The Tuamotus: Rangiroa & Fakarava Atolls

After an hour and five minutes on an ATR-72 from Bora Bora we land on the largest atoll of the Tuamotu archipelago (and while we're at it, of the world), Rangiroa. The dimensions are just crazy, the lagoon being some 80 by 20 km meaning you cannot see the other shore. To avoid paying for a taxi we head out from the airport by foot with 4.5km to walk to the place we're about to try for the night, Pension Taine & Marie.

About half way, as we're being drenched by a sudden downpour, we're scooped up from the rain by Raie Manta Club diveshop car and get a ride all the way to the pension. And the guy who gave us the ride also volunteers to be our interpreter for negotiating the prices at the lodge. Awesome, thanks! The facilities are pretty basic especially considering the price tag but the food that they bundle with the room is just awesome. We share the place with a bunch of Frenchies not too fluent in English so dinner conversation is pretty much off the table for us.

But screw socializing, this place is all about diving, all of which here is centered around the two deep passes into the lagoon that have strong currents between the deep ocean and the lagoon, attracting loads of marine life both big and small. We persuade the lodge staff to let us call the dive shop and manage to fix us a morning dive for the next day. And come morning we head out to the pass at the other end of the spit - Avatoru - and are just blown away by what we encounter; immediately on the way down, several large sharks surround us and hang around for good 5-10 minutes while we just stare dumbstruck. We write off silver tips, grey reefs as well as white tip reef sharks off the list of stuff yet to be seen. A lone big Napoleon Wrasse also shows himself. We end the dive by getting surrounded by a gigantic school of big eye jacks, several thousands strong. What a dive!

The second site is the Tiputa Pass, where the water flows into the lagoon (or the other way, depending on the tide) through a 50 to 15 m deep and maybe 50m wide channel, providing us a massive waterslide of a drift dive. The dive starts "in the blue", meaning in the open ocean where the bottom is well over 50-60 meters deep and you totally lack points of reference as well as sense of direction. There we gaze the grey reef sharks and a massive school of Chevron Barracudas before getting sucked in to the channel that pushes us to the lagoon over the next 5-10 minutes. This is something that makes you wanna shout "again, AGAIN!" so it shall be on the menu on the next day too.

The next morning we dive Tiputa Reef, a dive starting out mellow with a intact reef full of life that soon turns crazy when napoleon wrasses, a turtle, manta ray and dolphins find their way to us. Ooh! In the afternoon we repeat the drift dive, this time seeing loads of sharks and spotted eagle rays in the deeps way below us. And having concluded our Rangiroa adventures, it's time to start looking towards the next one..

The last stop for us here is the fantastic Fakarava; second largest atoll in the Tuamotus, featuring splendid coral reefs as well as the occasional pristine white sand beach. The northern pass is the widest in the region, almost 2 kilometers, and while not quite as deep as Rangiroa's, it provides a casual diver fantastic opportunities to inspect the passing marine life as the mouth of the pass is only at 25-32 meters and you're able to hang on to the rocks there and watch the big things swim by.

Due to the nature of the dives - most of the time spent in the deep end for maximum time with the resident underwater fauna - they encourage everyone to dive with Nitrox. We haven't yet paid PADI the ripoff 100ish euro for the certification, but they give us the Nitrox tanks nonetheless to enjoy the dives to their full potential. Awesome. Once again it's sharks, sharks and sharks, with as much as huge Napoleon wrasses to look at as your neck muscles allow. The weather conditions seem to change rapidly: one of the dives we start while it's raining sideways and a thunder roaring nearby, but as we emerge some 55 minutes later, there's not a cloud on the sky.

French Polynesia Recap 

Obviously the diving here was remarkable. It also was our first real shark dives, making it doubly exciting. After numbing ourselves to the level of the prices of everything as well as to the fact that almost every other tourist was French speaking, it was pure bliss to spend two amazing weeks on the islands. On the way to the airport on the last day I'd try my best to permanently burn the image of the lagoon into the back of my eyes.. really sad to leave, but it's good to be moving again.

See all the pictures from Rangiroa here!
See all the pictures from Fakarava here!

Bora Bora

Next up, Bora Bora, the stuff of legends. Once upon a time perhaps the most beautiful place on earth, that is before the big international hotel chains filled the sweetest parts of the lagoon with their straw huts on the water, the island stands inside a turquoise lagoon so perfectly pristine it makes your eyes water. Just hearing the name has one thinking of a magical, exotic spot, and walking out of the airpor, catching the first glimpse of it really was just that. After collecting my jaw from the floor we hopped on the complementary catamaran (the airport is located on a motu on the rim of the reef instead of the main island) to the islands capitol Vaitape and from there on were forced to pay for a taxi to get us to Matira Point, the best beach on the island and the area where most of the "reasonably" priced pensions are located.

Some 45 minutes by an ATR-72 plane and 270 km from Mo'orea, the tourism scene here is quite a different world. Groceries cost some 30-40% more and the best accommodation deal we could wrestle is a garden view room from Pension Roberto & Tina, of LP fame, sitting at the optimal spot at the tip of the point, surrounded on 3 sides by the hypnotic waters of the lagoon. No hot water in the shared showers though, but in the tropics that's not that important. The next door neighbor is an Intercontinental hotel with room rates starting from 1000$ a night. Hallelujah! Again we have a nice communal kitchen, shaving a nice cut off the food / drinks costs. All the whine about costs aside, finally being on Bora Bora feels like a wet (I often dream about diving..) dream come true.

Getting dives sorted out wasn't that straightforward. Bora Bora is a bit difficult in many senses: there's no public transportation to speak of, ATMs only in the port town Vaitepe, dive shops etc. scattered along the 15km stretch of road, and finding a WLAN is even more difficult than on Mo'orea. Duh. So in order to get to a dive shop we wanted, we hiked to the town and back, in flip flops of course. That's a nice 20km walk in the hot sun right there. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with cold beers and a dip in the lagoon though..

The dives cost almost 80$ each (ouch) but oh boy can they be worth it here! The first dive site is Tapu, famous its lemon / black tip reef shark populations. The reef is nothing here thanks to crown of thorns and large swells shaking things up, but not to worry, people come here to see the sharks. And did we ever! Some 10-20 sharks would be swimming right next to and around us for the good 50 minutes under water. Talk about adrenaline rush! The largest lemons get to be about 3m long, so we're not talking about aquarium fish here. The second dive we did was to a place known as Manta Point, with murky waters where manta rays come to feed and get cleaned up. Bad luck for us though and no mantas around.

Our three days on Bora Bora are soon up though and it's time to move on to the Tuamotu islands, where waters are clear and more big things lurk beneath the surface.. according to many divers, that's where the best diving in French Polynesia is found. In other words, next stop: Rangiroa atoll.




See all the Bora Bora pictures here!


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Tahiti & Mo'orea

Tahiti, baby! After arriving on an late evening flight we land on Tahiti at around midnight, and since we're going to take the 0600 ferry over to Mo'orea we have no intention of paying for a night in a le hotel and thus we spend the night on the le floor of Faa'a International Airport. And come dawn we do what most visitors do and take off of Tahiti with the proverbial tires screeching, grabbing the ferry from downtown Papeete and we're off to Mo'orea, the next island from Tahiti some 25 minutes away by sea. A green and mountainous island with the highest point at over 1200 meters, Mo'orea boasts some beaches as well as a splendid lagoon like most of the archipelago. Like they say, French Polynesia is not a beach destination but a lagoon destination. And once there, it doesn't take 10 minutes on the beachside before we spot the first of the famous stingrays, gliding quietly in the shallows near the shore!

The scene on Mo'orea turns out to be somewhat different than I was expecting. There's no waterjets screaming nearby, no masses of people around and no neon lights. What you get is a quiet spot at the picture perfect lagoon under the palm trees and surrounded by a handful of people, some cats and pure white powdery sands. My biggest initial concerns about the region were the prices, after having being told by everyone and their mother how expensive French Polynesia is. But we land a sweet deal on a barracks style room in a camping site village with the use of a full kitchen and the room located not 20 meters from the beach for 45$. And the food out of the super market next door really isn't a strain on the budget either. Relief.

It's the first time we've cooked on the trip and oh it feels fun and is a refreshing change to eat self cooked food. Another first time is having to pay for the internet, so I march into a tiny electronics shop and pay a sneering Frenchie 5$ for 1 hour of WLAN hotspot access that should work on most islands. Pffft. Well, I guess it'd be all the same to buy an expensive beer at a bar to be able to use their network as a customer.

We haven't canoed much and decide the best way to see the lagoon and the nearby motus (small islets on the edge of the reef) is to rent one. Obviously one needs snorkeling gear to go with the craft, so we stock up on water, grab the camera, masks and snorkels and head out onto the turquoise waters for a day of fun at sea. The snorkeling gear is lousy but the waters make up for it. After paddling in a strong headwind for 30 minutes we arrive to the strait between the small motus where the water is crystal clear and deep enough for proper exploration. And what do you know, we come across a few stingrays and a group doing the weird "helmet diving". They look hilarious! Mo'orea certainly is the perfect start for our Polynesian leg.

See all the Tahiti & Mo'orea pictures here!

Remote Rapa Nui

This is pretty much as far from home as we've ever been - perhaps not distance wise (not sure about Hawaii and can't be arsed to check) - but Rapa Nui aka. Easter Island being some 3700 km from the nearest continent in the middle of the Pacific, it most definitely is the most isolated place on Earth we've been to. A wonderful heat wave greets you on the door of the plane when you arrive, but soon after getting to know the place the prices of everything start to sink in and it's a real slap in the face after latin America. I mean, 20$ for a tiny crappy pizza, seriously?? Also nowadays they charge 60$ for the National Park entrance that covers some bits of the island such as the Moai "nursery" (side of a volcano where the stone heads were carved from). I'm all game for paying National Park fees to provide for the maintenance of the sites, but come on already.

After getting over that initial shock it's really easy to like Rapa Nui. The weather is pleasant at 28-30C, the ocean is crazy ink blue and the Moai (stone head sculptures) just get you thinking WTF in huge letters. The first day day on the island got spent on orientation and booking dives from Mike Rapu dive shop, who carry excellent gear by the way. At 55$ per dive, the sport seems almost cheap compared to what stuff such as food and drinks here cost. To get out of the small boat harbor push through the surf break, which was rather exciting to do in a small boat. It's somewhat hard to grasp that the sunset is around 2100 here; not something you're used to in the tropics. And the streets are pretty much deserted before 1000 in the morning.

Second day morning: we're off to dive The Moai, a local dive site made globally unique by a submerged Moai put there some 7-8 years ago by the owner of the dive shop in remembrance of his father, or so the story went. Nonetheless, quite a sight to run into a 3-4m tall Moai under water! Rapa Nui diving is famous for the amazing visibility of up to 60 meters; we're not quite lucky to witness that though as the weather is a bit rowdy and the silt from the bottom causes to viz to drop to around 10-25 meters. Still good, though, and the 3 dives we did here were real nice.

The island is about 15-20 km across and the ahu / moai sites are pretty much scattered around, so what's the best way to visit all of them? On the back of a mountain bike of course! At 18$/day, the mountain bike rentals were one of the best deals on the island and we enjoyed our 45km/7 hours ride entirely, with perhaps the exception of the last 5km when all the strength had already fled and every uphill was a battle. Seeing the beautiful Anakena beach about midride was such a bliss, and we got to frolic around in the blue sea and enjoy the dazzling white sands and some el cheapo empanadas.

Travel tip for Rapa Nui: try and social engineer the WLAN password from one of the expensive restaurants on the mainstreet and then go to the row of minimarkets with tables set out on the patio. The WLAN is available there and the price for a lager is 1/3 of what the expensive ones charge. Touche! Also get a place with a kitchen to prepare your own food; nutrition seems to be the biggest expense on the Rapa Nui. 

See all the pictures from Rapa Nui here!

Next stop: Tahiti and French Polynesia.

A 2861km Bus Journey

In order to get back to Santiago to catch our onward flight we had 4 days to cover a distance of just under 3000 km from Nazca, Peru. Two sleeper night buses (11 and 27 hours) and two day versions did the trick, allowing us to overnight twice on the Chilean coast in mellow beach towns of Arica and La Serena. In total the time spent in transit was almost 50 hours, including the time on the border and checkpoints.

La Serena also provided the first proper metal bar of the trip. Casually wandering the streets in the warm afternoon sun we noticed a sign touting the cheapest beers since ages, just 1$/0.5l draft (!) so in we go and arriving to the courtyard we notice the familiar tempo and moshing long hair! And so we end up spending most of the afternoon / night in Duna Classic Rock Bar, enjoying chilled beers and the company of some awesome local metalheads. Rock!


The next day we're happily back in warm (32C, what! how come it's so hot down here?) Santiago, sitting in a garden of the hotel enjoying the long awaited proper internet connection they provide. Tomorrow morning will bring the end of the South American leg of the trip and take us to the Polynesian islands where the endless deep blue of the Pacific awaits. About time, too!

South America Recap

Mountains, high altitude and some more mountains. Oh and lots and lots of sand dunes, rock piles, geoglyphs and still a few more mountains. Strangest landscapes ever as well as dizzying vistas and canyons. And all this for a price so low it makes me weep to think about what's to come after leaving here. The month here proved to be pretty unforgettable experience wise, but we're more than glad to leave the thin air and cold nights behind and embrace the warm sun once more. Next stop: Polynesia.

Marveling the Nazca Lines

Last stop on our Peruvian excursion was to make a brief 2-day visit to Nazca, home to the mysterious kilometers long straight lines and the giant animal figures worked on some 500 sq. km of the desert for an unknown reason ages ago. This included a 10 hour overnight bus ride from Arequipa, one overnight stay and the back on the bus for another 12-13 hours to reach the Chilean border down south. While Nazca is not just about the lines - they boast the world's largest sand dune at over 2km tall to be conquered with a sandboard, for example - we couldn't squeeze other activities in our rather short stay. We only have 4 days till our flight out of Santiago, and the distance to cover on the bus is quite big.

The only proper way to view the lines is to hop on a small Cessna and take a flight over the plateau. These flights used to be dirt cheap only a few years ago, but after some fatal incidents in 2010, the flight safety has been upped greatly and naturally the costs have followed. The going price for a same-day reservation seemed to be 90-100$, though you might be able to shave some off with an advance booking. We went straight to the airport to shop around, but every company said they were full, but an agency back in the town managed to get us on a plane for the next morning, with a slightly better deal too.

What they do with the Cessna is they fly you over some 13 of the figures, banking the plane left and right so everyone gets a nice view. The first two turns were gut-turning, I'm assuming the captain did that on purpose :P After those, the ride was very pleasant and thanks to the near-perfect weather, we had a blast wondering about those strange markings below. Wonder what the people who made them had been thinking? 'Lets spend a few decades building something for the guys hundreds of years from now to scratch their heads over'?

After the flight we had the whole afternoon to kill so we paid a big hotel to let us use their pool / bar and lazed in the sun reading books. With Nazca done, this concludes our Peruvian segment of the trip; what's left of the South American leg is the seemingly endlessly long busride down south to Santiago!





See all the pictures from Peru here!

Welcoming 2011 On The Beach

We wanted to be on the beach to greet the new year. So after some intense staring at Google Maps and Lonely Planet we landed on heading to Mollendo, a small coastal town some 120km out of Arequipa. Completely surrounded by desert and mountains, the is a small oasis for Arequipenos flocking to the seas for some R & R in the January - March season. As it happens, the place was perfect for celebrating the turning of another year.

The most unforgettable sight of the first day after getting into town was at the beachfront cafe where we saw these two dogs humping; while watching canines have marital relations might not exactly make the news in most situations, this one was quite the sight: a small German shapherd bitch was being taken by a petite white hound and suddenly a giant monster of a dog, apparently the former's "hubby", rushes from its hideout and charges the smaller white male. Doing what dogs do when surrendering, the white one rolls onto its back and exposes his throat, only to forget he's still inside the bitch and to end up in a weird position where he is stuck to his maid. Pushed around by the big dog, the four-legged lady starts to gallop around, towing her young suitor - who still seems to maintain a raging boner - around on the asphalt by his cock. Lol. It takes them more than 10 minutes to detach.

On the New Year's Eve the weather is just gorgeous and nothing seems better than lazing around a pool, having a few beers and enjoying the view over a beach. We visit an Aqua Park briefly and after an afternoon nap we're off to the celebration. We meet this Arequipena couple whose man seems to be doing cocaine all the time; he keeps stuffing his face with the white stuff he keeps calling "Peru's Finest" and at one point he apparently proposes us to join him and his fat girlfriend in a foursome on the beach. Hahah, as if. So we ditch them and have a brilliant night watching fireworks over the beach. The next afternoon we catch a bus up north, but not before getting invited to a snack of Ceviches in the home of iour Hospedaje keepers. Muchos gracias amigos!