My first snow of the year near the Georgia/Armenia border, ~7000 feet.
Rose and I went down to breakfast because Archer was still sleeping at 8 o’clock, and Katy was still upstairs. The last couple breakfasts the kids didn’t do a great job eating, but it turns out if you separate them and one parent can devote all their attention to one child, they tend to eat pretty well.
I was surprised to see that it was raining as we were walking down to breakfast, but since today is a transfer day, rain is not the worst thing. The rain did scramble our plans to go to the playground and run some energy out of the kiddos before we started our drive to the Georgia–Armenia border.
It was a rainy 2-hour drive to the border. I was sitting in the back with the kids on an incredibly uncomfortable seat. Plus, I could not see out the window of the Prius that my head was hitting the ceiling of. When we approached the border, the rain turned to snow, my first snow of the year (7,000 ft).
When we arrived at the border, we scampered out of the car in the cold air into the border facility and were stamped out of Georgia without any fanfare.
We then drove a bit to the Armenia border control. They immediately noticed our Azerbaijan passport stamps but did not ask us about them. They wanted all the details of our itinerary and flights out. By the time we finished with immigration, there was a nice line of 10 people behind us. We then took our bags from the car and put them through the X-ray machine in customs and got back into the taxi. It was cold outside. Then we drove through one more passport check, and we were in Armenia.
The scenery difference in Armenia was pretty treeless and more rolling hills compared with the mountains of Georgia with the changing fall leaves.
The orange and black brick are two stones that have nearby quarries.
We arrived in Gyumri, and the rain had stopped (luckily there wasn’t the Baku wind either), but it was cold and dreary out at the 5,000 ft of elevation Gyumri sits. We found our apartment, and it was also cold inside—actually, very cold. It appears that the radiators had not been turned on for long before we arrived. Our host showed us around the apartment and gave us a bowl of apples picked from the trees outside, which everyone quickly ate one of, signaling that we needed to order some late lunch.
Lots of water fountains.
After we ate our Uber Eats (we used Glovo), we decided to bundle the kids up and got Archer to consent to wearing a pair of pants over his leggings and Rose to wear her rain jacket over her sweater. I had shared a lot of dishes with Katy the past few days, and my body was craving meat, and I had a strong desire not for Georgian/Armenian food. I ordered a hamburger with local fried meat on top; it was exactly what I needed. They just think I am a slob/barbarian since they included latex gloves to wear while eating my burger, which I did not use.
Gyumri is located near a quarry where black stones and orange stones are mined. The city experienced a heyday during the 1800s when it was controlled by Russia (pre-USSR), and there were many grand building projects. In 1989 a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the city, destroying most of the city, and 25,000–50,000 people died. Since then, the city has been a constant rebuild. There are buildings all over that are being rebuilt and others that appear abandoned (who knows if rebuilding is in their future). It creates a moody city that has great architecture. It is known as an artist city, and you can tell.
Cake, tea, and hot chocolate time. Armenia produces herbal tea as an export, but doesn’t produce “tea tea” like Georgia and Azerbaijan
We went to Honey and Herb and complemented our late lunch with some cake for dinner. On our way home we stopped by a toy store, and Archer started to plot what 2 toys he wanted to pick out for his birthday.
Archer had a fall coming back from dinner with his hands in his pockets. The concrete won, and he demonstrated that faces bleed a lot, a lot. In the morning there were some scrapes and a fat lip, but less bruising than expected. Other than the hour after impact, it bothered him minimally.
After not a great night’s sleep on a bed where I could feel the mattress springs, I awoke when I heard Archer making noise. It was still chilly in the apartment, but it was much warmer than it was the night before.
We woke up to a very important day: the day before Archer’s birthday. It was cold outside, but it was sunny, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, which was much better than the rain that we had been seeing all day the previous day.
The night before, we had ordered delivery food to make breakfast and had a lazy morning, which was needed. The ability to order delivery food and delivery groceries is great while traveling with kids. It also leads to ordering one of every mineral carbonated water that the store carries to “compare.”
The house was warmer, and after breakfast, we let the kids watch a movie, and we did some of the final logistics planning for the last 10 days of our trip.
There seems to be a “viral tickle” going around the family, and the kids are a touch more volatile, coupled with the fact we have been traveling for 3 weeks, and Rose almost has one molar all the way in and the second is halfway through.
We got some pastries, walked around town, visited a church, found some playgrounds (Armenian playgrounds are nothing compared to Georgian ones), Katy bought some flowers, and we separated ways when it was Rose’s nap time, having already stumbled across 4 toy stores.
We bought some sweets from this stand. Walnuts are in season. The balls are fruit leather covering walnut and apricot.We got some pears and strawberries here.
Archer and I stayed out and explored 5 more toy stores, getting ideas on what toys he wanted to get for his birthday. He is allowed to pick out 2 toys (plus the few things we brought for him from home) tomorrow. Archer and I then stumbled upon their market. This is one of the few great markets I have come across. What makes a great market is that the price of everything is labeled, and the vendors don’t talk to you unless you signal them. Archer and I bought some traditional sweets and stocked up on some pears and local strawberries.
One of the numerous toy stores around. I compare Gyumri is to Yerevan as Grenada is to Seville. The rent is just that much cheaper/less touristy
After nap we had some playground time and then went to the Gyumri Fish Restaurant, which is located next to a Russian military base. This restaurant is so “famous” that people drive 2 hours from the capital to eat, and apparently it is the center of some Russians’ trip to Armenia. They are a fish farm that does trout and Siberian sturgeon. BBQ Siberian sturgeon is what they are known for, and boy, was it delicious.
That is the Russian military base above. I didn’t take any pictures of the troops patrolling the fence line. It was interesting to see Russian military jets in the sky and not US ones.
We were feeling wild and had our Uber drop us off downtown, and we got the kids some cake at Herb and Honey (again, worthy of 2 visits!) before we called it a night.
Archer’s Birthday
Archer woke up and left his room and was greeted by some balloons and a scavenger hunt to find some Matchbox cars that I had brought. Katy wanted to hide all 4, but the truth was Rose picked out 2 of them, so she hid 3 and Rose got the purple one she picked out (not the pink one). Archer found them all, including the one in the freezer and behind the TV.
We then left the house to go to the grocery store, which had the remote-control tank (“tanker” in Archer speak) and train set. He picked those out rather quickly, but Rose was having a real moment deciding what toy she wanted, to the point that Katy and Archer left. Before they left, Archer picked out his chocolate cherry cake, which was a reasonable size. I had feared he was going to go for one of the $20 6–7 lb cakes.
We had a key mishap with me having the key, but needing to get wrapping paper (and tape since the wrapping paper store didn’t sell tape—it only took 3 stores to find it).
We then went home, and Archer played with his new toys, and we shortly put Rose down for a nap.
Rose was tired and wanted nothing to do with the rest of the world
Archer and I went out for a milkshake and beer. We brought his new “butt” card game, but it was so complicated I didn’t have the gumption to do a game.
We then went out to the restaurant Ani, which didn’t have a menu on Google, but I read online people liked it. They put us in a back room, and the kids could frolic and not disturb the front of the restaurant, which filled up. The food was really cheap and good (Katy’s huge stuffed trout was $11). Music started, and it was a touch too loud for Archer, but Rose was a fan, so we went out front and watched the 4-piece band.
Rose liked the music. Our room was in the back with the entrance near the band. A little carriage ride around the block (literally)
We then stopped by a purse store that was “made in Armenia,” and Katy picked out a purse.
We stopped for cotton candy for the walk home ($0.75).
1 cotton candy for 2 children leads to zero drama…
We almost made it home when Archer noticed the Ferris wheel was lit up, so we went to do the Ferris wheel. It cost $2.50. It likely has not been updated since the fall of the USSR. It was kind of 4 lawn chairs welded to a metal plate with a central handle to hold on to. No sides. They did put a small chain over the “door.” It did not squeak as much as the one Katy wouldn’t let me ride in Tbilisi.
Katy was thrilled with the safety features Rose even sat and didn’t try to jump off for part of the ride
We then went home. It was a good birthday.
The next morning we packed, ate lunch, and called an Uber to take us 2 hours to the next city, and 3/4 seatbelts worked!
No singing allowed. Only the candle at the end of the day. He was more interested in watching the wax drip than making a wish. Katy spent $11 on flowersArmenia doesn’t do playgrounds as well as GeorgiaI liked this photo
Our next stop is Akhaltsikhe, a town that according to two people who I inquired about rides said that staying 3 nights there was a terrible idea. We didn’t listen.
A church on our way to Borjomi. Our driver was rather grumpy. This was by far the largest concentration of tourists that we have seen. The is Borjomi, the town with the same name as the water. This was the original spring and the water came out nice and warm.. It also had a nice sulfer twinge, if you are into that sort of thing. The bottles were hand blown through the 1950s.I found this tree/vine interesting. No witty comments. We did some walking in the Borjomi park. There was a gondola, but we passed. More time for lunch which had a very good honey cake.This was our destination. The town of Akhaltsikhe. This is the castle which was rebuilt in 2011 and is now a tourist destination. Most tourists spend 90 minutes at the castle or spend one night on their tour. We stayed 3 nights here, they built a hotel into the castle when they rebuilt it. We got a room upgrade so our room is the second and third floor of the building you see right ahead the with wooden covered balcony’s on the third floor. Katy enjoyed the heated floors in the bathroom ($110/night)We saw this toy store coming into town. After the car ride we walked here and each kiddo was allowed to pick out a toy that cost less than $7. We now own more cheap Chinese junk.The kids favorite playground in town. Right next to the police station. It was the pirate ship playground. Only 1 slide was a little brokenThis gem of a jacket we purchased in Azerbaijan, but it has a built in costume/snow protection hood. It is chillier here, but not this cold.This is Vardzia, one of the main reasons we are in this area. It is the ruins of a cave city that was destroyed in an earth quake. There was minimal signage, and you could wander most places.There was a tunnel systemKaty loved the great footingArcher actually loved the footingWe bought a souvenir from this shop, it was cheaper than at the base Katy coming out of the exit tunnel. The exit was not labeled at all and after 2.5+ hours we were looking for it. It was grape harvest day, and a group of gentleman were picking the grapes at VardziaThe restaurant where we ate lunch gave the kids some of the grapes that were just picked. They were super yummy. The seeds weren’t huge and will help provide some fiber to keep Rose regular (which she needs)The ruins of a castle on our back from Vardzia (1.5 hours drive). I explored it while the kiddos and Katy explored a nearby playground. Katy was historicaled out. There was a street dog that Archer thought was fluffy so he named him “sluffy”This was our grumpy driver behind a vehicle filled with hay in every possible spot. We went to get some bread pastries for dinner. That was a bakery we bought from. The oven is a buried clay oven called a tone. This was a 4+ person operation. I saw a beer store. They had 6 taps. The pricing is per liter with 5=$1.75 with a 2 liter minimum. The only thing else they sold were “beer snacks” like nuts, dried fish, sausage, and cheese.Views of Akhaltsikhe from one of the many towers we climbed up. The castle was a conglomerate of styles and religions over the years. I wasn’t able to find true before pictures. They had a museum that we went through quickly that was one of the nicest small history museums I have been to. The lighting on each exhibit was what made it. We found a treasure chest that was unlocked… No comment. Archer has collected many keys. He is now trying to unlock all doors he comes across. He has concluded he needs more keys. Cannonballs the Russians fired at the castle when they attempted to take it over. First time they failed, second time they succeeded.Georgia has really good fall colors. There is a bush that turns a really great red color that is in the mountains, and this vine like plant that is more of a deep red. Archer literally is trying his keys in every lock that we come across. The door may look old, but the masterlock isn’t. The real question is will Armenia have as many $0.37 vending machines. They are Archer’s favorite. This carousel might have been the roughest one so far, it didn’t even go up and might have been made in someone’s garage. Bye Georgia
After 3 nights in the wine region we headed to the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi. A nice thing about the Georgian language is that things are often pronounced how you would guess they are pronounced.
The previous day there were elections that had very low levels of turnout and no international monitors (according to our driver, I did not confirm this). Many people who are opposed to the current government chose not to vote since the last election they viewed as invalid (international monitors cited concerning irregularities).
There is supposed to be a fence behind those vehicles which was torn down by the protesters.
We arrived in Tbilisi a little before we could check in to our apartment in old town so Katy got a latte, and the kids got a cake from the bakery across the street. We then were able to drop off our bags, and we headed to a playground. We stumbled upon a playground that I didn’t know was there on the way to the one that I knew about.
There were people cleaning the pedestrian only streets, and we were able to piece together that there were protests the previous night where people showed their displeasure at the election situation by burning things. Luckily, this happened the day after we arrived in town.
Archer examining his vending machine options with an ice cream.
After lunch of khinkali, Georgian dumplings, we headed back to the apartment, and Rose took a nap. Archer and I went out to get an IPA and play a game while Katy enjoyed some zero stimulation time supervising Rose.
A Rose nap time beer and game with Archer (black IPA).
I went in the wrong door at the grocery store and discovered a giant open food hall with probably 20+ venders. One thing with traveling with a 2 and 4 year old is that we often prioritize the “ease” of eating at a place vs places that are the most highly regarded. We do have some less intense days, but at this point the kids have been going for 2+ weeks. Rose has had very few naps where she has been able to sleep as long as she wants and bedtime has generally been 1-2 hours later than in Colorado. Needless to say, by dinner time we are not always operating at 100%.
We did the food hall for dinner, and I had a regional cornmeal mush and chicken dish. Katy had pho. She was eager to eat some food not from Georgia/Azerbaijan.
Brief Recap of Full Day 1 and 2
Day 2: Walked around the old city. Went to a smaller park with a few rides after nap. Went then went to a hipster restaurant in an old Soviet era factory.
If you are bored, read this menu at the hipster place. It is rather amusing. The natural history museum. Rose was more interested in the stairs than in the museum. The old city wall and border of old town. They are “renovating” a lot of the dilapidated old town, making it more of a tourist draw. Archer examining things at the flea market.
So I guess I am telling our third full in Tbilisi via photos, semi real time.
The latte art on my morning beverage after the grocery store unexpectedly didn’t open until 9a when the plan was to get food for the kids and play in the park. Well I showed up before 8a, not even thinking it wouldn’t open until 9a. Slightly grumpy, then had AI find me this coffee shop that had breakfast that happened to be near the big church we wanted to go to, so I came back and got Katy and an Uber whisked us off.A giant church in the middle of Tbilisi, visible from most places in town. Newly built. Shiny. Two communal cups you can use to drink the holy water. Due to its holy nature this is sanitary. Enough water in the bucket for a little bathing, but I only saw people drinking it from the blue cup. Tbilisi zoo is definitely a grade C zoo. Does not compare at all to the amazing Baku zoo. Total admission price $3.75 for 3 people, Rose freeRose rode the swings and cars. A little lower stakes than the Ferris wheel. I asked Katy if I could ride the Ferris wheel with Archer, her mouth dropped open, her right eye twitched, and then she turned around and continued walking like I had said nothing. I took that as a no.The last 3 days archer and I went out and explored while Rose napped. Katy chose to stay in and nap/decompress/not see any humans. Today I was feeling rather “short” with the kids, and Katy let me go and get some Georgian tea to take home and have a beer and decompress. The tea shop was not what I was looking for, but the beer was cold.We then went to go to the digital art museum. Turns out that the entries are tours every two hours. Rose then spotted a donut with pink icing and sprinkles and the options were to give her the donut or else. We chose the donut.We split a tarragon flavored local naturally sparkling mineral water. Way better than it sounds. This is now the only water Katy wants to drink in Georgia, even if it is $1 vs $0.15 for a bottle. High roller she is.
At least he wasn’t trying to run into the road.
Katy really planned this all along so she could take us in the 5 story shopping mall and ride the elevator up. Rose at least once on every floor tested their cleaning by using her back as a mop on the floor. Mix of US and European brands.
We walked around some more and just explored. This was Rose’s favorite statue. We had a yummy dinner and the kids are kind of shot after being gone for 20 days. Archer misses Wally cat and a little homesick. We used a movie for dinner entertainment for the first time in Georgia (7 nights)
The next day
Our last day in Tbilisi was going to be more of a “down” day. I had stocked up on donuts and chocolate milk from the grocery store the night before because I learned the hard way the previous day that the big grocery store doesn’t open until 9am when we went to get treats.
The kids and I played in the park and ate chocolate milk and donuts. We were going to stay out later, but Archer had to poop. I also thought it would be a good opportunity to change Rose’s pants since they got wet on a slide with what I hope was water from the parks sprinkler system… Well, when we got back Archer no longer had to poop, and then I got a message at 9:02 from a new number, “do you have a problem”. The rather rude message aside, it turns out there was a scheduling glitch, which was my fault, which had a driver show up at 9am the day before we needed him. After an hour of stress we had things sorted out, but my jovial mood had been thwarted.
All of us then went out, and Katy grabbed a coffee, and we wandered across the river to a new park that also had a water park. While looking for a bakery earlier in the day, I had happened on an article from a baker saying their favorite places to get bread products, and we were near one. Luckily google maps had a photo of when they used to have a sheet of paper with their products taped to the front of their store. There was nothing like this when we got there and google translate got us – round bean filled bread, a long potato filled bread, and a “layered kachapuri” which was more puff pastry dough with their traditional cheese in the middle. These are all cooked in a tone, which is a traditional clay oven. We then went back to the park and ate our yummy early lunch while Rose worked up the courage to go in the splash pad.
Mailing some post cards in a shady looking postbox
After lunch, we all walked through the flea market, and Archer came up with some grand ideas for what he wanted to spend his pocket money on, including a large axe.
We then went back to the food hall, and the kids got a traditional fountain soda ($1.75); tarragon is Katy’s favorite flavor and the most traditional flavor. During Soviet times it got so popular it was exported throughout a large part of the USSR. I grabbed some more tea from one of the shops, and we headed back.
After Rose was down for a nap, Katy and Archer went to get a coffee. When they came back Archer and I went out. We went back to the flea market and decided a keychain is a more realistic thing to buy. While we were walking through, the person Archer bought a key from on a previous visit came up and gave him another key for free, and boy was Archer excited!
We then stopped at the cafe at the end of the flea market street, and Archer got a milkshake and I got a beer, and we played a game and listened to some live music.
Archer entranced by the music
Heading back, Archer found the perfect keychain, which was shaped like a key, and we headed back and put all of his keys (3) on his key chain.
We then headed out to go back to the fair. We took the subway where we had an issue. The issue was Katy and Archer stopped while I was halfway in the subway because it was so crowded, and then the door started to close on Rose and me. Neither of us thought the door would just close and not reopen, but that is what happened. Some helpful bystanders helped pry it open so Rose and I could get in the car. Note to self, Soviet era subways might not have the modern feature of stopping closing if you are hit by the door, so push your way in.
The very long escalator ride down the subway
We took the cable car up to the amusement park (our second visit). The kids rode some rides, Rose went to the petting zoo (archer didn’t want to), we rode the Ferris wheel, and ate dinner. The kids got slushees to end the night; the guy recognized us from the other day and gave us three, one of each flavor. It turns out the green is tarragon flavored and not too sweet.
We ordered two and got one for free
We headed back and packed up while the kids slept for our next spot, Akhaltsikhe.
Picked this gem up for $1.75. It is a little worse for wear after Rose football spiked it twice. The into is in Russian, the rest in English
Katy is in no man’s land between Georgia and Azerbaijan, the river bed is the boundary, while walking across the border. Only foreigners are allowed to cross the border. It must be done on foot and only from Azerbaijan to Georgia, not the other way around.
We crossed into Georgia on foot and likely overpaid for a pre-arranged taxi, but it did take out the stress of negotiating with 4 friends that aren’t going to underbid each other for our ~2 hour drive to the winery hotel we had booked.
Our ride. There was a seatbelt upfront. The driver was not aggressive, likely due to the engine powering the boat.
We arrived a little after 2pm at the Babaneuris Marani winery where we spent 3 nights.
The playground at the winery shined like a golden beacon to Rose and Archer, and Rose started chanting “park”. By chant, I really mean screech in an increasingly hostile tone. We dropped our bags in our 2 bedroom (no living room) room and quickly headed to the playground.
We decided on a rather early dinner and bedtime for the kids since Rose did not take a nap. She had the sniffles, combined with fact she is in the middle of getting 2 of her back molars has made her more “opinionated” than normal.
The popular thing to do if you owned a winery in the region seemed to be build a castle.
We had scoped out the weather, and the weather our first full day was supposed to be the worst of our 2 days, so we picked that day to do a wine tour. Our driver/guide ($55) for the day suggested that we go to 5 wineries from 10a to 6p. We let him know that 8 hours of drinking wine with a 2 and 4 year old wasn’t the best idea, so he said that it was okay to only go to 3 wineries, but I think that he thought it was a terrible plan.
After some hotel breakfast the next morning that did not start until the lofty hour of 9am, we headed out on our wine tour with the first spot being a small operation that owns their own vineyard outside of town and then brings their grapes to their house to make their wine. The “traditional” method of wine making in Georgia is to bury large clay pots and have the wine ferment in there, usually for 6+ months. When they do this with white grapes, they leave the skins on, which gives the wine an orange or amber color.
We then went to a larger establishment that I think he picked for us not for the quality of wine but due to them having a large outside space complete with peacocks and chickens running around. Most people that go to this region do it via a day trip, and this winery is a popular stop.
Our third stop for some reason wasn’t doing tastings at that moment, so we got 3 glasses to share and some more food.
The chocolate crepe was a huge hit. We also had a “grape pie” that was a cake soaked in grape just that was rather yummy.
The children had not completely lost their cool, so we decided to call it and head back before they did. We had an early dinner and both kiddos were asleep by 730p. Rose seems to be suffering from a combo of sore mouth due to getting two new molars and a little virus. We did not hear her usual constant refrain of “eeeeeeaaaat”.
Dinner
The next day we had a “rest day” built in. The children were up promptly at 630a. We ate breakfast, went for a 3 miles hike where we discovered a fairy castle, went to the playground, and went to the pool. Rose’s nap was unfortunately cut short by noise from Archer acting his age.
The pool was supposed to be heated. I can attest that it was absolutely freezing. Katy said no thanks, so I got to enjoy the pool with kids. Yay…There were a lot of mushrooms. There was a trail system that had one of the trailheads at the winery we were staying at. It had been so rainy that the harvest was rather late. They were harvesting while we were there. The winemaker is washing the pole he used to mash the grapes they just put in the clay pots.The view from the restaurant at the winery we stayed at. The total food bill for 3 dinners, 1 lunch, 2 bottles and 2 glasses of wine was ~$200.
After five nights in Baku, we left. We planned to use the same driver from our first two days, who spoke significantly better English than I speak Azerbaijani, but not always well enough to manage extras. The night before we left, we had a communication hiccup about our route to Sheki. The price we had previously agreed on suddenly increased by 50%. Luckily, I had talked to several people and within 20 minutes had locked in a different driver with a Mercedes van, working seat belts, and fluency in English (and Italian), all at around 7 pm for the same price.
A little car singing
We decided to leave at 9:30 in the morning, which gave us enough time to order some Uber Eats—mashed potato filled fried dough, and fried dough with apple jelly inside—for $4, including tip.
Ali, the driver, filled us in on history on the way to the oldest mosque in Azerbaijan, then we visited a waterfall with countless steps. Archer and Rose insisted on watching the water the entire way up. Rose and I had a minor disagreement on the way down: she wanted to walk along the slick, haphazardly built steps, while I preferred to hold her and grip the railing. Archer kept stopping to take photos for his preschool scrapbook—we now have a whole collection showing different ways water can drain off a sidewalk.
The grocery store we stopped at on our drive. Hanging from the ceiling are “martyrs” that died in the last conflict with Armenia in the 90s. There were reminders everywhere about the conflict. It seems like the dictator is trying very hard to keep it in people’s minds.
We stopped at a lake for lunch and had the most expensive meal of our trip so far. I’m sure the driver got a kickback, but our children needed to eat. We were planning to take a gondola ride in a nearby ski town, but by then, Rose was clearly done and needed a nap. The final straw came when I took her and Archer to the bathroom, and she tried to mop the floor with her body while I helped Archer wipe. After a fair amount of screaming in the car, Rose fell asleep for the next hour until we reached Sheki.
Sheki is very different from Baku. It’s an old town with history stretching back more than 200 years, having been ruled separately from Baku before being taken over by the Russians and, much earlier, Alexander the Great.
The caravanserai. Please note that I referred to it as a caravanista the entire time…
We checked into the caravanserai, a several hundred-year-old Silk Road inn once used by traders. Two remain in town, and one has been converted into a hotel. The setting is amazing, and you’d think it might be pricey, but it’s a bare-bones place. Our “luxury room” consisted of two connected rooms, each with two twin beds; one had a couch and coffee table. The total cost: $40 per night.
Our door
After settling in, we spotted a playground through our window and went in search of it. After walking around the block, we realized it was probably part of a school and not accessible, which disappointed the kids. We decided the next best option was to go eat dinner.
We walked down the hill to a restaurant our driver had pointed out, which sometimes had live music. I think there was a single menu for the entire place. I ordered a bottle of local red wine for $12 from the display rack. Soon after, a party with balloons and cake began next to us. The “local music” turned out to be a man singing with a sound system as his backing band. Rose was given a balloon and a lot of head pats from the women at the party. A Chinese woman asked to take a photo with Rose—she mainly got a picture of herself with my crotch and Rose dangling from it.
Then another guest, a three-ish-year-old boy, arrived. Archer, Rose, and the boy proceeded to wreak havoc on the restaurant (we and the party were the only guests). Their favorite game was releasing helium balloons to the ceiling and having someone retrieve them. Dinner eventually ended, and we went back to our caravanserai.
We went to get a treat after dinner at the convenience store. Archer took that to mean a cheap toy. They closed the big door at night when it wasn’t open to the public so we used the mini door.
We woke up to the expected pitter-patter of rain, which would define the rest of our time in Sheki. Katy had read that the caravanserai had super-hot water but cold rooms at night. They actually turned on our radiators, and we had to open a window to keep the room pleasant. It took us a minute to realize “H” was cold and “C” was hot, but once we figured that out, we had a toasty room and scalding water.
We walked to a café we’d noticed the day before and had pastries and coffee for breakfast. It turned out to have the nicest bathrooms in Sheki: a Western-style toilet, foaming soap, and paper towels.
She did eat some of the eclair after licking the chocolate.
Since it was raining, we decided to be lazy and spent $0.90 on an Uber to save ten minutes of walking to the palace of the Sheki Khans. The palace was really interesting—its mosaic-style windows contain thousands of colored glass pieces held together in tiny wooden frames. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside.
Then Rose took a giant poop. It’ll be nice to travel once she’s potty-trained.
We walked to a nearby mosque, and someone outside told us we could visit the 3-manat museum or the free mosque. We saw both and really enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere, although Rose required constant supervision.
Afterward, we stopped at a halva shop that also sold coffee. Halva is a traditional sweet made with sesame, nuts and honey. The store had no English signage, but when we asked for prices, they were lower than any of the more touristy shops. Sheki, overall, is much cheaper than Baku.
Then we went to lunch at our hotel and explored the restaurant’s back area, which was a maze of corridors and rooms. Right under our room was a former storage vault where traders would keep goods accessible through a trapdoor (no longer in use). After lunch, it was nap time. Archer was soaked by then; his rain jacket might have actually made him wetter by funneling water in whenever he purposefully ducked under drips.
Some of the hidden parts of the caravanista
In the afternoon, we took an Uber to the market zone. Since the Baku market went late and Google said this one closed at 8 pm, we thought visiting at 4 would be fine. Most stalls were closed, though, so we just browsed a small store in a mall-like building and grabbed the kids some sweatshirts (we forgot to pack theirs).
Stocking up on individual wrapped “snacks” for the car ride. Sold by the kilo (10=$6)
We then tried a restaurant recommended by our Sheki driver, supposedly named after the first astronaut. It took me a moment to realize “Qarqarin” referred to Yuri Gagarin—the Q equals G in Azerbaijani. Unfortunately, it was closed. Another nearby restaurant gave off a weird vibe, so we bailed and went back to the same place we’d eaten lunch.
Feijoa compote and pear lemonade which is slightly carbonated and not too sweet.
The next morning, we booked an Uber to the border. The app quoted $22 for the two-hour drive, but the driver demanded an extra $13, which we agreed to. Thankfully, it was all handled through the messaging app. Katy wasn’t thrilled with the seatbelt situation (it could have been worse) or the driver’s aggressive style, which shaved twenty minutes off Google’s ETA.
Approaching the border, we passed 10 kilometers of trucks lined up, waiting to leave Azerbaijan. Our driver dropped us in the middle of the road. Thankfully, a border guard stopped traffic and directed us where to go. A guard opened a gate, checked our passports in the rain, and sent us up a 200-yard ramp to customs, where we scanned our bags through an x-ray machine. Then we showed our passports at immigration and were officially checked out of Azerbaijan. Another 200-yard walk brought us to a closed gate. After waiting about 12 seconds, I told Katy to open it. A guard appeared 30 seconds later, had us go back, and checked our passports again—he was probably on break or in the bathroom.
We finally crossed the bridge over the river separating Georgia and Azerbaijan and entered the Georgian immigration building. The officer asked a single question: where were we going? I had to look it up; he probably thought we were hopeless. He disappeared with our passports, returned shortly, and waved us through.
I then tried to withdraw $150 from the ATM, but it kept erroring. After several attempts, I realized it had a 30-bill limit and had six 20 lari bills ($6) and the rest 5 lari ($1.50). I didn’t take all the 5s, but now we have an impressive stack of small bills, which actually turned out to be super useful, since change is hard to come by.
Katy wouldn’t let us go to the CIS Olympic polo match being held that day across the street from our hotel. Maybe the rain or the grumpy children had something to do with that Armenia war memorial Soviet era WWII memorial
We really enjoyed Azerbaijan. It definitely had some quirks to it. We didn’t know before we started researching our trip that they are very friendly with Israel and actually at odds with Iran (different type of Islam) and Russia. They have a ton of oil/gas money, and in the 90s their second oil boom started. Having a lot of oil money had made them less dependent on Russia compared to many other former parts is the USSR, this has created some tension. The country is way more modern and cleaner than I expected. Many places you think could benefit from a coat of paint, Baku wasn’t one of them. There are a lot of issues with authoritarian rule and that is what Azerbaijan is. The country is a Muslim country (Katy can attest to being awoken by the call to prayer), but they sell alcohol freely and most people are not strictly practicing Muslims. Our driver said that when he started doing tours someone asked him what type of Muslim he was, and he had to call his dad to see if he was Sunni or Shiite. It did not feel like a Muslim country like Indonesia or Turkey.
It took a while to get to the Maiden Tower in Baku from Colorado. Some splash pad time at Hollywood Beach
This is a much-delayed post of our trip to the Caucasus. I am starting it after we have been traveling for about 10 days, so the first few days will be more of a recap.
Our trip started with Katy getting off of work and not taking a nap, and having a five-hour layover in Dallas on our way to Miami. Katy managed to grab a few cat naps in the area of the lounge away from Archer and Rose.
We really enjoyed Hollywood Beach and the boardwalk.
We spent 2 days at Hollywood Beach. The first was rather rainy and involved Archer and I going to the Bass Pro Shop and seeing the light rail station. The second was spent with a lot of playing on the beach, swimming in the 87° ocean, and the pool. Our final day we did a 4 PM checkout, and Rose was able to get a 90-minute nap to cap off playing on the beach.
Free slushies at the hotel (also a terrible photo)
We then headed to the airport, and due to us flying on award tickets and Qatar Airways only releasing two business class reward seats that we could book with points per flight, Rose and I were on the 8 PM flight and Katy and Archer were on the 11 PM flight.
She mainly enjoyed the potato chips and Fanta
Rose scored a B+ on the flight where she ate her dinner, watched a little TV, and then fell asleep for 8 to 9 hours. She woke up, had 2 to 3 hours to eat some breakfast and watch more TV, and then we arrived in Qatar around 4 PM.
This is how Rose chose to sleep
We were at the hotel and checked in around 5 PM, and we played on the playground and walked around the very fancy hotel, which we got upgraded to a two-bedroom suite. It was actually kind of funny because I had reserved two rooms since they did not have a room with two double beds, and they upgraded both reservations to two-bedroom suites, so I canceled one because we did not need four bedrooms.
Rose and I ate some Qatar-style Uber Eats and waited for Katy and Archer to arrive, but Rose did not last that long and promptly fell asleep. We were planning on going to the beach and enjoying the amazing pool the next morning, but it turned out that we all slept until noon. Luckily, we did not have to leave the property until 1:30 PM to catch our 4 PM flight to Baku, Azerbaijan.
A little playground after our long flight
We had booked a driver to meet us at the airport, and he whisked us away to our accommodation in the walled Old City located in Baku.
I literally took my eye off of Rose for 10 seconds on the flight from Doha to Azerbaijan
We spent five nights in Baku. We spent most of the time wandering around the city: going to the fruit bazaar, railroad museum, zoo, Maiden Tower, walking on the Caspian Sea pedestrian boulevard, going to the kiddie amusement park on the seaside boulevard, and visiting the palace in the Old City. We went on one excursion outside of the city to the Gobustan mud volcanoes and petroglyphs, using the same driver we had booked to take us from the airport. There is no way I can get caught up writing play by play, so I will now tell the rest of Baku in photos.
Azerbaijan has a lot of oil money and its leader must have read that pretty fountains are a good way to show off your wealth. Wandering our first morning looking for a place that served food before 9am (apparently uncommon in this part of the world). The coffee roaster we tried first had a broken espresso machine. We stayed in the Old City, a 1 minute walk from the Maiden Tower in the picture. Our 3 bedroom apartment was ~$65 per night. Walking around old town. Lots of street cats and kittens. In the morning you can see food out where people are feeding them and often in corners are small water dishes. Did not see any mice. The children exploring the view out of the 400+ year old palace window in the old town. The playground next to our apartment. It gets a D and Azerbaijan gets a C- for public playground access. There were a few more outside of the tourist areas we saw while driving and we did randomly come across one that wasn’t marked in Google Maps, I added it. The train simulator at the train museum, a museum that didn’t even appear in our guide book. I had done a decent job of adding pins to google maps, and it did help us several times with places to eat and random attractions like this. We had zero issues with English in Baku. The “authoritarian ruler” of Azerbaijan donated this train made out of gold to the museum. Entry to all tourist attractions had a foreigner price of normally $6 or $10 USD and kids were free, often $1-$2 for locals. The train museum was in the building which was the original train station. The Flame Towers dominate the city. At night they light up and have designs, pictures on them. Guess what. This is the carpet museum. It is supposedly one of the best museums in the country, but we couldn’t muster the energy to take the kids inside. Baku, which borders the Caspian Sea. There was a walkway with shops, malls, mini amusement parks, carousels, and greenery that was 50-100 yards wide that ran along the Caspian. We stayed a 4 minute walk from it. A walkway under the main road to get to the seaside. Katy took advantage of the many $0.60 vending machines to get a bottle of water in need. Our first day was shorts weather. The rest were pants weather. Baku is rather windy, and we had one cloudy day that averaged ~20 mph wind, the rest weren’t that windy. We rode many carousels ($1.80/kiddo and adults could stand next to them) Baku from the Maiden TowerArcher chose to sit this one out. Weather was mainly in the 60s with enough humidity to give some bounce to Rose’s hairThe seaside boulevard with a mall in the background. Baku was very clean with a lot of trash cans. We had dinner 3 nights in places that were very similar. They were all in vaulted basements like this. One had live traditional music. They were loud enough to drown out our children, to an extent.
We ordered 5 meals and 2 grocery store orders from Wolt. We mainly ate lunch in the apartment with takeaway (and our first dinner). We ordered diapers, 5l jugs of water ($0.70), beers, snacks, drinks from grocery stores in the app too. This is a mashed potato filled fried dough (minimum order was $3.60 and there was often a $0.60 fee)
The zoo was really good. There were a lot of baby animals on display (including a deer born that morning), maybe not US standards in that respect. A very good playground at the zoo ($10). Not crowded. There were more workers making sure you didn’t feed the animals than visitors. Archer and I went out twice while Rose napped (Katy did once with Archer). This place tried to scam us by having 2 menus with different prices. I just so happened to take a picture of the menu and Archer since he was so excited to order his milkshake, and so I had proof of the original menu prices, and they got rather flustered, and I avoided the scam. The market was a touch too stressful with Archer’s wandering hands and Rose having zero interest in holding hands, listening, or being held. Short visit. Gobustan mud volcanos. These are crazy. They are bubbling mud mini volcanos. I am sure you are like Yellowstone/New Zealand have those, cool. The kicker is that they are cold. The bubbles are probably methane and can be lit on fire. It is actively cool to the touch. People apparently put the mud on their faces as a mask (we didn’t).A bubble in actionWith the amount of mud throwing we were surprised that the mud splatters actually came out of our clothes, but it does help explain the 6 loads of wash we did in 5 days. We paid for another driver in a truck to take us to the “wild” mud volcanos instead of the tourist complex ones. I think getting up close and climbing around was worth it. Rose had the audacity to act her age at the petroglyphs so our visit wasn’t the longest or most thorough. This is more of a picture of a cool rock than a petroglyph. 2 year olds will 2 year olds, even in Azerbaijan This picture doesn’t due it justice, but Azerbaijan has the best blending of “traditional Islamic design” with modern buildings. Tons of the buildings built in the last 100 years show a blending of the architecture styles which I hadn’t seen on such a large scale before. It was really cool. Archer was so excited for his $0.45 ice cream cone from the cold case at the grocery store. Turns out they were coffee ice cream. My children did not go to bed until after 11pm. I am banned from buying any more per Katy.
In hindsight, I don’t think anyone ever said taking a 6 month old on multiple plane rides was a great idea. That may have been because most people we talked to were more experienced parents than us…
Our journey to Costa Rica started weeks before we left, when we bought checked luggage. No more just carry-ons with Archer. We got to the Montrose airport 2 hours early, which turned out to be a little too early, but we were able to finagle a row to ourselves. Archer is already a pro at ~2 hour flights, and after a good inflight nap we arrived in Dallas without a hitch. After a brief fortification at the Centurion Lounge, we boarded our 4 hour flight to Costa Rica. I did my best at entertaining him prior to takeoff (this means not letting him eat until we start to take off so he can equalize his ears while eating). While playing SpaceX, Archer’s head may or may not have bounced off the ceiling of the plane, causing the flight attendant call light to come on, and eliciting an audible gasp from everyone around us. After getting over his dazing, he was ready to go again and decided to show me by wanting to “party” for the first 90 minutes of the flight. He eventually fell asleep, and we breezed into San Jose.
The view from our hotel room near the airport. Yea, it is a driving range, but better than a development or parking lot.
We landed at 9:54p and we were in a taxi with our astonishingly large amount of stuff at 10:26p. After a brief checkin we were whisked to our $113 Marriott suite, and Archer said that he was not tired and still wanted to party. After some milky he finally acquiesced to falling asleep in his Merlin Suit. He slept for 7+ hours. He hadn’t slept that long without interruption in over a month. Katy and I both checked on him in the middle of the night to make sure his not waking up was intentional.
Our first morning in Costa Rica started without an explosion or pee in the Merlin Suit!!!! Archer and I took the stroller out for a stroll to explore while Katy got some extra sleep. We had a lovely free breakfast at the hotel where Archer was the main attraction for the waitstaff and then headed out for the day.
We started with getting local SIM cards. Katy went in and purchased the Cadillac cell plan for both of us (Katy notes, “You can’t be sure what you’re getting when you only understand 60% of the conversation”). I think that we have enough cell phone data in Costa Rica for the rest of our lives!!!! Riding high on cell phone data, we headed off to coffee country. Now, I have to say that driving in Costa Rica is more like driving in Tonga than the US: you don’t get anywhere fast; people stop in the road for fun; lane markers are suggestions; and the largest vehicle has the right of way.
Our view from the terrace at the coffee plantation where Katy got the jitters
We had an uneventful trip to Hacienda Alsasia, Starbucks experimental coffee farm. Katy ended up ordering numerous coffees to taste and ended up with jitters so bad that she got a tummy ache. We sat on the terrace and enjoyed the coffee and generally relaxed. We thought we might go on a tour, but decided to leisurely enjoy our coffee instead.
On the way back to town we made a detour to Walmart and bought some diapers and sunscreen. Katy also stocked up on all varieties of snacks not available in the states. While she was doing that I was stocking up on overpriced subpar craft beer. We then headed back to the hotel and decided to grace the hotels outdoor terrace bar with Archer’s presence. The wind had kicked up and it was chilly enough that I put on long sleeves and Archer had a blankie. Archer wanted to play SpaceX again, and to Katy’s delight there was no a ceiling for me to hit his head into. Once even SpaceX failed to delight Archer, it was determined that it was his dinner and bedtime. While Katy put Archer to bed, I used Uber Eats to order papusas and cheese balls for dinner. We actually doubled our order just in case we wanted leftovers for our drive the next day. It really was nice to be able to have food in a hotel without paying hotel prices. We then did a little packing and headed off to bed.
We had a good couple of days in Santo. It was nice having a little more infrastructure compared to the previous week where we were void of hot water and charged most of our devices via a battery pack. Before we left our accommodations, I asked if the ATMs at the airport work, and I was told that they did. The reason that this mattered is that Vanuatu is mostly cash-based and the next island, Gaua, that we went to did not have an ATM and only had a bank that was open a few hours a week. I had about $300 in cash and wanted some more. I did not want to get too much since we only had two days after Gaua, and I wanted to avoid transaction fees transferring Vatu back to NZD or USD.
We had a very informal check-in, and I then went to use the ATM and discovered that both of them were out of service. I instantly got rather grumpy since we needed more cash, and our plane was leaving in about an hour. I walked to the only taxi there, and no one was at it. A man came up and said that he would take me, and we negotiated $9 for the return journey. The first ATM we went to was also out of service, and I ran across the street and the second one was in service, and I withdrew an additional 44,000 vatu, about $400.
I made it back to the airport in time to have a few minutes to relax before we boarded our 20 seat aircraft for the 40-minute journey to Gaua.
We were given boarding passes that had seat numbers on them, but no one followed them, so it was every man for themselves. Part of Katy’s gripe with the plane is that sealing between the Twin Otter’s door and fuselage is a loose connection, and you can see outside and sometimes feel a breeze through the gap. I think it was a perfectly acceptable airplane. Katy’s distaste of the Twin Otter was not assuaged when we lined up to land on a grass runway/soccer field in Gaua. I have to admit that the landing was smooth and a lot less bumpy than I was anticipating.
A few local’s houses
Gaua is not a heavily touristed island in Vanuatu and is part of the Banks Islands chain. Gaua is connected to the rest of Vanuatu by plane three days a week and a cargo ship about every two weeks. Tanna gets a cargo ship just about every day, Lamap/Maskelyenes get one weekly, and Lakatoro gets about two a week. There are four functioning trucks on the island, along with one broken one, and one working ATV. There is a road that goes about a third of the way around the island. The western and southwest side of the island are the real remote parts. A contingent of people from the western side went to New Zealand for a season to work and were able to purchase a boat with their earnings when they returned. This allowed them to be connected to the rest of the island by a couple hour boat ride instead of a full days walk.
The road to Chez Maureen Bungalows, lined with flowers.
We disembarked, and John from Chez Maureen Bungalows was able to find us easily since we were the only westerners on the plane. John informed us that Maureen was not there to meet us since her mother had passed away at 8pm the previous night. We then walked across the runway and down a road to the ocean and the bungalows. The bungalows were the most expensive place that we stayed at $89 per night, but we were able to use the fourth night free to get them for around $75 per night. The property was gorgeous with a lot of flowers around the two bungalows. There was not a beach, but there were hammocks, picnic tables, and snorkeling right from the property. The sandy beaches on Gaua are on the north and south side of the island, not the eastern side where we were staying.
The two bungalows. There is a real house where Maureen lives next door. The power is mainly solar, but they do have a generator. Solar provides most of the power to the island.
John told us that the tradition was to have five days of mourning and then a traditional kustom ceremony and feast, all of which were happening at the property. The first day was pretty awkward. We felt out of place, there was a lot of praying and crying, a ton of people around, the hammocks and picnic tables were occupied, and no one really told us what to expect and what was going on. We were served lunch at around 1:30p and around 7pm dinner. We had just about the worse timing possible for our stay, but things happen, and I am grateful that they were still willing to have us stay during everything that was going on. We spent most of the day reading and playing games on our patio. We did go for a walk to explore the area and discovered that the president of Vanuatu was in town speaking. Since our Bislama is rather weak, we decided to not stick around for his speech. We did learn later that one thing that the president talked about was that people are not supposed to grow marijuana. One thing that we did not find were any stores that were open. We found one that was closed, and Maureen also has a store/kava bar, and that was also closed.
I was not expecting to see a cobblestone road, but there are segments of volcanic cobblestone road. They also have some paved hills for the four trucks… Each truck pays $100/year registration which gets used for road maintenance .
That night John came back and described some options for tours that were available, as he was also the guide and Maureen’s cousin. Katy asked him if it was okay to swim and use the rest of the property with everyone around, and he said yes. He also explained the funeral process and that it was going to be a multiday event. The food was a highlight on the first day. The food had a French flair and actually was well seasoning compared to a lot of the food that we have had on the trip.
Our second day in Gaua, we were treated to a lot more clouds than the first day, along with breakfast promptly at 7am. After breakfast, we went for a snorkel, but the tide was too low to pass over the reef. We then tried to find an open store on the island and failed. It is amazing how being at 16 degrees latitude the sun can make a day unbearably hot when shining or rather cold if it is hiding. Katy and I had a conversation about what we thought they did with dead bodies on an island with only solar electricity and generator power. There is no way to keep them cold. The answer is to bury them on your property like we saw in the Cook Islands. They had what sounded like a church service, and then everyone sat down while they built an elevated grave out of cinderblocks (a layer of plaster was later added). That night we had a nice big lobsters for dinner.
The next day we went for a hike to a waterfall. It was originally described to us as what we thought was the shorter and easier trek of the two main ones on the island. It was definitely a jungle walk. John used his machete a lot. The ground was uneven, and you could not see your footing a lot of the time. You also did have mystery plants, some of which stung, rubbing against your legs as you walked. There may have been bugs too. We made it about seven miles in and caught a glimpse of the waterfall and decided to head back. It was interesting to see how the island had changed over time. In the 1600s there were 25,000+ people living in the region where we were, whereas now ~1,000. That meant that there were not any really old trees since they have been cutting them down for centuries. I think it is often easy to think of remote, sparsely inhabited areas as always being that way and having ancient trees. It turns out people have been in many of these areas for a really long time and have been using the natural resources for centuries.
A slightly large banyon tree. Katy refused to go inside due to bugs.
John said that the local story is that black magic was responsible for the decline in population, but the truth is probably that western disease from explorers was the prime culprit. The worst part of the walk was in an area that was a really large taro field up until the 1980s. The people that grew taro there moved, and the field was left to be taken over by two types of vines. One was called the American vine since it was not in Vanuatu until the US arrived there during WWII. It was just a solid mass of vines with a faint trail that involved a lot of machete swinging and avoiding tripping over the ankle level wines that escaped the machete. The areas where there were trees were a lot easier to walk because many of the vines need the sun and grew over the trees instead of through them. We got back and were thirsty and dirty. Luckily we were greeted with a cold jug of lemonade. Katy took a shower and drank the last of rum.
The next day the weather was medium, and we spent most of the day around the property, and then on Friday, I went for a hike to the volcano on the island. Katy’s jungle tolerance was maxed out, so she stayed back. I went again with John, but his son and one of his son’s friends who had never been to the volcano before came along. John’s son went to the French school on the island and understood English but did not really try to speak it. His friend spoke decent English and was interested in talking which broke up the some of the trip. They also brought their dog along who was a pet and enjoyed eating coconut.
Near the summit of the volcano.The boat we used to cross the lake. The lake is the old cone of a volcano that exploded years ago.Near the summit of the volcano. There is not an open crater, but you can see gases escaping from the crater. I couldn’t get close enough to look into the crater due to volcanic gases.
We began Saturday by having eggs with tomatoes and onions accompanied by two hot dogs for breakfast. I would put the hot dogs closer to being spam dogs than all-beef frankfurters.
We then were ushered to a waiting vehicle to take us to water music. One thing on Gaua is that we will tell them we want to do an activity and then we are told when the activity is starting, not that water music will be at 8am. Maureen, her daughter, a Frenchman (who is possibly her husband), and another woman joined us for the truck ride there. Water music is traditional to Gaua and is created by women (men do not make water music) with their hands in the ocean to create different sounds. Sometimes singing is added into the mix.
The water music was surprisingly good, and the sounds that they made were very varied. It is rather expensive at $18 per person, but the money does go directly to a village that does not have a lot of income sources. The group that we saw was one that occasionally is sponsored for international tours but mainly performs in their village for the occasional tourist that wanders up to Gaua.
We got back to our bungalow and packed our bags. The Kustom ceremony for Maureen’s mother’s funeral started shortly after we arrived back. The ceremony was an adults-only event, and in the middle of it, her 10-year-old daughter stopped by to let us know that our flight was canceled. Since the skies were clear and blue, I was not anticipating that. With a rush of nonpositive thoughts, we trudged up to the airfield to investigate. We were having slight SIM card issues, with Katy’s provider not having service on the island, and one of the SIM cards was only working for phone calls while another worked only for data.
I could not find anything online or in my email about the flight being canceled, so we gave them a call. That is, we attempted to call Air Vanuatu, but the first two numbers listed on their website were out of service. We eventually got a human on the third call and were informed that our flight was canceled due to aircraft maintenance problems. The next flight out of the airport was not scheduled until Monday and had us getting into Port Vila at 4 pm, 40 minutes before our Fiji flight was to depart. The agent wanted our phone number and was going to look into things and then our cell phone minutes ran out, leaving the two of us a little red-faced, standing in the middle of the grass airfield, baking under the sun, wondering how we were going to get more money on our SIM card to call back. We asked some people wandering across the airfield (which also is the soccer field and the road to drive on if you want to make your truck go fast), and they pointed down the road. Alas, the store (which was actually open for the first time of the week) did not do Digicel top-ups, so the owner tried to call his son to get it done but couldn’t reach him.
We tried another store, but it was closed. Back on the airfield, I was able to figure out how to add money online. I then realized that I will probably try to do a credit card trip delay claim where you can claim $500 in expenses per person if your flight is delayed more than 6 hours, so 48-hour delays on remote islands should qualify. I trudged the 400 meters back to our bungalow and got the credit card we had we booked the flights with and used that for the top-up. I figured that the cell service is directly related to the delay, so I will submit a claim.
I was then able to talk to someone, and they rebooked us on a 5 leg itinerary to get from Gaua to Port Vila. The itinerary included one connection of 10 minutes that required switching planes and reclaiming luggage and checking back in. I guess that Air Vanuatu does not have minimum connection times for flights. I am not sure if my confidence in the flights working out was misguided, but I was feeling very confident that it would work out. The itinerary got us to Port Vila 140 minutes before our flight to New Zealand via Fiji left, and we didn’t need to check in until 60 minutes prior to departure, plenty of time.
It was then lunchtime, and we had a Caprese-ish salad. We were told earlier in the day by Maureen that we have been served less seafood than normal partly because of the weather, and it not being good conditions for diving and fishing. We then made a trip back to the airstrip to revisit the store since we had planned our snack strategy around leaving the island on Saturday, not Monday, and our stores were rather low. Unfortunately, the shop had closed for the day. We then spent a minute using the internet to take care of some urgent business like downloading more kindle books and checking email.
Maureen’s was a hub of activity during the day with the Kustom ceremony earlier in the day and a feast later in the day. We read our books, I worked on the neglected blog, and we went for a snorkel since conditions were right. We did have to swim through the 10-20 kids that were swimming in a wide array of attires near the steps to the water.
We were served a variety of local food for dinner that was cooked in their traditional below ground oven system using rocks and banana leaves. Chicken was the main dish that was served to us, and it had about 1/4 of an inch pink smoke layer.
Sunday according to Katy’s trusty Norwegian weather forecast was supposed to be miserable and rainy. We awoke at the standard 6am time to sun and few clouds in the sky. We ate breakfast and went for a morning snorkel. Maureen stopped by and asked what our flight numbers were so I gave her them. I also called Air Vanuatu to confirm our flight for the next day. They said it was a go and also sent me a confirmation email, fancy.
DCIM100GOPROGOPR0754.JPG
We then spent a minute on the airfield getting some internet on. Katy needed to update her Headspace meditation streak and log onto her word puzzle app in order to get a new badge, an animated Mer-lion (obviously it’s a very classy game). The family cleaned up the from the funeral, and one of Maureen’s daughters practiced water music with her friends. You could see one of the girls instructing the correct hand positions and movements.
Later in the day, the weather did turn nasty, but we had already had a great day with really good weather. We played some pirates and some Catan. Maureen came by with the bill which I was hoping to have enough money to cover, and I did, barely. The fee for the first five nights was 45,500 and 30,000 for the last two. Being a cash-based economy, we had 76,740 cash. Literally just enough to pay her and 1,200 in departure taxes, leaving 40 vatu or $0.37 leftover. When I pulled money out to go to Gaua, at the ATM, I was planning on just taking an additional 40,000 out, but decided on a whim to take 44,000 out. I am glad that I did.
We were instructed to be ready after breakfast the following day since reportedly they were putting on a special flight for us with only four seats so that we would make our international connection, and they did not know when that would be other than in the morning. I was rather confused on what was happening since this was not what our confirmation email said.
We got to the airport, and we were told by Maureen that plans had changed, and we were going to Sola (another island), and then on to Santo on a second plane. She then asked Katy if she could take a bag to someone who forgot it at her house during the funeral. We said sure, and then she bounced.
When I think of “air cargo”, mattresses and plastic chairs are not the first thing that I think of. The addresses on the boxes are just a village and person’s name.
A plane landed, and they unloaded some people and cargo. A large part of the cargo was plastic chairs and mattresses. The airport/airline employee then told me that we were not on this flight and to wait for the second one. I was still rather confused about what was going on, but at least we now had some official directions. About 45 minutes later, another plane landed, and we were told to get on it along with a few other people. That plane then went directly to Santo, cutting out three legs of the trip. I think that they split the airplane schedule into two flights so that we would make our international connection. We had four more airplane rides over the next 24 hours and arrived back in New Plymouth.
Nothing let playing on jet fuel. The rest of it is stored in the shed in the background. You don’t need doors on your jet fuel when there are only four vehicles on the entire island.
We had a great trip, and it was great to share part of it with my parents. The trip went relatively smoothly for being 25 days long and going to really remote places for about half of the trip. It has been great being able to explore the South Pacific with a three-hour flight.
Vanuatu is an interesting country. The past week we spent on an island that is off the “tourist trail.” We left Lakatoro and headed to Espirito Santo. Santo, along with Port Vila, are the two main cities that tourists visit. Vanuatu is only a three-hour flight from New Zealand and Australia, and is often thought of similarly to how we think of beaches in Mexico, but with more expensive alcohol.
When we arrived at the Santo airport, there was someone with a sign for where we were staying, which had three rooms. I wasn’t expecting this, and I went up to ask him if it was for us (he was one of the owners), and he said that he didn’t know who it was for, but it must be for us. We took the truck ride to the accommodation and were put in a room different than we ordered, which irritated me since it was a less expensive room with fewer amenities. We eventually get moved to the bigger room, but there was a lot of confusion about our reservation. It turns out the transfer was for someone else, and he had overlooked our reservation (his wife who normally handles reservations was out of town) and assumed we were the guests booked in to the smaller room.
Kava and Vanuatu bananas for sale at the market. Interestingly, almost everything had a price on it. You can see the price on two of the banana bunches.
After unpacking, we then grabbed a taxi to head downtown, get some lunch, and some groceries. Since our accommodation was a little outside of town, it took a few minutes to get a ride, and we ended up on a “bus.” A “bus” in Vanuatu is a novel thing. It is a 12 passenger van that does not have a set route and travels wherever people want to go. If your destination is far out of the way from the other people on it, the driver will decline the ride. It costs a set price of $1.50 per person (long distances can be a little more). Before we headed back, we stopped at the market to grab a papaya for $0.50 and some coconuts (Katy’s favorite). On our ride back to town, we arranged for our cab driver to pick us up the next day to take us for a tour.
This is a crowded beach in Vanuatu.
Our driver arrived a few minutes before our 9am meeting time to do a tour of a few sites on the island. One of the reasons that we selected him was that his English was good, and he agreed to what I had seen as the going rate of ~$70 for all-day use of the taxi. We first headed to Champagne Beach. Someone at CNN, who has probably never been to Vanuatu, rated Champagne Beach as the ninth-best beach in the world. The beach gets its name from gas escaping from volcanic rock at low tide causes hissing and crackles like champagne. We did not hear it on the beach, but a few areas snorkeling we heard sounds that sounded like champagne hissing. I thought the beach was crowded, as there were about 15 people on it, with a group every 20-30 yards. I guess that is pretty good for a famous beach but busier than I had grown used to in Vanuatu.
Not a bad view while we are our lunch.
The weather was great beach weather, hot, humid, and cloud-free. We spent two hours swimming, snorkeling, and reading our books on the helix beach chairs that my parents left. We were the only people on the beach that had beach chairs, I guess that most people do not travel with them… We got back in the car, and our driver indulged our multitude of questions about life in Vanuatu. We then headed to Port Orly for lunch. Port Orly had a nice beach, but it was not protected and was really windy. We had a good lunch, that wasn’t the speediest, but was just what we needed.
We then headed to the Nando Blue Hole. Vanuatu is a country that apparently has multiple types of blue holes. They have ocean ones with amazing snorkeling and freshwater ones with super clear, albeit cold, deep blue water. During the drive to the blue hole, we passed our driver’s village and saw his family’s 52 head heard of cattle. There are several blue holes that you can visit, and they all charge between $5 and $10, so we went to the one that our driver said was the best (inevitably it was a $10 one). Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in on our way to the blue hole. When we got there, we were the only people there and were able to get some great photos before people descended into the hole. It was chilly without the sun, but we finally built up the courage to jump into the hole. It definitely was chilly, but not as cold as I was anticipating. A family event soon descended onto the hole. Like the Cook Islands, Ni-Vanus tend to wear a lot of clothes when they go swimming. Men sometimes don’t wear a shirt, but often do. Women frequently wear their entire outfit into the water, including denim. The weather did not perk up, and so we decided to head back to town. The blue hole was fun for a little and would have been more fun if it was hot, humid, and sunny outside.
We came back and had a beer and played another game of settlers. Following the game, we headed into town for dinner. It turns out that even on a Saturday most things in Santo close early. We realized that there were a couple of things that we wanted from the store for our next step, Gaua. We did a quick google search and realized that the last grocery store closes at 6 pm. We wrapped up our game and headed downtown and grabbed the last things that we wanted for the trip. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant for dinner. I was surprised at the cost of the meals, thinking that it was a little expensive at around $12 for a meal. The joke was on us since the meals were really enough food for two people.
The following morning we took a “bus” to the “hardware store wharf” to go diving. It was a little stressful since it took over 10 minutes to get a ride at 7:30 am on Sunday morning, but we eventually got one. We did two dives and were done by noon. I had told the operator that I wanted to do reef dives, not wreck dives so of course, the first dive that we did was a wreck. I thought it was a cool dive, but Katy would have preferred it to just be a reef. A slight bummer was that we went to the area that has one of the best wrecks in the world to dive, The Coolidge, and ending up diving another wreck. We then did a shallower drift reef drive to finish up the day, which Katy loved. The owner of the operation, an Australian, was a stereotypical Australian and definitely was a bit racist with a very colonial world view.
Yes, Katy does do selfies 100 feet below the surface. Katy took less than 50 picture in Fiji, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu combined, but she did take over 700 on her new GoPro.This was actually at Million Dollar Point snorkeling. It is not often you can snorkel wrecks.
We finished up diving, grabbed lunch, and then took a taxi to Million Dollar Point. Million Dollar Point is where the US military dumped millions of dollars of equipment after WWII when the government of Vanuatu did not respond to a request about the US government selling them the equipment. When we got there, the place was deserted; normally any place that has an entrance fee has someone to collect the fee. It was windy, and the surf was pretty rough. I swam in through a bunch of murkiness and came across a ship. I then swam around and saw jeeps, trucks, forklifts, and a whole bunch of other undistinguishable things that have been on the bottom of the ocean for 70 years. Unfortunately, visibility wasn’t the best, and it was pretty rough, so Katy did not make it out very far. Eventually, someone came to collect our fee, and some more tourists came. We then spent over 20 minutes waiting for a taxi back to town and eventually one came, and it had 4 kids and a women in it already. They were just going a little further, so we jumped in the back and had an entertaining ride for a few minutes (Katy saved one of the kids from leaving her sandals in the car at the end of their ride). We then got dropped off at our accommodation, and a miscommunication between Katy and I caused us to get ripped off, but it only cost us an extra $4.
The actual beach at Million Dollar Point with axels and assorted other items washing up.
We had dinner in, eating leftover Chinese, ramen, and some other snacks that we were trying to finish up before we headed to our next stop, Gaua. Katy did do a little snorkeling right in front of where we were staying, but it was below average, and she soon came back in. While Katy was snorkeling, I was trying to swing on the swing they had in front of where we were staying, but whether there was a design flaw in the swing or I have lost some of my swinging skills with age was unclear. We turned in early that night, ready to set off for Gaua in the morning.
Our stay at the Batis Bungalows came to an end, and we began our trek to the northern city of Lakatoro in Malekula. Figuring out the transport was not easy. I tried calling and Facebook messaging several people and could not get anywhere. I attempted to go through an agency in Santo, and they were not able to get anywhere. Finally, about two weeks before we left, I was able to arrange a driver to drive us.
We left the Maskylenes on the boat, and Sethric put on a rain jacket even though the skies were clear. Well, we shortly discovered that the rain jacket was because there were 3-5 foot swells for his little aluminum boat to handle. I have to admit that the boat ride was not that comfortable being tossed around and getting my fair share of sea spray. I was slightly confused when we did not turn into the area where we had previously met the truck and continued on the boat for another 20-30 minutes. We eventually saw some buildings and passed the town of Lamap. We then pulled up to a sand split with a waiting truck and disgorged. I am not sure if we took a long boat ride and a slightly shorter truck ride because Sethric would make more money with a longer boat ride, there was a problem with the road (I read something about a road an issue), or the truck driver wanted a shorter drive.
I was pleasantly surprised when the truck was a quad cab, and we all had the privilege of sitting inside for what was deemed to be a 2-4 hour bumpy rather unpleasant truck ride. We loaded up and headed out.
We passed many small villages along the way. One interesting thing is that most of the villages had been visited by the Red Cross or USAid (in this area) with an attempt to provide drinking water. The Red Cross drilled wells and tapped springs to provide at least one water tap per town. It was interesting to see the benefit that these programs provided in real life. The clam sanctuary overseer did say that it is not without politics on where the well got placed and who got the water tap near their house.
The ride only took 2.5 hours, and it was bumpy, but not as bumpy as I anticipated. We passed a couple of “taxi trucks” and were glad that we were not one of the 10+ people in the back. Several people did try to wave down our truck for a ride, but we did not end up licking anyone else up. The driver did a friendly honk to everyone he knew, and I think that he knew most of the people on the island. One thing that I read was that in the 1600s there were a lot more people in Vanuatu than there are today. Supposedly there were about 200,000 people on Malekula which is hard to believe compared to the several thousand that are there now.
We arrived at the Lakatoro Palms a little after noon and were met by Jennifer, the host. There was a miss-communication between her and me, which resulted in only one bungalow being reserved, not two. Accommodations were at a premium because it was the middle of the Vanuatu Arts Festival. I asked Jennifer if she would be able to find a room for Katy and me to stay in, and she said that she would. We ended up next door in a transit room of the Christian bookstore. I was impressed that that was our only hiccup during our more off the beaten path adventure (I would guess that less than 100 groups of tourists make it to the Maskylenes every year, not counting boats that sail through).
We then headed off to the festival to try to grab some lunch. The Arts Festival started in 1978 and has happened roughly every ten years. The goal is to prevent Vanuatu from losing their culture, which started to happen when they modernized. Each of the six provinces sends multiple groups to perform their traditional dances. One impressive thing is that I would put the number of western tourists at the festival at less than 5% of the festival-goers. We were told that there were about 2,000 people there each day and I don’t think that there were more than 50 westerners there on a given day.
We were told there was food, and we walked past a range of stalls that were not selling food and walked to the market next door looking for food. We found a couple of stalls behind the market, selling some food and grabbed food from various vendors for $3 each. We were at the end of the lunch period, so pickings were slim, and it was not straightforward. My dad ended up with chicken, Katy fish, and my mom and I had a ground beef dish. When we went back into the festival, we discovered that the one row of huts we did not visit before leaving the grounds to look for food were the food stalls.
The day was hot, and the sun was bright, and it was humid. We went and sat under the shade of the bleachers and started to watch some of the dancing. Each group was given a time slot, but it appears that they used the schedule as a rough guideline for the performances. At first, we did not think there was a schedule, but then we saw someone with a program and we quickly acquired one for ourselves.
Before we headed back to Lakatoro Palms Bungalows for the night Katy and I made a pitstop at the store and grabbed four Tuskers, the local beer. Tucker comes in at least five varieties, lemon, regular (5%), bitter, extra malt (6%), and OP (7%) surprisingly my favorite is the OP, followed by the bitter. Many remote places will have the OP for sale and not the regular version. At the grocery store the OP costs roughly 10% more.
We headed back and put an extra coat of bug spray on and discovered that we were locked out of our bathroom in our accommodations, but still had access to the shower and sink. I then attempted to figure out my SIM card issues. My original SIM card worked on the first day, but the data stopped working after that. I then bought a second one and loses data onto it, but couldn’t get that to work. I finally got the second one to work by trying to verify the phone number with Apple and it failing, but then showed a data connection. All I know is that my SIM card frustrations were greatly reduced after that. We played a game of settlers and then went down for fish for dinner. They even had some cold beers there to refresh ourselves with.
The next morning we had breakfast consisting of freshly baked bread and papaya. One interesting thing is that Fiji and Vanuatu refer to papaya as pawpaw, which is a completely different fruit. Katy and I then started the ten minute walk down the road to the stadium. We did make a quick stop at the ”supermarket” to see if they sold beer, they did not. Most stores not on Santo or Port Vila are 70% empty shelves and 10-30% actual products. It is kind of depressing to look at. The three staples in stock at all shops are Coca-Cola, cooking oil, and canned tuna/meat.
We got seats in the stands and started to watch the exhibitions. The stands were partially facing east so we ended up on the cusp of sun and shaded seats and baked in the sun until the sun got high enough for the roof to provide shade.
Katy is now in a promo for Spencer chocolate. Her payment was a piece on chocolate; she didn’t share.
It is amazing how varied the outfits and dances are among the different islands in Vanuatu. At a Hawaiian luau they sell each island country as having a distinct dancing style, but the performances we saw were as varied as a Hawaiian luau. One thing that they could do to make the event better is to have a smaller venue or allow people to get closer to the dancers. Some of the dances it was hard to really see some of the details.
The Big Nambas, one of the most famous cultural groups in Vanuatu. There are also the Smol (small) Nambas. A namba is a penis sheath.
After the Big Nambas finished up we headed back to Lakatoro Palms, cleaned up, and played some settlers. We had a couple Tuskers and enjoyed our last evening together.
The next morning we got already for a 630am departure to the airport, but they said the driver said not to get there that early and we had another 30 minutes to eat breakfast. Vanuatu does have a 0.5% tourism tax and in their constitution it is written that 1/3 of the tourism boards budget will be paid directly by the tax and the 2/3 provided by the general budget of the government. In addition to providing Facebook adds, it appears that they provide some training to operators with what tourists expect as part of their experience, an itemized bill, rain water or boiled water to drink, a trashcan, etc.
We headed off to the airport and had an uneventful flight on a roughly paved runway to Port Vila. We then hung out at the cafe for an hour, playing a game of settlers, before we had a flight out and my parents headed into Port Vila for one night before their flight home via Fiji.
Far Flung Forays 