Mark & Paula's World Tour

….A Trip of a Lifetime!

2008-04-14T22:43:00.001-07:00

39 flights
55,000 air miles
1 upgrade
2 lost baggage incidents
1 airport riot
8 crossings of the Equator
5200 road km's
3800 road km's on the left side
1 pedestrian clipped (well, brushed really)
2 vehicle dings
2 photo radar tickets
2 surfboards (sold one/bought one)
4 ASP International Surf Tour waves surfed
1 broken fin
1 replacement credit card
2 I-Pods
2 cameras
859 MB's of pictures/video clips
10 books & countless magazines
3 colds
20 countries visited
9 countries surfed
3 Oceans & 7 Seas touched
42 stamps & 5 visas in passport

= One Lifetime of Memories!

We want to thank all our friends and family for following along on our adventure! It has been great to hear all the feedback and e-mails from everyone as you followed along for one stop or the whole journey. The blog has been a great way for us to keep a journal and help remember all those little things that could have easily been lost in the memory banks through this whirlwind tour.

Words can't even begin to describe what we have experienced. We are closer as a couple than ever and so fulfilled in being able to have touched so many different cultures and people in our travels. Life for both of us will never be the same as we both come home looking to re-establish our careers and business with an entirely new outlook and a much better understanding of what is really important to us. Although we won't be blogging on the next steps of our lives – we hope to all see you soon and share a story and catch up on all the updates in your lives.

Our parting advice to all – life is short, get out and see as much of this amazing world you can! The great explorers of history set out with missions to find treasures, discover new lands, expand territory and spread cultural beliefs of their homelands…unfortunately their missions also created a history of malevolent plundering, conquering and suppression, but we are now fortunate enough to live in a time that recognizes some of the wrongs and can truly appreciate these cultures that are now being preserved so that we may all have the chance to go on our own journeys of discovery. Our wanderlust has only been temporarily satiated and we know we will continue a lifetime of exploration as we are so compelled and fulfilled by the spirit of launching out to new lands and oceans for own small discoveries.

We hope to see you all soon and now that the weather is getting better we'll start planning for the backyard bbq's so we can catch up, share photo's and trade some travel stories.

Isa Lei Fiji

2008-04-13T00:21:00.001-07:00

The finale of our trip has been three memorable days at the Matanivusi Eco-Resort located on the south shores of Vitu Levi (see panorama picture of the coast line below). The resort, just opened last year, caters to surfers and divers and is run by an Australian couple who were able to secure land rights to an amazing secluded stretch of the coast line through a long term agreement with a local village who hold the land and fishing rights to the area. This gives them exclusive access for their guests to the nearby reefs for surfing and diving, similar to Tavarua and Namotu, but they have built a much more modern style of accommodations with 6 guest houses all connected by an elevated wooden walkway that leads to a central dining room, huge patio and beachside pool. We loved the set up with the small group of guests (one family and a few other surfers) which allowed incredible personal service from the staff and owners. Mark focused on surfing and Paula and the girls spent days doing exploring the area with guidance from a local villager. He took them along a road and cut down into a trail through the trees where he explained how they make use of the naturally growing plants for medicinal purposes, and how they grow their food in the middle of the jungle, with a small garden of taro, bananas and pumpkins growing together. He explained how they use the sea grass that washes up on the shore for fertilizer and pest control, and how they also utilize naturally growing coconuts and sugar cane. He then found a coconut and used his bushknife to quickly chop it open and scoop out some coconut meat for us to chew on. Then he disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a sugar cane stalk that he cut up so the kids could chew on the sweet, fibrous stalk – what a treat! With the giant lagoon formed by the reef, the area was ideal for sea kayaking, and some great sea life could be seen while snorkeling along the outer reef. The beauty of the area seems endless.

The resident pet was a dog named Mercedes – Sadie for short, a very sweet German Shepherd who had a face so much like our LuLu that we adopted her as our surrogate pet for our short stay. The resort owners, Brian and Donna, were very fortunate to secure this remote stretch that had a pre-existing road-base filled in for a planned resort in the 1940's that was never built. Matanivusi means "Cat's Eye" and named after the smooth rounded shells that the hermit crabs use to cap the small opening of the shells they live in.

As we prepared to load the van today to wind up our final day of this amazing trip, the staff all gathered today to sing us a song called "Isa Lei" – a heartfelt farewell song Fijians sing to those that are leaving, wishing them safe travels and the love of their village until they meet again. Very touching and a great send off for us to remember how genuinely warm the Fijians are.

We are on the plane to Auckland now where we board our final flight back to Vancouver. "Home" is a place we have not seen since December! We will work on a few final parting words to the journey on our next flight.

SURF REPORT: The set up is really good, with access to three local breaks, two of the rights are private for us only and a fast left called Pipes that also allows access to one other camp. They also go to Frigates Pass, which is a lot like Cloudbreak (Brian has a really good Australian beach boat with twin 200's – so it only takes 20 minutes out) but due to the winds and squalls, we didn't make it out. We ended up doing all our surfing at Pipes – a fast roping left break only surfable on mid to high tides. The best session had sets a couple feet over head and if you didn't make the section there was some serious punch to the pounding and the long paddle back around. If you made the wave you were flying and would scream out into the corner of the reef into about 2 feet of water and have a nice dry paddle back out to the line-up. Couple pictures – one showing a good size set wave that no one was able to get to and then one fun corner one of the guys was able to snap a picture of me on a little zipper of a wave. Matanivusi is a great way to round out a trip to Tavarua and more flexible for surf access and smaller groups.

Bula from Tavarua!

2008-04-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

We are back in Fiji for our third annual trip to the small island of Tavarua where they operate one of the world’s best surf resorts. The island was discovered for its amazing surf in the 80’s by some surfers from Hawaii seeking perfect waves and they found the reefs around Tavarua offered that consistent perfection and quickly met with the local villagers who controlled the rights to the island and reefs via their ancient Qoliqoli (fishing rights to the region), so they then established a long term business so both the village and they could be prosperous. Twenty plus years later they have built out an amazing resort with 15 private bures and a central restaurant, beachside deck, pool along with tennis courts, gym and games room. The island hosts the annual World Championships Tour for surfing each May and is fully booked year round by private groups in the surf industry (we were lucky enough to get in on a trip two years ago and are holding onto our seats!). Surfing is the focus for most, but there is lot’s to do otherwise with great snorkeling, paddling, fishing, reef walking (see picture of our trip doctor, Brian Doonan, at extreme low tide at "Restaurants Reef") and touring surrounding islands. The island is staffed by the local villagers (exception is the managers and lifeguards) from Nabila & Momi villages and are the nicest happiest people we have ever encountered in our lives. Some stay on a small village on Tavarua and others commute daily about 15 minutes by boat to Vitu Levi (main island where their villages are). With the recent coup that now has a military dictatorship “temporarily” in power, there are travel warnings for Fiji and tourism has been is a nosedive for the traditional hotels and resorts, but these villages have sustained and are very healthy as the surfers have kept coming through all the instability (risk takers by nature!).
The group was 37 in size this year and mostly southern Californians, a couple Australians and us Canucks! Over three years of knowing many of them we have become good friends – great to have familiar faces on some of these stops of our trip. The transport coordination from plane to bus to boat to bure is a feat the villagers have dialed – see picture – most surfers come with 3 boards and some with as many as 10! Some notables on island too were Tom Servais (one of the world’s best surf photographer) who was shooting Timmy Reyes (on lelft in fishing picture - is ranked top 10 in the world on the WCT Surf tour – taking a week off for shooting and vacation with his girlfriend), Shane Dorian as guest lifeguard (Shane is former world tour competitor and now famed as surfing the biggest and gnarliest waves in the world….he actually left today for the big wave riding competition ceremony where he hopes to win $50,000 for one of the heavy waves he rode this winter. Robert Gerard, our trip leader (lawyer for the Association of Surf Professionals (ASP) and heavily involved with many major surf industry brands) has had a week on the island for 15 years now and is regarded very highly by the Fijians making this week a favourite for them to work.
On the first Sunday, Paula and our good friends Robert and Stacey, along with a few others from the group, took a day trip to Nabila village to their church service. An amazing service with singing and thanks to their travelling surfer friends with the villager kids very entertained with their funny looking visitors (see top photo). Although the invitation to church is extended to all visitors, most don’t take advantage, so when the few do attend they are appreciative and love to hear about us and where we’re from. The pastor offered us each the microphone to come up and introduce ourselves, talk about where we’re from and offer and words to the group. It was a treat to meet with so many villagers at once in their beautiful church on a hilltop surrounded by rolling green hills and palm trees and overlooking the ocean. When we had arrived by boat the pastor himself had met us at the landing with his little pickup truck, and he put the women in the cab and piled the men into the back and drove us to church, and after the service did the same back to the boat again. That probably doesn’t happen too often at other churches, so we felt pretty special!
The week was hampered with a little more wind and rain than normal. This made for very dramatic backdrops (see picture of Mark on a stand-up paddleboard with rainbow...and Mark with Robert having a shower "Au Natural" in a downpour) but unfortunately buggier too and our bure was across the island in the guest house of one of the owners so we had to traverse a jungle each morning and night - thank goodness for Deet! The island is also home to one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, nick-named the “ten step snake” as that’s as far as you get – fortunately they are non-aggressive and fairly elusive, so not a big concern, but they do come on land at night so we had to keep our flashlights handy for the walk in the dark.
A huge highlight of each week is “Fiji Night”, where the entire staff gathers for their weekly gathering and performance and they engage the guests with the song and dance that they love. The night begins with a ceremony where everyone has a drink of kava, which is a root that is mashed into a powder and put into a bowl of water that ends up looking and tasting like dirty sock water gives the locals a mild narcotic effect after several bowls. All is hosted by the village chief, Druku, who gives speeches in Fijian and English and is presented with gifts (more kava) by Robert, our trip leader, on our behalf. A Fijian feast is next and followed by some amazing song and dance by the villagers whose singing is so powerful and amazing. See the video below - this is the Bula Bula song (it's dark but the sound and energy hopefully still comes through).
The week was over way too fast and we have to say goodbye to our new and old friends (see picture of Robert Vince, originally from Vancouver but now produces movies for Disney and lives in Malibu, with his girlfriend Stacy and his son Tyler) and yet another place we have grown to love. We are onto our last three days of the adventure – now staying in Matanivusi Beach Eco Resort!
SURF REPORT: A rare north wind started the week and made for some bumpy conditions at their two most famous breaks: Cloudbreak and Restaurants. This wind though worked well for Tavarua Rights and we scored 3 great days of fun head high surf there. The SW trades came back later in the week and the swell went huge – 15 foot faces at Cloudbreak! The big day had Shane Dorian and Timmy Reyes put on a show for Tom Servais to shoot – but with a little too much west in some of the swells they had to pay heavily. Watch the mags in a couple months for shots for sure!. There were a lot of broken boards and heavy workings that day. Shane said to me describing a huge wipeout where he broke a board: “I got worked so hard….it was fun” – fun for him would have killed most of us! Timmy also came home with a broken board and some serious reef cuts. I retreated to Restaurants that day for surf that was 6-8 foot faces and pure magic – running fast and hard for 400meters. The next day I ventured out to Cloudbreak with a big lump in my throat and got out with one mission – play safe! Earlier in the week I had been taken out my a 10-footer that closed out in front of me (too slow!) and then ripped my leash right off my leg and left me in the impact zone for 3 waves 10-12ft where I had to swim to the bottom and hold the reef, push off grab a breath and repeat 2-X’s more. I swam for 20 minutes in a heavy current making no progress and the boatman finally picked me up…..so my mission was not to have that happen again! The word was it was smaller – but when we arrived we found the “clean up sets” were still pumping just as big but not as often as the day prior. It was a day full of the adrenaline and you had to paddle into the bombs with so much aggression and confidence. I ended up with a couple of the biggest waves of my life, faster than I have ever gone on a surfboard and on one wave I got deeper in a barrel than I have ever been. Unfortunately that perspective from that deep in a tube is so foreign to me I panicked and jumped off after about 5 seconds and not sure if I could make it out – but our boatman said I would have made it if I held on (maybe next year!).
The tavi trip ended today with a fun day with 6-8ft faces and after that heavy day, this was totally fun and playful. Surfing backside with a lot more confidence and speed has actually turned me into enjoying lefts now – a big breakthrough of this trip! I unfortunately don’t have any good pictures of the big stuff – and only a pic’s of the surf from the boat after I returned and a video of empty big waves. I hope to get some sent to me from others to show you Shane and Timmy’s action.

A New Zealand Adventure

2008-04-02T22:51:00.001-07:00

OK – we had to open the blog with a picture to clearly show where we are – so as cliché as it is, we are posting a field of sheep! We arrived in Auckland as their autumn weather season was taking a hold and we launched our camper-van tour of the North Island. We started off with a quick pit-stop in downtown Auckland to deal with a minor crisis: our camera battery charger stopped working. Our first impressions after driving around and seeing New Zealand's biggest city was one very similar to Vancouver with a bay city set with central access to all the outdoor action. An entire economy has exploded in the last 20 years focused on adventure tourism – with bungee madness leading the way – they even built a giant bungee off the landmark Auckland tower! With access to wild rivers, mountains, caves and the ocean, and exploring them via every possible means it really does feel like BC but more condensed…like a sub-tropical Vancouver Island. The downtown Auckland scene is very international, loaded with travelling backpackers and trekkers with hostels, pubs and stores catering to all of them. A cool hip vibe emanates the streets and with a dress-code of urban casual cool crossed with an edge of outdoor…again kind like Vancouver or Portland. A fun urban observation (unique to anywhere we have been so far) is how they manage their major downtown pedestrian crossings – instead of the pedestrian crossing along with traffic, they instead have all lights go red and have a pedestrian "free-for all", as we call it. People not only follow the "box" directional of the cross walks – but you can also cross in an "X" pattern too. It works very well!
After a few tips from a local surf shop, we headed out for the west coast and a small beach town of Muriwai where Mark snuck in a late day surf and we then settled into our cozy campervan for a restful night listening to the ocean waves. We awoke to cloudy and worsening weather so we decided to venture way north to Cape Reigna (Maori legend holds this as the leaping off point for all spirits). We found a small town of Anipara and camped at Shipwreck's beach, which is the start of 90 Mile beach which runs up to the cape. We awoke to more rain and no waves and explored the remnants of the old shipwreck (see pic – all that is left is the old prop drive). With the bleak weather and a better weather/surf forecast in the south, we hit the road again driving for 8 hours through the incredible green endless rolling hills on Highway 1 that actually tours you through both the East and West coasts along its' route. The common scenery throughout our entire drive-time was all the farmland. The only land that wasn't home to either sheep, cows or horses were the small towns along the way – and some of them had livestock right in town as well! With rolling hills everywhere, it's amusing to see sheep perched precariously on terraced hillsides steep enough to produce a bad fall should one slip, and cows lined up on ridges barely wide enough to stand on, happily chewing away.

We arrived at our soon-to-be favourite stop in New Zealand: Raglan, a small old fishing village that has become a surf Mecca for the island. It is very similar to Byron Bay in Australia, but on a much cozier and smaller scale with just one main street of shops, cafes and restaurants. In hindsight, we would have spent a few more days there as it offered lots of activity – biking, hiking, surf, paddling, golf and more. The weather broke (still cool though – low 20's), the swell picked up (see Mark's surf report) and we had a nice end to our 6 days in NZ.

We are on the plane to Fiji to meet up with a group we have been going with for the last several years and will be staying on the small island of Tavarua (http://www.tavarua.com/) for our final tropical blast before heading home!
SURF REPORT: NZ surf has a lot of options with both an East and West coast exposed to great swell – unfortunately they require a lot of driving to explore. I picked up a great guide book (if anyone is going to NZ – you can borrow it as it is the best I have ever seen) and tuned into their best forecast site (http://www.surf2surf.com/). We arrived with a solid 6-8ft swell in the water for the West Coast and the set up of New Zealand's west coast is a little like a mirror to Australia's east coast. Big headlands with North facing protected bays provided the setting for world class left point breaks. My first surf was as close to Auckland as possible as daylight was burning, so we headed for Maori Bay that the guide book described as "heavy" and "be ready to take a few on the head". The paddle was very heavy with 10-minutes of grinding to get out and the surf was tough with very shifty peaks and big clean-out sets coming through every 10 minutes…all made for one rugged surf (see picture of bay). Water was still warm – I trunked it with a neoprene vest – but shortie is the call (about 20degrees C or 70deg F). The North tip of the island holds a world-class left called Shipwrecks – but turned dead flat so missed seeing this one. With a 2m forecast for Raglan – that was the target and we were not disappointed. Raglan has an amazing set up with a series of breaks along the bay (Indicators, Whale Bay and Manu Bay) as well as the beach section where the surf club is. This spreads the crowd out very nicely. I surfed at Manu Bay – you park right beside the break and it is a very fun 400m+ wave. The swell was building through the day and got better and better with up to 2 foot overhead on the biggest set waves. I surfed until I couldn't paddle the long haul out anymore after each long ride (see picture and you ride the wave wrapping around the point all the way to the beach just above the boat ramp). I captured two video clips to show the setup – 1^st is Manu Bay (in the morning as it started to pick up) and the 2^nd is of Indicators through Whale Bay that are above Manu . And – they have a golf course there too! It's a must go spot on the surfers world tour list!!

The Amazing Frontier World of Papua New Guinea

2008-03-28T18:11:00.001-07:00

Flying into Papua New Guinea ("PNG") was perhaps our most exhilarating feeling of the "unknown" of the entire trip so far. We choose PNG to really see what this remote end of the earth would be like. A little background (in case you're like us and know very little): PNG was under Australian rule until '75 and further back a variety of island colonizations leave history over much of this island chain all focused on extracting the vast resources of the area – gold, copper, forestry, fish, palm oil, cocoa etc. Our destination was a small village called Dalom, 200kms from a small airport in Kavieng on PNG's northern most island of New Ireland province. On the way up we had to do a lay-over in PNG's capital, Port Moresby, which is a city built to support the extraction of the resources and harbours a large ex-pat community. There are massive corruption problems due to a corrupt government and then an even bigger crime problem from the large disparity of wealth around the haves and have-nots created from the dealings with the international markets. Our hotel was a highly secure compound overlooking the airport and due to safety concerns we were advised to not even leave the hotel. The highlands of PNG's main island have become a lawless landscape of gun-runners, drug lords and a bushland gang culture lead by a group called the "rascals" who permeate into the cities as well. Everyone caries weapons – guns or at the least large bushknifes that are often used for things other than clearing bush. Getting to New Ireland where it is mainly plantation workers and village subsistence living changes the tone and outlook to the more passive S. Pacific lifestyle we had hoped to find. Our 3 hour drive to Dalom in the back of the truck was filled with endless waiving to the small villagers – very friendly and welcoming. Dalom is a village of perhaps 100 people built along 2km's of beach front with a village guest house which we stayed in. A family originally from Hawaii discovered the area years back when they lived in Moresby and headed to Dalom for family surf get-aways. They then struck a business deal to start bringing other surfers to the guest house. We turned out to be the last guests they would manage at Dalom as they recently secured land another 30kms down the road and are building their own guest huts at another great break that will open next year. It is a working palm and cocoa plantation which the family is already experienced with. We had fresh chocolate each night and a great lesson on how chocolate is made. (see pic of cocoa fruit with fleshy white fruit covering the pods inside). The setting at Dalom is so pristine with our guest house built on the shore of a 1km long river that appears at the base of a mountain behind the village. The large limestone formations allow the rainforest's water up in the mountains to drain and percolate through the rocks and appear randomly along the entire coastline – each river providing the basis for another village along the coast. We had a blast hiking up to the source of the river and jumping in on boogie boards to ride the river out to the ocean. It also supplies the villagers with drinking water, a bathing zone, laundry area and play area for the village – always someone hanging out and very curious about us (especially funny when the village kids mimicked Paula's yoga poses from across the river!).

The people are very friendly with strong family village structure. Interestingly in New Ireland, only women can own land, therfore retaining a great deal of power. Also striking is many have a unique look you wouldn't expect – black skinned but with blond hair! (see picture of local village kids). All seem very happy and content living off the land in the purist simplest lifestyle (note that there was one tribe discovered in the 1980's in PNGs mountains that had never seen a westerner – and there was cannibalism practiced as late as the '70's and still a law on the books for this!). The men all carry bush knives to clear the paths that overgrow constantly in the plantations (and used to solve disputes - ask Mark about the graphic bush-knife incident one of the guys he was surfing with took in at the Kavieng hostpital) and most are addicted to chewing a local stimulant, betel nut, which they mix with lime and a local mustard stick that turns their entire mouth bright red. It looks like a mouth full of blood with rotting teeth - not that pretty, but common to almost every age group and gender. Travelling through the islands was also different – planes are more like buses. No boarding passes, minimal security, unscheduled stops enroute not on our itinerary, and the locals travelling with anything and everything. (see picture of Taro Route on the luggage carousel!)

Our week was very slow, peaceful and eye opening to be able to watch how people who have only been brushed by western ways live their lives day to day. It was almost shocking to leave our hut in the morning and be in a hotel in Brisbane that night! Today we are off to New Zealand for the second to last stop on the epic journey – back to life in a campervan touring the North Island.

SURF REPORT: PNG has developed a great program to ensure long term uncrowded surf travel is developed. The boat tour operators and the land camps have banded together to set a quota program to be able to surf on the islands regions (no region has over 20 quota for any one period). I was actually trying to get to go to Nusa Island retreat for this trip – but could not get in on the quota due to the holiday and Dalom was the recommended option. Nusa is a more upscale full service setting with boats to take you to a variety of breaks – see picture of the island from the air and the amazing right point called Pikanini. This was the end of the N. Swell season in PNG but I did have waves every day in the waist to slightly overhead size range. I arrived to find a group of local expats staying for the Easter weekend and was fortunate to be able to get to ride along for a venture down the coast to a great left hander called Pitakin – apparently I was about the 12^th guy to ever surf there and that was after the 6 of them!?!? See the panorama shot of the set up off a cool rock point – where the locals were so enthralled seeing surfers they sat for hours watching every wave and hooted and cheered every time we rode a wave close to the point. The rest of the week I was totally solo, except a couple locals who have been learning to surf on donated boards (alls surfers pay reef fees that go to building local surfing clubs with boards and coaching). Shane, who leads the surf resort business for Dalom, had an unfortunate personal tragedy with his wife losing a baby and therefore I was left without transport – or boat to access the amazing surf at offshore islands 30min's offshore. His family has bought a new plantation and building a new resort ready for next year: http://www.newirelandsurf.com/ - that could be really good. I was left to surf on the Dalom Reef that is right off the end of the river's sandbar. Normally the waves break down the reef and peel really well – but the swell all week was a little too North and made it behave a little more like a shifty beach break (see pic of me on average wave) but on a very shallow reef that I felt lucky to not leave with any scars. Lots of good waves to be had – but not the long reef break waves of Bali, Tavarua I was dreaming of. Lots of sea life too – I constantly saw barracudas, tunas, sharks, dolphins, turtles, flying fish cruising the reef – nature at its best!

The Gold & Sunshine Coasts of Australia

2008-03-21T22:44:00.001-07:00

The Australian road show continued north along the #1 highway of this continent's East Coast. We found it amazing how strong an influence the water is on the everyday life of Australians – they truly worship their water sport heroes and tend to focus all their recreation on water activities (Aussie Rules Football definitely is like the NHL in Canada too!). We have experienced some of the same type of water-based lifestyles in Hawaii, California and other beach towns that have bred some of the great "watermen" – but here in Australia it goes to another level with swimmers and surfers making front page news. The Bell's Beach ASP World Cup Surf event is on down in Melbourne this week and all the buzz was on the TV and newspapers that Kelly Slater saw the forecast for a big swell and was now a late entry for the contest. Each town we stopped in has a huge surf club set on the beach which is also the center of their recreational and social lives. Where kids are left on their own or within peer groups to learn ocean activities in other regions, in Australia they are taught from an early age within this surf-club structure the ways of the ocean. The result is a much more rounded water culture and a much stronger respect for the general rules of surfing. The "surf punk" of California or the tough guy local surfers of Hawaii are attitudes you do not see here – even though the surf breaks are equally as crowded. Generally we experienced good people with great attitudes living wonderful healthy lifestyles.

We focused our trip north from Seal Rocks (see below) to three main areas that really captured the soul of the Australian water sport culture. All are towns built around big headlands with bays facing north. This shelters them from the prevailing South Easterly winds and also grooms the swells that run up the coast and wrap into these bays making some of the best surf breaks in the world (very similar to the south facing bays of California and Baja that we all love to surf at):

Byron Bay/Lennox Heads: In the north end of New South Wales we rolled into a famous surf break called Lennox Head and found a camp site set between a lake and the ocean. The lake is mentioned as it is a very unique "tea-tree" lake that has the leaves of tea-trees all around it fall off and stain the water dark. We swam in the lake and it was very spooky – you can not see your feet in knee deep water and when you dive in and open your eyes 6 feet under it is pitch black and only a faint light from above when you look up. It is apparently very healthy for your skin & hair and the locals all love to take daily dips. The Surf at Lennox was unfortunately blown out with on-shore winds and relegated us to a Yoga session on a beautiful desolate headland point – but the pictures in the local shops and cafés showed that this is one of the true great point breaks of the world. Lennox lies just 15 minutes from Byron Bay and we ventured north with one pit stop to visit a friend we met on our trip to Bali, Sva, and his partner Christa. They live on a great spread of land set at the end of a dirt road and along a water cannel that leads to the ocean, surrounded by a forest with amazing birds, pet donkeys and roaming Wallabies. They are ex-pat Canadians and have fallen in love with the lifestyle and culture around Byron Bay. Sva directed us to a Clark Beach Campervan Park, which could not have been in a more ideal setting – right on the beach and in the main part of the bay where all the surfing action takes place. The headland of Byron is the most Easterly point on the continent (see pic.) and the town of Byron is a lot like Paia in Maui, where a strong hippie and surf contingent found this beautiful spot and settled here in the 60's and 70's. As they matured and mellowed, the town has developed but without many chain stores. Lots of backpackers, travelling surfers and the drumming hippies still around that combined with the tourists making it a fun place to hang out. One of the regular sites on our caravan trip are vans rented by a company called Wicked Travel – which had offices and a big hub office in Byron. The vans they rent all have very colorful paintings and graffiti that is both thought provoking and somewhat brash and definitely catches your attention (see pic – a more tame example). The surf at the bay has many options – from beach break along the main section to mushy beginner peelers over shallow sand bars in the bay, long boarding point break fun off "the pass" and ripping fast long waves off Wategoes at the top of the headland (and where all the rich n famous vacation – Elle and Mick are regulars!) and then on the South of the headland is yet another long deserted beach that works when the SE winds are not blowing (See the panorama picture taken from the lookout over "the pass" that shows the entire view looking 180-degress from South to North – Watagoe Beach down through Byron Beach).

Coolungata was the next stop - located right on the border where you enter Queensland and the famous Gold Coast, where things start to get bigger and busier. This is home to the famed surf breaks Snapper Rocks, Super-Bank, D-Bah and Kirra. The ASP Surf Tour contest was here just two weeks ago and even on a blown out not so good day, you can see the amazing set up this huge point is for surfing. Like Byron Bay, there are about 10 choices within 1km to surf. Mark went right for the main point and jumped in with a pack of about 100 surfers – saying he has never seen a congregation of that many good surfers in one place in his life. He ended up working his way down about 5 different sections of surf over a couple hours. Check out the video that shows the set up around the Snapper Rock point: Note that Mark identifies the buildings way in the background as Brisbane – but they turned out to be Surfers Paradise, which we drove in and out of as quick as possible (over developed and very touristy – like Waikiki or Miami).
Noosa at the top of the Sunshine Coast was the next stop. We ran straight into Easter weekend traffic leaving Brisbane heading North to the beach – kind of like the rush to the Okanagan on a summer holiday weekend, with us stuck in a 3 lane highway that ground to a dead stop. We diverted to surface roads and got to drive by Steve Irwin's famous zoo on the way – but too late in the day to stop. Arriving into Noosa, we instantly found its appeal with a long strip of great restaurants, shops and nice accommodation. We awoke at our caravan park at 6am on Good Friday to get a head start on the beach crowd, but when we arrived at the main lot it was already full by 7am! Another example of the active, water-loving culture they live by. Noosa had the biggest mix of water based activities in one place we have seen so far. Paddle boards of all types – prone, sit, stand-up, surfboards of every type and size, boogie boarders, lessons, long distance swimmers and a massive Noosa Surf Club house anchoring most of the action along with the biggest contingent of life guard's you have seen outside of a Baywatch episode! The holiday made the surf crazy crowded – but great to see the set up of the famous Noosa longbord wave (we saw one guy on a standup board with his dog catch about 10 waves – see picture and on the farthest wave out - the puppy was fully gripping the nose hanging 10!) and further up to a series of great right hand point breaks that are all great world class waves. Noosa is a little more glitz and high end than Byron but with an even broader water sport lifestyle it is very appealing – somewhere we both agreed would by an amazing place to live (their record all time low is only 11C and average cold days are 21C!!).
The Campervan was a great way to see the east coast and really touch into the varied communities of the region. The coast has endless caravan parks with fantastic locations. One surprise to us was the high cost of living in Australia – especially food costs! A basic meal for two at an average bistro costs about $50-$60 w/o drinks – needless to say we used the campervan kitchen facility as much as possible. We are off to Papua New Guinea today for a week at the "Dalom Surf Retreat" – about 3 hours from the small port of Kavieng which is on a small northern island of PNG. The most remote location of our entire trip and we will be staying in a village guest house where we will have access to 100's of spots to dive, swim, surf and explore in what is known "the final frontier" of remote terrain on this planet.

Road Trippin’ in Oz

2008-03-16T04:06:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Sydney after a long red-eye flight from Bangkok (had to backtrack due to our world ticket we are on) and hopped into our new home on wheels – a campervan! Complete with bathroom-shower, mini-kitchen and a big bed, this big beast feels like driving a one-tonne truck but is great to be able to be able to pull over and call it a night where ever we venture to – but city parking is not an option!! We ventured to Cronulla beach, South of Sydney, on the first afternoon and it was very cool to drop right into a classic beach town with the centre of attention being their surf club. A huge modern clubhouse sits right on the beach with storage for every type of watercraft imaginable underneath including paddleboards of all types, surfboards and the big boats the lifeguards row with oars and use for competitions going out through the surf. After an early dinner we decided to make our way to the north beaches of the area where we found a really nice caravan park right on Narrabeen beach – another great beach town that has built amazing swimming pools right into the tidal pools off the headlands of the beach (click on panorama pic.).

We ventured out to take in the sites of Sydney the next day but as driving the rig downtown was not an option, we went to Manley Beach and took the ferry down to the Circular Quay that is right next to the famed Sydney Opera House. It was the perfect way to take in the city and the action in the harbour on a Saturday was so amazing to watch – from layers of sailboats racing, tall ship cruises, jet boat tours – it was 10x's as busy as any day in the Vancouver Harbour. Back to Manley and an afternoon body surfing and cruising this upscale beach town finished off the day nicely before we put in about 3 hours on the road heading north to get as close as we could make it to Seal Rocks.

Today we awoke early in a small caravan park on the #1 highway at the turnoff to Seal Rocks and ventured down the road to where it turned to gravel and took us to a spot called Treachery Beach. Sounds ominous but is a beautiful stretch of beach way off the beaten path that Mark was tipped off to as a great spot for surf and a spectacular setting. Headlands of uplifted sandstone form great caves and natural pools for swimming and exploring on each end of this mile plus long beach. The water was the clearest we have seen anywhere, even with the sandy bottom. Some surf, sun and swimming took us to early afternoon where we then ventured another few hundred km's north to Emerald Beach where we finally saw our first wild Kangaroos! Tomorrow AM we will hit the road to Queensland and Lennox Head & Byron Bay on the Gold Coast. Before we leave on Friday from Brisbane, we will be hitting Noosa on the sunshine coast as well. Stay tuned for more Aussie updates!

SURF REPORT: After big fun surf of Bali, the small waves of Australia are not that inspiring so I actually didn't surf until this morning at Treachery Beach (see pic of the setting). Super glassy knee to shoulder waves but the crowds made it a little tough. It was good to rest the sore shoulder I have from a rotator cuff tear I had in Peru and take it easy until some bigger waves come! Hopefully I will get to see Snapper Rocks in its full glory! I am still waking up with flashbacks to the big hairy lefts from Uluwatu though.

Beautiful Blissful Bali

2008-03-13T08:00:00.001-07:00

Leaving Bali today was tougher than anywhere we have left so far. Staying in such an amazing place (http://www.desaseni.com/ – and see description/pic's below) with a great group of people made this stop of the tour really feel like home. We totally unpacked for the first time and really settled into a great routine of yoga, surfing, exploring, cultural events and great food. A highlight was our final night where the whole group went to the Uluwatu Temple that was built in the 1530's. The temple is on the southern most point of Bali, set on high cliffs overlooking the ocean and the most amazing sunsets. The famous Uluwatu surf break is right below – the biggest and heaviest wave in all of Bali (Mark and Chuck surfed there prior to the evening temple activities). The grounds are weaving through gardens which are overrun with rather aggressive monkeys – not the first time we've seen this, but Mark still got too close to a big male that went after him with his teeth fully bared and after a quick chase he got away unscathed and a little smarter about getting too close to them.

Each night at sunset, the local village puts on a Kecuk (ka-chuk) performance which is a dance and show highlighting the great legendary story of Rama and Sita and the battle to rescue her. The show is anchored by a choir of 70 men who for an hour sing in a trance-like state "kachuck, kachuck, kachuck, kachuck…." endlessly with a variety of tones and variations that make a harmonious rhythmical background to the performers dressed in elaborate costumes. The highlight is "Hanoman" – the white monkey – who is the hero and escapes from a certain fiery death. The combination of setting and performance made it quite the mystical Balinese night (click on the panorama picture at the top to get a bit of the feel of the setting).

After the Uluwatu temple we went to Jimbaron beach for a great seafood dinner with the whole gang. It was a great way to finish off the trip on our final night and we know we have met some great new friends we will see again soon. In fact, Sva, a Canadian now living in Byron Bay, Australia will be seeing us in a week and showing us some of the sights there, in fact we're are on the plane to Australia right now! We have a camper van waiting for us in Sydney that we will be driving up the entire east coast of Australia over the next 9 days.

SURF REPORT: Paula finally got in the water at Kuta where the rest of the gang took lessons with the Rip Curl surf-school (the best surf school program we have ever seen) – problem was that they teach in the reform white water from the 10 foot crashing huge close out waves. It all works good with instructors holding boards and only playing in waist to knee deep water – but for Paula trying to practice at the next level there was a crazy rip running down the beach and the white water was way too strong. Unfortunately there isn't much for learning surfers after their first couple days as all the breaks seem to be pretty heavy requiring some experience. I spent the last week surfing all over the island with Eion, Chuck and the odd tag along from the group who unfortunately were not as experienced and were lashed with some serous beatings. I raved about Sanur in the last update – and a few other highlights. Keramas is a throwing fast wave breaking off a beautiful black sand beach on the east coast. Saw lots of barrels and some incredible surfing by the local crew as they warm up for a contest at this break next month. See picture of me - we were all running out in front of the barrel section but had a lot of fast fun waves! We also took a boat trip to Nusa Lambongin one day with about 10 of us from our group – snorkeling and surfing were the ticket for all and we anchored in the channel between two breaks. Unfortunately this break is very overrun with Japanese surfers who behave like they are in downtown Tokyo which makes for tough surfing. It was a great day trip though and some OK surf at a wave called "Lacerations" but unfortunately the big famous wave 1km away is Shipwrecks but we couldn't make it work to go down there with the group as we needed to be anchored central to the snorkeling and the intermediate surfing break called Playgrounds.

Saving the best for last and a highlight of my surfing career I will never forget – Uluwatu! Eoin unfortunately had a bad cold and it was just Chuck and I who ventured there. We timed it to arrive at high tide so we could feel it out this heavy reef break in safer conditions. The walk down the long stairway down a rocky canyon leads to a mishmash village set on a rocky outcrop overlooking the three breaks of Uluwatu. It is such an eclectic mix of Indo Surf culture with warangs (food/drink/storage), surf shops, board repair huts and even some sketchy looking hostels that is so totally steeped in surfing history you feel you are walking on surfing's sacred ground. We scoped out the waves and the tricky cave launch to get our confidence and game plan. The launch is down a steep staircase into the cave that you paddle out of – and at high tide you feel like you are in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride but hoping you don't get pushed into the rocky walls as the waves smack through and rebound wall to wall up to the back of the cave. We chose to go out top to "Temples" – named after the Uluwatu temple that sits high on the cliffs above – and is about 800m away but you have to paddle the long route to avoid been taken down with big waves at the middle break "race tracks" and takes about 15 minutes. We were both very nervous but by taking in some big sets from the shoulder we slowly built our confidence to join the other few guys who were out then at Temples. My first wave was about 2-3 ft overhead and I was screaming down the line backside, shades of Cloudbreak in Fiji, but I made it through the drop and the really fast first section to a fun long section. This turned out to be my first of about a dozen 200-300m long waves. We had about 1.5 hours with just Chuck, a guy from Florida and I out as the wave got better and better as the tide dropped. I watched the best barrel ride of the trip when the guy from Florida took a nice wave that held him inside for at least 8 seconds. About every ½ hour a set of bombs would come through that send us scurrying. 12-15 foot faces and no one able to get into them - very scary and hard paddles to just try to stay safe. The scare of the day went to Chuck, who dropped into a serious throwing wave with a great hoot and backside rail grab that unfortunately led him into a close out section, big slam and a broken leash. He had to swim into a beach that was nowhere near the launch – and on the following waves as he actually held onto the reef trying to avoid being dragged over the shallows and then lost his contact lenses!?!? The Balinese lifegaurds had whistles and flags and tried to direct him from the cliff – but without his contacts in he couldn't make out their gestures and one guy that was out with us directed him where to swim to nearest safety. The local board repair guy scampered down and rescued the board – knowing he would have a new customer (broken fin plug and some good rock punctures). Chuck fortunately made it in safely and I stayed out for a while as Temples got more and more sectioned up with the low tide and after a few drops into close-out on the head, I paddled over to Race Tracks that was now full of 40 surfers. I managed to picked off a mid size wave that took me right to where I could drop down and belly whomp into the mouth of the cave – just barely clearing reef 6 inches of water as the low tide was on. 10 minutes after I was out the reef was fully exposed and you would have to reef walk in/out. It is one of the most amazing surf days of my life!

Nyepi in Bali

2008-03-07T05:02:00.001-08:00

We arrived in Bali and one of the most amazing resorts we have ever stayed at – Desa Seni (click on picture above for a bigger version of the panorama of the village). Our friends Eoin and Insiya have picked this resort for a Yoga Ecology Surf (YES) retreat they organize at various places around the world and we were fortunately able to time our trip to meet up with them (check out http://www.eoinfinnyoga.com/). The resort is built like a traditional Indonesian village with historical huts sourced from Bali and the surrounding islands and brought back here to Cungga Beach where each hut was reconstructed with all the modern amenities but while preserving the authentic look and feel. The owners have a very fine eye for art and design with the décor featuring incredible carvings, artifacts and pictures throughout each custom hut. The setting is then all tied together situated in the midst of acres of rice paddies about 800 meters from the beach. They have laid out the village with private access and walkways to each hut, a big central pool, eating room, yoga studio plus the landscaping throughout is amazing – not only the decorative plants but the gardens that all our fresh vegetables and fruit comes from for all our meals.

Today we find ourselves spending the entire day at the resort as we are forbidden to leave the grounds so that we can honour their local tradition of Nyepi – where nothing goes on, kind of like a super-Sabbath (the airport is even shut down and if you are caught out on the street the police will escort you home). Last night was a major festival that marks the end of their Hindu year and the end of the rainy season and they celebrate last night in a festival that is like a cross between Halloween and New Years Eve. Throughout the island each neighbourhood and village builds huge monsters out of paper maiche and parades them around the villages to scare the evil spirits away along with cymbals, gongs, drums, torches and Ogoh Ogoh (the demon who helps chase spirits). Then today is when everyone stays at home very quietly so that the evil spirits believe the island is uninhabited and pass over looking for a different place to dwell. At dark, no lights outside are allowed and we have to stay inside until 6am the next morning. It was a very interesting experience taking in the day and melding our vacation with their local culture.

SURF REPORT: I arrived to a solid swell and joined two surf buddies who are here in Bali for the retreat – Eoin who is leading the retreat and his friend Chuck, a designer from lululemon, both are here ahead of the retreat that starts Saturday to get some extra surf time in. On the first afternoon they took me out to Echo beach which is right behind Desa Seni and we had some large and lumpy surf with 6-8 ft faces breaking about 250m offshore which also connected to the inside section on a few waves – fun but not the real indo surf experience. The next day we hired a driver and headed to Nusa Dua, which has an offshore reef that catches all open swell – but it was huge (triple overhead) and no one out so we followed a tip of a Keith's (friend from Jeffreys Bay) and headed to Sanur. It is the harbour where the boats that go to Nusa Lambook (a smaller island about 60 minutes by boat away – and good surf we are going to get to later this week!). Sanur has a great reef break 800m offshore and further down the island so the swell is tapered from the huge size at Nusa Dua and it turned out to be the real indo deal. We spent the last two days there with fun fast waves and bigger sets with 8ft+ faces. Lots of paddling as the current was strong and the long of the paddle haul in and out added to the burn on the shoulders – so the rest day today feels pretty good! The reef on low tide is totally exposed and the reef walk is a must to get in-out plus you have to make sure you are not greedy on the inside section of the fast waves! Waves are forecast solid 6ft all week long – so perfect fun size for us to explore and surf – stay tuned for more!

Of Buddhas and Kings

2008-03-04T04:00:00.001-08:00

We arrived in Bangkok from India at 5am and took a quick cat-nap at the hotel to recharge for making the most of our one day in Bangkok. We stayed at the Marriott Resort & Spa right on the bank of the main river that runs through Bangkok which made our sightseeing very easy as we used the river boats for our transport to the key sites of the city. We started off the day by booking a classic longboat that is like Bangkok's version of the Venetian gondoliers, but they have a big old outboard motor with a 10-foot long extension to the propeller that they wield around with amazing skill and precision. He took us through the tour of the canals on the west side of the main river which is the old capital of Thailand before they built Bangkok on the east-side of the River and the King declared it the new capital. Very interesting to see how the entire community is built around the transport and trade along the canal systems. We went through various stages of the canals, from industrial, to peasant ramshackle huts to very affluent homes – all with their own docks and riverboats for day-to-day access. Most interesting was the amount of kids swimming in the murky water that we would guess is not the cleanest of water but at every turn there was groups of kids having a great time playing and diving without a worry in the world. The boat ladies paddling their tourist trinkets, beer and bread to feed the swarming catfish were also great visuals.

After we rejoined the canal to the main river we stopped at the Temple of the Dawn, a classic old Buddhist temple that's main feature is a very tall and ornate central structure with stairs that take you up to the 30-40meter level where you get a great view of the temple grounds and across the river to the Grand Palace and the diverse and modern urban buildings of Bangkok all through the background. The stairs they built got progressively steeper, higher and shallower, and as we went up after a long night of travel we wanted to blast up to wake up our bodies again. Then coming down clinging to the railing reminded us of the arête you climb dropping into the Vale Blanche glacier at the top of the Agui du Midi in Chamonix! The quick hit of lactic acid left both our legs like jelly the rest of the day!!

Next stop was the Grand Palace, built in the mid 1700's by the first king of Thailand. The grounds contain both a huge temple as well as the royal palaces of that several of the kings have built for themselves over the years. The country is still a constitutional monarchy and the current King is highly regarded and profiled everywhere we went, but actually doesn't live at the Grand Palace any longer using it only for very special diplomatic functions or royal ceremonies. Buddhist protocol requires legs or shoulders not to be bared and to keep all tourists in accordance to this they actually give those arriving in shorts or tank-tops clothing to cover up with. We hired a guide and off we went in our very fashionable new garb (Paula's skirt was actually quite nice, but the shirts and pants were more like hospital scrubs). The main temple was built to worship the "Emerald Buddha" (actually made of jade) which was carved several hundred years prior to the building of this temple (legend has it lightening struck rock and created the Buddha) and the King acquired it and build this temple to worship this cute little green god. All the grounds are amazingly decorated, ornate and detailed beyond imagination and the main temple itself with all its painted story lines giving us the feeling similar to that of being inside the Sistine Chapel. It was also very interesting to learn of the many parallels and overlaps with Hinduism of India and Buddhism of Thailand.

The day concluded with more exploring of Bangkok's diverse public transport first on the river-bus, then taxied to a mall (shopping for a new camera as ours died – hence no pictures until we develop the disposable camera film - except a couple we poached on-line from wikapedia), Skytrain back to the river and then the hotel shuttle boat back for a perfect outdoor Thai dinner on the wharf at the hotel. Bangkok is a huge city and a vast contrast for us coming from Mumbai as it has much more modern and highly developed systems, but still with a great feel of tradition, aesthetics and honor. We are now off to Bali and are looking forward to more of the peaceful and sincere nature we have been experiencing as we travel through these Asian countries.

How’s It Goan?

2008-03-02T07:32:00.001-08:00

Goa sits on the Arabian Sea on the south central coast of Western India and is filled with spectacular palm lined beaches and numerous small villages that offer accommodation for backpackers as well as many high end spa/hotels. We arrived into a 38C degree day and met the guy from a local tourism company for our car rental. After observing the craziest driving we have both ever seen in Bombay, we were hoping that getting around in the resort area would be a little more relaxed and laid back. The car was an old school 4-wheel drive with an air-conditioner that barely functioned…and the guy we paid cash to for the car told us that "if anyone asks, just tell them you are using a friend's car". A little sketchy but at this point we had no other arrangements and the hotel was about 45 min south, so we figured we went for it and hoped for the best. We loaded up and hit the roads which are definitely "rural" and the main road is a mix of pedestrian traffic, pull-carts, cows and bikes all shared with trucks, buses, scooters and cars. All good except that the road can't fit the first group with the second group, and add to the mix the varying speeds of the motorized vehicles and non-stop honking and you have the most intense driving experience you can imagine. Go too slow or don't pass a slower car because you think it is too dangerous…well then you are immediately being passed and honked at by a big truck that will be passing so slowly it will inevitably force you off the road. So when you build up the courage to jump out and pass someone, you see if you can then will the car to be narrow enough. And did we mention that Bombay was still scarier than this?

Back to the scene in Goa – it was renowned in the '70's as the great hangout of wayward musicians and Euro-hippies (kind of like the old days of Paia in Maui). Add a few decades, a ban on nude sunbathing and a few high end resorts you now have a scene like a lot of Mexico. Endless palm-frond huts line the beaches with restaurants and bars, many going 18 hours a day with breakfast, lunch, dinner and DJ or band and parties 'til late. Some areas North of where we stayed still have a pretty big youth scene and big beach disco/raves but we stayed in an area called Benaulim Beach where we were among the youngest people around. Nice lazy days on the beach that we filled with some long swims and beach runs before it got too hot. Great food everywhere and cheap! We explored a little to some towns called Margao and Colva – but didn't venture too far due to the nerve-wracking driving required to get anywhere. Mark wanted to hit a great golf course just 40kms south – but that drive is at least 1 hour they told us and the road further south is "not so good". It was a nice place for a quick beach visit after the big city scene of Mumbai. Unfortunately our camera died on the first night – so we are hoping to find a new one in Bangkok.

Surf Report: it was ankle to knee high the entire time there – but saw a couple guys wallowing on longboards one glassy morning. I caught a few set waves body surfing and the beach breaks apparently do work when the south Indian Ocean lights up. The most amazing thing I saw was a Standup Paddle Boarder making his way in from about ½ mile out on our first morning. We watched him moving slower than I expected but then realized it was a local villager on a homemade wooden board and a funky hand-built paddle. Turns out these guys have been living in grass shacks on the beach and go out setting their traps for decades on these big wooden SUP's. They tie two supper heavy 10 foot logs together that have a turned up section towards each other to make the nose. I helped him carry it up and it weighed at least 200lbs! The old Waikiki Beach Boys that are getting the credit to Stand-Up Paddleboarding by the C4 Waterman gang may have been beaten to the punch by these Indian villagers who seem to have been doing this for probably over a century!

Bombay to Bollywood

2008-02-29T03:30:00.001-08:00

We arrived at 1AM in Mumbai - or Bombay as some may still call it - and were immediately aware we had arrived in one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world. The smog from the day was still heavy in the air, and our driver took advantage of the few hours of quiet on the streets to race through the city to our hotel downtown. Our good friend Insiya was born here, and arranged for us to connect with her parents, Mansur and Sara, who have been gracious hosts to us during our stay, making it easy to navigate around this very intense city by arranging drivers and guides, and giving us advice on where to eat and to explore - so helpful for us on such a short trip. We are staying in the heart of the city, walking distance to monuments, museums and great shops. Mumbai is both the New York and LA of India with a combination of India's major Banks and the famous Bollywood film industry based here.

After a quick walking tour around the area of our hotel (we were right behind the Taj Mahal hotel and Gateway to India - see pic) and lunch with Sara and Mansur, our driver took us around to the must-sees of Mumbai. We first visited a Jain temple where we slipped off our shoes and slipped into a beautiful building filled with marble, silver and the sweet smoky scent of incense. It is not a large building and there were just a few of us in there, some to just look as we were, and some to worship. We didn't completely understand what each motion of the worship meant (and could only speculate as our guide is Hindu and did not come in with us) but it involved some prayer, some arranging of grains of rice, and the ringing of a bell.

We next visited a beautiful place with a dark past. The Tower of Silence is surrounded by well maintained gardens filled with gorgeous flowers and animal shaped topiary's, and is a favorite spot for young lovers, with all the benches holding multitudes of snuggling teenagers. To the side of the garden is a place where, in ancient times, the dead were brought. The body was left and, within a few hours, was reduced to nothing but bones by the resident vultures. The bones were then taken to their final resting place at a temple. The eerie part was that there still seemed to be a lot of large birds circling around overhead, but our guide assured us they no longer practice this ritual.

The next stop was probably our favorite: the apartment in which Gandhi lived when he stayed in Mumbai. They have renovated it into a library and small museum with lots of photo's and facts about his life, and they have preserved the room in which he spent all his time, with his few worldly possession still sitting there. It is tremendously inspirational to learn about his life, including the time before he was famous as well all the amazing things he did during his life that seem so courageous, but to him were a necessary part of his life and his beliefs (including a long stint in South Africa where we just came from).

Our next adventure took us to the Caves on Elephanta Island, so called because of a large statue of an elephant that the Portuguese were greeted with when they first landed there. It is filled with ancient temples carved out of the solid rock on the north side of the island. It was quite amazing to see work that it is speculated took hundreds of years to complete. The story of the god Siva is told in massive and spectacular carvings on the walls throughout the temple. We had a guide take us through and his ability to tell the stories of this place with colorful anecdotes and modern references had us captivated for 2 hours. The only thing that detracted from it all was when he had to explain what we couldn't see due to the destruction of many of the images by the colonial plunderers who showed no respect for local beliefs as they pushed Christianity into the region. The nasty monkeys were a site too - they were going hard at trying to grab food from any unsuspecting person. In one case there was even a statue with a name carved into its chest along with the year 1869 – sad to see on something considered sacred like that.

The finale of our trip found us at a fantastic dinner at the Cricket Club of India with Sara and Mansur and a group of their good friends which had first met at Insiya and Eoin's wedding in Tofino, BC. We were sort of like their stand-ins at a family gathering! The evening began out on the cricket field where they set up tables with large wicker chairs for members and their guests to sit right on the cricket field and enjoy a drink in the last part of the day. It's quite a treat to sit out on the grass field with the grandstands all around you. We then moved into one of the club's many restaurants and enjoyed some phenomenal Indian cuisine. As Cricket is India's number one sport and this is India's premier private cricket club, the best way to relate this experience would be to liken it to being at the Wimbledon Club. It was the perfect way to finish our quick but exciting Mumbai stop on our tour.

It was overwhelming to see a city that is so teaming and stay within the pulse of the action right downtown. The disparity of poor and wealthy is visible in every glance – just right outside our doorstep the garbage truck pulled up daily for a group of street people to spend their day sorting and retrieving recyclables & organics from the true garbage, truly saviors but tough to watch people working in piles of garbage all day with no protection. The infrastructure is taxed beyond belief to support this massive machine…but somehow the life goes on, the craziest traffic in the world functions without accidents, people's immune systems adapt to be able to live in high bacterial areas and all levels of business operates along side. Amazing to take in!

Off to Goa – 1 hour flight south of Mumbai and clean air and water on the beaches!

Bruce’s Beauties – Cape St. Francis (Surf Report)

2008-02-25T07:02:00.001-08:00

After a solid blow of onshore winds from the SE yesterday wiping out the surf, I thought the last day of surf would be a write off of junked out swell. Took off on a bike ride and ½ way through at about 9am I noticed the winds dying and swinging to offshore (I peddled really fast home!). Got the tip from the guy who runs the B&B restaurant here that with a SE swell on the water and the winds clocking SW that this could be the day to check out Cape St Francis. I got there by about 11:30 at it was quite the site pulling into the parking lot at Bruce's Beauties (the site that was made famous in Endless Summer) and seeing the stacked up corduroy perfectly groomed by the offshore winds with sets overhead and sections throwing barrels. They say the wave is not as good as it used to as they have lost all the sand flow with a development of high end homes on canals (very cool by the way – each has a dock and wake-boat…and all the houses have to be the same white colour and black thatched roof that they cut into very unique rounded roof lines!), but the wave is still amazing. I forgot my wetsuits so had to skin it, which wasn't bad at first but after about 2 hours the upwelling turned a whole layer of cold water and I ended the last hour of the session shivering and totally numb! Only 6 guys out when I got there and then it got down to just 3 of us and nice guys that rotated the set waves with each other. The wave sets up with a solid drop and with the right angle wall you make it past a rock point and can ride it 500m way to the inside. Tough launch – but I opted for a boat ramp at the bottom of the bay that added a few extra minutes to the paddle but at least no cuts or bangs to the board on the rocks. Found out I was really lucky that this was the first real time that Bruce's has broken this year with the right angle swell and right angle wind. The smaller waves were fun and about 200M before you kicked out in front of rocks (Paula got a snap of me on one of these) – but the bigger set waves were hauling fast and I even scored a barrel on my last wave that I figures I better cap the session off with that.

Guess what too boys – it gets better! Cape St Francis has a Nicklaus signature course (see pic.) that opened last year and only costs $60 a round for an amazing links course that rivals Bandon Dunes! They also have another links course that is older and basic. Then on the drive back into Jeffreysbaii we saw that there is a new development with a Nicklaus designed course (not a "signature" course – and not quite the nice terrain as Cape St Francis – set to open in October. So you have the perfect Surf n Turf combo. Ahhh….this is truly Mecca! Nice way to end it and off to dinner with a family of Brit's who live here part time and have done really well with local real-estate investments…great guy I met surfing the point a couple days ago. 4AM call time tomorrow to start the venture to the next stop in India!

Surfin’ & Safaris in Jeffreys Bay

2008-02-24T00:37:00.001-08:00

Jeffreys Bay sits about 700km east of Capetown on the Eastern Cape of South Africa and was a target destination for our world tour from day one as one of the most famous surf breaks in the world. We booked into a Bed & Breakfast called African Perfection and it is living up to its name – situated right at the famous Supertubes break (site of the annual WCT surf tour event) with our room right at ground level on the corner closest to the beach. We sleep at night to the sound of the surf of the warm Indian Ocean which keeps the water warm for surfing and the air comfortable day and night (highs of 30 / lows of 20). It's a small town that is built around the traveling surfers who range from the wealthy who have vacation homes, the transient surfers that stay for a while and work, the travelling recreational surfers (us!) and the hard core local surfers…much like Hawaii or any other beach/surf town. This is the offseason for surf as the big waves come in the winter swells from the South Atlantic (the contest is in July for the peak of swell season) but this makes it not as busy and our B&B is filled more with site seeing tourists than surfers right now.

The beaches are very raw and natural and J-Bay is actually famed for its abundance of shells – yes they even have a shell museum! The town is also a hub for the squid fishing business and each night you see 6-10 large fishing boats anchored 1-2km offshore shining huge bright lights to attract the squid…so we have eaten our fill of calamari this week! Lots of wildlife action too with the ocean filled with dolphins (and whales are regular visitors – but not this time or year) and Mark had an amazing encounter with a pod of 80-100 dolphins all swarming the bay he was surfing in riding waves 30-40 at a time in a wave coming right at him! The one other regular visitor to these shores who we are glad we haven't seen is the Great White shark with a few attacks every year on this coastline (as well as where we came from in Capetown). The water is about 20degrees right now and too warm for most great whites as they congregate more around the Cape in the cooler water periods of the year.

We also went on an amazing "safari" adventure to the Addo National Park, which is a game reserve so it wasn't a true safari, but as close as you can get from the safety of your own rental car. It is the third largest park in Africa and home to over 450 elephants as well as other African species like lions, zebras, rhino's, etc. It has been a protected park since 1930's and was previously mostly cleared for logging and farming. What's great about this park is you can drive your own car throughout and we then hired a "hop-in" guide to make sure we got the good inside scoop on the wildlife we were going to see. We are posting a bunch of pictures of the wildlife we saw – not that it is anything you haven't seen in national geographic but to see them in their natural wild setting was truly amazing for us. We had one "hold your breath" moment when we were parked at a watering hole watching a family of 30-40 elephants rollicking in the mud baths, eating trees and many just paired up leaning or nuzzling each other – which alone was awesome to be just 50-100 feet from so much action. Our guide then spotted a huge bull male off by himself on the other side of the road about 500m away slowly meandering our way (the bulls apparently don't socialize with the families much and stick to the periphery). We watched his progress and moved the car to anticipate his path and after a couple of quick adjustments we slid the car into a perfect spot to watch his approach and turned the engine off to ensure nothing would disturb him. Sure enough he set a b-line straight for our car and we watched this 6-tonne wild elephant saunter up towards us, make direct eye contact and walk within 2 feet of the front of our car looking straight in at us the whole time. Are hearts were all pounding (including the guide) and we juggled with the camera for a couple pictures from Paula's side then a video as he continued past Mark's side of the car and over to visit some of the heard. Mark described the moment as equal to the buzz when he had a great white smash up against his cage with Jordy in October…lots of adrenaline!

We continued the day with lots of Zebras, Kudus, Red Hartebeestes, Warthogs and even dung beetles…but the two we didn't see that are in the park are the Rhino's (who keep deep in bush until evenings at watering holes) and lions (which they only have 11 – and we did see one from 1km away crossing a road but by the time we raced there it was long gone). We still have a couple days in J-Bay to explore but our day in the Addo Park was so great we wanted to tell all about it!

SURF REPORT: It's been on & off for swell and wind as this is the off season at J-Bay but I have had a couple of epic days that totally showed me the magic of this place. It is so good all year as long period swells come in during the winter from the deep south Atlanic but in summer the regional SW winds drive waves from the Cape towards hear that then wrap around Cape st Francis and clean up and form great head high plus waves with offshore winds. Driving in was kind of like the same feeling that you get driving into Scorpion Bay in Baja - where from about 15k out on the road in you can see the bay and the town and you start straining your eyes to see if there is any waves. I arrived on a great day with offshore winds and head high waves (plus a couple feet overhead on the sets). The set up has a series of breaks like Scorpion Bay (all rights) and you can pick based on crowd, speed of wave. We are right in front of Supertubes…and as the name implies is a fast moving wave. The entire main stretch is a long beach but the tide line out about 100feet is a long rock reef that makes for treacherous launches and exits – and you can pay big if you get too greedy on the inside sections. There is blood on the walkway each day from a cut foot it seems. There were only two guys out when I launched the first time and no idea the "safe" routes out I hot footed out trying to find safe passage and paddled out. Took my first few waves and was not feeling "right" and board was way too loose….turns out I chunked my fin off going out!!? I got my board in for repair and rented a decent 7'2" epoxy and got in a few hours that afternoon with long waves that would just keep lining up with perfect walls (like 3^rd point Scorpion). On high tide it is unsurfable (unless really big) so The Point (800m down the beach) is the spot and a mix of long & short boards with a wave that is a great drop then a soft section you need to glide through then it walls up for 250meters on the inside that is so fun. I had two 3 hour sessions the other day and was so paddled out! Down day today with onshore winds but hopefully one more good day tomorrow to finish the week here! We need to plan a trip here again for sure!!!! Check out the supertubes video footage I posted on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo468SMJWxU

Cape Town – Land’s End!

2008-02-19T03:22:00.001-08:00

We just finished 6 amazing days in one of the most beautiful settings for a city in the world. Cape Town rivals Vancouver for the balance of an urban setting in the midst of amazing scenery and our pictures simply do not do it justice. We found ourselves exploring a different direction each day to chase the sun, find great beaches and explore…you definitely need a car here and be ready for a wicked learning curve on your first time driving on the left side of the road with a stick shift using your left hand!

A little history we found interesting – although it's a former UK Colony, it was originally settled and founded by Dutch which is the dominant culture and language you see everywhere. The local language of Afrikaner is derived from Dutch but there are also numerous other official languages including those with clicks and clucks which we heard occasionally as well. Overcoming the fallout of the British imposed apartheid is still an awful legacy that is very apparent and the main social concern (we saw a couple of townships that reminded me of the Tijuana barrios)…plus they are now having some serious infrastructure problems with regular power stoppages over the last few months throughout the area. The positives of the region far outweigh all that, and the lifestyle you see is one of outdoor and healthy living with bikers, runners, swimmers, and surfers.

We stayed in a small fishing village 20 minutes south of Cape Town called Hout Bay. To get there along the coast from Capetown is like driving through a series of Southern California beach towns. Camps Bay is so much like Laguna beach and is where our good friend Tessa Graham (who reminded Mark they have known each other for 27 years!?!?) is living in an amazing apartment and living a healthy active lifestyle routine we all would dream of as she goes through her first pregnancy. It has been so fantastic to be able to meet up with our great friends in far away ports on our travels. We had one very interesting dinner with Tessa and her good friend Lewis Gordon Pugh who is a British adventurer of extreme feats (swam 1km in speedos at the North Pole last year to help raise awareness for global warming) that we invite all of you to check out as not only very amazing but for an good cause: http://www.lewispugh.com/

Daily travel highlights included a trip to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope – the most South Westerly tip of the African continent, and where the currents of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans intersect creating some of the most hazardous seas in the world with many wrecks littered around the cape. The famed Baboons that used to wreak havoc at the car parks have now been culled (unfortunately) but we did have an encounter on the road in. A family of Baboons was crossing the main road to the Cape as we drove into the park and we got to watch a good 5 minute escapade of them playing and jumping on top of cars, and even a wild fight that broke out between a couple of males! On the road home we stopped at the penguin beach on the False Bay side of the Cape and then drove through Muizenberg beach that is full of surfers but also full of shark watchers posted in the cliffs! We also explored the far side of False Bay up to Betty's Bay (sheltered nicely from the prevailing South Easterlies that were howling each day) and we did a couple of drives up north of Capetown to some nice little beach towns (see the Surf Report!). A drive through Stellenbosch wine country is definitely a must too – and Mark snuck in 9 holes of golf (Hey Andy – 1 over with a crappy pair of rental clubs!)

The dollar is better than 7-1 with the Rand right now so day to day costs are very affordable….it's a long haul from anywhere (12 hour flight for us from Frankfurt) but well worth it if you can ever get here!

The Surf Report: The Cape has so many options it is crazy – and with the prevailing push from the South makes this a lot like Peru and the land of lefts and a goofy footers playground. I bought a new board after hawking my old Lopez board in Brazil – a 7'4" with a mini split tail that is really fun (thanks to Pat Frodel of DaKine for hooking me up with his local rep Reinhardt who totally looked after me!). Some "must go" spots if you ever make it here are Koelbay that is over the far side of False Bay and about 15 minutes past Gordon's Beach (beach break but outer sand bars make it a decent longer wave in the small bay). I found the best stuff north of Capetown though – Melkbosstrand is about 30kms north of town and has a little hook in the shore line that puts the wind offshore and sandbars make for some great left and right options. At about 80kms north a similar set up but more of a point break is Ysterfontein and the gem of the coast is about 230kms north called Elands Bay (Watch Endless Summer 2 and you'll see a great segment from there…and see my video clip - had to upload on Youtube: Elandsbaii is like a mirror to Scorpion Bay with an amazing long left point break and a small little village. It is just getting developed with about a grouping of 30 homes/cottages built by surfers (and a bunch for rent, which is worth it to post up for 2-3 days). Everywhere we went it was head high to a couple feet overhead each day and surf was good until about 1 or 2 then the S.E winds would pick up and swung a little more south and would blow out the surf. I saw lots of kitersurfers and windsurfers on the main strands north of Cape Town out in the 30+ side offshore and meaty beach break waves. All port tack sailing that I suck at so I didn't even try to find a board to rent.

In The Lair of the Maltese Falcon

2008-02-12T09:55:00.001-08:00

We arrived in Malta after flying out of the perfect warm sunshine of Italy and into the heart of a raging Mediterranean storm. Our good friend Ian Horswill has taken up Maltese residency and keeps an 8^th floor apartment in the town of St Julian overlooking a beautiful bay that faces to the North East and the open seas of the Mediterranean. One small hitch: the storm was from an odd direction, directly out of the North East, forcing the raging ocean into this normally tranquil bay. So our first 24 hours on the island was spent watching the spectacular show. The boardwalk around the entire bay had waves bashing completely over it – flattening lamp posts and fences in some sections (see picture of the action below our balcony!). We watched the waves pounding on the point 400 meters across the bay, surging up and over the seawall onto a luxury hotel's deck and right through their swimming pool.

Fortunately the weather did break the next day so we got out and explored the island by foot and bus - which were an entertaining throwback of 1950's era that each driver completes with their own decorations and personal memento). Malta is a very unique cultural mix with the islands being claimed by numerous invaders over their history, the final group to leave their mark being the British. It was a Colony until '64, so the road network of cars driving on the left side is well established, but apart from that it fells much more like an offshoot of Sicilian culture that the British only partially suppressed by making Maltese and English the official languages. Malta was also a strong Arabic trading outpost and their local language sounds sort of Arabic but with an Italian flair. Some great names have put their stamp on the history books of Malta: from the Romans to Napoleon raiding riches and King Charles V of Spain (whose annual gift is the history behind the real "Maltese Falcon"), to St. Peter who was shipwrecked on Malta en-route to Rome for one of his tours to establish Christianity, and ultimately the famed Knights of St. John who became the developers of the 16^th C. fortifications and guardians of Malta from the many threats of continued invaders. What was really interesting was the ancient history of the islands with cultural settlements noted as far back as 5000B.C. and very significant ruins from 3600B.C - which is 1000 years before the building of the great pyramids, 3000 years prior to the Acropolis in Greece and 3600 years before the Coliseum in Rome where we just came from! It seems these ancient civilizations of Malta were the first to construct monuments with massive monolith rocks and also built with a great understanding of astronomy by the alignment of key stones with significant solar patterns.

The food is fantastic with endless restaurants set along the bays' of each village. The lifestyle is all about the sea – with local fishermen in their dinghies with their dogs paddling next to multi-million dollar private yachts and tourist "cattle boats" going for tours. Access to the ocean is abundant for swimming, any type of water sport imaginable, and scuba diving in the crystal clear waters. We will definitely return during a warmer time of year and hope for calmer seas so we can enjoy the amazing sea surrounding Malta.

A quick layover in Frankfurt and then we will be spending Valentine's day in Cape Town South Africa and catching up with our good friend Tessa Graham!

A Roman Conquest

2008-02-08T04:53:00.001-08:00

Our historical data banks are on overload after this stop in Rome. Based in a quaint hotel we were just a short walk from the ancient ruins of the Coliseum. This was a great culmination of our visits to the great cities of Europe, tying together a lot of the history we learned of in France, England and Venice. With so many layers of history compiled into one city, we found the chronology complex: one minute you're looking at 16^th century Renaissance pieces that are modeled on ancient Greek design and the next you are looking at the real antiquities from the 8^th Cent. BC. To help us navigate the landscape we hired a guide (Thanks to Darcy & Kelly for the tip!). Marc is the son an artist and an Art-History major himself, so it was like having a walking Wikipedia with us! He would actually have us draw out the answers we posed and we both surprised each other with what was locked deep in our brains from our long-gone-by school history classes.

The history of Roma is a combination of assumptions, lore and interpretations of physical evidence. From the formation of Roma in 753BC based on the battle of Remus and Romulus to the travels of the apostles to Rome as they established Christianity, and to the Emperors and Kings that lead the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, and then to its ultimate collapse, the city is literally layered with the buildings and temples that represented their struggle for power. A few of the highlights and the pictures you are looking at:

The Colosseo (Coliseum) – established by the first emperor, Nero in the 1^st Cent. AD. Sixty thousand people took in the ongoing entertainment of gladiators battling to the death with a sand floor that absorbed the blood nicely. There are a few other large sporting areas built for chariot races that they would also flood to stage mock navy battles (adding sharks in the water for extra entertainment value).

The Pantheon – the original place of worship for all gods and built in 125 AD and our guide's favourite structure. It was the inspiration of many great architects of the ages (including Michelangelo). The Oculus is a 6M diameter hole in the top of the dome that is an engineering feat like no other of its time. Their understanding of symmetry and balance resonates for this building that still stands in almost perfect condition. The McDonalds across the piazza from the Pantheon is a nice cultural juxtaposition (no giant Golden Arches at least).

Fontana di Trevi – commissioned in 1762 by a Pope using water from their famed aqueducts for this fountain, it is surely the inspiration for the over-the-top Vegas water features of today!

Vatican City – Anchored by San Pietro (St Peters Basilica) and an ancient obelisk set in the middle of the piazza (a massive single column of granite shipped from Alexandria), the entire Vatican city is its own "nation" surrounded by other embassies. You enter through a modern facility commissioned by John Paul II for the 2000 year celebration of Christ and it leads you to the Vatican Museum (1506) that is built around the Vatican Garden, containing an incredible collection of art from the ages. The Museum leads to the Cappella Sistina (Sistine Chapel), where Bishops and Cardinals still gather to vote for new Popes to this day. The Chapel walls and ceiling are adorned with some of the most famous religious paintings in the world: Raphael and a conglomeration of the best artists in the early 1500's painted the side walls and then Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the giant fresco on the end wall (the Final Judgment) and the ceiling of the chapel - try standing for 5 minutes looking up at your hand above your head…he did it for 4 years until the masterpiece was complete! You would all recognize the painting of God reaching out to impart his wisdom to Adam as the most famous of all. The paintings have all been restored over the last 20 years (soap, water, ammonia and q-tips!) and the colour is vibrant once again. Sorry - no pictures allowed. What was amazing to us was that we were in the Sistine Chapel for 15 minutes with only a handful of other people being the end of day and late season. It was far different from the usual shoulder to shoulder tours others experience in the high season.

We were then led to St Peters – the largest church in the world running 3 football fields in length and able to hold 60,000 people! This is the second church layered on top the tomb of St. Peter and the focal point is the dome designed by Michelangelo (he died before its completion) of which he took elements of the Pantheon for his design. Within the main hall, they actually have the bodies of several past popes who have been exhumed and put on display. We finished the tour on the steps of St. Peters where the funeral of John Paul II was in 2002. Interestingly, our guide was able to attend the funeral alongside religious leaders from many countries that the Pope had an interfaith council with. It was actually his Yoga teacher that he was able to attend with! (Our guide's teacher, not the pope's!)

This just touches the surface of what we took in and a place everyone needs to visit once in their life! Off to Malta we go….

A Venetian Carnevale!

2008-02-06T06:13:00.001-08:00

As we sit on the plane writing this we are looking down at the islands of Venice, Lido and Murano with the snowcapped Dolomites in the background - what a great send off for us from our quick stop in Venice. We only had one full day to take in Venice but we timed it perfectly with the last day of their annual 10 day festival called the "Venezia Carnevale" which dates back to the middle ages, was abolished by Napoleon, then brought back again in the 1980's, and it was ramped up to a finale celebration on this Tuesday night before Ash Wednesday. The town was totally alive which surprised us for what we thought would be a sleepy mid-winter visit. Elaborate costumes were the theme (think of the movies "Eyes Wide Shut" or Marie Antoinette) and as we weaved through the action in Piazza San Marco we started to realize we needed to fit into the theme and join the fun. The masks do have a little history – during the black plague the doctors of Venice wore masks with various herbs packed inside thinking it would protect them from getting the disease from their patients, creating masks with large "beaks" so they could fit in more "medicine" and thus be better protected. We suspect it didn't work that well!

Midway across the island, we jumped in a Gondola and had a tour through some of the smaller and older canals as well as through the main Grand Canal. The entire island is actually over 400 tiny islands clumped together and the only way to transport anything to a business or house is by water. The navigation system is amazing and the services, from police and ambulance to Fed Ex, all coexist along with the water taxis and the over 500 gondoliers. The sad part of this ancient city is this extensive network of canals is also their only system of sewage and to this day all sewage is dumped from residences into the canals. On low tide there is pretty good stench coming from the hundreds of years of toxic brew.

The focal point of Venice is the Piazza San Marco and the famous Basilica de San Marco – built in 11^th c. it's where the tomb of St. Mark lays in rest after some Venetians took (or stole?) his body back from Alexandria a few hundred years after he died. A couple of amazing takeaways for us were: 1) the ornate frescos throughout every surface and wall of the church. All tiles were less than 1cm x 1cm and crafted to create massive images (see picture we snapped against the rules!) 2) the front entrance of the Basilica has statues of four bronze horses sitting on top. The story is that Napoleon had them moved to the top of the Arc de Triomph in Paris (see below trip notes), but they were returned to Venice after Napoleon's reign was over.

As night fell the parties started up throughout all the piazzas on the island and even more full costumes came out. We saw many private parties with everyone in full attire that created settings much like it would have looked in the same restaurants hundreds of years ago (well except check out the one guy in drag!).

The sun is shining over central Italy and we are off to Explore Rome for two days!

London Calling….

2008-02-04T08:07:00.001-08:00

We are sitting on the plane flying over the English Channel trying to recall the blur of action we took in over the last two days in London. London is BIG - in other cities we have being tromping through on foot, but it was simply not possible for London. We posted up in the Notting Hill area since Mark had stayed with his friend Tessa who had lived in that area and gave us a bit of a familiarity to go from. Our plan of attack on seeing the city was buying a bus pass for the day and taking in what we could by foot and then connecting on the renowned double-decker buses for the longer hauls.

Day one was a Saturday and perfectly timed for a good long walk through the famed Portobello Street Market. The entire street is shut down for well over a mile each week and is full of a variety of vendors selling everything from antiques to fresh food and the standard trash & trinket items. The crowd was 50/50 tourists to locals taking in their weekly routine at the market as well as all the very trendy stores and restaurants that line the street. Next stop was Buckingham Palace which is one busy place but actually not all that much to take in since the Queen wouldn't see us and the Palace is not as grand or ornate as others in Europe (although it is big) and no access and only a couple of the Royal Guardsman doing their march every 15 minutes provided any entertainment value. Then down to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Parliament buildings which were all very spectacular to take in the visual history of these sites. Again access is not possible except when we wandered around the backside of the church and found an old building from medieval times called the "jewel house" that was the home to the crown jewels but then was changed over several times for connection to activities with parliament as the English political systems records needed storing. Off then across the River Thames to do the full tourist program on the London Eye, a giant size ferris wheel with cars that are like big bubbles and hold about 25 people as they take you up over the city on a 30-minute loop. This was fantastic for getting our bearings and seeing the outline of the city focal points and a great way to end the day which we finished with a great dinner back in Notting Hill at a place we would highly recommend if you come to London called Julies.

Day two took us to the London Tower and the Tower Bridge. We thought a couple of hours would do us but ended up spending the entire day exploring the site of the original settlements of London. William the Conqueror of France initiated the building of the "white tower" in 1066 in the area of the original Roman walls of the city as his castle to protect him after his invasion….since then all royalty until the mid-19^th century lived there along with all the enclosed in supportive requirements of a kingdom were built and added on over the years. We ended up taking a walking tour with a Beefeater that turned out to be what we can only describe as a performance. The heart of a lot of the history and his humour was from the many famous prisoners who passed through the "Traitors Gate" and the gory executions of them….and even a few queens who had married King Henry VIII (check out his armoured outfit that used certain anatomical enhancements to help get a physiological edge for this tyrant when he went to battle). Getting hanged, drawn and quartered was quite a regular occurrence and many a great story of the variety of escapades that went along with the process filled the lore our Beefeater fed to us.

A long walk along the river Thames past the "new" London Bridge (surprisingly boring and bland) and back into Trafalgar Square leading to Piccadilly Circus (the Times Square of London….and sorry Moms, no time to take in a play on this trip). Back in Notting Hill at another great restaurant called the E&O with Andrew Pillar (brother of one of Mark's old friends, Neil Pillar) and his girlfriend Sally - see pic. Andrew's been in London for 6 years and has been a great provider of tips for London and also great surfing insight for Mark too through his network of mates he surfs with.

Off to the canals of Venice now!

Ahhh Paris…C’est Magnifique!

2008-02-01T11:48:00.001-08:00

We arrived in the afternoon in Paris in the midst of a one day Taxi strike that had us taking a bus to the Arc de Triomph, then getting lucky and nabbing one of the few cab's working to our hotel that was smack in the middle of the Champs Elysees. Mark's many days in Marriott hotels accumulated enough points for us to stay in grand fashion. The Champs Elysees is a stunning and huge avenue that runs from the Arc de Triomph (built in the late 1700's to commemorate French War heroes of many wars and a tomb of the unknown soldier sits at its base with an eternal flame – which inspired Jacqueline Kennedy to set an internal flame at JFK's grave) all the way down to the Seine River and the Louvre museum. The section in between is a shop-a-holics paradise with every major fashion brand you can imagine offering the hottest in Parisian fashion…but what was interesting was the number of automobile brands that have storefronts to showcase their brand in more of a fashionable and trendy way (no actual sales – just concept cars).

That evening we set out on foot to explore and made our way through the side streets and to the Eiffel Tower just as it got dark and the tower was lit up with an amazing light show. It was a great time to go as the crowds were small and we were able to make our way to the middle deck level (top deck only open on weekends) where we were able to get our bearings on all the major landmarks of Paris and plan for our next two days of exploring. On the first deck we were amused with a display of art and design from the Canadian Arctic along with an Inukshuk to greet us!

Day two had us back pounding the pavement exploring the Grand Palace & Le Petite Palace (both built for the World's Fair along with the Eiffel Tower) and along the shores of the Seine that we loved cruising along with the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. We were very enlightened with a local scam anyone going to Paris should watch for…the Golden Ring trick! A person will pretend to find a large gold ring right next to you and ask you if it is yours. They will advise that they don't want it and in a great friendly Parisian spirit of love, they gift you the ring with a kiss on your cheeks and well wishes. After they get a few paces away they turn around and ask for a small gesture to help them with food or coffee. It was a very polite scam that was attempted on us by three different people in a very short distance along the Seine. If nothing else it was a good laugh as we caught on immediately and didn't away any money.

Next up was the Louvre where we dropped over 6 hours of time in what seemed like a flash. Words can't even do it justice and it was such a sensory overload we will only touch on a few highlights. The anchor of the Louvre is of course the Mona Lisa – and normally is jammed with crowds and line-ups to take her in but as this is January and low season we were able to breeze right in. She is very small and quite dark and leaves you wondering how, out of all the great pieces of art in the Louvre and around the world, that this is the most famous painting of all. A masterpiece yes – and very thrilling to see in person but we were much more impressed with some of the giant canvasses painted by Venetian artists during the same period. Much more colorful, grand and would have been much more difficult and detailed to paint. The tour rounded out with lots of French paintings, Roman marble carvings, Egyptian tomb displays (real mummies!), an incredible display revealing the original walls and structures of the Louvre from the 1200's when the initial fort that forms the foundation for the building of today and an area of Napoleans appartments (see picture - now under glass roof). We decided it would take many days to truly take in the depth of history and endless details gathered in this place.

A little shopping, great food and a last taste of the great ambience of Paris rounded out the trip as we now work our way to London.

Living on top of the World in Verbier

2008-01-29T13:40:00.001-08:00

Our good friends Hanno, Susanne and their daughter Zoe welcomed us to their amazing house set above the village of Verbier. During the winter their house is completely snowbound and only accessible by quad or by hiking up through the snow, which definitely keeps you in shape with your daily comings and goings to and from town. Just off the edge of the ski runs (golf course in summer), the house sits facing southwest and overlooks the entire town of Verbier and the French Alps to the West. The most amazing sunrises and sunsets you can imagine appear as the high alpine glow starts and ends every day. We have to elaborate on this house as it is so amazing to be able to ride right from the hill and then transition to your t-shirt to hang out in the warm afternoon sun that shines on the big wood deck…all of this at the end of January. (Sorry Vancouver – heard about all the snow!) To make it even more amazing, Hanno has built a hot tub and sauna on the deck to ease the aches and pains of a hard day on the slopes. The inside of the house is equally amazing with the most eyecatching feature: a massive fire place (it needs another name to give it justice) – a 10x10 foot platform you can burn the biggest indoor fire you can imagine with a 8 foot diameter metal funnel to capture the smoke and radiate the heat hanging above it (see pic).

More sun was the theme for the on-hill fun with good riding on the groomers and even spring like conditions on the sun exposed slopes mid-day on. The expanse of Verbier's slopes is also hard to explain for those who haven't experienced it. It is very similar to some of the high alpine of Whistler/Blackcomb…just about 20-times the expanse of it and so many lifts to peaks over 2500 meters it would take over a week to cover it all. Further, there are multiple ski areas you can connect to over several valleys. The highlight for us was a trip up Mont-Fort, a 3380meter peak where you can see the Matterhorn to the east (see pic at top of us), the Italian Alps to the south and back to Mont-Blanc in France to the west. Verbier sits mid way on the "Haute-Route" – the most famous alpine trail in the world that connects Chamonix to Zermatt over a 7 day winter traverse of the highest peaks in Europe. We rode down to a hut built in the late 1800's that sits at 2500M (for those familiar with Whistler – the Peak Chair tops out at just over 2100M) and had the most amazing lunch. The great thing about European skiing is that the on-hill services are still owned and operated independently from the ski areas operations, allowing for a varied selection of quaint mountain family run huts. This one in particular offered the best on mountain food we have ever experienced all pumped out of a walk up window.

After five days of riding our legs are wobbly and our faces have had enough sun….off to Paris, London, Venice, Rome and Malta in rapid fire succession. Stay tuned for our updates as we transition from high mountain sports to the rich culture of European cities!

French Alps - Sensory Overload!

2008-01-27T15:35:00.001-08:00

Many familiar faces, great friends and amazing settings have filled this leg of the tour. Our first few days in Switzerland had us in Geneva staying with our friends Kelly & Darcy and also catching up with an old colleague, Andrew (another ex-pat Canuck). We had a great tour of town, a fantastic home cooked meal and a rare chance to feel like we were at home with friends.

We departed for the nearby mountains of France and the Chamonix valley where we joined another old friend, Mike Kertesz, who works with the FIS Men's World Cup Downhill and Combined event on the legendary Kandahar track. Also visiting Chamonix for the weekend were Mike Noc from Vancouver and Peter Rockendale from Toronto who were hanging their hats with the Canadian Team. It was great for Mark to re-unite with many old faces from the FIS that he used to work with. Driving into the Chamonix valley is breathtaking – with the anchor being the highest peak in Europe, Mont-Blanc, that sits at over 4800 meters. Equally overwhelming are the steep walls of the valley that have endless trams, gondolas and lifts everywhere you look. It's mind boggling thinking about how they accessed these peaks so long ago. Day one on the slopes was at Les Houches, the lowest of the resorts in the valley, but the host setting of the World Cup skiing races. Snow coverage is adequate but lacking the fresh stuff. This was easily compensated for with the perfect sunny weather and warm temperatures at the top of the mountains (you'll notice a few sunny pictures on the decks of high alpine huts with us enjoying lunch in T-shirts in the end of January!). The village at night was buzzing with World Cup bib draws and entertainment. Both nights Kertesz was able to use his connections with the local race organization committee to get us into the best restaurants in town (check out the picture of us eating in a 300 year old cave!).

Day Two was cruising with Kelly & Darcy at les Grands Montets and more perfect sunny weather and yet another great lunch on a high alpine deck basking in warm winter sunshine. From the upper slopes we could overlook the lower section of the famed Vallée Blanche. We stood and took a few pictures at the top of an insane 1000 meter chute that skiers actually rappelled into and could then connect to the lower Vallée Blanche as their exit route. After two days of eying the spectacular Aiguille du Midi and hearing about the 8000ft vertical run down the glaciers and through the Vallée Blanche, we decided it had to be done. Early AM we ventured with Mike and Peter up the trams to the top of the 3800+m Aiguille du Midi. It is the highest vertical ascent of any cablecar in the world – 2800m (around 9000 feet!). The craziest part is the first cable car built to the summit was in 1926!! And the top station isn't a nice easy flat construction site – it is built into the side of a granite spire and is truly a wonder of the engineering and mountaineering world. There is another tram that can take you across the Vallée Blanche to Helbronner where you can ski down into Courmayeur (Italy) – but that tram is closed until the Spring (longer days and better weather). We spent over an hour exploring the top station (see video & picture of bridge that spans the tram stations and the two rock spires that form the top of the Aiguille du Midi), looking at the climbing routes up Mont-Blanc, amazed at the ski routes people had taken down the front side, scouting our route down we had to climb into enter and then ski. We had done a lot of asking about the route and doing it without a guide – and on a sunny day if you ensure you always follow a well traveled route, don't go over any blind knolls and just stay smart – there are many doable routes to ride/ski. Paula opted out as the terrain was only recommended for advanced snowboarders and Mark confirmed it was a solid test for boarding in a few sections. The drop in is very interesting with hundreds of roped up mid range skiers wearing crampons lined up and clipped into the rope lines to make about a 1000 meter journey down a steep knife edged ridge. The boys dropped in sans ropes/crampons but with strong grips on the static rope lines and struggled with their patience behind the trembling alpine neophytes who took 20 minutes to descend what should take 5 (see pic). Mike and Pete skied the route and found it pretty basic to very flat at finish….but all had to really keep on their toes to watch for the huge crevasses and seracs that littered the route the entire way. It was by far the most serious ice falls any of us had ever seen let alone skied through. The route ends with an amazing staircase up to a gondola and train station that is perched on the side of a cliff. We could have skied out to the valley – but the low snowpack the last few km's would have called for some walking and rock hopping we opted out of. For those of you who ski/snowboard – it is one of those things you have to do in your life.

The day was not over as we then hustled down the valley to Les Houches and caught the second run of the Men's combined (a downhill run combined with a slalom run) and watched the black sheep of the men's tour, Bode Miller, win yet another race! We hopped into our car and drove the pass to the East and back into Switzerland and to the village of Verbier where we caught up with our good friends Hanno and Suzanne. More coincidence was that Stuart Flowers who Mark has known for years through his work with Nokia was also skiing in the Chamonix Valley with his girlfriend, Deijah, and they were able to come up to Verbier for the night. We all met for a great dinner and our friends loaded us up with tips for the rest of our European tour.

More sun in the forecast and a few days of riding at Verbier will end the Swiss/French Alps leg of the tour!

Leaving Portugal…off to explore like Vasco Da Gama

2008-01-24T01:26:00.001-08:00

Ericeira turned out to be an amazing few days for us in a nice village with great food and access to some amazing surf (see surf report at the end). It is a place we will definitely visit again.

We headed out yesterday to explore the coastal drive down to Lisbon and it was another spectucular sunny 22 degree winter day (See picture of coastline) and had a great lunch at a beach café. Dog's at everyone's feet, surfboards for rent, skim boarders in action, old guys fishing, a guy free-dive spearfishing and looking due south out to the vastness of the Atlantic. Our wandering and exploring then led us to Lisbon and a couple highlights: 1) The Jerónimos Monastery which has one of the biggest churches we have seen yet (we are told this is still nothing compared to Rome) that was build in the 1400's. What was really interesting was that it housed the tombs of many great Portuguese royalty and leaders…the one that was of most interest to us was Vasco Da Gama the great explorer who lead the expansion of the Portuguese empire to Africa, India (first guy to round the Cape) and We think Brazil too. See pic - that's Paula hanging out next to his tomb. We figured out our leg of our tour after Europe is going to follow his initial exploration routes 2) Old Roman Aqueducts that hang right over some of the major roadways. Very incredible to see the layers of history built around these old European cities!

We jetted off that evening and are now Geneva where we are staying with our good friends Kelly & Darcy. Plans are to hit Chamonix and join up with the Men's World Cup Ski Tour and meet with friends from Canada - Mike Kertesz, Mike Noc, Pete Rockendale - whowill also be there. Then off to Verbier for some more snowboarding with our friends Hanno & Suzanne!
SURF REPORT: After negotiated renting a wetsuit from a guy on the beach, I found the old surf shapers shop I went to 10 years ago (it had moved and is big now)…he only had a 6'6" as his biggest board he could rent me. I quickly found out the low end of my board range is around 7'….bog city and really frustrating session not being able to glide at all. I spent the whole session wishing I was 160lbs. I gave up and found out a guy who runs a local café also rents boards…he had a 7'2" and ended up being perfect for me. Had a couple good sessions over the next two days – although the swell dropped by now to head high to some overhead sets – it was very fun long rights that felt a lot like 3^rd point scorpion bay. It is forecast to go back huge to 24ft surf today…watch for pics on Surfline of bigwave Euro action. The town has really embraced surfing too - check out the local round-about water fountain! It is a spot to come back to for sure!

Portuguese Winter Sunshine!

2008-01-21T15:14:00.001-08:00

We had booked a few days in Portugal as we came to Europe because Mark visited 9 years ago and found a magic little village 1 hour north of Lisbon called Ericeira. We flew the red-eye from Sao Paulo and landed on a gorgeous sunny morning…but without luggage. Off we went north with our flip flops on and at least some hoodies and long pants we had to keep us warm on the flight. We arrived to the hotel Mark had stayed at years ago, but it has had a full make over - check out the view from our room (see pic.). We cruised the town and Mark was amazed at the development, it is still a small village but back very few could speak a word of English as there weren't many non-Portuguese tourists, it is now a fully bi-lingual town and all the amenities for tourists you would expect. It still only has 6500 residents….but swells to 20,000+ in summer! We had a great lunch on an outdoor patio basking in the sun in what was about 18 degree temps. This is such a great way for us to transition from the heat of summer in Brazil to the winter season in Europe we are diving into. More sun is forecast the next two days, making it perfect for touring this little fishing village that was founded in the 13^th century.

SURF REPORT – Ok boys, I was caught off guard without a board as I had arranged for my board to be shipped to S. Africa to avoid hauling around Europe. I arrived to clean perfect 8-10ft surf with some 12-15ft sets breaking on the outer rock reefs I could see. I quickly rounded up a rental wetsuit from a guy on the beach and the break called Ribeira DIlha where I surfed in the late 90's. I then ripped up to the little surfboard maker who I had bought and then sold a board with called Semente Surfboards and found a nice 6'10" to rent. Semente that has now grown from a shed of a surfshop in back of a house to a new big building and shop with the old place now turned to a full factory. The Surf scene has exploded here with about a ½ dozen shops (there was only Semente 9 years ago…an expat San Clemente Surfer found his new paridise!)– but this time of year there seems to be no big crowd problems. Check out the video and pic….there are two world class rights Coxos and Ribeira are both amazing. I will get a couple hours in the water each morning and give more updates soon. My drought of long rights is finally over!!!

Tchau to Brazil

2008-01-19T23:30:00.000-08:00

A few quick pic's and a post from our last days in Brazil. Explored the South of the island and discovered a huge Sand-Boarding Scene. Hundreds of tourists all trying to slide around these giant dunes on stand up and sit boards – quite bizarre just how big of scene it is. Found another amazing little hidden beach you have to hike into (this time there was a walking bridge…no wading the waters) called Matadeiro (this was an old whaling village and that offered options for shelter to either north or south weather on either side of a isthmus that joins a small island that provides the protection. We then spent the last day back up at Mocambique beach. Mark was getting ready to surf as we watched the local vendor set up shop (horse drawn buggy he rides 12km up the beach to his shack each day - see pic.). The wind whipped up the waves into a giant washing machine of action so Mark was in pretty quick and we decided to venture on a hike through the headland trail to Santinho (see picture of us on the trail with Santinho in the background). A rough trail with all the rains in the daily thunderstorms – but we managed in our flip flops with only a few wipeouts! We even met a hiking mate…a local dog who stayed with us for over an hour leading the whole way back and always waiting for us….just like our little Lulu would have!

The Hunt for Brazilian Surf!

2008-01-17T17:39:00.001-08:00

This post is purely the update for the surf crowd who have been emailing asking what's up in the water! We had a bit of a grey day today and decided to venture for surf off the island of Floripa and headed south about 100kms total to a place called Imbituba, where they hold the annual WCT event. We were less than impressed when we arrived and toured the sleepy town and classic east coast beach break set up. South winds had the place blown out and we had lunch on the beach before taking off back north. The drive north was a nightmare with about a 30km back up of traffic from a wild accident we passed on the way down that had really bogged down the main coastal highway. We decided to see if we could find a short cut and saw a sign that said Praia de Pinheira and Gaurda do Embaú. We hung a right at the T in the road towards Gaurda and joked that there is probably a little Oasis at the end of the road for us. Sure enough we rolled into the coolest funky little surf/beach town that is way off the beaten path and exactly the scene we had been looking for. The town is small but vibrant and lots of small pousadas to stay in and then lots of restaurants, bars and happenings lining the beach (check out: http://brazilsurftravel.com/novo/picos/guarda.htm ). The set up is so cool because you have to cross a shallow lagoon to get to the main beach and surf. They have gondolas for those who don't want to wade and it is just like Venice but with buff Brazilian dudes in Speedo's pushing you along. I got a surf in for an hour of beach break action with about 20 others out – nothing longer than 20 meter rides but must have had 30 waves with the rapid fire beach break action. Still waiting to find a lined up wave (word is Saturday the swell is up!). Their then is this other small side beach that has a full on surf shack that serves up food and drink (sand floor and very rustic) that we enjoyed a beer at the end of the day and met some nice guys from Argentina. It is next to the trail to another break that is about a 15 minute walk and totally sheltered from South winds. Bottom line is – anyone coming here has to stop in for a couple days at Gaurda do Embaú no question. This place has all the magic of the perfect surf towns we all dream of!

Florianopolis, Brazil….Finally!

2008-01-16T17:02:00.001-08:00

Whew…OK we are out of Argentina after four days of Aerolineas holding us hostage! I guess there are worse places on earth to be trapped – but the not knowing constantly and with no luggage was not fun at all. We were fortunately able to rely on our travel insurance for some help with costs and a few items of clothes to keep us going.

We arrived in the dark to the quaint but busy beach community of Barra Da Lagoa on the island of Santa Catarina. The island makes up an area that is anchored by the main town of Florianopolis – but the whole area is called "Floripa" by the locals. The centre of the island has a big lake with a town called Lagoa that is the center of most of the action (about 7kms from the beach town we are in and easy to get to from all sides of the island) - we cruised through after midnight and the streets were totally alive with lots of restaurants, small hang outs, coffee bars and disco's with big crowds all hanging outside. It is said some of the most beautiful Brazilians all come to Floripa in the summer to strut their stuff (all the single guys who were giving us tips on surfing here said way more about the fun on land than the surf!). Barra Da Logoa is perfect for us with just the right pulse of action about 400 yards away but we can retreat to our quiet little "pousada" that has about 10 rooms. No hotels allowed in this area – only small guest houses and mini-hotels they to keep the area looking authentic down to the cobble stone roads on the main drags and dirt side roads. The island is about 26km long with endless beaches and waves to explore end to end. Today we spent the day at Moçambique about 10km's north of us that is one continuous beach from Barra Da Lagoa to the north end of the beach we were at. The temps are warm to hot – was mid 30's last week and was 32 today – the ocean is about 70 fahrenheit and the setting is much more lush and mountainous than we expected with an almost jungle-like feel. We found a very cool trail at the end of the beach leading up around the headland anchoring the end of the beach (see pics). It rises up a few hundred feet above the surf cove Mark was surfing in and leads through a national forest refuge area and ends a tough hilly 2.5km at a resort that took us 45minute drive to. We stopped for dinner in an area called Ingleses (English) that is jammed full of tourists and watched for an hour the show of people as we got some local seafood into us. The funniest observation of the trip so far was a few surfers we spotted in the surf with their banana-hammocks on! A good look that we may have to buck up for Mark to buy so he can look like the locals! The tough part though after 3 weeks of Spanish is the transition to Portuguese…although similar it's still tricky and it seems less people speak English here than anywhere we have been. We are bumbling but have been consulting some translation websites to at least practice our salutations and learning to count…uma, dois, tres….It's like kindergarten all over!

Mark's Surf Report: OK boys – it's been a bit of a dry spell of big S. Am cities and high mountain fun but it was sure good to wake up this morning with the smell of the ocean again! Home again. Unfortunately the salt air I smelled was because of the big push of air from the sea-breeze that was hard on it first thing and blew through the day. It would have been good fun bump&jump wave sailing (think of summer at Spreck's beach)…no one out though. We ripped to the central town, Lagoa, to find an ATM, get gas and food…as we drove around the lake there was the wind-boarders. About a half dozen out in 25k winds on the inner lake chop water!??! Hmmm – either I don't get it or they don't get it. By the number of guys wearing marble sacks, I am going to go with they don't get it. With the N.E wind on – the goals was shelter to find surf…and the huge headland 10kms to the north provided just that. Unfortunately the swell forecast of 5-6ft was not happening. I went out for an hour of coco-beach style groveling for knee-high close out beach break. But I surfed! It is a beautiful setting – check out the picture from the trail we hiked. Tomorrow – we are venturing 100kms south to Imbituba, the town where the do the WCT tour event (it used to be a split event between Floripa and Imbituba…but the crazy drive between was too tough on planning logistics and they chose the better wave over the better party. The swell forecast is on the rise and they say it is always bigger there too. So hopefully a few waves longer than 5 seconds each and maybe I will score a good "man-kini" to sport too for Paula to get a good picture to remember surfing in Brazil!

Tchau!

Bonus Dias in Buenos Aires

2008-01-15T03:46:00.001-08:00

Airport escapade continued....We escaped the boarding area again with some tricky paperwork and pleading waiving our boarding pass from the day prior. This time they sent us down to the luggage area which we couldn't get to for three days and they actually had staff down there. No one else there and the guy spoke English and called ground crew to go through the bins and find our luggage. Finally we were free!!!! We ran to a cab, back to hotel and quickly got online to scout new routes out of Argentina. We finally found a flight through small town in Brazil called Puerto Alegre and we were able to get our previous Rio flight re-routed to get us to Florionopolis. So in theory – we will be back on course by tonight, although unfortunately that means we miss our trip to Rio Di Janeiro entirely.

We rented bikes yesterday to ride around Buenos Aires and explore. A challenge with the crazy drivers, and the fact that they shut down all major parks/trails on Mondays. We cruised the waterfront which is an area similar to Yaletown in Vancouver. Picture – check out the "Tango Bridge"….it is designed to be like a graceful lady doing the tango (imagin her laid back with the wires dangling like her hair) . We also came across groups of street tango performers too – they are out every day on the main shopping streets.

Funny observation was that we rode by about 3 different groups of police riot squads all ready for action with barricades and gear ready to go (see pic) - just a few additional civil issues that are the way of everyday life here. Our waiter last night said this is actually not that bad and it really is much worse after the summer holidays!?!? The people of Argentina have gone through quite a social/economic roller coaster with their Peso devaluating in 2001. Since they reset the economy the Peso has ranged from 1-1 to 4-1 with the US dollar (Currently 3-1)….so their pricing of daily goods can change dramatically but salaries don't change to reflect. No banks will give mortgages either we learned…so only the uber-rich or those tied to foreign business own. Not a place you would want to be investing in!

Ground Hog Day in Buenos Aires

2008-01-13T08:48:00.001-08:00

Civil disobedience, protesting, castle revolts are all such an everyday occurrence in Buenos Aires…every newscast and every paper has someone or some issue that people react with massive protests and armed riot squads are everywhere and almost apathetic in their approach to these everyday scenes. We were told this was common and told to stay clear of anything like this we come across. BUT – we find ourselves now smack dab in the middle of the most bizarre airport scene you have ever seen or heard of. Three days ago one of the 9 unions of Aerolineas Airlines launched a stop work that has now spilled to numerous groups and has grounded their fleet, as well as most other planes trying to work their way out of B. Aires International Airport. We fell into day 2 of the mess and arrived with a pre-printed boarding pass and negotiated our way past 2500 people in the hall to a "web check in" who said the planes are again leaving and we should only expect a 1 hour delay. We go to the gate and leave thousands below thinking we had snaked through and were going to get out. Four hours later we found ourselves in the void of going through exit immigration from Argentina but still not on any plane. Things then even took a turn for the worse when ALL Aerolineas staff walked off their posts. It was tough enough trying to get information when they were working – now we were left with no one and not an ounce of information to go on to us or the thousand or so people in the board area. A few hours later we choose to try and escape the boarding area and came up with the "medical emergency" scenario and Paula waived a prescription pill bottle she had in carry on (emptied it into her pockets except for 2 pills…the pills are totally non critical by the way…just our ticket out) – and after 3 attempts at different zones were allowed out with a little paperwork. Now we just wanted or baggage….back down to check in and the mob had grown and only security staff protecting the check in. News crews had arrived and the people loved to play it up for them. Let to near riot activities – breaking into offices, smashing some fixtures and mobbing all behind the scene areas of Aerolineas staff. We befriended the head of security who spoke English and he wanted to help our "medical cause" and get our luggage back. A few more hours and he gave us bad news that the Police would not let anything be released as they were supporting the luggage ground crew who were one of the unions who stopped work. We made the call to get out and get some sleep at a hotel while initiating our first "lost luggage" and "Flight delay" claim with our Visa travel insurance.

Today (January 13) – we called first thing to the US number of the airline and they rebooked me on a flight for 3pm today. We arrive at airport and it is the same scene but riot squads and tones of security everywhere. We proceed through to the check in – get no information – go through the security and immigration as we still had our boarding passes from yesterday. Seems a couple flights got out – but none to Rio and now our flight has no information. Phoned the US number again (thank god for Skype!) and now re-booked again on the 15^th to Brazil but will miss all connections to Florianopolis and we doubt that they can clean up this mess in two days. We are off to try an attempt at reclaiming luggage again!?!?! This is like the old movie "Groundhog day" where we keep doing the same thing over and over!
Picture: Check out the welcoming committee at airport - this is just one small group of about 500 riot squad police throughout the airport that showed up on the third day of issues to support the private security firm that couldn't handle the action.

Bambi’s Forest & Snow in Summer!

2008-01-11T12:38:00.001-08:00

So the plan was to get back to Villa da Angostura, the fun outdoor mountain village we scoped on our trip to Chile, to get some bikes to ride out to the Bosque de Arrayanes (a national park forest: http://www.bosquelosarrayanes.com.ar/01.htm). On the way over we watched the snowline drop and the rain showers start mixing with SNOW…then when we pulled up to the bike shop it was all snow (check out the picture that looks like sea-to-sky in the middle of winter!). Without gloves and only shorts, it called for plan B….turn the bike to a hike. So off we went for the 12km trip out down this incredible peninsula on a trail that climbs and drops 500 feet at a time through an old growth forest of 100+ft tall Cohui Trees. Two and a half hours later we get to the entrance of the Bosque de Arrayanes and a good call on hiking as the trail would have been a tough bike up some of the pitches and the wind on the downhill and flats would have froze us. Tired and hungry we found a little cabin with snacks and hot chocolate anchoring the 2km circuit wooden walkway they constructed in this forest that almost seems animated. Much like our Arbutus trees – the Arrayan trees group only from roots or broken branches re-rooting and they look similar with a non-bark outer surface. The word is this is the forest that Walt Disney got his inspiration for Bambi and the forest in that animated classic. We checked into the option for the boat ride home – but a long cold wait would be in store so we opted for the hike out. Mark's old hip was screaming by the time we got back to the car and a long 26km day exhausted us both. A great end to our week in Patagonia and now we are off to Brazil and back to summer!!!

Chilly in Chile!

2008-01-09T05:57:00.001-08:00

Day trip to Chile was a good venture of seeing the lake and mountain scenery of Patagonia. The high pass over the Andes took us up into summer snowfields (see picture). The highlight was a small village on the Argentinean side of the boarder called Villa la Angostura that is a big outdoor activity center for Mtn. Biking, Trekking, Fishing, and Outfitters - like a mini Bend, Oregon. Not a big payoff going into Chile though as nothing of substance for a few hundred Km's on that side and it was a bit of an ordeal of crossing borders between the two worlds. Next update will be from Brasilia in a few days!

Bariloche: a Patagonian Oasis

2008-01-07T14:29:00.000-08:00

“In around the lake…mountains come out of the sky and stand there!” (*Skip is starting the blog with a flashback line from that old YES song from the ‘70’s - click on the panaroama picture we stiched to get a feel for the wow of this place). As we entered the last 15 minutes of the 2.5hr flight from Buenos Aires we were awestruck as we looked across the desert towards the volcanoes, lakes and rugged glacial mountain setting we were aiming at. The best way to describe this place is a cross between the Fjord sea-to-sky world of Squamish-Whistler with the Okanagan or Gorge (dry desert setting w. ponderosa pines).

The town of Bariloche is a hopping resort town set on the shores of this amazing lake called Lago Nahuel Huapi (we still can’t pronounce it after 3 days!). In the winter the action is all ski/snowboard focused with Cerro Catedral ski hill seeing most of the action with a big set up that includes a 6 seat chairlift, old school tram, a bunch of quads and over 25 lifts in all...and loads of snow (still snow on the tip now in the middle of summer). During the summer break the town is even busier, anchored by a few distinct groups: 1) the transient 20-somethings living it up in the endless hostels and parting all night every night 2) the Euro/American see-it-all-by-bus tourists 3) the “let’s go” super active crowd (biking, hiking, trekking, golfing, fishing, rafting etc), and 4) the very affluent of Argentineans spending their vacation time in their multi-million peso mountain haciendas going to their yacht club/golf club/polo club. So, fitting into the #3 group, we found the local bike shop and got set up with some mountain bikes and a guide for the next day’s adventure. The days are so long here – light at 6:30 am and dark at 10:30 pm – so we are able to do so much in one day (Skip’s note – Took in a late afternoon ride the first night up to a 1500m Cerro Otto as a warm up solo mission…at 7pm it felt like noon!). The best part: chocolate on every corner! We spent our first evening exploring the endless chocolate shops in town, some of them as big as supermarkets. So for those of you, like us, are confessed chocoholics, this is THE most extreme place on earth to indulge in chocolate!

The next day our guide Paulo took us for a 5 hour ride to burn off all that chocolate. We rode up to the base of the ski resort at Cerro Catedral and then down back dirt and gravel roads to another “lago” where we had a great lunch and relaxed at a lakeside beach. Back to town and then the last 10K on a way too narrow and way too busy street with the city buses almost kissing our handle bars. Back by 4pm and still with enough daylight for a full day of driving, exploring and scouting ahead of us. The golf course Mark played today is an amazing golf/tennis/polo/elite resident compound with high security that searches your trunk when you leave (in case you kidnap any of the elite that hangout there).

Mark’s golf update: rental clubs and a range that is for members only put me in a tough spot for my first round in a while - but managed a low 80’s round with a couple of early mulligans. Tonight (Jan. 7) we enjoy a little Argentinean red wine and chocolate and rest up for more fun in one of the most amazing playgrounds on earth!

Next up Parapenting, hiking and a day trip to Chile…stay tuned!

Buenos Dias from Buenos Aires & You Did It Ur-A-Guay

2008-01-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

Transition now from small ocean and mountain villages of Peru to the huge city of Buenos Aires – quite a shock to us! B.A. is big, dirty, polluted city with crazy drivers, but still an amazing city to take in. We took a lot in on a huge 6 hour walk through the main shopping and cultural district with immense pedestrian malls that lead to the Plaza de Mayo where the Presidential palace and St Christopher’s Cathedral sit (an incredible ornate display of worship built over a few hundred years by the Spanish and holds the tomb of the guy who freed Argentina from the Spaniards….but Mark accidently deleted all the amazing pictures we took – oops! - but got one on the plane out of the plaza). We then worked our way down to the docks that display a trendy mix of renovated warehouses and modern buildings. We hopped a city bus to the main parks of B.A. and took in the gardens and the zoo - all in 39degree baking sun! A hot day on the streets of the big city left us looking for new options for the next day and discovered that we could go to Uruguay on a fast-ferry daytrip across the river (the mouth of river is like Victoria to Vancouver distance).

We hit the port the next morning and were on our way to an amazing Portuguese/Spanish settlement called Colonia de Sacramento. The 400-year old settlement is an ancient fort (also a UNESCO protected site) perched on the point with many buildings now transformed into boutiques, restaurants, artisan shops, and some living quarters. We explored by scooter, took in a nice sandy beach for a couple hours (water was nice and warm – but brown in color!). The rickety old scooter was definitely on its last legs and could barely handle the cobblestone streets – Paula actually had to jump off on the occasional hill for fear it would stall completely! We enjoyed a huge meal of tasty salmon, salad and pasta to fill us up for the evening ferry ride home. A really nice and unexpected side trip that allowed us to add another country to our list! Highly recommended (and note from Skip for the golfing boys: there are some great tracks over there that I would have spent another day or two playing if I had of known!).

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu – Happy New Year!!!!

2008-01-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

The first day of 2008 was an adventure with a trip to Machu Picchu scheduled in what we learned is the heart of the rainy season. We boarded an early morning bus that took us through the hills into the sacred valley and the city of Ollantaytambo, where we were to transfer to a train to Machu Picchu (MP). One small hitch, the recent rains caused a rockslide in the narrow canyons of the valley that the train negotiates for 1.5hrs to MP (see picture of crew clearing in front of the train). This meant we had to wait for 4 hours while they cleared the slide and repaired the track, so we entertained ourselves in the vagabond market the locals set up for the tourists (see picture of local in classic Peruvian look). The closer you get to MP the more anything imported costs and the less locally produced things costs. Our 9AM train finally departed at 1pm but fortunately they rescheduled return trips to ensure we still got a full day in once we arrived. The train drops you in a very eclectic mountain valley town called Agua Caliente (Hot Springs) which is full of hostels and backpackers hotels, restaurants and a couple of high end hotel spas – all strung out along the railway station line that provides the pulse to this tiny community. From here you board a bus up to the ruins along a switchback road about 2500ft above the valley. The setting is stunningly amazing and one o f the new wonders of the World and a UNESCO protected site – you are set at 2400 meters in the equatorial mountain zone of Peru overlooking the river valley that twists and bends through the spires of mountains around MP and actually drains all the way through the Amazon to the Atlantic.

The Incas built the place over a span of 70 years during the late 1400’s early 1500’s, then one day they evacuated all at once and no one knows why to this day. It is now officially a “New” wonder of the world. We were supposed to have about 4 hours at the site, but due to the delays only got 2.5, so we hurriedly rambled through the various zones of the main ruins, but missed out on some special sections that we would like to have seen. We did get lucky in that the entire day was dry! The trip really needs 2-3 full days to explore and climb surrounding trails, mountains, etc. For those wanting to know more about the place and we keep things moving on the blog – check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu (one piece all the history missed in all text books: the guy who discovered and excavated the site originally in 1915, Hiram Binham of Yale, missed cataloging any of the gold/silver that was discovered in every other Inca settlement!?!?).

The day was done all too soon and we boarded the train home at 6:30 for the 4 hour trip back up to Cusco where we left the next morning to Argentina.

Feliz Nochevieja from the Andes Mountains!

2007-12-31T13:22:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year's Eve from Cusco, origanally an Inca village 12,000ft up in the Andes. It was an amazing flight in from Lima over fresh snow capped peaks and glaciers leading into this vibrant ancient valley. A snapshot of the history: we were shocked to learn that there are over 1 million residents in the Cusco valley as it spreads out beyond the city to agricultural lands that stretch for miles. We toured the old town and plaza's today with our guide, Dainiel (pictured with Paula) and were impressed by the depth of knowledge of their environment that the Inca's held. From how they cultivated the land to their understanding of lunar cycles and gravity to how they knew to build their their structures to be anti-seismic. They were very smart and way ahead of their conquistadors. The Spanish arrived to in 1532 to find the Inca empire 12-million strong and managed to mess it up real good by slaughtering nobles, bringing new diseases, and forcing the Inca's brilliant ways to be forbidden. When the Spaniards arrived, Cusco was the centre for all nobles and their descision making of the vast Inca empire. The Inca trail, it turns out, was the means to pass information between regional nobles, taking just 7 days to get information from one end to the other via thousands of runners that relayed the information and managed the maintenance of the trails, huts and supplies on all routes.

The old town of Cusco is shaped like a Puma based on the vision of the original Inca leaders and the spanish came and expanded and built churches throughout the old town. Much of the architecture of the original Inca's is very dominent in areas but is interlaced with Colonial style construction and huge churhes. There have been two major earthquakes since the Spainards arrived (1650 and 1950) and during both the Inca architecture widthstood the shakes but the colonial buidings and churches were completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt.

The regional mountain peaks rise up to 7,000 meters and are the source of the famed Inca gold and silver that ruled their ancient economy and was then pillaged by the Spaniards. The one place that wasn't pillaged and kept hiden from them was Machu Picchu, where we visit tomorrow.

Best wishes to all as we ring in the new year. 2007 has been a memorable year for us with an magical wedding, big career changes, and finishing up with us embarking on this amazing adventure. We look forward to making 2008 equally memorable and wish you and your families all the best in the New Year!

Green Belts and Sun Gods

2007-12-28T06:29:00.000-08:00

Buenas Dias!

We've now had some time to explore the region a bit more since our last post, and are happy to report that it is not all dry and dusty. We saw several lush green belts, nurseries, and farmland. The contrast against the grey hillsides is stunning. Oscar took us for an excursion to the next town, which is quite compressed with narrow streets, and vendors are set up on most corners. It was busy with lots of people, but Oscar navigated his way through quickly and adeptly. If we were driving it might have taken twice as long. We stopped in at an open air market that is efficiently set up to provide everything the locals need. The layout is booth style and they are organized by category, so all the shoe vendors are in one section, the hardware vendors in another, and so on. We suspect they are not accustomed to a lot of tourists, so the girl selling us an Inka Kola giggled at our meager (if not pathetic) Spanish.

Oscar then took us to the site of what we learned are the ruins of some of the most important temples in Peru built to worship the Sun God, Pachacamac. A guide took us through and explained how Inkan's would travel there from miles around and stay there as guests to worship the god. The first ruins were built about 100AD and continued to build until the 1500's, then the Spaniards came along and ruined all the fun, so now the site is mostly buried under sand dunes except for the parts they have excavated. A good warm up for Machu Picchu though!

The Surf Report: Surf was back up today when we ventured 25km south to Peurto Viejo with solid head high waves that peel for 25oM (all backside for me -so good practice for Fiji and Bali!). We came across a group of local fishermen who still fish in the same style of boats as a thousand years ago (except they use foam blocks rather than reeds for floatation). Pretty sureal to watch them push out through the same waves we were surfing on and actually keep the skinny little boats from going over the falls. Dolphins came into the bay as we surfed today and surrounded us. One Ozzy guy who came here to learn had one cruise by 1 foot away from him! Also found out there are no sharks at all - had to ask as the water is cool, murkey and has that very sharky feeling. I showed the locals my footage of the shark adventure with Jordy and they all think I am "muy loco". Here is a quick video post of a few waves and a picture of the action!

Feliz Navidad de Peru

2007-12-26T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hola Amigos!

A very long trip to Lima via Toronto, but we rode first class thanks to our upgrade certificates so it wasn't so bad. We arrived in Lima at 3:30am local time and had a driver from Punta Hermosa pick us up in his beater of a car. It's safety was questionable as we wound through the streets of Lima (which were very active for that time of day!) to the coastal road, but we made it safe and sound about an hour later to our little village and the Pico Alto Surf Resort (http://www.picoalto.com.pe/). A quaint little place where they look after wayward surfers of all levels from around the globe. Oscar is our host and has the pull in and out of the waves to make sure his guests are well looked after. His Dad, Oscar Sr., was a surf pioneer in Peru and recently died at age 64 surfing out in front of the place we are staying which is now named in his honor. We spent our first day on the beach where there are several cantina's set up and chairs with umbrella's, and they serve you whatever you want for only a few soles (1 sole is about $0.40 CAD). The temperature is warm and comfortable, not hot - it's just before the hot season here which is Jan/Feb. There are some beautiful houses along the waterfront here, what look like million dollar homes to us, but would only cost about $100,000 to build here.

The landscape is amazing, very dry and arid with little rain. Oscar, who was born and raised here, has only seen it rain (heavily) twice in his lifetime. Not even any desert scrub or dried grasses, just dry dusty dirt and sand everywhere you look. The town is lovely though, and clean. The locals clearly take pride in their town, so you don't see any garbage on the streets or beaches, and it's also very safe. We walked around last night after dark and didn't feel worried at all.

OK, here's the surf report:

Mark surfed there Christmas day and continued the tradition of either skiing or surfing on every christmas day of his life since he was 5! Some solid head high rights with only a couple guys out. Boxing Day we still were a little bleary-eyed from travel and catching up on sleep so a late morning start had us out with Oscar and the gang to an amazing beach about 30 minutes south called Puerto Viejo with a world class left totally sheltered by a huge rock bluff/point from the daily S.W winds (just like the N. American West coast that gets blown out daily by North-Westerlys - it is all S.Westerlies here each afternoon). The crew went out with only 4 guys out - but after a couple hours the crowd grew to 12-15 and Mark was getting pushed out of the line up by the locals and brazilian crew that tend to dominate here. Fun shoulder-head high waves easy to get into then really fast down the line with pretty hollow sections.

We're on our way back to the beach now, we'll write again soon!

Final Preparations

2007-12-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

We're now counting down our last few days in Vancouver. Our days are consumed with details right now - so many little things to think about! We'll be putting our car to bed while we're away which means we'll be stuck at home on the evening of the 23rd, so we're having a few friends come to us for an eggnog sendoff. If you would like to pop by let us know so we can have a nog ready for you.