Friday, November 28, 2008

Tegucigalpa Honduras, Toncontin Airport, and St. Maartin

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:

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Wonderful Alaska on the Spirit

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:

Zacatecas Wow!

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:

The Mexican Riviera on the Elation 2001

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.