We battled through the snowstorm in Maine while driving to a social function. In the car my sister, her husband and I were frantically trying to stay warm before making a dash through the driving snow and into the venue. We awoke the next morning to find the whole neighbourhood blanketed in nine inches of perfect snow, providing a beautiful backdrop with an outside air temperature of minus 17 degrees celsius. Wait a minute ... was this some kind of vivid dream? I'm from Australia and I've never experienced anything like this before! But that's one of the joys of travelling and has become my new life for a time, as I visit family in the gorgeous Maine suburb of…

The passengers were ushered through immigration in Cancun like VIP´s after we arrived back from Havana. The return flight was fun as I bumped into an Aussie guy from a hostel in Guatemala, and we had an animated debrief of our respective travel experiences in Cuba. From Cancun I organised a bus to the famous Mayan ruins of Palenque where I spent an engrossing morning exploring, taking photos and meditating at this wonderful sight in a peaceful setting. I then pushed on to the quality Backpackers hostel in the gorgeous colonial town of San Cristobal, where I effortlessly slotted back into the backpacker scene. The difference was striking as I had been spending all my time with Cubans of late,…

The flight from Cancun to Havana took one hour, but experiencing Cuba in 2006 is like flying into another world. It feels like you're entering a museum amidst a visual explosion of once in a lifetime travel sights and experiences. Where else, for example, can you catch a taxi ride in a 1948 Dodge as you can in downtown Havana? Ah Cuba; the rhythm, the rum, the salsa dancing, the music and the beautiful Cubana chicas, the rum (¿did I already mention that?), the havana cigars, the colonial buildings and the fiestas by night. There's a good chance you will have the travel experience of a lifetime in Cuba, but the initiation can be quite challenging. This is because Cubans…

The country is the home of tequila slammers, the sombrero, guitar playing singers to serenade us, tacos and burritos, and of course corona beers with a slice of lime. Where else but fabulous Mexico, and it's wonderful to be back here after an absence of too many years. I previously visited Baja California twenty years ago, but now I'm on the other side of the country visiting the yucatan peninsula, for a sticky beak at the world famous resort towns that line the coast. The yucatan is by far the most popular destination for tourists in Mexico, and is often described as not the real Mexico. However the gulf coast is indeed the real deal ... it's the big time,…

Guess who's back on the caribbean coast again, dear reader, with the rasta cats feeling bless-ed man? Yes that's right, it's your intrepid travel journalist happy to post this entry from Belize. Within a minute of arriving at the bus terminal in Belize City I walked around the corner and saw two local women; one of whom approached with outstretched arms, missing teeth but a winning smile and said to me ¨Hey baby, come to mama!¨ Well, that sure was an interesting opening gambit. So anyways, I go a little further down the street towards the marine terminal, and give some skin when offered by a rasta cat who was chilling with his brothers. The cat glances at my face…

My time visiting the beautiful country of Guatemala has been an undeniably positive and memorable experience. I hand wrote the draft for this journal from atop a monument in the majestic grand plaza of the Tikal Mayan ruins, and it's a glorious location to provide inspiration for my travel blog! The ruins of Tikal, along with the sublime beauty of Lago de Atitlan, and the gorgeous colonial city of Antigua with it´s vibrant nightlife are wonderful attractions to rival the tourist highlights of any country in the region The tourist industry in Guatemala has potential for substantial growth, but let´s touch base again from the start of my visit... We left off in San Salvador, dear reader, where I caught…

El Salvador is the next country on the itinerary for my friends and I while travelling through Central America. We are all pressed for time due to various reasons and need to get a wriggle on, so we hoofed it to the bus terminal at Santa Rosa in Honduras, and jumped on an international bus south to the border and on to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. While passing through border immigration we met a kind expat who is living in San Salvador, and he invited us to dinner at his Chinese restaurant on arrival. We jumped back on the bus and journeyed through beautiful countryside, as we headed off on another short commute to San Salvador. We…

The people of Honduras greet travellers with friendly and smiling faces, and the infectious nature of the locals quickly wins you over. This is a country that doesn't see many tourists, but the warm hearted locals make for a very pleasant stopover. My friend and I started our visit with a bus journey from beautiful Leon to the Nicaraguan border through an undeveloped area of the country. We were puzzled to see three very well dressed chicas jump on the bus in the middle of nowhere, only to jump off the bus after an hour or so ... still in the middle of nowhere! That experience will be filed under the category of a travel mystery. We crossed the border…

My whirlwind tour through Central America continues, dear reader, with selected highlights from Nicaragua. Time constraints limit my options at this particular stage of the trip, yet if the choice is between a short visit to these wonderful countries or not being here at all, I certainly won´t need to phone a friend as the decision is a no brainer. I booked a seat on an international Tica Bus from San Jose across the border to Rivas in the south of Nicaragua. From there a further short taxi ride, and then a one hour ferry crossing landed me at the magical Isla de Ometepe on Lake Nicaragua, which is the largest lake in Central America. The island was formed by…

The irresistible lure of the caribbean cast a further spell on me, and has led to a change of plans to see in the new year. The original plan was to spend New Years Eve in Panama City, but I found myself on a bus the night before through the Panamanian countryside and on to Changuinola. I met a Dutch couple and a Costa Rican on the bus, and we shared the cost of a taxi to the border with Costa Rica. An uneventful border crossing ensued and we had to wait a couple of hours for a connecting bus. After an hour of further travel I caught a transport truck to complete the journey, and was thrilled to be…