SPOTLIGHT: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Spotlight:
At the top of Sandia Peak after riding the tramway to the top.

Nestled along the Rio Grande and a main stop on any road trip along Route 66, Albuquerque’s highlights include a wealth of Native American culture and a variety of outdoor activities and destinations.  Take some time to shop in Old Town, have a beer at sunset on a roof top bar or ride one of [...]

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Photo Essay – SXSW Music

Photo Essays
Titus Andronicus at The Belmont

A selection of images from the Music portion of the 2012 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

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Photo Essay – SXSW Interactive & Film

Photo Essays
An impromptu dance party breaks out in the rain after the SXSW premiere of

I just finished volunteering for my first year at the SXSW (South by SouthWest) Festival in Austin, Texas. The festival is a mixture of Film, Music and Interactive (think tech/business/internet), with the first half focusing on interactive, the second half on music, and film running the entire length of the nine-day conference. As a volunteer, [...]

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Photo Essay – Austin Kite Festival at Zilker Park

Photo Essays
The winner of the Youngest Contestant Award at the festival.

The 84th Annual Zilker Park Kite Festival was held on Sunday, March 4th in Austin, Texas. You couldn’t have asked for a better day with all the sun and wind anyone could ask for. Under an umbrella of thousands of kites, the festival offered the usual American-festival goodies like games and face-painting for the little [...]

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Photo Essay – Mardi Gras Parades in New Orleans

Photo Essays
Masked Revelers

Contrary to popular belief, Mardi Gras isn’t just about Beer, Beads and Breasts. The festival and parades were actually described to us by one locals as being put on “for the locals, not for the tourists”. A family affair, outside of Bourbon street you’ll see festival revelers of all ages, and even a few local [...]

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The Indie Travel Manifesto Gets it Right

Responses & Rants
Photo by Fernando Stankuns on Flickr

A new site just hit the web and I think everyone should go check it out.  The Indie Travel Manifesto, a collaboration between one of my favorite travel authors, Rolf Potts, and the Boots-n-all travel network, attempts to define Independent travel and create a community for those that relate to it. Here’s the video they [...]

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How to Handle Illness When Traveling Abroad

How To:
Pills scattered across a table

I had grand plans at the start of this new year – weekly blogging, 365 days of photos and more.  Of course, I only made it a few days into January before becoming really really sick.  A week of headaches led into three weeks of fatigue and a hacking cough that is only now fading [...]

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Reflecting on 2011 and looking forward to 2012

Responses & Rants
Fireworks

It’s December 31st, 2011 and I’m back home in the states after nearly three years flashpacking around the world.  Last year at this time I was in Bangkok and the year prior to that was spent at a temple in Tokyo.  Tonight is a going to be a bit more low key – dinner with [...]

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Cairns, Pro Dive and The Great Barrier Reef

Featured
Anemone fish staying close to home.

Cairns is the epicenter of options for diving the largest reef system in the world – The Great Barrier Reef.  A world heritage site and one of the seven natural wonders of the world (as named by CNN), this destination is high on the list of many travelers, and is certainly a spot not to [...]

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Exploring The Great Barrier Reef with Mike Ball Diving Expeditions

Featured
Shea, our trip supervisor, handling the bin during the shark feed.

The Great Barrier Reef is massive, and Cairns is the launching point for the majority of ways to experience the reef.  I’d known since I started this flashpacking adventure two-and-a-half years ago that I would be headed here, and now the time had come. I spent my first full day in Cairns doing research on [...]

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Independent Travel from Cairns to Sydney on Greyhound

Featured
A colorful bench on the streets of Cairns, Australia

Over the month of July, I spent 25 days as part of a hop-on hop-off tour of New Zealand with Stray.  It was an amazing experience shared with a group of amazing people.  I decided it would be interesting comparing that trip with a more independent-style bus trip with Greyhound from Cairns to Sydney along [...]

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Hop On Hop Off Backpacker Bus Travel – A Detailed Case Study

Featured
The passengers from the Stray bus at an authentic Maori cultural experience.

What’s it like to travel on a hop-on hop-off bus? I recently finished a whirlwind, twenty-five day trip around all of New Zealand with a hop-on hop-off bus company called Stray.  While I normally trend towards much more independent travel methods, I felt this was the way to flashpack across New Zealand.  Had I been [...]

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