Caye Caulker (pronounced “key corker”) is a Caribbean island off the coast of Belize that is known for excellent snorkelling.
My clearest memory of Caye Caulker is sitting at the end of a jetty watching the sunset. Suddenly, the water itself moved underneath me as an enormous stingray, at least as wide as my outstretched arms, glided past my toes that were dipped in the water below.
Baja California is the edge of the world: one of the western-most stretches of land before the endless Pacific Ocean. Orange and pink rock formations overlook azure waters from beneath a searing sky. La Paz, a beach town in Baja California Sur in Mexico, is popular with visitors due to its year-round summer and proximity to the Sea of Cortez.
The Sea of Cortez is famous for being home to a staggering third of the world’s marine animals: whales, dolphins and sea lions thrive in the sheltered stretch of water between Baja California and mainland Mexico. To add to the appeal, otherworldly rock formations such as Isla Espiritu Santo, hide a thousand seldom-visited beaches and coves.
Where should we travel to in summer 2017? We just can’t decide!
I have no idea which city, country or even continent I’ll be on in six months time. I’m 95% sure that it won’t be the same place where Charlie and I are travelling now, but even that’s not certain. As travellers and digital nomads, we feel incredibly lucky to know that we could be anywhere in the world in summer 2017. But the question is, where do we want to go next?
Indonesia is a nation of thousands of volcanic islands, each one home to unique cultures, cuisines, landscapes and languages. You could spend a lifetime in Indonesia and only scratch the surface of this extraordinary country, so don’t put it off any longer! Read our Indonesia travel guide to find out how your life will be changed by a trip to Indonesia.
Among the lush valleys and undulating hills of Loei province lies the Tai Dam village in Chiang Khan, Thailand. Named for the black robes worn by both men and women, the Tai Dam — known as “Black Thai” in English — are an indigenous Vietnamese tribe that were scattered by war. Today, their descendents practise time-honoured traditions in their new home in Northern Thailand.
Mavrovo is Macedonia’s oldest national park. It’s an exceptional beauty, a small village around a large lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains – and it’s home to the Zare Lazareski ski resort.
We hadn’t initially planned to go skiing in Macedonia – since we’d already been skiing in Bansko and Charlie didn’t take to it all that well. But there’s not much going on during winter in Macedonia apart from skiing and I love it, so she put on a brave face and we took to the slopes in Mavrovo.
When we were travelling vegan in Macedonia as part of our vegan travel challenge, we scoured menus for traditional Macedonian dishes that were naturally vegan – and surprisingly there are quite a few vegan options in Macedonian cuisine.
I have to admit though, we were also excited when we reverted to our vegetarian diet at the end of the challenge and were finally able to tuck into some tasty burek – a local breakfast pastry filled with spinach and cheese – that a friend of mine who’d previously travelled around the Balkans enthusiastically recommended to me.
Why is it that when you give someone a mask they will never fail to show you their true face? For Phi Ta Khon festival, or the ghost mask festival, the normally shy, polite and retiring villagers of Dan Sai reveal themselves to be fun-loving, dance-crazy, non-stop party people. The festival, held in Loei province, is a vibrant interweaving of religion and art.
Mask makers spend the months leading up to the big event constructing and painting their lavish costumes in exquisite detail. When finished, the complete outfits resemble colourful monsters, somehow managing to be both fearsome and fluorescent. Dancing and continuous cowbells announce to the world that the ‘ghosts’ are in town.
Reader Question: How difficult it is to learn Mandarin and is it isolating to move to Taiwan if you don’t speak it? The language barrier is my biggest fear, especially because I plan to travel in there by myself.
Is Mandarin really hard to learn?
If you spend any time at all in Thailand, or any Asian country, you’ll immediately notice that rice is essential to the local diet. Many people, especially from the older generations and in the countryside, eat some form of rice three times a day. Having spent so much time in Asia, Charlie and I have also become a little bit addicted to rice, and quite happily eat it seven days a week, and sometimes for breakfast too!
So naturally I was keen to visit Phu Ruea Ruean Mai resort, an organic rice farm, and learn more about how some Thai people are trying their hand at ecotourism. The rice farm is run by Nu Dee, a young, well-educated woman from Bangkok, and her mother. Nu Dee is one of a small handful of people bucking the urban migration trend, and she argues that there’s more to life than sitting at a standstill in Bangkok’s notorious traffic jams.
After Charlie flew home to see her family, I immediately signed up to a language school in Guatemala. The problem was that I was currently in Nicaragua, 766km south of my destination, leaving me to answer the question: how could I get from Nicaragua to Guatemala in one piece?
I decided to take the Ticabus as they had got me from Costa Rica to Nicaragua without any problems, and at a reasonable price. However, when I saw that the ride would take a mind numbing twenty-seven hours, a completely unplanned few days in San Salvador to break up the journey seemed like a better idea.
The Corn Islands are a Caribbean cliché located 70 km off the Nicaraguan coastline, complete with virginal white beaches, trouble free skies and soothing blue waters. Shack up in a beach hut by the sea for under £14 ($20), and enjoy a carefree culture that is more Creole than Español. Whilst Big Corn Island is the first stop for travellers, the smaller and generally more loved of the two islands is Little Corn.
In most places, when you step out of the airport you are greeted by someone holding a sign with your name and a nice clean car. On Little Corn Island, you’ll jump out of a boat and be greeted by someone with a sign holding your name and a fairly heavy-duty wheelbarrow. Little Corn simply isn’t like anywhere else, and the fact that there are no cars on the island is just one of them. Don’t get too excited – that wheelbarrow’s not for you. It’s for your luggage, which will be wheeled along a dirt track to your little hut on the beach.
We’re Charlie and Luke — UK travel bloggers, adventurers and storytellers. We travel slow and write about sustainable travel. We want to make responsible travel choices and help you do the same. Get to know us.
