the perfect day

I'm talking about the kind of day that from beginning to end, you just feel sated.  Things go right.  Food tastes good.  The company is great and there is something done or seen that is extra extra ordinary.  But above all, you don't realize how extra special the whole day is until it's all over and done with and looking back, you wouldn't change a thing!  That's the kind of day this was!

The place:  The town of Ancud in Chiloe Chile
The day: February 10th, 2011
The extra extra ordinary thing?  Penguins!

It started, as all extra extra ordinary days start....sweet!

We found a small European tourist friendly cafe that sold a special local nut and potato cake...these particular types of nut and potato being very rare and difficult to find anywhere else on the mainland of Chile, much less the world!

Then, we caught a small public bus that took us along the coast and dropped us in the middle of nowhere...or rather somewhere!

PENGUIN LAND!!!!!

We walked the mysterious 2 kilometres up and down hills over looking the ocean on one side and rolling cow pastures on the other, all the time with me skipping/running/tripping along the dusty small road in anticipation to see one of the cutest animals on the planet!

view to the right!

view to the left!

After signing in at a small eco tourist office, we meandered onto a small 12 person boat with a bunch of other tourists, which whizzed us along to the small rocky islands filled with penguin love!

After all of the penguin awesomeness...we got a bit hungry, so we went ahead and bought a $4 king crab from a fisherman on the beach!  Even in Santiago, this treat usually costs around $50 or more!

We decided to hitch hike home and lucky for us, right as we began leaving the isolated penguin beach, a very nice couple stopped to pick us up and drove us back to the town of Ancud.

We walked the small towns streets hand in hand, stopping for some pints of Kuntsmann beer and a heaping basket of more special local spud french fries.  We then spent the evening sitting around a bon fire with fellow campers up on the side of a cliff drinking spiced warm red wine and talking about the day, listening/singing old songs, laughing at jokes and staring up into the sky at stars that seemed bigger and brighter than usual.

Like I said, a day like this can't be planned, it just happens!
I'll never forget it!

remembering Africa

Recently, I began reading the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver based on a recommendation from a coworker...I haven't been able to finish it from frutration and a bit of anger.   Just today I heard this piece done on a Hearing Voices episode called "Home from Africa" based on the culture shock and experiences of a young women working in the peace corps.  I have to admit, it's hard for me to hear these stories in the way they are told, but I'm glad to hear them all the same.

Although very different experiences than what I experienced in Africa...these run ins with stories of places/problems/crazy culture shock moments bring back shadows of memories...I don't know if I wanted to forget, but I find it slightly difficult to remember.

Throughout all of the traveling my husband and I did over the past couple of years, one thing we agreed on returning home was respecting the memories we had of our time in places with dignity.   We were careful in what pictures we took of people not to intrude on someone's personal space or disrespect them or hurt their feelings inapropriately in photos...this photo is one of just a few that we took of people at all.

A market in Zambia

I didn't do much writing during our time in Africa, mainly due to losing our power cord for our laptop shortly after leaving South Africa (the first leg of our journey) and even though the days were filled with long bus rides and lots of waiting, the feeling of wanting to jot down what was running through my mind at the time just wasn't there....thoughts were there, just so numerous and so fast, it was like watching them fly by as I stared out the window at a world that seemed like a dream.

Being in Africa is a beautiful, spiritual, life changing experience and some of the people and places and foods we were privileged to meet, explore and try there changed our lives.  I think about random things from Africa often at odd moments, but in slightly embarrassing ways for myself that I tend not to share out loud.

When I give away clothes, I wonder if they will find there way to Africa....it wasn't unusual to see a Packers or Vikings t-shirt worn by someone on a street corner or being sold at a market.

When I look into my pantry at all the different options of flour I seem to be collecting, I remember the aisle upon aisle of the different brands and sizes of finely ground corn meal sold for pap/nsima/nshima/ugali....and nothing else....and feel a bit gluttonous with my stash of powders.

When I buy a tomato or an avacado at the grocery store and remember the texture, smell and flavor of a freshly purchased tomato from a local African market...ripe, delicious...real!

These moments trigger a certain feeling I can't quite describe, a longing for the beauty we felt and saw in our travels through South Eastern Africa and at the same time an embarrassing gratitude that I'm home again in a place where things make sense to me....where I blend in....where I feel normal and full and warm and clean with running tap water and an automatic ice maker....and that at the same time....that feels horrible.  It feels unjust to judge another culture as "not as good as mine" simply because their priorities are not my own, that I don't understand it and try to make sense of it...it's not mine to make sense of....but then again...most people in Africa will never get to experience my life in the States, whereas I have the luxury of a U.S. passport.

I'll never know what it feels like to be African.  I'll never know how it feels to grow up in a small village surrounded by family and neighbors and love....this is something we also weren't welcomed into as tourists...as an outsider, you remain outside!  It's rare to hear stories from this perspective and I wish there were more available....culture shock can be so blinding.

Gay Pah-Ree

My first trip abroad was to France. I have mentioned it before, and I think I have also mentioned how inadequate of a packer I was back then (I have learned a few things since then). I was also totally green to the ways of the world, but in some ways, this is what gave me the gumption to take this trip in the first place. If I would have stopped and thought about what I was getting myself into, I may have faltered. But I muscled right through in my naïve, adventure-seeking way.

The reason I went was for a summer work abroad program that I had signed up for through my college. I had gone to countless interviews and to orientations where they told us things like: don’t put your hands on your laps at the dinner table because the French would assume you were playing with yourself. I had to do language proficiency and writing proficiency tests. I had to write letters to my future employer and roommate, introducing myself and thanking them for the opportunity. I still have copies of the letters. They are pretty funny.

First I flew from San Francisco to Paris. I arrived at Charles de Gaule jet lagged, disoriented and confused. The aforementioned luggage was a hindrance. I tried to get francs out of the ATM while guarding my bags and trying to remember my French phrases. Next, I had to get from the airport to the train station, which seems easy enough, but first you have to take a shuttle to terminal 3, and walk to the Metro where you go through the turnstile and then take a shuttle back to terminal 1, where you catch the bus to the train station. Have you ever been to Charles De Gaule? If not, and you have never traveled before, I would not suggest it be the FIRST international airport that you tackle. It’s kind of big. 

source

I finally found the train station, bought my ticket and sat and watched the board with the schedules and times go “tick, tick, tick” and flip all the times and track numbers and destinations over. I remember thinking over and over, “what have I gotten myself into?” Here I was in a country where I knew nobody, where I did not really know the language and where I was like a beacon, a small American girl with 4 huge suitcases, just waiting to be robbed. 

source

I wasn’t robbed. I got on the train and went two hours south to Bordeaux, my new home. Luckily (and I can’t quite remember how, as these were the days of little internet) the girl whose flat I was renting for the summer met me at the station, got me on a bus and took me to her house. Her name, in typical French fashion, was Marie Pierre. Not plain Marie, but Marie Pierre.  And of course, it was not Mehr-ie, but Mah-REEE! Pierre. She had a boyfriend with her named Khalid. Luckily, although not well, they did know a tiny bit of English. Not that I expected them to, but if you have ever taken a long flight, you know how foggy one’s head can be afterward. If you had  then ran around Paris like a chicken looking for the Gare du Nord, and then arrived somewhere new and met new people and you are feeling a little overwhelmed, you would know how nice it was to not have to remember all of your French phrases right at that moment. 

 

So, we made small talk, which was great, because that was the French I knew the best: How many brothers do you have? Where are you from? Where do you work? Thanks French 101! It was exciting, being in a new place, starting a new, although temporary life, being out on my own, an independent, French-speaking American, ready for an adventure. We got to the apartment and I got right down to business starting my adventure.

I went straight to bed.

Thank goodness for MP and Khalid. Without them, I don’t know how I would have managed that first day. Stay tuned for tales of the adventures at my new job!

Do you remember your first trip abroad? Have you ever traveled by yourself? Do you like it/hate it/don’t care either way?

Jakarta nightmares

Our very first stop (for an extended period) in Asia happened to be Indonesia, of which we knew nothing about prior to arrival.  I'll admit, we did everything wrong from the very beginning.

We flew in to Jakarta around midnight from Singapore.  As soon as the plane landed I knew it was going to be a crazy country....the moment all the wheels of the plane were on the ground, people started standing up to get their bags and push themselves to the front of the plane.   The pilots had to make continual announcements to get people to sit down again...all I could think was...where are we going?

A view of Jakarta from its National History Museum (taken the next day)

So there we were in Jakarta...with no hotel reservation, no plan for transportation....at midnight.
The lonely planet said that the cheapest way was to take the bus....so on belief that the lonely planet could do no wrong (did I mention it was our first stop?) I paraded my way thru hoards of desperate taxi drivers to the bus stop, where we were pushed on to a bus by very loud, short men....and then waited for 2 hours....from there, after 2 more stops at other airports and more waiting, we were dropped off at the train station at 2am, covered in sweat, in a rain storm, terrified and hungry, with mosquitos swarming us in darkness.   We had no idea which direction to go and were terrified of looking it up in the sacred book of answers and having someone 'know' we didn't know what we were doing....looking back...our idiocy was pretty obvious!  Could we have had a better experience?  Most definitely...will I go back to try it all over again?  Absolutely not!

Our second meal in Jakarta - found in the basement of a mall downtown,
(right next to a basement mall grocery store)
Not bad food in retrospect, but as my first toasty whole fish, a bit terrifying

We eventually meandered our way to the "L.P. recommended" mosquito infested hostel (there were smears of blood covering the walls from previous guests swatting the gigantic mosquito bodies against the white windowless cell like walls) and found some food down the street to the screeching melody of old, drunk, expat Australian men.  The one major achievement that evening?  The discovery of super large sized Indonesian Bintang beers for $1 each!  After a few of those while waiting the required hour it takes to get food in Indonesia (pretty sure they had to go find and kill a chicken for every meal we ate there), the rest didn't seem quite so bad...the large, hairy Australian men seemed more like friendly accomplices and our hostel room was...cozy at 4 in the morning.

The next day we discovered the side walk we had walked along in the dark the night before with our oversized paks and looks of terror had sporadic 2 foot gaping holes here and there that you had to leap over or risk breaking a leg.  All of the decaying sidewalks in Jakarta have a deep and wide gutter system underneath them, which keeps the entire city from flooding and terrifies pedestrians...we were the only people walking the streets....it's almost impossible to cross the 5 car wide streets in some parts of the city.  Most people take taxis!

'walking' downtown Jakarta
This photo was taken on an overpass we fortunately found to walk over  the 'normal' street

Also, because we had no idea what we were doing, we had booked a flight out of Sumatra for 3 weeks later, so we decided to set up a plan with a travel office to get to Medan.  When we told the women we wanted to find a ferry to Sumatra, she simply looked at us a bit stunned and said....that's not possible.  A first of many surprising transportation realizations in Indonesia.  So.  We paid for two first class train tickets (which let's you have a little fan throw air towards you and has a little towel on your head rest) to Yogyakarta Indonesia...and would eventually fly out of Bali....

waiting for hours at the train station to leave Jakarta!
We ended up having to pay a man who grabbed our bags at the very last moment and demanded money

The real story of anger and complete despair lies in the next leg of our journey from Yogyakarta to Bali.....the part we really wish we'd known more about in our lack of research for the trip.  I will save that lovely story for another next blog!

All that being said....I will never return to Jakarta.  Worst place we visited on our entire trip by far!
Dirtier then the long dusty bus rides in Africa.  Hotter then the sun filled blistering days of Thailand....
Yup.  Just as there are beautiful places I'm dying to return to....there are places I would rather not see again.  Jakarta is one of them.  It did teach a lot of important lessons on the do's and don'ts of first days flying into new places  -

DON'T arrive late at night!
DON'T hand your bags over to ANYONE and not expect them to want money seconds later.
DO book a room before arrival for your first night in a new city!
DO make sure to plan how you're going to get there!
DO enjoy and have fun trying out the local foods and beverages!
Mistakes we didn't make again after that!

But to end on a good note...the best coffee I've ever had?  1 block away from our jail cell hostel at a hole in the wall restaurant:

Coffee Jakarta style - strong with the grounds still in with sweetened condensed milk on the bottom.
NUM!

the itch

Nope...I'm not talking about sand flies in the Perhentian Islands of Malaysia
(although those are quite a nuisance and not so fun)

sorry...gross photo....but I make my point.

I'm talking about that intense pressure in the back of your brain, that slight hint of something missing when you're sitting at work looking at travel blogs, that nervous tension on the bottoms of your feet that they should be moving!!!!

When we first got back from traveling, (the first 2-3 months back) we immediately started planning and thinking about the next...unpacking, buying new pairs of socks and finally putting away our kitchen once again...it seemed like anything was still possible and if we didn't like it here, we could simply pack up and go.

Now it's been almost 6 months since our return from snail living (all our belongings on our backs) and I'll admit, the idea of getting back to wandering the world is slowly fading into the distance and disappearing from view and survival/scheduling/priorities/education have hit home instead....the itch is still there, but the reality of daily life has definitely set in once again.

I'm wondering if there are others out there with this odd dilemma and how they feel/deal about it.
What do other travelers do to hold on to that hope and start saving once again for that next great crazy trip.  I know the majority of people don't really get what I'm talking about.....especially with the photo I've just featured....why would you want to be homeless and wandering about in another country far from home....but for me, it's always a shadow in the background that makes me wonder more so...what am I doing here?

That all being said, there is plenty to appreciate in non travel life.
A bed!
A bathroom of my own!
A stove/condiment shelf and coffee pot!

But that crazy adrenaline rush of wondering where we might be tomorrow....
There's nothing like it!

honk

Today I just got honked at while biking.....one single honk.  One.
I was crossing legally on the bike path, on a green bike crossing light and I was in the middle of the street at the time of said honk.

Looking behind me at the older gentleman driving his beat up truck with his fist in the air staring in my direction, I saw anger in his face and a little resentment...thinking something on the lines of....

"Damn bikers, they think they can just bike however they'd like!  They think they own the street as well as their beloved bike paths!  Stay off my god damn streets you good for nothing sons of $%^$!"

What does he do to express all of this deep feeling?  A SINGLE HONK!

Well this whole thing got me gruffed and riled up to shout a single profanity at....no one!
RIGHT!  Just me!  Waiting to legally cross the other intersection, patiently/peacefully waiting my turn accept for one verbal outletting of...

"What the F*** was THAT?!?"
and.... I felt better!

Thinking about this afterwards, I started laughing at the incredible midwestern passive aggressive weirdness that just occurred in comparison to so many other places....

One honk.  One F bomb....and that was enough to release the tension.  In comparison to Jakarta or Bangkok, Santiago, Buenos Aires, New York City.....I can't imagine the same 1:1 ratio of honking to profanity....just one!  It just doesn't happen!  I almost miss the continual non useful honking now....what a continual release of inner stress!  To be allowed to honk and not mean anything by at!  Yes...it's flipping annoying to everyone else...but to be the honker ....not just letting it go once, but 50!  WOW!
and then!  To be on the receiving end...where one can feel comfortable to rip open...arms flailing...words flying....screaming, ranting....letting it all go!  Well, in comparison, my one little baby f bomb at no one 20 seconds after being honked at....pathetic!

I mean...heck...he could have even been honking as a caution!  "Hello biker...I have no breaks...I'm turning right behind you...my sincerest apologies!"  Here in the midwest, this is just as likely.

I'm befuddled by it all!

Freaky Foods

Things that seem totally normal to us can be strange to other people, and other things that are normal to them are completely strange to us. Here are a few examples.

India: fried tubes

Bali: snake fruit

Spain: anchovies (not just for pizza, and PS -- they are delish!)

Spain: leg of pig complete with hoof (jamon) and liver of duck (pate de pato)

Namibia: wieners, in a can

Vietnam: several varieties of hedgehog

Vietnam: dragonfruit

South Korea: no idea what these weird shellfish are

For more strange foods, go see my other blog later this week! There were just too many for one post!

Have you ever eaten any of these? What's the strangest food you've ever eaten? Or seen?

Now I know!

I know I was supposed to "find myself" or "figure myself out" while spending time traveling.
Self awareness, self realization and all that...well...this is as far as I got:

• I'm not a beach person.  I like about 30 minutes max, if that, per day and beyond that, no thank you! 
• I hate the 30 seconds spent between getting out of the water and into my sandals when my feet get covered in beach sand....bleuk!
• I enjoy a diet rich in multiple varieties of carbs.  Rice.  Bread.  Pasta.  Cous Cous.  Interspersed.  Awesomeness!  2 months straight of only rice or only bread....I get a little wiggy.
• If everything fails, the best thing I can do is sit down and shut up....do I do this?  Nope.
• Eggs.  I really love them!  Fried sunny side up particularly.  I'll eat them any other way as well...accept raw......that was gross.  
• I would prefer to be too cold then too hot.
• I looooove eating fried chicken off the bone...num num num num num.
• I really don't have to pee (have access to a restroom) all the time!
• I'll take Fanta over a Coke.
• I'll take a beer over a bottle of water I have to pay for...especially if they're the same price!
• I really suck at languages...but I try anyways!
• I'm not a good driver...anywhere
• I would rather walk 3 miles in the heat, starving, then get ripped off by a taxi driver
• I can't stand when people try to push things on me....even if I want what they're pushing
• I really love washing dishes.

So.  What does it all mean?!?

Learning From Them

Columbia - Ciudad Perdida - Friendly guard

I get asked by a lot of people, "Why do you travel?"

Traveling can be done for many different reasons. Each person or situation warrants a different reason and results in a different experience. You may want to relax; you may want to learn about History; you may want to hike every mountain in the world; you may want to dive every coral reef. Of course, I want to do it all. 

Above all, I have always been curious about how other people live. I travel to LEARN. Whether they are in the million dollar apartments in Paris or the slums of Mumbai, I want to see it. More than that, I want to experience it. This is not to say I necessarily want to sleep amongst the fleas in Mumbai, but I do want to see it all and, if possible, I want to understand it a little. Don’t get me wrong, I am not some bleeding heart liberal who wants to give food and money to every poor person in the world. But I am interested in the logistics of life in other countries.

What I have learned is this: 

In some of the poorest countries, they seem the happiest. I have gone to festivals in Bolivia or in Malawi where people are enjoying themselves fully. They are dancing and singing and clapping. They don’t need an expensive band and fancy food. They have each other and their mood creates the party. In a couple instances, I joined them, and it was so delightful. 

This Korean guy gave us booze!

People are generous. I have had people at bus stops with nothing more than the clothes on their backs offer me food. In Albania, where nobody spoke English, they gave us mandarin oranges. In Egypt, where nobody spoke English, they gave us bread. Me, with my backpack that costs more than a years salary. They gave ME food! This taught me to be a little more generous, even if it was only crackers or bread or fruit. 

People are helpful. You may go into your journey with the stereotype that Italians are loud or French people are snobby or Germans are abrupt, but really, when you get down to it, people are very helpful (and mostly very nice). When we were wandering around in circles with our backpacks looking for our hotel in Paris, we didn’t have to even stop anyone. They stopped and asked US if we needed directions. When I was looking for my hostel in Rome in the middle of the night in an unsavory neighborhood, people were helpful, even the unsavory looking ones. When I arrived in Salvadore in the wee hours of the morning, a homeless looking guy walked me home. I am not saying to completely let down your guard, but we, and especially the “we” who live in bigger cities, sometimes forget to help our fellow man. 

Crowded subway in Beijing

People get close to you: This is something we (in the US) don’t deal with very much, but people in many other countries have absolutely NO personal space. They will stand right on top of you with their sweaty armpit right near your face. It’s okay. Get used to it. Next time, it will be your sweaty armpit in their face. 

People make do with what they have: We saw outdoor “churches” in Africa, because they didn’t have a building big enough to house everyone.  They sang hallelujah to the skies and it was beautiful. I am not a religious person, but I wanted to join them. 

So, I learned a little about the logistics of life in other countries. I still have a lot to learn. But the main point I have taken from traveling so far is that people are good. Yes, there are wars and strife and fighting. There is starvation and pain and hate. But the evildoers are the minority. You cannot judge a country (ours included) by its leader or its government. You need to meet the people. The people are the key. 

 

And the people are wonderful. 

So go, plan that trip to _____ that you have always wanted to take. Don't be afraid. Go to the market there and talk to the locals, even if you don’t speak the same language. Taste their strange food and ride too close to them on a strange vehicle. 

Live their life for a minute. Do what they do. And learn from them. 

What have you learned from traveling? What stereotypes do you think people have about your state or your country before going there? Do you think they find it to be true?

lost local nosh

I'll never forget baking Christmas cookies last year for hours on end....multiple days....multiple types of cookies....and being absolutely miserable about it...

I was about to pass out from dehydration in a massive sweat.....in Santiago Chile.
Chileans don't bake cookies and if you do find a cookie, think non chewy, bad quality bleuh!

Baking cookies isn't exactly a known Holiday custom in Chile for a reason....it's summer!
The last thing you are supposed to do is slave away in front of an oven....other reasons?   Ovens don't have an actual temperature gauge on them and most of them have to be lit from the inside with your head stuck inside with a lit match while it's filling with gas. (To my own astonishment at my own idiocy, I did this a lot!  There's no other way!)

You know what Chileans love to eat for Christmas?  FRUIT CAKE!  The entire month of December!
No kidding...massive quantities of the stuff...the joke product most Americans won't touch with a ten foot pole runs out of stock at grocery stores all over Chile come Christmas!  (I still can't really stand it, but I tried)

This is a mere example of the oddness which can occur trying to mix one cultures food with another.  A lot of foods in so many places are popular for certain holidays, festivals, seasons, for one major reason....it's locally grown, it's cheap, it's EASY!  These facts combined lead to a certain food becoming a tradition passed down by generations and next thing you know, some pour girl is slaving away over little rounds of dough on the 20th floor of a Santiago sky scraper!

My favorite of all parts of travel is discovering new foods in new places and eating what the locals eat!   Without these local traditions with special local ingredients...I would have no reason to want to travel!

a toothpaste tube of caviar and chocolate milk in Norway, the only things we could afford in the grocery store!

 Now being back in the States, I'm always looking for those new and exciting flavors I discovered else where as well...and when I do find them, I'm thrilled!  But it comes at a price.   I'm the odd one walking into asian grocery stores hunting down lemon grass, galanga leaves and receiving funny glares and stares.  I remember days in the lunch room at my old work with looks of "you are really eating that?" as I slurp down my homemade muss'man curry with Thai eggplants and chunks of bamboo shoot.  Things that are popular in one region of the world aren't so much in others for a reason....they aren't grown locally!

All of the Spanierds we know here in the States dream about legs of jamon (ham) knowing it's almost impossible to find here.  Chileans talk about lemon pie and pisco sours in a whisper, as both pisco and lemons are pricey here.  I know I would have sold plasma for just a crumb of aged Wisconsin Extra Sharp ten year cheddar while traveling....something I can find now as free tasting samples twice a week at the farmers market!

chewing on some fresh cane sugar plant on the border of Malawi and Zambia...given to me by a local who laughed at my inability to shuck/chew/spit my cane as I should have and had to help and show me how, to the great entertainment of onlookers

That's the drive that forced me to sweat thru batches of cookies in the middle of a hot day...longing for that certain taste and flavor that brings back such beautiful memories of places and people that have made me so happy!  It's amazing how food can transport you from one time and place to another and what we'll do and pay to recreate that experience! 

Do you have a certain food you long for from some other part of the world?
Do you have a favorite meal from your home town you tried to make somewhere else?
How'd that go for ya?

10 Beautiful Places (1)

There are so many beautiful places in the world. It is hard to say which ones are better than which other ones. So, this list is not necessarily The Most Beautiful places, only ten beautiful places in the world that I have been (excluding the US this time, because I could name 10 in this country alone!) I have more than this already, so there will definitely be a sequel. Also, I don't plan on quitting travel any time soon, so I am sure there will be even more someday! When you are done with this one, if you want another great list, you can also check out my 10 Great Experiences In The World to Try.

Here they are, in no particular order. 

  

1. Lençóis Maranhenses:  These sand dunes in Brazil are constantly changing. In the wet months, their low points fill with water and the combination of the rippling white sand with the blue, blue water is just breathtaking. You can swim in the pools between dunes. If you go at sunset, you will get great views (if it isn't cloudy and rainy like it was when we were there). 

2. Gjirokastër:  Built in the 1300s, this city is all built from stone (even the shingles on the roofs). It was under Ottoman rule for hundreds of years and is one of Albania's biggest Greek communities today.It is like being in a vampire movie, but not in a bad way.

3.Queenstown: This New Zealand town probably appeals to me becuase it reminds me of where I grew up. Nonetheless, it is a beauty. I was there in the summer time, but in the winter, the above peaks are covered in snow and this town is a skiers mecca. 

4. Kotor, Montenegro: Everywhere that I went in Montenegro was beautiful (see also Durmitor). However, this idyllic bay setting was top notch. The city of Kotor itself is a walled city made from stone and fortified upon it's surrounding mountains. You should definitely go here instead of (or in addition to) going to Dubrovnik.

5.Himalayas: Hiking in the Himalayas for 3 weeks was one of the highlights of my trip around the world. I will go back there someday, as there are many, MANY more mountains I want to conquer!

6.Patagonia, Argentina: This photo is of Mt. Fitz Roy.The peaks were so steep and formidable and rocky; the lakes were so, so blue. The hiking was great. What more could you ask for!?

7. Patagonia, Chili: It looks like Yosemite, doesn't it? Well it's not; it's Torres del Paine. We spent nine days hiking up and down and around these peaks and it was wonderful. Each new turn showed us something different, a lake, a glacier or a new mountain.

8. Cartagena:  This city in Columbia was full of color and music and life. And fresh fruit juice. And a HUGE iguana. You could spend a couple days just wandering around it's neighborhoods.

9.Whitehaven Beach: Located in the Whitsunday Islands of Australia, this inlet, called the Hill inlet, like the Lençóis Maranhenses, changes each day when the wind moves the sands. This makes it have patterns of sand and water that are different each day. Also the beach nearby is a beauty, with white sand and clear warm water. Just watch out for Jellyfish!

10. Venice: Okay, I had to put one "classic" on here. Any city near or in this case ON the water is usually not bad, but Venice has the added bonus of having great architecture as well. I chose the photo above because everyone has already seen all the cliche gondola photos. This one caught my eye. How romantic, right?

Going over this list makes me want to revisit ALL these places! Sigh. Am starting a piggy bank now.

What is the most beautiful place YOU have been to? Let us know in the comments! 

Don't forget, we also want your travel stories. It can be a list of dos, don'ts or places; it can be something funny or scary or weird that happened to you; it can be a wishlist or a list of questions; it can be a horror story or a love story. If you have anything to say about travel and want to be a guest poster, let us know! Email us at travelspot06 at gmail dot com.  You can check out THIS page for ideas.