Globe Trotting

So. We spent the last four weeks traveling around the world...

On the way to the USA, we had a ten hour layover in Johannesburg, arriving just in time to watch the lions feed at Lion's Park :-)

cheetahs are my favorite and they have the cutest babies in the world!!

Next, we had 5 hours to wait in both London and Chicago...and finally we arrived in Traverse City, Michigan, where my parents drove us another hour by car to their forest home. The whole trip took us about two and a half days. A variety of critters were waiting to welcome Richard to the USA...

Charlie!!!

some doggies

wolves

some baby bears

wild turkeys

elk

a bunny

...and many little chipmunks!

We had the best time with my parents, grilling hotdogs, roasting s'mores, kayaking down rivers, climbing through forests.

We drove up to Mackinac Island...it's this little dot situated between the upper and lower peninsulas that make up the state of Michigan. You have to take a ferry to get there and they don't allow cars on the island, making it a very peaceful little hideout. We took a carriage tour around town and stopped off at the most beautiful butterfly garden I've ever visited!! 

I realize that this is probably a few too many butterfly pictures for this post but look how pretty!!!!!!

 We had the best time celebrating Sue's 60th birthday! The day started out with key lime martinis and it only got better from there:

...especially when Vader stopped by.

In the middle of all of this forest fun, we drove down to Detroit and stayed with my incredibly generous little cousins, Bob and Ash. Bob, a Marine infantry war vet, (read: real American boy) quickly took Richard under his wing and introduced him to things like golf, shooting guns, Taco Bell, and drinking too much beer with his buddies the night before a flight to California.

a new special bromance was created.

Aunts and uncles joined us to take Richard to the batting cages and mini golf, followed by an All-American day of baseball...

the coolest kids.

...annnnd we lost, but we still had an amazing time. 

The next day, we caught a flight to visit another branch of the family tree in Santa Cruz, California. The last time I saw my cousin Jen, I was about five years old, so I was kind of nervous to "meet" her again and her family. Jen and her husband Brendan found us, and within seconds I felt at ease, like I had known them this whole time :-) 

Our California adventures entailed a day at the boardwalk; riding rides and eating fried food (p.s. garlic french fries?!? omg. amazing.) Hiking through the redwood forests, beach volleyball, surfing in the pool, and hanging out with some sea lions. The kids taught Richard about peanut butter (and peanut butter s'mores!) and he taught them a little bit about Reunion Island. I think it was a fair trade. Everything was just perfect!

Jen and Brendan

Surf assist!

The sheer size of these trees seriously just takes your breath away.

Three of the most polite, interesting, and well-behaved kids I've ever met!!

The last week of vacation we spent back with my parents, buying a million things you can't find on Reunion Island and trying to fit them all in suitcases. In the end...we had seven bags with us and some kind of guardian angel because we didn't end up having to pay for ANY of the bags!?!? I have no idea how that happened, but I wasn't going to start asking around.

After a particularly heartbreaking goodbye to my family and to Charlie, we set off on our second three day tour back around the world. This time our long layover was in London. We hopped over to visit Ben, strolled along the River Thames, headed to a Covent Garden pub for fish and chips, and that was about all we could handle. Neither of us slept on the flight in from Chicago and I was so tired my head was numb.

Sadly it only got worse, and soon we found ourselves sitting in the airplane for two hours STILL waiting to leave London for some unknown reason, and I'm of course stuck in a middle seat next to an overweight lady who is already snoring. By the time we arrived in Johannesburg, eleven hours after finally taking off (still no sleep) I was a frazzled, crying mess. All I can remember saying is " I am NEVER making this trip straight through again!!!!" There might have also been a lot of bitching about why we have to live on the other side of the world...but you know, I was tired and the memories are slightly hazy.

I read once that jet lag is much worse when you're traveling East. At first I thought that I was always so excited to be home that I didn't notice it in the US, but now I'm definitely seeing a pattern. I'm knocked out for at least a week every time I come back to Reunion.

So. Today, I'm taking it slow...because tomorrow it's back to the airport for a new adventure...Madagascar!!

The Lava Tunnels (and other tales)

Piton de la Founaise is currently the world's 4th most active volcano. The last eruption was in 2010, which Richard defines as "small," because it only lasted for two days. Comparatively, the eruption that started in August 2006 didn't stop for five months. After an eruption, everything is a big mess because the lava basically just doesn't care. It takes out roads, burns buildings...and no one can do anything about it until it cools down and hardens.

One day, someone was stumbling around a dried lava field from the eruption of 2004 and discovered underground tunnels. Currently, these tunnels are toured more or less in secret because they are super dangerous (the vapors inside make you pretty light headed, and also they technically could collapse at any given time...) Richard's company had a little field trip with an official tunnel guide last year...so he felt qualified enough to take us there himself. 

First, we had to find the secret opening, which took us a while. 

That mountain in the background is Piton de la Fournaise, the volcano.

And then...

We found it! Richard lead the way...

Richard explained many things about lava and cooling and tunnels forming and stalagmites and stalactites. I'll summarize all of this for you by saying that the tunnels and everything inside of them were formed by science.

So in we went.

The "ceiling." Richard claims it looks like chocolate.

These little holes used to be trees...the lava formed around them and then the poor tree just burned away.

They say this one looks like a shark head.

And this one looks like a Dodo bird. Valerie pointed out ironically that these are kind of the two "symbols" of Reunion Island...

Starting to get hard to breathe...

 After the lava tunnels, we headed to a nearby forest for a picnic.

There were little groups of picnickers everywhere; many of them were drumming and singing Maloya, one of Reunion's traditional music styles. It was amazing. 

Today's little excursion was actually the latest in a string of outdoor adventures. I promised myself I'd start exploring more...and the cool thing about Reunion is that there are no scary/poisonous beings lurking anywhere, which makes random exploring very stress free.

Earlier this week, we visited the "Savannah" as Richard likes to call it:

   

And the weekend before that, it was the "forbidden" 3 Basins of St. Gilles. No one really knows why they are forbidden, but you have to climb through a hole in the fence to get to them. After that, you have to traverse through watery tunnels, tightrope over cliffs, run through canyons, and climb over downed trees. Oh. I suppose maybe that's why it's forbidden...but it is sooo worth it...

  

little bird home

This guy was kind of pissed at me for seeing through his branch disguise.

I loved this place so much that I came back a few days later on my own, while Richard was at work. My mission was to find the 3rd basin, which we hadn't been able to find the last few times we went.

Mission accomplished. I think it's the best one too :-) It's surrounded by the biggest bamboo forest I've ever seen!! 

Later, I found this secluded little corner in the back and hid out for a while.
I made friends with a tiny gray mouse and an orange butterfly :-) 

On the way back I met this little guy. He kind of freaks me out. Let's just pretend he's a nice tree guardian. 

Ok!! So now I'm ready for some new adventures in the USA!!!! 

ONLY 7 MORE DAYS!!!