A San Francisco Treat

Hi Everyone! I didn't forget about my blog. The family and friends' visits have kept me pretty busy these past two weeks....that and getting in as much shopping as I can manage. I had to ship three boxes of stuff home! Some of it is thanks to the great new restrictions and additional fees for taking more than one piece of luggage on an international flight. Some of it is because I went a bit overboard.

Here is a shot of me hopping off a cable car in San Francisco. I think my mom and I were on our way to Ghiradelli square to get some of their great chocolate. It was freakishly cold there! I have on a fleece jacket under that corduroy blazer. It was perfect weather to try out clam chowder at nearly every restaurant we stopped through, though, so I didn't really mind.

It is just too surreal for me to comprehend that I am now sitting in the airport on my way back home. My trip of a lifetime to SE Asia is already almost over! Where did the seven months go?

Flying through the U.S. has been a culture shock all its own especially with visiting California, Wisconsin and Illinois. The three states couldn't be more different in terms of geography, economies, and people. It was a great way to transition back into the western world by seeing family and American friends. I can only imagine what culture shock lies ahead of me, though, as I return back to The Netherlands.

I haven't really had time to digest the past three weeks in the U.S. I'll have plenty of time on my flight to London Heathrow so I will try to post another blog from there during my layover.

I'm Coming to America

I can hardly believe it, but I have only three weeks remaining in my seven month round-the-world trip. I am both ready to get back to the creature comforts the U.S. has at every turn and also looking forward to seeing friends and family. Simultaneously, though, I am really looking forward to getting back to The Netherlands, to my husband, and the ease only found at home. I can't say I am enjoying the prospect of job hunting, but I am starting to get excited about getting back to a job and regaining a daily direction in my life. I wish I could tell you what that direction will be. I am trying the best I can to quell the panic this uncertainty is giving rise to and just enjoy my last weeks of vacation.

I have started to think about what I will take away from this trip, but I think it is only fair to wait awhile to draw any deep conclusions else they will be hasty and superficial. I need the emotional distance that is only possible for me with the passage of time so I can cull through my experiences - to turn them over and over and examine them from time to time.

I set out to do many things on this trip and have done most. I haven't written the articles for travel magazines, though, for instance, that I talked about doing nor started the website that was supposed to partially offset my expenses. Through this blog, though, I have been writing and, more importantly, I have started to share my writing which is a big step for me. (I hope all of you have enjoyed it too!) In doing so, it has catalyzed me to get into the habit of writing which is something I have always meant to do. So, in that way, the trip has been a success. Like so many, my hope is to one day write a book (or ten) and the thought was to use the trip for material. We'll see. It just seems so large a goal.

I fly out tomorrow morning from Vava'u, Tonga to begin what will surely be the longest day on record. I will take three flights, the longest nearly 13 hours, and still manage to arrive in San Francisco the same day as I departed Tonga. Time zones are funny that way. There my mom will pick me up from the airport and we will begin a week long whirlwind road trip to Muir Woods, wine country (Napa & Sonoma), and Big Sur amongst other places. Then we'll fly to IL together where I will spend two weeks catching up with friends and family. Ready or not, here I come! :)

Whale watching

It has taken me a full 24 hours to calm down after the whale watching trip I went on yesterday afternoon...and writing about it will probably get me excited all over again. It was AMAZING!!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to swim with a mother humpback whale, her (approximately) one month old calf and an adult male (serving as bodyguard/escort). As part of a group of twelve customers, we went out on a twelve foot covered speed boat to search for signs of whales breaching the surface of the waters around Vava'u, Tonga. I think the owners of Beluga Diving had been tracking the mother, calf, and escort via the town's short wave radio station because they seemed to know exactly where to look. (To digress, this town in so many ways reminds me of a tropical version of the Alaskan village in "Northern Exposure". Remember the local radio station on that t.v. show? Vava'u's commentary is much the same and just as colorful. One boat's call sign is the little blue boat with big red balls, for instance.)

For the next five hours we followed the three whales around the open water and, when they seemed to be surfacing in relatively the same area for a few minutes at a time, a group of four snorkelers would be directed to jump in. We would then follow a guide to ensure that we approached the whales appropriately. For instance, it is dangerous to get between a calf and it's mother. I found this out accidentally when the calf decided to come check me out and left it's mother's side and seemed to be making its way towards me at the surface. Other than knowing that no underwater creature should be touched, I had no idea what to do. It is impossible to anticipate the movements of a baby about three times your length and weighing thousands of pounds. I just froze.

I was so simultaneously excited and in awe that I was completely surprised to feel this force move suddenly beneath me. The mother, a fifty foot, 70,000 pound shiny black mass changed directions and wooshed beneath me like a fish the size of a ship. I really can't tell you how close she was, but I probably could have touched her with my snorkeling fin if I weren't trying to pin myself to the surface to the water and remain as flat and as still as possible.

The mother surfaced on the side of the baby opposite of us and order was preserved, thankfully, with no one coming to blows...literally. They flicked their tales a few times and were off into the deep blue and we were all left speechless with hearts racing. All I could finally managed was, "Oh my God!"

In encounters later in the day, the mother and baby were so peacefully interacting and so seemingly oblivious of us that when they turned their attention on to us, their size immediately switches from fascinating to a potential force that is heart stopping and frightening. We tended to be swimming after them kicking as hard as our legs would allow. They obviously didn't mind us around because they not only did not disappear into the depths below, but they seemed to stop every minute or so as if waiting for us to catch up to them. Expecting them to shortly continue moving, we sometimes briefly overcame the mother's tail. She was usually many feet below the water with the baby floating above her practicing its surfacing and tail flukes. The mother, though, would gracefully begin to move her tail upwards and it was all we could do to back peddle to get out of her way. Her tail never really came close to us since she was well aware of our exact proximity to her, but it definitely got my heart racing.

In another instance of us catching up to the tail of the male escort, he began to dive deep to get away from us which is amazing because it allowed us to see him on an angle and, thus, gave us a much better perspective of his size. Just as our attention was waning expecting him to disappear, he made a U-turn and started back towards us vertically with his belly facing us. I thought he would breech and do a spectacular back flop for us, but he barely broke the surface and then was off again.

The mother and calf both seemed to make eye contact with us at one point in the day. At those moments, I was suddenly deeply aware of just how intelligent these beings are. It seemed as if the mother was trying to communicate to us, "I see you. I mean you no harm and you are welcome as long as you allow my child to just be." She was obviously in control of the situation and she was fully aware of that.

I didn't get any pictures, but others did and, hopefully, they will e-mail them to me. Two of the local whale watching operations, though, have great pictures on their websites. Have a look: Dolphin Pacific (whom I will go whale watching with next Monday) and Dive Vava'u (make sure to look at the whale watching and guest photos links). The pictures on these websites are great depictions of what I saw at close range. It is really hard to convey how deeply impressive and exciting this experience was and why. Maybe it is the unique situation of being in the presence of another mammal that is so many times larger than us humans. Maybe it is the experience of being in the presence of another intelligent being and realizing, through watching a mother with her calf, just how similar we are all at times. Maybe, like the silent view of the peaks of a mountain range, it is the awareness of the majesty and vastness of nature. Right now it feels like all of this and more...

Vava'u, Tonga

I will be the first to admit that I haven't gotten very many great pictures yet in Vava'u, Tonga. Nonetheless, I thought people might be curious to see what this little South Pacific port town looks like. It is cuter, better organized, and bigger than I expected, thankfully. It is a popular destination for yachts and other sailing craft making long distance trips because it has a naturally protected harbor and the surrounding islands are also relatively sheltered from the tumultuous ocean so they are fun to hop around to. It is also relatively big and westernized with nearly a dozen restaurants, several mom & pop grocery stores, and internet connection.

I have come here to swim with whales - humpback whales to be more specific. I have been lucky enough in the past two days to see two whales and a calf surface the water (as well as two pods of dolphins) and could hear them 'singing' to each other during my two dives yesterday, but I haven't seen them yet up close. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity this afternoon on a five hour whale watching tour that allows customers, four at a time, to snorkel with whales. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Bligh Blah

Hi All,

I haven't forgotten about you. My internet connections at the hotels in Fiji have been ridiculously expensive and slow. I also haven't had a lot to say lately either. My trip up to Raki Raki to dive the world renowned Bligh Strait fell flat. The weather and currents were too rough to dive. We ended up only able to dive close to the resort in sheltered waters. While the diving was nice, the dive shop wasn't all that professional and, for the price, I preferred not to do repeat dives at dive sites. So, instead of doing the planned 12 dives, I only did four.

Well, let's hope Tonga is better. I am writing you from there now. I plan to go diving and on a whale watching boat trip.

If you want to see pictures of my husband and my diving trips within Indonesia, they are now posted on Facebook. I am tagged in his photo albums so, if we are friends, you can have a look.

Pictures next time...