After Costa Rica, following a day cruising through the Panama Canal, our Semester at Sea voyage made one final stop before docking for good in Fort Lauderdale. Originally, we were slated to visit Havana, Cuba, but when our travel license didn’t come through in time, that changed to Santa Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala. Well, one [...]
Photo Friday: Monterrico, Guatemala
January 13, 2012 By 32 Comments
I never did much coverage of our 2008 trip to Guatemala, primarily because neither of us were wild about the destination. We found Antigua too touristy, the Puerto Quetzal area too run down, the rainy season (which lasts much of the year) a bit too restrictive and the no-see-ums that found their way into our [...]
Photo Friday: Playa Esterillos, Costa Rica
December 16, 2011 By 26 Comments
Jumping ahead in time a bit to the near end of our Semester at Sea voyage, we docked in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica for a very brief 36 hours. SVV and I headed straight for Alma del Pacifico, down along Playa Esterillos near Manuel Antonio National Park for a very quiet night away from the [...]
Photo Friday: Antigua, Guatemala
November 26, 2010 By 16 Comments
It’s true that I didn’t love Guatemala like so many travelers I know—but that doesn’t mean there weren’t parts I didn’t find delightfully charming. The ancient colonial city of Antigua, for example, was lovely in its cobblestone ways and crumbling facades. Sadly, throughout the duration of our three weeks in Central America in 2008, we [...]
Photo Friday: Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala
March 12, 2010 By 16 Comments
It’s been 17 months since we went to Guatemala, and I only saw the visual evidence for the first time this week. (We have nine computers between the two of us—ridiculous, I know, I know—and the folder was deeply buried on a dormant one.) And, as the whole experience left a bad taste in my [...]
Driving Me Crazy
February 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Oy to the vey. It’s been quite the week, and it’s only Tuesday. Sunday morning before the birthday brunch in honor of Senorita Burns (photos of the fete and Baby Wombat here), I was sending a couple gems of the thousands of Australia pictures to one of my editors. Only, when I went to attach [...]
You Call THIS a Vacation?
November 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment
I should have know it was going to be a bad day when I woke up to my alarm at 4:30am in Guat City, only to find my glasses frames nearly bent in half on the floor. Yes, in retrospect, I should have just gone back to bed. It took a bus ride then four [...]
How I Accidentally Found Myself in Costa Rica
October 12, 2008 By Leave a Comment
I committed the classic rookie error, I will admit. As a traveler by profession, you would think I´d be smarter than to miss my connection in LA–with a FOUR-hour layover. Um yeahhh, not so much. (I should note that in the hundreds of flights I have taken in the last few years in 60+ countries, [...]
