February 18, 2023. When we arrived at Papua New Guinea (PNG) the morning of February 18, 2023 we went (briefly) through the town of Alotau. The town has a population of about 30,000 (according to our tour guide) and it seemed like everybody was in the town center, largely because it was Saturday and time […]

Vanuatu 15 Feb 2023 We have just spent 2 days in the country of Vanuatu, which is comprised of 13 principal islands and many smaller ones. It is approximately 500 miles west of Fiji and 1100 miles east of Australia.  Vanuatu’s was subjected to colonial rule by England and by France, after which England and […]

After crossing the International Date Line on February 9, we stopped in Fiji, officially known as the Republic of Fiji. It is an island country in Melanesia and a part of Oceana  in the South Pacific. Fiji is an archipelago consisting of over 300 islands, with slightly more than 100 of them inhabited.  Democracy in […]

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 Well, here we are in Pago Pago, American Samoa.  Located on the island of Tutuila, Pago Pago is the capital city of American Samoa. Officially known as Territory of American Samoa, it is an unincorporated territory of the United States. And as we just recently discovered, Pago Pago is not pronounced […]

We arrived at Bora Bora on Friday February 3rd for a 2 day port-of-call. It is an island of legend, known for the lagoon that circles the island with its beautiful turquoise waters teeming with undersea life makes the waters especially good for snorkeling. And there are the famous thatched roof huts built over those […]

Commonly known as Easter Island, it was so named because the European sailors who discovered the island arrived on the scene on Easter Sunday. Recently it has become  customary to refer to the island as Rapa Nui and the native peoples as the Rapanui people.  The name roughly translates as “Big Rapa” which references the […]

The west coast of South America, where part of Ecuador is located, is an extraordinarily fertile area for commercial fishing. Manta, located on Ecuador’s central coast, is the largest fishing port in Ecuador. Also known as San Pablo de Manta, the city is the largest and most populated city in Manabi Province.  We stopped in […]

17 January 2023 As our itinerary changed due to civil unrest in Peru (and the cancellation of our planned visits there), we had the opportunity today to visit Guayaquil, Ecuador, a city we first saw in 2018.   Guayaquil is a large port city, home to over 3 million people.   It has a cosmopolitan […]