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July 9, 2019, to Portugal
Brand new TAP Air Portugal A330neo service nonstop San Francisco to Lisbon. Business class seats as narrow as most other lines (20") but fairly comfortable. The configuration is 1-2-1 but unusual in that odd-numbered rows of middle seats are "honeymoon" where are right next to your partner while even-numbered rows have the seats on the aisle with side tables to the center. When you flat-bed, it takes a few minues to re-acclimate to that "mummy bag" feeling with your feet in that narrow little slot under the seat in front. That aside, the IFE was decent as was the food and drink. Service was the typical feed and disappear as on most overnight Europe flights. But there we were the next day in Lisbon with luggage conveniently checked through to Porto; our connecting half-hour flight was delayed but we arrived in good order in mid afternoon.
Porto quickly became one of our very favorite cities! A little smaller than San Francisco with about the same number of (slightly smaller) hills. But it is snuggled between the Douro River and the Atlantic, it is the world center of Port production, with beautiful views and tons of atmosphere, with wine country nearby to the north and east. We quickly learned that most Porto residents were proudly from the area, in contrast to Lisbon which is about six times larger and a population from all over Portugal and Europe but comparatively fewer natives. (Which is not to say that many Lisbon dwellers aren't fiercely proud of the uniquely colorful beauty of their city!)
December 30, 2019, New Years Eve, and onward from Chile to Rapa Nui to New Zealand and Australia
December 31, 2019, found us in Santiago, Chile. First time there for us, and highly recommended. An inexpensive city well worth exploring for a few days. The Central Market is a must see and the cemetery — while not of the grandeur of Buenos Aires — well worth a visit as well. There are several free walking tours (guides compensated by your tips as you see fit); it is especially nice that these bright young guides are quite candid about life in Chile and their feelings about the recent Pinochet dictatorship (one rather liked the orderliness and another was still quite bitter).
Santiago is also important as a jumping-off point to visit Rapa Nui (Easter Island) which we did aboard the Oceania Marina. Frankly not our most enjoyable cruise — we’re not big fans of day after day at sea — and Oceania seems not to be up to their former standards, at least based on this one trip. With Jacques Pepin as Executive Culinary Director, you’d expect a lot higher cuisine quality. (In our experience a tuna melt is a hot sandwich, not cold with a wrinkly piece of American cheese — defended by the waiter saying, “the cheese was melted.” And there are so many triple decker sandwiches on the lunch menu that I was driven to research the origin of that third piece of bread, only to confirm my suspicion that it’s a device to hide the fact that the ingredients are so skimpy.) And when is Oceania going to join the civilized cruise ship world and stop charging exorbitant prices for cheap wine and beer but instead include it in the cruise price like Azamara, Regent, Seaborne, etc. But we were determined to complete one more bucket list priority: a visit to Easter Island.
The alternative to cruise ship is flying from Santiago and onward to Tahiti and complicated scheduling (although flights from Santiago are getting more frequent but would require overnighting in Hanga Roa town, with slim pickins’ in hotel choices). So we opted for the 18 day trans-Pacific cruise. We didn’t know until after we had already booked and paid for our cruise that, due to weather and rough seas, cruise ships often cannot moor near Easter Island and the special tender boats piloted only by Easter Island experts cannot make the passage from ship to pier through the narrow opening to the channel. Not until we were mid-Pacific did our cruise directer proudly informed us we had a good captain on the Marina, for he has successfully delivered his passengers to Easter Island on four out of five visits, so we had several days to contemplate the fact that there was a twenty-percent chance this multi-thousand dollar adventure would be a total bust. But make it we did. Rapa Nui is definitely worth visiting for the huge moai. Fifteen or more feet tall and weighing tons, these were not actually “god statutes” but ancestor tributes. Anthropological research continues, and there are still many unsolved historical mysteries.
The island itself is quite small, and there are several car rental agencies, so the option definitely exists not to pay the outrageous prices the cruise lines charge for day tours but instead see the island on your own schedule at your own pace. The road is paved, and the drive takes about one hour plus your sightseeing stops. If you’ve done your homework and also maybe been to some good lectures on Easter Island aboard ship, we highly recommend renting a car — especially since for an additional $60 the car rental agency will provide a driver! We suggest you not select the least expensive small car, since they are truly tiny; the next level up plus driver will run you something under $200 for an entire day (plenty of time to see the island and the town); this is maybe one-third of what a day group excursion marketed by the ship costs for two people! Plus you don’t have to wait while twenty-five people troop off to the bathroom at several stops.
After a two-day visit to Bora Bora — still one of the most beautiful places in the world and a chance to get up close and personal with manta rays and sharks (even better than our now home on Hawaii’s Big Island) and a Sunday stop at Raiatea (one of the best free concerts we’ve ever attended is to listen to the congregation singing hymns at a Polynesian church service in the south Pacific), our cruise ended in Papeete, which we’ve previously visited. So at 6:00 a.m. we headed straight from the cruise terminal to PPT, the international airport; cab fare $30 US, tipping not required or expected; a far sight cheaper than the $200-300 Oceania wanted to book a ride for us in time to catch the early morning Air Tahiti Nui 787 non-stop to Auckland. There’s another city with a lot to commend it, although architecture isn’t its strong suit. There is, however, a magnificent Sea Life aquarium with the largest collection of penguins north of the South Pole in a beautiful ice world setting; and if you have time, book lunch at the Auckland Sky Tower — one of the advantages aside from reasonably good food at fair prices and a great view of the greater Auckland area being that it’s the only place in town where the inelegant Auckland Sky Tower doesn’t mess up the view.
Three days later an Air New Zealand 787 non-stop to Adelaide, Australia, an under-appreciated city. Fortunately some of the nineteenth century architecture still exists, so it’s a very pleasant walking city. Also lots of green space in the area, clean air, not far from the ocean, and easy to visit the Barossa Valley, one of the world’s new eminent wine growing regions. Next was a revisit to Melbourne, another vibrating city with plenty to see and do, finishing with a return to Sydney, again a few days of plain fun. Fortunately for us there is now regular non-stop service from Sydney to Honolulu — Hawaiian Airlines, JetStar (low cost and, from what we hear, low quality) and Qantas. Unfortunately our choice of Qantas on one of their old 747s may not have been the best, since staff service and food quality in business class left quite a bit to be desired on this 9-hour overnight flight.
And where you may find us soon: |
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