Tag: Cruise
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The Flat Fellas Visit Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands
#flatstanley #flathal #falklandislands The Falkland Islands have been a British Overseas Territory since 1833, but in 1982 Argentina tried to claim the Falkland Islands. This led to a 10 week war. Looking at the map, the Falkland Islands are close to Argentina… but that doesn’t mean the British didn’t send help when it was needed.
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Scenic Sailing In Antarctica Was Inspiring
#flathal # flatstanley #antarctica Antarctica is a continent with no First Nations or Indigenous people, no “natives” to stand up for it, protect it, and tell others about it. A program called Antarctica Ambassadors has been started for people who want to learn about Antarctica, and share that knowledge with others… are you interested? Flat…
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Is Tourism In Antarctica Good Or Bad?
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica This might sound like a simple question, but for us, it required a lot of thought. Flat Hal and Flat Stanley were invited to join an already planned trip, so they missed those initial discussions over a year ago. We chose to visit on a ship that would not offer landing options.…
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Scenic Cruising in Antarctica
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica Flat Hal and Flat Stanley had a fantastic last day of scenic cruising in Antarctica. When we first stepped outside to take photos it was snowing— leading to interesting attempts to get the camera to focus on the white landscape and animals with a lot of white in them. The sun came…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley Saw an Albatross
#flathal #flatstanley #antarctica Samuel Coleridge Taylor wrote a story called “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” It left such an impression on readers that people started using the expression “an albatross around his neck”. For a time, sailors viewed seeing an Albatross as a sign of bad luck, mostly because of this story, but now…
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Day 3 Antarctica Showed the Flat Fellas Another Side of Itself
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica Having seen moody and overcast, and bright, vibrant sunshine, day three offered dense fog and mist. For most of the day it seemed impossible to identify the horizon, the water bleeding into the mist. The flat Fellas spent part of the day looking through photographs we had already taken, and working on…
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A Fun & Cold Time Watching The Sun Set
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica The high of the day was only a little above freezing, and the temperature seemed to drop quickly with the sun, but the color didn’t just linger in the sky, it seemed to get more brilliant and interesting as the time passed. For most of an hour, maybe more the sky reflected…
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The Sunlight Gives Us A Blue Sky And A Blue Ocean
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica With help from Google’s Gemini AI:The sky’s blueness is primarily due to the scattering of light by air molecules. The ocean’s blueness is mainly due to the absorption of longer wavelengths of light by water molecules. While both involve the interaction of light with matter, how it happens is different.
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Day 2 Antarctica Showed Up Ready For Pictures!
#flatstanley #antarctica #flathal @hollandamericaline After showing us its moody side, Antarctica dazzled the flat fellas with endless expanses of ice, mountains, and the occasional wild animal. “A Colony of Gentoo Penguins to Port!” It was such an exciting announcement. The flat fellas joined other passengers in rushing to the rails of the ship. The scoured…
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Antarctica has its own color palette.
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica A place without fire engine red, except on man-made structures, this is a content that mixes blues with gray tones to create a unique landscape all its own. The blue ice here is like the blue ice in glaciers the world over, the bluer it is — as we understand it —…
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The Flat Fellas First Day In Antarctica
#flathal #flatstanley #antarctica The overcast weather seemed like it might be a bummer at first, but as we looked at our photos we realized it was highlighting the way the ice of Antarctica seemed to glow on the horizon. Our photos captured a moody tone, depicting the harsh conditions living here must entail. Flat Hal…
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Ushaia, Argentina, is often the last city travelers stop at before going to Antarctica.
#flathal #flatstanley #ushaia #argentina Just one reason it has been dubbed the End of the World.
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Chilean Skua on the way to Ushaia, Argentina
#flatstanley #flathal #chileanskua #argentina #ushaia Flat Hal and Flat Stanley tried to make the most of a “late” in the day arrival in Ushaia for a “short” call in port. The morning was spent sailing Glacier Alley. At 2 pm the ship arrived in Ushaia, with all aboard at 7:30. When sailing All Aboard is…
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Glacier Alley, Beagle Channel
#flathal #flatstanley #glacier #charlesdarwin This channel is named for the HMS Beagle. A ship that played an important role in exploration of the area.It is also the ship Charles Darwin traveled on. Imagine being on the HMS Beagle. The year is 1826, give or take… essentially 200 years ago. You do not have GPS, email,…
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Straits of Magellan
#flathal #flatstanley #straitsofmagellan #chile When Flat Hal and Flat Stanley first made a list of bodies of water they had sailed on this trip, they did it as a bit of a joke. How often does a cruise ship sail on a lake? A fresh water lake! When we think of cruise ships we think…
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Punta Arenas — the Flat Fellas went for a short walk
#flatstanley #flathal #puntaarenas #chile On the shuttle ride from the ship to the city center, to Plaza de Armas, Flat Hal and Flat Stanley had their eyes focused on everything we passed, looking for something to wander back to. Fortunately the square we were dropped at was a short distance from the shoreline where some…
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The Chilean Fjords
#flathal #flatstanley #fjords #chile That heading alone might take a moment. Do you know where Chile is? What a Fjord is? (Norway has Fjords too!) Two days sailing the Fjords of Chile showed the Flat Fellas dramatic mountains, some covered in snow, and two glaciers. How big is that glacier?The cruise ship in front of…
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Where in the world are the Flat Fellas?
#flathal #flatstanley #southamerica #chile Flat Hal and Flat Stanley are sailing from Puerto Chacobuco to Punta Arenas by way of a scenic cruising through the fjords of Chile. On the smaller map, we started at the northern most red pinpoint, sailed by the glaciers at the middle pinpoints in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, and…
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Coyhaique is the capital of both the Aysén Region and the Coyhaique province.
#flatstanley #flathal #coyhaique #chile Flat Hal and Flat Stanley learned that Chile has 16 regions… kind of like states in the U.S., or province/territories in Canada. In Chile, provinces are like counties in the United States, or municipalities/regional districts in Canada. Sometimes, when we are traveling, we encounter a word, or concept we know the…
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Puerto Chacabuco — a day of sightseeing
#flathal #flatstanley #chile #ghostlake Flat Hal and Flat Stanley got a bit distracted at our first stop on the tour. The guide intended for us to look and see if we spotted an animal that was native to the region and frequented the area. However, the lake itself offered something different, and magical when we…
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The Flat Fellas saw a lot of birds in Castro, Chiloe, Chile
#flathal #flatstanley #chile #birds And fortunately, today, we had the camera with a good optical zoom with us to try and capture some nice photos.
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley set out to see a UNESCO World Heritage Site
#flatstanley #flathal #UNESCO #Chiloe Have you ever heard of a UNESCO World Heritage Site? These are places that are considered to be of value to everyone around the world. When we asked Google’s Gemini AI about it, we received this beautiful phrase in the response: these sites represent the best of our planet’s cultural and…
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The Flat Fellas Visit Puerto Montt, Chile
#flathal #flatstanley #puertomontt #chile Flat Stanley joined Flat Hal for a leisurely walk on shore after a short tender ride over from the cruise ship. We talked in our previous journal about tenders. When the boat anchors a short way from land, some of the lifeboats are used to carry passengers to land. We have…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal decided to have another book club adventure!
#flatstanley #flathal #swissfamilyrobinson Sometimes it is fun to read a book at the same time a friend is reading the same book, then you can talk about it. Flat Hal was surprised by some of the things that happened in Swiss Family Robinson. The book was originally written in 1812, and people thought differently about…
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A walk around Robinson Crusoe Island
#flatstanley #flathal #islarobinsoncrusoe #chile Shortly after getting off the tender on Isla Robinson Crusoe I saw this large carved statue. It is in memory of Alexander Selkirk who was marooned on this island for four years. As Flat Hal and Flat Stanley explored the island they were struck by the variety of plants and flowers.…
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The Flat Fellas Visit Isla Robinson Crusoe
#flathal #flatstanley #islarobinsoncrusoe #chile Robinson Crusoe Island is the second largest island in the Juan Fernández Islands, west of South America, part of Chile. Why visit a small island with a population of 800? (With help from Gemini AI) The Juan Fernández Islands are a biodiversity hotspot with a high rate of endemism. Here’s a…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley are tryingto learn about Mammals…
#flathal #flatstanley #chile #sealion Specifically Seals vs. Sea Lions, how to tell them apart, and how to identify what these guys they spotted in San Antonio, Chile are — can you help? Is this the South American Sea Lion? Why do the flat fellas think they saw the South American Sea Lion? There are a…
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Kelp Gull in San Antonio, Chile
#flatstanley #flathal #chile #kelpgull Flat Hal and Flat Stanley thought we were photographing two different types of Sea Gulls, but it turned out these are all Kelp Gulls, the difference in the color of their feathers comes from whether or not they are an adult. The flat fellas had fun this afternoon watching the giant…
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San Antonio, the port city for Santiago, Chile
#flatstanley #flathal #chile Flat Hal was amused when he discovered he and Flat Stanley were visiting San Antonio. That’s the name of a city “not far” from home in Texas. Have you ever looked up your city name to see if there are other towns with the same name in other states/provinces or countries? According…
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70th Meridian West, a little time zone help, please?
#flathal #flatstanley #map #70thmeridianwest #chile Find the 70th meridian west on a map… meridian is another word for longitude, so we are looking for a line going up over and around the height of the Earth. (In our previous journal we talked about how longitude lines are long, and latitudes have attitude and wrap the…
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Christo de la Concordia de Arica – Christ of Peace (or Harmony) of Arica, Chile
#flatstanley #flathal #arica #chile #statue If you have ever seen a movie with scenes in the city of Rio de Janeiro then you have probably seen the statue known as Christ the Redeemer. It is huge, and stands atop a mountain overlooking Rio. Movies use something called an “establishing shot” a brief image to let…
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Birds Near the Cruise Ship Pier in Arica, Chile
#flathal #flatstanley #arica #chile #birding Gray Gull, Franklin’s Gull and Laughing Gull were all out in the water, can you help us identify which is which? Who do you “flock together” with? Do your friends play sports together? Other types of games? What do you enjoy doing together?
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Birds of a Feather Flock Together
#flatstanley #flathal #birds This expression has been running through my head a lot recently. Flat Hal and Flat Stanley have seen flocks of birds in flight, hanging out in the water, and relaxing in the sun on our mooring lines, and often there are a LOT of the same type of bird, then out of…
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The Flat Fellas visited a vineyard, and saw grapes on the vine
#flathal #flatstanley #vineyard #peru #grapes #pisco An important question to ask before eating a grape off the vine is what color are these when they are ripe. As Flat Hal and Flat Stanley discovered these will be purple in March (a month after they saw them) when they are ripe. As we can see they…
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Playa Roja,the Red Sand Beach at Paracas National Reserve
#flathal #flatstanley #peru #redsandbeach The sand is stained red from the volcanic activity in the region, as best we understood, giving the beach a different look than the white sand beaches we are used to seeing. The flat fellas found the red of the sand easier to see from the hillside where we took these…
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Some of the birds the flat fellas saw at Paracas National Reserve
#flatstanley #flathal #birding #paracasnationalreserve #peru The Eurasian Whimbrel really didn’t want to pose for photos, but a few of them were around. The American Oystercatcher putthat beak of his right into the sand when he saw something tasty!And the Peruvian Booby hanging out with a friend.
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Apachetas & Paracas National Reserve
#flathal #flatstanley #apachetas #peru Stacked stones left by previous visitors to Paracas National Reserve Here’s a breakdown of what Apachetas are and their significance: Meaning and Significance of Apachetas: Sacred Offerings: Apachetas are traditionally built as offerings to Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the Apus (mountain spirits) in Andean cultures. They are a sign of respect…
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Paracas National Reserve near Puerto General San Martin, Peru
#flatstanley #flathal #peru #paracasnationalreserve Flat Hal and Flat Stanley explored Paracas National Reserve When we saw Puerto General San Martin on the itinerary we weren’t sure what to expect. The nearby town of Paracas has a population of 2,000 which may not sound like a place with a lot of interesting sights for tourists, but…
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Here’s a quick vocabulary list for a tourist in Peru:
#flathal #flatstanley #spanish Polite Phrases:Hola: HelloBuenos días: Good morningBuenas tardes: Good afternoon/eveningBuenas noches: Good nightPor favor: PleaseGracias: Thank youDe nada: You’re welcomeLo siento: I’m sorryCon permiso: Excuse me (to pass)Perdón: Excuse me (to get attention) Basic Questions/Requests:¿Cuánto cuesta?: How much does it cost?¿Dónde está…?: Where is…?¿Habla inglés?: Do you speak English?No entiendo: I don’t understandUn…
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Callao, Peru – next to Lima
Flat Hal and Flat Stanley had a fun day in the port city of Callao. LOTS of freighters were loading and unloading, including one designed to transport cars. It is shaped a lot like a cruise ship, but doesn’t have windows, and lowered something that looked a lot like a castle’s drawbridge so cars could…
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Peru is Flat Hal and Flat Stanley’s second country in the Southern Hemisphere this trip!
#flatstanley #flathal #southernhemisphere We were so excited about the Panama Canal that Flat Hal and Flat Stanley didn’t journal about crossing the equator a few hours before we arrived in Manta, Ecuador. (The Captain predicted we would cross the equator around midnight, but none of us stayed up to watch the map and see exactly…
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The Chimú and Chan Chan
#flathal #flatstanley #chanchan #trujillo Flat Hal and Flat Stanley again opted to let others do the walking for them, and given not just the size of Chan Chan, but the labyrinth style layout, that was probably a good idea. Chan Chan is referred to as the Home of the Elite, the King and Queen of…
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Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru — Like Walking Back In Time
#flathal #flatstanley #peru #trujillo Flat Hal and Flat Stanley ventured away from the port area near Salaverry, Peru, where the ship docked to see some incredible sites dating back to the time of the Moche people. The Moche lived in the region before the Inca. The Moche built ‘huaca del sol y la luna’ the…
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Manta, Ecuador — a big city in every way
#flatstanley #flathal #manta #ecuador Manta, like Panamá City, felt like a BIG city, but where Panama City seemed to be full of skyscrapers lining the coast as far as the eye could see, Manta had more of a sprawl to it. (Then again, Panama City has 4 times the population.) República del Ecuador, A Presidential…
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Manta, Ecuador — a day when a little reality intruded on the flat fellas adventuring
#flatstanley #flathal #manta #ecuador With a population of just over 1/4 million people, Manta, Ecuador, turned out to be a good place for quite a few passengers to go looking for things we had realized in the past week and a half we forgot to bring with us, or simply wished we had. There is…
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Panama City, Panama— the Nation’s Capital
#flathal #flatstanley #panama #government Both Panama and the United States are presidential representative democratic republics. That doesn’t mean they have the exact same types of governments, but we can take our knowledge of the United States government to help us understand the government of Panama. Both have a President. Both have a legislative branch elected…
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Panama — Flat Hal and Flat Stanley made the most of their day ashore
#flatstanley #flathal #panama From a beautiful sunrise, to the Flat Fellas joining some friends for a tasty lunch on shore, our day was full of fun, laughter, making memories and discoveries. Including seeing trees growing out of the side of a building!
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The flat fellas spent a couple hours walking around Casco Viejo
#flatstanley #flathal #panama #cascoviejo The old quarter of Panama City dates back to 1673. It is easy to believe, simply by looking around this part of the city, that Catholicism is the most common religion as we saw a lot of beautiful churches that clearly had a long history. These churches were just a 5…
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Panama City, Panama — the flat fellas first time ashore in Panama
Flat Hal and Flat Stanley were excited when the ship docked at Fuerte Amador, only to discover that it may be part of Panama City, but it is a long walk from most of the places they hoped to see. The ship came out of the Panama Canal into the Gulf of Panama — we’ve…
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Certificates for transiting the Panama Canal
#flathal #flatstanley #panamacanal One of the fun things about a trip like we are currently on is getting to collect certificates that serve as keepsakes to remind us of doing something special and momentous. Flat Hal and I had never been through the Panama Canal before? Had Flat Stanley? Several friends we are traveling with…
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Birds flying around the Panama Canal
#flathal #flatstanley #birding #panama #panamacanal It might sound silly, but it seemed like there were different birds at the Caribbean side of the canal vs. the Pacific side. Just 75 miles apart, we sailed it in less than 10 hours, but Flat Stanley and Flat Hal saw more Brown Pelicans than they could easily count…
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The Flat Fellas Sail the Panama Canal
#flathal #flatstanley #panama #panamacanal Considered by some to be a man-made wonder of the modern world, on par with the CN tower in Toronto, the Empire State Building in New York, or the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Panama Canal dramatically cut the distance ships had to sail from the North Pacific Ocean…
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Costa Rica… just a few of the flowers we saw…
an amazing number were familiar from the South Pacific trip. How many can you identify? #flatstanley #flathal #costarica
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Costa Rica covers only about 0.03% of the Earth’s landmass but contains approximately 5-6% of the world’s biodiversity!
#flathal #flatstanley #costarica #limon #biodiversity Limon offered Flat Hal and Flat Stanley the chance to discover new plants, animals, and more alongside things they discovered on our trip to the South Pacific. They saw the lipstick plant before, and marveled at the shape and color of what grew on it, having no idea until they…
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Sloths! The Flat Fellas see a Sloth on the Move in Costa Rica!
#flathal #flatstanley #costarica #sloth Flat Hal and Flat Stanley got to see a Sloth on the move! We wanted to share a little about them, in case you aren’t familiar with the sloth, so we asked Gemini AI for some help, it offered: These slow-moving mammals are tree-dwelling animals that live in the rainforests of…
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The Flat Fellas in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
#FlatHal #flatstanely #CostaRica #PuertoLimon #Cacao Located on the Caribbean Sea, Puerto Limon provided Costa Rica with a shorter more direct shipping route to Spain and England before the Panama Canal was built, when Costa Rica was shipping their exports from the Pacific Ocean side of the country. Cacao (the all important ingredient for chocolate,) and…
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Santa Marta, Colombia… where in the world are the flat fellas?
#flathal #flatstanley #colombia #santamarta The population of Santa Marta, Colombia is approximately 555,030 as of 2023. As a country, Colombia has a population of just over 53 million people, with around 7 million of them living in/near the capital city of Bogota. Have you heard of the country of Colombia? Do you know what part…
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Santa Marta, Colombia… doing a little homework before we arrive.
#flathal #flatstanley #santamarta #colombia Colombia is a unitary presidential republic.The United States has a federal presidential constitutional republic. On the surface these sound very similar, but upon further investigation it looks like some of the differences are in where the checks and balances on the President are, how much of a role the Vice-President plays,…
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Larimar – Blue Stone native to the Dominican Republic
#flathal #flatstanley #larimar #dominicanrepublic An oversimplification of Geology is to say it is the study of rocks. Some of us notice cool rocks we see. Whether it is because they are unusual compared to others nearby, or because nature has polished them smooth through years of wear and tear. In the Dominican Republic I saw…
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Flat Fellas Visit Santo Domingo
#flathal #flatstanley #santodomingo #dominicanrepublic Santo Domingo is the capital of The Dominican Republic – a representative democracy. Our day there involved walking around a beautiful harbor area with small parks to relax in, seeing some trees we had never seen before (Cook Pine and Traveler’s tree or Traveler’s Palm), and at sail out spotting a…
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The Flat Fellas first port of call is Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic
#flatstanley #flathal #dominicanrepublic #santodomingo Located on Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic shares the island with Haiti. Both countries have ports cruise ships visit, today we visited Santo Domingo. We docked within sight of Punta Torrecilla, a lighthouse, about a mile from the old town. Facing the sea is an…
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Fort Lauderdale, Florida —Departing on an epic journey!
#flatstanley #flathal #florida #cruise Do you and your friends ever “jinx” one another? Jinxing is a little like superstitions. Being concerned if you do something, or say something, it will have negative consequences. In this case Flat Hal has been trying not to jinx himself by referring to this trip in a way that implies…
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Traveling again…or should we sing “on the road again”?
Flat Hal and Flat Stanley are off on another adventure. (#flatstanley #flatstanleyproject #flathal #hollandamerica #volendam) The last one was called Tales of the South Pacific, and they lost count of how many islands they visited in the region, though they sure had fun discovering capitals! This trip is called “Pole to Pole”. For the second…
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The cruise is over… and it feels like we covered a lot of ocean — how far did the Flat Fellas travel?
San Diego, California to Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawaii: ~2,200 nautical miles Nawiliwili, Kauai to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii: ~230 nautical miles Kailua-Kona to Honolulu, Oahu: ~90 nautical miles Honolulu, Oahu to Kahului, Maui: ~95 nautical miles Kahului, Maui to Hilo, Hawaii: ~125 nautical miles Hilo, Hawaii to Fanning Island, Kiribati: ~1,200 nautical miles Fanning Island to Pago Pago,…
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Flowers the Flat Fellas saw in San Diego
Gazania, aka Treasure Flower.Evergreen CandytuftRose — a beautiful, tight budDay Lily Flower Names… Identifying plants can be hard enough, but many plants have not only a complex sounding scientific name, but also common names – plural. A flower man be known as a bluebonnet in Texas and a Lupin elsewhere for instance. The flat fellas…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley made the most of traveling with a digital camera
Before digital cameras not only was photography a more expensive hobby than it is now, but the time between taking a picture and seeing that picture was longer by a difficult to comprehend magnitude. Not only did you not see the picture within minutes of taking it, but there was a time when a family…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley saw Tikis in Nuku Hiva
When we asked Gemini AI to help us if we had indeed seen Tikis, and more about them, this is what we read: A Tiki is a human-like figure that’s an important part of Polynesian culture and history. Here’s a simple explanation: Origins: Tikis represent gods, ancestors, or important figures. They were often worshipped and…
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The Flat Fellas went sightseeing in Fakarava
One of the things Flat Stanley and Flat Hal enjoyed on our walk aroundFakarava was the simple joy of recognizing some of the things we saw afteressentially a week in French Polynesia paired with the fun of continuing todiscover new things. Do you recognize these birds that seemed to behaving a staring contest on the…
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Fakarava, the Flat Fellas learned how Coconut trees start
Coconut trees come from coconuts! It sounds so simple when you type it or say it, but seeing a coconut sprouting by the side of the road was somewhat magical. Flat Hal found it as hard to believe as I did, so we asked Gemini AI just what was going on in the picture we…
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Fakarava – a long flat hike to a unique lighthouse
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal rode the tender to shore, then walked along the coast. First we headed away from the airport, and saw a lot of fantastic flowers and coconut trees. Then we turned back the way we had come from, went back to where we had started, and kept going. In all we…
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Why did the Flat Fellas and I spend so much time on plants and flowers?
It is a fair question to ask. Taking pictures of birds and flowers is a good way for us to learn. I wanted to be better at knowing the names of plants, flowers and birds when I see them. I also wanted to be aware of the plants and birds I saw that don’t live…
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A tour around the island of Tahiti with Flat Stanley and Flat Hal
Captain Cook visited Tahiti several times, and one of the places we visited had several monuments, including one to him, and one related to the Mutiny on the Bounty. Do you know about Captain Cook? The ship The Bounty? Their stories have captured the imaginations of generations, and are one of the reasons Tahiti is…
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The Flat Fellas visited another national capital together – do you know what city it is?
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have visited Pago Pago, Suva, Nuku’alofa andAvarua (do you remember which country each of those cities is the capitalof?) the cruise has now brought us to the capital of French Polynesia, Papeete. Walking around Papeete we stopped by the city hall, where a major functionwas going on. We also tried…
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Moorea, the flowers and sights of this French Polynesian island
This was our first sighting of a Greater Crested Tern, and the pineapple and bananas were surprisingly interesting to photograph. The top of the pineapple can be planted to start a new plant, but it will take about 5 years for it to produce any pineapple. They showed us at the base of the pineapples…
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Moorea in Focus – an afternoon spent photographing a beautiful island in the South Pacific
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal stayed in the backpack while their photographer tried to up their game and learn some new tricks. A professional photographer led a tour in Moorea, showing us some of their favorite places to take photos on the island, and offering tips and advice for getting visually interesting photos. One of…
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Huahine – the sunrise was a brilliant forecast of the day to come
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have been setting an alarm to get up to see the sun rise on as many mornings as possible during our trip. Some mornings that has been as early as 4:45 am. Today, at 4:55, when the alarm went off very little light was slipping beneath the curtains into our cabin. It felt…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have been sharing pictures with our fellow travelers
There are lots of wonderful things about going on a cruise. One of them is meeting our fellow passengers, sharing experiences and excursions… and photos from our days, whether they are spent together or apart. Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have not only been putting our photographs in this journal, but we have also been sharing…
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Bora Bora birds… Flat Stanley and Flat Hal recognized the birds we saw!
When we first started this trip we would not have been able to gesture to the most of the birds and ask one another “is that a….?” and insert the correct name. However, as we walked around Bora Bora we recognized a Pacific Reef Heron, a Brown Noddy, a Zebra Dove, and some pigeons (also known…
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The Leeward Islands, part of The Society Islands in French Polynesia
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal had a good time walking around Uturoa, Raiatea, French Polynesia. It was a very warm day, with an occasional breeze that almost cooled us off. The Society Islands include the Leeward and Windward Islands… names that are interesting. With a little help from AI to understand better, The names “Windward” and “Leeward”…
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Uturoa, Raiatea, French Polynesia – Flat Stanley and Flat Hal saw some new birds, along with some familiar ones
This was the first port in a while when the flat fellas noticed a flock of pigeons. Pigeons seem to be everywhere back home in Texas, according to Flat Hal, but for the past few ports the Common Myna bird seemed to be taking their place.
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Good-bye Cook Islands, next stop the Island Nation of…
Our next stop is visible on the included map. The map shows Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands, all of which we have visited, as well as marking our path towards our next port of call. We are headed East / North East. We have several stops planned at various ports that are in the…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal tried to find a $3 note and a $2 coin in the Cook Islands
The Cook Islands have their own currency. However, they also accept the New Zealand dollar at a 1 to 1 exchange rate, or equal value, and the New Zealand dollar felt like it was the currency most people were using. As a result, trying to get a Cook Islands $3 note (otherwise known as a…
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Avarua, so many flowers to see as we walked this peaceful community’s streets
Our ship arrived in Avarua on a Sunday. The majority of businesses were closed, and families were enjoying the day together, relaxing, swimming at the beach, enjoy ice cream, and generally seeming minimally aware nearly 2,000 people had come to see their island home. Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands… everywhere we turned there were more flowers,…
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Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands – the flat fellas visited another capital!
When we got back to the ship Flat Stanley and Flat Hal were surprised to discover we had been in another Capital city. Our tender dropped us off in Avatiu Harbor. On shore we flipped a coin and walked to the left – mostly because we were told the airport was to our right. The airport sounded less…
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Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands – A relaxing community to walk around and enjoy the tropical sunshine
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal might not worry much about sunburns, but they travel with someone who does. Today we spent a lot of time finding shade as we walked beneath a powerful mid-day sun to see what this charming community had to offer. We found incredibly kind locals, children swimming, playing and enjoying ice…
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Aitutaki Flowers — a rose by any other name… is just as pretty
Do you recognize the quote I was inspired by? Can you get it right, & know who wrote it? Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have taught me a LOT about birds and flowers this trip. Among other things, the way I look at the world around me is changing. I look up in to the…
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The birds of Aitutaki- at least the ones our cameras saw
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have seen the Common Myna bird so many times now that he just barely rated a picture, and not a pretty pose to share in our journal with friends. The Pacific Plover is one we are still learning to recognize, so he got a photo, along with new-to-us (though similar…
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Aitutaki… The Cook Islands, did you guess this island nation was our next stop?
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal had a fantastic time at their first stop in The Cook Islands. The water here is amazing, it is different colors based on the depth, if there are coral reefs beneath the water, etc, so it has a variety of colors spread out in an amazing display. The population of…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal crossed an invisible line and get to repeat a day!
The flat fellas crossed the international dateline, and returned to the Western Hemisphere. Instead of changing their clocks one hour forward, or backward, we moved the entire calendar one day backward and get to repeat yesterday. The International Dateline is typically referred to as being at 180 degrees longitude… but when I asked Gemini AI to…
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Tonga is behind the flat fellas, where to next?
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have been to the Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. Where to next? They are staying in the South Pacific, north of the Tropic of Capricorn… and (unsurprisingly) headed for another island. Where do you think the next stop might be? It only seems fair to give a hint: Vava’u, Tonga…
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Part of traveling is embracing unexpected changes in plans
It is very rare for everything on a trip to go the way it was planned. Whether a flight is delayed, a port is missed, or the ship needs to stay longer than planned in a port for one reason or another, part of traveling is learning how to roll with these unexpected changes. Some travelers…
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Vava’u, Tonga shared their culture and community with Flat Stanley and Flat Hal
Many of the ports Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have visited on their cruise have welcomed the passengers with local music, dance, residents in native dress sharing a glimpse of a life different than ours back home and taking time to talk with us and make us feel not just welcome in their community, but…
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Some of the birds in Tonga made an appearance for our cameras…
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal are good sports about respecting the personal space of wild animals, even when we wish we could get closer for better photo opportunities. The birds in Fiji seemed to master the art of blending in with the trees, and staying well away from the sun and heat, but a few…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal visited the capital of Tonga!
This is the fourth capital the flat fellas have visited since we left Texas. Can you list the four? In the past four weeks, Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have made their way to four unique capitals in the Pacific: Honolulu, Hawai’i; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Suva, Fiji; and Nuku’alofa, Tonga. While all are capitals,…
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Learning to be polite, the local way, when you travel…
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have learned a few words from the locals at each of our stops. With a little help from Gemini AI here is a table that shows several words we have learned, words that are wonderful to learn anywhere you travel. Here is how to say hello, goodbye and thank you in…
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SOLAS – Safety Of Life At Sea
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal mustered again… this cruise is over 30 days, and it was time for a little reality to come in to our vacation. Here is an explanation, with some help from Gemini AI for why Cruise ships conduct safety drills every 30 days, there are a few important reasons: It’s the…
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Savusavu Fiji turned in to a day of rainbows for Flat Stanley and Flat Hal
The day started with a rainbow peeking out amidst the sunrise, and ended with a huge rainbow ending in our wake. To some we may have looked like the cruise ship at the end of the rainbow. In between, a rainbow appeared between our ship and one of the islands we were anchored off of —…
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Savusavu, Fiji — even on rainy and foggy days there are new discoveries to be made
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal started their day in Savusavu, Fiji before the ship arrived by seeing the sunrise— but that glimpse of a rainbow above Flat Hal was a warning of rain to come, not just a celebration of the rain that had already fallen. Since the flat fellas don’t do well in water…
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Dravuni Island, Fiji – where the locals teach visitors how to take life as it comes
Part of the magic of Dravuni Island is the people who live here. Children who are not in school move about Dravuni Island with a freedom and joy like the entire community is their playground. Any adult appears willing to lend a hand, and seems to have one eye on what they are doing, the other on…
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Seen while in Lautoka, Fiji
Flat Hal’s home doesn’t have a $7 bill, does yours? Coccinia grandis, the ivy gourd, also known as scarlet gourd Phainopepla, the silky flycatchers Rhizophora mangle, also known as the red mangrove Euphorbia tithymaloides has a large number of household names used by gardeners and the public. Among them are redbird flower, devil’s-backbone Pride of…
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Lautoka, Fiji – where trees can survive in salty water, and Flat Stanley and Flat Hal visited the Western Regional Library
The flat fellas stopped in at the Library and dropped off a copy of Flat Stanley’s original book along with an explanation of the Flat Stanley project, and Flat Hal’s url FlatHal.xyz so they can catch up online… and start following along on the adventures. These two guys have traveled a long distance together. They’ve…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal on a 1.4 mile piggyback ride through the tropical rainforest at Colo-I-Suva Forest Park
Honestly, the Flat Fellas had the right idea. Piggyback ride is how I wish I had gone, but instead I carried our Flat Friends over rugged terrain on a challenging, and beautiful hike through the rainforest. There were times when the trail was narrow, and steep, but it ended in a natural pool everyone had…
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Samoa and American Samoa are on different sides on the International Date Line.
Samoa is on the same side as Australia and New Zealand. America Samoa is on the ‘other side’ with Hawaii and the rest of the United States. Have you traveled somewhere and changed your clocks because you crossed in to another time zone? Imagine, instead of moving the time just one hour or two,…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal saw the Great Frigatebird flying and playing near the pier in Pago Pago
Watching these birds in flight was positively delightful. There were times they were gliding on the wind, having positioned their wings such that they were almost impossible to find against the water, as if they were blending in with it. We found an informative webpage about them at: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Magnificent_Frigatebird/lifehistory and are sure there are other sites…
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the difference between Eastern and Western Samoa, a U.S. Territory vs. a Commonwealth member country
Flat Stanley is from Canada, a country that is part of the British Commonwealth, like Samoa. Flat Hal is from Texas, part of the United States… but Texas is a State, where American Samoa is a U.S. Territory. We decided to see if Artificial Intelligence could help us understand what the differences were for the people…
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Pago Pago, American Samoa… it’s not a state, but it is a U.S. Territory
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal had a full day in Pago Pago. First stop was the Visitors Bureau, a great place to get a map and some local information. It was there we saw this plaque explaining how long the island has been a U.S. Territory. (https://www.americansamoa.travel/) The National Park of American Samoa is part…
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Halloween At Sea — the ship is not haunted, but the passengers get up to tricks & treats
Flat Stanley didn’t pack a costume, so he borrowed one of Flat Hal’s shirts and dressed up as him, and Flat Hal dressed up as Flat Stanley! Halloween at sea varies by ship, and passenger. Some decorate, some passengers offer candy at the doors for trick or treaters, and many people bring costumes with them…
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Kona — the big island
There is a LOT to see and do in Hawaii. On our day in Kona we walked around, enjoyed the warm weather, the sun was hot against our skin (except for the people who went further from the harbor and got rained on), and the waves crashed against the shore and splashed up on to…
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Nawiliwili, Kauai – flowers and birds
Flat Hal and Flat Stanley went in to my backpack and my camera (as opposed to my cellphone) came out, and I started taking pictures of flowers and birds. Often, when I travel, I get to see flowers and birds that don’t grow or live near my home. (These are Plumeria for example) This is…
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Hawaii!
Did you figure out our first stop was going to be Hawaii? There are websites where you can follow the daily progress of a cruise ship. This is one way my friends and family can “follow along” when I travel. In this second map you can see the Hawaiian Islands, and San Diego… we had…
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Another day at sea — do you know where we are sailing towards?
There are several places a cruise ship can go to from San Diego, can you think of some of the possibilities? We could be heading North. We could be sailing South… or even going on a cruise through a Canal. After catching the end of a pretty sunset tonight Flat Stanley, Flat Hal and I…
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Sea Day! A fun way to spend a day traveling
Flat Stanley has bumped in to some old acquaintances on our trip, and he and Flat Hal having been making new friends. There is lots of stuff to do on a ship… There are places to play games, with new friends, or those you are traveling with. Or you can find a book to read. …
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All Aboard! Flat Stanley and Flat Hal are taking a cruise!
There are many ways to travel. Planes, Trains and Automobiles used to be the answer for most people… but more and more are going out on boats, and taking cruises on ships. Flat Stanley and Flat Hal headed straight for an outside deck after boarding in San Diego to get a view of the Harbor. A…