http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/cmlandrus/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from cmlandrus en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:03:31 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:03:31 +0000 No I tell anyone who asks I'm not afraid to come to Juarez. Not even last year around this time when the murdering was at it's height. I just never really had a reason to come. I guess I could have gone exploring but I admit I had paranoia instilled in me by the locals. It's dangerous stay away. I had made a few brief visits never staying longer than a few hours but I could never quite vent http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/Juarez/blog-412221.html We step onto a platform. Not a train station but an empty wooden platform. The only sign of human life is a hotel about a fiveminute walk away. We head for the hotel to see if thatrsquos where we buy tickets for the next train. The valet tells us we just have to go back and wait for the next train. We return to the platform. Leslie is becoming increasingly upset but I am relatively calm. ldq http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-411635.html Day two in Barcelona I give in and buy what I hope will be a AlkaSeltzerlike miracle Spanish cold medicine. I convince myself it makes me feel better as I play follow the leader with Leslie around Barthalonaaa In the evening I am happy to stay in and chat with our Brazilian roommate while Leslie goes out and soaks in a bit of the nightlife. Before going to bed Leslie tells me there are sig http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-411627.html We do not go out after dinner. ldquoI need to sleep tonight.rdquo I tell Leslie. ldquoIrsquom going to take a sleeping pill so you have to get up first thing in the morning and call the ticket office again. They have an Englishspeaking operator. You just press the right number or something.rdquo ldquoOkay I can do that. So you want me to just check on the prices thenrdquo ldquo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-411624.html ldquoYou know Leslierdquo I suggest during our neverending twelvehour train ride. ldquoWhen we get to Barcelona we should look into buying plane tickets to Lisbon instead of taking a train. Sometimes you can find plane tickets really cheap.rdquoldquoI read that in Spain travel by train is really cheap so we can probably find cheap train tickets.rdquoldquoYeah but it might be http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-411622.html Leslie and I walk back to our hostel the first night in Nice. ldquoI think Irsquom getting sickrdquo I say. ldquoYou think so Howrdquo It is damp in Nice. Overcast cool and humid. A typical September. Irsquove been stress for the last two weeks but I hope it is just the weather. ldquoYou canrsquot get sick on our trip. Itrsquos only the second day.rdquoLeslie is my complim http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Nice/blog-411620.html My stomach was growling and on a normal day I would have sprinted to sample one of everything that didnrsquot involve red meat. But this was no normal day. I needed a photo with Spike Lee. Part of me wanted the proof that I randomly came halfway across the world only to encounter the same successful role model who happened to drop by my humble Midwestern university about four years earlier. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/United-Arab-Emirates/Abu-Dhabi/blog-411614.html I sipped a glass of red wine and chatted with the students who were eager to get to know the new girl. There were a couple of Kazaks and Russians some Lebanese and Syrians one overly cocky half Italian half French guy the adorably innocent twentytwo year old Iraqi secretary and several Iranians who tended to follow their introductions with ldquoBut donrsquot worry. I love Americans.rdq http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/United-Arab-Emirates/Abu-Dhabi/blog-411612.html I couldnrsquot believe it. For the last four years I had had two claims to fame. One was seeing Brad Pitt at the University of Missouri Columbia supporting a filmmaker who had made a documentary about John Kerry during his run for president in 2004. The other was the same year when Spike Lee visited and spoke about his education and early years in the filmmaking industry. What stood out to me m http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/United-Arab-Emirates/Abu-Dhabi/blog-411611.html I must have landed in Abu Dhabi about the same time as Spike Lee. Maybe we were even on the same plane. I wouldnrsquot have noticed anyway. I was too busy gawking out the window at the dazzling display of the yellow luminosity with intermittently dispersed white radiance all lined to perfection in an endless grid that seemed to simultaneously define and insult modern art on an astronomical sca http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/United-Arab-Emirates/Abu-Dhabi/blog-411609.html Easter weekend is an exceptionally busy time for Mexico. Not only is everything booked and crowded because of the Catholic holidays but it also usually falls around most collegesrsquo spring breaks as it did for Cesar and me. In addition to a strip of restaurants and gift shops Creel offers a variety of ways to experience all its surrounding extraordinary natural features via scenic flights http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/Copper-Canyon/blog-411597.html In the winter the Tarahumara move into the mountains but as spring begins they filter down into log cabins in more populated areas. In Creel there are three types of people business owners tourists and the Tarahumara. Only their women do business except for the children girls and boys who run around the streets draped in necklaces and bracelets and carrying small baskets for sale. Each da http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/Copper-Canyon/blog-411589.html Like an increasing number of people in the world today I am a native of nowhere. Irsquom not even native to my home state. Sure I grew up in Missouri but I was born in Iowa. I guess Irsquom a native of the Midwest but what about the real Midwest natives who now live on reservations in other states You can even argue about their claim to nativity since technically they probably walked over http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/Chihuahua/blog-411587.html Cesar and I pulled up to Dollar Rental Car and parked next to a virginallooking freshly washed charcoal Mustang shimmering in the spring sun. We reserved an economy car and opted for a thirtycent upgrade figuring we advance from something like a Kia Spectra to a Ford Focus hopefully with power windows. Regardless we werenrsquot going to complain about a car with a weekly rental rate of http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/Copper-Canyon/blog-411586.html I stood head hanging over my toilet in that familiar insufferable anticipation. The time had passed for silent prayer in the hopes that if I lie still long enough I could fall asleep and that horrid disturbance would ebb in to the depths of my exhaustion. I stood to speed up the grueling process demolishing my stomach. I have a friend who once vomited silently into a plastic bag in a crowded m http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/Copper-Canyon/blog-411585.html Well I'm now in Paraty. I don't even know how to describe what's going on here. It's strange. I read mbb's adventures but I don't process things nearly as quickly. I definitely need massive amounts of reflective time before even beginning to describe what's going on. I'll give it a shot though. I'm staying at the ltA hrefhttpwww.pousadaguarana.com.br targetnewgtPousada Guaranalt http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-411580.html So Brasilia had been go go go we did a never ending tour with an overly controlling guide. This city is really amazing in so many incredible ways But you really have to study it to understand the brilliance that has gone into it and the potential it has. I really want to write more but I've got to get into the shower to go to dinner with the two Brazilian Daniels and their friends. Then tomo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-411579.html so i'm sitting here in my swimsuit and it's just today hit me that i leave for Brasil on tuesday and tuesday night i'll be flying over mexico maybe the caribbean and wednesday morning i'll be in sao paulo to catch a flight to brasilia. crazy it's different because i'm with a group so it's harder to really get into the spirit which is why i think it's just now hitting me because we do none http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Uzbekistan/blog-411577.html Well MBB finally got to me. Once again I'm finishing school and starting a blog. Actually I used to use Xanga but I can't seem to get it to work after being on hiatus for a year. So I figured why not do some transferring of old materials to this blog and start fresh I'm going to start by putting some past travel writings and photos on here. It will only be from about the last year until I ge http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/blog-411575.html