john bek
Living in Sydney, I travel with my partner pretty much every year. Travelling to me means being part of and experiencing different cultures, people, food, architecture, and the rest. Camera & passport in hand, I'm always eager to jump onto a plane and experience the next destination johnb
Travel Blog Posts
May 18th 2002
Once we left Puerta Vallarta we returned to Mecixo City, spent a night, then flew up to New York where we spent 5 days. I fell in love with the place immediately. We stayed near Times Square and did the usual tourist activities such as walking around Central Park, the Guggenheim, all the Villages, Brooklyn Bridge etc. Can't wait to return. Next stop is Morocco. We entered Morocco via Casablanca, spent the night then got the first train out to Marrakesh some four hours away. Our time in Marrakesh was spent at a psychedelic little hotel just off the frantic main square, down a very narrow laneway. The rooftop gave panoramic views over the mainly terracotta-coloured city, a date palm here and there, and a backdrop of the snow-covered High Atlas Mountains. A nice place where ... read more
April 28th 2002
We left the beautiful lakeside Panajachel on one of the beaten up chicken buses Guatamalan people have as public transport, over and through the many mountain ranges to Chichicastenengo, a small mountain town (2000 m above sea level) famous for it´s Sunday market. It was Easter Saturday when we arrived and the town was already putting on various colourful religious processions in its narrow streets. Quite a spectacle. Samana Santa was happening everywhere! On our last night in Panajachel, Dean hurt his neck a little while sleeping using the rock-hard pillows at the hotel. On our arrival in Chichi we did the usual orientation walk in the town centre when Dean slipped off the gutter and jarred his neck further, so bad he had pain all down his side and had to lay down the rest ... read more
April 21st 2002
From Playa del Carmen we headed west to a city called Merida, and quite frankly, I can't think of anything positive to say about it ... well maybe one thing ... it has some gorgeous old buildings. Merida was extremely hot and dry, noisy, polluted and grotty. I guess we were there on a bad day. These Mexicano's really need to learn how to dispose of rubbish thoughtfully, and that doesn't only apply to Merida. Our first intention was to spend a few days there though one night was sufficient, and we we're back on that out-bound bus the next morning. So we headed east to lovely Americanized Cancun, then got a boat to Isla Mujeres, another gorgeous island surrounded by clear waters, reef and white sand. Very shabby. The slow pace of the Isle was ... read more
March 23rd 2002
I think I mentioned we'd be heading to Puebla from Mexico City last time I wrote, we ended up going to Oaxaca instead. It was a 6 hr bus ride south through some amazing rugged mountain terrain. The driver sped around the sharp curves in true Mexican fashion, us bumping around here & there ... my palms were sweating I was so nervous looking out the window at the 1km drop into the valley just 2 metres away. Oaxaca is such a nice town nestled between two mountain ranges with clear, fresh air which was a nice change from smoggy M City. We found a nice hotel close to the centre of town and after dropping our things off we found a gorge little restaurant by the zocolo in the shade of the huge old trees. ... read more
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