Ike: Be Aware (there is no swimming at high tide!)

When you have jet lag, 5:30 am may not seem so early. But when you are up for 25 hours straight, and then sleep, you sort of cure your jet lag, and 5:30 am is VERY EARLY.

But, on this beautiful morning, it was worth it. We all got up and headed down to Lydgate Beach to watch the sun rise. Auntie Puna, a local teacher, came out with us to show us how to bring in the sunrise. We stood out on the beach and chanted and clapped as the sun rose over the Pacific Ocean. Not only was it special to have a real Hawaiian there to teach us (on sacred ground, no less) it was the first time I have actually seen the Pacific Ocean up close! Mishi and Tim did take us by the ocean last night to get our feet wet (and it was good grounding after that brutal 18 hours of flying) but I greeted the Pacific Ocean for the first time with Hawaiian chanting. How magical! Click here to watch a short video of the chant.

The ruins we visited were known to be a safe harbor and it was kapu (forbidden) to climb on the rocks. We did get some pictures of glyphs on the rocks.

Glyphs on the rocks

After breakfast, we loaded up the van and headed to the North Shore to Haena Beach. Here we were going to perform our first ceremony in the Menehune Cave. You haven't lived until you have about 30 onlookers taking pictures of you drumming and getting mud painted on your face.

Menehune Cave

Part of the day was supposed to be spent hanging out on this beach, swimming (washing the mud off of our faces) and enjoying the water. However, it was high tide and only one person was in the water---and he had a surf board. As I walked down to the surf, a couple walked by and were about knee deep in the surf. The lifeguard began to blow is whistle and I was looking around for swimmers. Turns out he was blowing it at the couple. Knee deep is too deep in high tide rip-tide water.

only place you can get i

We did manage to find a small area down in a jettied area where we could wash the mud off and get our feet wet. It was just enough. It turns out in our next adventure, we would have a chance to get really wet!

Inside the cave where we performed the ceremony. Can you see the faces???

High tide=no swimming :-(

Aaaaaloooooohaaaa Finally!

After planning on landing in these islands for almost 2 years, I have finally arrived!

My jouney started Friday morning at 6 am EST from Greensboro, NC. The total trip time was 18 hours and we (my silent traveling partner) and I arrived in Kauai....exhauted, hungry and ready!

This first week we are spending solely in Kauai for a spiritual retreat put on by Tim and Mishi Clauberg at Light of Aloha. We are joining 9 others on our journey to explore some sacred places in Kauai and participate in ceremonies bringing us closer together as a group and closer to the spirit of ALOHA!

view from the back of Magic Sunrise

We are staying at the Magic Sunrise Vacation rentals while we are here. It is a quaint little place (well, maybe not little-- it has 3 rooms, an apartment, and a separate house with 2 bedrooms and kitchen area on it's own.) Mishi hired an awesome cook (Auntie Karen) to come in an make us breakfast and dinner and the place is covered with crystals and Buddha's and beautiful flora and fauna.

beauty everywhere!

Breakfast and dinner area

The festivities will begin tonight (Saturday) at 6:00pm where we will offically meet and greet each other and begin our connections. Time to learn all about Hawaiin spirtuality and culture.
ALOHA!!

Two days in Cancun: Sunbathing and Shopping

So the plan for this trip was to fly to Cancun, sit on the beach for two straight days, and fly home. It was going to be such a short trip that we didn’t plan any other adventures. I would like to visit Chitzen Itza one day, but that will have to be a trip where there is more time to go. That excursion would take all day and I did not want to sacrifice any sun time.

Jetty makes for nice calm waves

long view of the jetty

Since we woke so late on Saturday morning, we wasted no more time getting to the beach. We stopped in to the hotel’s breakfast buffet (pricey, but decent) and then headed straight out to the beach. We were able to snag a couple of chairs and enjoy the sun for some time. The beach itself had quite a drop-off to the ocean and we discovered that if you walked down the beach about 100 yards, the waves were calmer and the beach evened out. The sand was a beautiful white color, soft beneath our feet. The ocean was calm, clear and cool, but not cold. We would lay on the beach, dip in the ocean, and watch the tourists and locals alike play with their loved ones, dig in the sand, swim, and climb the blocks on the jetty. 

Lucky ones made it up the jetty to a great lookout. Others were caught by the “marina” police and asked to either come off the jetty or leave the beach (because they refused to listen to the life guard). I ventured out enough to take a few pictures of a stirred up Caribbean Sea, but stayed out of harms way since I had no sneakers and well, didn’t need to take another spill—especially into the ocean. 

rock side of the beach

market place

Saturday and Sunday nights, we headed out into the town to do some shopping and dinner. The markets are a great place to find a deal if you don’t mind being harassed and are willing to bargain with the merchants. 

We had dinner at Margaritaville and shopped at the mall connected to it. Sunday night we shopped at the Coco Bongo area (no bargaining allowed there). We found Tutu the monkey and had our picture taken with him.

All in all, Cancun is a fine weekend trip. Most people at the hotel and resort were staying much longer, but we just needed a weekend get-away. The beaches were wonderful, the staff was nice, and if you don’t mind the people always trying to sell you something, it is quite relaxing. Perhaps I need to get used to the idea that as a tourist, the locals see dollar signs when I come walking. But that’s ok. They have to make some money too and this gives me an opportunity to learn the language, the culture, and to be a “world-bridger.”

Tutu and us

Cancun Sunset

Cancun: Not a bad weekend trip!

Nothing cures the winter blues like a vacation down to the little latitudes. And lately, even with the warm weather, I was feeling a little blue. So, while perusing one of my favorite travel sites (Travelzoo.com), I came across a deal almost too good to be true: 3 nights in Cancun, Mexico with airfare for $500 a person (after fees, taxes, etc.) So I texted my friend Ardra and asked if she’d be able to take a Friday and Monday off to go see some sun and surf. Luckily, she said “sure!”

Rainy Friday

So on Friday, we left RDU airport at 8:00am and headed to Atlanta to catch our connecting flight. It landed us in Cancun at about 12:30 pm. We cleared customs and immigration easily and headed toward the door to catch our ride. A friend had warned me that I should keep on walking –that if we did not, the timeshare brigade would accost us. She was not wrong. We almost made it out without hassle, until a cute Mexican stopped us to offer a map and directions to where we were going. He tried to sign us up for a meeting, but I was able to decline without getting rude. 

The travel agent also assured me that the weather should be perfect this time of year because it is the dry season. Unfortunately, when we landed, it was raining.

But this was NOT going to stop our fun! No way. We arrived at the Krystal Hotel and Resort about 1:30 pm and were able to check in right away. Francisco could not help us with the ocean view room, but I could not complain, as our room was perfect. We quickly put on bathing suits and headed down to the lobby. We both needed to eat so we stopped into the restaurant and had lunch. I can’t say it was anything to write home about—it was average. I had the fish tacos. They offered mostly Mexican food, but you could order burgers if you wanted. 

By the time we hit the beach, the sun had come out a little, but it was chilly. We sat for a bit on the chairs out by the ocean, but then decided it would be warmer up by the pool. We found and nice cabana with a couch. I had the first beer of the weekend and watched the waves. The sunset slowly in the west and we then decided to head out to eat.

There were many tables set up in and around the lobby that looked as though they could be a wealth of information about the area. But I soon learned that some were set up just to get you to sign up for a timeshare. I was not wasting time with that. I thought that surely the bellman or porter could help us out with a restaurant suggestion. I made the mistake of asking one of the gentlemen outside about a restaurant. Now, don’t get me wrong; Juan Garcia was very friendly and helpful. But, he did everything he could to get me to sign up for a meeting. After giving him the wrong name and wrong room number, I was able to get away….and fall flat on my back.

My pain medicine is on his head!

Since it had been raining, the streets and sidewalks were wet. I was wearing my Crock sandals and one food slipped and took me down. Fortunately, all I really did was bruise my toe and my ego.  I thought for a few minutes I had broken my toe.  Luckily, the restaurant served margaritas and the pain was gone by the time I finished dinner. 

The restaurant we visited was called the MeXtreme and had seating outside by the street. The waiter was pleasant and cheerful and made some suggestions on the menu. I took his advice and ordered one of their specialties that included chorizo (YUM), beef, chicken, shrimp, and cactus! I do not know what type of cactus it was, but it was very tasty. It looked a lot like an aloe plant—but had a bulb on the end, and was tangy. It was also slimy when you bit into it, sort of like okra. It was a huge dish but I was determined to eat all of it. They served it with corn tortillas, which I did not care for, so I just ate it with a fork.

The green stuff is cactus

After dinner, we took a leisurely stroll back towards the hotel (checking out the pain in my toe—which was only a little sore) and found a convenience mart to buy some bottled water. We also adventured into the Cancun Mart where you can buy any type of souvenir you want—appropriate or not.  Obviously, spring break would not be far behind us.

At the hotel, I downed 2 Tylenol pm pills to dull any sort of pain in my foot from coming back and crashed. The next thing I knew, it was 10:30am.

The link below gives you a google Earth aireal view of our stay. I have to say, it was quite perfect.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cancun,+Mexico&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=21.132543,-86.74751&spn=0.012569,0.022724&sll=37.062497,-95.677068&sspn=42.089199,88.417969&oq=cancun&hnear=Canc%C3%BAn,+Quintana+Roo,+Mexico&t=f&z=16&ecpose=21.13274383,-86.74808533,1989.13,0.012,0,0

What's Next?

Hello Campers

It’s been several months since my last post. I was hoping to be on another Big Island Adventure by now, but Hawaii is elusive at this time. But don’t worry; I will defiantly get to see her come April–no matter what. Until then, I will have to put together a few more adventures.

The next one up is a short jaunt to Cancun, Mexico. I know it technically is not an island but trips down that way are cheaper these days. I’ll only be down there for two full days, but I plan to get in as much sunbathing as humanly possible. I am also looking into checking out some Mayan ruins—maybe Chichen Itza. 

Chichen Itza

I have also discovered a site out there call Globe Trooper that allows you to find traveling companions. Since I am on sabbatical from my job, and most others that I know are still working, I need someone to travel with for companionship and safety as well. I have a companion for Chichen Izsa but will need one for a few more adventures coming up. If you like to travel, click the link above. 

You can sign up–it’s free– and then look for trips or post one of your own. Perhaps the next several weeks will have me planning a trip. This makes me very happy.

Another website that is looking promising is Discovery Adventures. This one has trips already planned out, all you have to do is sign up. Now, generally I am not a big fan of guided tours. I would much rather go and explore things myself. However, since some of my travel may be by myself, I am thinking about safety– mainly in numbers. This looks pretty good plus I can get my own room if I want (at additional costs, of course). 

So the traveling will begin again soon. In the meantime I am checking out all of the traveling sites I can find in order to find the cheapest ways to get anywhere but here while I still have the time to do. But hopefully, if things go really well, I will have the time to travel for a really long time.

Chalkida

Luckily, arriving in Athens (or the port close to Athens) was much easier. We got in touch with Louis’ uncle and convince him to attach the trailer to the car because we have WAY too much stuff. He was easy to find in the crowd and so we loaded up his Subaru Forester with 5 adults and two kids and headed through town. Our plans were to drop by his uncle’s apartment, drop some of our stuff in their storage closet, and then all of us head up the mountain (about 2 hours up the road) to Chalkida. Louis’ aunt and uncle have a vacation house up in the hills and we were going to spend the weekend up there. We loaded up the cars and headed out about 8pm or so. It might have been later; the sun was setting. We drive for about an hour and stop in town to have souvlakia by the water. We then pile back in and head up further into the hills. I don’t remember much about the drive because I was in the back seat sleeping. I was exhausted and we still had to arrive, unload and get ready for bed.

Balcony at house in Chalkida

The house in Chalkida was Gorgeous! It was a beautiful 3-4 bedroom house overlooking the valley and the city of Chalkida. Thia Kandia said she chose this place because it reminded her of Kardiani. Thia Kandia was the best hostess, helping us put together beds and cots for the kids and ourselves. I took a shower, fell into bed and remember nothing.



The plan for the next day was to head down to the beach and play. Even though the house was up on the hill, it was only a 20 minute ride down. You got the coolness of the mountains up in the house, and the warm ocean waves of the beach down the hill. This place was PERFECT. As it turned out, Meghan needed to rest and so did the children, so they took a long afternoon nap. Thia Kandia wanted to go to the beach too, so she and I headed out together. It was an interesting and quiet afternoon. Thia Kandia speaks limited English and I speak pretty much no Greek. We sat on the beach, swam, napped and just waited for everyone else to arrive. About 3 hours later, they did.

The beach for the rest of the crew (i.e. children) proved to be a bit of an issue. You see, there is NO sand on this beach. It is all rock and pebble. If you have very tough feet, getting those 4-6 feet to the water is no big deal. But even I, who does not like to wear shoes, had to have on water shoes to make it without cringing. Perrin wanted to build a sand castle, but couldn’t. Lena could not move about freely. We had to get them both in water to keep them busy.

After about an hour of this, we begin packing up and heading back. Thia Kandia had made roasted chicken and potatoes for the night meal and dropped off the chicken at the bakery in the next village. The house electricity is run through a generator (for various reasons—and it’s cheaper) so they pay a baker to use their oven. Works out pretty well. We picked up the chicken on the way back to the house and had a lovely supper out on the back balcony under an umbrella. It was a great way to end a pretty good day.

The next morning, we were supposed to get up and go to church for communion services. It is tradition that after a baptism, the child, parents and God-parents attend communion. Everyone but me went. I elected to stay in bed and rest and no one seemed to object. However, when everyone came back, I was itching to get out of the house. We were supposed to meet Louis’ cousins down by the beach that afternoon, but our days do not often go as planned. Meghan and Lena and Rosemary all needed to rest, so they laid back down for a nap. Thia Kandia took Louis, Perrin and I back down to the beach. Across the road from the beach is a hotel with a swimming pool, and that is where Louis’ cousins had elected to squat. Once Perrin realized there was pool and no need to brave the rocks, he wanted to stay there and play. Thia Kandia and I both prefer the ocean, so we went back across the street. Three hours later, I was hungry and thirsty and I found everyone under the shelter at the hotel sipping frappe and playing backgammon. Perrin was still swimming with Ilias. They finished up their game and we all headed up the mountain to have supper together.

Georgia in the garden with her massive zucchini!

View of Chalkida and beaches from the balcony

We ate early that evening because we were planning to head back to Athens that night. Everyone else had to be at work Monday morning. Thia Kandia and her helpers (Louis and Kostas) put together the best stuffed tomatoes I have ever had in my life. After cleaning up the supper dishes we all agreed to pitch in and get the house back in order. We finally left the house after dark to brave the highways back to Athens. We checked back into the hotel we were in originally. Louis and Ilias went back to Louis’ uncle and aunt’s to pick up the remainder of our things. I had one full day left in Greece on Monday–time for one more small adventure.

Chalkida at night

Leaving is Hard. Getting on a Ferry is Harder.

On Friday, July 22 we left Tinos for the mainland. We were all sad to leave. I think Louis, Meghan and I would have stayed indefinitely if we could have. Alas, it was time to move on and explore other places in Greece.

We bought tickets for a 3:00pm ferry so that we would have plenty of time to get all of our stuff down to the docks and loaded on the ship. We had much more than we came with and this provided a problem. There were only 4 adults and one of them would have to take care of the children while the rest of us would go back and forth to get our stuff. We would even have to make two trips in the car to get our belongings down from Kardiani to the docks. Louis and I had a great plan: we would load the car with as much stuff as we could and take it down to a restaurant or café. I would sit in the café and read or write or watch people while I sat with all of the luggage. Then he would go back to Kardiani and get what was left plus everyone else. We would then take the stuff down to the docks.

Well, the car rental place had a better plan: leave your luggage here and we will ferry it down when you are ready. That was a PERFECT idea...except they did not realize how much stuff we had. Once they saw that there were about 12 pieces of luggage in the first round (we had 21 all together), they would not have room to do that. I helped Louis drop off the first round and then went into the village to shop and wait for him to come back. When he did arrive, I found him loading all of our stuff back into the rental car and heading down to a restaurant closer to the docks. He left Meghan and Lena with the luggage down there, came back to drop off the rental car, and the rest of us headed down on foot to meet her and have lunch.

Now we are at a restaurant about 100 yards from the docks. We figure that we must eat lunch and then Louis and I will make two trips to help carry all of our stuff down to the docks. I was thinking the sooner we did this, the better. But Louis insisted that we have plenty of time. There was no ferry in sight and we had at least an hour.

Louis was also thinking that the ferry would be in port for maybe 10-15 minutes. He (and we since we agreed with him) were very wrong. It works like this: you wait at the dock. The ferry comes in and lets down the ramp. People get on and off at the same time causing a large clusterf^*%. It all takes about 5 minutes. Panic ensues.

I did not take this pic, but its a good visual

Rosemary had Perrin and was trying to get everything she had on the ferry plus communicate to the ferry people that more of us were coming. Louis and I were almost running (it’s hard to do when you are loaded down) to the ferry with the second round. Meghan was in there somewhere but I cannot remember if she had Lena or she was helping us or both. It was a mess. Louis had the tickets and Rosemary, Meghan and the kids could not board the ferry without them. Meanwhile, he is trying to load all of the stuff on the ferry in a place where we can find it when we depart. It was mass chaos. All of us were freaking out in our own way. We almost did not make it off the island. Truthfully, this would not have been so bad if we had a place to stay :-)



Goofiness (That's my hat and sunglasses)

The boat ride back was pretty uneventful. We all sat down and relaxed glad to be safely aboard and on our way back to Athens. Louis bought me a large beer, which I guzzled. We took some pictures, ate some snacks, watched Lena sleep, and enjoyed the ocean air. Four hours later, we experience the rush again as we try to get all of the stuff off of the boat and find Louis’ uncle at the same time.

So Long, Tinos (sigh)