A glimpse of Guatemala

Central America is one place I have yet to travel to, yet in good time it too will be crossed off on my list of places to visit. David Rich, an author for GoNOMAD.com recently took a tour there and was a visitor to what he considered the heart of Central America - Guatemala. Read below a bit from his article, What-a Ball-a in Guatemala:

Guatemala is the gem of Central America, offering more to the traveler than any of its half dozen neighbors, even if the equatorial heat had melted them into a tropical glob.

World class sites stretch from the most fabulous Mayan ruin at Tikal in the north to the Rio Dulce and Lago Izabal in the south, sandwiching polychromatic markets and variously active volcanoes from Antigua to Lago Atitlan.

This short list barely scratches the surface of flashy and vibrant Guatemala, a country I found safe and carefree outside the habitual suspects in the nighttime ghettoes of the ugly megalopolis pedantically named Guatemala City.

Guatemala sits high at altitude, a good place to be in the tropics, away from the sweltering lowlands of unfortunate neighboring countries.

The single exception is the Rio Dulce on the Caribbean coast, a don’t-miss waterway lined with lily pads, mangroves, houses on stilts and galères of exotic birdlife winding through chalky narrow cliffs to the Rastafarian town of Livingston, reachable only by boat.

Inexpensive private vans shuttle tourists between Guatemalan destinations, from Antigua to wherever, including Chichicastenango, aka Chichi, for market days on Thursdays and Sundays. Guatemalans love color, reflected in spades at regional markets.

The cascades of flowers, fabric and females dressed in blazing brilliance are reminiscent of similar markets in Mali, the north of Vietnam and western China, with the added element of religious celebrations combining Mayan traditions with splotches of Catholicism. Chichi is truly a photographer’s and fabric shopper’s paradise.

For more of this and other articles visit GoNOMAD

The low down on taxis

Most people can say that they have been in a taxi at least once in their lifetime. I have been in many throughout the US and around the world. With all the convenience that they bring, they can also bring hassle. An article I found on Dave's Travel Corner gives some great insight into the world of taxis.


The following items are problems that I have run into when using taxi drivers.

Not using the meter
This can be a complicated excuse. First of all, many taxi drivers do not even have meters. Some taxi drivers such as in Bangkok as a whole, simply may refuse to use their meters in the case of terrible traffic. However more often than not an excuse to not use the meter means the driver is trying to cheat you for extra money. A common problem is taxi's will have meters but neglect to use them.

Miscommunication
Miscommunication is one of the biggest problems with using taxis. You may not speak their language and they may not speak yours. They may pretend not to speak your language. Having an address written down sometimes helps. Be sure they understand you and *always* repeat their important responses after they say it to get confirmation

Refusing to speak
I've been in situations where taxi drivers refuse to speak - or pretend not to speak English after initially conversing with me in English. This usually occurs when it comes time to pay.

Don't have Change
This is a pretty common excuse. Some taxi drivers will claim not to have change for that large bill you just gave them or even not have change for the not so large bill. Sometimes they will "magically" produce change if you tell them you have to get out of their car and go find someone who will make change.

People already in the Taxi
Taxi drivers in some countries will pick up as many people as can fit in their car and then drop them off as they go. This can be very problematic especially if you are trying to get somewhere in a timely manner. I've had drivers tell me its only going to take a few minutes and it ends up taking a lot longer to drop off the other people already in the car. The people already in the taxi typically will have priority over your destination and you will have to wait until they are dropped off first.

For more taxi issues, visit Dave's Travel Corner

Cruising Alaska

Cruises I am told can be a wondrous experience - full of music, people, sights, smells, activities, and of coarse GREAT food. I have yet to go on one, but my family and I have been discussing doing one to Alaska. Which cruise is the best pick though?? Looking around online I found this great article with some helpful suggestions on a trip to AK. I picked out some good tips from the Chicago Suns article "Alaska's Inside Passage: Wild coast":

Options aplenty

Now, as then, the basic coastal voyage remains the standard, the trip most travelers try first. Sailing between the ragged Pacific coastline and hundreds of outer islands, the route charts a path between Vancouver, Canada (or Seattle) and the Gulf of Alaska, skimming the highlights and calling at A-list ports like Ketchikan, Sitka, Skagway and Juneau.

Convenience vs. close-ups

To give them their due, mega-ships are a thrill a minute. More hotel than ship, these floating resorts have panoramic views and glam entertainment. Luxury dining, dance bands, spa treatments, nightclub acts, casinos, Internet access, a choice of restaurants and staterooms with picture windows are standard fare. Art collections, investment seminars and children's programs juke up the choices. And storm friendly? Most definitely. These goliaths are so stable, it's hard to tell when you're moving.

But that same giant will be too wide and sit too deep in the water ("draft" it's called) to sail close to shore. If there's a brown bear prowling that distant beach, he'll look like a dot. If the captain has his hand on the throttle and you're not standing in the stern holding your binoculars you'll miss the sea lions on the rocks.

Best compromise

For a combination of small ship convenience and large ship entertainment, check out the Empress of the North, Majestic America Line's 231-passenger sternwheeler. This riverboat look-alike sails seven-night loop cruises out of Juneau, reprising the bawdy days of the 1898 Gold Rush to the Yukon. You'd never guess that that Victorian silk upholstery, brass railings, gilt mirrors and silk pillows are new. So are the amenities, including TV, DVD player, telephone and minibar. Bathrooms come with showers and tubs. The onboard historian is a fount of Gold Rush anecdotes.

Finish this article and more at the Chicago Sun Times

When you got to go... you got to go!

Everyone does it, some just do it in fancy state of the art bathrooms while others go make friends with the woods. Either way, going to the bathroom is a way of life for creatures of all shapes and sizes. But what the group of people who created The Bathroom Diaries figured, is since we all must give in at some point... knowing what type of bathroom establishment is awaiting you can make the experience a much better one!

The Bathroom Diaries is a helpful and in a sense, comical website that any traveler can browse through to find a bathroom around the world. It provides a list of over 8,000 bathrooms of hotels, airports, and other public facilities around the globe, each with either a good or bad rating in terms of sanitization, safety, and aesthetics. Over 100 countries are included in this list such as Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, Morrocco, South Africa and more.

The Bathroom Diaries allows you to add other bathrooms that you’ve used onto the list with your own ratings and comments. Not only do you get to submit your own experience with a bathroom in a foreign country, but you also get to nominate the best, unique and/or creative restroom you’ve ever seen into the Bathroom of the Week contest.

You can also read several amusing or disgusting travel essays submitted by other travelers’ personal experiences with the restrooms on The Bathroom Diaries’ Travel Essays section. If you want, you could also submit and share with other viewers your own bathroom tales for this site.

For the rest of this article and more, visit GoNOMAD

Great guide for the New Year

If travel is on your calendar this year make sure not to forget to pack up your travel guide! This week GoNOMADs own Max Hartshorne wrote a short article on a new travel guide that might just be your next travel friend. The company Ideo Eyes Open Chronicle books are not your average guides. No, instead these books open the eyes of the traveler from seeing the tourist hot spots to looking—"really looking—at their surroundings." A clip from Max's article, Ideo Field Guides: A Stand-out Among the Travel Books is below:

Here is what's cool about these books: The shape of the book, laid out horizontally with a hard cover, is easy to flip through, so you don't have to hold the page open. They have a little elastic you can wrap around so you can mark your place. The text is minimal with very arty and cool photographs with each entry.

They aren't trying to be your Uncle's guide to New York, with info on all of the sites. They instead pick out places and things most of us have never heard of, like Metronaps, where you can take a snooze in a pod in suite 2210 of the Empire State Building.

The book categorizes travelers into logical groups, as they say 'each one of us is an Observer, a Diner, a Shopper and a Mingler.

For the rest of this article and other travel articles, visit GoNOMAD

Spring break isn't just for the kids

As a student in the middle of a crazy jam packed semester full of papers, tests, and projects... spring break sounds like music to my ears! Many of my fellow students have booked cheap travel to the usual Cancun Mexico, Miami Beach, Florida or some other "hot spot" around the USA. Although my break won't be as exciting, just seeing my family and dogs is good enough for me.

But kids are not the ONLY ones who deserve a spring break vacation. Adults who work just as hard at their jobs, who put up with their kids and who barely have enough time for coffee in the morning are just as much in need of a getaway. On the front page of MSN Travel today I found the perfect article for all the non students who are interested in a week of bliss. Listed in "Spring Break Escapes for Adults," are several different types of vacation options. From your typical sandy beaches, to different cultural excursions, there are also volunteer options and international. Below is a snippet of a few of these:

During March, sun-kissed areas of the United States as well as Mexico and the Caribbean become virtually off-limits for anyone not currently affiliated with a college fraternity or sorority. Find salvation, though, with these adult-friendly getaways that offer cultural, recreational and sensory delights.

Island adventure: St. Lucia

Unlike some of its Caribbean neighbors St. Lucias has never been a prime spring-break destination, leaving grown-ups and families free to traipse through the island's tropical rain forest, bike along the ocean or ride horses across its beaches.

The island may also offer the Caribbean's best windsurfing, while Rodney Bay Marina and Marigot Bay have long been yachting favorites.

Volunteer vacation: Costa Rica

Costa Rico is well-known as an excellent entry point to Central America: safe, beautiful and home to some of the region's best beaches. The volunteer organization United Planet (http://www.unitedplanet.org) can help community-minded visitors get even more out of their Costa Rica experience by arranging a volunteer vacation.

Glam getaway: Miami

Though spring-break crowds render much of South Florida inhospitable to the over-21 group, Miami is big enough to absorb them almost invisibly. Plus, there have never been so many reasons to visit the cultural capital of the South, especially given the tremendous success of the city's Art Basel and Design Miami shows.

For more vacation option visit MSN Travel!

Holi Festival, India

Around the world certain occasions are celebrated in different ways. While glancing through the Boston Globe Traveler I found one that would put some literal meaning to Cyndi Laupers song "True Colors." The Holi festival, known to the people of India as the commencement of the spring season is celebrated by singing loudly, dancing, playing games, letting their hair loose and showing their crazy selves. Below is a piece from the article:

Holi is a colorful festival – literally. On “Phalgun Purnima,” toward the end of February or beginning of March each year, revelers gather in the streets to celebrate the blossoming of spring by dousing one another in colored powder and water. Men and women flood the streets and mingle freely, a rare event.

“Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of ‘good’ over ‘bad’.”

For more information check out the Boston Globe

Horseback riding in Chile

A new article posted on GoNOMAD, gives a firsthand account of the country of Chile and the excitement of horseback riding along the ocean. Here's a brief clip:

Castro is the shabby, colourful capital of Chiloe, two thirds of the way to the southern tip of Chile. Chiloe is a fertile archipelago. The Chilote are an independent island people. They fish and farm, and live in shingled houses. Chiloe boasts an array of wooden churches, many over two hundred years old, which are UNESCO world heritage sites.

After two hours, having dropped off all the locals, we arrive in the bleak, soggy hamlet of Cucao, and stop outside a sign reading “Parador Darwin.”

The driver offers to book us in there for lunch. Our companions head towards the entrance to the National Park. A sign near an abandoned wooden house says: “Horses for Rent”. We decide to seek out some horses and a guide.
We are directed across a marsh to a small house where Nelson, a handsome, quiet gaucho type, tells us he has three horses and needs to borrow a fourth.
Nelson, accompanied by a stray black Labrador and his mongrel, leads us through the deserted village, down a path through wind-covered dunes.

The icy Pacific wind hits us as we get our first glimpse of the ocean. The sky has cleared to cobalt with splashes of foamy white clouds.

To finish this article check out GoNOMAD