The Beach

The sand may brush off, the salt may wash clean, the tans may fade, the smiles that you smiled that day, will appear every time you think about it, and the memories are permanent.

If you stay long enough the sun will begin to melt, and as it melts you calm yourself, it makes you calm and quiet, it cools you, sends chills down your spine. The sun is factor of all emotions, the moon is the factor, of all life.

Mira

Home...

Greetings from Baja, Mexico!  I feel at home - in heaven, back at one of my favorite places on earth, in the desert, on the Pacific, facing west and able to look for the green flash every sunset.

We will be in Baja for three weeks:  one week in a beautiful house on the beach of the west coast of Baja in the artsy town of Todos Santos, chilling out and having a "rest stop"; and two weeks in a villa in the city of La Paz on the bay side of Baja, where we will be kayaking and scuba diving.

I'm excited about these two stops because they're in Baja, but also because the stops are at least a week long and because they're homes, with kitchens and stereos and space for each of us to have a little space and solitude - all things we like and have been missing.

Like the homes we stayed in while in Bali and Phnom Penh, we are staying in this house (as well as one in Oaxaca City and one in Mexico City, both a little later during our two month stay in Mexico) through swaps for the little holiday flat we have in the Yucatan.  It's a great way to save money - leverage your home for one in another location.  We arranged a couple of our house swaps through friends of friends, but arranged the others through a website (www.homeexchange.com).  It's a great way to travel economically!

Nadia

Easter Island

I look up at the stone towering above me. Black against the bright blue sky and shining sun, I can't make out any of the face's features. We are on Easter Island, and today we visited a bunch of the Moi. It's really strange, how many sizes of the statues there are. Some are only three or four meters tall, and others are 20. The largest one we saw was still in the rock cliff, the face had been carved, but not cut out of the ground. When I looked at the giant statue, I couldn't imagine anyone moving it. Even with today's technology, it would be incredibly difficult to move such a large piece of stone. Yet way back then, as little as 500 years ago, they could do it. With no machines to help them with the job, the ancient people managed to carve, transport, and erect hundreds of the iconic stone heads. Our guide's personal theory on how they managed it was wheels. Before the Europeans and Chileans came to the island all of the statues had big round stones on top of them, similar to turbans. Since they look like great big wheels it is feasible that they were used to transport the heads. Another theory is using rope to move the pieces of stone. A group of university students spent days trying to figure out how the ancient people would have moved the statues. Finally, the students came up with tying rope to the top of the head, and slowly making the head "walk." As for my theory, I'm not sure. It is still completely unfashionable to me that such large beaches of stone could have been moved without machinery. The island used to be bare of trees, so making ramps like the Egyptians would have been incredibly unlikely. Maybe they had giants living on the island that could pick up the statues as easily as one picks up a small pebble.

Maya

Stars

The twinkling mysteries kissing the nights sky.  They kiss the sky as I watch the humans kill their home.  I watch as they mindlessly destroy earth and keep the remains for themselves.  I frown on human kind.  I frown on the murder of my creation.  In punishment for their murder, I put sorrow in their lives.  To defeat sorrow, they only need to smile.  It's simple, just smile.

- Mira

Free and Equal

Despite evidence to the contrary all over the world, I strongly believe that every person is born free and equal in dignity and rights.

First part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on the wall of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile

In Chile, Augusto Pinochet ruled ruthlessly for almost twenty years.  Thousands of people disappeared.

Photographs of some of the many people "disappeared" during the Pinochet regime

Free speech and opposition to the regime were not allowed.  Art was used widely as a medium for expressing truth.

Traditional Chilean appliqué produced during the 1970's

The president's regime was overthrown by popular vote.  The opposition campaign, which won overwhelmingly, focused on the positive, was very upbeat, and asked people to vote "no" for an extension of the presidential term.

Photograph by Alfredo Jaar, of a billboard from the opposition campaign, asking "are you happy?"

Today, Chile is colorful and hopeful.

The girls in Valparaiso, Chile, sitting in front of a couple of the extremely common murals 

And many Chileans have learned from the past.

A typical weekend city park poster asking us not to forget about the missing Mexican university students.  

If only everyone would respect human rights and give peace a chance... the world would be a better place.  Spread the word.  Open your eyes.  Do what you can.

Nadia

Be Amazed!

We got on an airplane in New Zealand at 6 pm on March 15, 2016, flew for 11 hours, and landed in Chile at 4 pm March 15, 2016. That's right! I have officially traveled back time! BE AMAZED!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone is astonished world wide inside my hotel room! The crowd of shampoo and hand cream wouldn't stop staring. In fact they were so starstruck, they froze every time they saw me! The bed stole my sock and hid it under the bed just so I wouldn't leave. Neil Armstrong screamed at me about big and small footsteps! He was so intimidated by me that he hid in the tv. And my hands started stalking me. They never left my arm once!

Mira

Impressions of Samoa

Lush, tropical, and green
Colorful
Familiar friends
Coconuts and more coconuts
Devoted Christians
Heavy afternoon thunderstorms
Black volcanic rocks
Slow calm pace of life

Nadia

First World

We are definitely in the "first world".

There are the negatives, for example seeing homeless or people who live on the streets in such a rich country.  Or seeing signs full of rules in public areas (don't do this, don't do that).

But there are some wonderful positives too - public investment in art, safely sharing unpopular political views, and having clean, natural spaces within urban environments.

Nadia

Pou on transformational leadership, found along a nature walkway in Waikato

Waiting for the start of Marama, a political Maori and South Pacific dance performance we attended at the Auckland Arts Festival

Yet another reason to be a vegetarian (even if you love cheese)! 

Climbing down a municipal walking trail on Paritutu Rock in New Plymouth

The gorgeous view of Mount Taranaki and the Pacific, from the top of Paritutu Rock

Pristine and empty Centennial Park Beach, right in New Plymouth

Bungee Jumping

"Are you ready?" the guy with dreadlocks asks as I shuffle forward. "Ok, now just stand at the edge of the plank, and smile for the camera."

The cord tugs at my feet, heavier than I thought it would be, making me feel unbalanced. I look up and smile, wind blowing in my hair. 

"One. Two. Three," he lets go of my harness, and I bend my knees to push off from the platform. 

Before I know it, I'm sailing through the sky. Then I'm falling. My stomach does flips as I plummet towards the bottom of the canyon. As I near the bottom, my body rotates upwards, as if about to do a back flip. Now I'm looking up at the sky, not down at the river. The sun shines from behind the bridge, where my parents and sister are standing, probably taking photos of me. All of a sudden, the harness type thing is pulling at my feet. This is where I bounce back up. For just one more second, the bungee cord is taught, then it's slack again. My stomach starts flipping the other way as my body defies gravity. After the first bounce, there are only a few small ones. Now I dangle 50 meters from the bridge above. It hurts my ankles quite a bit, all my body weight hanging from them. Five minutes later, I am finally lowered to the the floor of Gravity Canyon. 

I did it. I leapt from a bridge, free fell for 50 meters, bounced back up a few meters, and then dangled in mid air for 5 minutes. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

- Maya