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Once I realized that I had a 3 week break after the end of my Contract and before the start of a contract renewal or another round of interviews I quickly jumped at the chance to travel abroad and salvage some adventure from what little was left of a semi-disappointing 2009. The question was where to go that was not too far away, too expensive and with tolerable weather. As a long time traveler I always have 5 or 6 trips floating around in my head and when given the opportunity I make a last minute decision on which to take based on length of travel, the latitude/geography/season and cost. For this time of year Russia was out, and Morocco was way too expensive and far so I opted for Central America. Since I have traveled through every country there but Panama I had my sights set on seeing it but the costs of a direct flight to Panama City at Christmas were prohibitive and so I ended up with a $450 cheaper flight to Costa Rica and had a mental plan to make my way down overland to Panama. Although Costa Rica is not my favorite destination in Central America due to it being very touristy and expensive in the most popular destinations I felt the savings were more than worth it and I could spend my Christmas in Manuel Antionio which I had not visited on my previous visit two years ago.

After 2 full days of travel (3 mini buses, 1 taxi, 1 half bus and 1 eleven-hour long distance bus) I made it from Nkhata Bay, Milawi to Dar Es Salaam on the Tanzania Coast. On the ‘luxury’ long distance bus (no isle seating and with a bathroom) to Dar I reacquainted myself with a lovely Australian couple who I had met the first night in Nkhata bay the week before. Arriving at night in one of the more sketchy cities of Africa we quickly hopped into a cab to be taken to a hostel. The next morning after breakfast I said goodbye (they were off to Ethiopia) and walked to the bank on my way to the wharf where I boarded the fast ferry for Zanzibar (for the exorbitant rate of $35 for the 90 minute trip). In Zanzibar I managed to extricate myself from the hounding taxi touts and walked with all my bags (about 70 lbs or 31 kg).

[June 13 update: To be continued in the next 24 hours with info on Stonetown and Mungwi beach and the long-term power outage.]

Many travellers that I had met on this trip spoke of the amazing paradise beaches of Playa Del Carmen and Isla Mujeres, and in Belize. After being unimpressed with the beaches of Belize I had hoped that Playa Del Carmen would be the relaxing Mexican beach paradise that I had been looking for and which was hopefully still relatively unspoiled by throngs of tourists. But alas, while PDC was massively more relaxed than Cancun it still was too touristy for my tastes. PDC is still an amazing destination by most people standards, but it still was missing the laid back attitude and cultural charm that makes certain places extra special for me (such as Ko Pi-Pi, Thailand).

With only 3 days left to my trip I had high hopes I would find such a place in Isla Mujeres and on the same day I visited my last Mayan ruins at Edzna near Campeche I took a marathon 9 hour trip (2 buses) to Cancun in order to try to make it to that island. I got there later than planned and was under the false impression (as I later discovered) that I had missed the last ferry to Isla Mujeres (it turns out they run until past midnight). So I had to stay an extra night in my dreaded Cancun and on top of that the single rooms of all the cheaper hotels seemed to be booked so I got stuck in a miserably unventilated dorm room of the hostile (it was literally 88 degrees throughout the night). Fortunately I met a fun group of Irish kids and had several Sol beers to prepare me for what I knew would be a less than comfortable night. With a pretty poor nights sleep (due to temp and the all night disco next door) I headed out for bluer waters, so to speak. After an easy bus ride and ferry with an Aussie gal I met at breakfast, we split and I ended up at the coveted hostile on Isla Mujeres around 11AM.

After 4 days in Coron I was ready for some beach time so on Thursday (10/6/05) I flew to Borocay Island , in the Vasayas (Central Eastern Islands), via Manila (the transportation in Philippines is still pretty rudimentary and even relatively short boat rides of 120-160 Km (60-80 miles) can take 24 hours or more and pretty much all flight originate on one end in Manila or Cebu and do not go airport to airport and island to island. Borocay is probably the most well visited site for Western Tourists, but also one of the most beautiful. Since now is still low season the beach is not overly crowded and the guest house rooms are still pretty cheap ($18 a night for a fairly modern room w/ air-con, bath and hot water shower). The sunsets here are spectacular and the pace is certainly that of Island Time the world over, with a perpetually relaxed and chilled atmosphere and a fairly boisterous night life.