FRENCH POLYNESIA | Wednesday, 24 Apr 2019 | Views [187]
DUE TO A SCHEDULING CHANGE WE DOCKED AT PAPEETE before Moorea. The islands are so near each other that it hardly matters but this way works out better for us. Instead of spending our 25 th anniversary looking at the Papeete mall we ... Read more >
Tags: cruising french polynesia
FRENCH POLYNESIA | Tuesday, 23 Apr 2019 | Views [195]
IMAGINE A NINE HUNDRED FOOT CRUISE SHIP pulling up right downtown. That’s pretty much how the Maasdam docked at Papeete — just across from the mall! And wouldn’t you know it, there wasn’t a taxi in sight.
... Read more >
Tags: cruising french polynesia
FRENCH POLYNESIA | Monday, 22 Apr 2019 | Views [170]
WE SPENT EASTER AT SEA. CRUISING AT A STEADY 15 knots (about 20 mph) Maasdam covers roughly 500 NM on a cruising day, which brought us to the Society Islands. Once again we anchored off shore, relying on the orange and white tenders to ... Read more >
Tags: cruising french polynesia
COOK ISLANDS | Saturday, 20 Apr 2019 | Views [219]
GETTING BACK ON SCHEDULE IS TAKING SOME TIME. Somewhere in all this water we crossed the International Dateline. In addition to blowing off Good Friday we also skipped our port call in Nihue. It seems a resupply ship beat us to the ... Read more >
Tags: cruising french polynesia
TONGA | Thursday, 18 Apr 2019 | Views [217]
IT’S 1000 NAUTICAL MILES FROM AUCKLAND TO TONGA. For the non-seafaring — and that would include yours truly —a nautical mile is one minute (1/60 th of a degree) of latitude or 1.15 statute miles. All of this is mox ... Read more >
Tags: cruising french polynesia
FRENCH POLYNESIA | Sunday, 14 Apr 2019 | Photo Gallery
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NEW ZEALAND | Sunday, 14 Apr 2019 | Views [227]
GREETINGS FROM AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND. The Air New Zealand flight from LAX was surprisingly comfortable — for coach, that is — and both of us actually got some sleep. I just can’t get myself to spend triple the price of ... Read more >
USA | Thursday, 11 Apr 2019 | Views [244]
YOU MUST THINK US TERRIBLY SPOILED — dilettantes, perhaps. Maybe so, but life is so short and let’s face it, you are dead for so long. So we are off again, this time on a 24-night South Pacific cruise from Auckland NZ to San ... Read more >
Tags: cruising french polynesia
USA | Tuesday, 9 Apr 2019 | Views [269]
PECAN GROVE RV IN LAKE VILLAGE, ARKANSAS wasn’t at all like what we had hoped. We had planned to stay two nights but it was raining so hard we could barely tell the Lake from the Village. So after hooking up the water, sewer and electric ... Read more >
USA | Saturday, 6 Apr 2019 | Views [207]
MOST OF THE RIVERBOATS ARE GONE NOW, but would-be riverboat gamblers have many options along the Mississippi. We set up camp at the Ameristar Casino’s RV park, just across the road from Ole Man River in Vicksburg MS. The big draw for ... Read more >
USA | Monday, 1 Apr 2019 | Views [188]
OUR FIRST STOP WHEN WE RETURNED TO THE US (after doing several loads of laundry) was to a ballgame — beisbol in Miami. This is the longest we've ever come for a game, four-hours driving each way. Marlins Park is beautiful with the ... Read more >
ECUADOR | Tuesday, 26 Mar 2019 | Views [217]
CONNIE AND I PLAYED HOOKEY TODAY. We slept in and spent the moring at the Ramada Hotel in Guayaquil while Dusan and the rest of the group traveled more than 100 miles away looking for shorebirds and estuarine species. I, for one, have had ... Read more >
ECUADOR | Saturday, 23 Mar 2019 | Views [393]
IT RAINED FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, STOPPING JUST in time for yesterday’s 5AM breakfast. We needed an early start for the six hour drive to Buenaventura with birding stops in Zapotillo and Almora.
Crimson-breasted ... Read more >
ECUADOR | Thursday, 21 Mar 2019 | Views [236]
IF CASA SIMPSON IS A SKI CHALET, URRACA LODGE IS summer camp. The simple, yet comfortable cabins are spaced along a forest trail — ours is 150 meters from the open-air dining area. This habitat is called “tumbes,” a new ... Read more >
ECUADOR | Tuesday, 19 Mar 2019 | Views [306]
THE FIRST OF THE JOCOTOCO LODGES, CASA SIMPSON is back up at 8000 feet in the Andean foothills Reserva Tapichalaca. It is a simple and cozy chalet with both wi-fi and a much needed laundry service. It owes its existence to the Jocotoco Antpitta ... Read more >
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