December 19th, 2012
In my quest for the extraordinary, in my third visit to Guatemala I explored its off the beaten –track Western Highlands, four hours from Antigua, the most beautiful colonial city in the Americas. Using the medium size city of Quetzaltenango (locally called Xela: shell-ah), as a base I took the “chicken bus” north and hiked down to Laguna Chicabal, a supreme little lake sitting in the crater of the Chicabal volcano, It is nestled in a cloud forest so I started early in the morning for best viewing. Its color is a main attraction, mineral deposits prevent limited water clarity and it looks like someone has spilled a can of aqua paint at the bottom of this sweet little volcano.
The surprise in Zunil(10 kms south of Xela) is an effigy known as San Simon or Maximon in Guatemala. This effigy sits in a chair and is exalted by all and offerings of cigarettes, candles, rum etc. The seeming alter ego of a conventional Catholic saint, this one is a drinking, smoking, carousing saint! He is considered to be a combination of the Mayan gods, a Spanish conquistador and the biblical Judas, So worshippers can eitherembrace the pious tenents ofthe church or have a rip-roaring toot in the manner of this “saint”. His caretaker lives with him year around and is the blissful and constant recipient of all the alcoholic offerings to San Simon. At the end of his year’s tenure as guardian he staggers home to his wife and another guardian takes his place at this holy barroom.
San Francisco del Alto is considered as the most authentic market in the country. Keep small denominations of Quetzals in your pocket for the jammed Friday market there to bargain for weavings. Even though this market’s choices are massive, I found the weaving designs and colors were much more appealing in villages dotting the shores of nearby Lago de Atitlan, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world.
About 8 kms north of Xela, San Andres Xeecul houses one of the most bizarre churches in the world (and I’ve seen many surreal holy places). The four story electric yellow façade bursts with bas reliefs of saints, monkeys, flowers, and tigers all painted hot, glossy circus-like colors. There is no information available as to why this Technicolor explosion was created!
To see more photographs of Guatemala >>>>>>>
Tags: beat track, geography of guatemala, geology, guatemala, highlands, lago de Atitlan, laguna chicabal, my quest, quest, quetzaltenango, thirds, track, track western, volcanology, western highlands, zunil
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December 17th, 2012
ARTICLE FIVE
OF THE EIGHT STUNNING NATURAL DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD
Wild jungles! Ferocious animals! Well—– kind of. The island of Borneo isn’t the Jungle Jim in movies we imagine but it still has wild and wonderful far-flung experiences. Rainforests are scattered throughout the island. We traveled by motorized canoe up the rich rainforest on each side of the Batang Ai River.
The Dayak people there live in traditional longhouses, that are long and narrow and sit on stilts because of seasonal flooding and made entirely of bamboo. The stairs from the canoe dock below lead to the communal floor. On one long side is a public area; on the other is a row of private quarters with a single door for each family.
River fishing is their main occupation and their social life is meeting each other in their canoes.
Head hunting ended under British rule in 1925 but blowguns that stun and drop animals are still used in hunting.
Man rarely sees orang Utans but a rare natural treat is to get up close at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, one of the few in the world. You can watch them feeding but guard your hat and your camera. They grab them and run and, like the 200-pound gorilla in the room, you don’t want to mess with these 200-pound apes.
Tags: bamboo, Batang Ai River, blowguns, British rule, canoes, fishing, jungle, longhouses, orangutans, river
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December 10th, 2012
ARTICLE FOUR
OF THE EIGHT STUNNING NATURAL DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD
A two-hour drive from Quito, Ecuador presents the dormant Quilatoa Volcano, a triple treat for the traveler that provides years of bragging rights. About 500 feet below its crest lies a lake that appears as though someone has half filled the crater with opaque, aqua paint – much like that of Lake Louise, Canada.
Because it lies low and is therefore wind protected, it is virtually always flat. Its stillness and opacity create an eerily peaceful panorama. The three unique treats it offers are unbeatable.
Descend the sandy path on foot down to the beach that circles the lake and experience what it’s like to be at the bottom of a volcano crater. Walk around the periphery of the beach and feel the low hanging cumulous clods waft over the crest and the cobalt sky above.
A pre ordered picnic lunch from your guesthouse a thousand feet from the rim of the crater above arrives on horseback. Spread a tablecloth on the sand. When was the last time you had lunch in a volcano?
After your full exploration of this marvel, horses take up to the top of the volcano and to the doorstep of your guesthouse. There, on the veranda, savor drinks while being immersed in the sunset over the Andes. A completely satisfying series of encounters in just one day, the stuff fantasies are made of.
Tags: Andes, aqua lake opaque lake water, clouds over a volcano, crater rim, Ecuador, lake, low hanging clouds, lunch served on horseback, picnic, sandy beach, volcano
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December 3rd, 2012
On the way to the first site, Sigiriya, a surprise treat is the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. This 24-acre compound houses seventy-eight orphaned or injured Asian elephants. This is as up close and personal as it gets to physical contact with elephants. There are no cages and, with caution and help from the mahout guards, you can touch an elephant. It’s like walking into a movie about elephants. This makes for super “bragging rights” to your friends. Time your visit and you can see the herd having a two-hour afternoon swim in the river.
If you’re in good shape, try the strenuous but rewarding climb to the top of the rock fortress of Sigiriya, the “Fortress In The Sky,” which UNESCO has delared to be the 8th Wonder of the World. On its top there’s a sweeping 360-degree view of the countryside. It offers the remains of the fifth century palace of King Kashyapa, as well as a dramatic outcropping of golden granite, and an extensive network of gardens. In its many caves are delicate frescoes that are wisely preserved. Afternoon is the best time to photograph them with a no-flash camera.
Near Sigiriya is one the most inviting hotel properties in the country. Vil Uyana is a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Its villas, rising from the paddy/marshlands, are connected both to each other and the central buildings by a wooden walkway. A small private dunk pool is outside your door. The descending stairs to the reception area make one feel like an ancient monarch making his entrance.
The magnet of the important 10th and 11th century cultures is the Cultural Triangle – Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Kandy with Sigiriya in the center of the island.
The Gal Vihare Rock Temple is the breath taker. Carved out of granite are three statues of Buddha. The surprise is that all three have the sense of being living matter. The reclining Buddha (46 feet long) is the biggest stunner. Though carved in granite, its esthetically beautiful face appears to be luminescent. It emanates a peacefulness seldom achieved in any artistic medium.
Sri Lankans seem to favor mammoth monuments to celebrate Buddha. Near the statues described above is the massive, dome shaped Rancot Vehera Dagoba (a dagoba is a shrine containing a relic). Despite the massive shapes, they are curiously inviting for peace and contemplation.
Tags: Buddha, Cultural Triangle, Fortress in the Sky, Gal Vihare Rock Temple, King Kashyapa, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Rancot Vehera Dagoba, Sigiriya, UNESCO, Vil Uyana
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November 26th, 2012
Now you know where the mutiny on the Bounty happened, 1300 miles north east of New Zealand in the blue, blue Pacific. It’s a group of islands proudly displaying their unique customs and traditions. Both men and women wear a tapenu – a sarong like cloth or woven mat from waist to ankles, a symbol of their conservative religious lifestyle.
No fast food – Burger King etc. When I asked the hotel restaurant waiter to bring me a hamburger he said, “Oh, I’m sorry sir, we don’t have ham.” Slow food – pigs roasted underground for a day is the rule here. Tongans love to eat, sing, eat, talk, eat, dance, eat and laugh. Did I say eat?
One of the three places in the world you can swim with Humpback whales as they migrate to Antarctica is offered in the Vava’u island group and scuba diving visibility can up to a startling 200 feet.
My eye was constantly caught by their typically unique graveyards. World wide the sunnier the climate the more colorful are the graveyards Northern climates typically have somber, grey tombstones and the closer to the Equator the more colorful are the sites. Here the beloved are buried above ground and the mound is decorated with white or black stones, plastic flowers and covered over by a hotly colored home made quilt on which are placed objects beloved to the deceased. One grave mound was circled by upside down beer bottles.
A one of a kind experience – while girls perform traditional dances it’s the custom for audience members to go onstage and place a dollar bill on the bare arms or shoulders of this otherwise modestly costumed dancer to show their appreciation of her talent. The bills cling to her because her exposed skin is slathered with coconut oil. This custom began years ago when to test a young girl’s virginity she was doused in cocoanut oil and if the oil glistened and dripped while she danced she was considered to be pure. There was lots of oil dripping in the shows I saw.
On an outer island of E’ua I was taken to the Rock Garden. On the southern tip, the lush vegetation suddenly opens up to this expanse of rolling grassy hills with occasional coral outcroppings. Roaming freely in this remote area are beautiful wild horses brought there by sailing ships in the eighteenth century. This startling landscape reminds me more of Ireland than it does a tropical island. On other islands the only vehicles allowed are school busses or resort vehicles that guaranteed that the only sound I heard was the ocean. Las Vegas it’s not, welcoming it is.
Tags: Antarctica, E'au, E'ua Rock Garden, graveyards, Mutiny on the Bounty, New Zealand, Pacific ocean, tapenu, Tonga, Vava'u island
Posted in Tonga | 2 Comments »
November 18th, 2012
ARTICLE THREE
OF THE EIGHT STUNNING NATURAL DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD
Two hours south of Jordan’s famous ancient city of Petra is the jaw dropping Wadi Rum, which displays fantastic sandstone formations, all shaped by nature’s elements. It’s like moving through the most beautiful sculptural garden in the world. No wonder much of the beautiful classic film “Lawrence of Arabia,” with its sweeping panoramas was shot here.
This was my second trip in three years. In a four wheel drive, round any corner of undulating pale sand dunes, you will discover yet another sweeping valley that reveals intense orange, red, and ochre sheer cliffs pushing against a cobalt blue sky. The collection of tiny black dots in the distance is a herd of camels, which gives you a notion of the vast scale of both this valley and the valleys beyond.
The continuous series of abstract, beautiful, and surreal sculptural shapes in the cliffs and outcroppings is endlessly fascinating. Wherever you turn, there is yet another visual banquet.
Experience the various shapes and textures as you walk through the sand formations and then across narrow sandstone bridges over thirty feet high. Let your imagination explore the over 30,000 vivid petroglyphs in the area. Hiking between two narrow high yellow/ochre cliffs, you turn a corner that suddenly reveals a surprise oasis.
I often have tea with a Bedouin in his tent. He usually has small treasures (some with remarkable stories behind them) that are for sale to provide stories for you to tell back home.
I was endlessly fascinated by some of the chiaroscuro walls etched by nature that resemble tiny buildings, facades, doorways, and animals. It then dawned on me how the Nabataeans, the first nomadic tribe to explore this area in 4 BC, realized that they could literally carve out a livable city from this soft sandstone, as they did Petra. Happily, since 1988, the Royal Society of the Conservation of Nature has maintained Wadi Rum’s pristine existence.
For accommodations you can choose conventional guesthouses or carpeted desert tents.
Best times to visit: April/May and October/November, when the days are comfortably warm. Go! You must experience this extraordinary gift of pure nature.
Tags: bedouin, camel herders, camel riders., camels, cliffs, Desert, Jordan, Lawrence of Arabia, Nabataeans, ochre cliffs, Petra, petroglyphs, Royal Society of the Conservation of Nature, sandstone formations, scenic, sweeping view, Wadi Rum
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October 31st, 2012
ARTICLE TWO
OF THE EIGHT STUNNING NATURAL DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD
One of the most rarified experiences on Planet Earth is a sojourn to Egypt’s White Desert. Five hours by 4wd south east of Cairo, this stunner of mother Nature is basically all white and cream colored and composed solely of chalk formations altered only by sandstorms.
These formations, up to fifty feet in height, resemble abstract sculptures. Wind is the only sculptor that changes their shapes. Rainfall is virtually unknown. You may marvel at a “sculpture” that resembles a twelve-foot mushroom. But come back in two months and it may morph into a foot high round edged “table”. That’s part of the magic of this ever-changing landscape.
The dawn horizon is a pastel wonder. On the horizon the golden light fades into pink that fades into a pale blue before it reaches the intense blue sky. Sunset is always bathed in intense orange that makes black silhouettes of the regal formations.
On arrival when my guide asked me where I would like my tent pitched I excitedly pointed and said ‘There! No there! Uhhhh—here is great! NO– HERE! “ No matter where you put your tent, it was right for this glorious outdoor museum of nature, and it set the stage for a grand vision as you opened it in the fabled dawn light .
Tags: Cairo, chalk formations, dawn horizon, Egypt, ever-changing landscape, sandstorms, White Desert
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October 17th, 2012
ARTICLE ONE
OF THE EIGHT STUNNING NATURAL DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD
The stunner about Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada is that few people have set foot on its dramatic landscape. It defines the word “pristine,” which is what I go to the ends of the earth to find. Just north of the Montana border, the southwest Alberta prairie suddenly hits the Canadian Rockies. The jagged peaks are reflected in a series of cobalt blue lakes that seem to have been painted on the manicured grasslands that surround them.
A further insurance of protection is that UNESCO has granted it a World Heritage Site. It promised an unobstructed union with nature and it delivered what it promised.
At one location not far from the Waterton Lakes Township, a camper was right next to a river, across from a pond that reflected the sunset on the mountains. Yeahhhh.
The township itself sits on Upper Waterton Lake and offers a two or four-person bicycle surreys to scoot around town, and Bertha Waterfall is only a thousand feet away from the town center.
I took a Waterton Shoreline Cruise on Upper Waterton Lake to the drop-off point, and then hiked a trail that features a 175-meter waterfall and goes through a mountain tunnel to Crypt Lake. That trail takes you into Montana, where you get your passport stamped before returning.
An unusual destination I biked to is Red Rock Canyon, where the river rocks are vibrantly colored red and green, due to the amount of iron deposits.
Even in summertime, the diverse natural attractions and campsites are never jammed with too many visitors. No bumper-to-bumper traffic jams. I never had to jockey for a picture-taking position among a large crowd taking snapshots of moose or bears. In town, seeing deer is pretty much ho-hum as people’s front yards are peppered with deer grazing on lawns.
To get the choice campsites in summer reserve in early May. In the off seasons, it feels like you have the Park all to yourself.
At the end of the day, I loved to perch on a hill and feast my eyes at the creamy Canadian sunset in the serene lakes below and exhale.
Tags: Bertha Waterfall, Canada, Canadian Rockies, Crypt Lake, jagged peaks, Red Rock Canyon, UNESCO, Upper Waterton Lakes, Waterton Lakes, Waterton Lakes National Park, Waterton Lakes Township, Waterton Shoreline Cruise, World Heritage Site
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October 13th, 2012
INTRODUCTION
TO THE EIGHT STUNNING NATURAL DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD
In my more than 4000 travel destinations, 107 countries and all seven continents I have traveled I have encountered some extraordinarily stunning natural phenomenons. I’m going to do a series of eight blogs of those places over a few weeks time period to share with you these undiscovered or under discovered destinations and what makes them so truly awesome. I’ll add photographs to each place to illustrate their uniqueness. These photographs are for sale and you can contact me: 222jabe@gmail.com for sizes and prices. I’m sure you’ll enjoy these blogs and photos.
Tags: photos of rare natural phenomenon, under discovered destinations, undiscovered destinations, unusual natural formations
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October 6th, 2012
My accommodations are usually totally covered on press trips, but the perennially dependable, low budget way to go is hostels. For one thing they provide much more hands-on information than more upscale travel. Thirty people being herded around by a guide while staying in a three- or four-star hotel has its advantages, but the information given will be generic and based only on that particular itinerary, and may not match your needs or wants.
The information you get from other hostel guests who have just done what you’re planning to do — and who have current, correct information about how to do it — is really a plus. It’s like having all the social media, in person, in one place, to help you make your plans trouble free.
Because hostels are about essentials, not amenities, your travel funds are freed up to afford more of what are the most important ingredients for you. Be sure your source is on the same page as you are. Your destinations may be the same, but be sure the traveller who just returned from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico who wants only water sports during the day and heavy night life can steer you to your desired experience – to chill by a quiet river.
Transportation is dicey in many second or third world countries. Use the local hostel staff to advise you in advance about what to expect to encounter between destinations. Very important — inquire about safety records of various modes of transportation and dependability of schedules. For example: the safety records of jeep drivers in South Africa is vastly better that those of Bolivia.
Search the social networks of the places you’re travelling to and find out the pros and cons of various hostels either in a city stay or a remote natural location. An established global one is Hostel World. In addition to a vast pool of up to the minute information, hostels provide a rich source to provide you with personal independence as well as flexible mobility for you do get the maximum out of your travel experiences
Tags: foreign travel, hostels, staying in hostels, travel, travel accommodations
Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »
