C - - - - (January 11-17, 2011)

Back in Los Angeles, we decided to check on our motorcycles, plug our battery chargers (thank you Christine and Vincent for shipping them from Montreal) and a few hours later, back to the airport on the way to Dallas, then next to Santiago, Chile !

After a delay due to maintenance on the plane, we ended up spending one night in Dallas. Long trip and nine and a half hours from Dallas to Santiago. 2 hours to pay the ''reciprocado fee'' ($ 132.00 per person for Canadian citizens as Canada charges Chilean citizens when they enter Canada), go through immigration and get our rental car... We arrived at our hostal at 11:30pm and found our host, Christian, with some other guests having a drink outside. We joined them right away and also got a drink, time to relax ! the temperature is 22 degres at night.

Our first day is Saturday and of course, we need to withdraw money, but surprise, surprise, this is not the United States ! All the banks are closed and with our credit card, we don't seem to be even able to enter inside the ATM room. After 5 or 6 unsuccessful attempts, we finally got lucky with.... Scotia Bank ! Scotia Bank seems to have many branches in Santiago. We also bought a couple of adaptors for our laptop and camera. Unforgivable, I had forgotten that Chile uses 220V-50Hz... how many years did I work in relocation ???

We found the ambiance of Santiago very alive, a little bit like Spain at night ! People live outside at night, eat, drink and party, go to bed late or early in the morning. They get up late in the morning ! We had forgotten that this is summer here, the darkness comes only at around 9:30pm and we find ourselves perfectly awake at 1 o'clock in the morning and adjusting actually quite well to this new rhythm ! After all, we are supposed to be taking our time, let's get up late !

Because of the proximity of our hostal to downtown Santiago and to an ideal location close to the artistic neighborhood, Bellavista, we spent our first day discovering our new decor ! We went up the funicular to discover Santiago from the hill at 284 meters first. What we really enjoyed is the Mercado Central, we have been back a couple of times there since then. We are astonished by the quantities of little shops, boutiques, and stands that sell juicy, colorful fruits as well as all kinds of vegetables, fish, meat, cheese, eggs...

We cannot leave Santiago without visiting Pablo Neruda's (1927-1973) second house called la Chascona.

For those who know Jean Ferrat et Aragon, Pablo Neruda is not an unknown poet (on pense a toi, Serge !) La Chascona is situated in Bellavista, but at the time, in 1953, this neighborhood was like a paradise, not urban, close to nature. The name ''La Chascona'' is dedicated to Matilde Urrutia who had unruly hair. He loved women and La Chascona was built so that he could visit his mistress, Matilde. His relation with Matilde was kept secret until 1958 and she became eventually his last and third wife. Pablo Neruda has always been inspired and fascinated by the sea, although he disliked sailing. He wanted to feel he was navigating in his homes and therefore had included many items providing from ships in all his houses. The dining room is modelled on a ship's cabin and the living room on a lighthouse. Neruda loved life in general and it is no wonder that our visit in his house started with a bar. He loved having friends around him like Picasso, Diego Rivera, Aragon... Pablo Neruda started to write poems at 12 years old, wrote ''veinte Poemas de amor y une cancion desperada'' at the age of 19 years old. He travelled a lot during his life, in France, where he was ambassador and in the Eastern block. He was in exile for 3 years between 1955 and 1958. He received the Nobel price of literature in 1971. His house was partially ransacked after Pinochet's coup d etat. Chocked by the death of Salvador Allende, Pablo Neruda died from a heart attack 12 days after the coup d'etat. Neruda's funeral was the first spontaneous public manifestation against Pinochet.

We have started tasting Chilean food, fish with sea food and ''porotos granados'', beans with mashed corn, pumpkin, basil and red pepper. So far, the food is not fancy, but tasty !

Tomorrow, we are On the Road Again...

Big Island, Hawaii (December 28 to January 10, 2011)

Big Island is the third island we have decided to visit in Hawaii. We arrived as scheduled on December 28, 2010. We wanted to ensure that we would have enough time to prepare for the arrival of our son from Calgary. We have rented a car and this has been the bad surprise of the trip. We had booked the car on Hotwire and the cost quoted for 13 days was $ 1700.00. That hurts ! Guide books do tell you that the cost increase over the holidays, and they typically say they double, but in this case, the price was multiplied by 4 and the car rentals are scarse on this island. The large companies have reduced their fleet. Anyway, the first thing we did after our arrival, was to find a local car rental dealer, other than the Alamo, Budget and Hertz of this world. In the end, we did find something much cheaper, although the car was scratched everywhere... Otherwise, we have rented a fully furnished condominium on the East side of the Island, the Sunny side, in Kailua-Kona to provide some comfort to our big baby. The appartment was very clean, well maintained and really had everything required to have a pleasant stay. Beach towels were provided too as well as cleaning services twice during our stay.

Alain and I decided to sleep on the sofa and we left the room to Thomas. Before Thomas arrived, we stocked up the fridge, too... We had not seen Thomas for over a year, so this is a good time to spoil him a little bit. Our son has arrived safely !

Tired ! and in addition, his bag has not arrived at the same time as him from Calgary. It did arrive the following day though, which was a relief for him.

Our stay with Thomas was spent mainly on the beach, snorkeling, swimming, resting, sun-tanning. Coming from minus 20 degres Celsius and snow, needless to say that Thomas has enjoyed the sunny and warm weather we got.

                                                                  Before !

                                                       After !
Snorkeling on Big Island is great ! There are 2 main hot spots for snorkeling : at Captain Cook s memorial where you can see a multitude of fishes, all sizes, all shapes, all colors. It is almost like being in an aquarium. The second spot is located close to the Place of Refuge and although you see less fishes, you can swim with the turtles around you.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park : Kilauea and Mauna Loa, two of the word's most active volcanoes are still adding land to the Island of Hawaii. We decided to hike the Kilauea Iki Trail, a four mile loop, that descends through rain forest to Kilauaea Iki s frozen, but still steaming crater floor. It is like walking on the moon...

The trails leading to Halema'uma'u Crate have been closed for about two years now due to high amounts of dangerous sulfur dioxide gas.

We also stopped to walk through the lava tube, nothing spectacular as it is like walking inside a tunnel, except that it is all made of lava.

There are 2 types of Hawaian lava : Pahoehoe and a'a. Pahoehoe has a smooth and ropy surface. A'a is jagged and clinky.

                                                                  Pahoehoe

We went to the lava viewing point at night.

This is not the running flow or river we expected, but we would not have missed it anyway. In reality (but not on the pictures), you truly see the lava along the slope of the mountain.

We had to finish our day to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park by going to Hilo and try the world famous Loco Moco (it has been trade marked by the owners of Cafe 100) ! Healthy, not fatty food as you can see below....

Concerning Hilo, apart from a couple of historical building and the statue of the Kamehameha King

, there is not too much to see and do. In addition, it rains quite a bit, in fact, at least once a day, as we have been told.
Surfing is like on Oahu. It starts at dawn : Locals hit the waves before going to work whilejoggers, walkers, bikers invade the road along the sea, Ali Drive, in Kailua-Kona.
We were sad to leave our son Thomas at the airport, but our stay in Hawaii was also coming to an end. One day back in Waikiki where we met Angela Byrd, Miss Hawaii 2011.

We are now back in Los Angeles and are flying on January out to....On the Road Again !