The Travel Thread

[orbit]

i lived in peru for many years and backpacked around cuzco quite a few times. make yourself a favor and don't spend less than a week there. there are so many beautiful things to see. i don't know if you are a hiker but there's this place called Ausangate 100 mi. south of cusco. it's amazing.



and Choquequirao, almost outside of cusco. it's very similar to machupicchu, and the view is excellent. one of the most beautiful hikes i've ever done.





and try to make it to lake titicaca, as courtney said. if you plan to spend some time in bolivia go to Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. it's wonderful. about 200 miles south from lake titicaca. and my favorite bolivian town, Samaipata.




i'll post more information and tips later when i get home. oh, and my friend's brother is a tour guide in cuzco. i can give you his information just in case.

[TomAz]

On an unrelated note, United just announced a sale: flights to or from Hawaii to the mainland for 32,000 miles from now through May 12. I have 200k+ United miles sitting around at this point, so I need to think of a good trip or two.

Coachella.

[TomAz]

also, wow, thanks orbit. great pics.

[Courtney]

I am considering Tom.

Orbit, that Salt Flat picture rules.

[Archie Bunker]

Beautiful pics. Might have to schedule a trip to S. America.

[whynotsmile99]

Hello from Spain

Having a great time. I loved Madrid, stayed longer than I originally thought I would and still barely scratched the surfice. I essentially walked for 4 days straight. ´Walking around with no particular place to go, constantly stoping for wine, beer and tapas and walking some more. Just spectacular. Madrid reminds me of Paris, but far cleaner. Food here is incredible. Some of these tapas (sometimes free with a drink order) are seriously gourmet level quality. Insanely good ham, baby eels on garlic toast are amazing, huge chunks of brie cheese with jelly and carmalized onions.

It´s hilarious that fast food here, Burger King, kfc, mcdonalds, is really expensive. 3-5 euros a burger while seafood tapas of fantastic quality are no more than 2.

I wish i spoke spanish. so far that is the only major drawback. Wish I could communicate with the locals more.

I´m currently in beautiful Ronda, its cold here and quite lovely. it´s carnavale and all the kids are dressed in costumes. Seville, while i had an ardous time getting there, was a great city as well. loved the old santa cruz neighboord.

From here most likely a few other small villages on the way to Granada then up to Barcelona.

Despite a wild first night in Madrid involving a German 19 year old and a 44 year old Spanish woman at a salsa club, haven´t partied as much as I would have thought.

´Guess i´m saving that for Barcelona.

Kevin Costner and Method Man are playing Madrid next month. Sadly not together.

Here´s where I am currently,,

[TomAz]

RONDA!!! such a cool town.

[Courtney]

What a weird coincidence -- I just got finished skyping with my little sister, and that's exactly where she is too right now.

More pictures please.

[chiapet]

From here most likely a few other small villages on the way to Granada then up to Barcelona.

It sounds like you're doing almost exactly the reverse of my trip. Glad to hear it's going well! I love that awful fast food is so expensive there -- it should be, to discourage people from eating it.

[juloxx]

Barcelona gets pretty shady. Love Spain though, its amazing. Have a great time.

Also you should go to Method Man, because that would be awesome.

[Mr. Fuzz]

Hey, has anyone been to Jamaica???

[whynotsmile99]

Hey, has anyone been to Jamaica???

i have, though it was just for a few days as part of a cruise ship. it was really pretty, though it was pretty rough outside the nice beach areas. i´ve met people who have done jamaica on their own and had a great time, though it can be pretty damn shaddy. coffee is amazing there.


by the way, yesterday in Barcelona I saw a fully naked man in his 60s riding a bike on the most posh street in the city

[boarderwoozel3]

How's the time orientation treating you, whynotsmile? A friend who recently returned from studying in Granada had a hard time with their holistic view toward time. Busses running when they pleased and businesses open sporadically etc.

[whynotsmile99]

well i have returned. Great trip, wish it was longer than 2 weeks. I'm insanely bitter about 2 weeks vacation time. Talk to any European and you'll see why. 4-6 weeks paid holiday is standard. so jealous.

Connecting to Heathrow was such an ungodly pain in the ass. It took me literally 2 hours if not longer to get off my plane and get on the next one, due to 2 security checks (one only if you are coming into America) after already being checked in barcelona, 2 buses, tons of walking and about 10 elevators.

In two weeks I visited Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Granada, Seville and Ronda.

Barcelona was quite seedy indeed, more than I remember it. I got my camera stolen on Las Ramblas but managed to get it back. Barcelona was a blur. I must have slept 10 hours in 4 days. Clubs and bars all night, chilling with new friends at a great hostel till 8 in the morning. last night i went on a beer run with an irish lady at 5:30 am

Madrid was underrated. i love that city. beautiful, clean safe and somewhat easy to navigate through. Unlike Barcelona, which was sprawling and i always felt lost. i guess partying all night will do that to you.

Seville, Ronda and Granada were all beautiful. Wish i had more time in each city.

Spain made for a great travel destination, highly recommend it if you haven't been there before. Lots of fun, amazing food, beautiful villages in the country, great cities


Some pictures:

Seville at night

my hero. the Spanish do amazing things to pork

Madrid at night. stumbling upon this on a rainy night at 1am was just spectacular

hand painted movie posters, Madrid




amazing seafood dinner. thing on the right is a fried tomato with a heaping
amount of raw fish

churros and hot chocolate sauce

fried baby eels!

Picasso's masterpiece in all its glory

The Prince of Spain

Giant gummy bear, Madrid convention center

Seville

largest Gothic church in the world

Seville at night


Columbus's tomb

best photo I took on my trip

Rolling hills of the Andalucia region

Shaddy looking Asian man smoking something


Carnavale is best spent dressing up as fascists to shoot Rastafarians

Ronda

Ronda

old quarter, Ronda

telephone that looks like a muppet

Ronda

Ronda at night
[IMG]http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a272/jdrubin1675/Spain%202010/IMG_0706.jpg[/IMG
Ronda

statue of Picasso in front of his birth house

Granada

Barcelona graffitti

I would not buy ice cream from this creepy thing

alhambra granada

alhambra granada, insane level of detail

alhambra granada,


i have no idea what was in this. it was tied to a string from a second story window
i wanted to open it , but i believe it was tied to a bell.

spring onions. AMAZING

a hospital in barcelona, believe it or not











90 percent absinthe. ugh




me enjoying my last night in Barcelona

[miscorrections]

All that food looks AMAZING. I'm super jealous (especially of the eels!).

[chiapet]

Awesome pictures. (Except for the tapeworm sandwich -- what IS that?) Brings back a lot of memories

[whynotsmile99]

Awesome pictures. (Except for the tapeworm sandwich -- what IS that?) Brings back a lot of memories

haha chiapet can't believe you never tried the fried baby eels! probably my favorite tapas dish. food there was so amazing. again, thanks for all the tips. wish i got to try that whole baby pig but I guess that will be next time.
sherry there is amazing and I managed to avoid bad cava. Certainly had enough wine and beer to last me a few weeks

[miscorrections]

Mmmm Sargasso eels.

[whynotsmile99]

How's the time orientation treating you, whynotsmile? A friend who recently returned from studying in Granada had a hard time with their holistic view toward time. Busses running when they pleased and businesses open sporadically etc.

hmmm it really wasn't a big issue for me honestly. places did close up for siesta, but others did remain open. i ate when I was hungry, just had to look a bit harder between 2-5. I took around 7 buses and 3 trains in Spain and had no problems. everything came on time. I reckon living there gets you a better feel for things like that though. The Spanish, in general, were pretty laid back all around. Granada was a pretty cool city, wish i had more than a day there. Did your friend like studying there?

by the way, I got some good videos on this trip as well. I'll try and get em online tomorrow.

one more food picture to leave you with. Brie cheese, caramelized onion and jelly on toast. another one of my favorite tapa dish @ my favorite tapa bar in Madrid

[IMG][/IMG]

[chiapet]

I have a policy against eating anything that looks like snakes or worms. I approve of almost all the other food pictures though. Glad to hear the trip was so good. I want to go back.

[whynotsmile99]

I have a policy against eating anything that looks like snakes or worms. I approve of almost all the other food pictures though. Glad to hear the trip was so good. I want to go back.

aww that's too bad. between cobra in Vietnam and now baby eels in Spain, I must say I rather love worm shaped food

[TomAz]

great pics. great travelogue. very well done. god i really love ronda, your pics just reminded me how much. i'm hungry.

[Davids81]

aww that's too bad. between cobra in Vietnam and now baby eels in Spain, I must say I rather love worm shaped food

you're a braver man than most. I can honestly say, I'm too much of a pussy to try any of that food. I'm going in Sept, I hope that all the food isn't like that. I went to Italy a few years ago, and had quite a hard time adjusting to the food there. Too much seafood, I guess.

[miscorrections]

It drives me crazy when people travel but refuse to even try regional foods. Or when people don't travel but refuse to try new things. It's exactly the same as being one of those people who never goes more than 10 miles from their house in their whole life. It's mind-boggling.

[chiapet]

I'm all for trying new food. I'm unfortunately deathly allergic to an unreasonable number of things. I was possibly a little more adventurous than usual (for traveling + eating) in Spain since I can speak Spanish well enough to explain that I need to go to the hospital immediately. The main reason I've NOT visited Asia, especially SE Asia, is because of not speaking language and being allergic to practically something in every recipe.


Anyway, Davids81, Spanish food is amazing. IF you are vegan, you might find yourself limited. If you're Jewish and observant, maybe too. They do love their seafood, shellfish, and pork...

[faxman75]

I sure as hell hope this doesn't start a new trend amongst the airlines. Southwest continues to look more and more appealing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/...s_carry_on_fee

Spirit Airlines to charge up to $45 for carry-ons

They are at least lowering their ticket prices to make up for it.

[suprefan]

$9 fares on Jet Blue from Long Beach to The Bay Area. Sale ends at 8:59 tonight....

[faxman75]

Where do you see this? What are the restrictions? I see nothing on the Jet Blue site and when I try different dates from Long Beach to SF I get nothing close to $9.

eta
Ok, found this.

Dates: You must book by 8:59 p.m. Pacific time, April 26. The fare is good for travel Tuesdays and Wednesdays, April 27-28, May 4-5, May 11-12 and May 18-19, subject to availability. Travel must be completed by May 19.

Tested: These seats are going quickly. When I checked Monday afternoon on JetBlue’s website, hoping for a May 4-5 quickie round trip, LGB-SFO, I found I would have to depart 3.45 p.m. or later May 4 and return no later than 12:35 p.m. to get $9 fares both ways; the other flights started at $52. It was tough to get $9 fares both ways unless I left, say, May 5 and returned May 11. But getting $9 one way isn’t so bad either, so there’s no need to get greedy.


Of course, you don’t really pay $9 each way. With taxes, your “$9-each-way” round trip will total $39.40. Still, it’s an exceptional bargain.

[boarderwoozel3]

I'm heading back to western Europe this summer and intend to visit London, Amsterdam, Belgium and Paris. Also, I'm feeling more adventurous this time around and plan on using couchsurfer.org as much as possible with hostels as a fallback plan. Could get a little freaky. *excited*

[chiapet]

Sounds fun. Where are you going in Belgium? (Pukkelpop again? Brussels/Bruges?)