To be continued.....just not here.

Happy Wanders has migrated to a new home! One with fancy drop down menus and features I have not yet worked out how to use. 

Because I am too cheap to pay for a premium Wordpress blog which would allow me to redirect (the admittedly minimal) traffic from Blogger to the new site....and because I am too stupid and impatient to scour the internet for ways to work around this for free -

You'll now find me here -

www.happywanderersrumdiariesrevival.home.blog

Looking forward to sharing many more rum-related (and occasional sober) adventures with you all!!

5 places I'd rather be...

Ugh. I'm approximately half way down my work day and seriously over it. The sun is shining outside and I would happily throw my computer out the window and go play in the park if I thought I could get away with it. 

Instead I am busily day-dreaming the day away. Admittedly there are about a million places more appealing than my flouro-lit office right now but here are 5 in particular I'd gladly teleport to. 

1. Ilha do Boipeba

A tropical, car-free paradise off the coast of Bahia in Brazil. I visited this place before digital photography so you'll have to trust Google images on this one- think white sandy beaches, colourful bougainvillea, incredibly cheap, fresh seafood and literally nothing to do, save the odd snorkelling trip and some serious hammock time. 

2. Xi'an

After a thoroughly unsatisfying tuna salad for lunch, the thought of strolling through the choked streets of the Muslim quarter in Xi'an fills my heart with joy. That chili tofu, flame grilled meat on sticks, roasted chili peanuts and innumerable other tasty delights that I couldn't even identify....mmmm, take me back!!!

3. Margaret River

Wouldn't it be nice to open your eyes and find yourself camped on the beautiful west coast of Australia?? Especially if that campsite was in range of some of the country's tastiest vineyards. We spent pretty much the whole 2004-05 summer cruising around WA in Martijn's beat up Holden Commodore and Margaret River is definitely up there on my list of fave Australian destinations. 

4. Si Phan Don

Sweet Laotian hospitality, daily serves of papaya salad, warm days and sultry nights spent meandering along rural lanes in search the next icy cold Beer Lao. Need I say more?

5. Palermo

I loved everything about Sicily, but the ramshackle, hectic and crazy centre of Palermo surprised me. It’s the kind of place that inspires hatred with its noise, chaos and pollution- but it’s also incredibly seductive. It’s also home to some of the world’s greatest food and wine... 

Is anyone else sensing a theme here?

The Land of Ice & Snow

Officially, visiting Antarctica means I have now set foot on all seven continents.

However according to my mate form the USA (and actually, pretty much any North American I’ve ever spoken to), Cleveland doesn’t count.

Since I’m not much of a box-ticker I’m not really fussed either way- Antarctica was still one of the most amazing, surreal and unique places I’ve been.

 

  

Our home for the 12 night cruise was the 98 passenger Akademik Ioffe, a Russian research vessel that is leased by the Canadian company One Ocean Expeditions for epic adventures to the Arctic and Antarctic. We were one of the first departures to the Antarctic Peninsula of the season- 10 November- so were looking forward to a pristine, white landscape and some major icebergs.

On boarding in Ushuaia we found that most of the staff and passengers were almost entirely English-as-a-first-language-speaking (Brits, Yanks, Aussies, Kiwis and Canadians) though we did have a few Swedes, a Chinese couple who lived in Taiwan and an Indian couple from Mumbai.  Far from being the youngest people on board, we were probably around mid-range; the youngest was probably 21 and the oldest person 70 or so. Because of the amount of activities offered- skiing, snow-shoeing, kayaking and overnight camping…the demographic was probably a little younger than the average Antarctic cruise.

 

Our departure from the port in Ushuaia was held back by 12 hours or so due to two serious storm systems passing through the Drake Passage. Since a lot of people were a worried about sea-sickness, this announcement was greeted with glee and gave the welcoming party a bit of an extra boost (and gave our bar tab the healthy kick it needed to get going). We mingled on the top deck, drinking beers and meeting our fellow passengers and then slept like the dead with the calm port waters beneath.

The following morning we set off sailing through the Beagle Channel, with stunning views of Tierra del Fuego and a gentle introduction to our sea-legs as our first few hours were spent in enclosed waters. Late afternoon we hit open water and the fun started. We had loaded up on TravaCalm tablets before leaving Australia, and taking nothing to chance, I’d been steadily chewing my way through them since the lines were thrown at 8am. 

Taking sea-sickness ills is probably the closest I will ever come to enlightenment. They put you in a seriously zen state of mind- I was able to watch thoughts drift aimlessly across my mind without really pausing to dwell on them. It was a curious sensation but not unpleasant. Buddha would have been proud.

The seas got steadily choppier overnight until we were at around 40 knots and 6 metre swells. According to the Beaufort Scale this puts us in the ‘Gale’ category, which was probably comforting to those who were cabin-bound and puking (hey, it would be embarrassing to be bed-ridden with a ‘Light Breeze’). Despite not feeling amazing, we were still able to make it every meal. And managed to get a Moosehead or two down us at Happy Hour…salty old sea dogs that we are J

Thankfully the crossing was the worst weather we would experience and the next 8 days of landings were mainly calm (with the notable exception of horizontal snow and biting winds that accompanied the polar plunge at Deception Island). 

Even the penguins looked miserable at Deception Island

Though admittedly, not as miserable as Martijn

Although it was cloudy and overcast for the first few days, the sun broke through at Damoy Point and stayed with us until we returned to Ushuaia.

Before sun. 

After sun. 

Rather than bore you all with a minute by minute description of the full 12 days how about a few highlights?

On our very first landing we saw a leopard seal hunt and kill a penguin just offshore. All up we saw 4 species of penguin, including the photogenic adelie, star of Happy Feet.

Happy Feet!!!

Chinnies chilling on Orne Island

 We snow-shooed for the first time at spectacular George’s Point.

We set foot on the Antarctic continent (though declined the offer of an overnight camping expedition, opting to ensure the bar staff were kept busy with our fellow barfly and Manhattanite Kim….many, many high fives were thrown as it started snowing in earnest around 11pm)

We drank Mount Gay over thousand-year-old- glacial ice. We also drank an impressive number of Moosehead beers but narrowly missed taking our the “biggest bar tab” award (I know, we were surprised as well).

We were treated to one incredibly long and gorgeous sunset that last for about 4 hours.

We realised that there are more shades of blue than we ever thought possible and they can exist in a single iceberg.

I took approximately 35,000 photos of penguins torpedoing through the water and managed to get one good one.

Much as I loved the dramatic landscapes and incredible wildness of the trip, I realised that I am not a polar-person...having seen Antarctica once I have no desire to return every year. I blame the lack of trees to string a hammock from.  It seems my natural habitat is somewhat closer to the equator. Those penguins are cute though J

Gratuitous penguin shot

When wanderers grow roots...

A few weeks ago we passed the 6 month anniversary of returning home to Melbourne. It was a bittersweet moment. Bitter in that it was a Wednesday and we therefore had to drag ourselves up out of bed and go to work….sweet in that the weekend before we’d been partying at Golden Plains music festival and were very happy to be back in this lovely city, surrounded by so many wonderful people.

Someone we met along the road theorised that it took the same amount of time to come down from post-holiday blues as the length of the holiday itself. I truly hope this is not the case, but I have to confess that there are many days when I gaze wistfully out the window and dream about exploring twisting Chinese laneways, swinging in a hammock on a south-east Asian island, or even bouncing along a rutted track in a chicken bus with salsa music blaring out from tinny speakers above my head.

Probably the strangest thing about coming home is that the two and a half years spent doing an incredible number of fascinating, diverse, insane and often bizarre things feels condensed, surreal and like it happened to another person and in another time. I find myself flicking through photos in an attempt to make it all seem a bit more real, and to remember the little moments that made the trip so amazing. I try to dredge up the feeling of walking across the border into a new country and those first confused moments as you have to come to terms with a new language, new currency and completely new set of social norms. Even though you develop routines when you’re traveling, they are never so entrenched as the ones you live daily at home. 

Working for Latin American tour operator means I get to spend more time than most legitimately dreaming about travel (and getting paid for it)...but living vicariously through other people's travel plans doesn't come close to being there yourself!!

The Rum Diaries Part LI

What do you know? Rum tastes awesome in Melbourne too! We just picked up this sensational little number from the Chapel Street cellars- Chairman's Reserve from the tiny Caribbean island of St. Lucia- and it has quickly made its way into my top five. 

Chairman's strikes the perfect balance between smoothness and bite and doesn't overdo it on the vanilla undertones. At $54 a bottle it's pretty reasonable (by Australian standards...meaning it's way fucking overpriced) so I think this one will be adorning our bar regularly. Mmmm, sometimes it just feels good to be home. 

The holy-shit-we're-almost-home edition.

Sorry everybody. Not only am I fucking exhausted after spending 12 hours in shit airports and even shitter airplanes, but I am also kind of drunk after skulling four cans of Carlsberg to celebrate the last night of what has been a truly amazing trip. 

So rather than attempt to sum up the last 868 days in any meaningful kind of way, I'm going the easy way out and working the 'a-picture-speaks-a-thousand-words' option. 

Once again, a big loved up thank you to all our friends along the way- from road-tripping Argentinean buddies to San Ignacio fiesta compadres; from coco-loco sipping Scrabble players to late night shit-talkers in Popayan; from our rum-drinking piratey shipmates and lao-lao drinking, kayaking Swiss friends to the surprise New Years San Fran team...to Peter & Leontien who are such fab mid-trip meet-up friends and interested rum-factory-tour-members. 

You guys (and many others) made our trip extra special and we hope to see you again somewhere. Happy travels wherever you are and you are always welcome in Melbourne!!!

1. Argentina- 38 days- AUD$86 per day

Gauchos at Cafayate's 25 de Mayo (Independence Day) celebrations

2. Bolivia- 88 days- AUD$70 per day

The Festival of San Ignaxio de Moxos 

3. Peru- 50 days- AUD$80 per day

Hiking the gorgeous Cordillera Blanca 

4. Ecuador- 31 days- AUD$81 per day

Cuy- guinea pigs on the spit near Mitad del Mundo

5. Colombia- 85 days- $92 per day

Salsa, beer, more salsa- Feria de Cali

6. Panama- 15 days- $90 per day

Ox-Alien paints Bocas del Toro

7. Costa Rica- 7 days- $93 per day

Sneaky snake- in Cahuita on the Caribbean coast

8. Nicaragua- 33 days- $77 per day

- We're chillin' bro'- Little Corn Island

9. Guatemala- 28 days- $79 per day

Local market near Quetzaltenango

10. Cuba- 20 days- $123 per day

Cuba's finest- Vinales Valley

11. Europe (Netherlands, Scotland, France & Berlin)- 127 days- $95 per day

The Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

12. Russia- 23 days- $111 per day

Soviet monuments laid to rest in Moscow

13. Mongolia- 16 days- $113 per day

Our host and his son showing off some traditional Mongolian wrestling

14. China- 33 days- $85 per day

Woman walking the city walls in Fenghuang

15. Laos- 51 days- $68 per day

The tiered roof of Wat Mai in Luang Prabang

16. Thailand- 68 days- $61 per day

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai

17. Cambodia- 25 days- $71 per day

The Killing Fields, Phnom Penh

18. Myanmar- 18 days- $71 per day

Worshippers at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon

19. Malaysia- 65 days- $73 per day

Old & New: the Petronas Towers viewed from Kampung Baru, the city's oldest district

20. Indonesia- 60 days- $72 a day

These were by no means the youngest children we saw on mopeds....Lombok

These are a few of my favourite volcanoes...

Indonesia has 127 active volcanoes....and god only knows how many dormant or extinct peaks. Basically every peak you see is (or was) a volcano. But we never get sick of looking at them.

Tiny Lombok is home to the enormous Gunung Rinjani, at 3726m it's Indonesia's second highest volcano and is sacred to the Balinese and Sasak people. 

Merapi Volcano (2891m) is Sumatra's most active (the name means Mountain of Fire), no mean feat on such an unstable island. We never saw the peak of this one...always covered in clouds. 

Gunung Inerie is the highest peak on Flores (2245m) and wins the award for pointiest cone. The northern side is covered in ash, the southern side in vegetation....so no prizes for guessing which side you want to be on if (when) it erupts.