27. Monday 22 March 2010---Baywatch

First and foremost, for the fans of Kapu's photography: on the last post about Valparaiso I have added two photos online that as a result of internet problems I could not earlier get online.

Departure from Santiago was still (at least at the time of departure) a big mess. The airport is still completely not usable after the earthquake, the building is brand new but looks like it was not designed to withstand earthquakes. Check-in for baggage was done in tents and the waiting room is an outside area that in its earlier life was a parking area.

Also our flight to Los Angles did not go totally without problems.

Just kidding, this is a photo of the War of the Worlds set, the well known disaster film starring Tom Cruise. The set is at Universal Studios, a film studio complex/adventure park that we visited. The attractions and shows varied from extremely dumb (House of Horros--a sort of spook house where actors with fake saw ran after visitors) to less dumb (Shred 4D---a 3D film where also the chairs moved and where water drops were sprayed when someone in the film sneezed) to hilariously cute (The Simpsons Ride).

The Simpsons Ride is the newest attraction and is totally spectacular. It is a sort virtual eight lane ride where it really seems and feels as if you go at high speed down; they use an enormous projection screen but 3D glasses are not necessary, moving cars, the release of aromas and so on. All of it is super nicely done and even waiting is nice and entertaining.

Also there is a studio tour where you ride in a sort bus over the terrain and ride along all the film sets.

For the fans: Wisteria Lane is unfortunately not available to see because they were busy filming.:/ We did have a glimpse of the house of Gabrielle (Gaby I think), in reality it is against a hill and there are a lot of trees in the area.

And we met still more famous persons:

In Los Angeles we stayed with Lauren (a friend of Geert), her boyfriend Steve, the dog "DOG" (say dee-o-gee") a friendly roommate, a made roommate and her dog Bailey that found it nice in the middle of the night to jump on our air mattress (the dog, not the roommate).

Lauren works as a lifegurad on the Venice Beach lifesaving boat (Where?). Everyone remembers the quality soap "Baywatch" with the round bosemed Pamela Anderson (There!!)

Lauren had just finished a 48 hour shift and had a few days free; no problem therefore to show us a bit of the city.

We went to the Star Observatory: with a view over the city, the Hollywood sign and we went inside a museum where we learned that Kapu and Giri together are 92.1 Fahrenheit:

We walekd along Venice Beach where there is a skateboard park and where you can, in a dubious manner, obtain medical marijuana.

An absolute highpoint is the Getty Museum; the building and the gardens are actually more impressive than the extensive art collection inside (VanGogh, Ensor, Monet, Manet and still more older art works).

Finally we had a drive over Mulholland Dr, Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd.

Also Lauren took us with her to work, where we had a VIP ride on one of the life guard boats.

We had only been away from the pier about 2 minutes when the radio sounded out: "Jumper Santa Monica Pier". Someone thus jumped from the pier and our boat went immediately with a difficult ride in that direction. It was windy and therefore high waves on the sea and we seemed sometimes to, literally, fly through the air. We reached the pier and found that the jumper had already been fished out of the water by Pamela and we could in a calm way cruise back to the harbor.

And then Mr. Baywatch asked me if I was interested in steering the boat...................

And a bit later Geert was also allowed to do that.

So to this point, a shortened version of our adventures in Los Angeles; if the internet blesses us, then there follows many stories from New Zeeland.

Placed by Irma on 22 March 2010.