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Call of South America tourism

Posted September 30, 2009 , comments closed

Sep 30, 2009

ARGENTINA
Aerolineas Argentinas will continue flying to Chapelco
Aerolineas Argentinas will not cancel its flights to Chapelco. At the beginning, there will be two weekly flights and the fixed schedule will be recovered from the fleet recomposition and the pilot training to the new equipment of the airline.

URUGUAY
New airport in Montevideo will be operative in November
Soon, the new Carrasco International Airport will be operative; this airport will have an area of 45,000 sq.m, and it will have cafeterias, VIP rooms, and two premises of McDonald’s, as well as a well-known company in the main restaurant. The new infrastructure, which was invested in US$165 million, must operate at 100 percent for November 15 in order to serve three million passengers per year.

Cruise season begins on November 30
The cruise season will begin on November 30 with the arrival of the Dutch cruise “Veendam” from Holland America Line to Montevideo.

CHILE
Pluna will fly to Punta Arenas
Pluna stated that it hopes to begin its flights between Santiago and Punta Arenas in December, and it confirmed that the agreements already exist to operate in the country. When operations begin, it will consider the idea of expanding its service to other cities.

Norwegian Cruise Line will cancel its flights to Valparaiso
Norwegian Cruise Line will replace its scales in Valparaiso due to high prices paid in Chilean terminals added because of the world economic crisis and the impossibility to operate its own casinos in ships and because of the lack of a guiding organization of the industry in Chile. Its withdrawal means that for the next season less than 24,000 tourists will arrive.

More hotels planned
The hotel projects, which are inaugurated or to begin its building work in the second semester of the year, add up to investments of US$768 million. It is estimated that there are 18 new hotels planned, most of them of four- and five-star hotels placed basically in Santiago and Valparaiso.

Explora with new web
After two years of development, proofs, and implementations, the new Chilean website of Explora is ready. Among the novelties, there is a possibility of booking and checking the availability of the rooms in real time. Also, the website offers some details of geography, history, fleet, and fauna of each region where the hotels are placed. Also it offers architecture and design data of the hotels. http://www.explora.com/

Metropolitan Touring opens an office and begins operations
The official launch of Metropolitan Touring Chile was on September 24 in Puerto Varas during the carrying out of the TravelMart LatinAmerica. During the last two years, Metropolitan Touring has fortified its skills and abilities beyond Ecuador. This process involved the opening of new offices in exclusive zones of Latin America.

BRAZIL
Rio de Janeiro will extend its hotel offer
The chain Windsor will inaugurate five new projects with a total of 1,830 new rooms in the next years. It will build two hotels in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. Other three establishments will be opened in Copacabana in 2011.

Sao Paulo will have air connection with Trelew, Argentina
Aerolineas Argentinas and nine operators associated to Braztoa are carrying out a project to join Brazil (Guarulhos) and Paragonia (Trelew). It is planned that the flights will begin in July 2010.

Whale observation season began in Bahia
The whale observation season is open in Bahia; these whales arrive from the Antarctic in a period of three months to reproduce. The main places of observation are Praia do Forte, Abrolhos, Itacare, and Morro de Sao Paulo.

PERU
Night visits to Machu Picchu planned
The Ministry of Tourism planned night visits to Machu Picchu to begin from December of this year or at the latest in April 2010. The target is to extend the visiting hours to the citadel and to avoid that these could be only between 0900 and 1600 hours.

LAN PERU inaugurates flights to Cancun via Mexico DF
LAN PERU will begin its new international route to Cancun via Mexico DF with a direct return flight. From November, these will be direct. The inaugural flight will be on October 7 in a Boeing 767.

TACA will fly directly to Mexico DF and to Cancun via Salvador
TACA Airlines informed that from November 1, it will increase its connection with Mexico by 100 percent with three new direct flights per week to join Lima and Mexico DF. Also, it begins a new connection to Cancun from Lima via Salvador three times a week, too.

TACA will fly from its Lima hub to Porto Alegre
Since December 1, TACA will join Lima and Puerto Alegre in Brazil with a direct flight and with three weekly frequencies expanding in this way the connectivity and its flight offer between Peru and Brazil. Currently, the airline joins Lima with Sao Paulo on two different schedules twelve times per week and to Rio de Janeiro with 4 weekly flights, all of them direct.

Museo Santuarios Andinos will have more rooms
Museo Santuarios Andinos, which has the Mummy Juanita, will have three new rooms in order to show the visitors some unknown pieces found in pre-Inca tombs. The new environments will house mummies and its offerings found in the tombs of the volcanoes Sara Sara, Misti, and Pichu Pichu, apus where the Research Center of Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria carried out some studies since 1979.

ECUADOR
Aerogal will fly to New York from December 7
From December 7, Aerogal will fly daily from Cuenca to New York with scale in Guayaquil using a Boeing 767-300 with capacity for 205 passengers.

COLOMBIA
Aerorepublica and Air France will offer Thru Check In
The Thru Check-In service will allow users of the two airlines to make light of its luggage from the city of origin in Colombia or in any place of the world to its final destination without transporting the luggage from one airline to another.

Aires will fly to New York and to Fort Lauderdale
Aires will have six new routes to New York and to Fort Lauderdale, United States. There will be three frequencies weekly from departure and return via Pereira-Cartagena-Fort Lauderdale, which will operate in November.

Central America on $25 a day: Enjoy an Exotic Destination on a Tight Budget

Posted September 18, 2009 , comments closed

Last year when my friend Lindsey and I started cooking up a plan for a month-long trip somewhere, we had a few requirements to work around. We wanted to go some place that would offer cultural opportunities, adventure and beautiful scenery—but we also knew we had a really tight budget to work with. Recently graduated and not much money in our bank accounts, we almost immediately decided that Central America was the place to go. Since airfare to Central America tends to be relatively inexpensive from the United States and most of the countries are a budget travelers dream, we booked our tickets to Panama and began to plan our Central American adventure.While some of the coastal resort areas of Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica cater to tourists on short, all-inclusive type vacations (and are priced to match), there are plenty of other options for those traveling on a tighter budget. In many ways, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama all offer some of the world’s best travel bargains.

Getting to Central America for Cheap

For travelers coming from the United States and Mexico, it will usually only cost you $100-$200 more to fly into many of the Central American cities than a domestic flight. Depending on the time of year, city of origin and destination, you can usually count on being about to get airfare for anywhere from $400-$700 without too much difficulty.

While you may not plan on spending any time in the capital cities of Central America (which I would recommend you didn’t), flying directly into these cities and busing it to your final destination is sure to save you hundreds of dollars on airfare. Check here for great deals on cheap international airfare.

Budget Planning: Where to go

If you are trying to stick to a tight budget ($20-$25 a day) you are best off skipping certain areas altogether. Forget heading to the coastal Mexican resort towns (Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas) as well as the islands of Belize as well as many of the main tourist towns along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

When Lindsey and I chose Panama, we did so precisely because we knew we could probably stay longer and do more for less money than if we traveled in neighboring Costa Rica. While there are definitely still ways to see and explore these areas on a budget, you’ll find that Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica tend to be on the high-end price wise and Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras on the lowest end.

Keep in mind that almost any time you find yourself in a popular tourist spot or in an already discovered beautiful beach town, you are likely to see a jump in prices that reflects the influx of travelers and outsiders coming to the region. While things may still be priced reasonably, you will almost always find the lowest prices in smaller, isolated and less exposed regions unaccustomed to seeing many tourists.

For those who can speak Spanish, you also tend to fare a little better in being able to get a fairer price and being able to negotiate with locals.

Another tip is to find good budget alternatives to certain destinations. For example, while Rotan Island in Honduras continues to get more expensive every year, nearby and equally beautiful Utila offers a good budget alternative. Backpacker destinations and places not yet discovered by big hotels, resorts and other travelers will always offer better bargains.

Getting Around on a tight budget

While internal flight prices do tend to be fairly reasonable, they are seldom a great bargain and a sure fire way to blow through your budget quickly.

Luckily for those travelers trying to get around without spending much, almost all of Central America is well connected by buses, most of which don’t cost more than a few dollars even to cover longer distances.

While these buses are not always the most luxurious or comfortable ride (yes, sometimes you will be sharing the bus with chickens, large bags of produce and more people you thought possible to fit into a small space), they provide relatively reliable transportation to and from almost anywhere in the various Central American countries.

Taking the buses is also generally a safe way to travel. While you still should exercise caution (and keep your valuables hidden or securely on you), traveling around Central America via public transportation is definitely not only a cheap way to get around, but also a safe one.

Keep in mind that bus travel is not always a time efficient way to go—as some local buses can take several hours to cover a relatively small distance. Keep this in mind before venturing out on a day trip or when planning how far to travel in one day. However, for the cost of just a few American dollars you can easily cover large distances with relative ease.

>>Read more about Bus Travel in Central America

Taxis are also usually inexpensive in Central America, except once again in major tourist zones in Costa Rica, Belize, and Mexican beach resorts. You can also often hire a car and a driver for a day for the same amount or less than renting a car.

If you are trying to keep you budget under $30/day, regional flights and renting a car are out of the question. If time is more valuable than money on your vacation, this is probably a better way to go, but it is also sure to blow your tight budget really quickly.

Eating Cheaply in Central America

Because eating is such a huge part of any travel experience for me, knowing that I would be eating well and still not spending much money was a huge bonus to traveling in Central America. In most countries and in most places, it is easy to get a full meal that costs anywhere from $2-$6. While Central America is a vast region and it is hard to make many generalizations about travel there, when it comes to meals it is pretty easy to get a decent meal for cheap anywhere from Cancun to Panama City.

If you are looking to keep your food budget to a minimum and want to eat like a local, avoid restaurants that cater to tourists. English on the menu usually means higher prices to reflect the clientele. Look for where the locals eat.

You will find many simple restaurants, market stalls and cafeteria style restaurants where you can get a simple and filling meal—usually which consists of ingredients like rice, beans, tortillas, eggs, fired plantains and meat (usually chicken) . On the coasts you will find more seafood and fish dishes.

Don’t be afraid to eat like the locals. One of my best meals in Panama consisted of roasted chicken and fried yucca served from an open air shack in Santa Catalina, all for about $3. If you are trying to stick to a tight budget and want to stay well nourished, avoiding the restaurants where the tourists dine and opting for simple and nourishing food is the best way to keep your eating costs way down.

To my delight, I also found that some items that are expensive at home were abundant and cheap in Central America. Pineapple, avocados, mangos and a variety of other tropical fruits can be bought at produce stands almost anywhere and usually don’t cost a whole lot. The fresh tropical fruit makes for a delicious, satisfying, healthy and cheap snack while on the road.

Drinking Cheap in Central America

If your travel plans in Central America also include indulging in the local drink, you’ll be happy to know that you can still enjoy nights out partying without ending up with a giant bar tab. Rum, tequila, and usually some sort of sugar cane derived alcohol tend to be the drinks of choice throughout Central America.

The cheapest way to drink in Central America is probably to buy a bottle of booze from a local cantina, and get a couple of bottles of Coke. That way, you have a ton of drinks for several people for under $15. You will also find a clear liquor distilled from sugar cane in many Central American countries. Called Guaro in Costa Rica and Seco in Panama, while this type of booze may be nearly akin to rubbing alcohol, it is almost always dirt cheap.

Beer is also usually quiet affordable in Central America and can range in cost from .50 to about $2 depending on where you find yourself. Again, tourist bars and destinations will mean higher drink prices.

Most Central American countries have a few different national brands that are popular and the beer is usually a lager style cerveza that can range from great to just passable.

Keep in mind that save for resort towns popular with backpackers and young people and some of the larger, more progressive cities, bars tend to be a male affair in Central America. In a region where machismo still very much rules, females should scope out a bar before heading in, especially if traveling with another woman or by herself.

Cheap Accommodation in Central America

Budget accommodations are plentiful throughout Central America and most will be amazed by what kind of room they can get for not a whole lot of money. While you’ll probably want to search out dormitory style hostels in more expensive tourist zones, there are plenty of places where you can get a private room with a shared or private bath for as little as $4-$8/per night.

While accommodations will be more expensive in Costa Rica, Mexico and Belize, even in these countries it’s usually possible to find rustic, dorm style accommodations for as little as $2-$10/night.

When traveling in Panama, my travel partner and I never had a problem finding decent and comfortable accommodations in private rooms for under $10, even in some of the more tourist traveled areas like Bocas del Toro. If you feel like you could use a night with a little more pampering, spending another $5 to $10 a night is usually enough to get you a hotel with a private bath, maid service and perhaps even a hotel with a patio, courtyard or garden.

With simple accommodations starting as low as $2 a night in some places, finding a cheap place to stay should not be a problem in most places in Central America—making it easy to stay on budget.

Other Tips for saving money and staying on budget

• Slow Down— No matter where in Central America you find yourself, the best and easiest way to save money and keep your budget low is to simply slow down. Not moving around too quickly (and therefore saving on transportation costs) is a great way to stretch your dollars.
• Pop and juice is cheaper than water—Since the water is not safe to drink in much of Central America, you will be forced to spend some of your budget on bottled water. However, you will also find many areas with juice stands (with fresh squeezed tropical juice) and pop (made with sugar instead of corn syrup). These options are almost always cheaper than water. While I don’t suggest you replace water drinking with juice and pop, subbing in these beverage items can be a good way to keep a little extra dough in your pocket.
• Pick guided activities and tours wisely—Especially in areas with a higher concentration of tourists, you are sure to find plenty of opportunities for taking guided canopy tours, river rafting excursions and more. Pick and choose these types of adventures wisely. While you certainly don’t want to miss out on something great because it costs $10-$25, you also don’t want to be spending all your cash on tours and activities that may not provide you with all that cool of an experience—and will cut into your budget big time.
• Don’t be afraid to make little splurges—If you are trying to stick to a tight budget, but are traveling for a longer period of time and feel like you need a break from the rice and beans or dorm style accommodations, don’t be afraid to splurge a little more one day. Just remember you’ll probably have to cut back the next to make up for it. Making small splurges can also be a good way for you to stay sane and keep traveling cheap.
• Write down what you spend–I always like to keep a little pad of paper or notebook on me with traveling, and keeping a page where you write down your expenses (how much you spent on what) is a great way to keep your budget on your mind, see where and how you are spending your money and see if there are areas where you can cut back.

About the Author

Although BootsnAll staff writer Julie Blakley spends most of her time writing about traveling in France for the Paris Travel Guide and France Travel Guide, she left her heart in Central America after a month long backpacking trip around Panama. From steamy jungles to gorgeous beaches and heaping piles of rice, beans and yucca frita, there isn’t a whole lot Julie doesn’t love about Central American adventures.

photos: Guatemalan currency by Antigua Daily Photo on flickr , rice, beans and chicken plate by stu_spivack on flickr, all other photos by Julie Blakley.

Caribbean suffers crippling impact of the global recession

Posted August 21, 2009 , add a comment

Aug 21, 2009

The Caribbean region continues to suffer from the crippling impact of the global recession.

That information was contained in the Central Bank of Barbados Economic Review, June 2009. The challenges were faced with particular respect to the critical tourism sector.
It said: “Long stay arrivals declined in all countries except for Cuba, Jamaica and Cancun, Mexico, as arrivals to these territories rose by two per cent, 0.2 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively. Long stay arrivals for Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Lucia fell by 4.6 per cent, 14.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent, respectively. Similarly, tourist arrivals for Anguilla, Belize and St. Vincent and the Grenadines declined by 21.4 per cent, 7.7 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively, for the first two months of 2009. The downturn in long stay arrivals throughout the Caribbean region was driven by a fall-off in visitors from major source markets, namely, Europe and the United States.”

It was also revealed that the performance of the productive sectors in the region was mixed: “Construction value added in Jamaica and the Bahamas remained moderate during the last quarter of 2008. However, in Trinidad and Tobago the sector continued to benefit from ongoing work on a number of private and governmental projects. With respect to agricultural output, value-added in the sector declined in Jamaica, the OECS and Trinidad and Tobago, while marginal growth was recorded in Guyana.”

Some of the larger economies suffered major contraction: “The level of inflation in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago eased during the first quarter of 2009. At February 2009, the rate of inflation in Jamaica was 0.8 per cent, compared to 1.8 per cent in the corresponding period of 2008 and zero percent in December 2008. Increases in all sub-categories fluctuated between 0.1 per cent and 1.1 per cent except for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels. Similarly, the rate of inflation in Trinidad and Tobago slowed from 14.5 per cent at the end of December 2008 to 11.7 per cent in January 2009. This outturn was mainly driven by a reduction in food prices. However, inflationary pressures strengthened in the Bahamas, as a rate of inflation moved to 4.28 per cent at March 2009, compared to 2.63 per cent, one year earlier.” (DB)

Cuba: My Top 5 Travel Picks

Posted July 30, 2009 , add a comment

Why am I fascinated with Cuba? Well there are two Cuba’s as far as tourism goes, and they are quite different. One is the string of beach resorts strung (along Cuba’s best beaches) on the north coast – with direct charter flights from Europe or Canada and all-inclusive resorts. It can probably be compared to the next Cancun or Costa Del Sol – great if that’s what you are looking for.

The other Cuba is the one the Cuban’s live in, and it is an intoxicating mix of Caribbean color with Spanish heritage with the uniqueness that the 47 years of blockade and its own unique blend of communism have brought. Cuba is the largest Caribbean island and there is a real diversity of places and people to explore. So here are my top 5 places to visit in Cuba:

#1 - Trinidad

Trinidad is my absolute favorite. A small town of only 60,000 people on Cuba’s southern coast, Trinidad is a picture postcard of what we all expect Cuba to look like. All cobblestones and pastel Spanish architecture, but not flash and renovated like Havana; it has more character, if character is a mix of the renovated, and the well worn, and the completely derelict. A great place for salsa lessons, and there are dozens of places to indulge in dance. There’s the Casa De La Trova for the traditional Buena Vista Social club style, great to practice those salsa steps. There’s afro-caribbean and drumming clubs for a more frenetic pace. There is the free band and dancing in the town square every night, another great place to practice your dance steps with the locals.

There’s even Ayala, the disco in a cave up the hill, yes a real ’80s retro nightclub with lasers and videos projected on the cave walls and Madonna and Latino boy bands on high rotation – it was enough to drive me to drink – another rum and coke thanks.

There’s fascinating museums, old bell towers to climb, and little illegal hole in the wall pizza shops that pop up every lunch time and then close down within an hour when their stock is sold – you don’t know where they are going to open but you’ll recognise them from the queue, delicious and about 50 cents each. There is the classic white sand turquoise water Caribbean beach at Ancon beach, a couple of miles out of town ( the town sits slightly inland these days) Float in the warm water, soak up the sun, watch the sunset, sit under the palm trees or catch a hobicat out to some good snorkeling spots.

#2 - Camaguey

Camaguey, in the centre of the island and the centre of cattle country. Yes this is as close to being in Argentina you are going to get in Cuba. It’s still the most “Spanish” of the Cuban cities, and the locals look more Spanish than afro caribbean here too. It traditionally had been a wealthy centre, and that still shows in the architecture – the houses are bigger (but may have many more families and generations sharing them now), the churches more numerous and impressive, but the limitations on maintenance clearly show.

It’s a very “lived in” city centre compared to Havana, the kids are playing stick ball in the streets, the old men or woman are sitting on the doorsteps watching the world go by. I loved walking every city in Cuba but this was the most walkable and most interesting of all. The streets are a maze designed to confuse the pirates of centuries ago (I never quite understood that given it is about as far from the coast as you can get in cuba but its not too hard to use the church spires to navigate your way around. So many art galleries here too, a thriving artist population, from the traditional to the avant-garde.

My favorite was to visit the house of Ileana Sanchez & Joel Jover, two well known Cuban artists, Their front door opens onto the Plaza de la Independence, and the public are free to visit their two front rooms – absolutely covered from floor to the very high ceilings with a maze of their own art, other artists they have collected around the world, as well as things that inspire them – it is a veritable treasure trove. We were lucky enough to get invited into the rest of the house, their amazing sculpture garden, and met the artists themselves around their kitchen table. I loved their art and left Cuba the proud owner of a Joel Jover original.

There is a process to getting a licence to take art out of cuba, mainly designed to make sure the artist is declaring their sales to the government I think, if you don’t have the requisite licence they will confiscate your art at the airport when you leave as they assume you bought it on the black market. However the artists know this process does put us off buying and so they do it for you – I made my purchase at about 10 pm at night, just after dinner, and they had arranged the licence and had it ready for me before my bus left at 8am the next morning – I have no idea how they managed to get a government office to do that in the middle of the night but they certainly made it easy for me.

Camaguey was one of the places hit hard by the three huge hurricanes in 2008, and many of the shops were still being repaired, but luckily for us at least one of the ice cream parlours’ had reopened – the Copellia’s are not to be missed.

#3 - Havana

Havana - the original Vegas before there was a Vegas. The old town, all cobbled streets and beautiful Spanish buildings and pastel colors and a wonderful European flavor. Much of the old town has been restored with UNESCO money, the plaza’s have cafes and great coffee and handmade chocolate shops, along with the expected rum, cigars, Hemingway nostalgia and the home of the mojito’s. Walk through the old town, zigzagging around every block, until you hit the Prado, browse the art on display while walking towards the Malecon, the sea wall and walkway around the seafront that runs for miles. Walk it in the evening and see the teenagers hanging out, the families cooling down after the heat of the day, the couples out on a date.

And walk it again in the daytime and see the kids swimming, the families strolling, the jazz musicians (playing for the tourists, but boy it still sounds good), the fishermen, the cyclists, the sheer variety of life. When you get tired of walking catch a coco cab – like a tuk-tuk with a large round plastic shell, looks like a motorized coconut – or hire one of the old Cadillac convertibles that run as taxi’s and get them to take you sightseeing for an hour –the other visitors will be snapping your photo as you go past.

Visit the outdoor book market in treelined square at the northeast of the old town, or the artisan market stalls by the canal at the northern end of the old town, for the best selection of souvenirs you will find in Cuba. When things get too hot or too crowded, there are many rooftop bars where you can retire and relax with a cool drink.

#4 - Santiago de Cuba

Santiago de Cuba – the port town with a great old castle. With its location on the southeastern tip of Cuba, Santiago has been a key defense spot for cuba for centuries. Castillo del Morro is a 16th century citadel with turrets and a drawbridge and dungeons and cannons and a maze of stairs and tunnels and everything a great castle should have, high on a promontory at the harbor entrance, with fantastic views up the coastline, so the defenders could see the enemy coming.

Your inner child can play happily here for hours. The castle was last used in the Spanish/US war, the Spanish army were in Cuba and Cuba had sought help from the US to get rid of them and gain independence (yes the US and Cuba were once friends) They say that when the Spanish troops in Castillo del Morro saw the US ships coming, they didn’t stay and fight, they turned tail and ran, so the US didn’t even have to fight to win. Our local guide described the spanish troops as “sissy”.

For a great lunch break, take a 10 minute boat trip from the yacht club to Cayo Granma in the middle of the harbor. Before the revolution the island was being developed as holiday homes for the rich, and after the revolution became the home of local fishing families, it is very run down and charmingly decrepid now.

However a lobster lunch with cold cervesa sitting on a terrace over the harbor is wonderful, followed by a stroll around the island. Santiago de Cuba is also famous for its role in the Cuban revolution, here Fidel Castro lead the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, which led to his capture, trial, incarceration and eventual release, followed by his travels to Mexico when he then met up with Che Guevara - and the rest, as they say, is history.

You can visit the Barracks and go through the fascinating museum, the only downside is you have to go around with an assigned guide, and what could be an intriguing one hour tour is, in perhaps the most stereotypically traditionally communist style I met in Cuba, turned into a 3-hour endurance test that completely sucked all interest out of me!

#5 - Baracoa

The hottest and steamiest of them all. Baracoa is about as far away and hard to get to as you can get in Cuba – on the far southeast coast – go through Santiago, keep going past Guantanamo Bay (yes that one) and head over a mountain range of tropical rainforest on a very twisty road, and eventually you will get to Baracoa.

It is noticeably hotter and more humid than the rest of Cuba, which was warm enough anyway. The beaches are black sand, the coastline is jagged black rock, the sea is rougher, the pace of life seems slower and more brooding, it is a dark clouds and thunderstorm type of heat, not a sunshiny heat. It didn’t seem at all surprising that the lovely Casa Particular we stayed at was next door to the Funeral Home, it was just that sort of place!

But out of this seemed to come some very vibrant art and music, great food and drink, and the dancing is a whole lot raunchier down this end of the island too. There is swimming and kayaking and waterfalls and treks to do, or just laze around town and watch the world go by, and understand that this is like no where else in the world.

-Victoria Pottering

Interested in Cuba? Read Victoria’s previous blog post about Cuba.

Acapulco, Mexico

Posted July 15, 2009 , add a comment

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