Bogota had been at the top of my travel list for the past few years. As peace started to take hold in the country over the past 10-15 years (check out this url=http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21688936-juan-manuel-santos-seeks-support-peace-washington-new-plan-colombiaEconomist articlefor more details), I continued to hear more and more wonderful stories from travellers about their experience to this once “no go” zone. I wouldn’t be disappointed for three main reasons. One, the city has an extensive and diverse culinary scene. I was finally introduced to the Peruvian cuisine here! After such a wonderful introduction, I now have Lima at the top of my travel list. Two, while the weather forecasts called for considerable precipitation, we saw literally none. When I combined that with daytime highs around 20c, the weather was perfect. I am always astonished at how much of a ... read more

We were now headed to two more of Sri Lanka's UNESCO World Heritage Sites back to back - Sigiriya and Anuradhapura. The ride out of Kandy was uneventful other than the roads and traffic were not much different than what we encountered entering Kandy. With no shoulders and rough tarmac, these would be the worst roads of our trip. That wasn't to change until we hit Dumbulla (actually home to yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site…). It is interesting to note that the worst roads of our trip were around Sri Lanka's two largest cities -- Colombo and Kandy. I guess with the new motorways (Sri Lankan now has a few true freeways -- Colombo to Galle and Colombo to Kandy) constructed recently the older roads are no longer as much of concern. Riding in Sri ... read more

Against the doctors orders, I headed out on the road for Tangalle on Saturday morning. My energy level was good, but I just had this cough that just wouldn't not go away... At least, I had a good rest day behind me and a good cocktail of drugs to try and put this to rest. :-) On our way out of Galle, we stopped at an HSBC ATM to get some cash and to my pleasure the bills came out in 2,000 Rs (around $16 CAD) notes rather than the usual 5,000 Rs notes. This is an issue, because no one in this country has change! It is so bad I have to hide my small dollar bills (100s and 50s) when I pay for something, as the person I am transacting with will always ask ... read more

As we prepared for our flight half way around the world, it dawned on me that this will be the longest flight in my life -- not in total time, but in flight time -- at 23 hours. I was just wondering how hangry(a combination of tired and hungry), as Shauna puts, she should get on a flight like this… We had a code-share flight with Air Canada and Sri Lankan Airlines, so logistically we were as well setup as any flight to Colombo from Canada could be with stopovers in Toronto and Paris between 3-5 hours. We were to even arrive in Colombo first thing in the morning. Note to self though… when flying overseas to a tropical destination during the winter make sure that any stopovers in northernly cities, like Paris, to make sure ... read more

A Race Against the Clock Enough with Boracay... After seeing the difference between White Beach and Bulabog Beach, I am glad I stayed on the Bulabog side. While it wasn't as pretty, it certainly didn't have the overdevelopment like White Beach. I had my longest ferry ride of the trip (four hours) from Caticlan, Panay to Roxas, Mindoro. We were 1.5 hours late, so I was going to be very pressed to make it to Pinamalyan before night fall (65 km). I couldn't help notice that while the ferry was boarding how may of the ferry workers had helmets on their heads (good) and flip-flops on their feet (bad). I'm not sure what the rationale is behind this, ... read more