Stay-cation 2017

2017 is the year of the staycations. With the goofy low dollar and so many opportunities to see what Canada has to offer we have decided that loading up the RV, pugs, detectors and knitting and head East !!

Now East can be Island View beach or Banff. It all depends on what tickles our fancy at the time. So until I actually have cool pictures to share, enjoy these pictures of everything that is East of me...

Athens 2015

We planned for an adventure in 2015 and Greece won the dart toss. Where better to go then Athens? So we booked our hotel, our flights and we were set.

Departure day was upon us and we loaded all our stuff into 1 small suitcase and then we stuffed that into a bigger suitcase. 2 carry-on bags and 1 suitcase and off to the airport. We left Victoria and first stop was Heathrow. We had to wait there for 8 1/2 hours...A full day lounging about 1 big crazy building. We ate at the Brit pub and then snooped thru every single store in the airport. The one thing that blew my mind was the 50000£ watch at the Rolex store. That equals $102000 Canadian dollars! The way I wreck watches I had best avoid buying one.

We finally left Heathrow and then off to Athens airport. I was clever and prebooked our ride from the airport to the hotel with an amazing service which I would highly recommend. The service is called Welcome pickup.. Here is the website  http://www.welcomepickups.com/  This is an amazing service, they are waiting for you at the airport, they bring you a welcome bag and some fresh waters and whisk you away to your hotel. Super friendly and super knowledgable!

Our hotel was right in the city centre, about 100m from Syntagma Square. This square is where all the riots, debates and action happen that we see on TV here in Canada. The hotel we stayed at was the Pan Hotel   This hotel was small, quaint and nicely setup. It comes with a yummy breakfast each morning, A/C in the rooms, TV and small fridge. When we got to our room we were tired, it was a long trip and most airplanes are not designed for my log dancers legs..hehe.. We got into the room and there we see 2 single beds!!  I am all a twitter but to freaking tired to care at this time. In the morning I will go and get that changed. We closed the blackout curtains, figured out the A/C and hit the sack. Sleep was glorious and hot!!  OMG was it hot, 32 when we got there and it would drop to a bone chilling 27 at night. Even with that A/C on full blast I was still sweating like a turkey on thanksgiving. Sleep came and neither of us argued.

AC !!!  

Morning came and we both of us agreed that single beds were the BEST THING EVER! I am a human furnace to start with, throw me in a bed with my wife and we generate enough BTU's to heat a small country. We would have died!! Spontaneous human combustion would have been the headlines I tell ya.

We started out by walking around the side streets looking for grocery stores and markets to get our snacks and stuff. We were in luck, ever kind of store we could ever want was within 500 meters of the hotel. I would personally recommend the Pan Hotel and I would stay there again if I returned.

We are not big on tours and like to experience the area for ourselves, but this time round we wanted to see some of the Greek Islands and Delphi. With the help of the hotel we booked our 2 trips and proceeded to snoop out Athens. 

Athens and Rome share a common theme, roads that make no sense. OMG lost and spun around. You ask for directions and people would say "follow the road and go left", but they would motion right with their hands. Hows that for confusing the heck out of you. 

We wandered all around the side streets and discovered Monastiraki Market. This was the world famous market for everything you could imagine. There was all the trendy tourist shops, olive everything stores and a section full of antique shops that was mind blowing. The shop owners would get items from the local junk collectors and they would then refinish or re-purpose the items to sell. The craftsmanship was amazing. If I was able to ship stuff home I would have for sure.   

Food was everywhere and it was super affordable. You could easily over eat on 10 euros a day. In the plaza across from Syntagma Square was the only McDonalds and KFC we saw in all of Athens. Yes I had to indulge in a meal from each and they were very similar to our North America ones. McDonalds sold the "Royale with Cheese"!!  I laughed and laughed... I thought that was a myth thanks to Pulp Fiction, guess not! 

The one restaurant I would highly recommend was The Greco's Project . The food was delicious, the staff amazing and the choices superb!

Okay back to the city... One thing you will discover is that if you use cash you will get a better deal. The economy was hard hit and the shop owners took huge pride in their stores. If you made it easier for them to get paid immediately for the stuff you purchased, you would get a better deal. We enjoyed the shopping for sure and the experience of watching the shops at work was pretty kewl.

We discovered the neatest tour ride ever... the HAPPY TRAIN!! It was a small car made to look like a train engine and it was pulling 5 cars behind it. They drove this thing everywhere! I would have troubles driving a peddle bike in some of the areas they drove this thing. I loved it!!  

We then hopped onto the Hop On Bus. You pay for a day pass and off you go. You can get on and off that bus at any of its stops throughout the city. We used this to get too many of the major cultural sites and museums. 

The first trip we booked was to the world renowned city of Delphi. We loaded up on a bus and off we went. We traveled for about 2 1/2 hours thru the country side before we reached our destination. 

Words cannot describe Delphi. So I took about 1000 pictures! You could feel the energy and the history as you walked around. We saw where the oracles would share their prophecies to those who traveled high up into the mountains to ask for knowledge. There were many columns, a huge theatre and an arena. After spending a couple hours touring the historical site we wandered off to the museum. So many amazing relics and the art work was insane. The work they did in gold, silver and iron was mind blowing. To have those metal working skills would make you a very famous person in this day and age. 

After we left the museum we went to the small village of Arahova. This was a quiet village that has a huge tourism influx in the winter for the skiing, we had enough time to snoop the shops and buy some items to take home. I ended up buying a carpet. Don’t ask.

Ancient writing

 

The next day we were off to the 3 Greek islands of - Hydra, Poros and Aegina. Again we loaded up on a bus and headed to the harbour to hop onto one of those infamous Greek ferries, yes the ones you hear that flip over and kill everyone on board. There was a lot of us on the boat, it was a nice vessel and the oceans were very calm that day. It was a beautiful sight watching the Greek coastline as we motored to the islands. 

After around 3 hours we arrived at the island of Hydra. This was your quintessential Greek island. Donkeys out front the stores, white plastered buildings with blue doors and trim. English was scarce on this island but that did not slow us down on spending money. We walked around the little village looking at the eons old shops and houses. 

                              

From there we sailed to Poros.. This was a more modern island with cars and buses, the shops were fluent in English and again we had no trouble spending our money.  

The final island to be visited was Aegina. This stop afforded us 1 of 2 options. We could either travel by bus to a newly constructed massive cathedral or we could hit up a beach to take a swim and play in the ocean. We opted for the cathedral tour as I left my swim gear in Canada. The trip to the cathedral was nice and again the history was so rich and full it was overwhelming. The cathedral was built with no thought of expense. It was beautiful and huge. 

 

Back on the ship we went, they fed us a nice meal and shipped us back to Athens. 

That nice meal on the boat was anything but for Bear. OMG did she get ill from the food she had on that boat. She was down and out for a solid 3 days and an additional 5 days of recovery. What a fight with that tourist company we had about the food poisoning. In the end they ignored us completely but Visa was happy to cancel the payment to them and reimburse us for Bears portion of the tour. 

After a few days of in house relaxing and my occasional venturing out Bear was well and off we went to see more sites. The Parthenon was top of my list and Bear was feeling a lot better so off we went. We climbed the hundreds of stairs and long winding pathways up to the top to see the Parthenon. It was super-hot that day, 32 easily and when your 500 feet above the city on giant rock with 2000 people it gets even hotter. I was in awe!! What an amazing, MASSIVE building. If you only see 1 thing in Athens, see the Parthenon!

We heard that there was a Syrian refugee camp not too far from our hotel so I was curious to see this and off we went. Well karma taught me to be a better man and not go out of my way to see the plight of others if I was not going to try and help. I was robbed on the subway, luckily all they got was my cell phone. Small price to pay for a humility lesson. 

We found the camp and we walked thru. There was a limited police presence and you could see the different levels or class of people staying in the camp. The families that had some wealth or power had a decent tent and several people helping. The lesser class were under tarps on cardboard mats. It was surreal if you have never seen such poverty, plight and a disconnection from their old lives. 

I found out very fast that North America heavily manipulates the news from the world to suit their needs. I actually cancelled my TV service when I returned and went to getting my programming from the internet. 

Athens was an amazing city, the people were very kind, except for the turd who stole my phone, and there was a lot to see. 2 weeks though was 11 week to long in my opinion. 

Happy Travels and always more adventures to come... 

Good Bye R-Pod.. Hello RV !

It had to happen, we found that towing the trailer was a pain in the ass. So we threw the R-Pod on the local for sale sites and it sold in a couple of weeks. Now we have a bucket of cash and only a tent. This will not do I said to my wifey.... so we put out the feelers for an RV. Something not ancient, no leaks and around 24 feet long. 

I only took 2 weeks and our parents spotted one up island, so we went and looked. Sold! It was exactly what we wanted, 24 foot, C-Class Ford chassis.

The unit is super clean, no leaks, and everything worked!! Our first trip was Weirs Beach, then French Beach, then Tofino, Campbell River and Nanaimo.

This beasty is more in line to how we like to camp... Never going back to a trailer !

Happy Travels, 

~Wombats..

Mexico 2014

Mexico 2014..

Last minutes deals are a good thing. Neither Bear or I have ever been to a tropical location and Mexico had a killer deal on an all inclusive resort just 1 hour south of Cancun. SOLD!!

So what to take to Mexico? Easy Sunscreen! and even more importantly go to your doctor or the clinic and request these - Teva-Norfloxacin 400mg. These 6 miracle pills are the best thing if you get that dreaded travelers ick.

We started out by leaving Victoria bright and early in the morning and headed to Toronto. We landed at Pearson and wandered out to the shuttle buses to get our bus to the Hilton. We arranged at the Hilton got our room key and headed up to our room. What a dive ! The room was not clean, the A/C sounded like a tractor starting up. I will not head back there again to be honest with you. We decided to explore the area and off we went.. walking in Toronto..  We headed to what looked populated which was just passed an overpass. Under that pass we found 7 dead birds and 1 dead rodent..How odd !

We walked along a bit further and TADA!!  a Shawarma place.

I have never had one so we went in and we both ordered a beef shawarma. OMG SO TASTY!!  it was super yummy to say the least. After we ate we wandered some more and being Sunday nothing was opened in the area so we headed back to the pit,..erm Hilton.

Next day we were up and back at the airport on our way.After getting our boarding passes we headed to the Mexican area. The big test... will I get punted and told to stay in Canada or will I get into Mexico...SUCCESS!!  Mexico -1, USA-0. Up up and away we went. 4 hours later we were in Cancun!

So far we have only moved about within the buildings. It was super nice and sunny outside and people were moving to and fro. We got our bags and headed to the shuttle bus area. The instant we left the airport door and stepped into the real non-A/C part of the world I thought.."OMG I am gonna die!" I half expected to exploded into a white puff of smoke.. you know how see thru us Canucks are! Well luckily we did not go POOF! and we adapted pretty quick. There was a rep from Westjet waiting for us and loaded us into the bus for the drive to the resort. What a ride that was. The hiways there are pretty decent and people there understand that -slower traffic keeps right - It was glorious being able to fly down the hiway and not ever getting caught behind some feeble Pat Bay Hiway driver.

All along the hiway there was resort after resort, it was mighty impressive seeing all those massive resorts. About every 5 or so miles there was a Federal or Local police stop in the middle of the road. All the federal officers packed some serious firepower, M-16, AK-47s, Uzi and Macs. Not sure what they had these stops for but I know if I was driving I would be a total better driver then I am at home! We dropped off people at various resorts along the way to ours.. At the resort just before ours the driver was not paying attention and drove into the gate at the entrance. Well that kept us sitting there for almost 1 hour as he sorted out the damage and how it was going to get paid. Ugh.

Finally at our resort, the Sirenis, we arrived!!  The lobby was massive and you could see straight out to the ocean , there was not a door or window anywhere. They loaded us into a golf cart and a long drive thru the resort to our room. The room was huge and the bathroom bigger! Good thing too cause I will be in there allot for one day! HAHA. The resort was divided up into buildings and each building had a concierge desk in the thru way to assist you.

After we settled in we headed to the beach and to explore a bit. The campus was as big as Sidney BC!! You could seriously spend days walking around and never see the whole resort. The beaches were amazing, white sands, blue waters and endless blue skies.

All the beaches were white sand and the water was clear and vibrant blue! There was people everywhere and all were smiling so that was a sign that this was the place to chill for a week. I took no time in discovering the all you can drink stations located thru out the resort I was quite impressed with how much I can utilize an all you can drink station.  The food in the buffet was hot, fresh and plentiful. It was all very tasty and well laid out. It was apparent I have little self control when it comes to a buffet with 300 items..they all tasted so damn good ! Thank goodness for stretchy shorts.

We booked our trip to see some ruins. I have always wanted to see Chichen Itza so we decided that was the place for us. The trip was a full day affair as the site was over an hour away by bus.

The morning of the tour we headed to the meet up site.We loaded onto the bus finally, 45 minutes late, and off we went.. The tour guide was a nice woman, spoke English and Spanish very well, the other guide was an older gentleman, quieter and equally as gifted in both languages. As we drove along the lady guide would spend about 10-15 minutes speaking in Spanish, then 5 minutes in English. This went on the whole trip to the point most if us zoned her out as she was more comfortable chatting up the Spanish people. When the other guide spoke, he would go Spanish..English..and so on. He was awesome and he had the attention of everyone.

The country side was amazing, low dense forests all the way there, all of a sudden a small village would appear. They catered to the people driving thru with fresh fruits and meats. And Beer..beer was every where.. It was eye opening to see the levels of poverty and wealth all within a short distance. A family living in a cinder brick house with no doors or windows and beside that a huge house with elaborate gates and doors, new cars in the driveway. There was no clear division of wealth like you see here in North America.

We arrived at the site and all I could say is WOW!

Pyramids, columns, arenas of epic size, carvings .. I was blown away. Huge structures carved from stones as big as a Smart car, all assembled with the precision unmatched in today's world. We listened to the history on the structures, how the Mayan Calendar really worked, Us North Americans are such doom seekers!! HAHA, end of the world!! We were the laughing stock of the South Americans because of that!! hehe.

What we saw was amazing and I would go back in a heart beat. The one thing though that we found painful was the peddlers. So many of them and the item of the day was the jaguar whistle/call things.. OMG.. jaguar roar here, there..everywhere ! I was about ready to whack one with a stick! Funny thing now.. I wish I had one here at home.. imagine what the neighbors would think if they heard that.. heheh Cougar in the area...and not the sexy miniskirt clad ones !!  ~RAWR~

From there were loaded on the bus and travelled deep into the jungle to a cenote. Damn these are awesome... would suck majorly to stumble and fall into one in the dark though. Note to all tourist...playing flashlight tag in the jungles of Mexico is not wise.

The cenote we went to was huge and deep, some of the daring were permitted to leap from the top into the water.. and easy 100 feet. Nothing to worry about though, these cenotes are ancient and deep..and they house mysterious fishes in them. That alone was enough to creep me out. Deep water, big hole, freaky fish..enough said!

We all loaded into the bus again and took off for the city of Valladolid. What a majestic and beautiful city. If you are in the area go and visit. After a short stay and some site seeing we were off to home.

The next adventure hopped a cab and went to Playa Del Carmen. The weather was a bit shady..sunny then rainy.. and rain in Mexico is serious business. Makes our west coast rain look puny!
As we walked through the city we were constantly greeted by people who knew us from the resort. The line they all used was... "hey shop here, a deal for you.. almost free!"  I was never 100% sure if these folks truly knew us from the resort but what the heck.

We noticed that when we got there that the prices were ..well for example, a can of coke was 10 peso.. after lunch the same coke was 30 pesos. So if you go to Playa, go early and shop. They do not barter like I thought, they were pretty fixed on the pricing.

If you stay in a resort on the Maya Riviera I would recommend that if you want to travel to Cancun, Playa Del Carmen or any other sites along the hiway that you avoid taking a cab and walk up to the hiway. There is a local service of white vans that drive up and down the hiway. The cab was 330 pesos each way, the van was 30 pesos each way. HOLY!

We saw an adventure park that we wanted to see, Xcaret. So we got up nice and early and headed up to the hiway and hopped into a white van. We got to the meetup spot at the park and waited about 20 minutes for the shuttle bus to pick us up.

Watch yaa lookiin at 

So friendly.. and wee buggers

It was a bit of a drive thru the jungle to the park but well worth it. What a huge and amazing thing to see as we drove up.

Once we paid and entered, we grabbed the map and started our days adventure. Xcaret has something for everyone and is well worth going to if you in Cancun,

Big !!

Xcaret is an ecological reserve established to raise and protect many of Mexicos native animals, and it is also a world renown turtle conservatory. We spent the entire day tour on our own, seeing all manner of animal and tourist. The turtles were truly amazing!!  I saw ones that were no bigger then a silver dollar and they kept getting bigger and bigger until they were  as big as a smart car, HUGE and so majestic.

Itching each others butts

HUGE !!

In the park we saw many things, a zoo with jaguars and sharks, turtles and wild boars that were into biting each others asses..haha.What an amazing day it was there.

We spent the last day relaxing on the beaches, walking the grounds and sucking up the benefits of all inclusive.

Godzilla...

Ruins by the resort

sand, huts and endless drinks

Sirenis...  loved it

Happy Travels
~Wombats....