Walking Among Giants

Recently I celebrated a big birthday. To celebrate I wanted to do something grand. I hadn't been to South America yet, and I started looking at options. I didn't want to be on a 15 day tour, where I was with the same people every day and a schedule planned months in advance. Instead I found an awesome travel group who allowed me to pick and choose a number of options (and fill the rest of my time with my own adventures).

I knew Chile was my destination but was hesitant about adding on a trip to Easter Island (or Rapa Nui) onto this trip. It was expensive, and took two days of travel to get there and back. But wow! Was it worth it! This is a photo of one of the resurrected sites on the island. Thanks to Japan for donating the money and a crane to assist in the effort.

What I love about this picture is the view of the people wandering just to the right of the status. I think this photo gives an idea of the scale of these moai. The history of the island is amazing. While sometimes you look back at a trip and think it was special, I knew this one was magical from the very start.

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

So today is St. Patrick's Day and immediately I knew I wanted to write about the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. I visited this site long before digital cameras were available, so these are scanned photos of my trip.

Legend states that a giant in Northern Ireland was building this "bridge" to fight with the giant in Scotland. Another story (which I can't seem to find confirmed anywhere) is that the giant was building this bridge to meet his love on the other side. And heck, I'm a romantic at heart so I prefer the second story. The reasons for the incomplete bridge generally includes falling asleep for some reason.

In actuality, this was lava rock that quickly cooled and shattered once the hot lava reached to cool salt water. This explains the similar rock formations on the Scotland side as well. What is unusual is the rock columns are generally broken into perfect hexagons; although there are some columns with 5, 7 and even 8 sides visible.

Another reason to visit? This site is just a few miles away from Bushmills where you can go on a tour of the Bushmills Whiskey factory and even have a little tasting at the end.

Calming thoughts and Hua Hin, Thailand

A dear friend was married in Hua Hin, Thailand and I was so lucky to get an invite to the event. Hua Hin is located about three hours south of Bangkok by car and is located on the Gulf of Thailand. The place we stayed at was amazing with comfortable rooms and a beautiful pool area that overlooked the gulf. On one side was the king's summer palace... and on the other side was this Golden Buddha and a temple (out of frame at the top of the mountain).

So my friend and I took a walk to explore. We walked up past the Golden Buddha to the white building where a monk was sitting. As we started to walk by he waved us over. He said some words and asked us to make a wish as he tied a piece of string with a knot around each of our wrists.

Later that night, my string fell off my wrist while we were eating dinner; my wish was already true. The string around my friend's wrist was still secure. He finally cut it off after returning from a trip traveling around Southeast Asia for more than a year.

Sometimes it is important to remember that those things you wish for are often things you already have.

Crossing the Andes, Chile

Crossing the Andes via a chain of lakes was one of those items on my must do list. When I was in college, a friend had passed from Chile into Argentina using this passage -- although she was smart enough to do it in the summer.

While there are a series of ferries to cross the lakes, there are times when one must hop on a bus and cross a section of land. I crossed over in September 2011 with 15 fresh inches of snow covering the Andes. It was beautiful! And cold.

Having grown up in the midwest, I was accustomed to snow for 4 - 5 months every year. But I didn't realize that the majority of the people on my bus had never been in snow before. (!!!) So imagine my surprise when the bus stopped to put chains on the tires and the bus emptied in seconds and a huge snowball fight erupted.

See the woman in the tan jacket in the upper right corner of the photo? She must have been in her 70s. But she was a ferocious snowball fighter. That large chunk of snow did not stay in her hands for long. After 10-15 minutes, everyone was back on the bus filling the air with the scent of wet wool and we carried on to the next lake in the chain.