Zapp Family and Other Incredible People

We had the pleasure of meeting so many great people on this trip. One of the most note worthy was the Zapp family from Argentina. They will inspire you...

Zapp family: Candelaria, Herman, Wallaby, Pampa, Paloma and Tehue

We met the Zapp family (6 of them) on Saud Beach in Northern Luzon, Philippines. They have been traveling around the world in their 1928 Graham Page Model 610 for the past 11 years. We enjoyed Christmas dinner with the family. They believe that the secret to realising a dream is to start it. Their message to one and all is simple.

Live your dreams.

If you don’t live it now…so… when? Be bold. “The most difficult moment was to begin, leaving everything behind: the family, the house, our work, and our friends, to go directly into the unknown, unpredictable, the strange…But from the time we opened the door of this car and sat down everything have changed in our lives.”

Read more about their incredible adventures on their site:
www.sparkyourdream.net

Diana and Shannon Barrie

I met Diana and Shannon one morning while having breakfast on the small island of Malapascua. The girls had fallen in love with the resident puppies. We started a casual conversation about the puppies and an hour later they had told me about there travel adventures in the family catamarans and being stranded on the island of Mogmog.

The Barrie family, from north Perth, were on a two-year sailing trip around the Pacific when their boat struck a reef off the Micronesian islet of Mogmog in heavy winds and was practically destroyed.
Read more about their story here:
Mogmog island: the perfect place to be shipwrecked?

The amazing artisan, Alvin Bayking

Alvin's beautiful sea urchin art installation

Alvin is a Philippine artist living and working on the island of Palawan. He is a visual artist, a painter, a wood worker, draftsman and architect. This guy truly has talent not to mention he is a great guy and a good friend.

Crazy Canadians and kindred spirits, Sandra and Milos

You know how you meet the right people at the right time. We met Sandra and Milos randomly on the island of Malapascua. Reto and I were on one of our many walks. We had reached the end of the island. Reto was ready to return to our room but my curiosity took me up and over a small hill while Reto waited on the beach below. I like to think something other than sheer curiosity pulled me over that hill, it was Sandra and Milos. The Canadian newly weds were in the middle of a 9 month honeymoon. We instantly hit it off. I can't wait to catch up with them in July when I am in Toronto. The world really is so very small.

Surfer Pete and Margo in Samar

What can I tell you about surfer Pete, well...
Pete and his family own a resort in Borongon, East Samar called Pirates Cove. His colorful dreams have been translated into a real life size mosaic playground. While we were there he was completeting a view tower that overlooks his favorite surf break. Mounted on either side are loud speakers so that he can hear his favorite tunes while surfing. One of the best parts of his resort is the typoon room converted into an air conditioned slot car track.

It just goes to show there are so many different dreamers in the world. It really is as simple as Herman and Candelaria said:

Live your dreams.