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Cartagena – Colombia’s Caribbean Colonial City
Cartagena was the final destination on an almost two week tour of Colombia with Canadian travel company Adventures Abroad and it turned out to be the perfect place to wrap things up in this amazing country. After spending much of our time at some very high altitudes with consequently cooler temperatures, it was great to feel […]
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Palenque de San Basilio – Founded by Slaves
One of the reasons I consistently like to travel with Canadian tour company Adventures Abroad is that they make a real effort to get you off the standard ‘tourist’ itinerary followed by most of their competitors. Because the size of the group is small it is possible to get to places and experience things that are […]
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Commune 13, Medellin Rises From Despair
Triskaidekaphobia is an irrational fear of the number thirteen, but in the case of Commune 13 on the hillsides of Medellin, Colombia that fear has a very historical and rational basis. Perhaps no place on earth has been as unlucky as Commune 13 as I discovered on a recent guided tour by Adventures Abroad into what, […]
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Landhuis Jan Thiel – The Place to Stay in Curacao
Curaçao is a Caribbean island that was taken by the Dutch from the Spanish in 1634. The island’s economy for hundreds of years was based on a system of landhuis or estate plantations of which about 80 remain today on the island although their land holdings have long been broken up and tourism has supplanted agriculture. […]
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Snorkeling Curacao – Three Great and Easy Spots
My daughter Lenore and I recently chose Curaçao as our destination for our annual father-daughter getaway. There were a number of reasons – direct flight from Toronto, escape Canadian winter (duh!) and finding a great place to stay – Landhuis Jan Thiel. However, what sold us on Curaçao was the chance to spend a lot […]
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Kura Hulanda Museum – Curacao’s Dark Past
I bet if you asked people (well actually white Europeans or North Americans) which is the most liberal and fair nation on the planet, a lot of them would respond – Holland and the Dutch. I know I probably would based on my visits to that country and getting to know some of their fine […]
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Familia Londono – The Real Face of Medellin
This is the eleventh post from my trip to Colombia with Canadian travel company Adventures Abroad and we’ve finally arrived at that most notorious of drug cartel cities, Medellin. However, before we explore the city’s violence ridden past and how Medellin emerged from it as one of Latin America’s most progressive cities, there’s a more pleasant task. […]
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Jardin Colombia – Worth the Effort to Visit
This is the tenth post on a recent trip to Colombia with Canadian based travel company Adventures Abroad and before leaving I wrote this post querying whether or not visiting Colombia was really a good idea or not. Now, having been in the country for almost a week, I can say unequivocally that it was the […]
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Valle de Cocora – Unique Wax Palm Landscape
This is my ninth post from a recent trip to Colombia with my favourite travel company, Vancouver based Adventures Abroad. In the last post, after traveling by plane and bus to the remote town of Salento, we visited the nearby El Ocaso coffee farm and I finally got a taste of just how good real, fresh coffee can […]
From the road
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April 20th, 2023
I’ve had a bad case of writer’s block since getting back from Southeast Asia, but I did finish this post on the fan… https://t.co/HoJjP4jeha
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April 12th, 2023
One of the main reasons to visit the Galapagos is to see the giant tortoises. This latest post explains where you c… https://t.co/mQ8PWha8j3
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April 11th, 2023
Spring is very late this year so it’s nice to see the crocuses finally show up. https://t.co/7HD6wvsEJ6
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April 9th, 2023
Sunday morning is a good time to reflect back on another Sunday in Reading, England which I wrote about here:… https://t.co/EJ4Is2NSqz