While shopping for some semi-dressy black shoes in Ripley’s department store in Miraflores, an upscale neighborhood in Lima, I was sort of amused when the sales person showed me a pair of leather shoes that were in made in Thailand. Shaking my head (and barely be unable to contain my laughter), he proceeded to show me a pair of shoes made in India and China. It was then that I told the young man, that I preferred to buy some shoes that were made in South America, preferably Peru or Colombia.

Bottom line, I ended up buying a relatively comfortable pair of shoes made in Peru, I don’t know if I got deal or not, but the shoes cost me all of 219 soles (or about $68 USD). Oh well…

On my first day in Lima, I went to the nearest bank to change some American Express traveler checks. While walking to the bank, I was stunned by all people on the street approaching me for changing money. Many of them were congregating on the street corners and near the banks. Can you believe that? It was only later that that I found out that people are licensed to change monies on the streets in Peru. It is completely legit! The yellow and black vest that they all wear identifies them as licensed moneychangers. Believe it or not, they can also change traveler’s checks and exchange rates are comparable to the bank. Of course, they check your passport first. Exercise caution when exchanging monies on the street though - make sure you get the proper exchange and count your monies, and by all means make sure you get your passport back.

Lima, Peru and San Francisco have two things in common - both cities have their share of foggy days and both are located on the Pacific Ocean. On the surface, one would think by virtue of being located in the tropics, it would be hot all year round in Lima. Wrong! Actually, the climate of Peru’s sprawling capital city is very similar to cities in the temperate zone - there is both a defined winter and summer season. The winter season, which runs from May till November is very similar to San Francisco - during the days it usually does not get hotter than 65F and nights tend to be somewhat cool and damp because of the somewhat moderately thick fog/mist that blankets the city. Talking to locals, they tell me that foggy, relative cool days are the norm for the winter months, but during the summer season, November-May, Lima heats up and is a bit on the humid side.

After the massive 8.0 earthquake that rocked Peru’s south coast on August 15, seismologists have indicated that this region would experience many aftershocks and small tremors during the next couple of months. During my short stay in Lima (2 nights/1 day), there was not a single tremor - the gals at the hotel were begging me not to leave, as they believed I had the power to control the earth’s movements. Sure enough after reaching Cusco, located in the Andean highlands, I telephoned one of the girls at the hotel and she told me shortly after my plane took off, there was another small tremor. Oh well… I am also happy to report, I was not the victim of any falling debris and I didn’t have to wade through any rubble while walking on the streets of Lima.
As a side note, I didn’t notice any damage in the Lima area from the earthquake. Now, I’m not saying that there wasn’t any damage, just that I didn’t see any. Some tourists I met in Cusco told me that the earthquake caused some structural damage to Lima’s International Airport, but apparently it was fixed or it didn’t have an immediate impact on airport operations.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, by now, you’ve probably heard about the monster 8.0 earthquake which pummeled the southwestern coast of Peru on August 15. The epicenter of the quake (terremoto in Spanish) was about 100 miles south of Lima, the major population center and capital of Peru. In particular, the earthquake wreaked most of its fury on the coastal cities of Pisco and Ica. All told over 500 people died from the quake and countless others were injured and left homeless. In Pisco, it is estimated that 70% of city was destroyed - many of the houses and buildings that were made of clay or adobe crumbled to the ground from the force of the quake. Lima got shook up pretty good but did not experience any significant damage. If the epicenter were a lot closer to Lima, this earthquake would have exacted a considerably higher toll in deaths and destruction.

Believe it or not, I have a friend of mine who thinks that I am jeopardizing my life by traveling to Lima right now. Nay, i say! I know he has been watching the extensive quake coverage on CNN and has seen the many images of death and destruction (over and over again) that resulted from the quake. He just doesn’t understand that the images he is viewing are not from Lima but from the aforementioned cities of Pisco, Ica and Mallao. He cautioned me to be careful of crumbling buildings and debris in the street. Unfortunately when a natural catastrophe like this happens, there are many people besides my friend who get confused and jump to conclusions about the scope of the damage. I can imagine what their thought processes are - If there is an earthquake in this small third world country, then traveling anywhere in this country must be unsafe. Ring the Alarm! Such fallacious thinking, sort of guilt by association.

Undeterred by the recent catastrophe, I will be commencing my three-week South American Adventure on Tuesday, August 21 when I arrive late night in Lima, Peru. I will be Lima for a brief 2 nights before continuing to the Andean Highlands, the Peruvian Amazon, then onto the Ecuadorian Highlands. During my one full day in Lima, I will be taking a private tour of the city and will report back to you on the state of affairs of Peru’s capital city in light of the recent quake. For the rest of my journey, I will be share with you my own unique insight and commentary about the culture, natural history and places of interest of these two South American countries. Stay tuned…

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I am scheduled to fly into Lima, Peru on Tuesday morning, August 21 for a three week vacation to Peru and Ecuador. During the last couple of weeks, I have been very busy getting ready for my trip - I just finalized my itinerary about a week ago and have recently received all my immunization shots for traveling to these countries. Totally oblivious to the latest events, I was at a local Internet cafe yesterday afternoon in the San Francisco Bay Area, when I innocently opened up an e-mail from a friend of mine in Thailand. In her e-mail, my friend asked me whether I heard about the 7.5 earthquake that rocked Lima, Peru this afternoon. News travels fast in the age of the Internet - and here I was finding out this giant quake in Peru from an e-mail sent to me from Thailand. Later the earthquake’s magnitude was upgraded to 7.9, the epicenter being about 90 miles
southeast of Lima in the Pacific Ocean

In light of the recent events, I guess I will have to reevaluate whether I should postpone my trip. In the next couple of days, I hope to discover the extent of damage to Lima, where I am scheduled to stay or the initial 2 nights of my trip before moving on to Cusco in the Andean highlands. Inasmuch as my 3-week vacation is now in jeopardy, my real concern is for the people who were affected by the quake. My sympathies go out to them as both a concerned human being and traveler. Hopefully, the people of Peru were spared the massive devastation that a 7.9 quake can generate. In the meantime, I will wait for further news. Stay tuned…

Believe it or not, I was vacationing in Kamala Beach, Phuket in December 2004 about 2 weeks before the Giant Tsunami devastated the area, and in September 1989, I left Jamaica about one week before Hurricane Gilbert bulldozed the island. This will have been the 3rd time that as a worldwide traveler that I have narrowly averted being in the middle of a natural catastrophe. I guess, I you could say I have been lucky…

There is currently an online poll to determine the seven wonders of nature; in other words, what are the seven places with the most outstanding natural beauty on our planet?

I know this is somewhat of a popularity contest as some places have well established reputations. Furthermore, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and is a very subjective matter. Among some of the likely candidates for this prestigious honor are Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), the Grand Canyon (USA), Ha Long Bay (Vietnam) and the Great Barrier Reef (Australia).

I have seen so many places of outstanding natural beauty in my lifetime - the Grand Canyon, the Pitons of St. Lucia, the seascapes at Cabo San Lucas as well the surreal boulder strewn beach at Bathsheba in Barbados to name just a few - that I would really be hard pressed to come up with a top seven.

For the fun of it, let’s say we did a poll on the three most beautiful nature spots in Thailand, a destination that I am very familiar with - I would put forth my nominations in no particular order as follows:

#1 The Sunflower Fields of Mae Hong Son Province
During the months of November and December, the golden yellow blossoms of the wild sunflower blanket the mountain slopes near the small rural village of Doi Mae U-Kor in northwestern Thailand. What a heavenly vista - I could stay here for hours gazing at the sea of yellow with the green forest clad mountains of Myanmar looming in the background.

#2 Chiang Dao Mountain
About 75 minutes north of Chiang Mai is the small market town of Chiang Dao. Rising above the town and the surrounding countryside is the majestic Chiang Dao Mountain. Located partway up the mountain is a very important Buddhist temple and shrine, which has been carved out of the mountain.

#3 Chiang Saen Lake
Located not too far from the small town known as the Golden Triangle is Chiang Saen Lake, a popular stopover for migratory waterfowl during the winter months. Located in the rural countryside of Northern Thailand, the setting here is so peaceful and serene.

What’s your opinion? What do you think are Thailand’s three most beautiful nature spots?

I was talking to a client of mine the other day about the new developments taking place in NEGRIL, the hip international resort on Jamaica’s northwest Coast. When she informed me that it only takes about 50 minutes to get to Negril via the new super highway from the international airport in Montego Bay, I couldn’t help but I feel a little bit saddened. I had fond memories of the old highway which was very scenic as it snaked along the north coast passing by many small colorful villages and towns - Hopewell, Sandy Bay, Lucea and Green Island - before it entered the Negril Resort Area. The old highway was very narrow in sections and was often subject to closures due to mudslides and floods or due to the local Rastaman having an impromptu Nyabingi session in the middle of the road. I missed the adventure of the old highway, but for most people it was an arduous 90-minute journey to Negril. The new highway is fast and efficient, shaving some 40 minutes off the transportation time.

I visited Negril for the first time in winter of 1980, staying in an inexpensive guesthouse in the area known as Redground, a hillside community overlooking the famed 7-mile beach. Discovered by the hippies and the flower children of the 1970s, Negril had the reputation where one could hang out and commune with nature, meditate, smoke weed freely while listening to Reggae music and mixing freely with the Rastaman. To me, Negril was about freedom and nature. Roots Natty Bongo I! As Negril became more popular, I saw her gradually mature into the internationally renowned resort destination that she is today. From 1980-1994, many new hotels sprouted up and I observed how the All-Inclusives become a dominant presence on the famed 7 mile beach forcing many smaller operations to abandon shop. In addition, I witnessed the deterioration of the vast wetlands wildlife reserve known as the Great Morass due to the rapid growth of the tourism industry. This growth has also led to the degradation of the coral reef and to the diminishing marine life. Negril was becoming a little too popular for me, and after my last visit in the summer of 1993, I never set foot on her soft white sands again.

With the advent of the new highway, I can imagine the hordes of new tourists flocking to this seaside resort and filling the many rooms of the various all-inclusive resorts that have sprouted up on these shores in the last 20 years or so - Grand Lido, Sandals, Pebbles, Couples, Riu Resorts and the like. Let’s not forget Hedonism 2 (formerly the Negril Beach Village), the first all-inclusive resort in the Negril area, having opened up on the northern end of the 7-mile beach sometime in the late 1970s. The new highway will definitely bring substantially more business to Negril, but it will also hasten the demise of the Negril that I knew and loved.

This is just another example of the phenomenon known as the Kathmandu Syndrome.

The Cabo San Lucas that I visited for the first time in 1980 was one of the beautiful places that I have ever been to. Located at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California where the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific ocean meet, Cabo has some very dramatic desert and sea landscapes. Cabo lost some of it’s luster and appeal to me when it became too popular and morphed into an international resort destination. The impetus for this transition happened in 1986 with the inaugural opening of Cabo’s international airport located about 35 miles up the coast. Cabo of the early 1980’s was a real special place…

If you’re curious how Cabo looked like in those early days, feel free to check out my special Cabo photo gallery.

Over the years, I have seen several vacation destinations grow from small tourist enclaves to big time resorts. Typically, beach resort destinations by and large evolve from a small fishing village that has both beautiful beaches and are blessed with considerable natural beauty. Once such an idyllic place is discovered, usually tourism development will follow shortly thereafter and over a period of time, tourism can overwhelm and change the basic personality of a place. More often than not, this is what happens to the vacation paradises of our yesteryears to the point that we start looking for new unspoiled places to go to.

Two of the places that come to mind are Cabo San Lucas in Mexico and Negril in Jamaica, I visited both of these popular vacation destinations in the winter of 1980 when both Cabo San Lucas (Cabo for short) and Negril were still relatively undeveloped and there were only a handful of legitimate hotels and resorts in each area. Over the ensuing 14 years, I visited Cabo on four occasions and went to Negril every year as I personally witnessed both these resorts grow up from toddlers to young adults so to speak. Today, both Negril and Cabo are truly international resort destinations. My last visit to both Cabo and Negril coincidentally was in the summer of 1993.

At the time of my first visit in 1980, people were just starting to discover Cabo, an area that had long been a favorite among the sports fishing crowd, celebrities and the jet set. People fell in love with the rugged, natural beauty of the Cabo area and for its small town frontier ambiance - there were no tourist crowds here and it had not been yet tainted with the commercial excesses of mainland resorts like Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Mazatlan. The dramatic desert and seaside landscapes as well as deserted white sand beaches were breathtakingly beautiful. In particular, the vistas near the tip of Baja California, where the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez merge and where the mountainous desert terrain plunges into the sea were truly spectacular. Since the international jet port in nearby San José del Cabo hadn’t opened up yet, most visitors to Cabo flew into La Paz (the capital of Baja California) located further up the coast on the Sea Cortez side, whereupon they either rented a car or took a bus for the scenic three ride along a relatively good highway to Cabo. I remember the bus ride as being rather enjoyable as we traveled through some rugged mountainous desert terrain. After the international airport opened up in 1986, tourism to Cabo really took off.

On my last visit to Cabo in October 1993, the new Marina had been built and there were many new hotels and resorts at the tip and along the Baja corridor. As evidence of the tourism growth, a number of championship caliber golf courses had sprouted up along the Baja corridor. The downtown area had grown considerably and there were quite a few more restaurants, bars and shops - the downtown area throbbed with activity as tourists paraded up and down the streets not to mention the many sales representatives who were pitching naïve tourists to attend some slick condo time share presentations. As more and more Californians and residents of BC established 2nd homes in the area, Cabo started to assume a real Californian (gringo) personality. Being in Cabo, was like never leaving the States. The small, quiet village of Cabo of 1980 - with its dusty downtown streets, quaint Mexican cafes and deserted beaches - was well on its way to becoming an international resort destination. After that last visit to Cabo, I never returned and I never looked back. The Cabo I knew was gone forever and so was I. However, for somebody who is visiting Cabo for the first time, they will probably love this quaint, relatively unassuming but throbbing resort town, but they have no prior knowledge of what it was like before as I do (when Cabo was a relative toddler as a resort town). Such is the phenomenon known as the Kathmandu Syndrome.

Next up: Kathmandu Syndrome Revisited (Part 2 ) - A Look at Negril