(Almost) Half-way Stats

It’s my (Julia) turn again!  We are finally leaving the Americas after almost 6 months and we are almost at the half-way point of our journey.  I thought it would be a good time to provide a few stats of our life on the road, and also give a summary of some things that we will miss about Latin America! 

Unfortunately, there are no pictures for this post. While we were on the Big Island in Hawaii, we took a day to wash every single thing in our bags, air out all of our packing cubes, and clean out our bags of anything we haven’t used so we could send it home with family.  We were a bit astonished to see all of our clothes hanging up and wondered how we could possibly fit all of that into 4 backpacks!  But, we forgot to take a picture 

 

Here is the rundown.  So far:

We have been to                            12 countries

and                                                     73 cities.

We have taken                               21 flights

and been in                                      28 airports.

We have been away for                177 nights

and slept in                                      66 different beds

in                                                         6 different time zones.

We have taken                                12 different modes of transportation

and seen                                           64 different wildlife species sightings (of significance).

We have done                                 58 hikes

and                                                     42 excursions/activities

and gone to                                      7 different churches.

We have tried                                  76 new foods

watched                                            3 TV series

and                                                     1 movie.

 

And we have read so many books!

Matt has read                                19 books.

Julia has read                                38 books.

Marika has read                             74 books (not including for school).

Annika has read                             64 books (not including for school).

On that note, we would LOVE some book recommendations, especially for the girls.  We are running out of book ideas!  You can provide suggestions in the comments here or feel free to send me a message.  We do read books entirely on-line on our devices right now, so we will very much appreciate paper books when we get home!

 

Of our almost 6 months so far, about 5 of them have been in Latin America (the other month was split between Western Canada and Hawaii).  We really enjoyed our time in Latin America and will definitely miss some things about it including:

• Being surrounded by a different language that is still somewhat familiar and uses the same alphabet
• Very kind people
• Some foods that we have discovered and loved – dulce de leche, Mexican tacos, etc
• Green lushness of some of the jungle areas
• Being in time zones close to our own
• Walking through groves of eucalyptus trees

 

Thanks for following our journey so far and sending us notes of encouragement.  We are looking forward to exploring other parts of the world, though are maybe a little nervous about the even larger language barrier that we are about to face!

Oahu

We only had two nights and one full day in Honolulu but we had two things we wanted to do: visit Pearl Harbor and meet up with Mama Chang and her family.  Mama and Papa Chang started the World Vision Youth Ambassador program while they were in their 70s and influenced many lives.  Unfortunately, Papa Chang passed away about 20 years ago, but Mama Chang is still going strong in her mid-90s and is an inspiration to all who have the pleasure of meeting her (including our girls).  

We arrived in the afternoon, but had a bit of time to take a walk down to Waikiki beach.  We had seen ABC Stores on the other two islands, but after passing two of them in the span of two blocks in Waikiki, we concluded they were like Tim Horton’s in Canada with one on every corner.

The next morning we went to Pearl Harbor.  It served as a good history lesson for the girls and was meaningful to me.  My great uncle served on the Arizona but was off-duty and not on the ship during the attack.

That afternoon we met up with Mama Chang’s daughter who gave us a driving tour up the coast.  Oahu is a beautiful island as well!

First stop, snacks!

The Halona Blowhole lookout didn’t have enough wave action for me to catch much on the spray coming up out of the blow hole, but this fellow hanging out on the beach was pretty fun to see.

Our last stop was the Sherwood Forest (or Hunananiho) beach.  It was another magnificent beach and was nice that the forest provided shade during the afternoon. 

It was one of my favourite beaches of Hawaii.  Unfortunately it was not immune to the effects of Pacific Ocean trash and Annika collected lots of plastic pieces.  They are beautiful in their own way after being smashed and tumbled in the waves and the sand, but it is sad that plastic is joining the makeup of the beach.

We finished the day by heading back to the house for dinner with Mama Chang and the rest of the family.  It was an honour to share a meal together and to tell life stories.  They are a wonderful family and like many other times during this trip, we felt blessed to have joined them but sad that it was so short.

Mama Chang with her son, daughter, and son-in-law.

The girls even got to play a new game before the evening was done so that really made their day.

Hawaii (Big Island)

Our next stop in Hawaii was to the Big Island.  We ended up arriving a day before family and staying one extra day, but it was such a joy to meet with family again, this time on Julia’s side.

Sightseeing

Hosting a large number of climate zones, the Island of Hawai’i has a such diverse number of ecosystems to explore.

Rainbow Falls

Just outside of Hilo on the east side of the island.

Volcanoes National Park

Our time here spanned a few days.  We had an afternoon there our first full day on the island, but it was pretty cloudy and foggy.  We ended up staying in a small cabin in the park campground and did the rest the next day.  Late last year, both the Kīlauea volcano and the Mauna Loa were erupting at the same time, neither were erupting when we visited.  We were at the rim of the Kīlauea crater at around 12:30pm and there was a tour group at our overlook and the guide was saying that they don’t know when it will erupt again, could be in 10 minutes, could be in 10 years.  Ironically, it started erupting 4 hours later after we had already left to meet up with family!  Needless to say, seeing lava was high on every one’s list of things to do, so two days later we did the 2 hour trip back to Volcano National Park to see the lava at night.

The Kilauea Iki crater which is old enough and cool enough that you can walk on it.

The hike down to the crater floor.

Other worldly views from the bottom.

Hike to Nahuku (Thurston Lava Tube).

It was pretty fun to walk through the lava tube.

In 1959 the Kīlauea Iki that we walked on was spewing lava up over the crater and all the lava droplets created this hill of devastation.  At the start of the trail there were a few of the endangered Nēnē geese.  They believe that the Nēnē are descendants of a pair of Canadian geese that probably got blown to the island in a storm.

The drive through the old lava flows spanning multiple years/decades/centuries.

The beauty of the battle between the lava and the sea.

Such unique lava formations.

Steam vents and sulphur pits.

The Kīlauea crater, 4 hours before eruption and the older snow capped Mauna Kea seen in the distance which Annika was excited to see.  She had learned that Mauna Kea is technically the tallest mountain in the world since it continuously extends to the Pacific floor and is therefore taller than Mount Everest even though Mount Everest sits much higher in the atmosphere.

And returning the two days later to see the now erupting volcano and fantastic sunset!

Black Sands Beach

Green Sands Beach

The grasslands leading to the green sands beach.

We took the “local transportation” of riding in the back of a pick-up truck to get there.

Wai’pio Valley Lookout

Akaka Falls

One unique thing about these falls is that there is a little goby fish that will “swim” up these falls by climbing the rocks behind the falls.

Family Time

What a gift and fun to meet up with family again!  Most of the following is in or around the Kona area.

Cousin time included games and crafts!

And lots of swimming.

We had January birthday celebrations with Marika decorating the cakes.

Just down the road from our AirBnB was a nice snorkeling location.

 

We also booked a tour to do night time snorkeling to see manta rays.

There was of course beach time with the favourite activity being boogie boarding.

We stumbled upon a jewelry shop that let you open your own oyster and then the pearl inside is used for your jewelry.  That shop did well with this family with all the grandkid girls and Oma getting a necklace.

Shaved ice was a hit!

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