Q: What do you get when you cross the smell of rotting flesh with body odor?

A: me I’m in American Samoa, which I must say, is more like Samoa than America. For the first time since I’ve started my trip, I’m in a ‘nice’ hotel. By ‘nice’, I mean “Days Inn” quality. I have hot water, internet, a bath tub, and air conditioning. I’m living large. Baseball is on the …

Read more

Easter Island In The News

I noticed this bit in my RSS feed today: Easter Island Fights Prosperity. Having been there just two months ago, and because its never in the news, I thought I’d chime in on the subject. Go read the article first… For a place so dependent on tourism, Easter Island does a very poor job of …

Read more

Bye Bye Samoa

Tomorrow morning I leave Samoa for Fiji. That should begin several intensive weeks of travel. I will cross the date line for the 5th time from the 14th to the 15th of July. I will then rent a car and drive to Suva, Fiji where I will try to get my visa for Kiribati on …

Read more

A Tale of Two Kingdoms

Almost every night I get to tell the same story: the story of my trip. Most people I meet on my travels are just visiting somewhere for a weekend. Sometimes I’ll pull out my laptop and show them the Google Earth map and walk them through the places I’ve been and the places I’m going. …

Read more

My Afternoon At The Footy

While I knew of rugby and even knew people who played rugby, my first real introduction to rugby has come during my trip here to the Pacific. New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga are all big rugby countries, and its hard to avoid it when you’re here. In Tonga, while wandering around Nuku’alofa, I came …

Read more

A Tahitian Treat

Bonjour, and greetings from the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia. I’m sitting at the food court of the airport writing this. my flight doesn’t leave for another twelve and a half hours, but I’m at the airport for good reason. My hotel for the night was within walking distance of the airport. I took …

Read more

I Heart Rarotonga

Any guilt I had about leaving Tahiti earlier than I planned melted away the moment Rarotonga appeared in the window of the plane. Geology Like all Pacific islands, Rarotonga was created via vulcanism. You can think of islands on a continuum from the Big Island of Hawaii down to coral atolls. The Big Island is …

Read more

Last Thoughts on French Polynesia

Before I get too far away from it, I should add that I did not hate my brief time in Tahiti. While it was expensive and it did seem to overwhelm much of the experience, there were a few things I did enjoy. Poisson Cru. Before I left the island, I made sure I was …

Read more