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More Expat Vagabonds "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness" Mark Twain

A Nice Place To Live?

SOUTH AFRICA | Tuesday, 30 Jul 2013 | Views [716]

Plettenburg Bay is one of those places we could actually live in.  It's just the right size, perched on the Indian Ocean towards the end of the famous Garden Route.  It's modern and inexpensive and the Cornerway Guest House was superb.  ... Read more >


Along the Garden Route

SOUTH AFRICA | Thursday, 25 Jul 2013 | Views [752]

We have long advised that South Africa is “Africa for beginners.”  Despite their annoying habit of driving on the left, South Africans are friendly and helpful.  Nearly everyone, excepting recently arrived refugees from strife afflicted ... Read more >


Cape Town and Robben Island

SOUTH AFRICA | Monday, 22 Jul 2013 | Views [478]

Vanessa and Alex are the perfect hosts.  We highly recommend them if you are visiting Cape Town. We shared their tiny flat with their Scotties, Shiraz and Chardonnay, and Chaucer, the most affectionate of cats.  Seriously, even when they had ... Read more >


Casablanca to Cape Town

SOUTH AFRICA | Thursday, 18 Jul 2013 | Views [616]

We tend to forget how large Africa is.  You could fit the US, all of Europe, China and India into the African continent and still have room.  Our route from Casablanca to Cape Town spanned the length and breadth of Africa: eight hours in the ... Read more >


Photos: Cape Town and the Garden Route

SOUTH AFRICA | Tuesday, 16 Jul 2013 | Photo Gallery


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Surviving Ramadan

MOROCCO | Monday, 15 Jul 2013 | Views [601]

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting from sunrise to sunset, falls inconveniently in July this year, when the days are longest.  Followers of “the one true faith” refrain from eating, smoking and drinking even water, which is especially ... Read more >


Marrakech

MOROCCO | Saturday, 13 Jul 2013 | Views [548]

The bus from Essaouira to Marrakech was most definitely not the Marrakech Express that Crosby, Stills and Nash sang about.  It stopped for ever Abdel, Hassam and Fatima along the way and ended up taking four hot, non air-conditioned hours.  ... Read more >


Essaouira

MOROCCO | Thursday, 11 Jul 2013 | Views [591]

Essaouira was one of those "because we're here" stops, with nothing really special to see.  In fact, compared to other places we visited, Essaouira is modern.  It was built in the 19th Century on a French plan so the medina is less of a maze.... Read more >


Oualidia

MOROCCO | Wednesday, 10 Jul 2013 | Views [1264]

We’re spending a couple of days in Oualidia, which is on the way to Essaouira, which is on the way to Marrakech, which is . . .     Teamwork Oualidia is a tiny fishing village on the Atlantic, so tiny that there is no dock.... Read more >


Rabat and El Jadida

MOROCCO | Monday, 8 Jul 2013 | Views [1016]

Train travel in Morocco is a giant step up from taking the bus.  Of course you pay more (especially for Premiere Classe) but the coaches are more comfortable and air-conditioned.  Schedules can be a bit of a mystery to non-French speakers but ... Read more >


Meknes and Volubilis

MOROCCO | Sunday, 7 Jul 2013 | Views [771]

The tourist office in Meknes was closed on Friday afternoon - almost everything else was too, either because of the holy day or the heat - so we never found a map of the medina.  Rather than wander aimlessly we waited for the temperature to drop ... Read more >


Fez

MOROCCO | Thursday, 4 Jul 2013 | Views [633]

We were glad to arrive at Fez after six hot and dusty hours on the bus from Tétouan.  The bus was better than a school bus – barely – with no air-con and the one-position seats.  But the splendor of the Riad des Remparts ... Read more >


Tétouan

MOROCCO | Tuesday, 2 Jul 2013 | Views [868]

Tétouan, a mere hour bus ride over the Rif Mountains from Tangier, hasn’t yet been “discovered” by tourists.  It’s a place where real people live real lives, where the various souks in the medina serve the needs of ... Read more >


Photos: Morocco

MOROCCO | Monday, 1 Jul 2013 | Photo Gallery


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Road to Morocco

MOROCCO | Sunday, 30 Jun 2013 | Views [468]

For the first time in months Connie is seated to my left.  We’ve turned in the rental car and are traveling by bus through endless fields of sunflowers guarded by hundreds of wind turbines from Cadiz to Tarifa.  Passport control for ... Read more >


The White Hill Towns of Andalucia

SPAIN | Wednesday, 26 Jun 2013 | Views [2383]

That about says it all!  The "white hill towns of Andalucia" are a collection of blindingly whitewashed buildings clustered high on the hillsides of southwestern Spain.  Originally Moorish outlooks they were occupied by the Spanish after the ... Read more >


Photos: Andalucia Again

SPAIN | Tuesday, 25 Jun 2013 | Photo Gallery


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Andalucia Again

SPAIN | Tuesday, 25 Jun 2013 | Views [602]

We intentionally skipped some of the sights in Andalucia back in May, saving them for after our visit to Portugal.  And that would be now.  Things have changed in a month.  It is hot and sunny and the once barren fields are filled with ... Read more >


The Algarve

PORTUGAL | Sunday, 23 Jun 2013 | Views [675]

No one will ever mistake the Algarve for Cape Cod.  Or Almafi.  Except for the T-shirt and surf shops, neither does it resemble the Jersey Shore.  Portugal’s “Riviera” covers nearly 200 km of coastline from the charming ... Read more >


Lisbon and Belem

PORTUGAL | Thursday, 20 Jun 2013 | Views [650]

Lisbon always seemed both sinister and romantic, a haven for spies, traitors, smugglers and other characters.  But that was the Lisbon of 75 years ago.  I’ve always yearned to see Lisbon but I might have well yearned for the pre-... Read more >


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Easter Island, 2012

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