My border crossing from Chetumal, Mexico, into the next country on my list, Belize, went pretty smooth, if not a little slowly. I took a bus full of tourists, just like me. First we exited the bus to get stamped out of Mexico. Normally you get charged a Mexican tourism tax with your airline tickets, which I did, but I read that the border guards try to scam tourists into paying it again when leaving. Me and the couple in…
As promised, I boarded a plane in Gaborone and winged my way all the way to the most northeastern tip of Botswana, Kasane, where I’ll be gearing up for the next leg of my journey. Kasane is mostly a base for safaris, where warthogs and baboons roam the streets and it’s not safe to walk around after dark for fear of lions, hyenas, and elephants. Out in the bush, warthogs are always hard to photograph because they’re pretty shy and…
I had about a five hour drive from Mashatu northwest to my next stop, the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. I checked into my little chalet and rested up for the next days activities. The Khama Rhino Sanctuary was started in the 1990’s in an attempt to save the near extinct rhino population. It’s been a pretty good success too. They currently have around 35 white rhinos (I’ve heard different numbers from different sources) and 4 black rhinos, all guarded by round…
Not too far from Orvieto is my next medieval town, Spoleto. Spoleto was also an important Roman town, but it’s real claim to fame is as the Lombard capital from the 6th century on. It has a lot of narrow medieval streets and it’s also very hilly. Walking around Spoleto involves plenty of up and downhill hiking. The restaurant in the pic below left is where I ate both nights here, Taverna dello Spagna. They had the best pasta noodles…
I said goodbye to Macedonia early and hopped on a bus for one of the only fully open countries on earth, Albania. My bus took me as far as the capital, Tirana, then I immediately jumped on another bus to Shkoder. Tirana is where I’ll end my adventure, so we’ll get to that later. Shkoder is a really pleasant city in the northwest of the country and the jumping off point for one of the premier outdoor excursions in the…
I left Skopje for Mavrovo National Park on the western edge of Macedonia, but first I took a little detour to the ancient city of Stobi. Stobi is the only ruins I’ve visited in this country so far that is actually mentioned in the guidebooks and actually requires a ticket. It looks like they’re still excavating the site because there were people there working and photographing everything. The other fun part about visiting a site with some actual infrastructure is…
2020 pretty much sucked for everybody on Earth and my year certainly wasn’t without some hardship and heartbreak either. After spending the spring and early summer basically doing nothing due to being unable to find work anywhere, I finally got a gig in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I was keen to start exploring again and having never been to that part of the country before, I was pretty happy about it. Wilkes-Barre is not a super exciting town, but turned out to…
Ok, so this post is way overdue, but here goes. My nomadic, traveling job recently took me to Santa Fe, New Mexico. For those who have never been, New Mexico is a very underrated state. While the neighbors, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah are getting all the attention, the so called “Land of Enchantment” remains relatively quiet and largely ignored. Much of my time there was spent avoiding the snow and winter temperatures, but I was able to spend the warmer…
Greetings from Lebanon! I’ve left the relative calm oasis of Jordan and landed in loud, fast paced, chaotic Beirut. The very first thing I noticed about this place is that the Lebanese are hands down the most insane drivers in the world. No joke! The taxi ride from the airport to my hotel was absolutely terrifying. It’s gas all the way to the floor or brake all the way to the floor, weaving around everyone and everything, and three times…
Getting out of Karak turned out to be a bit of an odyssey. Luckily it worked out, but it took most of the day, a lot longer than expected. I was supposed to take a bus from Karak to Tafilah and transfer to a bus to Dana. For some reason there were no buses to Tafilah from Karak that day, so instead, a couple of locals told me the best way to get there and the odyssey began. First a…