tours - Curious Karibella

2024-03-302024-04-15

What to know about Pompeii, Herculaneum and Climbing Mt.Vesuvius in Italy

Climbing Mt.Vesuvius

Climbing Mount Vesuvius in Italy is possibly worth it. It depends on how good of a driver you are,\, and how long you can hike. My mother is a fantastic driver, and I have attempted one of the 7 summits so the hiking was not going to be an issue. I still did not make it to the top! All due to a serious lack of information on the most widely used library: The Internet! This is why people say don’t trust the internet! Here is my recommendations:

Go early in the morning! There are so many benifits of this! You dotn have to hike in the heat, there are less crowds, and probably more parking!
The parking is FREE but it’s not actually free because the park service gave some guys a permit to charge people for parking. You also have to pay for a parking spot ahead of time Dont park at the very top of the road right before the entrance because it is for busses only.
Try to drive a small car because Italians like to pretend that one lane roads are two lane roads and they use them like two lane roads. Your car might get scratched FYI
You have to have pre-purchased a ticket online to get onto the trail. To get a ticket you have to go to this website:https: //www.parconazionaledelvesuvio.it/en/visit-the-park/the-paths/the-great-cono-2/ and buy a ticket for a times slot the day before. Each time slot only has 10 tickets available.
If you are not a bus and you park where everyone else parks, it is a very long walk up to the start of the trail. I would suggest having someone drive everyone in your party up to the entrance, drop everyone off and go back down and park. The person who drives everyone probably wont get to climb the mountain but if they do, they will have to climb almost double of what the other people climb.
The bus ride that is offered by the parking guys in vests is $15 per person and you have to already have a ticket for getting into the park. The bus ride may be worth the money for some people but I would recommend just walking or being dropped off.
The roads up are very windy and small and alot of busses go up them. Have the best driver of the group behind the wheel to avoid collisions.

Pompeii

Pompeii is mind blowing! Walking on a road that looks perfectly intact while knowing that it is 2000 years old is crazy! The intricacy of life in Pompeii and the Roman empire is very fascinating because we often think that everyone was not as smart back then but they were super smart! There was plumbing in pompeii! Not plumbing like ours today but they had lead pipes and running water in houses. I would 100% recommend having a guided tour, you learn so much more! The tour company we used was Askos, our guide was great and we learned so much! Some fun facts were that romans used urine to clean their clothes. They also had the coolest fountains. The fountains around the city were landmarks used as meeting places.

Herculaneum

Herculaneum is not well known, probably due to its size. Herculaneum was a port city resting closer to vesuvius than pompeii. Because it was closer to vesuvius it is much more preserved. There is wood from it’s time as well as many other artifacts. The sad part is that since it was buried under 50+ feet of ash for thousands of years people forgot about it and built towns on top of it. The small section that is visible today is really cool but it is a shame that a large portion of it remains buried under homes and roads. For pompeii you need a whole day and a tour guide. I would recommend going to pompeii first so you learn all about the life style and then go to herculaneum without a guide. It is small enough that it’s just better to wander around the city. It was rather quiet when we went so we usually were able to go into each building with just our group. There is a garden for reading and relaxing as well as caves demonstrating how they excavate buildings. I found Herculaneum more enjoyable because we got to run around the city “discovering” everything and use the information we learned in pompeii to deduce what the buildings were for.

2023-12-212024-01-15

Quark Expeditions, Antarctica: Day 1

Antarctica Expedition: Day 1

Location: Dream Hotel, Punta Arenas, Chile, South America

Agenda: Packing and weighing to go to Antarctica and also briefing about the ship.

So, after two hotels in two days, we finally checked into the Hotel where we will go to Antarctica from. We had to have our bags weighed. In Quark, you get 5 kg for your carry-on and 15 kg for your checked baggage. This is because the plane that we take to Antarctica lands on a gravel airstrip that is only 1800 meters long. The plane has to be light enough to land on such a short runway. So everything is carefully weighed. After getting our bags weighed, we went to get our special bright yellow Quark Antarctic jackets. And, of course, our fully waterproof, really thick special Antarctic boots! These boots were the best thing ever! I waded through shallow water dry in them. The reason they give us these boots is that they need to keep everything microorganisms free in Antarctica. So they sanitize the boots many times as well as when you get on and off the ship.

After weighing and gear pick up, there is about an hour or two before the briefing and group dinner. In the briefing, we learned about our boat and the process it takes to get to Antarctica. We take a bus from the hotel to the airport, then a plane from the Punta Arenas airport to the Teniente R. Marsh airport on King George Island in Antarctica. Then we take a bus from the “airport” (really, it’s just a gravel runway with a plane parking lot and bus parking lot) to the shore. On the shore, the Zodiacs are waiting. The Zodiacs are our rafts, and they take us out on cruises, and on the first day, they take us out to the boat. (Everything said above is knowledge I learned in the briefing, I will post about the experience in another post 🙂

The welcome dinner is a buffet with all your shipmates and the ground crew. It is a nicer buffet, but it’s not like what’s on the ship. After the buffet, everyone goes up to their hotel rooms to try to get sleep before Antarctica. The next morning we had absolutely no idea what was going to happen…..

Friday, 12/15/2023 Punta Arenas Dream Hotel	Saturday 12/16/2023 Punta Arenas to King George Island
Briefing about Antarctica, the ship, and what will happen tomorrow	Drive to the Airport and board the flight with Quark group 1 (half of the ship’s guests)
Pack and Re-pack to make things fit!	We are on Standby for our flight to King George Island, Antarctica, via Antarctica Airways
Receive Quark Coat, Special Boots, and Bag tags for non-Antarctic luggage	Arriving in Antarctica and working to get onto the ship: World Explorer
Welcome dinner with the rest of the ship guests in the hotel	Being welcomed on the ship warmly and finding our rooms! 🙂
	Drive to the Airport and board flight with Quark group 1 (half of the ship’s guests)

This Table is the schedule of our first two days with Quark Expeditions

Quark Expeditions

Guide Profiles

2023-12-162024-01-15

Quark Expeditions: Antarctica, Day 2

Saturday, 12/16/2023

Where: Punta Arenas, Chile, to King George Island, Antarctica via Antarctic Airways and the World Explorer (Expedition Ship, Not a cruise ship)

Agenda: Standby for the flight to Antarctica, Boarding the World Explorer, and our First dinner on the ship!

So today, we started with breakfast in the hotel for free! Then everyone was on standby for the flight time. Our flight time changed three times in the morning because the weather kept changing, but then suddenly, a bit after breakfast, we got a notice to be reading in 1 hour. Quark 1 loaded onto two buses that took us to the airport, and at the airport, we checked our bags with Antarctic Airways (DAP). The wait to board was not long, but the line to board was long…. and very disorderly. We made friends with the people in front of us who were from Utah. They ended up being in the same zodiac group as us, and we saw them often around the ship.

The Flight

The flight out was very smooth. The plane was not full, and everyone listened to music, read, or watched shows. There were drinks and snacks and two working toilets!! It was the size of an airplane that you would fly from Portland to California in. When they told us to use the restroom and put on our cold-weather gear, everyone got very excited! As we started to lose altitude, the people with windows started shouting, “I see land!” I did not have a window, and I was very jealous, but it was fun to hear the excitement. The landing was extremely smooth! Smoother than most landings on real runways! Remember, we landed on a gravel 1800m airstrip breaking through clouds. When the plane came to a stop, we were told to stay seated because a guide would come on and brief us about our trip to the shore.

My First step on to Antarctica

Sonya came on and told us that we would load into buses, receive life jackets, and then ride zodiacs out to the ship. The funny thing about the first day in Antarctica was that we had absolutely no idea what we were doing, and everything was so new and exotic that we looked like stunned penguins gawking at everything. As I stepped off, a Very cold wind hit my face, but it just made me more excited. The first bus they were loading had one spot left, and I took it. We were given a briefing on how to put on our special life jackets by Sonya. The drive down was super bumpy but exciting because we drove through the Chilean and Russian bases on King George Island. There was a graveyard, a church, a school, and a lot of little buildings. The shore was made of rock plebes, and there were penguins around us! We put our backpacks on a tarp to put on our life jackets then we were put in lines to board zodiacs. Me and my mom were called to a zodiac, and a very friendly lady with a cool hat (Valarie) helped us into the zodiacs! Valarie drove us to the ship, and Ema helped me and my mom onto the ship and got very excited when we handed her the violin! I later learned that Ema used to play violin which was cool! We were led into the mudroom, which is a room full of open lockers for storing your Antarctica muck boots and big coat. Each room is assigned a locker, and 2-3 people’s stuff can fit in one locker.

First steps on the ship

Upstairs, we went to the 4th floor, which has all the main public spaces. When we came out of the stairwell, all the staff captains were waiting, and reception was ready to give us our ship cards and room numbers as well as get a photo of us to be matched up with our cards. As the rest of my family came and went through the same process, I looked out the windows and stared around at the small space of the ship that I could see. The ship was much more glamorous than I had expected. Our triple cabin had a small “front hall that had four doors in it. One leading to the hallway, one leading to the bathroom, one leading to my brother’s room, which was a small cabin with a couch, twin bed, a TV and porthole, and a closet! And the last one led to my and my sister’s room. Our room had two nice twin beds, a deck with chairs, and a walk in closet that had a mini fridge, safe, hanging rack, drawers, and shelves and a small desk/shelf for coffee maker!!! The room was very impressive, and I loved it so much!

Life Boat Drill!

The next great event was the lifeboat drill, where all passengers had to go to their cabins and get their life jackets. You also had to bring your ship card because it tells you what muster station you go to, and the little sarcode has all your info on it to be scanned. Scanner PPL waited at the exit from the stairs to scan every person’s card to make sure everyone made it out. We waited until everyone was present then we were all sent to put our life jackets back and explore the ship. Explore what we did!! I found the observation deck and met the Marine Biologist, Annie, and the ornithologist, Nigel.

Quark Expeditions: Antarctica, Day 2

The rest of the day

There were no more great adventures that day besides finding out that the ship had gluten-free bread and sweets!!!!!! This was very exciting, and our food days were brightening! We also had our first debrief in the auditorium! I went up to the observation lounge before bed to look at the beauty all around. It was just captivating!

Me and my sister on the bus to the airport!

Friday, 12/15/2023 Punta Arenas Dream Hotel	Saturday 12/16/2023 Punta Arenas to King George Island
Briefing about Antarctica, the ship, and what will happen tomorrow	Drive to the Airport and board the flight with Quark group 1 (half of the ship’s guests)
Pack and Re-pack to make things fit!	We are on Standby for our flight to King George Island, Antarctica, via Antarctica Airways
Receive Quark Coat, Special Boots, and Bag tags for non-Antarctic luggage	Arriving in Antarctica and working to get onto the ship: World Explorer
Welcome dinner with the rest of the ship guests in the hotel	Being welcomed on the ship warmly and finding our rooms! 🙂
	First Dinner On Board!!

This Table is the schedule of our first two days with Quark Expeditions

2023-11-222023-11-25

Expedition: Rotorua, New Zealand

I never thought that I could do so much in 36 hours, but somehow I did. Yesterday around ten thirty we made plans to drive two hours to Rotorua. Rotorua is a small town on the North Island of New Zealand, and it has many tourist attractions and cool things. In under an hour, we were in the car. The drive was scenic and filled with the book’s endurance and pauses to discuss what we wanted to do. I had been voting to go to Rotorua for a week because there is Zorbing, Louging, Zip lining, and many more cool activities. almost everyone did not want to go Zorbing, but 12 minutes out from our Airbnb (booked not long before), we passed the Zorbing place, and we immediately turned around to check it out.

Zorb Rotorua

You are probably wondering what is zorbing. Zorbing is an activity where you jump into I huge plastic ball that is suspended by ropes (secure ones) inside another plastic ball that is bigger. There is water in the ball, and the workers zip you inside, and the next thing you know, you are rolling down a hill, not knowing what is up or down and feeling like you’re in a washing machine. At the bottom, you slide out and run to hot tubs and wait for the next bus to take you back to the top to do it again. Honestly, Zorbing is one of the funnest, craziest things to do. The zorbing place has four tracks, three of which are currently in use. The short straight one is a “short” straight track that you roll down. they have two of these tracks, but they are exactly the same. We (Me, Mom, Emmy, Zeb, and Bardez) did this one first, and since there are two of the straight tracks right next to each other, we raced. The straight track was my least favorite out of the two that I did because it is super fast and disorienting because you are just rolling and rolling and rolling. It was still super fun, though, and it’s a great one to start on if you have never been zorbing. The Sidewinder track is my favorite because you roll straight, then you turn and roll up onto the banks. then right at the top, you stop, just for a second, and then down you go again! The two other tracks I did not do, but there is the MEGA which is a SUPER long straight steep hill. Then there is the BIG AIR which was under construction when I was there. It was being transformed into a new track because only one person could ride down due to the big bumps. I hope the next time I come to New Zealand, I will get to Zorb again and do the BIG AIR track. (They are going to rename the BIG AIR track once it is re-built, but the name is a super secret.)

Te Puia

After Zorbing and dropping our stuff off at our Airbnb, we went to our dinner and show at Te Puia. Te Puia is a Geothermal hot spot with some of New Zealand’s most active Geothermal Guysers. It also is home to the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute which is a school of Maori Arts and Crafts. We signed up for a dinner and a Maori show. The dinner was a buffet in a big dining room with shared tables and fantastic views of the springs and geysers. The food was absolutely amazing. It was by a long shot the best buffet ever. After dinner, everyone was moved to a bit open-air building with circular tables and a stage. I thought that the show was taking place there, but I was wrong. I was not totally sure what to expect, but when our host went up and explained what we would do that night, I became more excited. He had selected an older man from the audience to be our “chief,” and that man (named Bob, I think) was to accept the peace offering from the performers. We were told that the most important thing was to NOT smile, laugh, or make any noise during the first dance. The first dance was usually performed when two tribes met, and during it, the tribe who was visiting would place a peace offering in front of the chief of the opposite tribe. If the chief picked it up, he wanted no fighting and accepted the peace. If he ignored it, that meant fighting.

It started raining right before we headed out of the first building, so instead of the dance and other performances taking place on the wide lawn, we went into a second building that was hand-carved and very ornate. Inside, it was dimly lit, and the walls were covered in carvings. For about thirty minutes, we sat and watched the dancers. One man played a guitar while four other men danced, and five women danced. They all sang, and the sound was so beautiful and filled with joy. The women had strings, with white balls on the end, that they would swing through the air to make a beat to the music. Each dance they performed was full of life and extremely beautiful. When it was over, it was Extremely rainy. Like, pouring rain. We were given the option of going to see the geysers via train (not a normal train like a trailer but not a trailer. (They call them trains) Me and Bardez wanted to see the geysers, and I did not mind getting wet to walk to the train. It was dusk by now, and the geysers were illuminated by purple lights. It was also very cold, so even more steam was in the air. It was super beautiful and standing in by the hot rocks and letting the clouds of vapor and steam roll around me was just amazing. It was like being in fog or a cloud, but in fog, it is super thin and cold, and in a cloud, it is thick and cold. The funny thing is that on the airplane ride into Auckland, I was watching the clouds fly by, and I made a wish to go into a cloud someday. Not in an airplane inside a cloud or on the ground inside a cloud, but really, inside a cloud. We stayed by the geysers for what felt like 45 minutes, but I was not sure of the time.

Redwood Tree Walk

When we got back to the car, Mom told us about a redwood tree walk. Yes, Redwoods in New Zealand. It was nearing 9:00 pm but I was still game for more adventures. It turned out to be a two-hour adventure of waiting in line. The tree walk is a magical experience, but it comes with a cost. You have to wait in line for a very long time. But the good news is, it’s totally worth it! you walk up a wooden ramp 20m into the air and travel from tree to tree along suspended wooden bridges. The trees are lit up by beautiful hand-crafted lights at each tree platform. At each tree there is a sign talking about the trees and the lights and the California redwoods. The night walk was literally a perfect thing to polish off the day. We did not get a ton of sleep because of early classes, but I definitely never did so many fun things in a day!

2023-02-242023-05-20

Sydney, Australia

Sydney at night with talll bulidings and the beutifull water front

Sydney, The most Beautiful place

Sydney, Cape Town, and Seattle are three of my favorite cities. Cape Town for the People, Sydney for the City, and Seattle because we lived there for many years, and I love it there. Sydney has this really awesome bus system where its all ferry’s and since the city is built on a huge inlet with the north head and south head it makes this possible. Every few blocks there is a ferry station on the water and you can just hop on and off!

Sydney was a penal colony of England. After America shut its doors to prisoners being brought there, England was in a fix. They had several ships stuck in the in london river with tons of prisoners dying and going crazy. Londoners were very worried about a prison break. Most of these prisoners were petty thieves. For example if you stole a pair of stockings, you could get hanged! Instead, these people received a “pardon” and were sent to places to make new farmland and colonies.

A few years earlier an expedition went to Botany Bay (which is right next to Manly Bay where Sydney is located) and they saw beautiful lush land perfect for farms. Little did they know that Botany Bay goes into this lush state once every three years, the rest is spent in drought. The only thing they did not see was that beyond the cliffs of the North and South head stood amazing farmland.

Finally the government sent eleven ships, six of which were full of prisoners. The ships went from England to Rio to Cape Town to Sydney. When they went to Rio, guess what they spent most of their money on? RUM! Literally, a Boatload of Rum was bought. They didn’t even have Jack Sparrow to influence them! Now, these blokes weren’t very creative with naming things, probably due to the rum but when the first expedition came, they saw a very Botanical Bay and creatively named it botany bay.

Between Cape Town, South Africa, where they bought livestock and seeds, and Australia, all the ships got separated in a huge storm, and none of them knew if the other ships were okay. Surprisingly they all reached Botany bay within one day of each other. Sad for them, they saw dry land in Botany Bay, horrible for farming with no streams. They were so disgusted by what they found that they did not even let the prisoners off who had been stuck in the hold of the ship for eight months! Thankfully some of the men took a boat around the point and saw the beautiful manly bay! They actually saw the two heads, which were scraggly cliffs, but they went in and saw streams and perfect farmland. They also saw some natives who looked very Manly, so they named the bay Manly Bay. Again, they were not exactly creative with names. Soon all the ships were in the harbor, and they all lived happily ever after. No, they had a very hard time living because the soil was not too great, but now it is the most beautiful city ever!

If you’re interested in the history of the last two hundred years in Sydney there’s this thing called chatGPT….. Im serious Chat GPT can write you paragraphs of history that is all original!

The Opera House

We had the amazing experience of watching an Opera in the Sydney Opera House! The Opera House is located on a peninsula in the city. In sydney there is the inlet and at the main ferry hub there is all the skyscrapers and the rocks which will explain later. The maps below this paragraph are worth looking to give you a general idea of where everything is. Walking to the Opera House from the back was weird because in pictures you always see the iconic waves and the arch things. The inside made up for everything else on the outside. The ceilings were vaulted and they had really really cool lighting. I still don’t really understand how there is so many theaters in the Opera House or how the layout works. When we walked to our theatre there were all these cool walls which as I just found out are actually designed after the sails on a boat, not waves. The acoustics were surprisingly not what I thought they would be. The singing and music was amazing but there was no amplifying of the sound that I noticed. The Sydney Opera House was a very amazing experience and I would go back.

Three Tours

We did three tours in Sydney and all of them were the best. The first one was a tour of the city where we learned all the cities history. In almost all the places we go we do some sort of history education experience #homeschoolingwhiletravling. We do this to learn the history of the place but it also is part of school. Thats where this blog comes in to tell everybody about the amazing stories around the world. Back to the history tour. In most cities the history all sound the same, native people lived mostly peacefully then a European country comes in and invades claiming the land and starting a new country but also upprooting the lives of the people who actually had claim to the land. Sydneys history was actually slightly different. Or mabey it was told in a different way. I actually found it very interesting and we even got to visit some really old intact buildings from when the city was growing up.

Tour two was climbing the bridge that spans the harbor. In one of the photos I circled it to show you where it is. The amount of getting ready was alot. It was like we were in an assembly line to get ready to climb the bridge! When we started we were underneath the road then we got to the stairs/ladders. By stairs i mean the kind you have leading to a loft where its like a ladder but not straight up. As we were climbing past the road and all the cars my only though was don’t look down. I can tell you people are not joking when they say don’t look down. Its not a fake thing if you don’t look down its less scary for most ppl. I looked down and that did me absolutely no good. I could see all the way to the cars and beyond that to the water. When we got to the top arch it was just stairs to the summit of the arch. We were all insanely thirsty and I really wanted water. You might be wondering why i did not bring a water bottle but let me tell you, you couldn’t bring anything. You couldn’t even smuggle things like a phone or camera in your pockets. To even start putting on gear we had to put on jumpsuits as if we were parachuting. Then there was a metal detector and the other hand metal detectors after we put the jumpsuits on. They had good reason for all this seemingly ridiculous security. The didn’t want us bringing something and either dropping it or having it cause us to drop/fall. They took lots of pictures for us and I will show some at the end of the next two or three paragraphs. At the top i asked if anybody had ever proposed on the bridge because i was thinking how badly that would go. Surprisingly they said yes lots of people. I was like sure that makes perfect since amazing proposal then oh no! The ring has fallen to the sea or cars! The guy i asked explained that there was a special wristband to keep the ring from falling. I still don’t understand how that would work. One last thing. As we were gearing up i was being handed gear and a person clipped on this black thing to my harness and told me it was a parachute! I was instantly thinking parachute? Mom did not tell me we were jumping off! I asked if it was really a parachute and how it would work and I was told it was actually a raincoat. (This was true)

Five starts to Bridge Climb Sydney! Amazing unforgettable experience and great people.

Kayaking Tour

Third experience was a kayak tour throughout the harbor. we went to three beaches and they were all beautiful. Beach One had a little waterfall on it and mom was daring us kids to go under it for fifteen seconds. All of my siblings were saying it was freezing so naturally i went to stand under it. It really was not freezing at all. It was not even as could as a beach in oregon! We did not spend alot of time at the first beach nor the second beach. Beach two was long and very shallow. It was surprisingly only accessible by water. There was no trail or road to get to it. On a big rock in the back was an inscription that was very hard to read. I don’t remember what it said but it looked very old. We learned that this beach had been used to store tanks during some war. I asked how that was physically possible because it was not accessible by land. Our guide said the tanks were moved by boat but i think thats a bad idea because if your boat gets sunk then you have to say goodbye to very expensive machinery. Paddling to the third beach was just beautiful. We could see the north and south heads and our guide told us a little story about a zoo on one of the heads. He said this zoo was partially an open zoo where the animals could roam around. You could also camp in the zoo but the more carnivorous animals were kept in enclosed in habitats. One day the lions (i may be wrong) escaped. The alarm was sounded early enough that everybody got out in time and the lions we put back in their places. Backstory to the climax there is a bird that can mimic almost any sound. It learned to mimic the sound of the alarms so it thought it was funny to make that sound and scare everyone! Everyone evacuated again but it became clear that nothing had escaped.

The third beach was a former coal mine hub, hospital, penitentiary and had military history. There was another rock here and it had dozens of inscriptions in it from exploration expeditions, prisoners and people. There was a coffee shop and a little museum but we were running low on time so we had to start the long kayak back to the boat club that we came out of. The adventure was super awesome and very beautiful, i would totally do it again and bring friends with me.

Most Beautiful City (so Far)

Sydney was literally so amazing! I know the adjectives I’m using are not very fancy but i have to say it was just amazing! I very much look forward to going back with my family and exploring new sights.