning after nice breakfast in the bungalow, we asked the lady to help us get a car, so half an hour later we had the AVIS lady here who took us to the AVIS rental close by the only petrol station in the island. She was telling us to take the car for two days with a better price. We said that we do not know. Now we do. One day is more than enough so it will cost us a bit more (7900 francs) but it is fine.

We went all around the island starting with Maeva where you can find 28 maraes temples that were restored. The maraes were the the royal households of the royal families. The road had no lines, was narrow but it was paved nicely probably due to the fact that the traffic is nearly non existent in this island. We continued the only road with no signs with the magnificence view of the mountains, and Mou’a Tapu, their sacred one, and the one that has been attracting all the winds and water (literally 5 min high pression showers). The aitos (trees) were all around us, creating this spectacular view in front of us at all times. We crossed several public phones, it seems that there is one every 200 meters, and we decided to stop and book our accommodation in Bora. We crossed over a little bridge to Huahine Iti, the small island and we arrived to the top end of it very quickly ( the lady from Avis said that if you do not stop you arrived to the bottom of the island in 30 minutes -  and consider that the maximum allowed speed is 60 km/hour).  Behind a curve, we saw the most clear turquoise water ever, and in the view point another 2 cars with an orange point on the front and back (rental cars) were taking pictures of the water in front of the motu. We followed the road and we did as we were told, that is stop at Chez Tara, have lunch and enjoy the beach. As it was only 11 am, we decided to go for a swim first, and what a fabulous beach and blue turquoise waters we had in front of us, with some 26 degrees, the water was great. We walked up and down the beautiful beach and then we selected a small table just 2 meters from the water ( this is the closest we have ever had lunch to the sea – excluding on a boat). Fresh fish catch of the day nature and the same with vanilla sauce. With banana split to keep dani happy. Fantastic! Tara, the cook did not speak much french, so conversation was little but views, handsome 30 something and food did not require anything else. We continued our way around the island to reach again the bridge between both Huahines, full with children jumping into the water the 10 meters high. All very excited about possibly the most interesting activity in the island: jump and ask the tourist to take a photograph of them, which we did of course, actually I believe that dani took some 20 of them…

We wanted to stop in the Eden Garden, but somehow we missed it because when we saw the next sign we were close to the main village of Fare. Signalization and marketing is not in the dictionary here. In fare we stayed for a couple of hours just in the beach contemplating the beautiful mountains and the sea with the motu some 500 meters away where the waves break. And then we headed back to our hotel, to have a shower and a fantastic dinner with another guest, Steve, a Californian ,who decided to go on a 2 month trip to these islands because his mortgage is paid and his kids are grown up and with jobs. He explained us a lot of things about his 1 month cruise ( in a big boat for 100 passengers) and then the hoping of islands he was doing. Really nice guy. And what to say about the food! 2 trays with 3 rouges each and a bowl with raw fish cooked in a coconut milk and ginger sauce to lick your fingers. There was even a cake made with coconut milk, not very sweet but really tasty.

Rejane explained us that the restaurant, facing the ocean, where we are, was built by her father and we you look up to the impressive roof and how the bamboos are attached together, you wonder how he could have though of doing it like that. The area is opened so air can circulate all around and does not pose a barrier to its flow.

Back to our bungalow I sprayed myself with the local repellent made of Tahiti Monoi and Tamanu oil. It says that it is a long lasting efficient mosquito and biting insect repellent with those oils and plant extracts; it is very pleasant to apply, smells lovely compared to the one we brought from Thailand but apparently the insects here do not agree with what is written in the label, and my right leg can probe it…

And that was it, at 9.00 pm we were already in bed, no wonder we wake up so early!

Huahine-Nui with Oregon 300

EveryTrail -

We still cannot believe that yesterday we were in San Francisco having a nice bacon burger at Luci’s diner and today we are in a wood bungalow facing the sea in Huahine in the French Polynesia. Before I must say that we do not have Internet access. I continue to take photos with the iphone and nuria with the n79. We also continue writing every day on what we do, but now offline in the VAIO. When we have access we will publish everything but for what I see, it is not going to be straight forward in this side of the world.

Anyway. Yesterday, well in fact I don’t even know if it was yesterday, but last thing we blogged was when being in San Francisco and then we were taking the BART train that stops at Powell and costs USD 5.35 to the airport. We arrived with plenty of time ahead. We had a coke in a nice bar inside the airport with the planes beside. Then we went to Los Angeles. Fortunately the bags were checked in until Papeete (Tahiti). The check-in in San Francisco with United Airlines was pretty straight forward. We had to do it in a desk with a machine and a phone… strange.

In LA we had to change terminals. We went to the one where Air Tahiti Nui operates, basically we were arriving at Terminal 3 and this one was on the left. 10 min. LA airport, at least the terminal were we were has nothing to be envied from a Malawian airport…. really pathetic. We waited until 23.50 (we were dead…) and we boarded the airbus that took us to Papeete. We sat and we got slept. We missed dinner.

One hour and a half before arriving to Papeete we woke up and they served breakfast. Cool. I had pudding. Now our time difference is of 10 hours.

Papeete airport is a small airport. The first thing we did after collecting our bags was to go to Air Tahiti and buy a "multipass" or "blue pass". It consists on a pass to fly to many islands for a fare that is (in our case) 50% of the regular fare. Yes we landed in Tahiti with no hotel booking. ;-)

We bought the following combination: Tahiti-Huahine. This is where we are now. Then after 2 days here we have a Huahine-Bora Bora. In Bora bora we will stay 3 nights. Then Bora Bora-Moreea. In Moreea 2 nights. Then Moreea-Tahiti. One night in Tahiti and then to Auckland (New Zealand).

Well all this flight was 28.400 Francs per person. Reasonable.

After buying a second Tour du Monde within the French Polynesia we went to the storage room and we left the backpacks there. Our flight was departing at 14.20 and it was 8am when we bought this in the airport.

We crossed the main road in front of the airport, and took le "truck" , basically a lorry acting as a bus (not better than the ones in India or Guatemala) that took us for 130 francs to Papeete downtown. I have to say that Tahiti and in general the French Polynesia is pretty expensive. Everything is like in Europe.

Once in town (15 min) we went to the Information Office and asked to info about guesthouses for Huahine, Bora Bora and Moreea. They gave us a lot of info. I took photos of all the pages of the folder they had with guest houses. I can post them once we are back. We called several in Huahine. All fully booked, but one that I liked (that is actually on the other end of the island) was very expensive. 20.000 which is around 200 usd per night… for a guest house…. wow.

After much sweating inside the phone box, we finally found one that is called Fetia. 8000 francs per night for the bungalow.

We went to visit Papeete. The ladies in the information office gave us a map with some itineraries that we followed until around 12.30 when we stopped to have lunch by the coast. Tuna that was actually 80% raw, with curry and coconut sauce. Very good. Then, "truck" back to the airport and flight to meet our Fetia guest house.

A wonderful lady, the owner came with his son to pick us up at the airport. Mini airport as you could imagine. The traditional belt for the luggage, here it was two shelves where they put the bags, extremely fast.

The guest house is pretty close to the airport so we went with their pick up for a non paved trail until her place.

We are in a big bungalow. Very very nice, all in wood, with a kitchen, toilet, a mezzanine. All in bamboo and wood. 10 seconds from a beach for us. It faces the ocean not the lagoon, so it is wild. First thing we did was to go and have a bath. Then walk in the endless beach. Then come back, have a shower and now I am writing while guess…. a super tropical storm is trying to take our bungalow to the outer space.

Now I guess that once is stops raining a bit (it was sunny until now…) I guess that the lady (petty I did not retain her name) will come to call us for dinner. She asked if we like fish. Yummy! She also asked if we have coffee in the mornings and that she will help us to get a car tomorrow so we can go and visit the island, that is one of the most beautiful ones of the Society islands.

Today is our last day here in SF. Guess what. Sunnnnnny. Yes. Every day raining like hell and today that we leave, sunny…

Anyway. This morning we woke up later than usual. We went downstairs and we realized it was rush hour for pancakes. We got our spot and we cooked the worst pancakes of all these days. They were more like scrambled eggs… They were tasty though. We packed and we left the bags in the bag room. They gave us the $20 deposit that you give on day one and bye bye.

We  walked towards the Civic Centre, and listened to a politician convincing people on how green the city hall of San Francisco is with a project with a private sector company that he kept on pronouncing wrongly to integrate hybrids cars into the city. Inside the city hall we were quite amazed by the huge dome and stairs. We culturized ourselves a little bit more with the wedding intricacies and very different fashion touches in SF. Then we walked up to Coit Tower, when we thought that we were terribly mistaken we finally got to the art deco tower and visited inside the paintings commissioned to the then young artists of the bay in 1934 picturing the regionalism style of the Grand Depression years. The tower was a gift of a wealthy and peculiar lady who got married to Howard Coit. She was unconventional not only in her dressing code (man clothes), but also in her attitude: smoking cigars, gambling, the kind of woman I like!

We were feeling a little bit hungry so we decided to stop at Lori’s dinner and enjoy a go bananas milkshake, a vanilla milkshake with burger, house sandwich and mozarella stickers, ummmm, yummy but quite too much.

Now here we are drinking coke and water at the SFO international airport waiting for our connection flight to LA and then Papeete!!! Ji ji ji ji ji.

Today we had booked a tour with Dylan. He came at ten and took 10 of us in his van for a great 4.5 hours. We visited most of San Francisco, the golden gate, and the highlights: muir woods, with the amazing redwood trees with 120 m high and some more than 1000 years! One would say that we were on a fantasy film and that little men would come from the forest. So let me try to remember all I heard from Dylan from the beginning. We started in our neighborhood which is called Tenderloin and is where most homeless and drug addicts hang around because of the drug dispensers where apparently anyone with a special card prescribed by your doctor "to help you sleep" which costs 100 USD could go and get very cheap marihuana. We passed soma district where according to dani, the guy who transmits SOMA FM is based, then we headed to Mission district where the city was born as Yerba Buena thanks to Spanish missionaries who settled there because it was the only flat area around, and at that time the main living was farming. We continued through the Castro -  or gay area – with fancy restaurants, bars, shops and plenty of rainbow flags. We took a picture below the 4.20 clock at the most famous crossing: Haight Ashbury, and we passed by the house where Janice Joplin lived for a while and others who created the hippie movement. We took again another picture at Alamo Square with the 7 sisters (Victorian houses that survived the 8.1 1906 earthquake). Down in the Richmond we were told that most blue collar workers lived there. Then up to Twin Peaks and its magnificent views, just before passing the Golden Gate Bridge with about 1600 suicides attempts, and only 45 or some of them survived. If the fall does not kill you the chilled waters (10 Celsius) or the currents would do. We entered Marin county which is the most expensive in USA, and then we see why: Sausalito and one of the best views in the world.

And after 10 minutes of driving we reached Muir woods where we walked for an hour between these impressive trees. You can breath in the calm and quietness of the wood, really inspiring and so close to the city.

These giants have the best conditions to grow so tall, the fog and a river underneath. We learned that in 1945 the UN organized a meeting there to instill the peace that the woods provide into the delegates mind. Do not think that it accomplished that, but I think this place would make an excellent work retreat.

On the way back we passed by the most expensive district in SFO: Pacific Heights with massive houses which can cost  up to 30 millions USD. Then Marina district or Yuppi area which is not the place to be when the big earthquake strikes.

Back to the hotel area, we stop at a very nice and expensive place for a tea (earl grey) and a coffee and then caught a bus to the Golden Gate Park. Dani lost his orientation and for the first 15 minutes we were walking in circles, but then I asked for a map, which I got for free thanks to my beaten up dog face and the fact that it was raining cats and dogs. By that time dani has resolved to use his very much loved GPS who took 10 minutes to position itself, the poor thing was unsure that the quantity of rain was right for SFO. We felt like " Singing in the rain" but without singing. Dylan had told us that it rains 30 days per year, so boy we hit it hard. The park was fab, but a couple of times we had to go backwards because the area was flooded and although our shoes are waterproof, our trousers not.

After having lunch at Hard Rock cafe in pier 39 we walked west. We were looking for the stop of the bus number 28. It is the only one taking you to the bridge. Here the bus ride costs $1.5 and you can use the ticket for 90 min. Not bad. Anyway, we got there, and guess… raining like hell. It did not stop us from walking in the bridge. It was very windy also, but the view you have over the bay is great. Most of the photos I took with the nikon, not with the iphone or with Nuria’s n79. Same thing applies to Alcatraz, so if you want to see nice photos you will have to wait until we are back ;-)

Once the bridge was seen. It is a nice bridge, and I bet when they built it it was an engineering challenge of using steel (you could go 3 times around the earth with the length of cable used) but now it requires a lot of maintenance: it is constantly being painted and as you know, the ocean is not a very good friend of iron.

We took the 28 again, thinking that it would go to the Golden Gate park. Well it didn’t so we changed plans. It took us to where we took it before, close to the Ghirardelli square. The new plan was then to go to Alamo square. In Alamo square you have the typical picture of San Francisco with 4 or 5 typical houses and the city behind (again, photos with the nikon camera only). The problem was that it was already pretty dark, but it is nice. We have to recognize though that in the walk to Alamo’s square, in particular Laguna street, the houses were much nicer that the ones of the typical photo. What they did not have, was the skyline behind, that is true.

We also passed through the Japanese district where we stopped to buy some water (and a iogurt).

After the photo, we took the bus number 5 to market street, passing by the civic center, one of the nicer buildings of the city. We stopped at the level of Powell street and we got into a shopping centre, but we were so tired that we came to the hostel.

Nuria is now going to sleep while I type.

This morning, after the pancakes (we are now experts) we went out under the rain towards powell street and then to market street to catch the classical F tram. I took a photo from the inside. It was raining a lot. It was one with everything in Italian. From Milan. We stopped at pier 33 where the ferry to Alcatraz departs. Welcomed by ranger John, we watched a 30 min video about the history of the island. Armed with audio sets we entered into the inmates cells and learned how they lived and tried to escape. I do not know in 1934 when the prison opened but today it was wet, windy and cold. The good news is that it stopped raining and the sun is finally shining. Just then we went outside to take a look of the fantastic view over San Francisco.

I must say that the audio tour was very good. It was included with the ticket. It shows you around the prison and explains stories of how people tried escaping from it. Very interesting. It makes you feel like going back home to watch the movies again.

Well, after a while going up and down the island we took the ferry back to pier 33. We waked towards pier 39 and we stoped for lunch at Hard Rock cafe. It has been a while since the last time I had food in one Hard Rock. I guess it was probably in Barcelona. Anyway. I have a salad and Nuria a burger. While we wait I start writting this post.

We started the day again after 12 hours sleep. Today was our second day with pancakes, the result was much better. See the photo. We managed to cook nice pancakes. Once we finished our macro pancakes, all day walking under the rain. Yes, it has been raining all day non-stop. We should be paid by north face, millet, merrell for testing all their gear.

Anyway, first we visited the cable car museum.

It is incredible how they can manage all 4 lines of cable cars from that building. An engineering achievement. I really enjoyed it.

Nuria had more difficulties understanding how the cables were distributed on the huge wheels that separate them into the 4 different lines. We just manage to leave before the horde of Japanese filled the museum up. Then we continued under the pouring flood waters direction China town,

with a stop over at Grace Cathedral, impressive cathedral, inspired by Notre Dame but given the 1906 devastating earthquake, made of concrete. In Chinatown, we first had a jasmin tea in a typical Chinese crappy place (with no tourists) and then lunch also at the least touristy place we could find. Nuria made a mistake in the order, as she thought that the fantastics vegetables she had in a chinese restaurant in Geneva were called Chinese brocoli, so with absolutely no doubts and great grandeur at being able to recognise something she ordered the green things she has in her hands, big mistake… but we ate them all. The noodles were very tasty and the din sum very nice also.

After spending the rest of the morning around Chinatown, we headed to SFMOMA where we are now. I am staring at a Rothko and resting while I found that there is wifi.

And after the Moma, we went to Yerba Buena Gardens, beautiful place, with a commemoration fountain to Martin Luther King, another commercial center and a very nice tea lounge, just to escape again from the rain. Dani wanted a coke, but guess what, only tea, my paradise!!!

I had a white strong tea according to the nice waiter, true that it was not sweat, but the water in Bilbao is stronger. Dani had a chilled drink made of green tea with a terrible appearance and even worst taste, but he said he liked very much, must be the rain that is affecting his taste…

We are now back to the hostel. I have noticed that the date of the posts is the date of the server, not our time here, so take into account that for us, now is 8 hours less, so all today’s posts that appear published as the 15 are actually the 14th.

Well, after crab lunch we walked all around the fisherman’s wharf. We visited USS Pampanito submarine. Pretty cool! a World War 1 submarine for 85 people… incredible how they could fit there…

We were looking for the boat that takes you for the visit of Alcatraz, and we found it at pier 33. Those in other piers were just going around the island. Guess what. Full until Monday! So we are going on Monday at 10am.

We walked all around the pier 39, where all the shopping is, and the sea lions!! amazing. We also visited the Ghirardelli centre, where they sell this great chocolate. Then we wanted to walk towards the golden gate bridge. It was raining and we realized that was very far, so when we arrived to the presidio park, we walked to Lombard street, the typical street with the zig-zag turns going down that appears in so many films. Photos of all this I took with the nikon, so I will not post them in the blog.

In our way back we stopped at the North Face shop close to union square. We did not write it but on day one the backpack that we have, a 70 liters “North Fake” that I bought in China, died. Well it broke down, and now I am trying to fix it a bit, but we just bought a new one. Slightly smaller (60 liters). Great price 30% plus a 20% so 50% off.

We are at Fisherman’s wharf, and even if we have not yet digested the pancakes, we could not miss having seefood lunch. Now the weather is not that good. It rains 10 min per hour.
The way here was nice. We saw where the cable cart turns using a rotating platform, we tried the Ghirarselli peanut butter chocolate mmmm and later on we might go to alcatraz.
Now we are enjoying white chardonnay from San Francisco bay with seafood at Fisherman’s Grotto, with a lovely view over Golden Gate and the wharf.
Nuria is winning the battle against the grilled garlic crab, soaking her fingers every 30 seconds in the sauce while saying mmmmm.

After more than 12 hours we woke up on this St. Valentine day and went downstairs for breakfast. At the USA hostel San Francisco we have free pancakes in the mornings (you have to cook them yourself though). See the monster pancakes we cooked… I was ashamed of not being able to finish them…
Later on with all our waterproof equipment (there is a weather red alert on the bay area with strong storms and winds) we went out direction to Powell street towards fisherman’s wharf, and surprise, sunny.

Well well…. after more than ten hours we finally made it. Here I am in the USA hostel San Francisco (with free wifi), 6.45pm local time and Nuria just fell KO…. and give me a couple of minutes and I will follow.

It is been more than 24h without sleeping.
San Francisco? Great. It was sunny when we arrived with the BART train from the International Airport to Powel station, but latter on it started raining. We went to macy’s and then we were very hungry so we go into an Indian deli restaurant. We ate 1/2 of what we order but Nuria had the courage to ask for the doggy bag ;-) so we have indian food in our little fridge here in the room.

Tomorrow more.

Writing with the iPhone again. We are in the plane. It’s a jumbo 400, and the flight will be more than 10 hours. Now I just finished lunch and the movie I was watching: burn after reading. I must recognize that virgin atlantic is prety good. Good service and hi-tech on demand multimedia systems. Nevertheless arriving at SFO around midday local time and after two days waking up early we will be completely exhausted.

And again today we got up at 4.20 am with not many hours of sleep and with a break at 12.00pm when someone entered in our room!! That was a shock! Apparently two Torres had booked on the same night, what a coincidence.

No raining nor snowing, so the 10 minutes walk to Paddinton train station is refreshing. We decided to pay the extra for the Heathrow express which takes only 15 m inutes. So we took it at 5.25 am and at 5.40 sharp we arrived in Terminal 1-3. The terminal 3 A is new and apparently is all Virgin Atlantic. We tried to do the automatic check in with the machines, but our passport is not accepted: oh oh!! A very nice flight attendant comes to the rescue, she is Amy, what a nice name! She types in and out, checks our passports, comes and goes, and yeah the problem is the two surnames in our spanish passport… She said that it was OK, but next time make sure your name is Diezungo. Ok madam!

And now here we are wating for the gate number to appear. We have had a full day breakfast baguel with tea and coffee and a tiny orange juice. Now is time to read the San Francisco small guide for Dani, and The French Polinesia one for nuria.