We started with a visit of the exteriors of yet another Royal Palace, this time in Fes. The guards are dressed in different uniforms and were friendly enough for me to get a picture with them. Then we went to a lookout point with panoramic view of the city of Fes before going to the medina to experience getting lost. One of the highlights here is the medieval tanneries. I knew we were getting close because the smell was really pungent. The best way to see the tannery is from one of many terraces overlooking the dying vats. At the entrance [View Full Entry]

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This morning we walked to the old medina (walled city) of Meknes. There were many orange trees bearing fruit along the way and we figured out the hard way why no one picked them. Meknes probably has the most number of billboards with pictures of King Mohammed IV. Due to mis-direction by a local we walked through a non-touristy part of the medina before a boy re-directed us back to the central medina. After a quick stop at the Moulay Ismail Mausoleum we got misdirected again and did a round about way to get to Place el-Hedime and the souq (market). [View Full Entry]

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Today began with a morning tour of the Hassan II Mosque. It’s the third largest in the world and one of two mosques in Morocco that’s open to non-Muslims. It rivals many of the large cathedrals in size and craftsmanship but I was too busy admiring the mosque so I didn’t catch much of what the guide said. It has a retractable roof but it wasn’t open at the time. We then drove to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. First stop was the Royal Palace. It looks fairly posh from the outside and I am sure it’s even more lavish inside; [View Full Entry]

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Today was a long travel day to Casablanca, Morocco. Just to make it interesting I was chosen AGAIN for a random pat-down at the Calgary airport security area, second time in my life and both times in Calgary. Do I have the words “search me” written on my forehead? Needless to say the guy was disappointed that he didn’t find anything. The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful. Upon landing at 6:30AM local time I had 16 hours before my connecting flight to Casablanca. I was supposed to be flying to Morocco via Rome but Alitalia cancelled my flight the day before [View Full Entry]

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This is not my typical travel blog entry but I feel it's justified because it involves travel. I was scheduled to fly out to Vancouver from Edmonton tonight. I was somewhat concerned because all Air Canada (AC) inbound flights to Vancouver from Alberta were cancelled yesterday due to weather conditions. However, I remained optimistic as I had already checked in online last night and according to several sources - AC website, Edmonton & Vancouver airport departure/arrival information, my flight was only delayed, not cancelled. When I got to the airport I tried to use one of those self-s [View Full Entry]

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This was my last day here in Mexico. Since my flight didn’t leave until 18:00hr I had a lazy morning, said goodbye to some people and spent my last few pesos on food for my supper as Air Canada does not provide meal service between Toronto and Cancun. The airport check-in was rather chaotic and I was glad to have checked in online earlier that morning thanks to A. It was only -2C when I got to Toronto, but that was a 27C temperature difference! What would I remember about this trip? Climbing an active volcano, the many great Mayan ruins, [View Full Entry]

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Most people decided to take it easy and stay at Playa del Carmen, but some of us went to Tulum. It didn’t take long for the collectivo to fill up and it only cost 35 pesos to get there. From the drop-off point it was another 8-10 minutes to the entrance of the Tulum ruins and another 10 minutes south to the better public beaches. It was quite busy when we got there, and many people looked like they had just left their all-inclusive resort for the first time. Many resort goers visit Tulum because they felt guilty about not doing [View Full Entry]

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An early flight on TACA took us back to Cancun and Mexico. Even though the carry-on restriction was supposed to be just as strict, I was able to bring my bottled water onboard. There was an x-ray machine at security but they opted to search by hand instead. The flight was relatively on time by Guatemalan’s standards. Even though the flight was only about 2 hours long, we were given a drink and a sandwich. Ok, the sandwich had a mystery meat with a mystery sauce, but it was still food. Are you listening, Air Canada? The flight was rather uneventful [View Full Entry]

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Today was the day to visit Tikal, the famous Mayan ruin deep in the jungle of Guatemala. I was disappointed that we could no longer see sunrise or sunset at Tikal because of recent rule changes. I’ve heard that it’s either for fairness or that some guides abused their privileges and took more than the allowed 15 people up the temple at one time. We chose to go to Tikal in the afternoon to avoid the crowds. It was indeed relatively quiet, other than the occasional sound of howler monkeys and various birds. This was probably the hottest place so far [View Full Entry]

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This was our earliest start yet! We piled into the van at 05:00hr in the morning so that we could avoid the traffic jam around Guatemala City. It worked and the ride was smooth as we had breakfast en route and drove by Lago de Izabal (largest lake in Guatemala) and Rio Dulce. We stopped at Poptun - Finca Ixobel - for lunch. I had an awesome vegetarian burger and papaya shake before having a friendly game of ping-pong with a self-proclaimed high school ping pong champion. We didn’t keep scores but I held my own and the score wasn’t lop-sided. [View Full Entry]

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