January 19, 2025

VALPARAISO, CHILE 

Sunday January 12th we pulled into Valparaiso, Chile for 2 days. This town is known for its vibrant street art, which is everywhere and truly mask some of the depression seen through out the downtown. Nine of us set off on a walking tour of the highlights. The town is built into the side of the hills looking down over the harbor. Teenagers Lucia and Alionia were the perfect models to highlight the artwork for me, it also kept it fresh for them. 

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Snack of Chocolate covered Strawberries. Yummy!

Praying for an Eagles wild card win later in the day!

 Plaza Sotomayor had the Memorail for fallen soldiers and several government buildings & local crafters & artist.

Street Artist at work!

More street art!

Piano stairs - this one stop we spent alot of time trying to capture the best shot. By time Scott did his version we had 5 directors! LOL!

HONIARA, SOLOMON ISLANDS

By Patricia Patrick • November 16, 2025
Another great day exploring the South Pacific ! Today as soon as our ship docked in Honiara , and we were cleared by customs, I was off with 9 other residents, to get in 2 small speed boats and head out to Simon's Nature Reserve in the Solomon Islands . It was about an hour long ride across the Iron Bottom Sound but so worth it to experience this special place!

ALOTAU, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

By Patricia Patrick • November 14, 2025
Fun fact - Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the World! It is estimated that there are at least 826 Papuan languages. Some are spoken by just a handful of people, while others by 100,000. (Thanks - Basia & Wikipedia for sharing this information).

TULLY RIVER, WHITE WATER RAFTING, AUSTRALIA

By Patricia Patrick • November 12, 2025
Tully is a small sugar mill town about 2 hours south of Cairns and we traveled here with a group of about 20 other residents to go white water rafting in the Tully River at the Gorge in the National Park. It is the beginning of the wet season and the river was running at a high level, so the rapids were class 4 out of 5. We had some trepidation, but were excited for the adventure! OMG so much FUN!!