Ferry to Hormuz...

I see Hormuz

We arrived in Hormuz at around 3pm and waited outside of the ferry terminal for about 30 minutes for our guesthouse to pick us up. When they arrived we were surprised to see the driver and the lady who we are staying with in the car, we all started to wonder how 4 extra adults and a child would be able to fit in there. 

A couple of days ago we fit a driver, 4 germans, 1 spanish, and myself in one taxi so I knew we would be fine. I went on my regular position behind the driver, ⅓ of my butt on the seat, and the rest sitting on top of my legs, leaving enough space for 3 adults to seat on the back seat and we put Birk on a lap.


 The ride was short and when we arrived to our homestay I was pleasantly surprised at how clean it was.

our room... blurry picture

After a quick cup of tea in our room Chris, Alex, and myself went out for a quick walk to give Birk some space to take a nap. We walked on the main street, saw fishermen at work, families walking, and got a little taste of this beautiful island.

A traditional house, animal house outside.

Guy fishing without a fishing pole.

The red sand was unbelievable

Walking by the old Portuguese fort

Old propaganda on the walls of Hormuz

Sun setting!

 Chris and I kept walking and went inside a store; in there we met Ahmad, a tour guide who offered us his tuk tuk services for a tour of the island for 200,000 rials per hour (less than $5). At night as a group we decided the price was good to share a 5 hour tuk tuk around the island and see what Hormuz was about.

That night we had a nice dinner in our host’s house:

The next morning we woke up to an amazing traditional breakfast and then off we went to explore the beautiful island of Hormuz. While getting through the maze of small streets and alleys we met an Iranian guy called Ted who spoke German and invited Chris and I to come over for sunset tea to his house, Iranians are definitely the most hospitable people I have ever seen!

I really didn’t do much research about Hormuz but it was highly recommended by locals. I was already very pleased with what I saw in Qeshm but never imagined to see what a saw on that day in Hormuz.

Ahmad, Sidsel, Birk, and Alex

The day began with driving through beautiful red mountains and ending at our first stop… the salt formation! I couldn’t believe my eyes! There was salt all over and the more we walked the more we saw of it. Chris and I ended up walking all the way up the salt formations, they were huge rocks made of salt and minerals. These mountains looked like they were growing crystals in them, it was very very impressive!

So much salt

Sidsel and Birk

The next stop was at a very unimpressive salt cave where we had to crawl in order to get through. Well, what ended up happening was Chris crawling through and me waiting to see if it was worth it… it wasn’t, so I didn’t do all the hard core crawling at the end! Thanks Chris!

haha poor Chris crawling

Local women wearing masks

The crew

We kept driving and stopped at the rainbow valley. The view was surreal! Mountains of different colors made out of the so many different minerals in the island! It was just so magical!

By now it was getting late so we quickly stopped at the rock formations. Sidsel, Alex, and Birk stayed by the tuk tuk and had some tea while Chris and I ventured out to see the rock formations. The rocks were not all that exciting but the cliff overlooking a secret beach was just spectacular… and a little bit frightening.

The last stop for the day was at the red beach… my favorite! The sand on top was totally black with many rocks of all colors around, the red sand underneath comes from the red mountains and goes all the way into the ocean, giving the illusion that the water is red! So pretty!!!

At 3pm we left Sidsel, Alex, and Birk at the port to go back to Qeshm and Chris and I went back to the guesthouse for some down time.

I loved Birk! Made me miss my job and being around children!

Around 5pm we woke up from our naps and made our way to Ted's house for tea and sunset!

The evening started by me seating by the water and immediately joined by a local girl. We tried to communicate with my poor Persian and it seemed like she wasn't getting anything and it wasn't until later that evening that I was told that they actually have a special language in the island, Hormuzi! haha

Tea with Ted

As I sat there I saw so so so many women seating by the edge of the water and then Ted shared with us that every day women sit by the water while men ride their motorcycles on the main road and they check each other out! I loved seeing this interaction happening! 










We sat there and at the end of sunset some local girls came to say Hi! The hi turned into a long conversation of ted translating from the island's language to German, then Chris translating from German to English for me. 


Long story short we spent the night smoking shisha and having snacks with the locals. The island doesn't get many foreigners so many people came to see us! It was very funny! We left the house at midnight with one of the local girls saying "I love you Chris"... and wanting Chris to take her to Germany! Hahaha I had a great laugh but poor Chris felt super uncomfortable and for the first time in my life I felt like a man actually understood how a woman feels when she gets harassed by men.

The following day (after a nice breakfast) Chris and I rented a motorcycle to go around the island on our own. 

Selfie with the breakfast

It all started by Chris getting a short little lesson on how to use the motorcycle since it was manual and not that new. I think the locals were not very convinced that Chris would be able to handle the bike. 

We spent 6 super fun hours going off-road and trying to figure out some exciting routes to explore the islands. At times it took the both of us to move sand and rocks to make a way for the bike so we could go through… such an adventure!

Motorcycle selfie!

Hormuz is very popular with locals who come for a night or two (or more) and camp on the island. We saw girls without hijabs and with their pants rolled up... a little taste of freedom! (Oh! and men wearing shorts, which is also forbidden!)

 Such a trooper!!! Chris pushing the bike through the soft sand!!!




I loved the red sand beach so much that we decided to go back and finish the "I Love Iran" with rock sign.

Selfie time with Chris!

In the afternoon Chris had to go catch the ferry and I was left on my own at the guesthouse.

After a well deserved nap I went back to Ted’s house for another sunset by the water front. The same girls were sitting in the same place as the day before and I joined them and then we all sat in Ted’s front yard for some spanish lessons. Mayede and Erazu were not interested in spanish but Hooda was quite good at it.

After an hour or so of hanging out with them Ted said we should go to his friends who play music so we slowly walked to their house. On our way we stopped for tea at a house with an amazing family who ended up inviting me for lunch the following day. It was funny how Ted wanted me to speak spanish, he said it sounds like music, very melodic and beautiful!

After a quick 40 minute stop for tea we continued our way to the musician’s house, this time we stopped at almost every corner and saying “Salam” to literally every person we saw on the street. I felt like the whole town knew me by then. While on the walk I saw a food stand and I went to check it out, I was very hungry and saw the guy making falafels so I bought one for me and one for Ted. I decided to walk and eat but Ted and some other guys insisted that I sat down so I ended up sitting with my falafel inside a hardware store! haha So funny! The owner pulled a chair in the middle of his store and made me sit!

We finally made it to his friend’s house and to my surprise his friends were not old Iranian guys but a group of 4 Iranian’s in their 20s. I asked how they knew each other and it turned out they met in the 18-hour train ride from Tehran! I spent a great night talking to them and listening to the beat of their drums and harmonica. So beautiful!

They made me vegetarian spaghetti!

My last day in Hormuz was a bit of a surprise since it was raining! At 11:30 Ted came knocking on my door and telling me I had to go, I had to catch the earlier ferry to Bandar Abbas because of bad weather and the possibility of the ferry closing because of it. Luckily, I already had my bag packed so I left with him to the local’s house  that had invited me for lunch the day before.

At 1pm while I was waiting for the ferry I met Maryam, an Iranian teacher who commutes from bandar Abbas to Hormuz to teach. That day was her day off but came to the island to do a make up class. We started talking and she invited me to her house to spend the 5 hours I had to wait for my flight, I accepted. I spent the afternoon playing with her 5 year old; at the beginning Mohammed was a little shy but little by little I won him over and spent the afternoon reading him books, looking out the window and describing what we saw, and eating so much! Iranian people are just the best.

I was very impressed by Mohammed who can speak perfect english! He is able to say sentences in the past with the right verbs, adding -ed at the end as well as using irregular verbs, he was able to put sentences together and carry a full on conversation. I sat with him for hours thinking that he went to a bilingual school but then talking to Maryam she said that his english is all from home!!! I couldn't believe it! I started telling her how good english was and gave her examples of how advanced he was and she was so proud! Mohammed has learned english by talking to his mom, watching shows like little bear in english, and doing some computer games with letters in english. Mohammed is now wanting to write and begged Maryam to let him do the letter video where they show the letters and he loves to copy them in a piece of paper. Maryam wasn't very sure that he should be starting to write but I encouraged her to follow his lead, to let him learn at his own pace and not to discourage his from doing something academic. Of course, I encouraged a more montessori approach to it, I told her he could use a sand tray to trace the letters (and also mentioned using lower case) and to introduce the sounds of the letters instead of the names since that's the beginning of english reading.

Mohammed copied my name.

I couldn't have asked for a better time in Hormuz! Now back to Tehran!