our awesome world adventure

Sandwiched between stops in Guatemala and Costa Rica, Nicaragua can’t compete – at least, not from what we saw.

We pulled into a busy industrial port called Corinto, (just sqeezing between these two ships with metres to spare). Only thing to do here was go big distances for something to do/see.

On the ship’s tour bus we drove for more than 2 hours (at one stage the driver got lost) through endless flat and sometimes scruffy farming land and past volcanoes. Sugar appears the dominant crop.

Eventually we arrived at the ruins (discovered by accident in 1967) of the Spanish city “old” Leon, now UNESCO protected, buried by this (still active – see the steam) volcano in 1610 (I think?)

The ruins are quite extensive, but not all that exciting. As Jan said “a very long drive to look at old bricks!”

The grounds weren’t bad … lots of big shady trees, including this one. The green balls, that look stuck on, are the gourds they use to make maraccas.

Then on to “new” Leon, established when “old” Leon shook too much in earthquakes for the Spaniards’ liking, and just before the volcano buried it. As you can see, after the super attractive Antigua in Guatemala, Leon was just an (unattractive and dirty) old Spanish colonial city.

Lunch was in an old convent, where they did serve free beer!!!

The highlight of Leon is the Cathedral (the biggest in Central America), visited several times by Pope John Paul II apparently, and now UNESCO listed … but when we arrived they were fixing the renowned west face … hmmmm …

Inside was massive.

But the highlight was a climb and walk on the roof!

But notice the dust.

Obviously lots of farmers have ploughed in anticipation of the wet season due to start back in May. The rain hasn’t come, but unusual hot dry winds have come, so all the top soil is blowing everywhere. Very unfortunate, and very unpleasant!

I guess Nicaragua has more to offer than what we saw. And, on our visit, the dust storms were a real downer.

It is interesting though, how environment and climate change aware, the few local folk we have chatted to in Central America have become …

Bright colour is everywhere in Guatemala. It’s so cheerful. Even the tug was painted up to look attractive!

As you will see below, the colour makes Guatemala feel so vibrant. And it all goes back to their strong Mayan roots and traditions.

We had arranged a guide independently here. And Carlos Mijangos turned out to be supreme. What a fabulous man!

We drove north through beautiful farmland (mostly sugar) for 50km before reaching the mountains. This guy “keeps watch” on the 3 volcanoes that surround Antigua …

By now we are driving past tidy villages, the best golf resort in Central America, beautiful shaded highlands coffee plantations, and some gated estates owned by foreigners. Looks nice and the tempature has dropped 10 degrees.

Antigua is a mile high. It was the main capital of Spanish Guatemala. Nine blocks square, rough cobblestone streets. Regrettably, way too many cars now and difficult to park.

We walk. Sights too numerous an interesting to take in …

In this courtyard they did laundry in these tubs …

In the courtyard in front of this church we found Friar Tuck under a tree …

Here a “chicken bus” … one of 10,000 in Guatemala … retired, restored and re-decorated yellow US school busses all of them. Just so colourful …

Then to a delightful lookout over the city …

Jan found another wall …

…and yet another church (one of 17 as I remember) …

Then to the one and only closed street to the iconic arch … it was starting to rain, and Carlos and Jan were starting to run …

The rain got heavy …

We retreated into a beautiful hotel …

Then further along the street in the rain …

To Central Square …

…. and the main Cathedral. Only the front section is in use. The back section is a fascinating ruin.

To the south side of the Square, this wonderful old collonade …

With Mayan women and children doing handwork and other stuff …

Then to the local markets where you can buy literally anything …

Along the way Carlos invited me to enjoy a 100% Guatemalan highlands coffee … that was THE BEST coffee I can remember drinking!

Gracias, Carlos!!

Wah …tool … ko

Hola from Meh … hee … ko

We pulled into tiny Santa Cruz bay in the municipality of Huatulco well before sunrise … we had a tour booked for later in the morning so we decided to go for a long early morning walk. Very hot and humid, (but not nearly as bad as later in the day).

This early, Sunday morning was quiet … but we found some brave locals out on a fun run …

It’s a very pretty tropical environment. The area is devoted entirely to tourism, here there has been sensible egological control, and the scale is much smaller than Cabo.

After about 2km, in the center of town, we found quiet little streets …

… and a pretty town square …

The Mexicans love colour … Jan found another green wall to lean on … this one a primary school right in town …

Back to Santa Cruz, things still quietly waiting for a busy day’s business …

We then boarded our tour boat in the little marina …

… and wandered up and down the beautiful coastline … jungle down to the cliffs and mostly deserted sandy beaches …

… then we hopped on a bus for look around … a couple of nice views and past a small handful of nice looking resorts … and back to the town centre we had visited earlier.

Lunch time … time to go …

… this time escorted by the Mexican navy! (According to our tour guide, the 2000 local military personnel spend all their timepatrolling to stop illegal immigrants trying to get IN to Mexico fromthe south … figure that out!)

The ship’s blurb was pretty stark – Cabo, a place where rampant development meets ecological rape! (Not in those words of course, but the message was clear) … hmmmm, what to expect??

Cabo is at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsular. Desert everywhere. As we approach, I think maybe the ship’s blurb was a bit right …

have beach, build hotel! … piece of cliff, build house!

Cabo itself is tucked around behind these beach front hotels …

The center of town and the little marina ahead …

We went on tour … first by boat past a couple of baking beaches …

… to the apparently famous Archo de Cabo …

… then out into the ocean for a closer look at beaches and resorts. Here’s just a couple of many …

(no idea what the CAT 10 ton loader on the beach might have been for!) …

Back to the marina in town … look at those houses up there!

Then off on a bus … to the inevitable church …

… and through the Mexican back blocks to a glass blowing factory – all interesting stuff!

… to this restaurant, for free beer and this view over the Cabo San Lucas bay …

and then along 20 miles of desert coastline … desert one side, condos, hotels and construction on the other … all the way …

… at one point we went past this. The young tour guide tried to explain that there used to be water and lots of birds here, now they’re gone, and she sounded puzzled as to why.

Eventually to the old town of Los Carbos. What a lovely surprise. Quiet Mexican artists and creators abundant, working in old buildings in quiet streets.

The town square dominated by the an old Mission.

And Jan found a shop selling hand made Mexican products …

Back to Cabo for a walk around the huge marina.

Starbucks legendry wi-fi let us down in Cabo, so we had to find a bar to communicate with the world … 2 Coronas and a Marguerita … $8.00

Chatting to some fellow cruisers we found that they drove from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas when the road was first sealed in 1972. There were just 8 buildings here then. 43 years on, now look at it!

San Diego looks like a really nice city (… as American cities go: Seattle and Boston come to mind).

We took a tour on a “trolley” which was a great city orientation. No stops, but we went through many places worthy of a longer visit.

Over the Coronado bridge …

… with a view back over the city (if you are quick) …

… through the wealthy Coronado neighbourhood …

… and past the huge old red roofed del Coronado Hotel (seen here in the distance, later in the day from the departing ship)

Then through the Balboa Gardens, complete with 16 museums, most in magnificent buildings, and a view down over the city.

Then little Italy (like Lygon Street) … and the “old town”, the original centre of historic San Diego. Very Mexican looking here: lots of old orange buildings with classic terra cotta rooves … looked like fun.

Then we walked …

First to the Midway … a decommisioneed air craft carrier, now museum, parked right in town … current and proud old military men everywhere …

Quite interesting actually … Jan inspected the old helicopter fleet on deck …

… and the views from the flight deck were pretty good …

We also saw one of the 3 operational Nimitz carriers currently in port, leaving port on a mission …

… we then walked through “downtown” … lots of bankers and lawyers here … big wide streets, not much traffic.

Then to the old Gaslamp Precinct. Lots of pretty buildings. This area must really hum on a warm Friday night!

In the afternoon we were escorted out by the Coast Guard …

… conspicuously armed, chasing the odd wayward pleasure craft out of our way … (no shots fired today!)

… “in front” of San Diego is a huge miltary presence. This photo, taken from the ship as we left, sums it up.

After 5 days at sea (that were remarkably smooth, and much cooler than we expected) we arrived at Los Angeles.

Big passenger turnover here, and for those disembarking it was minor chaos (for the boys, a clu…f…). The ship was (a bit) late. The solitary baggage conveyor wouldn’t work! Result … lots of angry people missing their flights … hmmmm! … some not happy, Jan!

Fortunately, being in transit, we escaped that melee, but moved to the next one. A car rental office under-prepared for the arrival of a cruise ship? (Given cruise ship schedules are published more than a year in advance, you have to wonder at that one!)

Eventually we’re off to challenge the legendary LA freeway system … Santa Monica bound …

Our target was the Getty Villa, then drift back the 40 miles down the coast to San Pedro and the ship.

The Getty Villa is magnificent. Once one of his homes, it now houses some of J Paul Getty’s collection of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts.

The building itself is modelled on a Pompeii villa. The main courtyard looks out to the Pacific Ocean …

The Getty’s nod to the drought is to turn off all but a couple of the water features … fair enough!

… the internal courtyard …

Inside the museum, all the exhibits are beautifully presented …

After this walk around Jan needed a little rest in the sunshine …

Then off to Santa Monica beach … nothing like we had imagined …

The beach is wide and sandy, but that’s the end of the upside. Dirty water, flat surf … and lots and lots of people (on a Monday).

Oh! and there’s a “fun” pier … people everywhere …

… one can only imagine what it must be like on a sunny Sunday!

The Santa Monica town behind the beach offered nothing for us, so we moved on down to Venice Beach. We saw a few of the legendary folk of this area that lead an “alternative” lifestyle of one sort or another. We avoided the Venice Beach pier: one a day is enough, but found the old canal area that gives Venice Beach it’s name …

What a contrast … so peaceful and beautiful as we strolled the canals …

Then around Marina del Ray … countless boats and waterfront condos here …

… and more beaches … they seem to go on forever …

… and on through the attractive, up-market, (horsey) neighbourhood of Rolling Hills to San Pedro. An interesting day …

The weather was superb: sunny, perfect temperature, no humidity. But that’s actually the bad news. Evidence of the desperate California drought was everywhere: no grass; dry and dirty underfoot; and worst of all, very stressed and dying trees. Another summer or two and the whole place will be a desert!

This is it … the clear highlight of our first five weeks!

If ever you come to Hawaii, save your pennies, throw away your fears, and do this flight …

We took a little machine with NO DOORS! Jan and I were in the back, one on each “door” … perfect morning … just look at this …

up over the airport, the town and the harbour (our ship in the distance) …

past the falls featured in Jurassic Park, the movie …

the country got more rugged, but still wet …

then a little further over a ridge, and here a “technical” desert and a 3000 foot deep canyon called the “grand canyon” of Hawaii …

… with a magnificent waterfall at the head of the canyon …

then over the ridge to the Na Pali cliffs … totally inaccessible even on foot …

we flew low over beaches and up into little valleys …

gradually the cliffs give way to less rugged coast and accessible beaches and coral reefs …

and then to Hanalei Bay …

back inland past dozens, if not hundreds, of waterfalls and green jungle …

and towards the highest peak, rarely seen because of clouds, but we were lucky …

and then we flew right into the collapsed (extinct) volcano …

back to the coast where we had started, and past the falls we had seen from the ground …

safe on the ground, adrenalin rushing …

Mahalo, Ben! (and Jack Harter Helicopters)

Kauai is the most western, the oldest, the wettest, and I reckon, the most extraordinary of the main Hawaiian islands … you’ll see why, soon.

An altogether too short a visit started when we pulled into the tiny habour at Nawiliwili … the entrance is so tight and complicated that freight comes in on barges and even our little ship needed the rare assistance of a tug (more about Tiger 6 below).

We jumped off and took our hire car first to the Wailui Falls. The river starts in the hinterland near the wettest (measured) place on earth … depending on who is telling the story, up to 460 inches a year!

We then took the ride of our lives … but, wait for the next post.

After time out for the adrenalin to settle, we headed for the south coast … not the greatest of this island’s destinations, but the only one we had time for. Here we found beautiful little Moir Gardens. Orchids, cactus, and other stuff planted by the sugar plantation manager’s wife, ages ago … (that’s not her!)

… now in the grounds of this rather special looking hotel …

… across the road, another hotel, beach, and stop for lunch …

We shared one sandwich: left half the bread and about half the fries and still felt full. But the firemen in uniform being treated at the next table polished off a whole one each!

Then we found the McBryde/Allerton Tropical Botanical Gardens, but they are so vast that we couldn’t even attempt a tour (… next time??)

… and Poipu beach, judged one of the best in America … Hmmmm … nice, but not Manly or Bondi …

… this local (Hawaiian fur seal) was just having a nap!

Back on the ship, I was sitting on the verandah and Tiger 6 came roaring out beside us at full speed, very fast, … backwards! That’s a bit exhibitionist, I thought. But wait …

… at least ten “zero” turns on the spot, again at full speed … a serious exhibition … what could that be about?

… and then the telephoto lens picked up the explanation … can you see who’s standing in front of the control room? … very pretty, too!

… and farewell to Nawiliwili

We anchored off the little town of Lahaina on the west side of Maui.

In times gone by Lahaina was a bustling whaling town. Hundreds of whaling boats and thousands of sailors must have made it a pretty colourful place. There’s an old prison right in the centre of town!

Now it’s tourists …

We tendered ashore and went for an early morning walk along Front Street before the old town woke up. Just gorgeous.

And we found this old Banyan tree, now with 16 trunks and a canopy of about an acre, across from the old Pioneer Hotel.

Then a short bus tour to the historic Iao Valley, scene of a major battle as King Kamehameha united the Hawaiian Islands about 200 years ago.

(that’s not the king … or the queen …)

Then the highlight. We linked up with Tony and Sue, friends we made earlier this year on another cruise.

They took us to this little resort, near their home, for lunch …

… then a short walk over the hill to another resort …

… then off to explore the gorgeous north coast of the island …

… steep cliffs like this above, that we walked right to the edge and peered over …

… and beautiful protected bays – great for snorkelling.

Some pretty amazing resorts, golf courses and homes in this neck of the woods, I must say.

Then back to the ship. Maui put on its hat, and off we sailed.

We saw just a fraction of Maui on what was a short busy day. An island of real contrasts and surprises: dry desert, sugar cane fields and dense, wet jungle; rugged coasts and sandy beaches; some pretty average, and the very best of neighbourhoods …

A great day. Mahalo, Tony and Sue … a hui hou!!

We took a short bus tour in the morning. Brand new bus: we were the first ever passengers aboard. Also the first accident for the bus: an terrible grinding underneath at the back as we negotiated a tight steep turn – too tight for a long bus! The driver didn’t stop, or seem to care!

The main highlight was the windy Pali lookout. Jan says we were lucky ‘cos the wind was only light (and ruffled her hair only a bit) …

… and you could actually see something …

… it certainly is an amazing view over the “north shore” of Oahu.

We then went on past the Royal Palace; the Punchbowl (a volcano crater now a military cemetary); the building where Jan worked; the street where Jan lived – highlights, all of them!

And then to Diamond Head lookout, where Jan found this local …

After lunch and Starbucks wi-fi we walked, and walked, and walked.

We found the Ilikai where Jan hangs out every year for a week with Karen (somewhere close to the window refelecting under the coconut palm branch – first photo) …

And a Waikiki pub crawl … the Edge bar at the Sheraton …

… the old Royal Hawaiian (the pink pub) …

… then the original Waikiki hotel … the Westin Moana Surfrider (take note Tommy!)

We came across a noisy street parade (appeared to be mostly happy Japanese celebrating something!)

and of course found lots to see on the beach …

… then a sunset walk along the beach: busy, busy with holiday makers from around the world …

Mahalo! … (thank you, for those who don’t speak Hawaiian)