Against all initial advice (well from everyone save Freeman) I decided to go cage diving with the GREAT WHITES in a small town not too far from where we were staying in Hermanus. And damn....what an experience. There is actually not that much to talk about just check out the photos. Haley, Freeman and I all decided to go (Natalie was not feeling so hot). The small fishing village of Gansbaai (where we would dive from) is only a short drive from Haley's parents house in Hermanus. Dyer and Geyser Islands, just off the coast, are home to a large colony of over fifty thousand seals and are thus a favorite feeding ground for the Great White shark. The deep channel between these two islands is known as Shark Alley and is acknowledged as one of ... read more

As a memorial to my grandmother who died in the Fall, my parents decided to have a "family bonding" event. That event took 13 of us to Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun, for 3 night. After countless hours of research, trying to find a date that worked for all, we settled on January 31 through Feb. 3rd. The trip included my parents, of course, Lisa and her fiance Nate, Jeff and his wife Amber, my grandparents from Michigan - Dorothy and Don, my half-brother Mark and his wife Sara from Boston and my half-brother Brian from Boulder, CO. Haley wasn't able to take the two days needed off from work so she joined us a day later. Nine of us "Schwalms" were on the flight out of Dulles, landed in Cancun, grabbed our bags and ... read more

Since this blog is so old I will just add a short description. This was our (mine and haley's) second trip to Puerto Rico and we really wanted to explore as much as possible. On our first trip, we did what everyone seemed to recommend and stayed in the north eastern corner, where we took in the rain forests and the white sand islands. This time we wanted to try to see a side of Puerto Rico that most travelers miss. So I bought a detailed map, we rented a car, and went off on one hell of an adventure. I'll just include the highlights here: (1) Ruta Panoramica - This is a series of curvy roads that link the island's east and west coasts, similar to skyline drive (here in VA). It was a great ... read more

The past few days have been extremely busy and eventful! I'll try to catch up you all with some of the highlights. The Great Wall of China: was quit impressive. We joined a small tour group organized through our hostel to the more remote part of the great wall. We actually passed the most popular refinished section of the great wall and where pretty amazed. Amazed at not only the size of the wall but also with the number of tourists on the wall (I think there was actually one continual line from the parking lot to the highest point on the wall. An hour further down the road is where eventually pulled off. We met up with our guide who ended up being some old man with a bottle of tea in one hand ... read more

Puerto Rico Central America Caribbean » Puerto Rico By cjschwMarch 13th 2007Chris SchwalmPlease see: http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Puerto-Rico/blog-137837.html for my entry for Puerto Rico (I got lazy on that trip) I will add more photo's eventually... read more