Ed Stafford, First Man to Hike the Full Length of the Amazon River
This is a story about dedication, endurance and love for hiking and the wild outdoors. It took Ed Stafford a little over two years to complete the 4,000 mile hike along the Amazon River, from its source to its mouth,making him the first man in the entire world to succeed in such a challenging travel plan. He started his hike in Peru, back in April 2008 and finished it yesterday at Maruda Beach, Brazil.
Stafford hiked alone for the first four months and he was then joined by a Peruvian forestry worker, Gadiel “Cho” Sanchez Rivera. Sanchez was only supposed to guide Stafford through a difficult and dangerous part of his trip down the Amazon River, but decided to stay until the expedition was completed. Read more…
Roatan Island, Honduras: Scuba Diving Paradise
Welcome to the astonishing Roatan Island, Honduras, the largest of all Bay Islands and dream destination for scuba divers across the world.
Located close to the Caribbean Sea’s largest and world’s second largest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the Roatan Island is considered by many to be a scuba diving paradise.
Roatan Diving Adventure
One of the most beautiful in the world, the coral reef makes Roatan diving a true adventure with an amazing variety of underwater opportunities rarely met in other places. Such is the Green Outhouse Wall, a superb location for wall diving passionates. Also, one should expect nothing but breathtaking views while diving among large brain corals, wrecks and caves.
Image by Clark Anderson
But that’s not all! Get ready to face one of the most varied underwater wildlife offering diving enthusiasts the chance to swim alongside dolphins, whale sharks, turtles, eagle rays, sea horses and the omnipresent schools of reef fish. Oh, and how often do you get the chance to take such astonishing photos during your scuba diving trips?
Image by Barnaby Dorfman
Other Roatan Attractions
Yet the underwater world is not everything the exotic Roatan has to offer. The Caracoles are English-speaking people with a unique culture and sea-faring tradition tied back to their name, which translates as snail or shell from Spanish. The four major communities of Roatan all offer a unique blend of modern civilization – airport and cruise ship dock in Coxen Hole town – and cultural heritage like that of the Garfuna people which still preserve and display their African roots. You’ll find the biggest Garfuna settlement in Punta Gorda.
If you’re looking for a more modern perspective, then French Harbor is your destination in Roatan, a blooming business community with everything one would need, from grocery stores to real-estate offices – many of the Roatan visitors fall in love with the island and come back to make it their home – banks, restaurants and many more. You’ll even find a Wendy’s restaurant in French Harbor.
Also there’s a great chance to catch on the of famous Roatan Island sunsets in any of the existing docks, and what an amazing view it is:
Image by Zest-pk
Roatan Weather
The mild climate of this exotic diving destination is favorable to all year round swimming, making Roatan diving activities a major attraction with a few exceptions during the rainy season when the Caribbean tends to become dangerous for the underwater adventurers. So, if you’re planning to make Roatan the destination of your next diving vacation, make sure you check the weather forecast first.
And now that I know for sure I’ve sparkled your interest all you need to do is to book your next flight or cruise to Coxen Hole and start your travel adventure in Roatan, Honduras, one that you’ll never forget for the rest of your life, regardless of being a scuba diver or a simple tourist.
UK travel group organizes Mount Kilimanjaro Charity Climb
UK travel group UNIGLOBE (through one of the companies they own, CT Business Travel) is the organizer of a challenging charity event, the Mount Kilimanjaro Charity Climb. The climb aims to raise 35000 British pounds which will be donated to an education project in Mwanza, to the north of Tanzania. The project goal is to build a girls’ school residence allowing entire community of girls to receive the education they need to break the cycle of poverty.
The charitable project is managed by Plan, one of the largest child-centred community development organisations in the world, through its “Because I’m a girl” program. Plan helps children and their families in 48 of the poorest countries in the world break the cycle of poverty and its global “Because I’m a girl” campaign was designed to raise awareness for the plight of girls around the world and the unique role they play in the fight against global poverty. Read more…
Would you pay to be kidnapped on your vacation?
I imagine it is hard to top the travel to the outer space promise when it commes to innovative vacation and travel ideas. But is it really appealing to be captured without notice, blindfolded and made a prisoner for 4 to 10 hours? Judging by the travel concepts presented at the Tourism Futures conference in Brisbane, it seems this is the next big thing!
Tourism Queensland and a French company are offering such tourist delights: people actually pay “to be abducted without warning, bound, gagged and imprisoned for between four and ten hours.”
How does this work when compared with this far more innovative and less frightening experience:
Nick Talbot, who is director of UK-based design and innovation company seymourpowell, said in the next 15 years you could see “air hotels’’ like cruise ships in the sky in which you spend a week floating from Australia to London, stopping off at various destinations along the way.
I understand social media being a part of traveling and the rise of custom vacationsm, designed to fit lifestyle and enormous budgets – think space tourism and the air hotels here, but when exactly have we switched from visiting tourist attack sites as part of Dark or Black tourism to actually wanting to experience the life changing trauma of kidnapping victims?
Would you actually pay for something like this?
My Dream Vacation – Oludeniz, Turkey
What is a Dream Vacation? It’s a masterpiece of Travel Wizards, the kind of vacation that you enjoy so much, you speak about it years and years after coming back. You enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day. You take lots of photos, dance like a dervish on the streets and charge yourself with enough energy to last you for a year or two.
How to come up with such a vacation? That’s a mix of knowledge, advanced hotel search skills, planning, great advice from friends passionate about traveling and a whole lot of luck. I’ve had such a vacation last year, when I spent 10 days in the Netherlands. So I did my best to organize an at least similar one for this year. I thought it would be nice to share my plans with you now and then report back every day and tell you what the real deal is like.
Location: Fethiye, Oludeniz, Turkey!
Oludeniz is said to be the best place for paragliding. It’s home to a paradise-like lagoon and beach on the Mediterranean and the nearby mountains are the perfect place for those looking for extreme sensations. Placed in between Kusadasi and Antalyia, it is less popular among travel agencies, 
but hard core tourists know is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The location of choice, Fethiye, is a few miles away from Oludeniz.
I started planning early. I made the reservations at the Blue Pearl hotel back in February. And I advise you to plan early as well if at least part of your trip is in peak season (July-August). I made reservations for an apartment from August 23rd to September 12th and there were only 2-3 apartments left at each hotel in the area. I also advise you to go there in early summer or late summer/early autumn to make sure you’re not affected by extreme heat.
As you can tell, I had quite a lot of time to find out what to do while staying in Oludeniz. You’d think 3 weeks are hard to fill with loads of fun activities, but in these parts of Turkey, it’s actually quite easy! Read more…