Morocco's colorful fiber art In Morocco, in addition to visiting an ancient pharmacy (or whatever they are calling an argan oil dispensary these days) that a friend or relative of your tour guide owns, you will likely go to a carpet store and/or scarf shop on most tours as well. While also a tourist trap, …
Clifford's Honey Farm on Kangaroo Island has the last genetically pure population of the Ligurian honey bees anywhere in the world. All the other Lingorian bee populations in the world have been mixed with other types of bees. But, because of Kangaroo Island's remote location, theirs have not. The honey these bees make is delicious, …
To pack in just carry-on for one week and longer trips, particularly to different climates, is a slowly learned skill. You can only take essentials and have to plan on washing clothing. My packed carry-on consists of these collections, which I have written about previously: Specified easy wash clothes in 3 packing cubes, plus …
In China, you can't get access to the websites most of us use on a daily basis. Things like Facebook, Gmail, Google, and many other sites can't be accessed without a VPN. But not just any VPN, you want one with good connections in China. Before going to China last year, I spent a …
Puerto Rico has a few bays that have bio-luminescent dinoflagellates in them (they often just refer to these as "biobays" for obvious reasons. There is one near Lagas, called La Parguera on the SW side of the island. The one in Mosquito Bay is supposedly much better but I didn't have time to go there. …
Continue reading Swimming with living sparkles (Puerto Rico)
Outside of Marrakech is a great attraction -- the Ourika Valley with many waterfalls. Many trips are available (on TripAdvisor, etc) that will take you to the valley and on a short (but steep) trek to the waterfalls (The seller here is keeping the fruit cold by keeping it in the cold river water. No …
If you are traveling to a Caribbean island, you may want to check out what sunscreen you can bring. Some islands (including the U.S. Virgin Islands) are restricting what can be used at the beach (or even brought onto the island). This is to prevent the visitors who are seeing the sealife from adding to …
Continue reading New sunscreen restrictions in eco-conscious countries and sun safety options
Start off the day early with a 730 pickup for a full-day tour. The first stop is in about an hour and a half at a hot spring where they boil eggs in baskets and there are lots of touristy shops and a hot water bathroom. Then back in the bus to go to the …
Updated 7/19 Because I travel so frequently, I have a few things that generally just live in my suitcase so I take them on every trip. One of those things is a small packet with a collection of small items in it that have often been helpful. I will list some of them here. Nearly …
If you are in Brisbane, I recommend a stop at the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary. There are over 100 koalas there, and you can see quite a few of them, generally sleeping in their trees or eating eucalyptus. The park also has areas where you can walk around with, and in some cases feed, …
Continue reading Animal interaction: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (Brisbane, Australia)
Aruba - Cruise port Once off the dock, we started looking for a likely taxi ride to take us to the things we planned to see. Our primary interests were the diorite boulders and the butterfly farm. We quickly found a driver who would take the three of us to those two attractions and a …
Continue reading Oranjestad, Aruba – Netherlands Antilles – sightseeing and the Butterfly Farm
The Dominican Republic is on the island of Hispaniola which is shared with the nation of Haiti. The DR is the second largest Caribbean nation by area (the largest is Cuba). The island was "discovered" by Christopher Columbus in 1492, although the native Taíno people had been there since the 7th century. Historically the island …
I hate it when I go scuba diving or snorkeling or ride in an open-air vehicle of some sort and my hair really takes a beating and ends up with tons of knots or totally dried out (or both). I try to hold my hair in a clip or band to keep it from becoming …
Continue reading Taming damaged or severely tangled hair (with help from a tree goats climb)
Again a pronunciation: Grenade-ah I was pronouncing it incorrectly because I used to live in a building called the Grenada Center, pronounced Gren-ah-dah. We saw three main attractions on Grenada. A spice demonstration (the local equivalent of a jade tour in China, the argan oil shop in Morocco, carpet tours in Turkey, etc.), Grand Etang …
Cuba - Museum of the Revolution Havana's Museum of the Revolution is housed in the former Presidential Palace which hosted foreign dignitaries and has a hall similar to mini-Versailles hall of mirrors. It's final resident was Batista, after which it was found to be a capitalistic eyesore after the Cuban Revolution and converted to …
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