This morning, March 26, we arrive just off the island of Raivavae in the Austral Islands, part of French Polynesia. This is the quintessential south sea island. A high central mountainous island that seems to float in clear blue waters surrounded by a fringing reef. It is so beautiful, so remote, I cannot get the …
The term “South Sea” originates with the Spanish explorer, Balboa, who first crossed the isthmus of Panama. From his vantage point, he was looking south over a vast ocean, hence he called it the “South Sea”. It was not until Magellan passed through the straights at the southern tip of the Americas, that what we …
A very interesting and exciting day. We rose early to hear the announcements of the plan for the day. Apparently, the surf is too rough for us to make a landing using the zodiac boats, so the plan is that the islanders will send out long boats, we will go from the ship to the …
We woke this morning to the sight of Henderson Island off the side of the ship. Don’t ask port or starboard, as I cannot figure out from our cabin which is which. Unfortunately, the swells continue so we could not go ashore, but we did have some time in the water snorkeling. Got some pics …
After two days sailing, we arrive at Ducie Atoll just around 1:00 pm local time, which is 4 hours behind Eastern DST. The Ducie Atoll is one of four islands that make up the Pitcairn island group. It is uninhabited and consists of a fringing reef washed by the swell of the ocean. The plan …
Today we travel to one of the most interesting sites on the island, but that will be this afternoon, and you have to work for it. First, in the morning we left for the north shore of the island. The first stopping point is Papa Vaka where there were many petroglyphs telling the story of …
We are up “early” in order to take a van to the eastern part of the island to catch the sunrise in the Pacific. I did not realize that we would do so at a location where there were 15, yes 15 Moai! What a site? While those we had already seen were so impressive, …
March 14 Sunrise at Tangariki and the rest of the dayRead More »
I originally thought to try to condense the three days we spent on Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island) into one post. However, upon finishing this description of the first day, I realize there is too much to say and see. Some of the pictures may seem redundant, but there is so much to absorb as …
Got an early start to the day with a flight to Santiago Chile. Santiago is a more modern looking city. Here they experience many earth quakes and so there are few buildings surviving from the earliest days. Our hotel is located in the Lastarria area of the city adjacent to a large park. The park …
From what we saw in our day and a half in Lima, there are two parts of the city that were of interest to us. The historic center and the more modern and residential area of Miraflores, where our hotel was for our last night in Peru. In the historic center is the Plaza San …
