LES TRUCK

                                         Various Grade of Truck

     I have ridden numerous forms of transportation in my many travels, but was not aware of les truck until my visit to the South Pacific.  The first such ride was in Bora Bora, Tahiti. Tahiti is both an island and a country, and Bora Bora is one of the three major islands in the country.

     As it turned out Bora Bora’s les truck was the most luxurious of all such rides.  The open air mini bus was decorated with live hibiscus flowers that wound around the truck’s poles. Palm fronds accented with red torch ginger flowers decorated the inside of the bus. It was all tropical and very pleasing to the eye.

    This  ‘tour bus’ stopped frequently, as Bora Bora is an incredibly beautiful island with a photo  op around every curve of the twenty-two mile road circling the island.

    On the island of Aitu in the Cook Islands where we literally surfed from our anchorage to the island shore, the les truck turned out to be literally a pickup truck with wooden benches lining the sides of the truck bed. It was the only transportation on the small island. The friendly people preformed some native dancing and provided a delicious feast of fresh fruit/food t for us.

     Padded chairs in the truck bed of les truck  provided a bit more comfortable ride on the island of Aitutaki. The single road around the bigger island was also in better condition than the rutted tire road on Aitu.

     Arriving in Raratonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, les truck gave way to real buses, albeit small ones. The two yellow public buses ran around the island on a semi-regular schedule. One ran clockwise while the other ran counter-clockwise (island expression). These buses can be flagged down anywhere and stopped anywhere, even with service to your door, if you live on the main road.

     Les Trucks were colorful, romantic and fun. I do believe generally one would be more comfortable driving one rather than riding in one, with Raratonga being the exception..

RAINY DAY HIKE

                                              First Swiss Hike

      My first day in Switzerland to hike the Alps was a misty dull one. The 15 of us were just getting acquainted. On a previous trip I had had a great time traveling via gondola up the 6000-foot Mt.Strassahorn. The view of the valley below on a clear sunny day  was vivid in my memory. So I was looking forward to the next couple of weeks in the Swiss Alps

     One can’t do much about the weather, so we took off to catch the cog railroad, the steepest in the world, going up Mt. Pilatus. With a 48-degree incline, it took a year to build the three-mile track in 1889.

     We couldn’t see much on the ride up, but by the time we reached the top of the 7000-foot high mountain the mist had developed into a heavy drizzle and visibility was zero. The plus side was that the quiet was wonderful. The only thing breaking the silence was the tinkling cow bells from the  valley below. I couldn’t  see the cows but knew they were there. There were less than a handful of people on the mountain.

     The hotel had packed lunches  for us which we all had in our packs. Trying to eat in the rain on the trail wasn’t very appealing to  any of us. There really wasn’t any suitable place on top of the mountain to squat and eat either, as the patio was closed.

     Our guide seemed to know everyone and his brother in the country so he entered the large restaurant to see if he could talk the management into letting his  American charges eat their lunches in the restaurant. Another example how nice people around the world are. Most of us ordered hot soup and tea to  accompany our lunch. We were very careful not to dirty the tablecloth and to pick up all  our mess and carry it out with us. Most of us tipped generously before we left to ride the gondola down to 1451 feet to start hiking.

     By then it was raining pretty hard but the thick canopy kept us from getting soaking wet as we hiked down the well-kept packed path. My rain jacket served me well. Some people had umbrellas and put them up. I got the giggles watching this bunch hike downhill with umbrellas. It just seemed so ludicrous  to me.

     That first day and hike was wet, but it was the only day we had any rain at all. The weather cleared and we hiked in beautiful weather and had a grand time. Those beautiful mountains and part of the world called me back again for more hiking and adventures.