I'm back!!!

Ecuador sunset in Bahia.

 Ecuador hammocks

 Kaua'i truck

 Hibuscus on Kaua'i (Made it into a fake postage stamp.)

 Ecuador splash.

 Tahiti Luau show.  

 Dominican Republic

 Dominican Republic

 Australia near Philip Island

 Those are THOUSANDS of seals on those rocks.  Amazing clarity of the water surrounding the seal island. 

 Mexico.  

 Sculpture in Cabo San Lucas

 Main mountain in Bora Bora.

 Huts on the water, Bora Bora

 Beach Towel

 Only in Australia!

 This is a ginger plant, I saw them in Australia and in Ecuador, and it had me puzzled as to what type of flower it was.  My Australian friend told me what it was.

 Melborne street flowers. 

 Ecuador mansion.  

Hello everyone!  I haven't posted in over a year, but the year 2012 was a busy year for me!  I wonder why I haven't found much time to paint and then I recall how I was to 8 countries in 2012!  I've learned carrying paints while traveling with a non-painter is a fruitless.  I've also learned my NIKON gets really heavy and I either just use my iphone or my small Casio camera to take photos.  My photography friends get mad that I'm going to all these fabulous places and not taking the kind of photographs I could, but one must remember, there were two taking the trip!  So I endure and do what digital magic I can to the photography I take.

In the past year, I have been to Hawaii twice (the islands of Oahu, Maui and Kaua'i), Ecuador twice as well.  We traveled to the Dominican Republic (never want to go back), and Mexico (my third trip there in my lifetime, each at different locations).  Our large trip was to Australia (Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Beerwah).  You must ask what is so great about Beerwah, Australia.  It is where the Australian Zoo is, the one where Steve Irwin had his show?  That place is awesome.  If you ever get the chance, GO!  We petted a Bengal tiger, held koalas, fed a kangaroo and even an echidna.  My husband snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef (I wasn't up to it).  

We visited New Zealand but only for less than 24 hours, it was a layover for our flight.  We saw the airport and the hotel across the street from the airport.  (Sometimes you just have to go all out...haha!)  Originally we wanted to spend more time in New Zealand but when we were making the plans, the capital city of Christchurch had an earthquake so we kind of leaned toward other areas.  Instead we went to Tahiti (very disappointed, it looks prettier in the picture than in real life) and Bora Bora, which I believe in French means "BORING BORING"!!!  So many people I tell this to are like "WHAT?"  And I reply, "Yes, it's only a small island with one road going around it, over priced by a huge margin, and the huts on the water are pretty but every hotel there has them, so they're nothing unique."  The hotels are on the outer surrounding islands and you have to get a "free" water taxi to the island.  See that word "FREE"?  It's about the only thing there that is free.  Once on the island, they are more than willing to drive you anywhere for about $75.  That "anywhere" is the other side of the island where there are a FEW shops.  That's where the cruise ships come in, and lead the people right to a pearl store, they can't escape it.  We opted to not take a taxi because we learned from another guest at the hotel that you are once again charge $75 to get back to your free water taxi.  What a rip off.  To rent a car was $85.  DUH!  Guess what we did?  Yup!  But that was only the beginning of the rip offs.  At the hotel, they tell you the other island aren't allowing visitors because they want to keep you on their premises.  Meals were no less expensive than $250 a night.  So we ate once a day and pigged out.  When we went to the island of Bora Bora, we stopped in a small grocery store and got snacks, avoided one night of the largely over price meal.  A week there and whoa, it adds up.  Some other people we met there told us to take the water taxi to this one restaurant there.  So we did.  It was a pizza joint.  The prices were out of this world, but I'm so glad my husband didn't see what they do to make their pizzas moist.  They crack an egg on top of it in the center of the pie before they stick it in the oven.  They don't scramble it, just crack it over the center.  His back was to the oven so he didn't see it.  But he got so sick.  Didn't affect me.  

So that is why I haven't painted nor even gotten in the mood.  Have any idea what it's like to go through some 10,000 photos.  Yeah, the iphone takes over 10,000 photos, I put it to the test.  Haha!  

But I'm back!!!!