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Snorkeling Around the World

Memorable Moments of My Fab Fifties Life

February 1, 2019

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Yesterday we spent the morning on a private snorkel tour from our beach here in Ocotal in Costa Rica. We had a very enjoyable time on what was a really good value tour ($65 per person), and even though we didn’t see a lot of sea life, we did see a variety. The water was bit murky but we saw a dozen or more varieties of fish, one eel, one sea snake, a puffer fish, starfish and lots of interesting sea anemones.

Galapagos

From the boat we also saw hundreds of “flying” devil rays, several dolphins and a turtle. It was a lot of fun.

It got me to thinking and comparing different snorkel tours we have taken over the years so I decided to share about some of our various snorkeling adventures. I’m not a diver but I really enjoy snorkeling and have enjoyed some

Costa Rica

wonderful opportunities in our travels.

Here is our list of Snorkeling Around the World – Memorable Moments;

Maldives

Sand Island Maldives – My favorite snorkeling day ever was our morning on the tiny (50×75 yards) sand island about an hour boat ride from the island of Huraa in the Maldives. Known for the spectacular crystal clear blue water, the Maldives are a divers paradise. Our snorkeling day rewarded us with a vast collection of sea life, but the more amazing part of this day was the stunningly beautiful coral reef. I’ve never witnessed anything like it before or since.

Australia with Wally

Great Barrier Reef Australia – Memorable, iconic and expensive, our day on the Great Barrier Reef out of Cairns was fun. An overcast day made for some murky water and rough seas but we enjoyed this once-in-a-lifetime experience with a nice selection of interesting coral and fish including the resident Maori Wrasse named Wally (see photo). Read more about it here.

Galapagos

Galapagos Ecuador – Everything about the Galapagos Islands is unique and memorable – both on land and in the sea. One of our favorite trips of all time. The day we snorkled in the Galapagos was the only time I have ever swam with seals who danced a playful ballet around us as we swam. We also encountered baby seals, beautiful turtles and small sharks. Just one remarkable event in a very remarkable place.

Dhow in Zanzibar

Zanzibar – possibly my worst sunburn in my life occurred the day I snorkeled with my sister in Zanzibar. My sister’s first time snorkeling and in our excitement we both forgot to lube up. The waters off of Zanzibar are incredibly beautiful, but we actually didn’t see that many fish. As memorable as the sunburn was the rickety Dhow boat (traditional Zanzibar wooden fishing boat) that took us off the beach out to the snorkel area.

Galapagos

Hawaii – I’ve been to Hawaii so many times I’ve lost track and it’s here I’ve enjoyed some of the best snorkeling ever. We went to Hawaii a lot when our kids were small, and for family snorkeling Hawaii can’t be beat. Our favorites are;

Molokini (Maui) – our favorite island is Maui and when in Maui snorkeling at Molokini is a highlight. Depending on the time of day you go, it can be pretty crowded but you will see such a great variety of colorful tropical fish it’s worth it. And if you can, book a tour that also goes to Turtle Island so you can see these magnificent creatures.

Australia

Captain Cook (Big Island) – We have snorkeled in the Captain Cook bay on the Big Island twice. Once we came on a tour boat and once we did the steep hike down (and eventually back up) to the bay. The bay doesn’t have much coral but lots and lots of beautiful fish make the bay their home.

Hawaii

Kona Manta Ray Snorkeling (Big Island)– one of the funnest, most breathtaking and most amazing things I have ever done was the nighttime snorkel in Kona to swim with the amazing and giant (up to 20 feet wingspan) Manta Rays. These gentle giants are graceful and harmless and truly spectacular. Read more about it here.

Thailand

Black Rock (Maui) – my son Dane and I had a remarkable experience at Black Rock while snorkeling

just off the beach. We encountered a solo turtle which let us swim and follow him for more than half an hour. Just me, my son and this beautiful creature. I’ll never forget it.

Zanzibar

Koh Phi Phi Thailand – very crowded and somewhat overrated was our snorkel tour adventure to Koh Phi Phi in Thailand. Although the beautiful blue water is warm and fun to swim in, we didn’t see much of a variety of fish and there were so many tour boats there it was ridiculous. We did enjoy the water though and most of all having fun with our adult sons in the gorgeous tropical Thailand waters.

Maldives Sand Island

There you go, our list of of favorite snorkeling around the world sites. Some of our most memorable travel days have included snorkelin

I hope you too will have the chance to visit one or more of these beautiful and amazing snorkeling places. I have no doubt you will remember it forever.

Fabulous!

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Inspire

Second Annual My Fab Fifties Life World Travel Awards

And the Winner is…

January 18, 2019

Laureen

18 Comments

Location: Around the World

And the Winner Is…

If you’ve been following My Fab Fifties Life for awhile you will remember our 2017 World Travel Awards from last January. I definitely feel with all of our travels in 2018 (covering 57,000 miles and 26 countries) we are well positioned to bestow the World Travel Awards – our version of the Oscar or the Razzy – on many people, places and travel experiences that have touched us this past year. Just like the famous movie awards, we have seen a world of real life

Australia

drama, fantasy, comedy, mystery, nature and animation. Enough to last a lifetime.

Berlin Germany

This is a long blog. But I believe it offers some valuable travel insight to the world. I hope you will find it informative and entertaining. So in keeping with the time of year for awards, I give to you our picks for World Travel Awards, Best and Worst of 2018 – My Fab Fifties Life.

(For reference – our 2018 countries visited were; India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Singapore, Guam, Australia, Indonesia, Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, USA, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Romania, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Portugal, Spain, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil.

DESTINATIONS

26 Countries

Australia

Favorite Overall Country – Australia

Australia takes the top award this year edging out a few others (Greece, Poland) but we both agreed. Australia is the best. The only negative about Australia is it’s expensive. But we believe the beauty, culture, nature and environmental awareness helped us choose it as our favorite destination of 2018. We plan to return in 2019.

Favorite City – Sydney and Krakow

Well there it is again – Australia. Sydney Australia and Krakow Poland take our award this year for favorite city, and basically for the same reason. Both offer a variety of cultural, historic and scenic options for visitors. Sydney also has beaches while Krakow has great food.

Most Beautiful City – Singapore

Singapore

Everything you ever heard about Singapore is true – sparkling clean, stunningly beautiful (especially at night), easy to maneuver and very pedestrian friendly, Singapore was our favorite beautiful city of the year.

Cutest Town – Brugge

Brugge Belgium

Singapore might take the big city award but we are more small town folks, and Brugge was a perfect little package of history, beauty, beer, delicious food and very friendly people. We spent four days and could easily have stayed on even longer.

Most Expensive Country – Australia

Australia has so much to offer, but inexpensive it is not.

Least Expensive Country – Indonesia

Mount Batur Bali

With some of the nicest people and most beautiful scenery Indonesia is a bargain, and we loved our time there.

Most Disappointing City – Ubud (Bali Indonesia) Ubud is no longer the sweet little artists/yoga village we all imagine from Eat Pray Love. When I saw the American brand chain stores I was so disappointed (Ralph Lauren, Starbucks, Nike).

ACCOMMODATIONS

29 Airbnbs, 42 hotels, 5 boats

Airbnb Antiparos

Best Airbnb Overall – Antiparos, Greece. We loved our relaxing three weeks in this gorgeous, private, and big airbnb with a stunning view and wonderful host. I hope to return someday. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20657689

Best Airbnb for Service – Rio de Janeiro. Our short visit to Rio (we really should have stayed longer) was extra special due to the hospitable and generous host at our sweet Airbnb. She was one of the most thoughtful hosts we have ever had. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1149627

Best Airbnb for Authenticity –Santorini

Santorini

Greece. Hands down the most expensive Airbnb we have ever stayed in, and yet it was also incredibly authentic Greek cliffside dwelling with a stunning crater view. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15926564

Most Expensive Airbnb – Santorini $220 a night (see above)

Maldives

Best Value Airbnb – Maldives our tiny room

in a tiny resort on the tiny island of Huraa was $90 a night but included three meals a day for both of us. We loved our relaxing three weeks here. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4490934

Lombok

Most Rustic Airbnb – Lombok, Indonesia. spending a week in a traditional Javenese cottage far from civilization was a favorite experience. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15991971

Least Expensive Airbnb – Lombok at only $52 was a bargain and so relaxing (see above)

Most Unique Airbnb – Key West, USA I thought spending four days onboard a 30 foot sailboat would be fun. Not so much. It was definitely unique. And cute. But also uncomfortable.

Favorite Hotel – Puri Lumbung Cottage, Bali this beautiful hotel complex made out of

Puri Lumbung Cottage Bali

traditional rice barns was not only beautiful, but it offered so many activities as part of our package and an incredible view at a bargain price. We loved our time here with our friends John and Carol

Worst Hotel – Singapore. Because Singapore is so expensive we booked this inexpensive $117 hotel and our room was literally a closet in the attic with no windows. It felt like a jail cell.

Friendliest Airbnb Family – Exmouth, Western Australia. We spent ten days in the

Exmouth Australia

tiny Western Australia town of Exmouth and we loved our little Airbnb and the darling family that lived next door. We would love to go back. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/18258544

Worst Hotel Experience – Bucharest Romania. Arriving at our booked and paid-for hotel near the Bucharest Airport, we learned there was a “septic” problem. No room at the inn. Nearly five hours later we finally laid our heads on a FUTON, in a teeny apartment of some guy who wasn’t using it, well away from the airport but grateful to just go to sleep. We had a very early flight and it was not a great way to end our three weeks in Romania.

FOOD

Favorite Country Cuisine – Poland, rich and

Poland

hearty comfort foods make Poland our fav in 2018. But Greece comes in a close second.

Spanish Tapas

Best Meal – Tapas Tour in Sevilla Spain our self guided Tapas Tour in Sevilla’s Triana neighborhood was so delicious and fun. A perfect Spanish memory.

Best Cooking Class – Krakow Poland I really enjoyed learning to make handmade Pierogi in the tiny communist era apartment of our sweet cooking instructor.

Best Beer – Brugge runs away with this

Brugge beer

award, nowhere else even in the running. Brugge is a beer lovers town and we are beer lovers. Our visit to Brugge was memorable for many reasons including the wonderful selection of really outstanding beer.

Best Food Experience/Tour – Brugge wins this one too! We really enjoyed having dinner in the home of a lovely Brugge couple who through the website With Locals offered a home cooked Belgian meal in a typical Belgian home. What a lovely treat.

Port Wine

Best Drinks Tour – Port Tour Porto Portugal. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this tour but it ended up being so wonderful, educational, delicious and fun. I highly recommend this if you are in the beautiful Portuguese city of Porto.

CULTURAL AND NATURAL EXPERIENCES

Guam

Best Sunset – Guam. With Gin and Tonic in hand and enjoying some family time while visiting my niece Bekah and her husband Davy, we enjoyed our favorite sunset of the year on the little Dungcas beach in Guam.

Most Authentic Cultural Experience – Bangladesh Tour. Who goes to Bangladesh? Well just about no one, and it is exactly the

Bangladesh

reason we enjoyed our time there so very much. By far the most authentic and least touristy country we have been to in a long time. The people were so interested and amazed by us and they treated us like celebrities. We loved our time there.

Antiparos

Best Beach – It’s a tie! Antiparos, Greece and Ilha Grande, Brazil both deserve to be winners, even though they were quit different. Antiparos was amazing for the solitude, beauty and spectacular turquoise water. Ilha Grande had such warm water and the beaches were clean and beautiful despite being challenging to get to, we loved exploring the Ilha Grande beaches

Egypt

Best Tour – Memphis Tours Egypt was one of the best tour companies we have ever dealt with providing us incredible detail prior to arriving, and being present and on top of every detail throughout our ten-day visit to Egypt and Jordan. Our guides, drivers, accommodations and everything else were flawless.

Best Driver – Kadek in Bali. I found Kadek on Trip Advisor and he served as our driver for our entire three weeks on the island of Bali. He was a very good driver, spoke great English and in addition to picking us and dropping us at our destination he made sure we saw lots of interesting things along the way. I hope to meet Kadek again some day.

Berlin Germany

Best Free Walking Tour – Berlin Germany. We have done so many free walking tours over the past several years and only once did we NOT like our guide. But the young lady we had in Berlin was hands down one of the most charming, interesting, factual, fun and entertaining humans I have ever met. It made for a most memorable experience and a big tip for her.

Best Tour Guide – Cristian, Santiago Chile. Cristian was our guide on a bus tour we took the day we left our cruise ship and headed to Santiago for our flight. We spent the day touring the wine region of Chile as well as seeing a small authentic rodeo and dancing. Cristian was patient,

Hard to answer questions to a travel nomad

India

informative, interesting and entertaining.

Best Bucket List Historic Site – Winner Taj Mahal. Runner-ups The Great Pyramids and Petra. I cried the day I stood in front of the Taj Mahal. It was even more beautiful than I imagined. And lucky for us, we hit it on an unusually clear blue sunny day with hardly any people. Magnificent site to

Cairo

behold. Totally worth it. Of course the Pyramids and Petra are a close second. After seeing these sites your whole life in pictures, it’s surreal to finally see, touch and feel such awesome history and beauty first hand.

Best Snorkeling – Maldives. You might be surprised we aren’t giving this award to The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Yes that was amazing. But our best one day snorkeling actually took place in the crystal clear

Maldives

blue waters of the Maldives, on a tiny sand island of only about 20 yards wide and 75 yards long. Here we witnessed the most beautiful coral reef I’ve ever seen, and the most amazing variety of fish and sealife.

Best Natural Site – Uluru Australia. It’s a trek to get to Uluru. And like everything in Australia it will be expensive.

Uluru

But standing next that incredible natural phenomenon will be something you will never forget.

Best Manmade Site – Panama Canal Panama. I had no idea how much I was going to enjoy our eleven hour crossing of the amazing Panama Canal. Truly a modern day wonder of the world.

Malaga Cathedral, Spain

Best Cathedral – Malaga Spain. We see a lot of cathedrals. Sometimes individual ones are difficult to remember. Malaga is not one of those. A distinctively beautiful design inside makes it my favorite and most memorable cathedral in 2018.

7 Ladders, Brasov Romania

Best Day Hike – We have a three way tie for this one with 1. Canyon of the Seven Ladders, Brasov Romania 2. Campuhan trail in the rice fields outside of Ubud, Bali. 3. Coogee to Bondi Beach ocean trail Australia. All providing us wonderful days outdoors in three very distinctively different natural settings.

Best Multi-Day Hike – Well, the Camino Portuguese of course!

Most Exhilarating Outdoor Experience – Morning swim Denmark. Even though it was August, jumping into the North Sea before breakfast was an eye-popping way to start your day – and a very Danish thing to do!

Australia

Expensive but Worth it – Climbing the Harbor Bridge Sydney Australia $467. I had to really convince Arne to do this because it was outrageously expensive. But in the end he agreed it was worth it. An impressively well done and safe operation with a spectacular view to boot.

Platypus Australia

Best Wildlife Experience 1. Platypus spotting Australia 2. Aligator Spotting Florida. We love it when we can see wildlife in its natural habitat, untouched by humans. Seeing a wild platypus in Australia was so incredible. I still can hardly believe our luck and timing to spot the elusive and shy creature. On the other hand, seeing literally dozens and dozens of alligators within just a few feet of us as we rode bikes on the Shark Valley trail in the Florida Everglades was one of the strangest experiences of my life.

Auschwitz

Most Moving Experience – Auschwitz, Poland Hands down – seeing and learning about the extermination of Jews in Auschwitz and in Krakow was the most astonishing and moving experience in all of our travels. I tried to put it into perspective in a blog. It was difficult. Some people choose not to visit. For us it was the reason for going to Poland and I believe EVERYONE should go.

Performance, Ubud Bali

Best Performance 1. Bali 2. Sydney 3. Krakow It’s one of our favorite things to do when traveling, attending a local performance. And this past year we saw several remarkable shows including two fascinating and authentic indigenous dance shows in Ubud Bali, a circus/dance show at the Sydney Opera House as well as an outdoor spectacle of La Boheme on Sydney Harbor. In Krakow we enjoyed a piano solo performance of Krakow’s favorite son Chopin and LOVED a string quartet concert inside the tiniest historic chapel.

Best Museum Skagen Denmark A surprising find in this tiny historic seaside town in Northern Denmark, Skagens Museum featured the remarkable art of the amazing talents of the area’s 1800’s artist colony.

Ecuador

Best Cultural Art Experience Ecuador Panama Hat Making in the tiny mountain town of Monticristi a tradition endures where skilled artists produce these works of beauty known as Panama Hats.

Berlin Wall

Best Historical Art Experience Berlin Wall The reason we came to Berlin was to see the iconic wall, which did not disappoint, and the rest of this amazing city made it one of our favorite stops on European adventure.

Count Dracula Romania

Kitsch Award – we make an effort to avoid tourist kitsch, but sometimes we fall for it, as we did in Sighisoara Romania. Touted as the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler (Count Dracula), we paid a couple of dollars to walk into a dark and spooky room where an open coffin waited with the Count himself asleep. Well until he jumped up and scared me to death. LOL.

Least English Spoken – Brazil. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil and we found through out the country even in high tourist areas English is rare. Much like in Portugal and in Spain, there are few fluent English speakers. Even in the airport and on the flights English is unusual.

WEATHER

Hottest Day: Ilha Grande Brazil 95 degrees F and 76 degree dew point. We swooned.

Muxia Spain

Coldest Day: Pontevedra Spain 39 degrees F on our Camino de Santiago we froze and this was the start of my chest cold that lasted 8 weeks.

Wettest Day: Muxia Spain a four day monsoon kept us indoors, stuffing paper towels into the frames of the windows to keep the water from pouring in.

Windiest Day: Antiparos Greece – a rare October cyclone closed down shops, the ferry, and toppled trees.

TRAVEL

30 flights, 8 train rides, lots of small boat rides, one river cruise, two ocean cruises

Smallest Airport – Paros Greece

Worst Flight Experience – Iceland Air lost luggage. It took three days before we saw our luggage again.

Worst Airline – Scoot. Worst flight I can remember in a while from Singapore to Perth. Everything cost extra including baggage, drinks, food and even a blanket.

Train Travel

Best Travel Experience – Europe Train Travel. We had a wonderful experience using the trains from Belgium to Germany to Poland and throughout Andalucia and I would do that again in a minute.

Worst Airport – Manila We had a long layover here and there was nowhere to sit. There was no ATM to get local currency and none of the concessionaires took credit cards. The part of the airport we saw was old and dirty.

Camino de Santiago Portugal

Best Airport – In contrast and like everything else in Singapore, the airport is new, shiny, efficient and beautiful.

Dead Sea Jordan

Worst Security Line – Seattle WA USA. Way to go USA. My flight from Seattle to Nashville was a near disaster when I arrived more than two hours ahead of schedule to find a more than two-hour security line. Seattle’s inability to separate out domestic and international travelers and offer expanded security lanes has made it one of my least favorite airports in the entire world.

Worst Travel Experience – missing our flight in Perth. Expedia took the blame and even gave us a $200 credit for this flight debacle, but it didn’t help our situation as we had to stay an additional day in Perth and did not get to see the town of Alice Springs before heading on to visit Uluru. Hope to see you again someday Alice Springs.

So there you have it. The winner of the Fab Fifties version of the Oscars for 2018. But you do know, the real winner is me. Me and my husband. The luckiest people on the planet. Who needs a little gold statue when you have a Fab Fifties Life?

What a fabulous life it is.

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Oceania Travel

The Great Barrier Reef Australia

Just Keep Swimming

March 22, 2018

Laureen

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Location: The Great Barrier Reef Australia

“Hey, Mr. Grumpy Gills… When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming.” – Dory the Fish from Disney’s Finding Nemo

Nemo

Finding Nemo is one of my favorite Disney/Pixar movies, and this past week I have had endless Finding Nemo moments and quotes running through my head. Being

in Australia and finally snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, my thoughts have wandered to the

Reef and fish

adventures of that movie and I have smiled to myself underwater and thought “Just keep swimming.”

Although going out on a snorkel trip on The Great Barrier Reef took us way over our Grand Adventure daily budget (actually everything in Australia is

Birdseye view

taking us over budget), we could not come here to beautiful Cairns and not see the reef. It’s another one of those “I don’t have a bucket list” bucket list items. I love snorkeling and I wanted to have that once in a lifetime opportunity.

The weather on the day we went wasn’t great – grey and overcast and we even saw some rain. I am in constant worry about my motion sickness

Colorful

problem, so I stood outside and watched the horizon the entire hour and half boat trip out to the reef, even when the rain started to come down. Hey I was gonna get wet anyway right? Luckily, thanks to massive amounts of drugs, my sea sickness problem did not materialize while on the boat. That was a good sign!

“You got a problem, buddy? Huh? Huh? Do ya, do ya, do ya?” Dory

We booked our reef tour with Reef Magic out of

Marine World of Reef Magic

Cairns which took us to the outer reef and a pontoon platform stationed there called Marine World. We disembarked the boat to the pontoon and here we were outfitted with our snorkels, fins, masks and Lycra “stinger” suits to protect us from

Jellyfish

jellyfish.

“I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy.” Dory

Reef Magic offers many options from the pontoon, all at an additional charge including snorkel safari, snuba, scuba, glass bottom boat, semi-submersible boat and helicopter rides. But since

That’s us!

we had already exceeded our budget (for two of us we paid $426 Australian about $330 US), we were just interested in snorkeling. We were dressed and ready to go pretty quickly and one of the first people in the water.

Us with Wally

We immediately encountered “Wally”, one of the biggest fish on the reef. Luckily Reef Magic’s professional photographer was on hand as we entered the water and she got some amazing shots of us with Wally. All the photos in this blog are from Reef Magic’s professional photographer. Since we don’t have an underwater camera we have never gotten underwater photos on any of our snorkel trips on the Grand Adventure. So, despite the fact my husband almost wet his pants when I told him the price, we bit the bullet and bought the photos for an additional $75 (about

Hey Wally

$60 US).

“Ahh you guys made me ink.” Pearl

Wally is a resident fish of this part of the reef. He is an amazing species called Maori Wrasse. This fish is a female for the first eight years of its life. And then poof. It’s a male. I know – what the heck? Isn’t that nuts? Some times I think Mother Nature is menopausal!

Coral

After our encounter with Wally we began to explore the reef. Marine World has a cordoned off section of the reef for its guests to enjoy. Within this area there was a huge variety of corals; big, small, blue, green, orange, white. Some are soft and rounded, others spikey and dangerous looking. In all the

Coral

snorkeling I have done, I had never seen coral that waved in the current like it did here. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. Most of the coral we see in our lives is dead. And while its pretty even when it is dead and dry, the beauty of live coral is spectacular. Yes this is an incredible living

Coral

creature and we surely must protect it.

“Righteous! Righteous! ” Crush

So I loved the corals and kept going back for more of that but of course there were the fish. Many, many fish. I don’t know all their names, but they really are beautiful to watch. Some of the fish are very solitary, just going along and doing their

Fish!

business, feeding and swimming and doing what fish do. Other fish keep in groups, large schools that move together almost as one, weaving above and around the coral mountains. There are some fish that are so tiny you don’t even see them until you are swimming right through them, while others

Giant Clam

are so big that they freak you out a bit. Many fish are shy and you need to look inside the coral to find them. There are also beautiful giant clams, sea slugs, squid, eels and rays. And no we did not see any sharks.

Ray

“From this moment on, you shall now be known as Sharkbait.” Gill

We swam to the outer edge of the roped off area and we were alone in this section just as a beautiful turtle swam by on the surface. We

Turtle

almost missed him because we were looking down and he was swimming right next to us on the surface. But then he dived and we watched him swim to the bottom looking for a snack. I believe this was a loggerhead turtle. We had seen this kind in Sri Lanka. Beautiful brown bodies and not too large. We watched him swim away beyond the area we were confined to and into the great wide ocean.

“Saw the whole thing, dude. First you were all like “whoa”, and we were like “whoa”, and you were like “whoa…” Crush

After about an hour we went back to the pontoon to have a rest. Reef Magic served a buffet lunch

Pontoon

that included salads and fruit, bread, chicken, sushi, lasagna, curry and roast beef. But I only ate a little cause I continued to worry about my motion sickness. Arne ate my share. It all looked good. Coffee, tea and water was also available and a bar on the boat was open when we weren’t underway. Clearly they have had motion sensitive passengers before and they were well stocked with ginger beer (like ginger ale, non-alcoholic). My beverage of choice.

“I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine.” Bruce the Great White Shark

Fish in all sizes

We headed back out to snorkel more after lunch. The water seemed a bit calmer but it was also more cloudy so not as easy to see – but that was okay. We tried to swim to all the areas and to the far-reaching parts of the swimming area. We noticed most snorkelers stayed very close to the boat. Understandably if you are an inexperienced snorkeler or not comfortable in the water. Reef Magic had life jackets as well as float noodles and other devices for anyone looking for a little more reassurance.

Some are shy

We snorkeled for about 30 minutes and then decided to call it a day. We went back on the pontoon and stretched out on a lounge chair for the next hour and a half. Surprisingly, despite the overcast sky, it was warm and we both got a bit of a sunburn.

My Fab Fifties Life!

Finally it was time to turn in our gear and make our way off the pontoon and back to the vessel for the hour and half ride back. Once again I stood and watched the horizon the entire way, including during a deluge about half way home.

But I did it. I did not get sick. I snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef. I can check that off the “I don’t have a bucket list”

Dory

bucket list. And remembered to just keep swimming.

“Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim.” Dory

Thanks goes to the wonderful photography of Reef Magic!

Read more of our Australia adventure here

This post includes affiliate links and I may receive a commission if you buy any of these products. Any money earned goes to help support the cost of the blog.

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Oceania Travel

Uluru Sacred Legends

Kuniya and Liru

March 16, 2018

Laureen

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Location: Uluru Rock, Australia

There are many Uluru Sacred Legends, embraced and told by the local Anangu people. The aboriginal Anangu are said to be possibly the oldest native people in the world, dating back more than 50,000 years. The Uluru Sacred Legend is just one of many beautiful stories of this beautiful culture and their land.

The sunrises behind Uluru

Kuniya and Liru

Minyma Kuniya the python woman came from the east near Erldunda. A bad feeling grew in her stomach – something was wrong. She had to go to Uluru.

Uluru as seen from the base walk

Kuniya created inma (ceremony) to connect her eggs together. She carried them to Uluru in a ring around her neck and placed them at Kuniya Piti.

Meanwhile, Kuniya’s nephew arrived on the other side of Uluru. He was being chased by a war party of Liru (poisonous snake) men from out near Kata Tjuta.

He had broken the law in their land and they were sent to punish him.

The Liru men threw spears at Kuniya’s nephew.

Uluru as seen from the base walk.

One pierced his thigh and many others hit the side of Uluru.

One Liru warrior, Wati Liru, was left to care for the injured python man. But he did not do his duty and left the injured man on his own.

Uluru cave

Minyma Kuniya realized that her nephew had been injured and was not being cared for properly.

She raced to Mutijulu Waterhole and saw Wati Liru high up on the cliff. She called out to him about her nephew, but he only laughed.

Minyma Kuniya placed her wana (digging stick) upright in the ground in front of her. Kneeling down, she picked up handfuls of sand and threw it over her body, singing and making herself stronger.

The morning sun puts a pink glow on Uluru

She was creating inma (ceremony) to help her confront Wati Liru.Kuniya moved toward Liru singing and dancing akuta – a dance step used by women ready to fight.

Shadow play

Kuniya hit him once over the head with her wana. He fell down but got back up. She hit him a second time and killed him.

Kuniya then went and found her injured nephew. She picked him up, dusted him off, and carried him to Mutijulu Waterhole.

She created inma and combined their two spirits into one. They became Wanampi, the rainbow serpent, who lives in and protects the waterhole today.

This story teaches a traditional form of payback

Admiring the 1000 foot cliffs

punishment – a spear to the thigh. The punisher must then look after the injured person until they are well enough to care for themselves.

It also teaches about women’s intuition and that a woman may use force to protect her children.

This is a powerful story, Kuniya is a powerful women.

Story credit the Anangu People of Uluru and Uluru National Park and Parks Australia.

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Oceania Travel

Exmouth Western Australia

Ten Reasons I Fell For It

March 11, 2018

Laureen

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Location: Exmouth Western Australia

Australia is huge. So. Darn. Huge. Unfortunately, we get a skewed image of our world, by the skewed world maps we use. But the reality is, Australia is the same size as the lower 48 of the USA. Even here in little ole Exmouth Western

Same size

Australia it’s easy to feel how vast this country is. Wide open.

Australia has a population of 25 million living in a country the same size as the USA. The USA has a population of 325 million. So it’s easy to understand how big and empty it feels.

They call Western Australia WA and if you compare it to the state of Washington – also called WA – you will get a good feel for how big this place is.

Little WA and big WA

You could put at least a dozen Washington WAs into Western Australia WA.

Sometimes we meet people who tell us they have traveled to the USA. We ask where they have been and they say- New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Fransisco. Sometimes it is also Grand Canyon and Orlando. Although I love all of these places, I always feel these people have not seen the real USA – that big open prairie, the purple mountains majesty, the crashing Pacific and the Great Lakes.

Here in Exmouth Western Australia I realize I find

Sunset Exmouth

myself guilty of the same. We will be heading to Ayers Rock next, then the Great Barrier Reef and on to Sydney. Seeing all the top sites but

Beautiful water

are we seeing the real Australia?

So this is one of the reasons I am so thankful Arne said we needed to come here, and specifically to come to Western Australia where few tourists go. I love this town and this coast and I want to encourage others to love it too. So, here are the ten reasons I have fallen in love with Exmouth Western

Sandy beaches

Australia.

The Coast – the West coast of Western Australia is diverse, even here in this tiny part we have enjoyed. The amazing Ningaloo Reef is beautiful and the water is turquoise and the sand is white. It’s pretty close to perfect. From the town of Exmouth Western Australia you’re at the beach in
Amazing sea life

minutes.
The Marine Park – all along the coast here the marine park draws those who love the ocean. So much to love here as a diver or snorkeler or fisherman. Some of the world’s most amazing creatures call this coast home at
Ant hill

some time during the year, including the largest fish in the world, the Whale Shark, the Humbpack Whale, Orca Whale, Manta Rays and many other kinds of rays, sharks of every kind and so many, many fish.
Turtles – in addition to all the above mentioned sealife the Coast Range National Park is home to one of the largest turtle
Amazing

nesting sites in the world. You can swim with the turtles by day, and at sunset or sunrise and sometimes other times you can watch the female turtles nest. They haul themselves out of the water and up to a safe spot in the dunes where they dig a nest and lay their eggs. They then go back to the ocean and leave their progeny to fend for themselves. Approximately 50 days later the eggs hatch en masse. If you are lucky you can witness the little babes scurry to the ocean, drawn by an inner compass telling them where to go. Incredible.
Wildlife – it’s more than just remarkable sea life around Exmouth Western Australia. Don’t be surprised if you see an Emu walking down the sidewalk or through the little village.
Emu

Kangaroos? Definitely. There are three kinds of kangaroos in the area, the smaller Euro, the larger red and the grey. We’ve seen them all. We also saw two dingos – similar to

Kangaroo

coyotes, they are nocturnal and hard to spot. We have seen a lot of lizards, including the Perentie, and a plethora of birds big and small.
Hiking – the Coast Range National Park runs
Perentie

for about 70km along the coast and provides several opportunities to get out of your car and see the rocky range and canyons dotted through the park. The favorite is the Yardie Creek at the end of the road. Surprising to see this

Yardie Creek

beautiful creek coming out of the dry and arid mountains. We also enjoyed visit the Charles Knife and Shothole Canyons for spectacular views as far as the eye can see. Caution is important in these wild, hot and

Shothole Canyon

dry areas and you must carry plenty of water. A fly net for your face is also extremely important, as the flies are a real nuisance otherwise.
The Village of Exmouth – tiny Exmouth Western Australia is home to about 2000 people. We visited in the late summer, after the kids had gone back to school. Few tourists are here at this time of year, although during the Australian summer months
Using our fly nets

(November – February) the population swells with many Australians and other visitors from around the world. We liked how quiet it was. Exmouth Western Australia has a nice grocery store, a handful of restaurants, a pharmacy, a hair and nail salon and a few

New Ningaloo Center

other shops. The town also has a very nice brand new “center” that includes a visitor information center, senior center, library, and meeting rooms.
Craft Beer – for a small town we were very happy to find not one, but TWO craft
Froth Craft

breweries. Froth Craft and Whalebone both had excellent locally made brews and food. We spent one Saturday evening at Whalebone listening to the band our Airbnb host is in. So fun! Our server at Whalebone

Whalebone

that night was the same woman who was our server for lunch at the local Vegan Social Society a few days before. It’s a very small town.
Speaking of Airbnb – The one we stayed in here in Exmouth Western Australia is number 39 and it has shot to the top of our list, one
Social Society

of our favorite Airbnb’s so far. A guest house next to the hosts home, we felt so comfortable here in our space and really enjoyed the lovely family. This family is very entrenched in their community with their two darling daughters and the husband’s local

We loved our Airbnb

construction business. We were very impressed when he went off as a volunteer firefighter to try to put out a big wildfire we had watched out in the distance for several days.
The weather – it is a wee bit hotter than I would like, but “it’s a dry heat”! We are out in it everyday and we have adjusted. I’m thrilled to get away from the humidity for a while and so is my hair! In fact, I have realized that
Sunrise run in our neighborhood

some of my aches and pains I endure are likely due to high humidity. Here I have felt great, very little pain in my normal hip and sciatic area and I have been running again everyday! Feels so good to be back at it, especially with the handy, flat trail right next to our airbnb.
English – it’s really nice to find ourselves back in an English-speaking country. We get a
Farewell Exmouth!

kick out of trying to communicate as we go around the world, but it also is tiring and sometimes problematic. So here we are speaking English, a somewhat different, but easy to grasp version, and we are very happy.

So, there you go. Ten reasons I fell for Exmouth Western Australia. I even looked at real estate listings. It’s a sweet town – you should come and see!

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Asia Travel

Farewell to the Maldives

Our Full Time Travel Life Continues

February 19, 2018

Laureen

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Three weeks went by really fast – surprisingly fast for as quiet as it is here. We really practically had nothing to do, in our little piece of Maldive paradise…but we found ourselves relishing the peace – just our cup of tea in a life of full time retired travel.

Morning coffee

Three weeks in one place was great. Even better, three weeks on an island that is only a mile and a half circumference, with no cars, restaurants or nightlife. Hardly any shops. What we did find on the island of Huraa was a quiet, religious and extremely friendly community, a great place to work-out everyday, a comfortable resort with good food and relaxing atmosphere, and a beach.

Perfect.

Snorkling in the azure sea

Our day consisted of getting up before nearly all the other guests, doing yoga and cardio on the beach for an hour and then walking or running two or three times around the island (twice = 3 miles, thrice = 4.5). Next we had breakfast, then usually went to the beach sometimes til lunch others times skipping lunch and staying all day. This workout routine is a high priority for us in our life of full time retired travel.

Romantic Beach Dinner

A couple of times we went on snorkel excursions to smaller islands in the atoll. Afternoons we played scrabble, read (a total of four books in three weeks), and spent hours and hours doing technical work to the blog. I spent one entire day in the hammock working on the blog. It is up-to-date and in good shape!

Since there is no alcohol on this Muslim island we often splurged on an ice cream bar in the afternoon instead. A little treat on a hot tropical island.

Most days included a walk to the point to watch the sunset followed by dinner at 7:00 each night in the outdoor restaurant. The rest of the evening spent relaxing and reading. What a life huh?

We have loved our time here. We feel healthy and rejuvenated and ready for what’s next.

Sunset on Huraa

So what is next? Two days in Singapore, followed by a week visiting my niece and her husband in Guam. Then a month in Australia, before meeting our friends John and Carole for three weeks in Bali.

The days ahead will fly by, and April 22nd will be here before we know it. That’s the day we sail from Sydney on a 23 day cruise back to the USA for a ten week visit. We arrive Seattle May 14th and depart again August 7th as we plan to continue this life of full time retired travel.

Morning yoga on the beach

So thanks for continuing to follow. Our time in the Maldives has given me the opportunity to do some more major work to the blog and I am really excited about moving forward with new opportunities to share our adventure through the blog – I hope you are too.

Please share our message with your friends! Please sign up to receive the blog via email (much more reliable than through the crazy Facebook algorithm). The adventure continues! Singapore here we come!

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