We returned on Sunday evening from a cruise to the Mexican Riviera: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. As usual, we had a ball. By now we have done the entire Pacific coast of Mexico, including every major destination from Acapulco in the south to Ensenada in the north. I must say that Carnival is a fantastic, family-friendly cruise liner. Perhaps when Adam gets older we will try other companies, but for now, we have had very good luck with Carnival.
On the off chance that you don't get our sense of humor. the "Gelman family Yacht" comment towards the end is a joke.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit South Africa on business. I flew in on Virgin Airlines from London to Johannesburg and spent a few days in Joburg before heading out into the country. I traveled by car to Durban on the Southeast coast. From their I drove up to a wonderful place called Mtunzini in KwaZulu-Natal to stay the night. We stayed in a bungalow in a heavily wooded area off the beach. In the morning I took a walk through the woods down to the beach. I was simply amazed at the amount of wild monkey's lining the pathways just sitting there observing me.
The next day I drove up to Richards Bay. I then took off north on the long drive to Mpumalanga, finally arriving at night at the White River Golf Club to stay for the night. The next morning we drove in to Kruger National Park for a Safari and there are simply no word to describe this fantasticexperience. All of the major African mammals and other animals roam this huge preserve and I was not disappointed. I had the opportunity to see the big six: Buffalo, Lions, Giraffe, Elephants, Rinos and Hippos... and many other animals in their natural habitat. Unfortunately, I did not get to wittiness the kind of drama that unfolded in the famous "Battle of Kruger":
But was very impressed non-the-less. From Mpumalanga I drove back to Johannesburg, stopping off in the Pretoria on the way to get a glimpse of the capital. 24 hours later I was on the flight back to London and then back to the States.
After an amazing day on the Patagonian Beach of Punto Tombo, we returned to Puerto Madryn to explore the Oceanography Museum. The next day we flew about two hours further south to the small southern Patagonian town of El Calafate at the "end of the world." El Calafate is a lovely town of small shops and little restaurants. it is the gateway to the incredible glaciers of the Southern Andean range; the Spegazzini, the Upsala, and of course the Perito Moreno glaciers. Below is a video staring Adam of the two days of excursions that we experienced in this incredible area. It was daylight until about midnight, and we celebrated the entry of the New Year, 2008, in El Calafate:
To summarize our 2007-08 trip to Argentina: We landed in Buenos Aires on a flight from Houston. We stayed for a few days at the Ibis Hotel which is right across the street from the Congress building at the Plazza del Congreso. We did the Tigre and Parana rivers, took the subways, visited most of the major landmark locations including the Plaza de Mayo, the Boca, The Obelisk, incredible shopping on Florida street. We also went to a tango nightclub to wittiness some incredible dancing. From Buenos Aires we flew south to the Valdez Peninsula, and and even further south to El Calefate. We then flew back to Buenos Aires for more excursions into the city. below is our video summary which of course couldn't possibly capture everything. Hope you enjoy:
Following an incredible day on the Valdez Peninsula, we proceeded south a few hundred kilometers where we boarded a high speed boat into the south Atlantic looking for Commodore Dolphins. Soon we were surrounded by these beautiful creatures. They look like tiny black and white Orca's; they are very fast and approached the boat without fear, eager to show off. We spent the entire morning marvelling at these wonderful and friendly mammals.
We then travelled even farther south on dirt roads to a secluded beach called Punto Tombo. up to half a million Magellanic Penguins come to this site to incubate their eggs, and prepare their offspring for migration - the largest such colony outside of Antarctica. Couples stand in front of their nests, protecting the eggs from birds and other predators, and occasionally one adult goes to the sea for food. Other wildlife encountered in the area including sea birds (mainly seagulls, chimangos and cormorants), rheas and guanacos (a relative of the Lama) that roam the beach area, mingling with the Penguins. We did a quick video of Punto Tombo, enjoy:
We visited this exact beach on the Valdez Peninsula in Northern Patagonia, Argentina in December of 2007. We flew south from Buenos Aires (about 2 hours) to the small airport at Trelew, and drove to Puerto Madryn where we stayed the night. The next day we drove for hundreds of Kilometers on dirt roads to reach these secluded beaches on the Valdez Peninsula. We saw extraordinary colonies of Sea Lions and Elephant seals and Magellanic Penguins. Unfortunately, we were a little late in the season for the annual Orca attacks. I so wish we had been there at the right time for that, this is what it looks like:
Tegucigalpa airport is one crazy landing. I landed there on a business trip a few years ago during a thunder storm.
This is Maho Beach on St. Maarten in the Caribbeans. We visited this beach during the first stop of a cruise that took us to St. Maarten, Barbados and Martinique. The runway for St. Maarten's airport goes right up to the beach:
In the Spring of 2002, we had the opportunity to cruise the inside passage of Alaska, from Vancouver to Anchorage. We flew up to Vancouver and stayed overnight at Canada House and boarded the Carnival Spirit by late morning the following day. Fantastic scenery the entire Cruise from our balcony. We stopped off in Ketchikan, the Salmon capital of Alaska, in Juneau, where Ofra took a Helicopter to the top of Mandahll glacier and went dog sledding, Skagway (including a train ride up to the Yukon Territory), Sitka, Prince William Sound and the glaciers of Collage Fjord. The cruise ended in Seward where we took a bus from Seward to Anchorage and flew back from there. Enjoy:
I just returned from Mexico on Business. I had the opportunity to visit the city of Zacatecas which is smack in the geographical center of Mexico with a population of about 120,000 inhabitants. I simply cannot say enough about that town. Clean and Friendly, safe, stunning architecture, terrific resturants, hotels and shopping, unspoiled and still largely authentic with very few outside tourists. Well worth the visit before it's discovered by the masses. A few more images below:
We have been to Mexico many times, usually by driving down to the Ensenada area about 70 miles south of Tijuana in Baja Norte. Adam has had the opportunity to visit many greenhouse farms for Tomatoes and cucumbers in Mexico. This was his first visit farther south, down to Puerto Vallarta,Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. Since that time we have had the opportunity to go ever farther south along the Pacific coast to Acapulco,Manzanillo and Zihuatanejo. We were particularly intrigued with Zihuatanejo which is still a small fishing village. The name was immortalized in the movie Shawshank Redemption, as the place where the characters played by Tim Robins and Morgan Freeman escape to after many years in the notorious Shawshank prison (based on a true story). We found the beach and village delightful, with wonderful little shops and a charming, authentic Mexican atmosphere.
We returned on Sunday evening from a cruise to the Mexican Riviera: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. As usual, we had a ball. By now we have done the entire Pacific coast of Mexico, including every major destination from Acapulco in the south to Ensenada in the north. I must say that Carnival is a fantastic, family-friendly cruise liner. Perhaps when Adam gets older we will try other companies, but for now, we have had very good luck with Carnival. 
