In the US with a special guest!

We have arrived to the last part of our trip! 8 weeks of touring in the US, starting in Los Angeles and finishing it all of in the concrete jungle of New York end of November! But let's not think about that yet, please! 

The first two weeks will be extra special because we are joined by...my father! He will be discovering the West Coast together with us, several national parks and San Francisco! In the mean time, we've got the first week behind us and my dad is still alive and well, haha, although he's been very cold (one night), hungry (several times) and amazed by our 'basic' way of traveling, as he keeps calling it. I guess we're so used to sleeping in a car, eating outside, having days without shower (but never more than two, don't worry) that we just don't realize anymore this way of living is a little absurd to others. But so far, my father is adapting quite well and we're having a lot of fun together! Here are some pictures of our first week in and around three national parks. Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite.

Oh...and my father likes posing, so expect to see a lot of him in the next posts! :--)

    First hamburger in the US!

 Oh! And second! Mom, he's not really paying attention to his cholesterol ;-)

 Our house for 22 days! Dad is sleeping in the car, we are up in 'The Penthouse'. It's actually the most comfy van we've rented so far!

 According to the Americans this is the largest tree in the world, in terms of wood volume...Hmmmm, we're not quite sure; General Sherman is big but not that big. Anyway, it's in Sequoia NP.

Vernon Fall, Yosemite NP

 Kings Canyon NP

Absolutely forbidden to feed wildlife in the NP's, but how can you see no to these cuties? 

The raccoon didn't get anything though because he stole our bag of bread and left us without breakfast the next morning.

Posing with El Capitan in Yosemite

He wasn't the only one

Nevada Fall in Yosemite NP

Can it get more American than this? Rodeo! For girls, how cool!

My dad didn't really have this in mind when he was preparing his 'holiday' in the US

 But he likes making fire, so he wasn't too disappointed...

Moorea

As I mentioned before, hardly any people stay on Tahiti these days and if they fly that way, it's because they want to go to Moorea, the island right in front of Papeete. It is thé honeymoon island of French Polynesia with lots of gorgeous resorts and private beaches. The newly weds (mostly American) are all over the island, taking a jungle tour in a big 4x4 or going all together on a quad ride to Cook's Bay.

We spent two days on Moorea, rented a scooter and drove around the island twice. Unfortunately, there was no way we could afford to stay in one of those super-de-luxe- hotels, but even with a small budget, we got to appreciate the island. (But still, if I look at the pictures of the Sofitel.....:-))

This picture will remind me to play Euromillions as soon as I get back. Who wouldn't love to spend a couple of nights in one of the Sofitel's huts?

Cook's Bay

Pineapple plantations on Moorea

Where we spent the night: a bit more modest than the Sofitel, but our private beach wasn't bad at all!

Marlon Brando's Island

Late Marlon Brando owned an island in French Polynesia, it's called Tetiaroa and I'll show you that the he got amazing value for his money. Tetiaroa is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean and only accessible by boat, it took us three hours by catamaran to reach it from Tahiti. Apart from thousands of birds, there is absolutely no-one or nothing on Tetia. You absolutely need good weather to visit, because there is no activity on the island and you can't spend the night there. When we arrived, it was a little cloudy but then the sun came out and the sea showed its true colors. Insanely beautiful!

Paradise Lost

Aloha tout le monde! We have spent last week on....Tahiti! I am writing this from the States now, I am running behind with updating the blog:-( So posts about the Sates as from next week!

We didn't come up with the idea of visiting Tahiti ourselves, it was the agent who helped us booking the round the world ticket who suggested to take a break on either Fiji, Cook Islands or Tahiti so we thought: why not? How often do you get the chance to visit one of these 'million-miles-away' islands? As by wonder, Benoit found out a little later that he had a cousin living in the capital, Papeete, so we contacted her and things couldn't have been any smoother. She and her partner invited us to stay  at their place for the whole week, they picked us up at the airport, drove us around the island, took us for dinner, cooked for us....We've truly been spoilt in this heavenly place! 

Tahiti is French territory and it used to attract many tourists until a few years back. The crisis has hit the Polynesian island extremely hard and tourists are staying away now. We saw plenty of luxurious hotels, like the Hilton and the Sofitel that had to close their doors and are now empty, abandoned and overgrown. Lots of people lost their jobs and without a decent unemployment system, fell into poverty. Another source of income, fishing, is being threatened as well since Korea and Japan signed an agreement with French Polynesia and are now allowed to 'empty' the seas. As a result, unemployment on Tahiti is very high and people haven't got many alternatives. It's quite sad because they live in one of the most beautiful and colorful paces on earth.