Europe 2023 – Part 1 – Rome

Introduction

We finally took our European vacation that we have been trying to take for nearly 10 years. Previously something had always prevented us from going. Overall, we spent five days in Rome living in an apartment near the Colosseum. Next, we took a one week cruise to eastern Mediterranean ports Salerno\Pompeii Italy, Siracusa Sicily, Santorini and Mykonos Greece and Kusadasi\Ephesus Turkey. Finally, we spent two nights in Athens Greece. We took over 2,800 pictures, chose the best ones for this blog series. During our entire trip every where we looked it was “Wow, beautiful, take a photo!” or “Wow, historic, take a photo!”. Rather than cram all details from this trip into a single article, I created three separate articles so the reader can choose what they are most interested in.

Part 1 – Rome (below)

Part 2 – Eastern Mediterranean cruise ports.

Part 3 – Athens, Greece.

Notes: I provided optional links in this article if the reader would like more information. I’m not affiliated with any of these sites nor can I confirm their validity. Also, all images are low resolution for obvious reasons.

Rome trip summary

We traveled to Rome towards the end of the tourist season, late August through early September. We are glad we did! There were slightly fewer crowds, although it was still busy. Also, the temperature was comfortable in the high 70s to mid 80s vs. the constant 100+ degree days Rome experienced earlier this summer.

We were lucky to get a 6th floor apartment with a big terrace that was only three blocks from the Colosseum and two blocks from the Metro. It was in a great location.

Elevator to our apartment

Our front door to elevator

Below are views from our balcony…

There were small grocery stores or specialty food stores on every block; macceleria for sausage and meats, panetteria for breads and pasta, and of course gelateria for gelato, etc. Every few miles there were medium sized Carrefore grocery stores with a wider selection. Food at the stores were reasonably priced.

In terms of restaurants, we learned the three main Roman food groups are pizza, pasta and panini (“the 3 P’s” we called them). In other words, in this area there were many restaurants/trattorias/osterias that serve basically the same thing, very tasty, but uniform dishes. However, this may be to placate a tourist palate. The food was reasonably priced, about 14 euros per person, before alcohol.

During the day and night we felt safe walking around the streets of Rome, even tiny, dimly lit side streets. There were police and Carabinieri around and in some locations military people were present.

Our detailed journal of Rome

Rome Day 1

Our first full day on our own. We walked all the way from the Colosseum to the Spanish Steps with several random stops along the way. We walked a total of 9.32 miles or 22,000 steps round-trip. It wasn’t a straight walk, we wandered between the streets to reach the locations described below.

• The Colosseum (Il Colosseo) was so close we walked by it every morning and every evening going to/from our destinations. The photo shows that there is a chain-link fence around the perimeter of the Colosseum, likely due to encroaching graffiti – both painted and etched into the walls. The way to get close to it is to pay for entrance. More details about our Colosseum tour can be found in “Day 2” below.

• The Pantheon – The current building you see today was built around 126 AD as ordered by the Emperor Hadrian. We visited the Pantheon and saw it only from the exterior. The line to get inside, even with tickets, was about an hour long. We preferred to walk and see more of Rome vs. standing in line.

• The Trevi Fountain (La Fontana di Trevi) is the largest fountain in Rome. Before the current fountain was built, the site was a water source for a Roman aqueduct dating back to 19 BC. The current fountain was built between 1732 to 1762. Whenever you visit this fountain during the day or evening there’s always a crowd of people standing and sitting shoulder to shoulder. The fountain and building behind it are absolutely beautiful but don’t expect a sunny photo with no/few tourists like the professional photo’s you may have seen.

• The Spanish Steps (Piazza Spagnolo) were built between 1723 and 1725. The Spanish Steps and Santissima Trinità dei Monti church at the top are beautiful. It’s worth the time to walk up 135 steps to get a view of the steps below and also visit the church. More on the Spanish Steps below…

• The Piazza Navona was originally an oval stadium built by the Emperor Domitian in 86 AD. However, today, not much of that original stadium remains. The piazza retains the stadium’s oval shape. The current Fountain of the Four Rivers (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi) in the center of the piazza was designed by Bernini in 1651.

• King Victor’s Emmanuel II monument. Victor Emmanuel II was a leading force to unify Italy when the Kingdom of Italy was officially proclaimed in 1861. He also served as Italy’s first king and reigned from 1861 to 1878. Work building the memorial took place starting in 1878 and was inaugurated in 1911. When we visited we were able to walk to the top and through certain sections of the monument for free. At the top you receive amazing views of Rome.

Outside Victor Emmanuel II monument

Inside Victor Emmanuel II monument

• We went inside several beautiful basilicas along the way, below is just one.

Rome Day 2

We took a guided tour of the Colosseum and the best parts of the Roman Forum. About twenty other people were in our tour group. The tour lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Including the tour and our personal expedition in the afternoon describe below, we walked almost 6 miles or 14,200 steps round-trip.

The Colosseum tour – The Colosseum was amazing. Some tour books suggest skipping the interior since it’s just “a bunch of rubble”, however I couldn’t skip it. I thought it was still compelling, amazing and a lot to see.

Building the Colosseum began between 70 or 72 AD. The Colosseum first opened it’s doors in 80 AD. During our tour we walked through the ground floor and into the upper stands as the photos below demonstrate. There is a lot of history to mentally fill in as you look around and try to imagine what ancient Romans spectators and gladiators experienced. It’s just crazy being in THE LOCATION where it all took place. The Colosseum sat about 50,000 people with room for about 10,000 people standing. By comparison NFL stadiums today seat at least 70,000+ fans. More details here and here if you are interested.

A huge Colossus of Nero bronze statue once stood outside the Colosseum. This status was about 103 feet tall (30-35 meters) and nearly as tall at the Statue of Liberty. Today, all that is left of the Colossus is the plaque below that shows where it once stood.

Translation “Area of the base of Nero’s Colossus”

The Roman Forum tour – Surely you remember your Shakespeare from high school when Julius Caesar proclaims “Friends, Romans and Countrymen…” (not a direct quote of course). The Roman Forum was the site Shakespeare chose for Julius Caesar to proclaim these words. The Forum has many remnants of many buildings and temples and it can take several hours to walk around since its such a large area. Only one original building from Ancient Rome still stands, namely the Basilica Aemilia. This basilica was built in 179 BC and was modified many times, for example in 14 BC by Augustus and in 22 AD by Tiberius. The marble still has traces of the fire from 410 AD when the Visigoths sacked Rome (how dare they!). There is so much to see and imagine what the Forum may have looked like at the height of the Roman Empire.

After our tour above we walked a few blocks away from The Forum to avoid the restaurants with “tourist prices”. We had lunch at a small osteria that served panini. The owner was funny and wouldn’t let us go until we ate at his osteria.

Rome Day 3

Today we visited the Vatican Museum and St. Peters Basilica. We climbed the stairs inside the dome of St. Peters basilica which provided great views overlooking the square and surrounding country.

As usual for this trip, we chose to avoid the crowds and reserve an “early entry tour” of the Vatican Museum. To reach the Vatican Museum we used the FreeNow app to book a taxi. Payment was automatically handled by FreeNow after you arrive at your destination. This avoided the possibility of the cab driver switching off the taxi meter and demanding more than the published fare (as some cabbies in Rome and Greece do).

We are glad our tour was early. We were able to see the Vatican Museum galleries with only a few hundred other people, which is not very many by the way. The Vatican Museum usually receives about 30,000 visitors a day. Scroll through the carousel below for more photos.

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The Vatican Museum is impressive with many works from Michaelangelo, Raphael, and works from contemporary artists like Chagall, Picasso, Van Gogh and even Salvador Dali. The Sistine Chapel was, of course, the highlight of the museum tour. The frescoes by Michelangelo on the ceiling and the west wall behind the altar are beautiful and the most commonly known. However, there were additional artists, such as Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli who contributed to the magnificence of the Chapel.

Next we visited St. Peters Basilica. There were probably 500-600 people inside at that time. Since the building is enormous there was plenty of space between people, not shoulder to shoulder in other words. Aside from the logistics… Wow! Simply wow! Like most people I had seen pictures of St. Peters Basilica and the Vatican Museum galleries and thought they were impressive, but seeing them in person was amazing. St. Peters Basilica itself is massive. Besides the size of the basilica the architecture and artwork inside and outside are beautiful beyond words. You can scroll through the gallery below if you like.

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After walking around inside the Basilica, we climbed the stairs inside St. Peters dome. Rather than hike ~551 steps to the top of the dome we paid 10 euros per person to take the elevator to the roof. The elevator got us probably 2/3rds of the way to the top. Next, to reach the very top of the dome we hiked ~176 stairs consisting of narrow passageways, zig-zag stairs and a claustrophobic spiral staircase that was maybe 10 feet wide. The views of Vatican city and beyond are incredible. If you are in good shape this is definitely worth the time, effort and money.

From The Vatican we took the metro to return to our apartment. The metro was incredibly easy to use and cheap. If interested there are several YouTube videos that provide details how to use the metro.

Rome Day 4

Today we visited Villa Borghese Gallery and the surrounding park. Afterwards we walked to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain again simply because we were in Rome and we could! We walked a total of 6.8 miles or 15,300 steps round-trip that day.

We purchased tickets for the Villa Borghese Gallery over a month prior to arriving in Rome. These tickets sell out quickly. We walked about 10 minutes from the metro stop to reach the Villa Borghese gardens. The gardens are huge. There are small buildings, statues and fountains throughout the gardens. There’s a main paved walkway and several gravel walkways through the gardens. It seems to be a popular place for the locals to jog, bike or take a casual stroll (passeggiata).

At the top of each hour, they admit a maximum of 180 people into the gallery. The duration of your visit is expected to be two hours, although no one is going to kick you out after 2 hours. The museum is a 2 story villa setup as an art gallery so it is quite small. You can casually walk through and ponder the artwork in about 90 mins.

There are a variety of incredible marble sculptures (both of age and type), paintings, mosaics on the floor and painted ceilings. Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s famous statues of “The Rape of Proserpina” and “David” are there as well as works by many other artists.

Bernini’s statue “The Rape of Proserpina”

There are floor mosaics that date from the third to fourth century AD that show gladiators, their armor and weapons of choice. This is just a summary. All works can be seen on the official website linked above. It was worth the trip and entrance fee.

A quiet side street where we ate dinner one evening (Ceniamo!)

Rome Day 5

This was our last full day in Rome with nothing scheduled. Early in the morning we hopped on the metro going north to re-visit locations we had seen earlier in the week to beat the crowds… but no luck! (ma senza fortuna!)

The Trevi Fountain at 8:45am had a few hundred people already there snapping selfies, glamour shots and tossing coins into the fountain. We took the opportunity to toss coins over our shoulders into the fountain. The tradition of tossing one coin with your right hand over your left shoulder dates back to Roman times. This tradition, like other traditions, has been updated over the years. Currently, the tradition means that you will apparently receive good luck and that you will return to Rome in the future. I already plan to return to Rome, but a little extra luck will always help.

After the Spanish Steps we walked about 10 minutes northwest to the Piazza del Popolo – our first visit on this trip. Yet another beautiful square. In the middle of the square there is an Egyptian obelisk dedicated to Ramesses II (who reigned from 1279 – 1213 BC). There are also beautiful nearly twin churches on the edge of the piazza. This square also has the Leonardo da Vinci museum. This is the biggest square in Rome.

To the east of the square we hiked the stairs to Pincio Park and received a wonderful view of the square below and the Vatican in the distance.

In the evening we watched our last sunset in Rome from a park near the Victor Emmanuel II monument then walked to Teatro di Marcello (Theatre of Marcellus). After the theater was completed in 13 BC the Emperor Augustus named the theater after his nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus. It held between 10,000 to 20,00 spectators. It looks similar to the Colosseum since the Colosseum was modeled after this theater.

Teatro di Marcello

Rome Day 6

Il mio cuore è a Roma (My heart is in Rome)

Today we leave Rome.

Early in the morning I attended mass at the Church of Saints Marcellinus and Peter ‘al Laterano’. It was originally built in the 4th century AD and restored several times since then. The church is dedicated to 4th century Christian martyrs Marcellinus and Peter.

Later that morning we arranged for a car to drive us from Rome to the cruise ship in Civitavecchia, which is about an hour northwest of Rome.

Part 2 in this series will provide details of our cruise to eastern Mediterranean ports Salerno\Pomeii Italy, Siracusa Sicily, Santorini and Mykonos Greece and Ephasus Turkey. Part 3 will describe our time in Athens, Greece.

Europe 2023 – Part 3 – Athens, Greece

This is part 3 of our long-awaited European trip. Part 1 was Rome and Part 2 was an eastern Mediterranean cruise.

Notes: I provided optional links in this article if the reader would like more information. I’m not affiliated with any of these sites nor can I confirm their validity. Also, all images are low resolution for obvious reasons.

Athens Day 1

Our cruise ended today and we began a few days vacationing in Athens, Greece.

At about 7am this morning our big boat docked in Piraeus Harbor. After a quick breakfast, we walked off the ship and grabbed a 20 minute taxi ride to our hotel, the Hotel Acropolis View. As the name implies certain rooms have a view of the Acropolis and their roof garden has a beautiful view as well. Thirteen months in advance we booked a room with a balcony that had a view of the Acropolis.

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After checking into our hotel and dropping off our bags, we went to the Acropolis Museum at opening time. We bought museum tickets online just as we walked into the “Skip the wait” line, so we skipped past everyone else waiting to buy tickets. This museum is very nice. It first opened in 2009. The museum was built in the shadow of the Acropolis which is visible from huge glass windows within the museum.

The architects cleverly built the museum over an archeological dig where the original buildings date back to about 3,000 BC. The museum architects set the foundational pillars in key locations to have minimal impact on the ancient site below. Visitors can walk under the museum to see this ancient site.

The museum itself has four floors and is filled with mostly original Greek artifacts from the Acropolis and the surrounding area. For example, the original marble statue head of Alexander the Great (one of my historical heroes) can be found in the museum. It could take up to three hours to casually walk through the entire museum, ponder the statues and other relics in front of you and watch a few multi-media exhibits.

After the museum we walked to Anafiotika, one of Athens most scenic neighborhoods. This neighborhood contains small, white-washed houses with colorful shutters and doors and looks much like the houses we saw in Mykonos and Santorini. These homes were built in the mid-19th century. There are only narrow walkways to traverse the neighborhood. If you visit, don’t let the graffiti dissuade you since it’s seen mainly as artwork. To reach this neighborhood you’ll wander past several small Byzantine churches and other beautiful newer two-story buildings based on classical architecture painted in warm Mediterranean colors.

Next, we stumbled on the Roman Agora. The Roman Agora is an ancient marketplace that was built between 19 and 11 BC. Currently, the Agora is a small archeological site that has one standing building, many standing columns and column bases that outline the ancient marketplace. There is a small entrance fee.

After a busy morning and afternoon we rested and left our hotel around 6:30pm to find a good Greek restaurant for dinner – there were so many to choose from. Tomorrow we will actually see the buildings on the Acropolis up close!

Athens Day 2

As usual for this entire trip we tried to beat the other tourists by starting early. We woke up at 6am, had breakfast and went to our first destination, namely the top of the Acropolis. First, some terminology since I was getting this confused as well. The Acropolis is a huge, natural granite hill. At the very top of the Acropolis there are several buildings. Visitors enter and exit the top of the Acropolis through an amazing gateway called the Propylaia, built between 510 and 480 BC, that is lined with columns and has a beautiful coffered ceiling. The most obvious buildings include the Parthenon, which was built between 447 and 438 BC, and the Erechtheion building, built between 421 and 406 BC.

A few days in advance we bought 9am Acropolis entrance tickets. There were only about 200 other tourists waiting in-line with the same type of tickets we had (yes about 200). In 2022, the Greek Ministry of Tourism reported that there were more than 16,000 visitors to the Acropolis each day. The Greek Ministry of Tourism previously decided to extend the tourist season, so this large number of tourists is expected. (See this Greek Reporter article for more details).

Since the main path up and down the Acropolis is largely the same, on the way up we skipped all of the buildings, statues and plaques to reach the Parthenon so we could take some pictures with minimal tourists around. Mission accomplished! Below are some of our photos with just a few tourists wandering about. Although, it’s amazing what a difference 45 minutes can make. After taking our photos and slowly walking around the Parthenon once, it quickly became mobbed with people and became standing room only in some places.

After about 90 minutes at the top we saw and photographed everything we came to see. When the peak of the Acropolis became mobbed with tourists wielding selfie-sticks we decided to slowly walk down the same path we took on the way up, but this time taking some photos along the way – like the Acropolis Amphitheater below.

Acropolis Amphitheater – they still have live shows here.

Hadrian’s Arch

After the Acropolis, we walked over to Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Zeus. The Arch was built by the Athenians in 131 to 132 AD in honor of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. The Romans conquered Greece in the 2nd century BC, so the Greeks were ruled by the Romans for quite some time before they built this arch.

After grabbing sandwiches for lunch from a small shop down the street, we headed to Filopappou Hill (aka: Philopappou). The hike up this hill was gradual, somewhat shaded but rocky. It took us about 10 minutes to climb to the top. This hill offered a spectacular, free, 360-degree view of Athens and the Acropolis. This is a popular spot for young couples to watch a romantic sunset. It also has a small portion of the Philopappos Monument remaining (see image below). This is a grave monument built between 114 and 116 AD for Gaius Julius Antiochus Philopappus, which is where the hill gets it’s name. Once at the top there’s a path to the west where even more of Athens can be seen. If you are in good physical shape and decide to hike this hill, take water and some snacks with you.

Philopappos Monument

That was all we were able to see during our last full day in Athens. There is so much more to see and experience in Athens. Early tomorrow morning we began our journey home.

Athens Day 3

We woke up at 3:30 am to fly home. We used the FreeNow app to call a taxi and take care of the payment vs. us paying the driver in cash.

We returned from this entire trip with lasting memories of Rome. Wonderful memories of our cruise destinations to eastern Mediterranean ports Salerno/Pompeii Italy, Siracusa Sicily, Santorini, Mykonos and Athens Greece, and Kusadasi/Ephesus Turkey. Our cameras were loaded with over 2,800 great photos that we’ll cherish for years. The people whom we met or interacted with at each of these locations were very nice. We hope to return to some of these locations in the future!

I hope you enjoyed this three part blog series as much as I enjoyed researching and creating it.

Europe 2023 – Part 2 – Eastern Mediterranean Cruise

This is part 2 of our long-awaited European trip. Part 1 was Rome and Part 3 was Athens Greece.

Notes: I provided optional links in this article if the reader would like more information. I’m not affiliated with any of these sites nor can I confirm their validity. Also, all images below are low resolution for obvious reasons.

Cruise Day 1

Salerno, near the Amalfi coast, was the first stop on our cruise. This gave us access to the legendary city of Pompeii.

Salerno is 40 minutes southeast of the city of Naples. We had signed-up for a tour of Pompeii since we thought we would need some ‘guidance’ to explore this large, ancient site. We took the first tour in the morning, along with many other tour companies who were also giving their first tour of the day.

However, the tour we took was lackluster. We had audio receivers with a single wired “earbud” so that we could hear our guide when he spoke through his microphone. In hindsight, we should have made this a self-guided tour. There are modern signs with numbers everywhere in Pompeii so that you can sync online information with a self-guided tour. We saw several tourists taking self-guided tours with their phones.

Pompeii itself was amazing. Walking along the same streets and sidewalks that ancient Romans once walked was incredible. Pompeii is actually well preserved for being about 2,000 years old. Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD burying most of the inhabitants of Pompeii and it’s sister city Herculaneum that you rarely hear about. In Pompeii many of the houses (now with no roofs), both amphitheaters, marketplaces and many columns are still standing. We were allowed into several homes. One house we walked through (image below) obviously belonged to a wealthy person. The house had a grand entrance, a courtyard, many rooms, partly visible elaborate paintings on the wall, and beautiful mosaic floors.

After Pompeii, the tour bus brought us and other passengers back to Salerno harbor. At that point we went exploring on our own! Since we had to return to the ship in a few hours, we chose to stay in Salerno vs. finding our way up the Amalfi coast. Walking outside of Salerno harbor, we quickly turned away from the main street that runs parallel with the harbor and walked among smaller, more intimate streets. These smaller streets were lined with various shops like restaurants, pharmacies, clothing, jewelry stores, etc. We walked several blocks northeast until we found a small, quiet restaurant for lunch. We had a great pizza bianca, drank Gazzosa (a soft drink like Sprite), and discussed where we wanted to explore next.

After lunch we visited a Roman aqueduct and several churches. On our way back to the ship we stumbled upon an active archeological dig named the church of San Pietro a Corte (St. Peter at Court). The door was open and we noticed a sign welcoming people to visit for free. There were a few original yet faded paintings on the wall and ceiling that were only partially visible due to their age. As with most ancient structures, layers were added over the years. The foundation pillars date to the 1st/2nd century AD.

Ceiling murals inside the Church of San Pietro a Corte.

Cruise Day 2

Today, our boat docked in Siracusa, Sicily. Siracusa is located on the south eastern side of Sicily, farther south than the bottom of the Italian “boot”. We walked 6.5 miles or 15,100 steps that day.

The weather during the entire day when we visited was awful. It rained very hard with strong gusts of wind. Usually, Siracusa has clear blue water and colorful buildings shining in the sunlight much like the idealized photos of the Mediterranean you may have seen. The bad weather is one of many reasons we’ll return to Sicily.

We took a guided tour of Neapolis Archeological Park. Overall, the park was rather disappointing for a few reasons. During the tour we first visited the Latomia del Paradiso quarry that was used in the 3rd century BC. It had some natural features that were interesting. Next, we visited an amphitheater originally built by the Greeks in the 5th century BC. However, when the Spanish arrived in the 15th century they took a majority of the stone originally used for seating and used it for other projects. The amphitheater was re-built several decades ago using modern techniques. Essentially, most of the theater shows a modern outdoor amphitheater rather than an ancient Greek amphitheater which was not too interesting for us.

The only somewhat interesting exhibit was a small oval colosseum where gladiators fought during the Roman era. There are very few stones stacked vertically so its difficult to get an idea what this coliseum once looked like. The entrance way pictured below is one example that remains from the original structure. You can still see the outline of the foundation that forms an oval.

Entrance to the Colosseum

Colosseum in Neapolis

Our tour guide mentioned that the best Greek ruins on Sicily can be found in the Valley of the Monuments near Agrigento. This is yet another reason that we will return to Sicily.

After our tour, the bus drove us back to the boat. We decided, yet again, to wander, explore and create our own tour with the help of the “Maps” app on our iPhones. We walked across a short bridge to Ortygia/Ortigia island. We saw medieval and baroque buildings. We visited Arethusa Fountain/Spring, although it was more like a pond by the sea with trees and an ancient structure around it. We walked to Castello Maniace below.

We visited a few beautiful basilicas in the Palazzo Duomo below. We were free to quietly walk inside these basilicas except for one that was charging an entrance fee.

Lastly, we found an old Greek temple “Apollónion” dedicated to Apollo in the 6th century BC. The temple had two huge columns still standing with the outline of the foundation still visible.

After being drenched during our morning guided tour and periodically soaked with even more rain on our self-guided afternoon tour, we sloshed back to the boat, shoes squishing with every step, to change clothes and rest for dinner… and look forward to the huge variety of desserts that we rightfully deserved!

Cruise Day 3

Our next stop was one-day away in Santorini, Greece. This was a full day at sea so nothing exciting to write about.

Cruise Day 4

We arrived in Santorini, Greece. We visited the town of Oia and walked around Fira. Overall, we walked 7 miles or 17,387 steps that day.

The weather in Santorini was pleasant, 80 degrees with some wind. At about 6:45am we arrived and disembarked at the Santorini harbor via a tender boat service. We decided not to take a guided tour but instead explore the island mostly on our own. The only “guided” tour part was taking a coach bus from the harbor 30 minutes north to Oia (pronounced “eeh ah”) .

Oia is rather touristy, but fun. It was like the Greek equivalent of Lahaina, Maui. Essentially, a big cruise ship parks in the harbor and temporarily fills the street with thousands of tourists. Also, the town with gift shops, galleries, t-shirt stores and restaurants became inundated with tourists. [We were saddened to learn about the wildfires that destroyed Lahaina, Maui in August 2023. We visited Lahaina many times over the past 20 years and it’s difficult to see that it’s all gone.]

Oia has many little winding pathways and stairs that connect apartments, homes and little shops each with a clear view of the Mediterranean. We wandered and took photos. The cats seem to be well cared for by the citizens who live there. The local cats are fun to see walking on ledges, drinking water on window sills and happily sleeping in the shade. Scroll through some of the photos below.

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After Oia, we returned to Fira via the coach bus. Fira is another touristy town with the same types of touristy stores, small hotels and apartments to rent. We walked through town, had gyros for lunch (of course), and prepared to walk north on the Fira to Oia walking trail. We walked probably 2.5 miles round trip from Fira to The Vasilicos, Caldera Heritage Suites and St. Nikolas Holy Convent. The walkway was safe, narrow and picturesque but even in just 80 degree heat it was hot since there’s very little shade.

At about 2pm we had enough of the sun and crowds so we decided to return to our ship. To reach the harbor from Fira there are two options; take the cable car or walk the stairs. The line for the cable car was about an hour long. Standing for an hour in the heat, nearly shoulder to shoulder with other tourists didn’t seem pleasant so we decided on option two – walk down the Karavolades Stairs.

The Karavolades Stairs are switch back stairs 1.2 miles long with a 600 foot descent (for us). It’s about 30 minutes to climb down walking at a brisk pace. The view includes the remnants of an ancient volcano and the Mediterranean sea. There are cafes and little shops at the top and bottom of the stairs where cold water and snacks can be purchased. Essentially, if you are in good shape the Karavolades Stairs are something you might try once in a lifetime just to say “I did it!”. And we did! (Just like we completed the drive to Hana, Maui… once…)

Cruise Day 5

We docked at Kusadasi, Turkey and visited the legendary city of Ephesus. Overall, we walked 6.2 miles or 15,615 steps that day.

A few months before our trip we booked a tour with a local tour company. At 8am at the port exit point we met our tour guide. We learned that we were the only people in the tour, so we had a private tour guide!

We boarded a nice, air conditioned, cruiser van with our guide and headed about 30 minutes to the Ephesus archeological site. I know I’ve used the word “amazing” a lot on this trip, but Ephesus is truly amazing. Ephesus dates back to about 7,000 BC. If you remember in the New Testament “Paul’s letter to the Ephesians”, Ephesus is the audience he, or one of his disciples, was writing to sometime before 90 AD. Ephesus was conquered by the Greeks, Romans, Goths, etc. and rebuilt and extended until its gradual decline in the 5th century AD.

We arrived at the Ephesus Archeological site early when only a few other tour buses were present, thus the park wasn’t crowded. In summary, we walked through the small amphitheater, public baths, the Celcus/Celsus library, the large amphitheater, the marketplace, walked along the original marble sidewalks, stone roads and saw a few other buildings along the way. What is incomprehensible is that archeologists have been excavating Ephesus for 150 years but have only uncovered ~20% of the entire site. At this rate it would take 600 years to completely uncover Ephesus. We were able to walk through or get up close to many original buildings. In other archeological sites we’ve visited on this and other trips they often restrict access and keep tourists (and those who ruin monuments with graffiti) away from the monuments. However, at Ephesus you can get up close to the buildings and monuments.

The highlight was the Ephesus Celcus Library. I’ve seen pictures of this library in various ancient history books and thought it was wonderful. Actually seeing it up close and walking through the entrance archways was unforgettable. The original patterns etched in stone are still very fresh even though they date from the 2nd century AD. I added my best pictures below.

One unexpected highlight of our tour were the Ephesus cats. We love cats so I needed a reason to add some cat photos. These cats are short-haired, tabby cats with different colors and patterns and are found everywhere in the park. We saw a fluffy cat perched high on an ancient column about five feet off the ground. This cat was patient and looked forward to friendly tourists petting (aka worshiping) him.

Afterwards, our tour guide dropped us off at our port. We had lunch and set out to explore Kusadasi Castle on Pigeon Island. Kusadasi Castle was build in the 14th century and expanded through the 18th century. The outer perimeter of the castle is free to browse around. The only part that was closed was the castle itself. You can see the castle in the picture below. The statue on the right is Barbaros, a 16th century Turkish Mariner.

Lastly, we explored the old Kusadasi town center. It’s mainly shops, restaurants and a few mosques. Some shops proudly advertise and sell “genuine fake” branded merchandise like watches, shoes, clothing, and other items.

Even though it was only 86 degrees Fahrenheit it was very humid when we visited. At about 3pm we ran out of energy, went back to the boat and treated ourselves to soft-serve ice cream.

Tomorrow we will land in Mykonos, Greece. I’m looking forward to seeing how Mykonos compares to Santorini. Mykonos will be our last stop before we disembark in Athens, Greece in two days.

Cruise Day 6

In Mykonos we were happy to explore on our own without a guide. Overall, we walked 5.3 miles or 12,300 steps that day.

At about 7am our ship docked at the Mykonos cruise ship terminal at Tourios. We paid to take the SeaBus water taxi to Mykonos Town (or “Chora” the Greek word for town). Round trip SeaBus tickets for one adult cost us four euros.

Once in Mykonos Town we explored the streets. The main goal, much like Santorini, is simply to wander and experience such a warm, beautiful place. It’s difficult to get lost since the ocean is on one side, six historic windmills (Kato Mili) on the other and residential homes are up-hill.

We walked through the Little Venice Quarter. It’s called Little Venice since small, colorful two story homes sit on the waters edge. Some of the homes have been converted to restaurants and cafes with the ocean at your feet. I noticed one restaurant employee had a comfortable seat inside the restaurant casting a line into the ocean with the hope of catching something. He used a piece of day old bread as bait, but I’m not sure if any fish were interested. Next, we walked to the six historic wind mills named Kato Mili which are located on top of a small hill very close to Little Venice (right photo below).

After about two hours wandering the streets, taking photos we found a series of narrow streets that led uphill. We eventually arrived at an old windmill resting on the edge of a hill several hundred feet above sea level. On the edge of the windmill, we took in sweeping views where Mykonos Town, Little Venice and calm but restless ocean waves met.

During our wandering we saw Mykonos Castle and Paraportiani Church (aka, the Church of Our Lady). The castle was built in the 16th or 17th century. The church is apparently one of the most photographed churches in Greece.

After feeling like we had become very familiar with Mykonos Town and had taken plenty of pictures, we wanted to venture further and see more of the island. We bought bus tickets to visit Ano Mera Town. Ano Mera is a small town about 20 minutes east of Mykonos Town. The bus departs from Old Port station. Round trip tickets for one adult were 3.50 euros. The bus was a nice, comfortable, air conditioned coach.

The landscape outside Mykonos Town reminded me of the American southwest, like parts of Arizona, Utah, Nevada – brown vegetation, dry, rocky, hilly with sparse, although white, houses built on the hill-sides. The highest peak on the island is 1,119 feet.

Our bus driver dropped us and several others off at at unmarked bus stop in Ano Mera (their bus stops aren’t clearly marked).

This is a bus stop.

Ano Mera was built around a 16th century monastery named Panagia Tourliani. It costs 2 euros per person to enter the monastery. Inside the monastery there is a tall bell tower, Byzantine relics, and other interesting features. Next to the monastery are a series of nice and reasonably priced restaurants. We sat in the shade of an open air restaurant with several other restaurant-goers and had a nice lunch. Afterwards, we walked around the main street near the monastery.

We took the bus from Ano Mera back to the Old Port station and eventually made it back to our big boat.

Tomorrow our cruise will end in Athens, Greece. We will spend two nights in Athens part 3 before heading home. Part 1 of our trip describes our stay in Rome as part of this overall trip.

Kaua’i (Fall 2022)

This was our first trip to Kaua’i in nearly 10 years. This marks our 3rd time to Kaua’i. On this trip we stayed mostly in Poipu then spent a few days on the north shore in Princeville. We visited some of the same spots as before and explored new locations.

Poipu

One day we took a day trip and visited Waimea Canyon. We followed the same road, 550, to the end at Kalalau Lookout. Waimea Canyon is considered the mini-Grand Canyon. It’s beautiful and worth the ride.

However, we learned that we needed to get to Kalalau Lookout by 8am otherwise the fog rolls in obscuring any views.

This is what we saw at 10am after the fog rolled in.

We also visited the Makauwahi Cave Trail. It’s a short morning/afternoon adventure. It’s very close to Poipu, down an unpaved road. The trails are easy to walk on. The cave system is short but interesting. It does have a ‘pre-historic vibe’ to it.

Despite visiting Poipu twice in the past and walking on the beach to see the sunset, we previously missed the turtles. On this trip we learned that at sunset about 30 turtles waddle up on Poipu Beach park and sleep for the night. There’s a marine biologist putting up markers to keep curious tourists away so the turtles can sleep.

One lonely turtle on Poipu Beach waiting for his friends…

We went snorkeling at Lawa’i Beach, just west of Poipu by 5-10 mins. It’s a nice spot with an outer reef that tends to keep the inner cove relatively calm.

Cruise up the Napali Coast

The cruise up the Napali coast was good. We booked a morning trip with Captain Andy’s. The boat left about 8:00 am. We were on a 61′ mostly open catamaran with about 30 other people. About 30 mins after leaving the harbor they offered one opportunity to snorkel. The place they chose was less than optimal since the reef and fish were about 20 feet below the surface and the water was not very clear. Other than that the cruise was nice. They provided just enough food and drinks to keep you satisfied. Although, I wish I would have worn more sunscreen on my neck since I got very sun burnt.

Princeville

In Princeville we snorkeled at Tunnels\Makua beach. It’s a beautiful location, but parking has become much more difficult over the years. We arrived at Ha’ena Beach Park at 9 am, found the last parking spot then walked the road 10 mins south to Tunnels\Makua beach. You could also walk south on the beach if you like but it’s more difficult walking long-distance in the sand carrying your beach junk. Across from the Ha’ena Beach parking lot is a dry cave that you can walk into – it maybe goes back 100 feet.

Another day, we also scaled a difficult trail down to Hideaways beach to go snorkeling one morning. There are only 8 parking spots that become occupied by 7:30 am or so. There is no other parking nearby, so get there early. The snorkeling is fair with a good amount of fish – although it’s not as clear as the Reserve in Makena, Maui or Captain Cooks Monument on the Big Island.

The following are miscellaneous photos around Princeville and Poipu.

Only on Kaua’i

The Big Island of Hawaii (Summer 2021)

We received our Covid vaccines and decided to take our first trip in ~18 months. We visited the Big Island of Hawaii and stayed in the Kailua-Kona area again. Overall, it was a low-key trip for us, we visited the same spots we visited in the past.

We were happy to see the local economy (restaurants, bars, grocery stores) recovering from the drop in tourist activity due to Covid. However, during our visit there were lots of tourists! We had to make a reservation just to have an 8am breakfast at our favorite restaurant. Also, to get a pizza from another restaurant, we would have had to order an hour in advance. On vacation we are use to wandering around, finding a place to eat and getting seated – we weren’t able to do that on this trip. Also, parking at some beaches were full by 8am or 9am and we had to park farther away on the road.

Note: All pictures below are low res for obvious reasons.

A short fish video can be found here.

The Place of Refuge (Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park)

This is still one of the best snorkeling spots on the island. The only disappointment was that the coral was a little less colorful than the last time we visited over a year ago. The coral wasn’t dead or bleached, just less colorful. I thought this was a good site that shows comparison pictures of healthy and dying coral.

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing Hawaiian Bottlenose Dolphins. I noticed there was a small tour boat in this bay. There were a few snorkelers out there looking at Dolphins so I decided to swim from shore to see if I could see the dolphins. It seems that dolphins eat at night and “sleep” during the day. When sleeping they are able to turn-off half of their brain while the other takes care of determining when to surface to breathe. Federal law says that you must remain 50 yards away from Dolphins since our presence disrupts their sleeping and eating patterns. The NOAA sign in this park mentioned the same info. I kept my distance but the dolphins came near us. The best picture I took is below.

Hawaiian Bottlenose Dolphins

More fish at the Place of Refuge.

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Cruise to Captain Cooks Monument

This was our 3rd trip on the Fair Wind morning snorkel cruise. As always it was the highlight of our trip. The new plant-based breakfast was great, although they did serve pulled pork for lunch. The crew was nice and helpful. We had a great time overall. More info about the boat company can be found here.

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Magic Sands

Surprisingly, there was decent snorkeling at Magic Sands beach. I say ‘surprisingly’ since we typically arrive at this beach around 1pm, after visiting other beaches, and the waves have increased. In the late morning or early afternoon this beach is great for boogie boarding.

Hawaiian White Spotted Pufferfish

Kahalu’u Beach Park

In the past this was one of my favorite snorkeling spots, however on this trip is was disappointing. The coral color had faded in many places, there was more dead/dying coral and there were fewer fish. I’m not sure if this is permanent or temporary.

Kekaha Kai State Park (Manini’OWali Section, Kua Bay)

We visited one of our favorite beaches twice during this trip – Kekaha Kai state park. it’s a great beach to sit around and relax, go swimming and play in the waves – although there are times when there is dangerous shore break.

I tried snorkeling here a few years ago. Despite the azure colored water the visibility was poor and I didn’t see any fish around the northern part of the bay.

69 Beach

Beautiful, relaxing beach with plenty of shade and fairly good snorkeling. The coral color had faded in many places, much like other spots we visited on this trip. This is a great place for the kids to play in the water since the beach gently declines into the ocean. The beach has restrooms and showers as well.

Do not adjust your screen… the sky and water was really turquoise and azure.

69 Beach

Baby Humuhumu fish

Hapuna Beach

This beach is just north of 69 Beach so you can visit both in one day. Hapuna is a great, big, wide, beach with plenty of parking, restrooms, showers, with shaded and sunny spots. We’ve only visited here to ride the waves and haven’t tried snorkeling.

Hapuna Beach

Aloha…

Kailua-Kona Sunset

Maui (Fall 2019)

We visited Maui last month. With the locations we visited on this particular trip I can say that we’ve now seen the entire island. On this trip we visited some of our favorite spots and saw the last part of the island that evaded us for years. Below I’ll summarize spots I mentioned in prior blogs and provide more detail around the newest area we explored on this trip.

If you are the impatient type that doesn’t like to read, I prepared a video with the best highlights.

Pipiwai trail through the Bamboo forest

This was the last area of Maui that we had been trying to visit for years and finally made it.

The drive is about 2-3 hours long from Kihei/Wailea. The only way to get there is to take a winding S-shaped trip from Kihei to the southern part of Haleakala National Park or go through Hana. A map can be found here. Most of the roads are paved through the Upcountry area which is beautiful.

Maui Upcountry

The last 1/3rd of the drive is muddy, rocky, unpaved single lane road where you can only travel about 20-30 mph. Occasionally there were cars coming from the opposite direction we had to slowly squeeze by. In the picture below you can see the road cut-out of the hillside.

Once at the park there’s ample parking, restrooms and well marked trails. As the sign below shows there are two waterfalls. The hike seems short however it’s muddy, rocky and humid. It took us about an hour to reach Waimoku Falls. The park service suggests to bring plenty of food, water, not wear open toes shoes, etc. We did the hike in gym shoes but would have appreciated good hiking boots.

In the images below, after walking through a muddy trail up to and past Makahiku Falls, passed an old Banyon Tree (a little smaller than the one in Lahaina) we reached a bridge. We walked across the bridge and looked down to see that it spans a few shorter waterfalls and a stream. On the other side of the bridge we found ourselves in the Bamboo Forest. Absolutely amazing to finally arrive after having read about it and seeing so many pictures over the years.

A portion of the trail has planks to walk on, however most of the hike is a muddy, rocky trail.

At the end of the trail is the 400 foot Waimoku Falls. The picture in the bottom right doesn’t really show full extend of this area. After walking through dense forest the trail opens up in a semi-circle area almost like being in an outdoor cathedral. There are 2-3 smaller waterfalls to the right of Waimoku Falls. After walking to the end of the trail, we hiked back a little and found a trail off to the left that led to a stream where we had lunch.

A short walk from the parking lot will take you to Ohe’o Gulch (aka: Seven Sacred Pools – although there aren’t seven pools and they aren’t sacred, but beautiful). The fresh water from the stream runs into the ocean in the bottom right of the photo below.

Ohe’o Gulch

Ahihi-Kinau Natural Reserve Area

We’ve been snorkeling here since they re-opened it a few years ago. There’s plenty of parking throughout the day, some porta-potties, and beautiful scenery. It’s less than a 5 minute walk to the beach.

Entrance to the water is slightly difficult with lots of rocks to walk over.

 

The picture below is obviously from the water looking back at the beach.

The snorkeling is very good, a variety of fish, and an occasional turtle.

Blackfin Chromis

Oval Butterflyfish

Rare Longnose Butterflyfish

Convict Tang

Bluefin Trevally (Juvenile)

For more details, maps, etc. on this location, visit the Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Kahekili Beach

Kahekili beach, just north of Black Rock, remains one of our favorite beaches overall on Maui. There’s plenty of parking, bathrooms and showers. The beach itself is a long-wide tranquil place with some shade towards the walking path behind the “sand” part of the beach.

The snorkeling remains amazing. We’ve snorkeled there at different times of the year and it never disappoints. Also, getting into and out of the water is very easy – a gradual, sandy slope leads to lava and coral.

The reef is a long, wide expanse that parallels the shoreline. I seen a wide variety of fish (Yellow Tang, Ornate Butterfly fish, Triggerfish, Moorish Idols, little Spotted Boxfish, etc) and marine life like eels and a school of Lavender Tang.

Just as I headed out to snorkel in about 10 feet of water I saw something below me slithering between the coral. I stopped and noticed it was a Whitemouth Moray Eel. These and other eels are nocturnal predators so I rarely see them during the day. Also, if these eels are out during the day they are usually tucked away in the coral. I just so happen to find this eel mostly out in the open so I took it’s picture and included it in the video linked at the top of this blog.

Whitemouth Moray Eel

Ornate Butterflyfish

As I headed south along the reef I watched the coral below for interesting fish. I happened to see a fish that was heavily camouflaged and noticed it exposed bright red and orange pectoral fins while swimming. I realized it was a Devil Scorpionfish – a close cousin to the Hawaiian Lionfish.

Scorpionfish are lazy carnivores. They have venomous spines that can deliver a painful sting, but aren’t deadly. This one appeared to be full-grown at ~12 inches… and quite unhappy.

Devil Scorpionfish

That wraps-up our trip… Aloha.

 

Maui (Fall 2018)

We just returned from our 9th trip to Maui. We had a great time visiting the places we love and learned a few new things.

Out of the 4 major Hawaiian Islands Maui remains our favorite because of the varied scenery – lush, green and tropical north of Ka’anapali, warm and relaxing around Kihei/Wailea, dry and arid around the lava fields of La Perouse Bay.

On this particular trip we mainly laid on the beaches and went snorkeling rather than taking trips like we’ve done in the past to the Olowalu petroglyphs, Iao Needle, drive to Hana, the bamboo forest near the misnamed “seven sacred pools”, etc.

The beaches below are ordered from north to south on the western side of Maui.

 

Napili Beach (has showers and bathrooms)

This is one of our favorite northern beaches. It was probably a 45 min drive from Kihei to Napili with morning traffic. The drive itself is beautiful and relaxing, although they opened the Lahaina bypass road (highway 30) which takes you into the hills and away from the tranquil waterfront scenery. For more details see Lahaina Bypass Map with Satellite View.

Parking at Napili continues to be difficult which is why we tried to arrive by 9am.

Over the years I’ve noticed that the snorkeling can be good or cloudy – it’s never consistent. The depth in the middle is about 12-15 feet. Below are a few pictures from Napili.

Sea turtle (honu)

Moorish Idol (kihikihi)

The Lei Triggerfish below is aptly named since it has markings just behind it’s eyes that resemble a Hawaiian lei. They are beautiful fish and are difficult to photograph since when frightened they quickly dive into a cavern in the coral to hide from any predators.

Lei Triggerfish (humuhumu lei)

 

Kahekili Beach (has showers and bathroo7ms)

This still remains one of my favorite beaches because of the following reasons: the beach is wide and long, there’s plenty of parking, showers, bathrooms and just a little south of the bathrooms is a shaded area along the beach. Most importantly, I always find great snorkeling here. The water is relatively clear and the abundance and variety of fish is amazing. The depth  away from shore is around 15 feet but continues to gradually slope downwards into the deep blue ocean.

Kahekili beach

Green Turtle (honu)

 

Kama’ole Beaches (has showers and bath7rooms)

Kama’ole 1, 2 and 3 are a stretch of beaches in Kihei. I often walk from one end to the other over low lava formations that divide each beach. The snorkeling remains good.

Any of these beaches is a great place to watch the sunset.

Kama’ole 3 Beach

Kama’ole 3 Beach

 

Ulua and Mokapu beaches (has showers and bathrooms)

These beaches are in Makena. The beaches are connected by a lava outcrop around which the snorkeling is usually good, although it can be cloudy at times. It’s a popular snorkeling spot so there can be many other people floating in the water.

The Great Barracuda below wouldn’t let me get too close to him so this is the best picture I could get. It was about 3-4 feet long. They tend to skim the shore looking for a meal. I see them infrequently in Hawaii so this is a rare picture for me.

Great Barracuda (kaku)

Below is a puffer fish known as the Hawaiian Whitespotted Toby. They only grow to be 2-3 inches long. When they are attacked they “puff” up and secrete an unpleasant tasting substance from their skin.

Hawaiian Whitespotted Toby

 

Secret Beach (no showers or bathrooms)

Secret beach is located in Makena. It’s well known for weddings. The entrance way is through a narrow pathway in a brick wall.

Facing the ocean across the water is the island of Kaho’olawe and a little north is Molokini. I’m not sure what the snorkeling is like here. Any entrance to the water seems rough and unforgiving.

Once you set foot on this beach you tend to forget about… everything…

Secret Beach

Secret Beach

 

Ahihi-Kina’u Natural Area Reserve (no showers, may have a porta-potty)

This was a new Snorkeling spot that recently opened. Since it’s a natural reserve the snorkeling is probably the best on the island – very clear. The variety and amount of fish and sealife is amazing. Of course, this is where I took most of my underwater photos. Below are the best ones from this location.

This beach is covered with smooth rocks and has a decent amount of shade although there really isn’t much sand. During our trip we visited this location 3 times. I noticed that people tend to go snorkeling then leave so the parking lot is in a constant state of flux. Even in the afternoon we found a good parking spot.

Ahihi Kina’u beach

I was snorkeling along, following some fish closer to shore then I looked straight below me and noticed the Whitemouth Moray staring back at me.

The wide open mouth does not mean that he was about to attack, rather this is how they breathe. I hung over his head for a few minutes and took a number of photo’s and a video.

Whitemouth moray eel (puhi)

There were several turtles at this location as well – like the enormous male below and the smaller turtle in the following picture.

Green turtle (honu)

To determine whether a turtle is male or female just look at the length of the tail. If the tail is almost as long as the back fins then it’s a male (like the one above). However, if the tail barely protrudes past the end of the shell it’s a female.

Green Turtle (honu)

Over the years I’ve found it very difficult to photograph Soldierfish since they tend to hide deep in coral crevices during the day but emerge at night to feed.

Soldierfish (‘u’u) with Yellow Tang (lau’i pala) in the background

Black Triggerfish are amazing. At a distance they have a black appearance with a neon blue stripe running down both dorsal and anal fins.

A school of Black Triggerfish

I love to watch them swim since their dorsal and anal fins sway from side to side to propel the fish forward. When they need a burst of speed their tail kicks-in!

When they become agitated their foreheads become a blue-ish color.

Black Triggerfish

Some of the most beautiful fish you’ll discover in Hawaii are Butterflyfish. They nearly always tend to swim in pairs. One common feature on most Butterflyfish is that their head-end closely resembles their tail-end. This decoration is necessary to confuse predators since they likely expect the Butterflyfish to swim in one direction but it swims in another. They gracefully swim over the reef and feed on coral polyps.

Ornate Butterflyfish (kikakupu)

Teardrop Butterflyfish (kikakupu)

Oval Butterflyfish

Longnose Butterflyfish (lau wiliwili nukunuku ‘oi’oi)

Reef with various fish

Trumpetfish

Orangespine Unicornfish

For more details, maps, etc. on this location, visit the Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources.

 

La Perouse Bay (no showers, there might be a porta-potty)

On a relatively cloudy day we decided to skip the beach and go for a walk/hike. We drove south from Kihei until the road ended then drove further until the ocean was right in front of us. We reached La Perouse Bay.

La Perouse Bay

As you can see from the photos it’s very rugged and exposed. Most of the trail consists of loose lava rocks so it’s not a smooth hike.

La Perouse Bay

La Perouse Bay

Aloha.

The Big Island of Hawaii (Spring 2018)

A few months ago we visited the Big Island of Hawaii. We stayed in the Kailua-Kona area again.

Note: All pictures below are low res for obvious reasons.

The Place of Refuge (Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park)

Great place to visit and go snorkeling. More details can be found here.

Juvenile Yellow Eyed Surgeonfish

Filefish

Kahalu’u Beach Park

This is one of our favorite places to go snorkeling. It is easy to get to, mostly ample parking, washrooms and some vendors selling food. The down side – it can get crowded and the “beach” area is small. Although, for me this is all bearable since the snorkeling is always amazing.

There is an outer reef protecting the snorkeling area so the water tends to be calm. More details on this park can be found here.

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Cruise to Captain Cooks Monument

The Fair Wind morning snorkel cruise and BBQ was the highlight of our trip. The food was great, the crew was nice and helpful. We had a great time overall. More info about the boat company can be found here.

Note: Please do not adjust your screen. The water really was turquoise!

Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish

Ornate Butterflyfish

On the way to and from Captain Cooks Monument we had dolphins that swam next to our boat for 10-20 mins.

Puako Petroglyphs

Below is a picture of the hike to the petroglyphs. It’s probably a 10-15 minute hike. Make sure you bring water.

Petroglyph Field

Petroglyphs

Dude

Kiholo Bay

We went for a short walk around part of Kiholo Bay.

We noticed a turtle on the beach taking a nap.

The most southern point in the United States

From Highway 11 Hawaii Belt Road, we turned south onto South Point Road. As we drove further south on this road the weather and terrain changed. Many years ago I visited south-western Ireland (Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry). This part of the Big Island reminded me so much of south-western Ireland.

Ireland or Hawaii?

Punalu’u Beach

After visiting the most southern point in the U.S. we continued our drive east to Punalu’u Beach. This is the famous black sand beach.

Punaluʻu Beach (Black Sand Beach)

Black Sand Beach

Kekaha Kai State Park (Manini’OWali Section, Kua Bay)

We spent some time at one of our favorite beaches, Kekaha Kai state park. it’s a great beach to sit around and relax, go swimming and play in the waves – although there are times when there is dangerous shore break.

Snorkeling and Fish!

Overall, I took over 800 fish pictures! I still really like my Olympus Stylus TG-830. I bought this camera ~5 years ago and it still works great.

Over the years as I snorkeled more and more in Hawaii I would dive further to get better fish pictures. I was curious just how deep I was going and what the water temperature was like. On this trip my new toy was a Mares Puck Pro Wrist Computer. It cost me about $150. It has many more features that a typical snorkeler would use (e.g.: Nitrox Programmable, ascent rate indicator, Full Function Air/Nitrox Dive Computer, etc.). As I looked for depth gauges I couldn’t find one that was cheaper that was also accurate… so I bought it!

In the photo below my maximum snorkeling depth was 23 feet and the water temperature was 77 degrees. It was 23 feet to the bottom of the Place of Refuge where the reef end and meets sand on the bottom.

 

Of course, the trip home…

 

Aloha

Western Caribbean Cruise (Spring 2017)

Until recently we had never taken a cruise. Over the years I encountered several people who love to take cruises. So, we figured why not try just one cruise and see what it’s like. Recently we took a Western Caribbean cruise… should I finish this sentence with the popular click bait “and here’s what happened!”?

Note: The images below are low resolution for obvious reasons.

Overall, I took over 600 fish pictures at just 2 locations. I still really like my Olympus Stylus TG-830. I bought this camera 3 1/2 years ago and it still works great.

The cruise

We took a 6-day western Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Sea. Some stats:

• Guest capacity: 3,634
• Crew: 1,365 to 1,800
• 15 decks

Locations:

• Ft. Lauderdale (our starting point)
• George Town, Grand Cayman
• Cozumel, Mexico
• Costa Maya, Mexico
• Return to Ft. Lauderdale

Onboard the ship we went rock climbing on a good size wall, played mini-golf, watched two recent Star Wars episodes, saw an ice skating show and a magician, blew a few dollars in the arcade, used the exercise and weight room (which was very large). Also, Kung Fu Panda was available for pictures! Other activities included: basketball, riding the ‘Flow Rider’ with a boogie board or special wake board.

Overall the ship was very nice, great food, the crew was great.

However, there were 2 downsides we experienced while taking this cruise.

(a) Too many people nearly everywhere you went – people at the pool, people eating in the Jade/Windjammer restaurant, people on the decks, etc. Just too many people.

 

(b) Anything related to entertainment with music was waaaay too loud. What’s way too loud? Well, you had to yell at the person next to you if you wanted to have a conversation. Blaring music by the pools, in the movies, around the basketball court, during the magic show and ice skating show, around the FlowRider, etc.

Overall, we learned that we particularly aren’t ‘cruise people’ and won’t be taking any cruises in the future. We prefer to rent a condo, rent a car and make our own plans.

Ft. Lauderdale

We were only in Ft. Lauderdale for 1 night waiting for our ship to leave the next day.

We visited the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk. It’s a very active scene with lots of people walking around, biking and many different ‘mom and pop’ restaurants to choose from. At night the boardwalk seems to have concerts. It’s a nice place to visit and go for a walk.

We contacted Uber and had our driver drop us off at 1111 N Ocean Dr, Hollywood, FL which is one main entrances to the boardwalk.

We got up early the next day and took a shuttle to the crowded port. They happened to have 8 ships arrive with ~60,000 people going through the port that day – it was very hectic.

We spent a day at sea before reaching Grand Cayman early the next day.

George Town, Grand Cayman

The first stop on our cruise was George Town, Grand Cayman.

We previously booked a tour and headed to Stingray City. The tour started with a ~30 minute bus ride from the port to the yacht club followed by a ~35 minute boat ride to Stingray City. Unfortunately, the wind was very strong and whitecaps were present on the ride to our destination. I was a bit concerned when I saw ~8 other boats already moored in the area.

Our boat captain found a place to park. We hopped out of our boat to join the throngs anxious tourists looking to get close to a few stingrays.

 

And here is our token Stingray photo…

 

After we returned from Stingray City we took a bus to a hotel near the southern end of 7-mile beach. We walked onto the beach and found a nice, quiet spot to go snorkeling (without any other people around 🙂 )

 

Nice, huh? Aside from the snorkeling the only thing missing was a comfortable chair, a chilled Mai Tai and a good book.

Compared to snorkeling I’ve done over the years on the 4 major Hawaiian Islands the southern end of 7-mile beach was clearer. I saw many types of large fish (12” surgeonfish) and small fish (schools of tiny fish about ½ an inch long). The coral looked very healthy and the fish seemed happy! If I were  fish, I’d be happy here too…

 

Snapper and Surgeon fish above and below.

 

Below is a juvenile Beaubrummel Gregory. This was the first time I saw this fish – absolutely beautiful.

 

Later that evening we left Grand Cayman. Our ship traveled overnight to reach Cozumel in the morning.

Cozumel

 

After engourging ourselves on a typical cruise breakfast, we hopped off the ship with snorkel gear in hand and walked a long pier to the port. We quickly found a cab and asked the driver to take us to Chankanaab.

We visited Cozumel and Chankanaab beach park over 15 years ago, Chankanaab has changed a lot since then. They seem to have expanded the park by 60%. They added the Blue Lagoon restaurant, an area to swim with the dolphins, more Mayan replica statues and art work, a zip line, etc. Despite the growth the park is still a great place to visit. There were enough people to take up all of the chairs and umbrellas and yet the park didn’t seem too crowded. I always found quiet areas to snorkel.

I snorkeled along the whole length of the park, north from the first metal staircase entrance down south to the ‘underwater cave for certified divers’.

The snorkeling was great. Again, compared to Hawaii the water was clear. I saw many different types of fish I hadn’t see in Hawaii. Below are a few fish I hadn’t seen before.

Smooth Trunkfish

 

 

 

 

 

French Angelfish

Butterflyfish

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Chromis

Highfin Chub

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They intentionally sunk 3 statues to give divers/snorkelers something to look at underwater. Below are the Christ statue, Madonna statue (not the pop star) and Chacmol statue. Each statue seemed to be 20-30 feet underwater.

The Chacmol statue (or Chacmool) in the bottom right above isn’t very clear. Chacmol was “a particular form of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach.” Wikipedia.

Ooooh! Barracuda! Aaaaw yaaah!

Barracuda

This was one of several large barracuda in my vicinity. There was a school of about 10 of them just… hanging around…

The best part of snorkeling for me was seeing reef Octopus. The last time I saw these little critters was when I was snorkeling probably 8 years ago off Kamaole 1 Beach on Maui. They’re amazing creatures and very smart too.

 

If you’re curious, here’s a neat video on reef octopus.

More info on Chankanaab can be found here. Here is a map of the park.

Costa Maya

Costa Maya was once a tiny, quiet fishing village. In 1995 further development started and the port was expanded. It’s still a small, quaint place to visit that doesn’t yet have a ‘touristy’ feel about it. I didn’t notice any American fast food restaurants yet. To give you an idea of where its located, Belize is about an hour south and Cancun is about an hour north.

 

We previously booked a tour of the Chacchoben Mayan ruins. At the port we boarded a bus which took us on an hour ride west to Chacchoben.

Chacchoben was inhabited from about 200 AD to around 1200 AD when, like several other Mayan cities, it was abandoned for unknown reasons. Population explosion, lack of fresh water, lack of fertile land to grow crops, better living conditions at another Mayan city, etc. are all possibilities that our tour guide mentioned as reasons that may have caused the Mayans to leave Chacchoben. After the inhabitants left the jungle took over and buried the pyramids.

In 1972 the pyramids were rediscovered by an archeologist. In 1994 the Mexican Government began to excavate the site. It was opened to the public in 2002. Walking around this site there seems to still be several smaller overgrown mounds with buildings underneath. Perhaps, one day they will be excavated as well.

Over 15 years ago we visited Chichen Itza which is about 1-2 hours west of Cancun. By comparison Chacchoben has smaller pyramids yet they are still amazing. Also, Chacchoben overall is big enough to casually walk through in 1-2 hours or you can pretend to be Indiana Jones seeking another lost temple. Several pyramids have a gate to deter you from climbing the stairs, however there are several other pyramids where you can still climb the stairs. Chacchoben is worth the 1 hour bus ride and cost of admittance.

More info on Chacchoben can be found here and here.

More info on Costa Maya can be found here.

In closing

Overall it was a nice vacation. Each destination was great. We had great snorkeling, saw a number of beautiful fish for the first time and earned a better understanding of the ancient Mayans.

Very friendly (or hungry) Sergeant fish at Chankanaab

 

Maui (Fall 2016)

Kamaole 1 beach

We just returned from Maui. This was our 8th trip to Maui since 2007. It’s a beautiful island that has a lot to offer.

We’ve seen the entire island with the exception of the most southern road, the Piilani Highway 31 and 360, past the Pokowai Sea Arch to the “Seven Sacred” Pools at Ohe’o Gulch. Here’s a map. I emphasize “seven sacred” since there aren’t seven pools and it’s not really sacred. The Maui Revealed book also describes the history behind this area.

Overall, the weather was nice, partly cloudy and warm in the mid/high 80’s. Although, we’ve had better weather on other trips to Maui.

I was great to see that the bleached coral that I wrote about in our Maui trip last year in November was gone. The water was noticeably colder this year. The algae returned and the coral looked healthy. I even saw purple coral which I don’t see very often.

I took over 1,200 fish pictures. Yep, over one thousand two hundred fish pictures… I still really like my Olympus Stylus TG-830. I bought this camera 3 years ago and it still works great.

Since fish don’t pose for photos I especially like the “burst mode” for taking fish pictures. I usually set it to take 2 photos every second, dive to the fish I want to photograph, hold the button down and swim towards the fish. At home I tend to delete about 1/3 of the photos taken in this manner but I also get great pictures since you don’t know which way the fish is going to swim, what the sun will do, how the sun will reflect off the surrounding coral and the fish, etc.

Since we revisited the same locations below that I blogged about them in the past, I’ll summarize where we visited on this trip from north to south.

Nakalele Blowhole

We tried to visit the Olivine Pools again on the north eastern side of the island but on the day we went it was rainy with harsh gusts of wind. The farthest we made it was to the Nakalele blowhole.

Nakalele Blowhole

The Olivine Pools are one of Hawaii’s most dangerous spots. I believe people tend to get carried away with the beauty of this location, get too close to the ocean and get pulled in by a big wave.

Below is  picture of the road around the northern end of Maui. It was a smooth road most of the way and reminds me of the road to Hana (tight, narrow road, lots of curves, 1-lane bridges, etc.)

Northern Maui

Ka’anapali

We spent a few days in Ka’anapali. It’s a nice area with a beach walk/boardwalk that spans several miles. You can walk to the Whalers Village shopping center and other restaurants.

Kahekili Beach

This is still my favorite snorkeling spot on the entire island. Basically, while snorkeling at this spot I can see almost every type of fish in one of my fish books. There are all kinds of wrasses, surgeon fish (Yellow Tang, etc), Angelfish, Butterfly fish, Triggerfish, etc. Just amazing!

The beach also has plenty of parking and restrooms.

Below are a few photo’s I took while snorkeling at this beach.

Forcep Buttterfly fish

The fish below is a baby Triggerfish or Humuhumu Lei. The bright yellow band just behind his eye looks like a lei. He was about 3-4 inches long and will grow to be ~10 inches long.

Baby Humuhumu Lei or Triggerfish

Below is a baby Yellow Tang, about 3 inches long. To the left is a baby Lavender Tang.

Baby Yellow Tang

There is a fish in the photo below, it’s a Devil Scorpionfish. This fish doesn’t have a swim bladder and sinks when not moving. They rest on the bottom and sit camouflaged waiting for smaller fish to swim by, then they lurch forward, open their huge jaws and swallow their prey whole!

Devil Scorpionfish

Black Rock

The snorkeling here was good as always. It’s great for first time snorkelers since you can see a variety of fish within ~50 yards from the shore. There are also alot of other snorkelers around. I tend to snorkel around the point into the U-shaped area and see many different types of fish and the occasional turtle.

Below is a photo taken when snorkeling at Black Rock.

Moorish Idols and Yellow Tang

 

Lahaina

We ate dinner in Lahaina one night. Afterwards, we  walked through the stores and art galleries. The town hasn’t changed much over the years and retains its charm.

Kamaole Beaches in Kihea

Kamaole 3 and related beaches to the north are great to visit. You can snorkel in a few spots. Kam 3 offers waves big enough to boogie board. Kam 3 also has showers and restrooms.

There is a nice beach walk that connects the 3 beaches. It took me about an hour to walk from Kam 3 to the trail end on Kam 1. The photo at the top of this blog is where the trail ends on Kam 1.

Kamaole Beach 3

 

Ulua and Mokapu Beaches in Wailea

Snorkeling around the point between these 2 beaches is fairly good, although it can be cloudy on some days. Further south on Ulua beach the waves were big enough to boogie board, so we did!

This location is also popular for divers.

There seeems to be enough parking spots, although they usually fill-up by 10am. This location also offers showers and restrooms.

There were a number of fish at this beach so I included the most unique photo’s that I took.

Hawaiian Whitespotted Toby ~3 inches long

Bluehead Butterflyfish

Changs Beach in Makena

Parking is south of the metallic gold “Makena Surf” sign. The parking lot has about 8 stalls. Since it’s a small, secluded beach there are no showers or restrooms.

Snorkeling north around the point you’ll see turtles. For example, in 45 mins I saw 4 turtles. The picture below shows a small turtle. He seems close to me but that was his choice. I was calmly floating around with no one around me looking at fish then to my surprise I see this little guy swim up next to me to grab some air. I provided some distance but also took his photo. He was kinda funny, he just floated at the top and looked around, no stress, just taking it easy like… a turtle.

Turtle

I’ve noticed over the years that some Unicornfish tend to be curious and will swim right up to your camera or goggles.

Unicorn fish

Maluaka Beach in Makena

This beach is in front of what use to be the Makena Beach & Golf Resort. When we visited this time the resort was completely closed with a fence around it.

Snorkeling a little south just around the point is usually very good. I see several different types of fish and a few turtles. Periodically, tour boats will anchor to let folks onboard snorkel.

There is adequate parking in 2 lots, showers and restrooms.

There were a number of fish at this beach. I included one of the fish that I don’t see too often – the Porcupine fish.

Porcupine Fish

La Perouse Bay

One evening we took Makena Road south until it ended near the Makena Stables.

I’ve seen people swim and surf at this location, however it seems a little rough. I haven’t gone in.

Instead of diving into the water we chose to go for a short hike along the trail at sunset. It’s a rugged trail so you may want to use gym shoes vs. open toed flip-flops.

Below are 2 images off to the side of this trail.

La Perouse Bay

La Perouse Bay

Below is a photo of sunset over Kaho’olawe taken from La Perouse Bay. The perfect ending to our trip.

Sunset over Kaho’olawe taken from La Perouse Bay