/Paraiso Philippines/

The view of the valley is perfect from the alpine meadow, as we sit warm in the sun, listening to The Magic Flute at the annual Mozart Festival. This could easily be Salzburg or Kitsbuhl, but actually is the mountain village of Stowe in the Northeastern U.S. state of Vermont. Stowe lies in the heart of thetrapsign Green Mountains, where the cold winters make for fantastic snow sports, and the fall brings leaf peepers to see the foliage. I’m most fond of the summers though, when the forest seems to be in full bloom, and the weather is pleasant.

It’s not accidental that this small town feels like the Alps, and there is no more visible symbol of this than the Trapp Family Lodge. The Austrian inspired lodge and resort is operated by actual members of the Von Trapp family, whose story was told in the Sound of Music. The main lodge is right out of the Tyrol, with dark woods and balconies lined with bright red and white flower boxes. This theme is carried on by a number of other lodges (Northern Lights Lodge, Innsbruck Inn), and private residences around town.

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Theres Music when you have come in.

Living in Central Vermont, I’m only a couple hours drive from one of the more unique and captivating Canadian cities, lovely Montreal.  St. Louis Square FountainSet alongside the St. Lawrence River, this town forty minutes across the border in the province of Quebec is dominated by a French Canadian heritage evident in the language, the food, and the overall European feel of the city.  Filled with sidewalk cafes, bistros, and a large population of people from everywhere, Montreal is a world class melting pot, and the perfect host for the annual summer jazz festival (Festival International de Jazz de Montreal). 

The Jazz Festival offers hundreds of different concerts, representing the spectrum of jazz and blues from traditional to Dixieland to Quebecois to Caribbean and African.  The majority of shows are free and held in the middle of a large outdoor area of the Latin Quarter (a.k.a. red light district), a four block radius of Ste-Catherine, President-Kennedy, Bleury and St-Urbain streets.  Either a blessing or a curse depending on your perspective, officials chase the typical colorful characters of the area away for the duration of the festival, although some of the less conspicuous clubs continue to operate during that time.  The remainder of the shows are relatively expensive headliners at some of the larger venues, and lesser known acts at a number of jazz clubs around town. 

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Take a trip up the Rio Napo into the jungles of South America

Driving rain pelted our open canoe as we forged our way up the Rio Napo further into the rainforest, driven slowly by the Thatched Hutgentle hum of the outboard motor. Our waterproof high tech fancy shells and hiking boots quickly succumbed to the elements, while our guide’s simple garbage bags and bare feet served them perfectly in the humid and wet weather. The Rio Napo is a tributary of the Amazon, and this was the beginning of a three day trip into the jungle outside of Coca, a retired oil boom town in the deep interior of Ecuador.

The South American Explorers Club in Quito is a great resource for information including travel reports by fellow explorers, several of which pointed us to a tour guide named Wimper Torres operating out of Coca. We attempted to call to make arrangements, but were told simply to make our way to the little town and ask for Wimper when we got there. After taking an overnight bus over a single track rutted dirt road, we reached the town which consisted of a few square blocks of dirt streets and wooden planked sidewalks. There were a handful of stores selling crafts and staples, basic restaurants and the surprisingly nice Hotel Auca, where we negotiated a triple room, and inquired after Wimper Torres and were told that he’d find us later in the day.

After walking around town and having a simple almuerzo (a fixed lunch menu) at the Residencial Lo Janita, we returned to the hotel to find Wimper waiting for us. On the bus, we had met a couple guys from Japan also canoelooking to do a rainforest tour, and since it’s cheaper the more people you have, we decided to go in together on the trip. We flagged down a passing flat bed truck, and accompanied him to his home on the outskirts, where he spread out a map of the area and we discussed what kind of trip we wanted to take. We decided on a three day trip where everything was included for 30USD per person per day. He needed to buy provisions so we made arrangements to meet the next morning at the docks.

The next day we met Wimper and his nephew Irwin, and after a visit to La Oficina de Comandante, where we had to get permission for the trip (a formality) and leave our passports during our trip, we loaded our gear and supplies into an eleven meter outboard canoe. We pushed off from the shore, and began our slow five hour trip upriver, immediately met by torrential downpours limiting visibility. The river presented a variety of hazards from sandbars to trees, but the experience of our guide on these waterways showed and finally, we turned off into a maze of small lagoon waterways where we were sheltered from the rain by the canopy overhead and could talk with our guide who pointed out numerous colorful birds.

We finally reached a hut that would become our home base for the rest of the trip. It stood about five feet above ground on stilts, had no walls, a sixty foot square bamboo floor and a pitched roof made of palm leaves. Wimper strung two ropes across the hut, over which we hung thin mosquito netting to sleep under. There was a simple outhouse approximately fifty feet from the hut, a trip to which was quite an adventure at night as you needed to climb down the ladder and then navigate through the forest to find it. It was a creaky shack with a hole and it was best not to think about what was above or below.

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