Rather than starting a new thread for every new place I visit, I figured I would just start one thread in which I try to ask people for tips for the places I go to and in which I post some short observations and perhaps a few pictures. I am in Mexico City right now, in the airport...my flight to Caracas will leave in about four hours...fortunately, they have free wireless Internet access here in the Mexicana lounge . Cuba was quite impressive...Havana is kind of like how I would imagine Miami would be if nothing had been fixed or renovated within the last 40 years...and if hardly any cars had been imported or produced within the same time...you see huge old American cars everywhere...yesterday, I went to the beach - beautiful. Not too full, the water is almost as warm as in a bathtub, and the sand is almost white and powdery. In the evening, I went to a Buena Vista Social Club (or what's left of them, RIP Compay Segundo) concert in the Hotel Nacional. Seeing the energy of 86-year old Pio Leyva was really impressive. Anyway...on to Venezuela...I'm a little worried about security there as I heard from two people independently from each other that they got robbed by their taxi drivers....in official taxis! Anybody here from Venezuela (I know we had some people during the Oscar Torres days) or anyone who has been there? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
Well, I'm in Caracas now, but I'm not really fomfotable here...big demonstration right in front of my hotel, and they keep firing guns...it's not very safe here once I leave the hotel (at least my taxi driver didn't rob me, I made sure it was a weak little guy). But there is a lot of crime here: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=9892 http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-21-122140.asp?reg=AMERICAS
Good grief, what made you decide to put Venezuela on your itenerary? Is the next leg of your journey in Khandahar and Tikrit?
Two friends of mine lived here for a while a few years ago (they worked for the German embassy) and they said it's a beautiful country well worth visiting... Also, I had been curious about Venezuela since I met a few girls while I was studying at UH who showed me photos of their country and praised it...tallest waterfalls on earth (Angel Falls), beautiful caribbean coastline...etc...
1. I did it enough when younger, 2. I like being home, 3. some health issues, and I'd just as soon not leave the good old USA unless I have to. kids and travel don't mix, and although mine are grown, being a dad weaned me of much travel. until I was about 35 I was a travelling fool. now it's only when I absolutely have to do it.
i spent a summer in venezuela. its very beautiful. caracas is awesome -- and the stereotype is true -- theres some amazing women there. check out Colonia Tovar if you get a chance -- its a town full of german immigrants that came over years ago. the town has this total european feel to it -- its so weird to see in the middle of south america. the beaches all along the coast of venezuela are awesome. water is like a swimming pool and the sand is white. Tucaucus and Chi Chi Rivichi (sp?) are two beach resort spots (a little far from caracas however). If you want to go to the interior of venezuela, then definitely go to Merida. Its a beautiful city in the mountains. Of course Angel Falls is a must (unfortunately i didnt get to go there ). i heard that to get there, you have to take a boat ride on the amazon for a couple of hours and trek through some rain forest. sounds awesome, but i didnt have the money to do it other cities i saw in venezuela: barquisemento and valencia. nothing particularly special about those cities, but still worth the drive from caracas. if you drive west along the coast from caracas, you eventually end up in the place called the Paraguana Peninsula. its interesting to see how the topography changes on your drive. caracas is in some hills among the rain forest. by the time you get to the Paraguana Peninsula, you would think youve reached the middle east or something. they have sand dunes everywhere. Thats actually where i spent my summer in venezuela.
I am now in Rio. I have taken a lot of pictures and I have written a travel blog. Can anyone recommend a free website to which I could FTP my pictures? I have made two versions, one that is already online for my (offline) friends, but I also made an "anonymous" version (without pictures of me) which I would like to make available for those who are interested. I tried to upload my stuff to Tripod, but somehow could not get it done with Cute FTP.
Now THOSE pictures, I didn't even upload them for my offline friends . Edit...just realized you meant the picture above in this thread...no, unfortunately not, those pictures are just taken from other websites. But mine look better...I don't wear speedos...
Could you post a rough itinerary, SJC? I was wondering where you were going and in which direction... left or right. I've done a lot of traveling, although I haven't done nearly as much since we had kids. We're waiting for them to get old enough for major trips. (man, there is a lot to be said for traveling sans kiddos... love 'em, but they are a major impediment!) If some of us know where you're headed, we might be able to make a few suggestions. I went around the world once. It seems like a lifetime ago.
I uploaded some photo galleries (with some pictures taken out because I want to preserve my anonymity, not because I am important enough for anyone to want to find out, but because there are too many weirdos out there (although it would probably be easy for some people to determine my identity based on the information I am giving, but whatever)). It was actually a hell of a lot of work because I basically wrote a whole new travel blog - and because I am so computer illiterate (well, relatively speaking compared to some of you experts out there) and Tripod does not allow certain file names, etc., I had to edit a very large amount of files and pages manually. Anyway, I hope that some of you will have a look at my travel blog and my photo galleries and I would be very thankful for comments on my pictures or on the places I have visited (to many of them I would like to go back). I also visited Buenos Aires and Chicago, but I left them out of my blog because there are almost only people in the Chicago pictures (whose pictures I do not want to post) and the pictures from Buenos Aires suck. The camera I used for all the pictures is a Casio Exilim EX-Z3 (tiny, I am very happy with it, it almost fits in an Altoids box, size of a credit card, 3.2 megapixels, 3x optical zoom). It only sucks at night when trying to take pictures of things in a distance (weak flash). My next stops will be Mexico City (for a day only), San Antonio (only transfering), Houston (for a day only), Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Hawaii, before heading on towards Asia - so if you have good tips for any of these locations, I would be very thankful. Here is the link to my travel blog: http://sirjackiechiles.blogspot.com/ (read from the bottom up if you want to see the pics in chronological order) Please do me a favor and send me some feedback using the feedback link at the end of each post or comment here. Thanks!
If you don't want to read through my ramblings on the blog page, but might want to go straight to look at some pictures of the places I visited, here are the links: <br> <a href="http://sirjackiechiles.tripod.com/Havana/"><img src="http://mitglied.lycos.de/rockets2000/havanastart.jpg"></a> <a href="http://sirjackiechiles.tripod.com/Venezuela/"><img src="http://mitglied.lycos.de/rockets2000//venezuelastart.jpg"></a> <br> <a href="http://sirjackiechiles.tripod.com/Noronha/"><img src="http://mitglied.lycos.de/rockets2000/nandostart2.jpg"></a> <br> <a href="http://sirjackiechiles.tripod.com/Fortaleza/"><img src="http://mitglied.lycos.de/rockets2000/cumbucostart.jpg"></a> <br> <a href="http://sirjackiechiles.tripod.com/Iguazu/"><img src="http://mitglied.lycos.de/rockets2000/iguazustart.jpg"></a>
Dude, that's awesome. Globetrotting is probably the best thing a person can do to fully grasp the human experience. Keep us updated!
