Half-asleep, half-awake, over-stimulated in airports, under-stimulated on long flights, out-of-sorts, out-of-routine, off-keel, and off-base, much like when you wake up after surgery with the effects of heavy-duty drugs. In short, jet lag. And in this condition, you are expected to navigate new airports… And take off your jacket, sweater,… Continue reading
Driving Out of Panama City Don’t be discouraged when you drive out of Panama city on the four-lane highway and see beach after beach packed with people, music blaring, garbage everywhere and noise booming out in every direction. Keep on driving and you will be rewarded with pristine… Continue reading
SOLAR LAPTOP The world’s first truly solar-powered laptop. It never needs to be plugged in! It “plugs” into the sun. When the sun isn’t there at night you can run it all night long with its powerful battery. With a rugged design & durability, you can take SOL with you… Continue reading
Our hostess for the house sit was a charming single woman with 3 dogs and 4 chickens. The Property The property was a two-story house on a large, 4-5 acre, treed lot with flowers and shrubs, a pool, and it backed onto the famous River Lot. In short,… Continue reading
Get a load of this! Cars parked inches apart! This is the way parking is all over Europe’s cities. Space is at a premium so no parking spot is too small… In Budapest the view from my friend, E’s, balcony up and down the street in provided… Continue reading
Did you know that Sloppy Joe’s were invented in Havana? Yes, those good ol’ Sloppy Joe sandwiches were invented in Havana. Remember that ground beef/tomato sauce mixture you slopped on buns? Then you devoured it in minutes thinking it was the best thing you ever had? Sloppy… Continue reading
While we were still enjoying the lovely town and relaxing atmosphere of Granada, Nicaragua, we wanted to see the Volcano Mombacho, still active we had been told, as well as the cloud forest in the mountains and to experience the jungle zip line. We were both a little worried… Continue reading
We’ve been researching all kinds of travel accessories to see if there are any that are truly worthwhile, and which ones are just another tech toy to take up more precious room in your carry-on. But I wish they would invent one friggin’ cord that works in ALL… Continue reading
In a few days we will be landing in Marseilles, France. It’s a little surreal that you can be on the French Riviera in Europe on the other side of the world in just one day, your whole environment completely changed in a few hours. We are house sitting… Continue reading
It was exciting to see the sublime azure ocean come into view as you drive in to Progreso on the North coast of the Yucatan. We were here is 2008 and it was just a small fishing village with a beautiful miles-long sandy beach and clear aquamarine water. As we… Continue reading
Internet Hut: After receiving 3 or 4 completely different directions for getting to the only Internet access on Little Corn Island, we traipsed through the jungle to the East side of the island and after ten minutes came to a tiny Gilligan Island style hut with two old computers. We… Continue reading
Are you totally bored with typical canned packaged same-old holidays? Longing for something a little different? Are you tired of walking half a mile down corridors, waiting for elevators, then walking another half mile of paved walks to get to an over-stuffed pool or a crowded beach with people… Continue reading
Cabra Castle was elegant. A 19th Century castle, set deep in the hills of Cavan County, it was stately and refined. While Ballynahinch Castle had felt more authentic with the hunters going out for the early morning hunt all decked out in somewhat traditional hunting attire: short pants, knee-high socks… Continue reading
At Orange Walk, in Belize, we stayed at the Orchid Palm Inn, a lovely inn filled with – you’ll never guess – orchid plants. Reasonable rates and very nice rooms: Orchid Palm Inn. The owners of the Orchid Palm told us about the Lamanai Jungle River Boat, so the… Continue reading
If you have ever wanted to go back to the 1950’s, you can easily do it in Havana, or anywhere in Cuba (with the exception of the tourist resorts). It’s fun to actually feel the Cuba time warp. For us, it was like going back to our childhoods…. Continue reading
“Stay where yer to till I come where yer at.” The Newfoundland language is sometimes happily easy to understand, but at other times we were totally lost. At those times, we responded to Newfinese with blank stares, raised eyebrows and an awkward smile, thinking “Huh?” or “How can… Continue reading
Thursday, February 26: A few days ago, February 22, in Mexico, the cat sitter emailed us that the pipes are frozen in the house, and that there is no water, so no bathrooms either. Car is also unlikely to start and is buried in a mountain of snow…. Continue reading
Halloween Apples, Peanuts and Cake, If You Don’t Give Us Any, Your Toilet Will Shake! Remember that? Ok, that was even before my time, before indoor toilets even! – but it has a lovely rhythm, n’est ce pas? Moving to Ontario has been almost like exploring another… Continue reading
The approach to Venice by train is seductive in itself… Just seeing a city floating on water is astonishing. How did they do that? Why did they do that? Apparently it wasn’t intentional. It happened sometime around the fall of the Roman Empire when the mainland was invaded… Continue reading
The hard drive crashed on Saturday. Totally out of the blue. No warnings. No odd behaviours. Just fried itself. No computer. NO COMPUTER. Desperately tried to fix it and got it up just long enough to make a backup on the Clickfree external drive before it was in total… Continue reading
