French Polynesia

Shock and horror at the cost of life, awaited me when I finally arrived in Tahiti. A king's ransom to get from the airport; doomed to a life of dorms and meals of crackers with cheese.

But of course there are wonderful things - breadfruit trees, delicious mangoes lying around under the trees fresh for collecting and eating; turquoise seas, wonderful snorkelling; manta rays and dolphins cavorting in the lagoon here on Moorea island.

Tomorrow I leave for Huahine, and then Raitea island, and finally in 10 days, I'm home.

So this will probably be my last blog post unless I stumble over an oyster with a giant black pearl and I can afford another 15 minutes on the internet! Thanks for reading and following my journeys. They have been the best.

Luv Jude

Valparaiso

I have had a great few days here on the coast of Chile an hour and a bit north of Santiago.

Visited Vina del Mar a few days ago. It´s a resort just north of Valparaiso - which is more of a port town. Gorgeous weather (you can tell I´ve been spending time with the Irish again!) I even had my swimming cossie out.

Met the 2 lovely Irish women on my first night at the hostel and we´ve spent plenty of time out eating and sampling Chilean wine and meeting some great people.


Yesterday we visited the fabulous and fantastic house of Pablo Neruda, Chile´s Nobel Prize winning poet. You can imagine just looking at the curves and juxtapositions and windows, how wonderful it is inside!



And that´s Dan with Laura a couple of nights ago. That´s also when we met Selina, an American of South Indian origin studying medicine and on her way to work in Kenya for a year, and who´d picked up bedbugs in Santiago and brought them to the coast only to get chucked out of her hostal when she told the owner!

Have to admit I´ve been waiting for those critters to turn up somewhere and kind of glad we´re staying different places!

Well, gotta go pack - it´s blue lagoons and white sandy beaches for me tonight! Tahiti the next stop. Hope I get to eat breadfruit soon!

Chile

Well my first day in Santiago and after the night flight and no sleep, I´m feeling almost like I´ve been dragged kicking and screaming here. But had a long snooze and later that morning I go to breakfast and meet up with an Australian from Carlton that I first met almost 2 months ago in Colca Canyon when I first arrived in Peru! That was a good start to the rest of the day.

I then head downtown for a look around and come across this young woman who was offering free hugs! Thought I could do with one of those - get plenty of hugs from other travellers when we part even tho I may have only known them a day or two, but it is a long time since I had a hug at the beginning of a meeting!

Chile is like that - really vibrant- rather chic and cool, and just like Melbourne - they´re all in black!


I´m now in Valparaiso which is about an hour or so from Santiago and the feelings for Chile are now almost in a complete about face. It´s a very pretty town beside the ocean with meandering cobblestone streets in the old quarters up in the surrounding hills where I stay. Lots of artesans out and about on this sunny Sunday and I´m getting some good ideas for knitting patterns - big needles, thick wool, lots of holes - thought it might be a nice job maybe when I get back.

Took a ride in a fishing boat around the harbour for a couple of dollars and we passed right by these sea lions bobbing away on a buoy in the sunshine.

Will try and tour some of the local wineries while I´m here, a great sacrifice but thought Deb and Al might just disown me if I got so close ...



Finally starting to feel a little better in my stomach a full week after I left Guayaquil