tours | Jason Around the World

Daytrip to Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

Attractions, Bolivia, Bolivia and Ecuador plus Medellin, Restaurants 1 Response »

May 202014

I wasn’t really expecting this daytrip to leave at 6:30am…it’s probably a good thing I didn’t know that in advance, or I might not have booked it. I was beginning to seriously run on fumes by this point in the trip, but hopefully seeing Lake Titicaca would make it all worth it. I had to admit, though, as anyone who wasted time watching Beavis and Butt-head as a kid, every time I hear Lake Titicaca I still think of the Great Cornholio…lol

Anyways, enough stupidity. Got to the lobby of my hotel at exactly 6:30, and there were no signs of life stirring yet. There was, however, a petite Bolivian looking lady wandering the lobby looking puzzled, so I asked who she was looking for. Yes, she was my guide…and the driver was on the way. This was all in Spanish, because up until this point she seemed extremely reluctant to speak English. She eventually warmed up, and we were underway.

It was about a 90 minute drive to Huatajata where we would pick up the hydrofoil across the lake. Although this was scheduled to be a group tour, there was nobody else booked from La Paz today, so I’d have the van to the hydrofoil all to myself. Additionally, the hydrofoil ride would be all alone, and we would pick up a large group of…you guessed it….Swiss tourists coming from Peru in Copacabana for the second part of the trip.

We made it Huatajata on time, after a long drive through the sprawling expanses of El Alto. Once there, there was a “museum” to see before starting the trip. When I was booking this, I discussed with several Bolivians I knew, and they all recommended to make the booking with Crillon Tours. Seems they had built much of the tourist infrastructure on the lake, including the hydrofoils, and had all the connections to make the trip the best possible. They’d even built a museum on Huatajata telling a bit of the history around Lake Titicaca, both before and after the arrivals of the Spanish. I was given 20 minutes to check out the museum while my guide got everything sorted for the hydrofoil. First highlight of the museum, a burial mummy:

…followed by the arrival of the Spanish:

Manco Capac, the first Incan incarnation of the Sun God, and his sister and Mama Ocllo in a traditional boat….

Outside the museum were some friendly alpacas (or are they llamas?) just hanging around….

La Paz to Uyuni, Bolivia, Hotel Luna Salada, and Salar de Uyuni Salt Flats

Airports, Attractions, Bolivia, Bolivia and Ecuador plus Medellin, Flights, hotels, trains 2 Responses »

May 162014

When I’d originally booked this trip, the flight from Bolivia to Uyuni was at the annoying hour of 6:30am. That would mean getting up around 4:30a at the latest to head to the airport on my second day in Bolivia. UGH. Just as I was leaving DC I got an email…the flight had been retimed to 5:35am, and the reason was given as “due to a maintenance service in the International Airport EL ALTO in La Paz city and will be closed at about 4 hours, from 12:00 pm to 16:00 pm during all month MAY.” Uh, exactly how does that affect a 6:30 flight? No clue. However, I resigned myself to a 3am wakeup call to get to the airport no later than 4:30…an hour before my flight, and hopefully a little sooner.

Woke up, out the door in about 20 minutes, and soon I was queued up to check in at El Alto. I can’t say I’ve ever seen an airline bragging that they fly a “new fleet of CRJ-200s.”

Check in was super quick, although I was kicked out of the bulkhead I’d reserved online, because I was told my Spanish wasn’t good enough to be sitting in an exit row. Boo hiss. It was still about 1:15 before the flight, so I had time for a quick (and pretty awful) coffee in the check in area, with a much better chocolate muffin.

Security was completely painless and took maybe two minutes, and soon I was in the rather decent departures area:

Boarding was called about 30 minutes before the flight, and we walked probably 300 meters across the tarmac to our plane:

Upon boarding, the flight attendant handed each passenger a goody bag:

Amaszonas flight 300
La Paz, Bolivia (LPB) to Uyuni, Bolivia (UYU)
Depart 5:35, Arrive 6:35, Flight Time 1 hour
Canadair CRJ-200, Registration CP-2742, Manufactured 1997, Seat 2F

Upon boarding, for some reason, the seats on this plane looked and felt really familiar. Only when I pulled up my phone to check out its history did I see why…it was a former United Express plane, and still had the United Express seats. So, this is hell. My least favourite aircraft (the CRJ) with vestiges of United Express. Great. Door closed about 5 minutes early with the seat next to me empty…and we started to taxi….a few minutes later, we headed back to our parking position and opened the door.

A rapid stream of spanish followed from the cockpit, with the simple english translation of “something wrong with the plane.” Great! Well, ten minutes later “something” was fixed and we were off! The flight was a quick 45 minutes or so, and the flight attendants did do a quick beverage service from the trolley. Can’t really complain…beats United Express!

Landing in Uyuni, it was cold. Really cold. -4C or about 26F according to my phone, and I was just in jeans and a lightweight pullover. Brilliant planning Jason, brilliant. I’d prebooked a driver/tourguide for the day, since I’d been told there were essentially two options in Uyuni: hang around town for one of the 6-people-packed-into-a-Landrover backpacker trips for about $50 a person, or book a private driver. Since I only had one day and no clue when I’d come back, I opted for my own driver so I could do what I wanted and stop however long I wanted.

My driver was waiting in the arrivals area as the sun rose, and we threw my backs in the vehicle and were off. He waid we had to wait for a permit from the police in town, so we had about an hour to kill before we could head out. We headed into a small restaurant/cafe for coffee and a light breakfast, and slowly after us it began to fill up with backpackers who’d taken the 10+ hour overnight bus from La Paz. They all looked like death, and I was beginning to think the extra money I’d paid was well well worth it.

Permit obtained, we headed out to the “train cemetery” at the edge of town. Not much to see, but since it was featured in just about every travel article I read on the town, I figured we should stop. At least it was a cool contrast with the brilliant blue skies:

Stopped in town to pick up some snacks and waters, and in the centre of town was this…unique…sculpture:

Next stop was my hotel, the Hotel Luna Salada. It’s a good 30 minutes out of town, right on the edge of the saltflats. The hallways/common areas are open to the elements, so it got very very cold. This was the walkway to my room…note the floors, which are made entirely of crushed salt:

We were set to head out on the tour at 10, so I had an hour nap which made me feel much better after having gotten up at 3am! The hotel was cold…quite cold….since the salt walls don’t really insulate things much and it drops below freezing at night. There were electric blankets on all the beds (a first for me) and they kept me nice and toasty warm!

The drive to the salt flats (with the obligatory 15 minute stop at a local craft market along the way) was pretty good…and upon entering the salt flats the driver really gunned it. It felt weird to be speeding across the salt with no roads, no markings, just a sense of direction.

I’d told my driver I wanted to see an area where water had gathered, to get a pic of the salt with the reflection. He knew right where to go, and we found an area where water was a few inches deep. We had to drive very slowly in this area, because supposedly if you drive too quickly the water splashes up on the car’s undercarriage, and will corrode things, shorting out the electrical systems due to its high salt content and stranding you:

MKK-LUP-MKK on Makani Kai and tour of Kalaupapa Leper Colony

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014 No Responses »

Mar 032014

From everything I’d read, the Kalaupapa Leper Colony was the main thing to be certain to see on Moloka’i. For the better part of several decades, lepers from all the Hawaiian islands were sent here to live out their lives. There are actually still a few “cured” survivors living there. You can only enter the colony with a permit from the Hawaii department of health, which you can only get by booking a sanctioned tour.

The tours operate in conjunction with the two forms of transport to get to the colony: either you can ride a mule a couple of hours down the sides of the sheer cliffs through several switchbacks, or take a short 10 minute flight. We opted for the flight, partially because I wanted to take the shortest flight I’d ever taken, and partially because I was in no mood to ride a mule down the side of a cliff!

While we were waiting to board the Makani Kai agent told us there were some gifts being transported down to the colony for Valentines Day, and would we mind carrying them? I was given two large vases of flowers, while Matt got…a puppy! NO FAIR!

When boarding was called, our pilot Britney came to grab the passengers herself. She roughly allocated us to the seats on the plane (four rows of 1 by 1 seating) and we would be full on the “ride down” to Kalaupapa….and thus someone got the copilot seat! I might have done a little begging, but in the end I got it 🙂 To top it off, Britney relieved me of the flowers, so I would have a flower-free ride.

Makani Kai Airlines
Moloka’i (Topside) Hawaii (MKK) to Kalaupapa, Hawaii (LUP)
Depart 9:20, Arrive 9:35, Flight Time 15 minutes
Piper PA-31 Chieftan, Registration N135PB, Manufactured ???, Seat: CoPilot

To said I was a little bit excited…well, that’s an understatement. I finally managed to climb all 6’3 of myself into the seat, along with the small laptop bag I was carrying. There was absolutely not an inch of spare room! While we waited for the pilot, I sat anxiously!

Matt was a BIT excited to be carrying the puppy! Oh, so THAT is what happened to the flowers I had to carry to the plane – the pilot stuck another passenger with them, lolz:

I was even more excited, I think, to be in the copilot seat:

Short taxi, and we were off!

After maybe a minute in the air we were over the edge of the island, and headed down:

Sheraton Maui and three days on Maui

Attractions, Hawaii February 2014 2 Responses »

Feb 282014

Had no trouble finding the rental car shuttle from the commuter car terminal, and thanks to the fact we arrived at a different time from the mainland flights, there was no line to get the car. Thanks to the same website we were renting from Alamo again, and they tried to up-sell us from a “standard convertible” to a Camero for over $100 a day. Um, no thanks. When we got to the lot, we were extra thankful – the standard convertibles were Mustangs, which were just fine…although the choice was only black or white. We picked the white, and off we went.

The drive to our hotel, the Sheraton Maui in Lahaina, was about 30 minutes give or take, and soon we were there and valeted the car. The wait to check in was only a couple people, and soon it was time to play let’s make a deal…I mean check in. No, there were no rooms ready, but we’d been upgraded to a “standard ocean view” near the back of the property with two beds. I asked about a suite, and yes, we could have an Ohana suite near the back of the property with a “partial ocean view” but only with two beds again. I pressed, and she said there were also “deluxe ocean view suites, and let’s see if I can give you one.” She came back from the back room, and said unfortunately it would be an upcharge of $250 a night…but I can do it for $200. She could sense I was less than thrilled, and I asked if that was all she could do…then she offered it for $100 a night…given it was nearly 1,000 sq ft, a corner room with a view of the beach and ocean, I decided to go for it.

It would take about an hour to get the room ready, so she gave us a 35% off coupon for the poolside bar as well as welcome drink coupons, so we could grab lunch while we waited. Some tasty nachos were definitely on order, but we asked the waitress what she’d recommend. “Oh, you can get doubles FYI with those drink coupons…and I highly recommend the Old Fashioned Mai Tai.” I decided to give it a go….and drank nothing else for the next three days. Make with top shelf rum and shaved ice, it was absolutely delicious.

After about an hour I got a call that the room was ready, so we finished off our drinks and headed up to check in. Except, the line was now 30+ people deep, and when we tried to go to the platinum check-in line it nearly started a riot. The agent tried to explain to the people in line, but when they’ve been waiting on line for a long time, it’s understandable they were upset at the fact there were no more agents. They told us we could go around the corner to the valet to check-in, so we did.

It turned out not to work so well…he only could see the original upgrade, and not the suite we’d been waiting for. We had to come back two times, because he gave us keys to the wrong room. Nearly 45+ minutes later, however, we were finally to the room…with an amazing view:

The rest of the afternoon, we relaxed on the beach and just took it easy, enjoying the hotel and taking it easy. That evening, we met my friend Rita for dinner. I hadn’t seen Rita in over 20 years since she’d moved to Maui, and it was a real treat getting to catch up over some delicious beers at the Maui Brewing Company:

The next morning we got up fairly early, and after grabbing some Starbucks we headed out to drive the Road to Hana. It’s a nice drive on some pretty winding roads, and the frustration is you spend a good deal of time stuck behind people who might not live up to your driving skills.

Our first stop was at Twin Falls, maybe 30-40 minutes into the drive, where we were told the hike in to the falls was maybe 15-20 minutes. We stopped first at a small overlook:

Then, about ten minutes later, we were approaching the falls. The final part was maybe 50 meters or so through knee deep quite cold water, but it was gorgeous and refreshing:

Praia, Cape Verde – Day 2

Attractions, Cape Verde, New Years 2013-2014 1 Response »

Feb 062014

We met up with the small group of Travelers Century Club folks in the morning, and turned out there would be just six of us total. Nothing had been mentioned about price the night before, and when the driver showed up…yes, he had room, but had to check with his boss how much to charge us. The price was fair for what amounted to an 8-9 hour tour, and we packed in the van, and were off!

Sunrise over the Pestana Hotel pool:

Our first stop after maybe 30 minutes or so was pretty much due north of Praia, a bit into the interior. We were going to check out a craft shop (aka sell you things and get commission for bringing you there) but when we arrive…it seems it no longer existed! It had completely packed up and moved since their last tour two months ago. Oops! He called his head office to verify, and they were just as shocked as he was. So, on we went to the Botanical Gardens:

There wasn’t much to see, so we continued on. Some views from the interior of the island:

Daytrip to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Attractions, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, New Years 2013-2014 No Responses »

Jan 172014

CAUTION: This post contains nearly 40 pictures, many of which are of extreme poverty and a few are of monkeys…well, being monkeys. You’ve been warned!

Yeah, I know it had only been two days since the coup attempt where over 100 people were killed trying to overthrow the government, but I’d spent so much effort planning this trip, and so much money getting close, I was determined to try and at least make it to DRC for a daytrip…in daylight. Fortunately, Jordan was just as insane and was game for it. We started by grabbing a taxi over to the boat docks, and after fending off several touts, we finally found the place to buy tickets on the “fast” boat and clear immigration. It involved about 10 different stops for different papers, taxes, stamps, etc etc etc, most of which seemed above ground, but I’m sure a few of the “fees” went straight into the pockets of corrupt officials. No matter…we avoided as much as we could, and even the fees we paid were no more than $3-4 each. Eventually we were crammed onto the boat with 15 of our new best friends for the 15 minute trek across the river:

On the other side, things got a little uglier. Lots of people doing the “wait here” and “this fee” and “that fee.” We argued several of them, paid a few, and eventually got out the other side about $20 poorer in total. It took about 20-30 minutes, which wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but once they have your passport they kind of have you by the balls. Plus, we were in a bit of a hurry without much time, so we were kind of stuck. We’d hired a driver in advance for the day, and finally found him outside immigration. Turns out we’d thought he was another tout trying to get money from us on the inside and brushed him off, lol. Would have helped if he had a sign! He drove us first to the travel agency he worked for, where we paid the agreed upon $250 for a day’s rental of car and driver. The agency’s building:

After that, it was time to go. We were driving about 30 miles outside the city first, to the Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary for Bonobos monkeys. On the way, we passed the stadium:

Continuing the drive, we went through some quite poor parts of Kinshasa:

Niamey, Niger – Part II

Attractions, Niger, West Africa 2012 3 Responses »

Nov 072013

Driver picked me up as promised, and we were off to see more of Niamey. First thing on my agenda was the mosque. Built around 10 years ago, it was a gift from Colonel Qadaffi of Libya when he was in his big rah rah I’m the uniter of the African people phase and was lavishing gifts around the continent. Real sorry how things ended for ya bud….

On the way to the mosque, some goats hanging out on the side of the road.

The mosque’s minaret:

We walked up to the mosque, and were met by a curator who had keys to show us around. No money expected, but there were more than enough places we could make a “small donation” to show our appreciation. So it began… Continue reading »

Niamey Niger – Part I

Attractions, Niger, West Africa 2012 No Responses »

Nov 072013

Lots of pics of my day in Niamey, so I’m going to split this day into two parts to make it a bit easier to read. Slept in a bit this morning, and definitely needed it. I felt like I’d hit the ground running when I landed in Benin several days prior and hadn’t let up until now. Plus, the room was nice and cool and dark so pretty easy to sleep.

Made my way down to the hotel breakfast, and there wasn’t much there except a few baguettes, a jar of store-brand hazelnut spread (aka imitation Nutella) and some instant coffee. It was pretty sad, but I was starving and it was only 3,000 CFA (around $6.50) so I went for it. Plus, it would allow me to wake up in the safe confines of the hotel while coming up with a plan to tackle my day.

The strategy was to find a driver who I could hire for the entire day who would take me to the sites I had read about online, as well as show me some things I might not consider. After breakfast, I headed out into the courtyard area of the hotel to hang around and see who approached me. Didn’t take long until one of the guys sitting around under the trees asked if I was looking for a taxi. First strategy “sure, how much would it cost to take me to the museum?” “Hmmm, 10,000 CFA” “That’s pretty steep – let’s say we do that and make it the whole morning, how much then?” “20,000 CFA” You see where this game was going. Finally, I asked him a price for “3 hours in the morning” then “2-3 hours in the afternoon after lunch” and finally take me to dinner, wait, and bring me back. “30,000 CFA.” I knew $65 was a fortune for a day’s work in Niger, but considering I was trusting this guy with perhaps my one and only time ever in Niger it would be worth it.

He seemed very happy with the deal, and was very anxious. He didn’t speak a word of English, but was very easy to understand in French, and I feel like even if I overpaid I got some great French and cultural lessons out of it too. Told him first thing I wanted to see was the Niger River. So off we went. The car even had AC, and he had no problem turning it on. It wasn’t very powerful, but just enough to turn unpleasant, dirty, dusty, smoggy air into mostly clean indoor air. I’ll take it!

First stop was the “Pont Neuf” or “Pont Chinois” – the “new bridge” or “Chinese Bridge.” Built by the Chinese just a few years ago, this was the second bridge in Niamey over the river. Until this, all traffic was on one narrow old bridge. Not exactly a picturesque river:

Not a bad bridge though…

The mud on the banks of the river give you an idea just now nasty and brown it was. Continue reading »

Visit to Cape Coast, Ghana

Attractions, Ghana, Restaurants, West Africa 2012 1 Response »

Oct 242013

Up pretty early to get a start ahead of what we were told was likely to be pretty heavy traffic out to the Cape Coast. Our plan was to see two forts/castles which had been major shipment points for slaves headed to the americas. After around a 2.5 hour drive, we came to Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese as a trading post in the late 1400s which later became a slave trading post. The view from a short distance away:

After parking, we walked towards the castle. A view of the fishing boats right outside the castle:

Inside the castle courtyard:

We had to wait about 10 minutes, but shortly a tour was given which lasted about 45 minutes and was very informative. Highly recommend waiting for the tour if you come all this way. View from atop the castle:

Daytrip to Samarkand, Uzbekistan – Part 2

Attractions, Europe and Central Asia 2013, trains, Uzbekistan No Responses »

Jun 112013

This post is going to be very heavy on the pictures, since you can read the history online. Reflecting back on it now as I put this together, I’m absolutely amazed at how much I managed to see in just over six hours!

After a filling lunch, it was off to the next sight, the Gur-Amir or Tamerlane Mausoleum. This was built in the early 1400s and contains the tombs of not only Tamerlane/Timur, but also his sons and grandsons, including Ulug Begh whose observator I’d seen that morning.

A couple photos outside the mausoleum, with and without me and random tourists:

…and a couple of artsy shots inside the complex. I don’t know why, but for some reason Samarkand seemed to really lend itself to getting artsy shots with the iPhone.

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