Sunday September 20 - Yesterday we arrived in Tahiti, another our most sought after destinations this year, as always. And we got tarnished. Da
a tad ashamed to tell the truth. Both 366 Saturday, earning both a day traveling to the East, so much explanation in my first entries on Line International Date Change ... and when the big day comes that we won, and we fell into it! : - / It turns out that Tuesday September 20 we left Auckland at 10 am, and arrived in Tahiti at 3 pm Auckland time + 2 hours ahead = 5 pm. But of course, Tahiti is just across the change of date, so I returned to be September 19th! With the last preparations before leaving New Zealand (washing machines last minute, packing winter clothes to leave in Auckland, update the blog), because we were not calm enough to think about it ... but as we were on the plane and the pilot said that it took us (not to mention the change of day), we started to take bills and cherry crocodile. Too late, of course, because we had been to our next host (CouchSurfing once again) to pick us up at the airport at 5 pm the day 20. So we had to find a hostel in a hurry to spend the night, and like today we could not contact it (just have your email, you should not look every day) back to the airport at 5 pm, this time if today 20.
In short: - / The fact that plane tickets do not indicate the typical +1 or -1 when not arrive on the same day did not help, because it's not that we had "saved" was the line where the change of date (plus is a straight line but not much). But rather blamed the state of relaxation that we have reached after 8 months of sabbatical. Lately we have more and more small oversights (without going too far, we have brought to eat a can that we can not open, and the Swiss army knife in the hotel :-/), but we must "let us look" not to pass over. What they said: tarnished.
Anyway, the point is that we are here at our third destination "typically quiet" in the popular imagination (Mauritius, Fiji, Tahiti and now). And as interesting statistic, three have come in Saturday . What's hot? Notice that in any case what we had prepared, because here even the International Date Line had to conspire behind our backs to complete this beautiful coincidence :-) That is nothing more than that, because otherwise your first full day in anywhere (but especially in the islands, where the break is sacred) is a Sunday is rather inconvenient. The vast majority of things are closed (we, for "apañeros" of Valencia, close to the port!), and here even the buses run on Sundays ... so we have come to spend the day at a beach near the capital and airport. In fact, we are "squatters" (legally) one of those beaches "private" resort. Squatted along with a good grupete premises, because if you notice that it is Sunday and is great fun to see them enjoy their day off.
And since we have the hotelazo here ... I went to ask that I open the can and without problems, Majete. So, to eat!
Tuesday, September 22 - Well, well, well ... this paradise is going from bad to worse :-( If they escape us on Saturday was strake 366, which today is Almodovar film (specifically, "What Have I Done to Deserve This").
I put in a situation. After a couple of days in Tahiti, the island's largest and most populated of French Polynesia (and, as often happens, the less attractive), finally took the first flight of five that will lead us through almost all islands of the Company. Both takeoff and landing have an im-pressive view of two of them, with their classic "picachus" petaditos of vegetation and surrounded by coral turquoise lagoon. We arrived and everything is Maupiti Polynesian dream: an airport is nothing but a straw techadito, a friendly boatman we get with 2 necklaces of flowers and takes us across the lake to our accommodation, which is of course on the beach and we prácticament alone. And there they pitched the tent (to 40 € the night, so that you see an idea like this percale if you want your bed and all that), and presents us with some juice and a baguette with jam for breakfast, while we rub eyes with our "home" for the next 3 days.
As we got up at 4:30 (live here with the sun), Eve takes a nap on the beach while I decided to inaugurate the bathing season. I get no flip-flops and, of course, that is filled with sharp pieces of coral loose, so I get to swim while covering 50 cms. Al I have enough time, I turn around and swim to the beach to the tran-tran, freaking out with the clarity and color of the water. When I'm around, cone!, Stamped his foot because he does not, a rare move his arm to try to join y. .. ZAP! Those who know me from long ago and what I imagined habreis: my left shoulder fateful "tad" out of place =: -0
at the time turned out that could have been much worse, but we are in the most remote and small island with the plane only recently taken off daily, and in a country they have just inaugurated its first Faculty of Medicine. Although the first thing that comes to my mind is something along the lines of "cagon'to, the first day in paradise and already I fucked up the fun! ". In short, the following times are the most Almodóvar: Eva awake and give the" big news ", but my face said it all (according to my account). Given my" vast experience "in dislocations shoulder, is that the first moments are critical because the muscle has not yet been seized and chances of re-fit the same ... so I give a couple of instructions to Eva and there he tries the poor woman, but daring to pull strong enough. I'm already seeing the stars and, although the movement attempt in a couple of times I got good result, na na. With good reason, Eva asked me to wait there is not a doctor on the island, tells the couple that leads the hostel / camping and complete picture with them both + the odd tourist who was there looking at me with eyes of lambs degollaos (reflection of mine, I imagine, by now huddled in the sand, the only position in which the pain is not me Mel Gibson calls imitate the "Lethal Weapon" and put the man with one punch).
turns out that if, on the island of 200 inhabitants is no doctor (we shall see that not one, but two, thanks to Tahiti and its islands are territories of France and health care at home, live France!) , so to get on the boat in my state ... I laugh at me in that ambulance suicide sack me Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid the first time that I spend one of these =: -0 When we arrived, the nurse (Yes, there is also a nurse!) Gives confidence and also offers lamb degollao face: - / When the doctor finally gets me I can not even lift his head to look at her, but Eva tells me it is serious but it seems competent. That if you are going to call her male colleague who has more strength =: -0
Anyway, when comes the companion fortunately know what to do, poker in the interval since the nurse had made a Christ that so much blood that had left him trying to prick a sedative into a vein. But I am finally in good hands, I realize when I say directly that I lie on the floor, put me aside and gave me a foot in the armpit. Had been so long that cost a couple of pulls, but the old school, "her doctor" I put it. And immediately ending martyrdom.
So, for a few brief hours that seemed endless to me, this paradise is much like me to hell. Still, you can imagine he could have been a lot worse (we've been to many places but lost a LOT of civilization), so a few hours we were already laughing at the adventure as we admired our first evening Tahiti conscious, followed by a sky star as seen in few areas of the world. And both, and if Paradise.
Tuesday September 29 - Definitely, in this paradise are some glasses. If the two previous statements (especially temita hombro) no fue suficiente, hoy si que lo unico que nos venia a la cabeza es, como decia el Pepe Gafez, "¡QUE MALA SUEEEERTEEEE!" :-(
Os vuelvo a poner en contexto. En Maupiti, la primera de las islas, una vez los dos bracitos en su sitio tuvimos un par de dias bonitos y los disfrutamos a pesar de no estar yo al 100%. Un dia salimos en kayak por la laguna en busca de mantas raya, Eva remando y yo oteando mientras intentaba mantener el equilibrio sin usar mucho el brazo izquierdo (el kayak era individual, asi que os podeis imaginar la escena :-), nos reimos un monton, Eva se gano la cena con el ejercicio (y yo hice causa comun), y vimos alguna manta aunque muy huidizas. Al dia siguiente subimos al pico mas alto de la isla, which at times required certain dose of quasi-climbing with one hand, juas! But we did it, and the views were to remove the hiccups and forget all evil.
And from there, time is twisted, up to 4 days straight chain completely overcast skies (except small parenthesis a few hours), quite windy, and sometimes tropical storms, which could be defined as lei Some sites, like "Rain Man" = rain only once and not long, but way (as opposed to "female rain" = rain a while not very strong and then back to rain a little, so hours or whole days).
And we were, having spent 3 days on Raiatea and our first day in Bora Bora boiled enough, when the fifth day came a spectacular morning. In Bora Bora, a beautiful island but very tourist oriented luxury, everything is super-expensive ... but even so the day before we had made the idea of \u200b\u200bpulling the boat out and rent a zodiac 4 short hours to cross the lagoon to our air. Only if it came out nice, because it was too much dough for not having the perfect day ... but it was perfect. So we frotabamos the hands of emotion while doing the papers with the boat rental site, where the guy gets a call. We do not understand what he says (in French), but he gets serious and when you hang up, he says: "Before leaving, I have to warn you a little theme: if you see the lake gets a little bit brave, better come back, because no tsunami warning.
Comoooorrrrlll "? What is the probability of getting caught by a tsunami? Amos, pa'mi to be only a slightly higher than being struck by lightning: - / For Carlos, the cagamos, and makes no attempt to boot it or na na. Soon they began to sound alarms warning of the tsunami, everyone evacuated coastal areas, and we recommend to ascend to a height (a minimum of 10 meters). After a few tense hours of waiting (half of the people pelin angustiadilla, and half a finger on the trigger to see if at least one photo pillabamos cojonuda of wave a piece of :-), decided they had passed the period of caution and let us return to sea. But although there is no notice at all, canceled all activities for caution and we were made and no perfect day in the boat.
Anyway, I hope that this has not been frivolous, because the tsunami if it was a disgrace and died in Samoa lot of people, making jokes aside we can feel fortunate not to have been right there (it was an option then discard) . You actually had a really good day, first entertained with the expectation to live a unique experience from a safe position, and then talk out on the beach with our friends Israelis (of whom speak below.) And to round off, we got a couple of times to snorkel and had a meeting cercanisimo with a spotted eagle ray, a kind of spectacularly beautiful bay, and is the favorite animal of Eve (as has tattooed on his foot) but had never seen free .
So that, for reasons quite different from what we had imagined, Bora Bora remember specially.
Thursday, October 8 - Today was our last day in French Polynesia, and we go from here with a smile from ear to ear and the jinx forgotten. After
Bora Bora and the episode of the tsunami, the weather improved considerably, and spent 4 days on the island very quiet and hardly explored wilder than we've known (Huahine, whose rough translation is "vagina" ... ole Now :-) 4 days followed by other much more active in the most populous after Tahiti and also the most tourist after Bora Bora, Moorea. Lots of sun, lots of beach, sea, sea, and many Hinano (local beer). Also we socialized a lot more in the second half, although without reaching the level of Fiji, we have enjoyed visiting a few days and many nights chupipandi fraternization dinner followed by speeches and games until you drop. We had a great, and now we feel sorry to have to leave.
And among other things, because the end of a party has been tremendous.
Before continuing, I must say that if something was a little disappointed we French Polynesia has been under water. There are very little coral, possibly equally fleeced by a star that devours and by unsustainable tourism industry for many years. And local customs, which are also to see the ocean as an inexhaustible source of resources. So snorkeling was pretty depressing, hoping that it was at least the level of Fiji and constatantdo that looked more like the Mediterranean but with tropical species. Amos, if the minnows were hiding as soon as I looked, symptom of that here there is a lot to gun spearfishing. Even at last made a dive with a bottle, we reconfirmed that it was a site that would be worth spending the Paston it ... but at least the dive was as happy note that probe successfully return to diving after that perforate the eardrum me on my last dive, to a year and a half in Australia.
But this morning, as a parting gift, we gave one last (and other) opportunity to underwater life around here: we come to swim with whales . We had been 3 experiences of this kind so far this trip (the whale shark in Mozambique, the dolphins in Mauritius, and blankets in Fiji), in each and every hair stood we like hooks, and vividly remember were among the highlights of this year. But whales this morning I think takes the cake, if only for its size, imagine what it's like looking into the eyes of a mob of between 10 and 15 meters and 40 tonnes, which strange watching you but you can keep swimming a few meters hers, a slight flick sent you back home. We saw 2 males and one female with her calf (of which already weigh 600 kilos and measure 5 meters at birth =: -0), and there have been two great moments: the first vision we had of them swimming together a male, the female and the calf, and on another occasion one of the males has been directly below! ... while half of us thought "Gulps, I hope you do not run the air and you want to come to the surface right now" =: -0 Anyway, the tour has continued much as swimming with more dolphins, rays and sharks .. . but it is almost a "waste" because the magic of the whales supposed to despise what other conditions you marvel.
few weeks ago we happened to start compiling a list of sites that we stay for visiting and we still have things to do after this year, and swimming with whales was just one of them. To our surprise, we have crossed from the list even before return. It dificl for us to think of a better farewell to paradise.
Ia Orana, Tahiti!
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Who know (worth mentioning)
Not as much as in Fiji, but in Tahiti and its islands the slow pace has also favored the interaction. Although mixed. We begin with
has perhaps been our most authentic experience of CouchSurfing. Nathalie and her parents (Louise and August) gave us three nights of the historically famous Tahitian hospitality, and although our French is practically non-existent and their parents' English was poor, was one of those times when the desire to communicate beyond these "minimal" obstacles (and, if compounded, turned to Nathalie perfect English). Even the night we cooked for them a more than decent tortilla we feel generous ... because, in addition to, they brought a red tuna sashimi with Louis's secret sauce that makes us salivate just thinking about it. In a country full of luxury hotels and French Sticking expatriates living the high life, they were our immersion in particular as local live not working in the tourism industry, and they treated us like guests of 5 stars.
After this promising start, we had a few days in Tahiti reminded us that one of the worst aspects of travel in parts of France, where most recalcitrant chauvinistic mandate is to make clear that they do not like to visit the country without know your language. There have been many countries in which it has given us very angry not knowing the local language, and us not able to communicate further with his people, but when you feel you "scrub" your limitation and do not show the slightest interest in use a non-neutral language (the English, which most experts know whether or not), in my case the effect is rather the opposite and not just increased my interest to learn their language. Anyway, I've never understood certain claims idiomatic, but are reflections that would give to an entire book. Fortunately, after the first unsuccessful last days if we met very few French Majete. As Anique Marie, a teacher who took more than 20 years "using" his calling to live in all ex-colonies and French overseas territories, and we invite you to dine with her one night. O Guilleaume Tiphaene and a super nice couple on their honeymoon a year in duration with which we agree 3 days in the hostel with more room in which we have been long time.
days were enough people curious to know. For example, throughout the year had not coincided with a single traveler of the Czech Republic, and 2 met 2 different days. But if there was a meeting with a lot to say was the partner of Israelis formed by Shahaf and Pnina. To begin with, Pnina know I identify with her because I think in your case should look like the frustration to come forward and prove that caught your name or that of three: - / And Juanjo, with these two jacks so labeled in English, has proven to be a universally fucking name. Only the German and Dutch heritage and the Afrikans from South Africa, have the same sound and they caught him the first time. For the rest, general have been John (pronounced "Huan"), much to my regret that so just a name that makes me soso ... with all due respect to the Johns read this.
But the most sympathetic of our meeting is that to me sounded Shahaf, but Eva was sure that I had met before, and not in Tahiti. They also remembered him but Eve, displaying an amazing hard disk, it conjured up the exact spot where we had agreed: this (are those who are sitting at the bottom of the pool, jumping behind me.) The best thing is that I do with them to exchange a few words, but Eve had not fallen into the pool because access was steep, so only saw them, and away! Then we started talking and by stories we had told Nathan, Eva also links that CouchSurfing had made her day just before we came, when I let go, they were convinced they were in a seer =: -0 surprise Passed by the accumulation of matches, and exchanged the obligatory "that's a small world!" hit it off very well and spent a couple of evenings to talk nonstop, along with an unexpected day together "threatened" by a distant tsunami. To make matters worse, precisely were in their last days of his trip a year, so it was very interesting for us to hear your feelings about being back ... we still have a long time, but within months we will be in your situation: - /
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And just our third continent! The truth is that we had the feeling that time has flown in Oceania, and 2 months have been great. And in Chile, where everything is a lot more like home (including the "ñ" on keyboards :-), if we have a certain feeling that the countdown is accelerating: - / But squeeze it till the end!
PD: October 15 Today is a special day for me. To date was a day of sad memory, but just received news that our niece was born Luna, the daughter of Carol (sister of Eva) and Alvaro. Not yet known, and is the second reason why I feel that I will have a special relationship with this child: the first was that, without knowing it, both his parents and I had the same preference name, and the second is that by the time I had a hunch (or more probably hoping) that was born exactly on the anniversary of the death of my mother, and so diluyese somewhat hardness of this day. Luna has stuck, and as Eva says, we are happy to think that the coincidence suppose that will have a wonderful guardian angel. Welcome to the world, Luna!
