Khrys weblog

When arriving to Tahiti, we had planned to visit Tahiti, plus some islands around, perhaps Bora Bora and Moorea. We learned that to any other island besides Moorea we would have needed to fly and it would
have of course costed quite a lot. Moorea is just half an hour boat trip away, so we decided to stay a week in Moorea and a week in Tahiti. We got advised that Moorea is nicer than Tahiti and that it is where the Tahitians go mostly on their days off/holidays.

In Moorea we rented a kind of beach cabin from a friendly family. They rent out only 3 cabins, so you have your privacy as there is not so many people around.
One day the hostess taught us how to prepare raw fish with coconut milk. It was delicious and we were happy to learn how to do it as we have eaten so good raw fish during the trip, and it is something we are
not used to. The daughter of the family also offered us interesting local fruits and drew us pictures. The cat of the family liked staying at our porch especially at eating times.
Chris was cooking and preparing breakfast nearly every day and Netta got just to be lazy. We felt strange waking up every morning very early, around six, even we didn’t have to, but here it is natural with the
sun rising and setting early. Anyway the time difference for Easter Island was four hours, so we got tired already at eight. Actually the first time we felt the time difference really.

Even though the cabin was not by the beach, we had a great location as we were only 500 meters from probably the best beach on the island. And as it is a low season here (rainy season), there were not many
people around. The weather was very favourable to us, as it didn’t rain much at all.
The beach was close to a coral reef and the water was crystal clear. We swam and snorkeled few times a day and watched beautiful fishes and corals. Unfortunately we have pictures of these only in the water-proof camera at the moment. And of course one afternoon when the film was already full, a huge ray swam right by us in only knee high water. Chris tried to find one again the following day, but only saw a smaller one which he hopefully caught on a camera. One day we rented a scooter and drove around the island. Amazing week.
Photos

In Tahiti we were lucky, as we got to stay five last nights in a brand new 4-star hotel for really cheap price. It had been opened only a week earlier, and was not completely finished, perhaps that is why we got the room and breakfast almost for the price of only breakfast (damn expensive breakfast though). Anyway compared to the prices here it was an awesome deal, which we found thanks to the extremely helpful tourist information office workers we visited in the beginning. Otherwise too the people on the island are really friendly and helpful, even though not the smiliest ever.
Photos Pension de la plage
Photos Hotel Manava

The week in Tahiti was more rainy than the one in Moorea, but we didn’t mind as we had got too much sun on the first week. No matter how well you try to protect yourself, it’s hard to avoid sun burn, when you would like to stay in the sea all the time. Tahiti week was good timing for relaxing and taking advantage of free internet connection. And of course the fancy hotel was a perfect place for a honeymoon ;)
One day we rented a car and drove around the island. We didn’t quite manage to do it all during daylight, but for the parts we saw we didn’t find as awesome, clear water beach as in Moorea. The best parts must be taken by expensive hotels, and the rest is mostly good for surfing. We were surprised that Tahiti was not that touristic as we expected. Big parts of the shores are inhabited by locals, and the hotels are built one here, one there. Close by hotels there are normally no restaurant and bar areas or much any shops or activities as we are used to see in touristic places in Europe. What you can find every here and there are little kiosks selling fruits, pizzas, crepes and burgers.
Photos and Video

All good things have an end, and it’s now time to fly out. Next port of call: Noumea, New Caledonia.

New version has been half rewritten.
What’s in there :
– no frames ;
– new skin (and it will be easier to change it later) ;
– no new functionalities however, but when I’ll have a bit of time, I’ll work on it.

Have fun !

Easter Island belongs to Chile and it is located 3600 km west from the mainland, being one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands.
We had done lots of research regarding the accommodation via internet, as most of it is very expensive on this touristic island. Considered a bed-and-breakfast, home kind of option, but as we could not reach them by phone, chose the most affordable hotel option with a highly recommended restaurant.

Got a paradise island feeling at the airport where along the tropical weather we were welcomed by the hotel with a flower lei. The hotel was very nice and the food delicious, we ate there every evening. Food on the island seems healthy, plenty of fish with salad and vegetables. The only thing that disturbed the paradise feeling were the HUGE cockroaches that ran everywhere in the garden path after dark, and few even in the room, so Netta didn’t sleep so tight.. Poor Chris had to chase one creature for an hour the first night with a tiny flash light as there was a power cut.
Photos

The famous moai-statues stand in many different locations guarding Easter Island.
The statues are impressive, and bigger than we had imagined from pictures.
Most of them are approximately 10 meters high. The tallest one is 22 meters.
Really liked them a lot, definitely worth seeing.
The road around the island is 60 kilometers long, so it is possible to explore all of it in just one day. Few days is really enough to see all the sights.
We rented a car the first day and spent plenty of time visiting the statues. We found this better way than taking a guided tour, as we got to stay as long as we wanted and got pictures with no people in front. It is possible to get a private guide of course if you want to pay more. But we didn’t find a need for one.
At the end of the first day we took our first dip in the Pacific ocean in one of the two beaches of the island. The water was warm and the waves cool.
Photos 1st day
The second day we rented bikes and went up a volcano and drove around the part of the island we didn’t do the first day. Last evening we wanted to see a sun set by the beach. The sun set was not nice because of the clouds in front, but instead we saw something really cool. Huge sea turtles came to the shore pushed by the waves. Their shields look like pieces of art.
Photos 2nd day
Videos

Last night we dined with a nice american couple we met at the volcano.
We also met an interesting american archeologist who has done lots of research on Easter Island civilization.

The capital of Chile, Santiago seemed to us much smaller than Buenos Aires.
Might affect though that our accommodation was located in a quiet residential area
instead of the city centre.
In Santiago it’s easy to move around by foot and by metro.
One of the sights is bohemian, colorful area called Barrio Bellavista.
There you can find nice wall paintings, unfortunately many are covered with less nice graffiti. We drove up with funicular and down with teleferic to San Cristobal hill, from where you can get a good view over the city.
As we had five days is Santiago, also took advantage of the fast (been a while!)internet connection and spent lots of time in the hostels garden under fruit trees.
Got to eat fresh grapes and discussed until late about rivalry between France and Italy, living in London and international relationships with a French and an Italian travelers.
Photos

Getting to Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city, from El Calafate was interesting.
The only bus leaves at 3 am, and the journey lasts for twenty hours, as you need to cross Chilean border and stop 4 times to get in and out stamps. So we now have altogether 8 Argentinean and 6 Chilean stamps in our passports. It’s surprising they don’t have any agreement to make the journey simpler, but it seems that their relationship hasn’t been very good in the past. They almost got into a war in the seventies over a few tiny islands in the south.

Finding an accommodation took a while as we hadn’t booked one and the city was pretty full, it’s high season there. Finally found a nice, affordable attic room.

We took a boat to see the famous light house “Les Eclaireurs”, birds, sea lions and most importantly penguins. The boat got really close, just in front of those cute little things, and we didn’t regret not taking a walking tour to their island. Didn’t want to get any closer anyway to disturb them too much. It was real fun watching them wandering around, “kissing” and diving.
Photos

We wanted to also reach Cape Horn, but had to skip it as it would have taken 5 days and costed over 500 euros each.

The city itself was bigger than we expected, but the main streets got quickly familiar to us. Especially because getting out of the end of the world is not that easy in a peak season, and we spent most of Valentine’s day walking around bus companies and travel agencies finding a way to reach our next flight on time. The flight was on Tuesday from Punta Arenas, on the Chilean side. All the companies said that the earliest bus tickets available were on Wednesday. A flight was available but would have costed few hundred euros each. Finally we got a bus ticket via Rio Gallegos (Argentina), on the East coast. It involves extra kilometers and unnecessary border crossing, but got to Punta Arenas on time.
Photos