Travel Tuesday

This week, I’ve been lucky enough to discover the world while staying at home.

The YMCA has a great program called the Youth Peace Network – every year, a dozen or so volunteers from around the world come and spend a summer in Vancouver to learn about Canada, and share their culture with us. I got to spend the last week with these wonderful people, from Kenya, Ukraine, Argentina, China, Brazil, Czech Republic, Zambia, Mexico, Senegal, Egypt, Belarus, Hong Kong and Colombia, and I’m excited to get to know them better as the summer progresses. I’ve learned a couple new words (my favourite so far is shlopentcy, Russian for flip flop), and made new friends that I will surely visit on my RTW trip!

Travel Photo Tuesday

In 2006, I spent a week in Dakar. There was a 12 hour layover in Casablanca, Morocco along the way, and the airline provided us with a bus into the city and a hotel room. Now, I am not the type to miss out on seeing as much as I can of a new city, no matter how tired I am. So, I dropped my luggage off in my hotel room and powered through, and went exploring with a girl that I met on the plane.

We were told ahead of time that it was Eid, a religious holiday, and that everything would be closed and we were likely to see a lot of dead sheep everywhere. We were not disappointed! I asked these two boys if I could take their picture, and they were so excited to pose for the camera! Afterward, they asked us what we were doing, and we told them that we had been hoping to visit the city, but that everything was shut. The man standing behind them to the right was their uncle, and offered to drive us around the city and show us the sights. Airplane girl and I jumped at the opportunity, and got a private tour of different Casa neighbourhoods, including a stop at this man’s mother’s house where we watched her clean and prepare the sheep (we were invited to dinner – a great honor – but had to decline because of our flight) and a private tour of a palace, where we ate sheep intestines with the guards. What a great day!

Travel Photo Tuesday

I was just on a Gogobot Twitter chat yesterday, talking to Jenny about her upcoming RTW trip. Her first stop is the Inca Trail, which had me looking back through my pictures of Peru. I thought I’d make you smile today with this picture. There are llamas in so many pictures and postcards of Peru, and especially Machu Picchu. However, Marina and I weren’t able to frame a shot of a llama in front of Huayna Picchu, so we took matters into our own hands.

Travel Tuesday Photo

Here we are again! I swear, I don’t even see the time go by. I’ve been posting a lot about San Francisco this week, so I decided to bring us home with this picture of Nova Scotia. I love how so many houses are decorated with these things. Now, if someone could tell me what these things are, I would love that too!

It’s Tuesday again! Photo time!

Did Tuesday take anyone else by surprise? How is it Tuesday again already?! I was hoping to put together at least one new FAQ post, but time just slipped away from me! In any case, here’s this week’s travel photo!

I took this picture at an orphanage in Bamako. There were many rooms filled with babies, and one room for the older kids, who for one reason or another have not been adopted. How do you feel about this kind of picture? I’m always conflicted – these kids were super excited for me to take their picture, but is it the right thing to do? Ultimately, I feel ok with them as long as I don’t sell them for personal profit. I actually took these for a French man whose NGO represents the orphanage.

Travel Tuesday Photo – San Francisco

I’ve been in San Francisco all week, and what a week it’s been! I’m not excited to leave tonight, but I am excited to get to a computer, go through the hundreds of photos I’ve taken, and put together a few blog posts for you guys.

In the meantime, here’s today’s travel photo! Managed to snag the sun in Big Sur!

Travel Photo Tuesday!

Today, I’m on a plane, so I thought that I should post what I often see from my window!

#traveltuesday photo

Ok, so this photo doesn’t show anything about where I was at the time (somewhere in Ontario)

However, it represents two things to me: the complete freedom of a solo road trip, when you can stop anywhere, at any time to take the picture you want; and it shows that you don’t need fancy camera equipment to take some pretty sweet pictures. Sure, it took some time fiddling with auto focus on my point and shoot, but I think you’ll agree that this picture worked out pretty nicely.

Travel photo Tuesday

It’s Tuesday again, and time for another travel photo!

This is Wilson Meikuaya. Wilson is a Maasai warrior, who I met when he was a guide with Me to We in Kenya. You should really check out the book that he wrote with his buddy Jackson, about what it’s like to be a Maasai warrior in this day and age. I’m also sneaking in another photo to this post, of me with Wilson and Jackson after I was trained to use Maasai weapons 🙂

Travel photo of the week

My two main passions are travel and photography. It’s really convenient that they go so well together! Here is one of my favourites. I took it last October, when I drove across Canada. The prairies were so beautiful, with all the golden fields and the hay bales. That day, the drive took me a lot longer than planned, because I just had to keep pulling over to take pictures. In true canadian tradition, someone pulled over to ask if I was ok while I was taking this picture.

Come back next Tuesday for another photo!