Travel daze

On May 14th, a pre-arranged taxi picked us up at the dock at 08:30 to take us to the Nuku Hiva airport on the far side of the Marquesan island to start us on our trip home to Canada. The road to the airport is approximately 18 km in a straight line, but this road is so curvy and winding that the ride took about 1.5 hours.

Our lovely taxi driver stopped at a few prime locations along the way to allow us to take a few quick photos and view the panorama. If you ever anchor at Nuku Hiva with your sailboat, we highly recommend renting a car and checking out this road with its amazing top-of-the-world sights.

Looking back to where SV Tango is still anchored

Unbelievably curving, snaking, twisting road to Nuku Hiva airport

Looks like we are about to drive off the end of the earth

Upon arrival at the airport, we were surprised to see several horses kept so nearby. They were friendly and didn't seem to mind being there. We flew from Nuku Hiva to Hiva Oa for a brief stop and then on to Pape'ete Tahiti where we had to wait several hours for our next red-eye flight to Honolulu. During our wait, a friendly couple gave us a free bottle of delicious champagne! After this late-night flight of almost 6 hours, we then had a shorter wait until our last flight to Los Angeles USA.

So after going through a few time zone changes, about 16 hours of travelling, 13 hours of waiting, and 2 bad movies, we were very tired upon arrival in LA - it had been a long 2 days of travelling from 08:30 May 14th until 16:45 May 15th.

From LA, we went to Palm Springs where we relaxed, visited with special friends, and rode on the Aerial Tramway. This tram has a rotating floor so you can see all around you, making the experience more enriching (and at the top of the tramway are great areas to hike and camp).

Aerial Tramway heading back down to the station

Next, we picked up our old KLR motorcycle at Yuma, where temperatures were reaching 38°C (100°F), and brought it to Palm Springs for storage. On our way back to Victoria BC Canada, we stopped in Old Town Sacramento where the 18th annual Pacific Rim Street Festival was on-going with many people in attendance.

The Hornblower going under the raised bridge

We will now be in Victoria until mid-September. Our current plans are to then drive to Palm Springs and go down to Copper Canyon in Mexico on the motorcycle before returning to Sea Turtle in San Carlos (not far from Copper Canyon).

We are both missing being on the boat very much and look forward to continuing our adventures aboard!