around the world in 180 days

One of the problems, as we’ve discovered, with hostel dorm rooms is that it only takes one person who snores, or one person who gets up super early, or one person who comes back super late and super drunk, or, as in our case, one person who stinks like a damn monkey. This guy is terrible. For those of you who remember him, this guy puts Stinky Kyle to shame and I’m talking by a long shot. He’s in a whole different league. He’s playing a different game. It’s disgusting. I’m glad we’re leaving tomorrow.

So we’d heard before that people who visit NZ often buy a cheap car when they arrive and sell it again when we leave. We’d already decided that we weren’t going to be here long enough, that every day was just too precious to waste trying to buy and sell a car, and so we weren’t going to do that. In Fiji, though, we talked with someone who’d recently come from NZ who raved about how’d done it and how great it was to have a car, which got us thinking about it again. We looked around for one quite a bit yesterday ad ended up back where we started: thinking that it was too risky, too time-consuming and too expensive to buy a car.

We rented a car instead. It’s still pretty spendy, but it’s comparable with what bus tickets would cost and it gives us way more flexibility. We’re getting a tiny little Toyota with a 1.3 litre engine and we’re picking it up tomorrow morning, leaving el stinko behind for good (fingers crossed).

Auckland seems like a nice city, but I’m the sort of person who is almost convinced that phrase is an oxymoron. We spent the whole day today walking around central Auckland and we’re moe than ready to get the hell into the bush, to get out “tramping” as they call it here. I don’t know why they don’t just call it hiking like everyone else, but Kiwis are Kiwis. Different is good, right?

Ok, Justin, since you asked so politely, here is my fair-trade rant.

Picking coffee is hard work. We spend 1/2 day doing it and it was fun, but believe me, it was nice to be done and back at Bartola’s for a nice big lunch. We picked a relatively small plot of land and got bug bites, scratches and very tired. People who pick coffee for a living don’t get to stop at noon. Often, they don’t get to stop after 8 hours and they don’t get paid minimum wage, either. They pick and they pick and they pick, for 12 hours a day, every single day, for almost nothing, just so they can feed their kids. It’s a tough life, but what are they going to do? Starve to death?

Of course not. They work, just like you or I or anyone else. This is where fair trade coffee comes in. Fair trade coffee is coffee sold at a price that allows workers to stop working after 10 hours instead of 12 (I made the numbers up, but you get the idea). Fair trade allows coffee pickers to earn a living, spend some time with their family and enjoy their life.

Sure, there’s probably a million cold economists out there who will say that the free market has decided that a coffee picker’s labor is only worth so much and too frickin’ bad if that ain’t enough to raise a family. Don’t pick coffee, right? Well, that’s not a choice for a lot of people. It’s pick coffee for slave wages or starve.

So, at least to me, it’s worth a couple extra bucks a pound of coffee to know that I’m not exploiting some poor schmuck who’s been exploited all his life. In the US, $2 isn’t much, but in places like Guatemala, it’s a fortune. It’s your decision, but next time you reach for that can of folgers, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!! WHY WON’T YOU THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!

            We have started getting friendly with public transportation. Today we took buses ½ way around the island (3 hour round trip). It was a lot of time on a bus, but what the hell else were we ... [Continue reading this entry]

hello all, I have more to say about our stay in Fiji, but I don't have my little gadget with me at the moment. I'll post the rest when we get to Auckland on Monday, but I wanted to give you ... [Continue reading this entry]

            We made a good decision yesterday when we left Mana Island. The mainland is much larger and consequently much more diverse, so we were able to find something to do, which for us means we found somewhere ... [Continue reading this entry]

            We left Mana Island today, getting a full refund for the three nights we’d already paid for. We’re staying in at the Tropic of Capricorn, a backpacker in New Town Beach, just outside of Nadi. This place ... [Continue reading this entry]

            A man named Moses took us fishing today. It cost us $30 each and we went with 5 other people, but it was great. Anna caught a blue-finned Travoli (??) and I didn’t catch anything. One of ... [Continue reading this entry]

So, it probably sounds retarded, but we’re not too keen on Fiji so far. I know how this sounds, but all it is (at least where we are) is beaches and sun. I’m cool with beaches and I’m ... [Continue reading this entry]

ok, photos are up on flickr. Here's the link: Aaron and Anna's travel photos A few have explanatory titles, but the rest are just the photo and an inscrutable name. Sorry. I'll label them later if I have time. These are ... [Continue reading this entry]

We've been in LA now for three days--tonight we fly out for Fiji. We leave at 10:30 pm from LA and arrive in Fiji at 8 in the morning, Monday. We don't get a Sunday this week. In a few ... [Continue reading this entry]