In mid January, our crew departed Mexico for a crazy two days of flying to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Becuse our flight fron Cancun was messed up we had to fly to Los Angeles via Washington DC. ( Check that on a map). We arrived bleary eyed at 3 am then attempted to locate our luggage which was mistakenly sent on the direct flight we originally had been booked on. The luggage was there but every one of our Canadian flag tags were removed from the bags??? Once we checked into our hotel we slept late and got ready for a longer flight to Rarotonga. Before we headed over to the airport, we stopped at a Denny's restaurant for a brunch. After two months in Mexico and eating their cuisine, the cholesterol fest that we experienced here was almost an embarassment to our common sense. Each meal was easily twice the size of a "normal" meal. Not one of us could eat all of our food. I thought about how many malnourished Mexican children our leftovers could have fed. Later we all felt upset stomachs from the influx of grease and overeating.
The flight left at 7 pm and took 14 hours. Along the way we deplaned in Tahiti for a short while then continued on to Rarotonga, where we arrived at 5 am. Here arrivals are not permitted through customs unless they have accomodations already arranged. A collection of guesthouses, hotels and packpackers hostels had booths ready to set up the necessary bookings. We stayed at Vara's, a jumble of buildings situated on Muri beach. This is one beautiful island! The kids all thought it looked like the setting for Jurassic Park, without the dinosaurs. The only thing that took a bite out of us here were the prices. It is a very expensive country, and uses New Zealand currency as well as some of its own. We stayed in the lower level of a house halfway up a mountain. The views of the countryside and ocean were fantastic. Near the end of our stay we learned how to pick, husk,and crack the coconuts found everywhere and were rewarded with bouts of diarrhea that persited for a number of days to follow. There were also chickens everywhere. Wild ones, that appeared as if by magic from the bushes and fields. Are they sacred? Do people not catch and eat these things? A few more days of price gouging would have definitely tempted us to help ourselves to this KFC breeding ground. Although the weather was very hot and humid we only had two rain free days during our 8 day stay. We rented a Suzuki 4X4 for three of those days and really had fun exploring the island's offerings. We found a great place to swim at a waterfall not far from our place. They also have a huge outdoor market on the weekends. We soon learned that ants were the nemesis of the tropics and any food left out was soon covered in them. Geckos provided some entertainment as well, as they were continually zipping around on the walls each evening. When we smacked them, the tails fell off and continued to flail aimlessly for a time. It was freaky!