Fiji

It's not Fuji apples or Mt. Fuji in Japan. No, Fiji is an island country and part of Oceania in the South Pacific. 

We read all about Fiji being the soft coral capital of the world and this time we wanted to go all out and stay on a live-aboard to get the most out of the day. The ship we chose is the Nai'a, which means dolphin in Fijian.

Staying on a boat means that you can dive up to 5 times a day and between eating and sleeping it's the only activity. We took full advantage of that, since diving was the main reason why we picked a live-aboard. The crew operated two skiffs that dropped us off on the dive spot and picked us up when we were done. It is such a convenient way.

We were fortunate enough to have the owner Rob Barrel among the other guests. The crew was very accommodating and we felt at home right away. They did a fantastic job making us feel welcomed and comfortable.

The soft coral are just fantastic when they are open.

Since Fiji is in a different part of the world (at least for us) we saw creatures that were new to us, like this Blue Ribbon Eel.

This Anemone fish was "defending" its anemone or was it hiding in there.

The water is deep blue with fantastic visibility and provides a sense of mystery, since the depthless is lost and you just don't know what is hiding in the unknown.

On kava night, the crew invites everyone to participate in a Fijian Kava ceremony an the dive deck. The bowl with freshly made kava is passed to each person. When the kava comes to you, it's etiquette to follow these steps:

1. Clap your hands once with a cupped hand making a hollow sound
2. Yell: Bula!
3. Drink in one gulp
4. Clap three times with hands cupped to make that hollow sound again

One night we went out and visited a local village where we were we dropped off some needed school material such as pens, notepads etc.

The village also invited us to their kava ceremony. 

We had a great time and on the way back to the US, I was able to celebrate my birthday twice, after we crossed the dateline and my birthday started all over again. Did that just make me one year older?

Yap

Yap has quite a history and it's not just from WWII. This island group located in the Western Pacific is also know for its stone money, most of which came from Palau, which is almost 300 miles away with no landmarks. Indigenous people took on this treacherous journey on canoes and brought over those carved disks of stone The local traditions are strong compared to other states in Micronesia. 

For an entire week we stayed at the Traders Ridge Resort and we were the only guests. The staff was absolutely phenomenal and they told us that most of the local builders were actually still working here in an obviously different capacity. 

On one of our dive trips we anchored at the sea floor and waited to see 2 magnificent manta rays swim right over us. What a sight, and I didn't realize how huge they were.

One day, the dive master asked us if we were up to a night dive to check out Mandarin fish. We missed them on our trip to Palau and we excitedly got ready. We took the boat to a shallow reef with mostly staghorn coral still within sight of the shoreline. It turns out that the Mandarin fish were mating at dusk and we were invited to witness this extraordinary "ceremony".

It was not easy to take pictures since there finger-sized fish were moving from one branch to another and were never still. The colors were so bright that it almost looks unreal.

To explore the culture and sites above water, we hooked up with a local tour guide, who was familiar with local customs, e.g. that you need to carry a branch when walking from one village to another as a sign of peace. He organized for us a visit to a men's house.

In another village the chief and his son (who had a cell phone) showed us how they build a canoe. The son payed a lot of attention to what his father had to say about his culture. This is the only way customs will survive from one to the next generation. The chief allowed us the get a citrus fruit from a tree Ging-Gong. This was the perfect opportunity to part from my original Swiss Army knife that I handed over to a stunned chief.

Zermatt

This year, the goal was to visit many medieval castles on the way to Zermatt. The first destination was Gruyère, where the famous Swiss cheese comes from. On top of the hill as a part of the old part of town is the HR. Giger museum and the HR Giger bar, both are quite an experience if you want to know what aliens are.

The next stop was Chateaux Chillon, that is built on the shore of lake Geneva. It features a prison as well as a very well ventilated "bathroom".

Driving up the Wallis, we stopped in Sion where we walked up to both castles without water and our cadence dropped dramatically when we arrived parched at the second one, where we found refuge in the nicely tempered church.

Taking the rental car and drive up to Grimentz must be a challenge for anyone who didn't grow up in the side valley. The streets are narrow and very windy with normal dump trucks, that hug the road as if the tires like staring down the embankment. We finally arrived at a village that is mostly still preserved and consists of wooden construction with a sun burned façade. Very quaint.

Our dinner was great with local specialties.

On the next day, we drove up to Zermatt, which is free of cars (nice!). Most people come here for hiking anyway and so it doesn't matter if you walk to the hotel from the train station. We were lucky and stayed in a hotel that had a very nice view of the Matterhorn. I truly was impressed with this mountain of all mountain. It is a peak that stands out with its famous bend and it looks stunning especially in the morning when there are no clouds.

A cable car took us up to the Little Matterhorn (3883m or 12740 feet), which is the highest place in Europe that can be reached with an aerial tram. From there you have an unobstructed view to the "real" Matterhorn and other 4000m high peaks.

The Gornergrat is our next site from where one can observe some of the highest peaks in the Alps. A cog railway leads up to the station on top of a ridge. The entire massif of Monte Rosa is in front of you and I cannot stress enough how impressive this is. 

Because it was such a beautiful day, we decided to hike down to the next station Riffelberg, where we hopped on the train down to Zermatt.

Turks and Caicos

After Palau, we were looking for a shorter flight to a dive destination and found Turks and Caicos, where we rented a condo, which was great because we could use the washer and dryer so that we always ended up having dry towels.

 

The sand on the beaches was very white and powdery and we usually were the only ones there. The locals raise conch, which is a mollusk or sea snail, in farms and we definitely had to try them. As with so many local "specialties", they were, guess what... special, and it turns out that I still prefer bread and cheese.

Be aware that traffic is on the "wrong" side and some of the dirt roads are very narrow and it takes some time to get used to passing on the "other" side.

Little Cayman

The Cayman Islands are located directly south of Cuba. As the name indicates, there are multiple islands that belong to this British Territory and Little Cayman is one of them. A small puddle jumper takes you there from Grand Cayman and that's why there is a weight limit. As a scuba diver there is not much weight left for some shorts and t-shirts and you're over the limit, especially when traveling with a underwater camera. Luckily, there is no dress code. 

The island is so small that you can take a bike ride around the island and don't forget to get a ice cold beer at the beach.

This solderfish or squirrelfish seems to be ready to defend its territory.

Swim throughs and turtles can be observed almost on every dive.

San Diego

What can be more exciting than a family reunion in May. That's why we went to San Diego to visit an ancient relative and his friends at the famous zoo.

The USS Midway cannot be overlooked and is one of the main attractions of San Diego. The floating museum is located a stone throw away from downtown. The aircraft carrier was born in 1945 and commissioned a week after the end of WWII. Designed as the lead ship of her class, not everything was perfect.

We were lucky and stayed at the Marriott instead of sharing a bunk on the carrier like so many navy members during the 47 years of service.

Orcas Island

We went to Orcas Island to do what exactly? You guessed it, watching orcas. It is a wonderful area with many islands. We stayed at the Kingfish Inn, directly on the harbor.

Spotting the whales popping up for air is easier said than done. The boat is moving and you just don't know where exactly they are surfacing and with a 200mm lens it's all a little guesswork. There are more than one pod that is swimming around and the captain did a very good job staying at a distance while allowing us to observe the whales movements.

From the boat we didn't just spot orcas, but also sea lions that were sun bathing.

Because we flew in and out of Seattle, we spent some time there and enjoyed the city at its best.