The best laid plans ...

Well, we're home at last ... although our journey did not proceed the way we thought it would, we're here, and happy.

On Friday we left Bill and Anni Harnois at Avila Beach, and drove northwards, past San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay, rather than south to Los Angeles, so as to visit a couple we had met on the ship, Bill and Toni Pisor. After a delicious lunch, and much reminiscing, we acceded to their suggestion that we should stay the night with them, rather than staying in a motel closer to LA. So what for plans? This would be much more fun. We'd been to Morro Bay 11 years ago, when 5 metre (16 foot) waves were crashing over the breakwater, but this time the sun was shining and the ocean was truly Pacific - it's a really delightful seaside tourist town, with wonderful shops and art galleries.

The Pisors have a 2 year-old grand-daughter, who loves an afternoon trip to the Morro - a huge lump of rock situated in the bay, joined to the shore by a sandbar and breakwater. We joined them, to feed lettuce and cabbage leaves to a colony of about 50 cute squirrels, and to watch a number of sea otters lazily swimming 4 or 5 metres offshore. We're used to seeing little Asian otters in local zoos, but these were much bigger - at least a metre long - and instead of running around near a stream they floated on their backs, soaking up the sunshine. Some carried a baby, resting on their chest, as though they were furry boats. Skylar's outing then took us a couple of hundred metres away, to see a pod of sea lions which hang out near the fish shops. They were huge! Some 3 metres long, and very round, they would slide effortlessly up onto a pontoon almost within arm's reach of us, then slide back into the water, around a fishing boat, and back again. One delighted in swimming under the jetty, barking loudly so that the concrete jetty magnified the sound. It was really impressive!

Throughout our driving journey we endeavoured to avoid the Interstate freeways wherever possible, driving on local roads in the same direction, and so it was as we headed for Los Angeles, travelling on Route 101. After a pleasant journey through farmland for the first 100 miles, the road followed the shoreline almost all the way for the last 120 miles, with rugged mountains including the Santa Barbara range, covered with Joshua trees and cactus, directly beside the road on the other side. We stopped at a farmer's market at Ventura and bought bread, spicy sausage, cheese, strawberries and California oranges for lunch, which we ate beside the sea, then travelled past renowned surf beaches such as Malibu and Santa Monica, goggling at the way all the homes were built over the sand of the beach - how they must fear high seas!

After a six-hour journey we arrived at the airport, where we were informed that we had driven 3670 miles (5872 kilometres) since we had collected the car in Minneapolis-St Paul - a really enjoyable and worthwhile journey. We gathered our bulging bags and headed for the Qantas counter, expecting a boring 8-hour wait before we caught the plane to Brisbane at 11.20 pm ... but once again our plans were to alter!

"We're sorry", we were told, "but that plane is not leaving tonight"!!! It was suggested that "maybe" we might like to fly to Melbourne instead - and we would only have a wait of "two or three hours" before we could fly to Brisbane, another three hours away. Our startled faces must have shown our opinion of that suggestion, because the next words were "Or perhaps you might like to stay here tonight and fly tomorrow - we'll put you up at the Hilton, and of course all meals are included". As you can guess, the Hilton won, so, after some frantic phone calls to stop Rochelle arriving at the airport at 6 am, we slept in very-un-aircraft-like comfort.

A great flight, the sight of Rochelle waiting for us at 5 pm, a comfortable ride home, and a baked dinner left for us by Stephanie and Jim - what a wonderful ending to a fantastic trip. It's great to be home, and we plan to stay put for some time ... but it's good to dream, isn't it? Thanks for being with us along the way.

Frances and John

California, here we come!

The drive from Carson City, Nevada, on the plains, to Lake Tahoe, in the Sierra Ranges of California, is only a few kilometres, but is almost mind-blowing in geographical contrast. We wound our way up the range, through a forest of pine trees, and there was a bright blue lake, the second deepest in the United States, surrounded by forests and edged with granite boulders. We were fascinated! We stopped at a public access point for photographs, and detailed investigation, then travelled on again, planning to stop frequently to view the lake from other viewpoints. Oh, how wrong we were ... this is the USA, not Australia, and almost all of our 66 miles journey around the lake displayed only the backs of houses, each of which had their own personal, wonderful view of the lake, but which totally obscured the view for lesser souls who hadn't purchased land.
Fortunately, we managed to view from two or three public access points, as we dodged the Sunday traffic (what MUST it be like in the summer, or in the middle of ski season?), but the best view of all was as we came out of the forest, along a steep downwards spur, with no protection on either side of the road ... never mind viewing the lake, it was hard enough looking at the roads to drive, as every inclination was to shut our eyes in terror! We agree that Lake Tahoe must be a wonderful place to stay for a vacation ... the anbience left us somewhat underwhelmed ... and the decidedly 1950s style motel (by age, not modern reproduction!) which we had booked into, added to our jaundiced viewpoint. We cancelled our reservation, and drove another 100kilometres downhill to Placerville, an old gold town.
However, the next day exceeded our expectations for enjoyment. Still under brilliant blue Californian skies, we ambled through the El Dorado area of the Sierra foothills, not a long way inland from San Francisco, surrounded by beautiful views, green trees, and lots of wildflowers. It was like every dream holiday one has heard about ... and hardly another tourist in sight!
Later in the day we headed up above the snowline again, so as to be as close to Yosemite National Park as possible for the next day ... and what a day it was!
Yosemite is all they say it is ... huge mountains, beautiful vistas, immense waterfalls, gushing with fresh snow-melt, wildflowers, birds, deer ... no bears, though, as presumably it's still too early for them to come out of hibernation. We estimate that we drove around more than 500 bends, each of them on the outside of the road, with no barrier between our narrow strip of bitumen and the 4000ft drop beside us ... but it was worth it! This is a beautiful place, and we were grateful to see it on a non-busy day when there were only about 1000 other people to share it with. It must be incredibly awful in summer, but we loved it!
Yesterday, as we drove westward towards the coast, with the snow still visible in our rear-vision mirror, the temperature rose and rose, until it reached 100F - it was SO hot, as we travelled through miles of Californian fig and almond trees. What changes in weather we've experienced! Now we're at the coast - the first time we've seen the sea in a month - and enjoying a visit with friends Bill and Anni. Tomorrow we beging the trip back to LA, and then back to Australia. We're not signing off yet, though - watch for another blog next week, reviwing our trip.
We've enjoyed jour company along the way!
Frances & John

Going west - tunefully

Salt Lake City delighted us ... once we recovered from driving on its freeways! All the 'Interstates ', and many other freeways, have a 75 miles per hour speed limit - that's 120 kilometres per hour - and they stick carefully to that limit. Not so in Utah - the signs say 75mph, but the drivers use that merely as a starting point ...whew! It was a relief to find ourselves in the city streets, and to drive to our hotel in Temple Square.
Our main aim in going to Salt Lake City was to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in rehearsal, at the Tabernacle, which was two minutes' walk from our hotel. The doors were due to open, so we walked across at ten to eight, only to be greeted by the news that the choir wasn't rehearsing there that evening! Apparently they were rehearsing for a festival this weekend at the Catholic cathedral of the Madeleine, and were practising there, with no visitors allowed. You can imagine how disappointed we were (Frances has dreamt of this for almost half a century!!!), but fortunately a kind "Elder" took pity on us, and suggested that we should just quietly attend the rehearsal anyway. This we did, after a frantic rush to get the car keys, the car, and finally an almost-impossible-to-find parking spot ... and it was wonderful! Imagine more than 350 singers, a full orchestra, and a huge pipe organ, in a beautiful cathedral, decorated with superb murals ... and then imagine the music, everything from St Matthew's Passion to negro spirituals - WOW!
We were able to visit the Tabernacle at lunchtime the next day, this time to attend a half-hour demonstration of the organ - that too was a superb experience! The Tabernacle looks like a huge boiled egg - oval, with a completely curved roof, and it has superb acoustics - we were given a demonstration of how we could literally hear a pin drop, and a piece of paper tear, from more than 100 feet away, and even John (who's deafer than a beetle) could hear it!
We filled the morning in by visiting the Family History Library - five floors of family history information, in addition to the Family Search records, available on computer, but stored in an underground vault in the Granite Mountains north of the city. Most libraries are fairly impersonal, but this one was populated by eager (almost over-eager) volunteers, willing to help you through every step. To John's delight we managed to find a book with the records of his great-great-grandparents (the Labuddas) arriving as emigrants from Germany to New York, in 1873, along with 5 children, including his great-grandmother. Family lore told us that they had gone to America, disliked it, returned to Germany, then emigrated to Queensland, but there was no proof - and now there is!
We left SLC after lunch, drove across salt flats to Bonneville and Wendover ... and today we've driven 434 miles (695 km), right across Nevada ... tomorrow we head into California ... and the sun is shining! We've been surrounded by snowy mountains all day, but the temperature has been in the 60s F - that's in the 20sC ... it's wonderful.

In the footsteps of Lewis and Clark - and the Oregon Trail

Our journey westward from the Minnesota border has, coincidentally, largely followed the route of Lewis and Clark in 1806, and this has greatly added to our enjoyment of the journey. In the last few days we have visited several of the geographical features which they noted, and which then became guide-posts for those heading west along the Oregon trail.
Amongst these have been the Devil's Peak, in Wyoming, and Pompey's Pillar and the Beaverhead in Montana, all large outcrops which stand out from the surrounding countryside. We followed the Yellowstone River across Montana, as they did (couldn't visit the park, of course, as it's always snowed in until May) and found several tributes to Sacarejawa, a Native American woman who travelled with them, who is considered one of the truly strong women in American history. As we've wandered through the countryside, avoiding the Interstate highways wherever possible, we've seen statues, signs, parks, murals - it's wonderful to see the pride that people have in their history. For us, however, perhaps the best feature visited by Lewis & Clark was along the Jefferson River - we were ambling along, enjoying the views of the snowy mountains in Yellowstone across the lazy, winding river, when we drove into a huge gorge - we'd never heard of the Jefferson River Canyon, but it was absolutely spectacular! As well as the steep rocky sides, with the grain of the rocks tipped to 45 degrees, we also saw a huge cave which, we are told, could fit the average house in twice - and not a tourist in sight!
We had planned to stay in Butte, Montana, but were seduced by the tiny town of Whitehall ... and when we woke up the next morning we found the entire world white with snow. However, we managed to drive southwards, along another part of the Oregon trail, and into Idaho. At Idaho Falls we 'called it quits', and booked into a motel beside the Snake River for two nights, with the day in between being dreadful for driving - snow in the morning, rain all day, and snow again in the evening.
What does one do at a time like this? One investigates museums! Yesterday's was the Idaho Museum - and it had a wonderful display of artefacts dredged up from the wreck of the "Titanic". This morning, in finer weather, we visited Blackfoot, the "Potato Capital of the World", and thoroughly enjoyed their potato museum. You should have seen the poster of Marilyn Monroe, stylishly dressed in a potato sack, posing in a potato paddock!
Now we're in the centre of Salt Lake City, directly across the road from the Mormon Tabernacle, and the Family History Centre ... but we'll save that for our next blog ...

An unusual Easter

We "Wandering Windolfs" joined the Episcopalian residents of Sheridan, Wyoming on Easter morning, for a service in their impressive brick church, lit by wonderful stained-glass windows, and sporting a huge pipe organ and a huge array of white Easter lilies. The service was much as we expected, although it sounded strange to our ears in the strong Wyoming twang, but the highlight was a cowboy song, accompanied by guitars and organ, sung by the minister and choir. It was far from our experience, but it really made us very aware of where we were.
Following the service we headed north to Montana. We've been following the direction of some of the excellent Interstate Highways, but getting away from their 75-miles-per-hour blur, and travelling on local roads wherever we could. Sunday's side-roads led us through the Crow Indian reservation, and we had a wonderful time. We ambled through rolling grasslands, beside the snowcapped Big Horn mountains, in beautiful sunshine, finally coming to the township of Crow Agency, near the Little Bighorn battlefield, the site of Custer's "last stand", in 1876.
This memorial was a major feature of our journey through the United States, a place which John has wanted to visit for many years. Why the interest? Well, one of the men who fought on that day was a Carl (or Charles) Windolph, a German immigrant, who went on to write a book entitled I served with Custer, and who lived longer than anyone else who was in the battle. We don't know for certain whether he was a relative, but all Windolfs and Windolphs (as with many names, both spellings are linked) in Germany are considered related to one another, and photos of Charles Windolph show him to look exactly like John's grandfather, Carl Windolf. Sergeant Carl Windolph was a sharpshooter, who helped save many of Benteen's men, and he was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honour for this. The medal is on show in the museum at the battlesite.
Frances was particularly pleased to see that after so many years the resting-places of many of the Native American warriors who died in the battle are now being marked on the grassy hills, along with the markers of the US 7th Cavalry. A wonderful Native American memorial, acknowledging all the different tribes which participated, has now been erected at the site as well. The Crow people now staff the battlefield museum and shop, which until now has been run solely by the US National Memorials staff.
To our surprise, we saw very few chocolate eggs in stores for Easter. Children tend to be given baskets with toys etc, or even, we were told, real rabbits. Many participate in "egg hunts" for dyed, real eggs. However, Easter was really subdued as a festival, which really surprised us. We had our own little celebration with a box of foil-wrapped chocolates, instead.
Further south the Spring flowers may be out, but here nothing is blooming, and trees are still bare. We have not spent more than a few minutes at a time out of sight of snow since we left Minnesota and Wisconsin. It means beautiful sights, under the wide blue skies ... Montana is truly the "Big Sky Country", and we love it.

The White Hills of Dakota

Yesterday the Black Hills reached a record - for the most snow ever recorded in a year ... and we're here to see it! Everywhere looks beautiful, with snow covering trees, hills, cars ... fortunately not roads, which are ploughed so that they are as good as any other time of the year, so it's easy to drive around, providing you only choose bitumen roads.
We arrived at Rapid City on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday visited Keystone (not a cop in sight!) and Mt Rushmore. We expected the carved heads of four presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln - to be interesting, but they were truly spectacular, and we spent several hours at the impressive memorial, viewing, visiting the museum, talking to visitors from all over the USA, and taking photographs - lots of them.
Wednesday and Thursday nights we spent at Custer, a friendly little town very similar to Yea, where Frances grew up. There were other similarities, too ... we woke up to fog so thick that we could only just see to the other side of the road, and a top temperature of minus 3 degrees Celsius. The difference was that the car (a Toyota Corolla) was covered about 15cm thick with snow! We had planned to spend the day driving around the Custer State Park wildlife loop, and visiting the sculpture-in-progress of Crazy Horse, but decided to call a rest day instead, so spent the day reading, sleeping, eating buffalo ribs and elk chilli, and walking around town talking to people - we had a great time!
Today, Good Friday, we awoke to slightly warmer weather and blue skies, so headed for the Wildlife Loop. We saw more than 100 buffalo grazing in different places, some very close to the road, but fortunately on the other side of a "crick", so at a safe distance. They are VERY big! We saw lots of deer, and four big-horn sheep, which were right beside the road ... F asked J to take a close-up photo of one of them, and he did, but somehow only ended up with a photo of its rear end - Oops! We also saw quite a number of wild turkeys - they quite made us hungry!
Today (well, Easter Saturday, but we're 17 hours behind here) is Rick and Jill's wedding, and we thought of them so much as we drove, as bluebirds kept fkying along beside us. We thought that these "bluebirds of happiness" were a wonderful omen, and were thrilled that they (so we're told) have just returned to the area this week - what good luck!
No time left for Crazy Horse, but we drove on to Deadwood, past signs such as "Ghostly Gulch", "Calamity Lane", "Misery Canyon", and so on. Deadwood is FULL of casinos - "Wild Bill Hickock's", "Lucky Kate's" and, believe it or not, "The Fortunate Coves"!!! Declining to visit any of them, we drove to Spearfish along a wonderful river valley canyon - towering rocky cliffs, tall black pines dropping clumps of snow from 20 metres up, the stream flowing between smooth white blankets of snow - it was spectacular!
Tomorrow we leave South Dakota to travel west to Wyoming and north to Montana. Things are getting very "cowboy" here already, so we're practicing our "Howdies"

The Badlands ... not bad!

Three blogs in two days - it's good to have time to catch up, and we've seen so much that we want to share it!
Yesterday was a leisurely day, to explore the Badlands of South Dakota. For those who, like us, have enjoyed the Bungle Bungle ranges in Western Australia, the Badlands are not dissimilar, except that you find them below the level of the prairie, descend down amongst them, and drive up and over peaks, as well as between them. Row upon row of steep, craggy, eroded peaks reach up like fingers, for about 40 miles (some 60 km), forming a difficult area for early settlers, wanting to travel to the west - truly Bad Lands for them. This was home to the Lakota people, and is still home to many of them.
In the summer the Badlands are almost desert-dry, with small cactus growing, although cattle are successfully farmed in the grassy valleys. Our appreciation was enhanced by snow gleaming whitely from every niche and crag - we could see just how rugged they were. We visited the wonderful visitors' centre and appreciated two films on the area, as well as visiting the excellent museum, then quietly wandered along, stopping every mile or so for yet another photo opportunity. One stop was on a grassy knoll, where dozens of prairie dogs - not unlike a big guinea-pig, but with a skinny tail a few centimetres long - popped up from their holes to observe us. They were quite unfazed by us, rolling around in the sunshine, chasing one another - then disappearing down their holes if started. We also saw quite a number of bighorn sheep, and a really cute deer, which stood in the snow right beside us, and stared at us, before disappearing over a bank. For us, the Badlands were terrific!
We visited two other places of note, as well.
The first, at Cactus Flat, where we entered the park, was an information centre about the Minuteman missiles, stored by the US during the Cold War. Dozens of local farms were secretly bought by the military, and silos were erected, each having a missile and up to 50 men installed under them. None were ever used, the farmers, who kept operating the farms as cover, had their farms returned to them, and life went on .... except that there are still at least 100 missiles buried beneath the prairie!
We had lots of warning about our other destination ... for hundreds of miles we had seen repeated signs for "WALL DRUG", each one cornier than the last. Well, we visited Wall, and its drugstore - only 2 of 100 or so people yesterday - in the summer more than 5000 people visit every day!!! It was just as corny as its signs, but huge fun - a country drugstore which made its name by offering free ice water and 5cent coffee to travellers across the prairie. We had a late lunch of buffalo burgers and cherry pie, and felt that we really fitted into American life ... what a hoot!

Across the Prairie

Weather forecasts for Minnesota and South Dakota were for heavy snowfalls at the weekend, and they were right, with the I90, the interstate freeway (where you can drive up to 75 m.p.h. - 120kph) being closed because of snow, but we've been really lucky. We left Jacki and Terry's in brilliant sunshine, and drove south and west to Minnesota, then across Minnesota on a 45 degree angle, NE to SW, missing the snow, which was further south.
To our delight, our route (pronounced ROWT in the US - we're learning!) went through Paynesville MN. Like its namesake in Victoria, where brothers Rick and Bob live, this town is beside a large lake, but this one wasn't blue, or brown, it was very, very white from shore to shore. The temperature outside, in mid-afternoon, was officially 32F (O degrees celsius), but the winds blowing across the prairie were at 60 km an hour, officially lowering the temperature by another 12 degrees Fahrenheit - and this was with the sun shining so brightly that we got really hot in the car!
We spent the night in Montevideo MN, purely because this pretty town had the same name as the capital of Uruguay, which we visited and loved when we were in South America. Some snow fell overnight, but the sun soon melted it off the car, and we continued across the prairie into South Dakota, to visit a tiny town called De Smet. For anyone who knows of the books and TV series of "Little House on the Prairie", and all the others in the series, this tiny town is a mecca, as it was the home of the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and we felt truly welcome there.
To get to and from De Smet we used back roads, and kept well away from the highways, which allowed us to soak in the atmosphere of the prairies - undulating hills which have almost no trees, the wide grasslands covered in several feet of snow, and almost all animals being kept in huge barns.
At one stage we came across an area, about 20km long, where pheasants (originally from India but now common in the US) were looking for feed along the road edges, where little bits of grass emerged from the snow - as we came to the crest of one hill, there were about 15 on the road, which necessitated some really fancy driving to miss them all.
Our eventual stop, after 320 miles (just over 500 km) was a motel at Murdo SD, surrounded by piles of snow several metres high. Motels here are wonderful - our room had 2 queen beds, an armchair, an eating table and 2 chairs, 99 TV channels, AND a heated inside pool and sauna, for US$57 - breakfast included - and we washed and dried all our clothes for $2 more! Petrol (GAS!) costs about US$2 - US$2.10 a US gallon (4.2 litres) - about US$50 cents (or 75 cents Australian) a litreThis is a great way to travel.

Wintry Wisconsin

The Windolfs are now the proud drivers of a bright red Toyota Corolla and getting lots of practice at driving on the other side of the road. John drove when we collected the car - up to 65 miles per hour along Minneapolis/St Paul freeways, following Mary Ann! Frances, who'd previously only been a right-hand driver (and a back seat driver, says John!) waited until we reached quieter Wisconsin country roads before slipping behind the wheel, but now feels quite at home.
Almost all the roads we've driven on have been snow-lined, but the snow-ploughs ensure that every road is clear, so it's no worse than driving at home - just incredibly beautiful!
After saying farewell to Mary Ann on Friday morning, with thousands of thanks for her wonderful hospitality, we headed for Lake Superior, in the north of Wisconsinto Washburn, to stay with Jacki, Rochelle's sister, and her husband Terry, in their B&B. Jacki made it her duty to fill us with delicious food, and Terry spent Saturday driving us all over the peninsula, and introducing us to the area.
Lake Superior, America's largest lake, is as big as many seas, and most of it was still frozen. We saw commercial fisherman trying to break the ice around their boats, so that they could begin the fishing season, and the remains of an ice-road where people had been driving back and forth to nearby Madeline Island until the day before ... the ice was thick enough even for trucks to drive on it, as on a normal road.
Amongst other things we saw was maple syrup being collected (had fresh maple syrup for breakfast next morning) and a man fishing through the ice (we had ice-caught fish for dinner, but from further up the peninsula, at Cornucopia, Wisconsin's northernmost town).
Back at the house we sat in the warm and watched the birds - finches, chickadees, blue jays and a female cardinal - and cute red squirrels, eating seeds from the bird feeders. There was no sign of the bears which often visit, but a deer wandered up to graze near the house, finding patches of grass that had no snow covering. It was wonderful.
We hear from Coolum that they've had rain instead of snow - LOTS of it. We've also had a message that our house-sitter, another Terry, is ill, and going to Brisbane for investigation of a heart problem, so we wish him well. Thanks to Sue and Terry for all they've done, and to the friends (and the cattery which makes Theodora so welcome) who are stepping into the breech. We haven't yet started counting how many days we have left until we return, but we'll see you in less than 3 weeks!

Windolfs in Winter Wonderland

This is no April Fool's joke - everywhere we look is white! However, the snow is only about an inch thick, and the roads are clear, so this is the sort of snow that is fun! It's great to sit inside and watch great, big, fat snowflakes drift down, wafting left and right in the breeze - especially with a hot chocolate in hand, and Mary Ann's great company.
Mary Ann and her friends Keith and Jan, whom we first met in 1994, thought we must be missing GREEN, so took us to a conservatory full of spring flowers - a wonderful place. we took in deep breaths of colour, and are back to enjoying WHITE.
We've changed our plans a little bit because of the weather - had hoped to drive to Northern Minnesota to visit Rochelle's mother, Polly, of whom we're very fond, but the snow up there is much deeper, and many roads are flooded, so we're still in Stillwater. We'll collect our car today, and hope to visit Rochelle's sister Jacki in northern Wisconsin at the weekend, before heading west. In the meantime, we've been enjoying a bed that doesn't rock us to sleep, good food, and lots and lots of games of cribbage - Life's good. We're thinking of all of you at home - hope that wedding plans are going well for Rick and Jill - hope that David and Tina's belated honeymoon in NZ has all the snow they want! Love to all of you, wherever you are, and whatever the weather.

Snow!

After a wonderful bed in Chicago (luxury was nice after 3 nights on the train), we arrived in Minnesota ... to be greeted by snowflakes! Our reception, however, was warm - it was so great to see MaryAnn waiting for us with coats, rugs, etc - not that we needed any of them, as it's much warmer than Cape Horn!
We're now busy exploring the delights of Stillwater and Minneapolis/St Paul - the History Center yesterday, the local library today, a concert tomorrow, the gardens the next day ... and catching up not only with MaryAnn, but with her family and friends whom we've met before in Australia and on our previous visit here - we seem as though we're back on real earth after the artificial (and wonderful!) life on the ship.
One of our joys on the train was the company of several different Amish people - one couple have invited us to visit them in Lancaster County, though this will have to wait for another trip to the States, another lad hopes we'll call in at his town in Montana when we get that far.
Currently we're trying to sort out our travel plans for next week - snow, ice and major floods in northwest Minnesota are causing problems, but something will work out. We'll let you know!

Oh-Oh-Oh-Oklahoma

Oklahoma - Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain ..... and doesn't it sweep!! We left California in bright sunshine - after the smog finally lifted about 2pm - and somehow lulled our minds away from the fact that most of the USA is still wintry - it might be Spring on the calendar, but it's hardly spring-like. Still, the redbuds are in bloom, and the wheat we saw (about 10cm high) was trying to wave, and smell sweet! We've just spent the day at the National Cowboys Hall of Fame, which is excellent ... though much more formal than the The Stockmen's Hall of Fame in Longreach, Queensland.
To get here we travelled on Amtrak - and what a change it was from the ship! However, we've thoroughly enjoyed our trip so far - we slept well on the train, and enjoyed eating crackers (dry biscuits) and fruit instead of five-course gourmet meals - you CAN get too much good food! Tomorrow we head back to the train again, on to Chicago for a night, then to Minneapolis.
We spent our day in California at Disneyland - and it was wonderful! We went on several great rides, and met Mickey, listened to several bands, travelled through "It's a small world" twice ... turned into kids again! (ALMOST!)
We missed the Queensland elections, but are pleased to hear from Stephanie that our votes weren't needed - we've really appreciated all the friends who've kept us in touch.

We're just about Splendored out!

No great places to report on today - it's a grey, gloomy sea day and we're spending our time packing our 'ports' ... tomorrow morning at 7.30 we leave the Carnival Splendor. We'll be leaving behind lots of new friends, some of them very special, and some wonderful staff members (who come from 56 different countries, who work at least 13 hours a day on split shifts, with never more than 7 hours break ... and who earn ... wait for it! ... US$74 a month!!!) There are lots of things we'll miss, including the superb food, but we're looking forward to being on dry land.
What are we doing next? Well, first of all we're going to see Mickey ... Mickey Mouse! We'll spend tomorrow at Disneyland, then on Friday we'll catch the Texas Eagle, on our way to Minnesota, via Oklahoma City and Chicago.
We won't be blogging as much over the next couple of weeks, as it will be impossible on the train, and our friend MaryAnn Stellmach in Stillwater Minnesota doesn't have computer access. we'll do our best, though, and after we start driving back to Los Angeles, at the beginning of April, we'll try to be a lot more regular. We hope to drive first to northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota, but our plans will depend on the weather, which has been severe in recent weeks - there has been SO much snow in the US - sometimes in places that haven't seen snow for years.
Easter will, we hope, see us in the Black Hills of Dakota for a few days (although we'll be wishing we were in Paynesville, Viv, for Rick and Jill's wedding), and then we hope to head to Montana to the Little Big Horn. After that we'll go to Salt Lake City (where we hope to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practising), then into California, so that we can visit Yosemite National Park and friends at San Louis Obispo on the coast.
We're due to leave Los Angeles on Anzac Day ... and get home on the 27th April ... how's that for a 13 hour trip!
We've really appreciated the feedback from those of you who've been reading our blog - and thank all those who've kept us in touch with the news outside of our floating home - it would be very easy to forget that there's another world out there!
We'll be in touch!

The results of fame ... and sin!

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was a tiny fishing village in the early 1950s, but now has more than 250 thousand inhabitants, and thousands and thousands of time-share apartments ... all because a beautiful woman fancied a particular man. The original tiny village was the site of the movie Night of the Iguana, but this was only indirectly the cause of its rise to fame (actually, we're told, the movie was awful) ... the secret of success was that Elizabeth Taylor, who wasn't in the movie, chased Richard Burton here ... and the resultant media furore led to people coming to see what it was all about, then to an airport, then to more people ... and so on!
We chose to get away from the 'plastic' Puerto Vallarta, and travelled to the countryside - dry, dusty, lots of cowboys on horses, wearing sombreros ... the cowboys, that is, not the horses! We visited a couple of little villages, with very rough cobbled streets, well-loved churches, and friendly people, who were willing to chat - as well as one CAN chat with sign language, a few Spanish or English words in common, and our well-thumbed dictionary. The village of Las Palmas had the street blocked for a local market, which was fun, and the people made us feel really at home.
On the return journey, though, the bus stopped at an up-market jewellert store, in the hope that we would be so astounded by the Mexican opals, Mexican gold, Mexican silver, that we wouldn't notice the US$500-US$2000 price tags! Unfortunately, for them, the prices we're willing to pay are more at village level ... even after we got back to the restaurant and markets near the ship, we shunned the US$20 meals and discovered a family business operating in the carpark, where we each had pork chops in a delicious sauce, tomato rice, refried beans, peppers, more hot tortillas than we could eat, and a homemade orange drink, for 20 pesos (About $2 Australian) each. And THIS meal came with entertainment - five little boys aged about 5-9, who talked to us, sang to us, even helped us up the steps after we finished eating ... THAT'S the part of Mexico that WE enjoy!

Ole! Mexico!

We're back in the Northern hemisphere, and into the land of manana (pronounced man-yarna, not like the ban-annas that our American shipmates eat almost incessantly ... it's nothing to see someone carrying six to their cabin, and the greatest complaints on board - other than those about 'Goose', the cruise director - are when the ban-annas run out!). Manana means that we arise slowly, eat breakfast in a leisurely manner, lounge by the pool, talk to friends, make time for lunch, laze a bit more, play cribbage, eat dinner, go to a show - you can see what busy lives we lead!
Yesterday, however was a Shore Day ... in Acapulco. We're not quite sure what we expected from Acapulco, but what we saw was delightful, and very different from what we expected. Acapulco now has a population of 2.5 million people, and is divided basically into 3 areas - Old Acapulco, "Golden Acapulco" and "Diamond Head". Diamond Head is the newest area, for the super-super rich, those for whom Golden Acapulco is not luxurious enough. Needless to say, we chose not to visit either of these areas, but headed through Old Acapulco, then into the countryside.
First, however, we went to see the cliff divers - when in Paris, you see the Eiffel tower, here you see men jumping from high cliffs into a narrow tdal gulch ... we tried to get John to put on his togs and join in, but he wouldn't co-operate! They were striking ... oops, wrong word ... they were spectacular, but fortunately didn't strike anything!
From there we headed for Corayuca Lagoon, the site of many of Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan films, and some of the Indiana Jones spectaculars. We lazed under palm roofs, munching guacamole and chicken tostadas, admiring the lagoon, then wandered across the road to the beach - long, clean, with huge rolling breakers, where we held a private reverie for the Sunshine Coast and for all those involved in the big clean-up, as we enjoyed the lovely scene in front of us.
Our trip was meant to have lasted three and a half hours, but we left the ship at 8.30, and didn't get back until 4pm - that's manana for you! After our bus returned to the port, the guide offered us a free shuttle to the old town, and the markets, where we bought blackberries and strawberries for AU$1 a kilo ... John and I were the last to return, so sat around with the guide and the driver until all the traffic had eased, then made an individual guided tour past tacky streets, seedy bars and outdoor restaurants which we were assured that Montezuma would be proud of - because no-one ever ate there without him getting his revenge!
This was a really fun day - but it made us realise that our time on the ship is limited - only four more days until Long Beach. However, we visit Puerto Vallarta tomorrow, so there's plenty of fun ahead.

Goodbye South America

We had somehow thought that Ecuador would be a let-down, as it was the end of our South American sojourn, a country we knew little about, and a lesser city - Manta - that was not a capital or a large, well-known area such as Guayaquil. Instead, we found it a delightful place, with some of the friendliest people we have met, and wonderful weather. One thing we had not considered on the west coast of the continent was that, although it rarely rains, the coasts of both Chile and Peru are shrouded in fog for at least eight months of every year - an effect of the cold Humbolt current which comes up from the Antarctic. This means that all the coastal areas we visited were grey, and although we could see the Andes as we travelled, it was through a constant light haze.
The Humbolt current flows westward away from Ecuador, because of a drift on the equator, so we were greeted by sunny days, and sunny natures. Few cruise ships visit Manta, and we were welcomed warmly - we think it's because we're a change from the huge tuna that are the usual creatures which are brought in from the sea here - we watched at least ten ships unloading frozen tuna (each larger than we are) for eight hours straight ... apparently more canned tuna comes from Manta than anywhere else in the world.
Away from the beautiful beaches we visited tiny villages and small towns, and followed the life of Panama hats (which are NEVER made in Panama, only in Ecuador!) from palm frond to our heads. We visited a family cottage on a hillside where granny shredded the palm fronds (carried for 2 hours from the jungle by mule) and boiled the soft inner parts - the outer edges were kept as thatch for the roof. Then we watched the daughter carefully weaving the hat, and a grandson ironing one into shape with a "Mrs Potts" iron.
From there we went to Montecristo, where most of the hats were sold ... you can guess at which end of the price scale from US$15 to US$5,000 a hat our purchases came! Last night we sailed across the equator again, and we're now heading for Mexico, with three days at sea.
We're relieved that Cyclone Hamish appears to be calming down - hope that everyone is surviving with dry feet! Fond wishes to all of you, wherever you are.

John's dream fulfilled!

About 30 years ago John started translating some of the diaries of Torres' voyage from South America to the Philippines (via Vanuatu and Torres Strait) from the original Spanish into English. The San Pedro y San Pablo, the San Pedro and the Los Tres Reyes sailed from Callao, near Lima in Peru, in December 1605. The day before the expedition left, captains Torres, Quiros (who returned to Mexico from Vanuatu) and Cermano travelled from Callao to Lima to visit the Viceroy in his palace, and two monasteries, from where the Franciscan monks who travelled with them, had come.
Yesterday we visited all of these places, spending several hours looking around these historic buildings ... and John was on Cloud Nine!
In addition, we visited the main cathedral, where we saw the casket containing the bones of Francisco Pisarro, the conqueror of the Incas ... we were almost as happy as Ketty, one of our stewards, who comes from Lima, and was able to show her parents and daughters the ship where she works ... it was a wonderful day!
Other people bought alpaca items, silverware, Indian handicraft - sorry everyone ... we're bringing home memories instead, as we ran out of time to shop.
However, we ARE thinking of everyone at home, especially with Cyclone Hamish bearing down - we hope that everyone remains safe ... and dry. We're with you in spirit, if that helps any.
We're nearly back to the Equator - the cruise is running out fast ... people have returned to normal after the events of the last few days - this is a great way to travel.

The bad ... and the good

We shouldn't have referred to 'late passengers' in our last blog - we 'mozzed' ourselves! The next morning a passenger from our deck committed suicide by jumping overboard, which was dreadful for his family, but also for everyone on board. He was last seen at 4.30 am, but his note wasn't found for another 5 hours ... and then we had to turn around and sail back for another five hours, to meet planes and boats from the Chilean Navy, and sail up and down in a grid pattern for a further four hours, before resuming our northward journey ... by 2.30am we were back to the same position we'd been at seventeen hours before! The Navy kept on searching, unsuccessfully.
Consequently, all our plans were changed, and our trip to the Andes (to Lauca National Park in northern Chile) was cancelled. We were devastated, as were the people who had been flying to Macchu Pichu.
However, out of the bad comes good - we got off the ship when we finally arrived at Arica, and hired the most battered taxi you've ever seen, driven by Claudio, about 25, who spoke no English. with the help of some pictures, and our Spanish dictionary, we booked him to take us out into the Andean foothills, to see huge pictographs made of stone, featuring llamas, people, geometric symbols, more than 1000 years ago - it's never rained since, so they're still there! Claudio knew all the places to go, and needed no roads - he'd just set the cab upwards on a steep, bare hill, and drive up to a viewpoint, even where we were looking into private property - it was a great experience.
Then he took us to see the world's oldest mummies (which had other people from the ship there, so we hurriedly escaped to freedom again - we've loved the people we've met, but after more than a month, it was wonderful to have an afternoon to ourselves!) and from there we went on to a small pueblo. we were fascinated by the little Franciscan church of St Miguel - simple, beautifully cared for, and with a wooden roof that had holes in almost every plank ... when it doesn't rain, holes in the roof don't matter - Arica averages .3mm of rain per year!
Finally, Claudio took us to visit friends of his, who grow olives under irrigation in the river valley - water from Andean snowmelt - and it was so good to visit a real home, with a real garden, and real people! We came back laden with olives, and bottles of Pisco sour - that and the Chilean wine we bought have formed the basis of a couple of good parties in our stateroom! Now it's off to Peru ... wonder if we'll see Paddington Bear?

In the Valley of Paradise

Valparaiso literally means "the valley of Paradise" ... we didn't find it quite as good as that, but we did enjoy its 47 hills, its colourful timber buildings built one above another up the steep slopes, and its "ascencores" - metal caravan-style boxes in which one can travel up and down as in a funicular railway - they were like public-transport Black Marias, except that they were all painted mustard yellow!
After touring the city, and nearby Vina del Mar, a fashionable beach resort, we, like many of our shipmates, headed for a nearby supermarket ... mainly to buy wonderful fresh Chilean fruit, and good Chilean wine. Then we sat on the deck and watched dozens and dozens of little boats buzz around the harbour, on dozens of different endeavours - this is a fun place!
The "Valley of Paradise" could well be another name for the Carnival Splendor - not only are we revelling in luxury, and all the wonderful food we can eat (and then some - most Americans eat at least two 'Starters' before the main meal - some have been seen to order up to 4 desserts!) - but, with more than 3000 passengers, most of them older than we are (!!!), the number has been dimininishing, as some head for "The Valley of Paradise" in the sky - at least 6 have died since we left Florida. We've all got to know the code word which comes over the loudspeakers - it's "Operation Brightstar" ... we think that one more has become a 'bright star' in the heavens! Please be assured that we have no intention of joining their numbers, and are exercising and cutting down our food to gargantuan levels, instead of super-gargantuan.
Last night the ship turned back on its route for two hours, then headed the same way again without explanation ... no-one knows whether someone went overboard or not. Popular theory has it that someone dumped the cruise director (who calls himself 'Goose', but is known by most as "The Goose", as in "total idiot") overboard - it would make a great plot for a mystery novel, as there are so many likely protagonists! We are innocent - so far - life remains fun!

From glaciers to volcanoes

Magellan certainly knew what he was doing! Following our aborted trip to Punta Arenas we spent a day cruising the Magellan Strait, including visiting two massive glaciers, which look wonderful from the water ... or numerous decks above the water. The Chilean fjords are truly impressive - steep hills and wonderful islands, looking like partially-deflated elephants floating in incredibly deep water. The whole day was one long chorus of "Look at that ...!".
Unfortunately, eventually we had to go out into the open sea - just as a hurricane-force storm hit, with winds of 90 knots (150km an hour) and 9 metre waves! We'd spent an evening playing Parcheesi in our stateroom with friends, and had brought in a chair from the balcony - but the weather was so rough that we couldn't get the balcony door open against the wind until the next afternoon!
The captain went out of his way to find more sheltered channels, and eventually the "Roaring Forties" calmed down. It was great to find our way up the fjord to Puerto Montt, in the Chilean Lakes district, where we enjoyed a wonderful trip yesterday.
Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas were established in the 1850s by German and Swiss settlers - and they look like small slices of Switzerland - towering mountains, heavy forests (beech, not pine) and huge lakes, dotted withe fields of cows and shingled houses. We travelled past Lake Ensanada to the Emerald Lake, where we boarded a catamaran for a cruise which showed us wonderful snow-capped volcanoes, extending right to the shore. The rough weather and rain ceased, the sun came out - it was perfect! Lunch was at a German restaurant overlooking Lake Ensanada, with local monkey puzzle trees, lots of llamas ... and an EMU!!! A number of Americans were quite sure it was an ostrich (WHO has their head in the sand?!!) We visited a graveyard, full of names such as "Gonzales Ortiz Scmidt", which we thought showed how the nationalities have blended, then headed back for the ship - using three of the lifeboats as tenders, as Puerto Montt couldn't accommodate such a large ship - hopefully this will be the ONLY time we'll use the lifeboat!

Lost at sea??

Well, we were to have visited Punta Arenas, in the south of Chile, yesterday ... but we never landed! Because we left so late the night before we didn't arrive until late afternoon, instead of early morning ... AND the ship is too big to dock at the wharf in Punta Arenas, so we would have had to go ashore by tender (see below) ... AND the wind was so strong that the tender would not have been safe ... AND the authorities said NO. We felt as thought we were lost at sea! Oh well, we had a wonderful journey through the Beagle Channel.
The day began for us in a funny way. We keep the TV in our room on the GPS channel all night, so anytime we wake up we can see where we are. I awoke about four am, and saw that there was a glacier coming up, so I grabbed a wrap and went out on the balcony ... and there it was! I raced inside, woke John and told him to grab something warm (it was 7C outside), grabbed the camera, and disappeared outside again. John blearily grabbed - a bath towel - and joined me!! The channel was narrow, and we were only 30-40 metres from the face of the glacier, towering above us, and then disappearing back into the mist and darkness ... Oh to have had a nightscope camera to have filmed it - and to have filmed John in his bathtowel!!!
We saw other glaciers at a distance during the day, and glorious views of thousands of islands as we sailed through channels to the Magellan Straits and the bay at Punta Arenas, where we left the Chilean pilots, but did not stay. The scenery was so magnificent that we shared our balcony with friends for much of the day, and the whole day felt like a party.
For those, particularly Jim, who've been asking details about the Carnival Splendor, here are some details ... It is 952feet long, and weighs 113,300 tons, holds 3006 passengers and 1150 crew. We cruise at about 20-22 knots (about 40 km hour), powered by 2 main propellers and 6 thruster propellors which move us in and out of docks, instead of using tugs. The main drive unit is powered by a 21 megawatt synchro-propulsion drive, powered by 11,000 volt, 75.6 megawatt generators driven by 6 twelve-cylinder motors.
The less mechanically minded, like me, might also like to know that there are 40,000 lights, 5,000 smoke detectors, 500 automatic fire doors, 19,000 km of electric cable and 360km of water piping. I was talking to a man yesterday whose sole job on board is to change failed light globes!!

Around the Horn ... to the end of the world!

We've done it! We've sailed right around Cape Horn - not just round the end of South America, but right around Horn Island. We had great views, but it was FREEZING cold ... we would run up onto deck (unfortunately we went around anti-clockwise, so had no view from our balcony), take photos in 5C temperature with 6metre swells and winds of 60 knots (100km per hour), then flee back to our cabin, where we'd gather, laughing and shivering, with friends, before another foray ... it was great ... but possibly we'll remember the hot chocolate as much as the view!
From there we sailed northwards to Ushuaia, the most southerly town in Argentina, which calls itself 'Fin del Mundo', the End of the World. Yesterday we travelled by bus across Tierra de Fuego to Lake Ensanada, surrounded by grey rocks and dense beech forest, then to a station where we boarded a little train. This train, originally used by the prisoners who were Ushuaia's first white inhabitants, runs on a 60cm track, even narrower than a cane train. The one-and-a-half hour trip through the National Park was wonderful, the skies were blue, the day was a warm 11C - it was truly memorable.
Back in the city of Ushuaia we walked through the tourist-oriented streets to a museum in the old prison, meeting an Aussie on his way to Antarctica in a little Russian ship berthed beside us - the 48 passenger vessel looked so small compared to our 3,000 passenger vessel ... but they were able to leave on time, where the wind was so strong against our 14-storey "wind wall" that our departure was delayed for five hours. The only bonus of that was that when we left, about 11pm, we went out on deck just below the bridge ... and what should we see as we slowly turned, but four seals catching the fish we were disturbing, highlighted in the lights from the bridge. We were alone on deck, absolutely enthralled ... a VERY special moment!

Across the Patagonian pampas

We're heading rapidly for the Horn, but stopped yesterday at Puerto Madryn, about halfway between Buenos Aires and the bottom of South America. Puerto Madryn is a town of some 50,000 people, mainly set up as an area to smelt aluminium (notice that WE use the last "i", because we're not under the influence of a ship full of Yanks yet!) from Australia and Brazil.
We drove some 17km south of the town, to Puerto Loma, to watch the sea lions, but John refused to go penguin hunting (for little Magellanic penguins) - the Americans are fanatical about seeing their first sight of a penguin!
Instead we headed 80km across the pampas, to Gaiman, a village set up by Welsh immigrants 130 years ago. It's still very Welsh, and we listened to a Welsh choir while we ate a "Welsh tea". For us, though, the joy was in the pampas - very like Australian saltbush country ... all that was missing was the ant hills! We saw a few "merinos Australiano" (they run 3 to the acre, we're told), a few horses and two hereford steers, but the countryside was otherwise flat and empty. We had a beautiful day, weatherwise, but we can imagine it would be pretty bleak with a cold wind blowing across. The only other animal we saw was roadkill - as we looked, we both said "kangaroo!", but it was a guanaco that was slower than the traffic!
The weather's getting colder, and the swells are getting bigger - about 3 metres today. The ship handles it well, but it IS wobbly! We're OK, but two of our friends have "Gone to bed with Dot" ... the anti-seasickness patch they wear behind one ear. Nothing's going to put us off the superb food - I've just had crab and oyster cakes for lunch, while John had Chicken and tortilla soup and spicy Caribbean fish ... followed by dessert, of course!
We're still getting a little Australian news on CNN, and really appreciate the family and friends who keep us up to date. Love to all of you.

Montevideo's marvelous!

We've just come back from touring the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo ... and we've voted it the best place we've visited in South America ... it's clean, uncrowded, picturesque, friendly and small. The city is built on a peninsula, and you can see water from almost every street. It's 34C today, but it's not humid. The River Plate seems much cleaner here than in Buenos Airies (actually, in BA the water looked like the jokes about the Yarra - too thick to swim in and too thin to plow - it' MUCH worse than the Yarra!). The whole place was a delight!
The ship is berthed right next to the memorial to the Graf Spee, the German warship which was sunk (by its own captain) here in 1939. Other memorials around the town are large and bronze, including two wonderful (huge!) collection pieces by a local artist - one of horses pulling a coach out of a bog, the other of oxen pulling a cart out of another bog - both are life size, and wondrously realistic. The area is flat except for one small rise - obviously there were a lot of bogs!
Now we're off to spend the rest of the afternoon in the whirlpool, then sit on our balcony and watch our departure - when we left BA yesterday we set the whole port alive with sound - the Carnival Splendor sounded its horn, then two other cruise ships nearby set theirs going to farewell us, and the whole port area resounded ... it was a wonderful experience as people on the wharf and the passengers and crews of nearby ships all waved us off! (This is the second-largest passenger ship ever to have visited South America)
Cape Horn, here we come ... we head south this afternoon - will stop in Puerto Madryn in 2 days time, then it's off to the Cape.

It takes two to tango!

Back on board after our second day in Buenos Aries, and we're footsore ... not from tangoing (can you imagine John and I doing the tango?!), but from walking. Yesterday we walked around the city, watching people, admiring the shops, shopping for leather goods, eating empanadas for lunch, then headed for La Boca, a very colourful area in the poorer suburbs.
In La Camanita we spent 3/4 hour watching a delightful tango performance - two men looking so-o-o Argentinean (one with one eyebrow right across his face, the other super-super-smooth, with slicked down hair, moustache etc) and 2 very world-weary women. Could they dance! Wow! All it cost us for front-row seats was the price of a diet Coke.
After wandering the tourist shops we walked throught the back streets to a bus - past a street market, dozens of dogs, crawling babies ... and that was just on the road! The bus driver had no change so he gave us a free ride back to town - a terrific cheap afternoon.
Many people from the ship paid over $100 to see a tango performance in the city last night, but we hear that it was no better than what we saw - and those of us who stayed on board were treated to a superb Argentinean folkloric performance - the tango, lots of gaucho and caballero dancing, and what we at home think of as Andean music - fantastic, and free!
Today we went on a tour, 'In the steps of Evita' ... and it, too was terrific. We've really e4njoyed our time here - it's a really multi-layered city.
Thanks so much to Jim, David and Stephanie for updates on the situation at home - you're all in our thoughts as we set off for Montevideo, and then southwards.

Wonderful Rio!

Rio is everything they say it is! It's dirty, it's crowded, but it's beautiful, and full of excitement. The only thing we missed was the sunshine!
We were woken at 6am by the ship reversing its motors as it berthed. There was the centre of Rio, right in front of us, and, shining whitely in the only shaft of sunshine we saw all day, above all was the Christ the Redeemer statue, accented by swirling clouds.
We went on a tour which took us to the harbour below the Sugarloaf Mountain, to Ipanema and to Copacabana, to the wonderful modern conical cathedral, and, because our guide was an architectural nut, past dozens of wonderful buildings. It's a week to Carnaval, but we went to the Sandromo to watch the set-up ... we saw SO much.
When everyone else went back to the ship, we got in a cab for a crazy ride through the slum areas to Botafogo, looking for somewhere to replace John's sandals - he's worn out one pair already!! We spent a couple of hours in a mall, feeling proud as we navigated our way with limited Portugese, then, good Brazilian sandals in hand, we caught a local bus - about $2 Australian for a 10km ride.
This was the best day we've had in Brazil - despite the rain, Rio is everything they say ... we recommend it!

Sun, sand ... Salvador!

Salvador de Bahia, with 3 million people, is the oldest city in Brazil. We didn't stay in the city, but travelled by bus to Praia do Forte, about 80 km away. Here we visited the remains of the oldest (European) house in Brazil, now a museum, and then a turtle research station. P-do-F is an exclusive holiday area, reminiscent of Noosa 20 or so years ago, before it went 'upmarket'. The people are SO friendly.
Travelling with 3000 people, everyone picks up a 'wog' at some time - John's had an awful cold, Frances a severe case of vomiting and diahhorrea (Brazilian belly??). When John and the rest of the tour party went to a restaurant for lunch in P-do-F, she sat on a nearby patch of lawn, and promptly fell asleep ... only to wake up with a crowd of about 50 locals surrounding her! They'd brought a man who spoke good English, offering to escort her to a doctor nearby (free!). From old men, mothers with children, teenagers on motor scooters, everyone wanted to help ... MUCH embarrassment, but what wonderful people!
The other delight of our day was a lizard (iguana?) about a metre long. When we first sighted him on the grey branch of a poinciana tree, he was grey and white. He moved to a green bush nearby, and became light-and-dark green. Does Brazil have chameleons? We must find out!
Our hero of the day is the 10yo who bowled out Ponting! Good on him! What wonderful donations at the cricket! When is the day of mourning? We know there is to be one, but no date given.

Feeling closer

Thanks to those who let us know about the fires - we ARE getting CNN now, so are keeping up to date at last - have even been able to read street signs in Yea!
Yesterday we went to Olinda - no, not Olinda in the Dandenings, but an earlier one - a World Heritage area established in the 1500s by the Portuguese ... it's on a hill above the Brazilian city of Recife (said "Hea-ssiff"), looking over the city and the sea like a view from the Dandenongs, so we wonder if the Aussie one was named after the original.
Most people on the ship caught buses, but we shared a taxi with two friends - our driver, Valdi, spoke some English, but it gave me a good chance to practice my (extremely limited) Portuguese. We went to St Francis' monastery, decorated with wonderful P-gese tiles, and a great painting of the Last Supper, with a cat eating the scraps under the table! At the top of the hill we visited the Cathedral de Alto Se and lots of craft shops etc, then headed back downtown towards the VERY smelly river and the beautiful beaches. Recife has over 3 million people, most housed in huge highrises, so it's an interesting city from the sea. The illusion of sophistication, however, is soon dispelled when you realise that just about every road is still cobblestones, with problem areas still dug up by a man with a shovel, and the cobblestones replaced by hand, knocked into place with a hammer!
As we travel east, we're only 12 hours (13 for those with daylight Saving Time) away from you - we're feeling closer to you all the time! Fond wishes to all F&J

Thanks David, for letting us know the terrible news from Victoria in your blog comment - as you can see from the previous blog, we've been totally out of contact. We're feeling for everyone in Victoria - a blog comment might be the best way to let us know how you're getting on.
God Bless!
Frances & John

Back in the Southern Hemisphere

Apologies for our non-communication ... when we crossed the equator, the ship lost all web communication for two days! We feel totally cut off - particularly as our emails don't seem to be coming through either!
Fortunately, this is a wonderful way to be cut off - life on board the Carnival Splendor is totally sybaritic ... we wake in the morning, watch the sea from our bed, discuss whether to get up for breakfast (which we do, eventually, as it's too good to miss). Then we go to the library, and the web cafe, before meeting friends for lunch. Sometimes we even exercise in the afternoon, before a superb dinner, a show, drinks with friends etc etc - or else we go ashore, and soak up the great places we visit.
Yesterday we made our first Brazilian visit, to the city of Fortaleza ... yes, you've never heard of it ... but it's HUGE - about 3 million people - with more highrises than Brisbane and Melbourne combined. We went to the cathedral (really modern and simple), a market, and several of the beaches ... saw very few locals as this was before midday - even the first mass, for the early risers, doesn't start until 12 noon, as most people party on until 5am, then sleep most of Sunday.
Tomorrow we go to Recife, and the World Heritage town of Olinda. We're not doing this on an organised tour, but on our own - it will be interesting to see how we get on!

From the Caribbean

Two days in the Caribbean, and we're feeling homesick ... we couldn't get over the similarities between the islands and home!
Dominica is, of course much more mountainous than the Sunshine Coast, and MUCH poorer, but almost every plant we saw was one that we knew from home. Birds were different - a great big Sisserou parrot, and tiny green humming birds, but we even saw many gum trees and sheoaks, as well as almost every plant we have in our garden. We travelled to a splendid waterfall, drank rum punch, and admired the marvelous cricket ground, donated by the Chinese Government!
Barbados is MUCH wealthier - near Bridgetown, the capital, are hundreds of million-dollar mansions, but all across the island people seem to have a comfortable lifestyle. We hired a car, and took new friends Janet and Collette (sisters from Pennsylvania who sat on the floor with us while we waited out the bomb scare as we were boarding in Fort Lauderdale) on a tour of the island - they were impressed that we could handle a right-hand drive car! John had a great talk with Garfield Sobers' cousin - with so many American tourists, anyone who loves cricket is greatly welcomed!
Lunch was at Bathsheba, on the far side of the island, fried flying fish eaten in a little shack with red, green and yellow shutters, then we headed back through spreading canefields, past herds of Nubian goats and more familiar plants. There was a Pirate Party last night, but we went to see a ventriloquist perform instead - the entertainment is terrific.
Rougher today, now that we're out in the Atlantic - 12 foot waves, we're told. Some are suffering, but we're still enjoying the wonderful cuisine - and walking lots, so that we don't roll home!

All aboard! ... ?

Well, here we are on the Carnival Splendor - at last! We were due to board at 1.30 Saturday Afternoon, in Fort Lauderdale, but spent the next 8 hours shut in a shed with 1200 others! Somehow, there was a bomb alert, so we waited ... and waited .... and waited, knowing that those on board ahead of us were eating a delicious lunch and drinking champagne - while we sat on a floor and waited hours for water! We're luckier than some, though - 500 or more people tried to board without a Brazilian visa and were turned back - if they get one in Miami today, we'll meet them in Barbados on Wednesday.
Eventually we made it on board the Splendor at 9.30pm - so tired that we didn't unpack until after lunch on Sunday. But it's worth it, now that we're here. our stateroom is roomy and bright, with a glass-fronted balcony so that we can see the world go by - yesterday we saluted Samana Cay where Colombus first landed in 1492, and San Salvador, his second island stop. If the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria "sailed the ocean blue", they were luckier than us so far - the Caribbean is a very gloomy sea so far, but we hope that it will be sunnier in Dominica tomorrow.
The Captain's cocktail party tonight - John resplendent in evening dress, of course - and we'll join new friends there ... sharing a corner of concrete floor with strangers soon develops friendships! Fortunately the ship is so big that there's LOTS of walking, so we hope that that will counteract the superb meals we're eating ... we'll see. We've heard of fires in Victoria - hope all is well for all of you.

That's LA for ya!

Safely arrived in LA, in awe of the QANTAS service- it truly couldn't be faulted! After arriving at the Sheraton (luxury, to use up the Agoda points from our Japanese trip in 2007) we headed for Union Station to make the bookings for our train trip in 7 weeks time, using the wonderful Dash buses, which go every 5 minutes, and cost a quarter (25 cents) no matter where you go.





Union station is a delight, built in 1939 in Art Deco style, and completely unchanged since - this COULD be because they haven't got around to it, if it's anything like the service we received!





Eventually, though, we headed to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, one street away. This Mexican area is the original site of Los Angeles, and bursts with life, colour and music. It's a wonderful place, which we visited briefly last time we passed through LA, on a train, and couldn't resist revisiting.





As we headed back downhill, everything began to happen - A U-Haul truck screamed around the corner beside us, followed by four LA Police cars, 3 police motorcycles, an LA Police helicopter low over us, and news helicopters. Everyone was talking about it, and it was headline news on TV that night and the next day ... as a Mexican schoolbus driver told us ... That's LA for ya!

Mexican for lunch, Japanese for dinner - and then we slept ... for twelve hours! We were thoroughly refreshed then, though, to set off around LA on the tourist trail again. Macy's was first, as it's attached to the Sheraton - however we didn't stay long as it was so lonely - never have we seen a store with so few customers. We wandered the streets for a while, lunched at Ralph's, a 'fresh food market' that we'd love to take home with us, particularly the roast dinner bar, then back onto the Dash.

This time it was down to USC and then back to the Downtown area with the bus full of red-clad teachers, heading for a rally to protest against the imposition of compulsory 'furlough' days without pay, imposed by the Californian government as a cost-cutting exercise. We avoided the rally and headed for the Central Library (all six storeys of it) and then back around the streets, with a lengthy visit to an antique bookstore where John found a soulmate in Leonard, the proprietor ... LA was fun, because of the people we met.

We're ready to go! Our house-sitters, Terry and Sue, have arrived. Our ports are packed ... and Theodora the cat is sleeping on them, so that we can't go! We leave home at 8 tomorrow morning ... depart Brisbane on QANTAS Q15 at 10 past 12 ... and get to Los Angeles at 8 am the same day!



We think that we'll sleep all the way - it's hard work spring cleaning the house from top to bottom, so that it looks perfect for incomers! We've been blessed with visitors every day for the past week, too, so life's been hectic.



We had thought that we might have finished yesterday, and had time for a bit of a rest while everyone else partied for Australia Day. Instead, we were asked to be down at the park in the centre of Coolum at midday, for a surprise, "in your best bib and tucker"! Of course, all our good "bibs" and "tuckers" were packed, so we had to UNpack the bags ... and just as well we did, because it turned out that we are now the Coolum Citizens of the Year!! It almost seems a bit rude to say "Gee, thanks for that, and now we're leaving you for three months" ... but it hasn't put us off.



Next blog will be from Fort Lauderdale, where we'll board the ship. South America, HERE WE COME!

Our plans

We plan to leave on 28 January 2009, and to stay away until 27 April 2009.

First we will fly from Brisbane to Los Angeles, with QANTAS, and spend a night there, to allow ourselves time to acclimatize, and to book our AMTRAK tickets for mid-March. Then we travel overnight, on an Alaska Air/American Airlines codeshare, to Miami. We'll spend a day and a night in Fort Lauderdale before boarding the Carnival Splendor, at Port Everglades, the port at Fort Lauderdale on 31 January.

Once settled in our balcony cabin (sorry, 'stateroom'!!) on Deck 6, we spend two days at sea, travelling to the Caribbean, then spend a day on the tiny island of Dominica and a day on Barbados. We plan to travel on a guided tour in Dominica, but will hire a car and drive ourselves around Barbados.

Three more sea days, including an Equator crossing, and we arrive in Brazil, where we visit four ports over a week - Fortaleza, Brazil's 4th largest city - Recife, and the nearby World Heritage town of Olinda - Salvador, where we plan to travel 80km north to a turtle rookery - and Rio de Janeiro, fortunately just before the carnival, which we believe is wonderful but super-overcrowded.

We'll reach Buenos Aires, in Argentina after two more sea days. This is the end of one cruise, and the start of another - we are technically doing three cruises, but like some 1400 other passengers we are continuing on from one to another back-to-back. Buenos Aires is the only port where we spend two days, and John's looking forward to 'following in the steps' of Evita Perron ... the real one, not Madonna! Those of you who know John's musical and dancing skills will appreciate the fact that he's NOT taking tango lessons!

From Buenos Aires we suddenly travel north again, briefly, to Montevideo in Uruguay, then southwards to Puerto Madryn on the pampas. Here we'll travel to a sea lion colony at Punta Lomas and a Welsh village at Gaiman.

Cape Horn is, of course the destination we are keenest to reach, but we'll only be able to 'round the Horn' if the weather is satisfactory - if not, we may have to stick to the Beagle Channel. At Ushuaia, the Argentinean port from whence many people head to the rocky Antarctic Peninsula, we plan to experience Tierra del Fuego on the narrow-gauge train line previously used by prisoners consigned to this frigid outpost.

In 1972 , when the Chilean Revolution took place, John was visiting Punta Arenas, on the Strait of Magellan. These days, we believe, it sports multi-storey buildings, paid for by nearby oil wells, but we plan to view them only briefly, on our way to visit an estancia a couple of hours away.

Punta Arenas is more than 3000 km south of Santiago, and the nearby port, Valparaiso. It will take us six more days to get there, cruising the Strait of Magellan and the Chilean fjords on the way, and stopping at Puerto Montt to visit the Chilean lakes district by bus and catamaran. The second cruise finishes in Valparaiso.

We have one more stop in Chile, at arid Arica in the far north. Some people will leave the ship here to fly to Macchu Pichu, but we've chose to book a trip to the National Park at Lauca, more than 4500m up into the Andes, hopefully viewing geoglyphs, Inca ruins, villages, llamas, vicunas, cactus forests, volcanoes and lakes with flamingos on the way. We'll continue on by ship to Callao in Peru (where Torres' voyage, so dear to John's heart, began) and visit nearby Lima as well.

Our last stop in South America will be in Ecuador, at Manta. Apparently this area is the home of Panama hats (NOT Panama !?!?!) and we plan to visit some of the villages where they are made and sold, before heading back across the equator for three days at sea on our way to Mexico.

Our two stops in Mexico are at Acapulco, where we hope to see the famed cliff-divers, and Puerto Vallarta, where, unlike the many beach-seeking Americans on board, we hope to travel into the countryside to visit a number of little villages.

Although the ship travels on to San Francisco, we have arranged to disembark at Long Beach, near Los Angeles on 19 March, as this will give us several more days for the land-based section of our trip. We'll spend a day at Disneyland (in honour of the Mickey Mouse toy Frances so loved as a small child) and the next day plan to catch the Texas Eagle for a two-day trip to Fort Worth Texas. Our reason for stopping here is to catch another train for a four hour trip to Oklahoma City ... why? ... well, we haven't been to Oklahoma before, and this is the best way to get there, so we'll stay a couple of nights and look around.

Back to Fort Worth again, and on for another day through Arkansas and Missouri to Chicago, where we plan to spend a night before continuing on to Minnesota, to stay with our friend MaryAnn Stellmach - we spent Christmas with MaryAnn and her late husband Bob in *, and are keen not only to visit her, but to see the Stillwater area when it's not covered with snow. After a week with her we'll hire a car, hopefully to visit friends in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, and will then travel west to the Black Hills of Dakota for Easter.

From here we'll head for the Little Big Horn in Montana, and travel further west to the Rockies. We'd love to have gone to Yellowstone National Park, but it's always snowed-in until May, so we'll continue southwards to Salt Lake City, where Frances is looking forward to attending a refearsal session of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and also hearing an organ recital.

Then it's westwards again, to Lake Tahoe and to Yosemite, where we'll spend a couple of nights before heading to visit friends at Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo CA. One last day's driving and we'll be back in Los Angeles, ready to catch the plane home. On the 13 hour trip to the USA we technically arrive in LA 4 hours before we leave Brisbane, but because of the International Date Line our 14 hour trip home takes us from 11pm on Anzac Day to 6 am on 27 April.

As you can imagine, we're really looking forward to our trip - but no doubt it will be great getting home top Coolum, to Theodora the cat (who's being looked after by Terry and Sue, our house-sitters) and our own beds! We promise to 'blog' as often as we can while we travel!