Why would you run with a bunch of crazy bulls and even crazier people? (most pics are in no particular order)
To answer your question, I have always wanted to do this my whole life. I know it sounds crazy, but it has ranked up on the top of my list of things to do, because of the pure rush and adrenaline you get and the fear of the unknown!!!!
I decided to get there the hard way and left on an overnight bus with other runners from London, England. We had some fun times at the camp where we stayed It was not a fun ride as we were all crammed in, but I met some great people!!!!
The next day we went there, was the actual opening ceremony which in my opinion was more dangerous than the running of the bulls!!!! When you are packed in like a mosh pit all in the town square with people pouring anything on you and throwing champagne bottles in the air, it gets pretty dangerous. To topple that, I got into two fights in about an hour period with a bunch of drunk hooligans from god knows where…
Then you have the actual running of the bulls which I participated in. I was with a bunch of people right before dead mans turn (which is the most dangerous part of the running), however the cops decided to push us past the dead mans turn. We were about 300 meters from the stadium. When the running started, I scrambled on the side of the street. As I looked back, I saw the bulls coming and three guys in from of my slowed down. As I pushed them out of the way, one of them decided to drag me down where I smacked my leg on the concrete. I continued to run and as I reached the stadium, I decided I had enough and was out of breath. I spent the next 30 minutes or so dodging the female bulls, just lucky that I made it out of there alive….(did not have my camera with me so I relied on other people to try and get photos..
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After that fun little event we decided to go to San Sebastian to hang out at the beach and around the town for the rest of the day…
Finally, I decided I wanted to see the carnage for myself, so I decided to go into the arena from a spectator point of view and get pictures for myself. It was 30 minutes of straight gore….
Would I do this again? HELL YEA!!! Would my body let me do it again….probably not!!!
Everyone my age, has heard at one time or another a lot about Kuwait as they have always been an ally of the United States and they were being invaded by Iraq in the early 90’s.
This country is dry, which means there is no alcohol allowed at all (there is people that make their own). The country is very bland and not so much to do. Expats that live here usually are trying to save money by working at a school or for an oil company. It reminds me in a way of a Dubai on a smaller scale as they have extravagant shopping malls.
If you want to find fun things to do, you can get out of the city for excursions an that is about all the excitement you will find besides trying to find some good food to eat.
The reason why I went here is to visit some friends I knew in Venezuela and to hang out with them. Would I ever go back here? Hell No
Our approximate route going East from Reykjavik and looping around…(click on image)
Iceland (Greener than you think) is a country that has always fascinated me because of its isolation and scenic beauty. My friend Steve and I decided that we would organize a self drive through a company, and that was probably the smartest choice I have made in my life thus far. Basically we booked through a company Iceland Unlimited and they booked all our Guesthouse/Farmhouses for us and we drove in a loop around the whole island at our leisure. They were a very big help in the months leading up to the trip, answering any questions we needed. Stopping to see stuff we wanted and ignoring stuff we did not want to see. One thing I can say about Iceland is even the most desolate places have better wifi than most cities in the world….so that made the trip more enjoyable….
Reykjavik is a beautiful city. It was the summer there when we arrived but I can assure you it was colder than hell. We took a jaunt around the city and tried the local beer and ate and just enjoyed ourselves. We obviously stocked up on winter clothes as we came ill prepared (it was not cheap). We had a chance t o have some beers are various little pubs and just see what the city has to offer. There was also the only Phallological (Penis Museum) in the world there, which was a quite interesting place to check out
The Freakshow Carnival
On our jaunt around the city, we saw that they had a carnival in town so we got tickets for later that night. What we didn’t know is that this carnival at night turned into more of an adult carnival as we went to two shows: one of them was people swinging around to music which was very calming, and the other one was two guys that basically were eating glass and shoving pointed objects into their skin. I actually liked this a lot as they had a great act, however I would not bring our kids here!!!!! For more information, please follow this link Pain Solution
The Golden Circle
Next morning we rented our car to start our self drive. We went around what they call “The Golden Circle” which is the most popular attractions outside of Reykjavik. The day was rainy as all hell, but we managed to get to a two beautiful waterfalls, a geyser, a small volcano lake and to top it all off we ate horse and whale at a TEX-MEX restaurant in a small town…go figure…
The South Coast
After getting up in the morning at our little guesthouse, we proceeded to drive along the southern coast, stopping at some of the most stunning scenery I have ever found in my life. Beautiful valleys that looked like they were from an impressionist painting, more waterfalls (the theme of the trip), and also icebergs. As we got closer to our destination that night, we managed to fit in two French backpackers as we drove them to their destination then enjoyed a rather expensive lobster dinner with lobster soup, lobster appetizers and then just plain lobster. Price was not an object as it was delicious…..
East Iceland
After checking out from our little guesthouse, we made our way up the East Coast and saw beautiful Fjords. We stopped in a small town and did a walkabout around there which was amazing, finally cutting inland west through some beautiful mountains and making our way to the small little town of Egilsstaðir, which was one of the most interesting little places as there was not much to do, but we ran across a small little bar and listened to live music where it looked like most of the town emptied out into. This was a great place with even better atmosphere……
The next three days we will be in this area:
Through the inland to Husavik
Cutting inland more, we were trying to get to Husavik/Myvatn area and this proved very difficult with the weather. We had to change our route because our little Hyundai H10 was not doing too well on the non paved roads. We were literally in the middle of nowhere!!!!! Of course it started raining again and so we stopped off at some beautiful sulfur springs and sulfur geysers and I took my lightsaber out to get pictures!!!! We finally got to Husavik and what we found was a gem in the rough!!!! This was literally our favorite city of the whole trip as it was an old town with a very few restaurants and bars, but we did manage to find a bar with a pub trivia and of course we won it!!!! We just didn’t win it, we decided to smash the competition. I believe we were out pretty late that night….
When in Northern Iceland, you must do whale watching!!!!! It was colder than all hell, but we paid our high amount and went out on a boat, we were not disappointed as you can see form below :
Lake Myvatn area
We hung around the Northern area and made our way to the most quaint little farm house for the night that I feel in love with, it was literally in the middle of nowhere!!! On the way, we stopped in the Myvatn nature baths. Now everyone in Iceland talks about the Blue Lagoon, but this was a lot less crowded and in my opinion better, so we took a nice little dip in there and relaxed for about an hour. Then went back to our little farmhouse.
Akeyuri (Capital of the North)
Now it was time to get to Akureyri (the capital of the North.) This was a scenic drive and not really that long. This was the biggest city we had been in since Reykjavik and decided to go out and explore (where most of my photos were lost because my camera got broken. We had some beers at different places then went back to our hotel and relaxed for a bit, then went out for the night. I believe we ended up at a few different bars and I ended up at a nightclub at the end of the night, finally getting back at four or five in the morning!!!!!
West Iceland
The next day both of us woke up rather late for obvious reasons!!!! We had our longest driving day, but along the way we stopped to ride the Iceland ponies which was great!!!! When going to Iceland you must do this. After looking at our map and realizing that we were running behind, we had to cut out parts of our drive and take a shortcut to our destination for the night. It was a quaint little guesthouse on the foot of a mountain in the middle of nowhere…..
Waking up in the morning we made our way back to Reykjavik where I did some more sightseeing and reflected on the last ten days. It was a great adventure
The little known part of the United Kingdom has the world’s longest city name…
When you think of the United Kingdom, the first place that comes to mind is probably England, then Scotland, then Northern Ireland.
Wales obviously is also in the United Kingdom, and in my opinion is my favorite country in the kingdom. We got off a ferry that was headed from Ireland to Wales. We stopped at the longest city name in the world- LlanfairÂpwllgwyngyllÂgogeryÂchwyrnÂdrobwllÂllanÂtysilioÂgogoÂgoch . The countryside is beautiful with more farm animals than you can count. We stayed for one night in Llangollen, which is a small town up in the countryside of no more than 4000 people. What it does not have in people, it makes up for in scenery and tranquility. There is no major clubs or bars, just small places to hang out and one hell of a cool little train……
We then made our way to the capital of Cardiff. This was a very interesting city as we stayed very close to the city center. We were actually right next to the Millennium Stadium and went on a tour inside which is a massive beautiful place. We then took a jaunt around the water front to all of the different sites there. I made it as far as the Dr. Who Museum when I figured out that I needed to get back to start the night with my friends…….
Only a few hour stop? Trust me that is more than enough time…..
This is always a stop I make when I am on my way from Germany to Switzerland. It is a small principality that is sandwiched between Germany and Switzerland.  It is roughly 60 miles square with the capital being Vaduz.
There is literally nothing to do here except look at the mountains and have a coffee. But it is a nice afternoon stop to cut out your journey into Switzerland……
I am sure given another opportunity here, I may stay longer, but there is more to do in neighboring Switzerland. Again, I have only been here in the summer. I am sure the winter is much more exciting…..
Monaco Evening is all that us simple folks can afford!!!! If you have an extra 600,000 plus euros for a studio apartment, and an extra 500,000 euros to put in a bank there, then this place is for you. This tiny principality is only .78 sq miles big, but boasts some of the biggest names in the world that live there. I have had an afternoon stopover there, then dinner at a restaurant at night there, along with gambling at a casino, is just about all I can afford. Very safe and clean, this would be your paradise if you have the money. But most of us do not….
Slovakia: The lesser visited of the split between Czechoslovakia Unfortunately on one of my jaunts through Eastern Europe in 2006, my camera ran out of batteries when I visited this lesser known country of the Czechoslovakian split. We stopped in the tiny yet picturesque town of Banská Bystrica. I have never had the desire to go to Bratislava as I heard it is nice but not something I would want to visit and I have never had anything on my list there that I wanted to see. This town we stopped at was beautiful. The street was a pedestrian only street with many small restaurants and some of the best mutton, sauerkraut, and smoked meats I have ever had in my life. These are the pictures of our time there I was actually able to get from people….next time I will pack an extra battery or try to change my camera at night….
Aruba Fun and Relaxation in the sun with family Just like Jamaica in the year 2000. My family decided to meet up in Aruba to spend some time with each other. This was the summer of 2008 and I had to rush home from my one year stint in Japan in order to make this trip. I flew from Tokyo to El Paso, spent a day there then jumped on a plane over to Aruba. I can honestly say my body was dead and tired by the time I showed up. However that did not stop me from eating as much as I could, drinking as much as I could, and spending time with family. I had a chance a few times to go out into the capital Oranjestad a few times on my bike and it was a beautiful city. Pretty much the only thing to do there is gamble, buy jewelry and drink. I also had a chance to go to the lesser known parts of the city to see how some of the people lived. All in all it was a great trip and the island is small but very well kept. I had the chance to go back here when I lived in Venezuela but it did not rank high enough on my list of places to warrant another trip there. Plenty of other things to see
The Long Way Around, Up, and Down….. The majestic Incan Empire lasted for hundreds of years, peacefully assimilating other groups into their vast territory. This was the largest Empire in the pre Colombian Americas and was subsequently conquered by the Spanish who brought diseases and weapons over that these people had never seen before. The Spanish were able to conquer most of the empire and destroy many of the sacred sites, however one of them remained that was hidden up in the highlands of Peru, and that was Machu Picchu. I decided to do the Inca Trail hike because of my love for hiking, and also because my love for learning about Native American tribes. I wanted to follow the trail that they did to see how hard it was for them to go through this vast territory and mountains. I could of just taken a train up from Cusco to Agua Calientes, but what would be the fun in that? I wanted to see it all. I spent a few days in Cusco to acclimate myself to the air so I would not get altitude sickness. What ended up happening is I acclimated myself to Cusco and the Alcohol in the Hostel….
I ended up meeting the group I was with and on our way to start the trek we stopped at other Incan sites along the way, a village where the natives still make beautiful scarves, and just beautiful scenery….
The town we stayed at the night before was Ollantaytambo. Take it this was New Years eve, so we could not have a big night out as we had to start hiking in the morning. A few of us managed to get some drinks in as we went to bed early and prepared heavily for the next four day hike up into the unknown…
In the coming days, pictures are worth a thousand words… Day 1 was a moderate hike through some beautiful territory and some great food. We stopped near a small village that night in which they served CHICHA (fermented alcoholic corn). We would have to look for a red flag at a house and when we saw this flag, we knew that their batch was ready.
Day 2 is known as the proverbial Day from Hell. We had to make it up to Dead Womans Pass (see pics) then back down again. Most of the entire journey was straight uphill, with people getting sick, porters passing us all the way up, and locals laughing at us. Once you get up to Dead Womans Pass, then it is straight down to the camp. This is the night that where it started raining and the rain lasted approximately 36 hours straight…..
Day 3 we woke up to rain, we hiked for a bit and more rain. Then finally we stopped for lunch and more rain. We stopped to take a rest and more rain. We made it to our destination and more rain. This was the single hardest day of the trip as it never stopped raining. Couple that with the cold, and it was miserable. Almost all of our stuff was wet. Batteries were running out on cameras and we still had not got to our final destination.
Day 4 finally hit as we woke up at 4 in the morning to start our final trek into the fabled city of Machu Picchu. On the way we encountered huge monkey steps that were difficult to climb up. As we finally reached our destination at the Sun Gate to gaze upon this magnificent city….THERE WAS CLOUDS!!!! Luckily for us when we got down, the clouds subsided for a bit and we were able to go and check out a lot of the structures and take a small tour. Then it started to rain AGAIN!!!!
We then went down to Agua Calientes and had some food, as well as beers. We then made our way back to Cusco with the group and had a fun night out including Ground Hog and drinks at a small night club…..
I really loved going to Machu Picchu. Obviously the pictures do not do it justice but it was really an awe inspiring trek and destination. Would I do it again? Yes, I would do this again a billion times…..Just not during the rainy season!!!!!
The anticipation of going to the tallest waterfall in the world with two of my best friends was unbearable. For years I have waited to see this waterfall and the surrounding areas. We took off from the Maracaibo Airport, spent a few days with some friends in Caracas, went to the German Town there (Colonia Tovar).
Caracas and Colonia Tovar:
We boarded a plane to Puerto Ordaz, then caught a taxi to take us to Ciudad Bolivar where we stayed over night for our anticipatory visit to this majestic falls. As we got to the Ciudad Bolivar Airport, we noticed that we were on a tiny propeller plane (which made a person who we were with sick) for about an hour.
As we arrived to our small little airport in Canaima National Park, we came to find out that because of the recent drought in Venezuela, that we were not able to take the regular river boat to visit the falls and instead had to rent a plane to take us looping around the falls. But what the hell, we were there and we had paid our money to see it.
We stayed in the tiny town of Canaima in a posada (Venezuelan term for Bungalow). The town was small an serene with most of the population being tourists. There were no large restaurants. We instead ate at our little posada. there were no bars as if you wanted alcohol, you usually went to a house to buy it from the people there for an inflated price.
Pictures of Canaima Town:
We stayed in the town for a few nights and saw the surrounding sites (beach and mini waterfalls), a nice camping excursion up the river where we slept in hammocks and ate lovely rotisserie chicken.
The anticlimactic highlight of the trip was renting a plane to see Angel Falls. As we got closer and looped around, it should of looked something like this:
Instead to our dismay, we got something that looked like this (because of the drought), and to top it all off the plane had dirty windows and the person next to me (in the prop plane puked :
I guess all the excitement from the trip was when we returned to the town and it was somehow set on fire (probably from someone burning their trash), so we were able help the National Guard fight this fire!!!!!
Overall I am very happy I took this trip. The waterfall was nothing more than a leaky faucet shell of its former self, but the experiences of seeing this place and meeting new people is something that will stay etched in my mind forever….
One of the most magical places in the world for bio-diversity is the Galapagos Islands. Home to different types of animals that you will find nowhere else in the world. This was a dream come true going here. I decided … Continue reading →
Jamaica me crazy!!!! This trip was one of the first times I have ever been abroad (besides Mexico of course). We had a family reunion from my mom’s side of the family there. We stayed at a resort called Boscobel Beach Resort, which is located in the town of Ocho Rios. I had a great time there with family. We got to do a lot of activities in and out of the resort. We spent some days going out into the city to sample the local culture and eat. We also did a lot of day excursions including hiking up a waterfall with a billion other tourists. I was impressed with all the Jamaican food as it has some spice with it and shares a lot of similarities to Latin American and other Caribbean food. The few pictures I have of Jamaica (pre digital camera days) that I had to scan are below. However this got me interested little by little in wanting to see more of what is outside of the United States…..
Everyone knows Chernobyl as the worst Nuclear disaster in the history of the world. Chernobyl is not where 50000 of the workers lived rather they lived in a town called Pripyat, which is a larger city close to the power plant.
Remember before you go to visit here, you have to have government approval. There are 5 tour companies to date that do them. It will cost you a pretty penny, but I feel it was well worth it.
The event happened in 1986. Many of the workers and families fled the area, never to return again. Walking through the town of Pripyet almost engulfed by the forest now, you get an eerie feeling of a town trapped in time. The abandoned Ferris Wheel is what most people think about when Chernobyl comes to mind, however i preferred to concentrate on looking at the Soviet Era facades that encompassed this once bustling city.
We then went to the awe inspiring Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor. It is now a shelled up in a sarcophagus for any radioactive material that may be leaking out. Plans are in the next few years to have a company build a better sarcophagus in order to better keep it from leaking anymore. We saw some cat fish which were probably some of the biggest fish I have ever seen. No it was not because of the radiation but rather it was because they have no predators around so they are growing as big as they want….
Before our way out back to Kiev and through the 2 radiation checkpoints, we had lunch in the small town that is starting to become inhabited again. They had many memorials here, an Orthodox Church, and signs of populations returning to the area….
If you want to experience this island, I would strongly recommend you travel with Green Island Tours. The name of the owner is Marc Shields and he is a top notch guy that will only give you the best service. Green Island Tours
I traveled here with a friend on Semana Santa (Spring Break) of 2012. This was always a top place I have wanted to go, and living in South America gave me the opportunity to do just that. We had to take a flight from Maracaibo to Caracas to Lima to Santiago, and finally to Hanga Roa Airport in Easter Island (needless to say we were dead when we got there.)
Once we got on the island it was pure bliss and a relaxing time. The food was amazing and so was the beer
We went around the first day and started checking out all the things that were near our hostel:
Then the next day Marc(website listed above) took us out for a stroll around part of the island, where we saw some amazing things:
At night we witnessed an island dance that they used to do (probably more touristy)
The highlight of the trip was of course the third day in which we went to a sunrise of some of the most famous statues near the water. As you can see, I had more fun with jumping around than anything!!!!!
We then headed around the National Park of the Island and to a bunch of unfinished statues. Theories came about to why they were never moved, but we know that many of them were just left there….
Indonesia is full of so many islands with their own diversity and culture that it is so difficult to see everything, which leads me to believe I will be back there again, and again, and again.
Part of the trip I went on in Christmas of 2012 was to Komodo Island to see the famed Komodo Dragon, which can kill humans in just a few hours as well as move at very high speeds.
I met my sister Valerie down there and we decided to take a small wooden engine boat that we slept and ate on. The bunks were very small so we decided to sleep out on the boat deck around where we ate our dinner. Unfortunately our luggage did not make it to the island so we were in our clothes we were wearing the whole three days.
Food was not that bad on the boat!!!! remove the table and this is where we slept
First we went to a small island where the dragons live away from people but have been known to attack. You can see the houses are on stilts to keep the dragons out and also for flooding:
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We watched the bats that night coming out of the Mangrove then went to bed on our nice little boat deck:
Next day we were off to the two islands that had dragons, however we had to be careful not to get to close to them as they move fast, but they just ignored us and went along their way:
We then finished off our delightful little cruise by going to another village that had been hit by damage in the previous years and saw exactly what life was like on these villages:
The last bastion of Communism in Europe– Lucion Tion
For information on seeing Transnistria please go to the following website and contact Andrey: Transnistria Tour
Some of you reading this are probably saying the following: “I have never heard of this country?” If you are one of those people then you are not far off.
This country does not technically exist as it is a breakaway state of Moldova, it is not recognized by any UN member state and pretty much the only countries that recognize it are other breakaway states like Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and South Ossetia.
I was initially not going to include it on my list of countries visited but after talking to a friend Steve Spanrring, it fits all the criteria. They have their own government, their own police force, their own Army, and their own currency.
So where is it?
Sandwiched in between Moldova and Ukraine and it is predominately Russian speaking.
I was with my friends Steve and Lucion and we ended up getting a train from Odessa to the capital Tiraspol. It was a typical old Soviet style train with wooden benches and no aircon.
As we got there our contact named Andrey met us at the train station where we did our visa paperwork, then off to the currency exchange and hotel:
We had always heard from people how dangerous this place would be and how it is a pain in the ass getting in or out of there, and how they do not like Americans at all. In fact, the opposite of all of this was true. This was probably one of the most welcoming places I have been, albeit English was not widely spoken, but we were able to get by. I did not feel in danger the whole time I was here as I do in other parts of the world (I imagine their crime rate is pretty low here).
We did day tours with the company listed above and they did not disappoint:
I often have pondered the question: How much do you need in your life to be happy?
I got my answer on this trip which made me look at life a totally different way. As I am known for having vast collections of toys, hard drives etc.
However as I saw people in this huge island that were very content with very little, I got my answer, and that is “You do not need much to be happy.”
Madagascar is a place that has fascinated me as long as I can remember. I have always had some weird obsession with Lemurs which has always propelled me to go. I decided to make this dream come true during Dec/Jan 13-14. On this trip I ruined my Ipad, my iphone, my shoes, and a portion of my blood (to leaches). Normally I would say that this is a horrible trip, but the opposite is true. I got so much out of understanding how people live on this trip~~~
My approximate route I took on this trip is seen in the map below(note this is the fourth biggest Island in the world):
Here are some videos I made of driving through the small towns and countryside of Madagascar:
I had so many different things on my Agenda for this trip
1. See as may species of Lemurs as I could-(I saw 12 total)
2. Get to know people on the road and in small towns
3. Trek around the vast national parks
4. Visit villages that are poverty stricken (but still happy to live life) and deliver needed supplies for kids and adults
5. See how the average person lives/gets around (outside of major cities)
Obviously I was born and raised in the USA. I lived in El Paso, Texas pretty much my whole life (although born in Houston) and am proud to call El Paso my home.
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The Mexican food here is probably the best I have ever had in my life. Couple that with BBQ, and you have a combo of food you will fall in love with:
I have traveled quite a bit in the United States and still have a lot more to go:
My top five cities in no particular order and cities I would live in if I lived back in the US would be the following:
1. Nashville, Tennessee – Food, Music
2. Eugene. Oregon-Food, Beer, Outdoors
3. Asheville, North Carolina-Beer, Outdoors
4. Ann Arbor, Michigan-Cleanliness, Good Atmosphere
