Jo Travels the World

Hello World ~

I'm still alive. I know, hard to believe, but I've been busy tripping around the globe. It's not a good excuse, but when you consider that I've been pushing two blog posts a week live over at Kaleidoscopic Wandering and am still juggling a ton of writing assignments, maybe you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

If that doesn't work, I still have some chocolate in my refrigerator from Switzerland.

So where have I been?

I should back up briefly to our pre-Arizona road trip, when I made my first trip to New York City for a travel blogging conference. The conference was decent - I picked up a few good tips and met a lot of people that I've only ever corresponded with through social media and email. I even won a trip to Curacao (which Cory and I are going to take advantage of over the Thanksgiving holidays)!

But one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip was actually exploring the city a bit. I'm not going to mince words: New York City is overwhelming. But it was fascinating and interesting, and relatively self-explanatory to get around once I figured out how the commuter trains worked. I went to the top of Rockefeller Center, explored Times Square at night, ate some wicked food, stayed in a hotel that was designed after a ship and caught up with a friend of mine from Burning Man who lives in Brooklyn.

A few pictures from my trip to New York City:



(Seriously, what's with all these people? Yeesh.)

Home from NYC, Cory and I hit the road for northern Arizona, which he wrote about a few months back. Within days of getting home from our road trip, I was boarding a plane for Jamaica.

My trip to Jamaica was a blogging trip, and it was comped by the Jamaican Tourism Board. I stayed at the lovely Secrets Wild Orchid property in Montego Bay, Jamaica, which is adults-only and all-inclusive, so I could enjoy my frothy Bob Marley drink without any kids underfoot. Yep, kind of a little piece of heaven. I spent some time on the beach and indulging in delicious meals, but we also got out and did a few things on the island as well.

Anyone who goes to Jamaica has to check out Dunn's River Falls, a series of several waterfalls that people can walk up. So. Much. Fun.

Another one of the highlights of the trip to Jamaica was the opportunity to go dog sledding. Sounds weird, doesn't it? Remember, though, that this is the country that had a surprise bobsled team in the Olympics. Although the actual dog sledding part was a lot of fun, the part of the visit to the tour company that I most enjoyed was learning that the dogs trained to be on the dog sledding team are actually rescues from the local pound. How fantastic is that?

Here are a few of my money shots from Jamaica:





Shortly after arriving home from Jamaica, my sister flew into Las Vegas, and Cory, she and I drove to San Diego for a long weekend. Rebecca was there for a conference, but she still had lots of time to enjoy some of the city. Cory and I took full advantage of our time in San Diego. We hung out on the boardwalk, saw dolphins swimming off of the coast, visited Hotel del Coronado, explored Balboa Park and stopped at Cabrillo National Monument on the coast. Again, we indulged in tons of delicious food (especially one night, when we splurged at an awesome Indian restaurant).

We stayed downtown in the Gaslamp District, which was equivalent to party central every single night. The owners of the William Penn Hotel were gracious enough to grant me a comped stay at their hotel, which was right in the middle of the Gaslamp District, which meant that we were within easy walking distance to restaurants, clubs, shops and even the convention hall where Rebecca's conference was.

Good times.

A few photos to commemorate our time in San Diego:






We'd just dropped Rebecca off at the airport when I hopped on an airplane myself, this time for St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of the #BloggersParadise that is sponsored by Marriott Resorts. There were nine bloggers spread out over the Caribbean, and I got to go to USVI. For this trip I stayed at Frenchman's Reef and Morning Star, which was a nice but unpretentious hotel that was out on a peninsula of sorts on St. Thomas, so it was surrounded on three sides by water.

The highlight of that trip was a day trip I spent on St. John, which can be reached by a 15-minute boat ride. Rebecca and I did this when we were in the Virgin Islands for our cruise earlier this year. This time, though, we had the whole day, so I got to see more of the island and go snorkeling at a beautiful beach (where I received my worst sunburn of the summer ... I still have the lines to prove it). I love Virgin Islands National Park. If you ever have a chance to check it out, do it!

Some pictures from my trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands:




As was the routine of my summer, I got home from the Virgin Islands and barely had time to say hello to Cory and the animals before I hopped on a flight to Vietnam. This is the trip that I won way back in January through a travel writing contest. It was a 2-week, almost all-expenses paid, luxury tour just for me, so I wasn't there for work per se, but I did pick up some great article ideas anyway.

I started my two weeks in Hanoi, where I stayed in the backpacker district for one night before moving to a hotel on the other side of the lake. My immediate impressions were regarding the incredible amount of traffic and the lack of English that people spoke. But I felt safe walking around the city and checking out the temples. It's an extremely cheap country to visit, which makes it easy to travel in.

From there, I went to Halong Bay, where I spent two nights on a junk and got to go sea kayaking. We had a bit of rain, but it didn't spoil the fun. After that, I went back to Hanoi and caught a flight to Nha Trang, which is the water sports and backpacker capital of Vietnam. I booked a tour to go snorkeling one day (which was actually a bit chilly, so I'm glad I had a wet suit), but if I were to go back, I would skip Nha Trang and spend a few days hiking in Sa Pa, located in the northern part of the country on the border of China instead.

After Nha Trang, I made my way to Hoi An, which, for me, was the highlight of my trip. Hoi An was a lot smaller - only about half a dozen streets - so it felt a lot more manageable. Hoi An is known as both the food and clothing capital of Vietnam, so I took a cooking class and had some clothes made! Seriously, though, the food in Hoi An is to die for! I think I could live on the spring rolls and white roses in this city. Definitely on the list of places to revisit.

My final stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City, which was like Hanoi on steroids. The traffic was INSANE! But I did visit a fun market where I bought Vietnamese candy to share with my neighbors. I also spent some time at the War Remnants Museum, which was truly eye opening. On my last day in Vietnam, I took a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, which is where people lived underground during the Vietnam/American War. I even got to squeeze through one myself, which was sort of terrifying.

I took more than a thousand photos in Vietnam, so choosing just a few to post is hard, but here they are anyway:






Once again, I made it home from Vietnam, just to turn around and head for Switzerland for a press trip sponsored by the Switzerland Tourism Board. As much as I've enjoyed every trip I've taken to Europe (which isn't very many), I find it to be incredibly expensive, so it was pretty nice to enjoy Switzerland for a week without having to foot the bill. Two quick observations about Switzerland: It is exceptionally clean and people really care about their country.

We spent our time in two distinct parts of the country: Appenzell and the Lake Geneva region.

Appenzell was absolutely fantastic. It really is the stereotypical Switzerland that people talk about, with men in leiderhosen and cows with large brass bells. I borrowed a bike from the hotel early one morning and rode through the hills around the Alps, and it was absolutely still and stunning, except for the hollow ring of cowbells in the distance.

In Appenzell, I got to do a lot of local, traditional stuff. I learned how to yodel and made a Swiss pastry called bieber. I also learned about leather craft and did some hiking. Truly a beautiful part of the country. I would go back in a heartbeat.

To get to Lake Geneva, we had to take the Swiss Rail System, which is super efficient and an awesome way to travel. I can't wait to go back and take advantage of it again.

The areas we visited near Lake Geneva were busier and more built up but had that old-world-meets-modernity feel. We drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of cheese. I gained four pounds in one week. No joke.

The thing I liked best about this part of the trip was the afternoon that I spent at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, where I got to check out Olympic memorabilia, touch an Olympic medal and learn more about the history and culture of the Olympics. I spent hours at the museum ... it was absolutely fascinating.

Again, I took a ton of pictures, but here are a few of my favorites:







And so now I'm home and have been for the past month or so. I'm starting to get a bit of the travel itch again, but I'm keeping it in check. I know that our trip to Curacao really isn't that far away, so it helps to see that on the otherwise blank calendar.

Around the world and back again ~
Jo

Press Trip #2: Jo Visits Huatulco, Mexico

I'm about a month late with this post, but better late than never, right?

I went on my second press trip in early December to Huatulco, Mexico, a resort town in the southern portion of Oaxaca. This one was only four days long and was really focused on site visits. We spent a lot of time touring the resorts along the bays and we ate every meal at a different resort. These places are high-class places, and the food was fantastic. My two new food experiences on this trip were eating grasshoppers and shark, both of which were tasty. The seafood was plentiful, and I loved the coconut shrimp I ate on our final night there. I also had a chilled cantaloupe soup which was delicious as well.

Because this trip was focused on site visits, we didn't do as much as I would have liked, but there were a few highlights:

• Taking a catamaran out into the ocean where we saw a wild sea turtle swimming in the water. Even from a distance I could tell it was huge.
• Spending the day beach hopping, which equates to sucking up some sun and floating in the bathwater-warm ocean.
• Hiking up through an ecological park where we could overlook the river flowing into the ocean.
• Discovering a "secret" beach located on the property of the resort we were staying at. It was small, quiet and void of beach chairs.
• Jumping off a waterfall ... then really pushing the limits and swinging from a rope swing from a 20-foot platform into the water. Considering the fact that I don't like diving boards, both of these were scary and exhilarating.
• Seeing a huge (2.5 feet long?) iguana in the wild.
  

Some of the more unusual parts of the trip included:

• Realizing that Huatulco, while located on the ocean, is actually a desert climate, which means there were cacti growing on the beach.
• Staying at a resort that was so large I had to call for a shuttle to take me to the lobby (a 5-minute drive away).
• Navigating my way through the Mexico City airport, which is fairly confusing as it doesn't announce which gates flights leave from until an hour before the flight is scheduled to leave. And to find out what gate you leave from in the international terminal, you have to stand in a long line and ask a single woman sitting in a booth.
• Touring an eco-archeological park that is not yet open to the public.
  

One thing that I really liked about Huatulco: It is an environmentally sound community built on sustainability and conservation. When Mexico decided to build it as a resort town, it built in plans to create schools and medical facilities that weren't originally there. It is the only city in Mexico that has received a Green Globe certification, and that was a city effort. In many places, different businesses work in isolation to achieve environmental certifications, but all of Huatulco is invested in the city's future. It has controlled growth and programs in place that ensure all aspects of the community are included in all the planning stages.

Though I haven't written specifically about Mexico at Kaleidoscopic Wandering yet, stay tuned for detailed blog posts to come.

And now the part you've really been waiting for ... a few choice pictures of the nearly 1,000 I took while there:

Sunshine and tropical climate ~
JoAnna

JoAnna Takes a Press Trip

Is it the sign I was waiting for to prove to myself that I am, in fact, a travel writer? Early in November I played the quick turn game - one day I'm not going anywhere, the next day I'm getting plane reservations to fly to Honduras and less than a week later I'm in a largely underrated Central American country.

And this is why I keep my passport handy and up-to-date.

The whole purpose of the press trip was to show journalists that, despite the travel advisory warnings on Honduras by many of the Western nations, it is actually a very safe place to travel. There has been some unrest in the capital city, but there wasn't a military coup as the Western media says. Also, anything that is going on in the country is happening in Tegucigalpa, and though that is very little, it certainly has no effect on tourists to the country. Most of the country has carried on with their every day lives. As we traveled around the country, I was shocked by how few people there were ... the restaurants were empty, the hotels were unoccupied, the beaches were bare.

In my own humble opinion, it's when tourists stop visiting a country that places have to lay people off. And when people are laid off, that's when they resort to violence and crime in order to feed their families. Honduran businesses are doing everything they can to draw people to their doorstep - 2 for 1 discounts, low season rates during high season, etc. So, for what it's worth, if you're looking for a great vacation destination for a low cost, I recommend Honduras. It's safe and interesting ... and I'm hoping to take Cory back with me soon.

Enough of that ... now on to my trip.

So a press trip is a lot of work. We went from dawn to dusk and beyond, and then, of course, I had to login to the WiFi and get some other work done. We met with representatives of the tourism sector in the country and had to take tours of some things the average tourists wouldn't visit (the new cruise port on Roatan, for example), but I also got to do a ton of really cool things that I might not have done on my own.

(Side note: I had a bit of a camera snafu on my first day, so a lot of the pictures I'm going to post were actually taken by a fellow travel writer, Katie.)

La Ceiba:

Billed as an eco-tourism destination. We stayed at a fancy-schmancy eco-resort that was located on the edge of Pico Bonito National Park, which has miles of hiking trails. We had crappy weather in La Ceiba, and I didn't have much time to hike, but we did get to go whitewater rafting, which was fun and redeeming since my last rafting experience was on the Nile River and left me a bit turned upside down to the notion of rafting. The water wasn't all that cold since we were being rained on. The rapids were class II to IV, so nothing too rough, and parts of the river were actually quite shallow. Here are some photos from La Ceiba:

The inside of a cocao plant.

Roatan:

Roatan is a part of the Bay Islands, located in the Caribbean. In fact, some people on Roatan believe it should be its own nation. A lot of cruise ships dock here, though I fear a lot of them barely get far from the dock. In fact, the person from the PR firm who was leading our group said that many of the people who dock don't even realize they're in Honduras.

We had some afterthought rain showers as a result of Hurricane Ida that came through a couple days before, so we never got to take the sunset sail that was on the schedule, but we did get to snorkel with dolphins and go zip lining, which were my personal favorites on the island. I wasn't such a big fan of the macaw and monkey experiences, as I'm just generally not a fan of zoos of sorts. A lot of the monkeys were free to roam the treetops, but not all of them. Nonetheless, I got a few shots of me with some of the free roamers.

The resort we stayed in was a 5-star beauty, and the rooms would more accurately be described as a condo. It had a bedroom, kitchen, living room and balcony. My favorite part of the resort was the infinity pool.

All photos are by Katie (except for the dolphin ... that came from Anthony's Key Resort):


Copan:

Copan is a quaint, quiet town seven miles from the Guatemala border. It is very different than either La Ceiba or Roatan. The streets are cobblestone and narrow. Cowboys lounge on the street corners. Women chill with their goods laid out on the blankets on the sidewalk. It's a very chill and laidback place.

Copan is best known for its Mayan ruins, which are some of the most intricate and finest examples of Mayan ruins in the whole world. When we went, there were hardly any people there. We had a guide, and anyone who visits the grounds would be wise to hire a guide as well. It provides a lot more context for the ruins. One of the coolest parts of the ruins is that it is home to the longest inscription of hieroglyphics in the world. That's what makes it an UNESCO Heritage Site.

We visited a macaw sanctuary as well, which I liked a lot better than the one on Roatan, because here the birds were actually free to fly away if they wanted to.

The other really fantastic thing we did while we were in Copan was go to a ranch ... my introduction to agritourism, which was fantastic. The farmer, Carlos, grows over 90% of the family's food on the farm. We got a quick introduction to some of the produce grown on the grounds in the morning, and nearly our whole lunch came from the grounds ~ produce, meat, butter, etc. He showed us all the workings of his on-site coffee plantation, and the "highlight" of our farm visit was the horseback riding. So it turns out that I'm not such a big fan of horseback riding ... My horse, Sol, was definitely gentle enough, but I guess I'm just not a big horse person. The countryside was beautiful, though. To top off our stay in Copan, we went to the hot springs (definitely needed after the jarring horseback ride), which were isolated and totally engulfed in the rainforest. Overall, Copan was a very relaxing place to end our stay.

(Look ... I got a loner camera!):