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One of the things I’m always searching for on my travels is a restaurant that makes the region’s traditional food so well that it’s a daily stop for locals. There are always plenty of eateries that cater to tourists, so it seems like a special discovery when I run across a place that both tourist and local rave about.
On my recent trip to the Belize cayes, I found a few such restaurants. One of them, El Fogon on Ambergris Caye, is named after the traditional outdoor kitchen that was once part of every home. The dining room consists of picnic tables set on the sand under an open-air palapa right next to the grill where lunch is prepared.
For owners Susana an
d Norman Eiley, the day starts early. The grill is loaded with bottlewood kindling (gray mangrove) that’s obtained from land clearing activities. Norman grates coconut meat with a hand-turned grater mounted to a table. An older grater, one that looks almost like my flat cheese grater at home (which has taken many slices of skin off my knuckles), hangs above the current grater as a reminder of the advance of technology.
Pots of beans, set on the grill earlier in the morning, are nearly finished around 10 a.m. Then, the remainder of the lunch menu is added. The menu changes daily, but when I was there, the grill was loaded with stewed chicken, pig-tail soup, red snapper and coconut rice. On Wednesday, “Smoke Day,” coconut husks are added to the fire to smoke the meal.
It was hard to pick a favorite dish among the lunch offerings, but I was a huge fan of the salbutes (crispy little tortillas topped with shredded meat, cabbage or lettuce, tomatoes and peppers) and the tamalitos de chaya (thin tamales made with chaya, a popular plant to Mexican and Central American cuisine that’s much like spinach).
I suppose that I should have known this before, having spent a lot of island time in the Caribbean, but another one of my favorite things at El Fogon was the roasted coconut meat that came from just tossing split coconuts onto the grill. I’ll definitely be recreating that dessert at my home in Honduras.
If you’re like me and search for authentic local cuisine on your travels, stop by El Fogon when you visit Ambergis Caye. The only meal, lunch, is served Monday through Saturday. Share your table with someone who grew up on the island, and you’ll gen an even richer experience—with tales about their own family fogon and what their mothers and grandmothers cooked.
Crime scene tape. Photo: Alan Cleaver / Flickr Creative Commons
The underground magazine Vice will be getting its own show on MTV. Magazine founder Shane Smith brings his trademark biting tone, irreverent take on current events, and in-your-face honesty to the small screen. Here’s an article from MTV.com with more details:
‘The Vice Guide to Everything” goes everywhere, because no one else does
True to their word, this program goes to danger zones where other travel shows fear to tread. The cast shoot weapons with rebels in Yemen, hang out with car thieves in the West Bank, and get physical with Brazilian MMA fighters. Brilliant gonzo journalism? Or Westerners trying too hard to be hip and edgy?
Alternet.org had a more critical take of the show: Flippant journeys around the globe with “The Vice Guide to Everything”
You can watch footage from the show here:
The Vice Guide to Everything (Trailer)
Based on that reel, it’s hard to decide whether “Vice Guide” is a revolutionary new show or just “Jackass: International Edition.” What do you think? Please share your opinions in the comments.
http://www.thetravelingphilosopher.com
Age: 27
Hometown: Graham, North Carolina
Quote: “You would be surprised how little you need to really exist.”
(more…)
Travelling...or unpacking?
After my first Christmas here in Australia (and my friend and fellow Vagablogger Colleen’s first Christmas in Korea), I started reflecting on what makes someone a longterm traveler vs an expat: when have you stopped traveling somewhere and started living there? I know for me, what I enjoy the most about going to another place is developing the little mundane details of everyday life…finding the laundromat, being recognized in the coffeeshop, getting a library card. Those things thrill me, but they’re more tools of life somewhere than of traveling there. But since long-term travel might mean you spend a year or more in each place you go…do you ever feel like you’re not traveling anymore, you’re just living? Can I legitimately consider myself a Vagabonder as opposed to a serial expatriate?
This time of year can be a very reflective time for some people. You may find yourself looking back and appreciating the high points, remembering the lower points, and thinking about what you can do better next year. This time of year, a lot of people are making New Year’s resolutions in hopes of incorporating new ways to make their lives better. This got me thinking, should we make new travel resolutions for the coming year? Perhaps we are looking to be a more eco-friendly traveler, or someone who gives back by volunteering across their travels. Or maybe some will resolve to be more open and spontaneous on the road, or more successfully frugal. Maybe this is the year you have resolved to finally hit the road or take a round-the-world trip.
Are you making any travel resolutions or planning new and exciting journeys for this year? Tell us about them in the comments.
Note: Earlier this month, global adventurer Hendri Coetzee was killed by a crocodile while leading a kayaking expedition down the Ruzizi River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Guidebook writer and no-baggage travel pioneer Jonathan Yevin was friends with Coetzee, and he sent me a heart-felt eulogy that explores Hendri’s unique way of looking at the world. Here, in full, are Jonathan’s thoughts on what vagabonders might learn from Coetzee’s life:
On Thursday, November 11, 2010, Hendri Coetzee wrote in his blog that, for the first time in his life, “I walked without anything to prove to myself, and I was already where I wanted to be.” The 35-year-old South African had just pulled off a first descent down the Ruzizi River, along the anarchic borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, discovering along the way some of the most extreme whitewater on the continent. It was just the latest in a paddling career noted for tackling formidable rivers in dangerous locales.
In other entries, Hendri wrote of a tacit acceptance that his calling would lead to an early death, concluding that “life without passion holds no appeal” and “if safe was all I wanted, I would have stayed home.” A week later, Hendri was seized from his kayak and killed by a crocodile.
Was he a heroic loner on a courageous mission? Or did he have some sort of sublimated death wish? Truth be told, these two readings of Hendri’s character represent a dangerously oversimplified analysis.
* Some people who read the sensationalistic news reports about Hendri’s death straight away categorized him in the Chris McCandless/Timothy Treadwell set of ill-fated explorers who saw nature as their personal therapeutic playground. Here is one comment posted on a popular kayaking site’s forum:
<< Want to mingle with man eating animals? Enter into the food chain at your own risk. Not sad. Just over confident and the odds caught up with him. >>
Others questioned whether he would have made the choices he did, in hindsight. On Hendri’s own blog someone remarked:
<< I think this guy was a meddling fool, looking for a thrill. I am very sorry for his death but his actions were extremely foolish! Is this Stanley going to deepest Africa redux? Was it really worth being eaten by a crocodile and turned into his meal? I think not! >>
And another comment:
<< Like Steve Irwin, I believe you too would have rather lived a quiet, unexciting life had you known what you do now. >>
These individuals would like to see the story of Hendri Coetzee as a morality tale, his life and death an example for people not to follow. In the rush to make sense of a horrific tragedy, some are quick to proclaim their absolute lack of sympathy for someone who didn’t fit into society’s neat little box.
Amongst those who knew him, reactions were more compassionate. His Facebook wall fast became a tribute to a hero, as well as a group commiseration, rife with heartfelt avowals that Hendri died doing what he loved; that this was the only fitting way to go for a great explorer; that he was in his happy place; that he didn’t have much fear of death. That what happened was the right thing to happen.
* When all is said and done, all of these reactions—from the message board trolls to the everything-happens-for-a-reason parrots—amount to so much hot air. Hendri was no meddling fool, nor is a crocodile’s mouth a happy place. He was no Crocodile Hunter indulging a neocolonialist fantasy. The truth is Hendri wanted to be alive.
From the moment I met him, nearly ten years ago, I was awed by Hendri’s incredible physical courage coupled with his profound quest for truth and meaning in life. At the time I was working in a remote safari camp on the Tanzanian coast, living in a hut, with nothing but raw nature for a hundred miles in any direction. Hendri rolled up off the beach and introduced himself. He was sunburned and loaded down with survival gear—yet inconspicuous and nonchalant, as if on a leisurely Sunday stroll through the mall. He had trekked that wild stretch all the way from Kenya, braving every manner of life-risking obstacle (particularly the many hippo-, croc-, and shark-rich delta fordings) by himself. After I uncorked my nicest bottle of wine, we stayed up way past our bedtimes debating what was the most important invention in the past two thousand years (he suggested it was the rudder, I said printing press). In the morning we exchanged contact information, and just as nattily as he’d arrived he was on his way.
As time bore on, that trope—a man taking on the wild African coast by himself—which blessed me at 22 years of age, proved a catalyst for change in my relationship with the world. It’s a big part of the reason why I dropped the primary accessory of backpacking and headed overseas with just a passport and a toothbrush.
Fellow travelers who meet me on the road often say, ‘you are so brave, I could never do that.’ My response is to tell them about my friend Hendri, who showed me what brave is. He led the first trip down the full length of the Nile, past warring Sudanese factions and lost tribes in a marshland the size of France. He summited Africa’s equatorial glaciers, the Rwenzori Mountains, then snowboarded down them. He slogged through uncharted regions of central Africa with a pygmy poacher, gazetting a 12,000 square mile tropical rainforest to eventually turn it into a protected reserve. He owned nothing but books and an old beat-up kayak. By comparison, traveling with no bags is the easiest thing in the world.
* Hendri was no grizzly man disappeared unto the wild. He was not reckless or arrogant. He was not aloof from family and friends. He was a teacher and a student. He believed life is an adventure that always leads back to oneself. He pounced on all life’s opportunities and did his best to experience complete self-expression and pursue the fullest applications of his extraordinary potential. He inspired others to move from the realm of the ordinary to that of the mysterious.
Hendri’s solo expedition was cut short. What Hendri saw as his greatest source of happiness and fulfillment ultimately destroyed him. Yet his demise has brought together many people from around the world. This past week I’ve met Gustav, a filmmaker and childhood buddy who shot a documentary about Hendri’s trip down the Ethiopian Blue Nile; Celliers, the president of Hendri’s sponsor Fluid Kayaks; and Chris, another world class kayaker who was with Hendri til the monstrous end. We grieve, we mourn, we lament—but we also remember that the purpose of exploration is so much more than navigating the physical encounter. Experience is another layer, a kayak on the first descent that is our learning process.
When I spent time with Hendri in South Africa, he introduced me to his beloved native land using not just the draw of adventure, but the people and historical context—and most resounding, his unremitting search for what he would only jokingly refer to as enlightenment. In fact, he referred to his expeditions as “boyish games,” and suggested we emulate those who could turn every day into a chance to give, to laugh, or to experience: “We come in with the death-defying stunts, but what do any of these things really count for in the day-to-day life that we are all forced to live?” This is the real tragic essence of Hendri’s abbreviated life: that, with so much wrong and unjust in the world, many of us vagabonders find it impossible to achieve enlightened states of peace in our default reality. So we head out the door with a one-way plane ticket and a contrived mission.
* Hendri’s unique blog is a thoughtful meditation on the nature of this quandary, as well as a levelheaded discourse on the brute force of nature, pragmatic day-to-day life, and human hubris. Like everything he did, this was no half-assed endeavor. Hendri captured the thrill of his expeditions with acumen and humor. There are only eleven entries over a two-month period. It was written for an audience of just his closest friends and family. The concept of self-promotion was entirely foreign to Hendri. Once upon a time I sold an editor of a high profile men’s magazine on an article about Hendri’s exploits, but when I told him about it he replied: “I don’t really think the standard ‘I’m a badass article’ is what I’m after. Back in the forest tomorrow. Take care out there in the concrete jungle.” I would challenge all of you to take on a reading of his passionate declarations as the raw material to peek not only into his life, but your own.
—Jonathan Yevin
Does a roll of duct tape always find its way into your suitcase? Are you a jury-rig master? Unless you travel in a bubble where stores are always nearby, open and have absolutely everything you need, you’ve likely had to figure out how to repurpose something.
A recent Lifehacker article highlights the website’s most popular repurposing tricks of 2010. While some are a little over my non-geek head, others speak to my travel self, such as: turning a hoodie into a laptop bag, using nail polish to relieve an itchy mosquito bite, sealing plastic bags with old bottle caps and turning a film canister into a confetti bomb.
Fancy yourself a travel MacGyver? Share your best travel tricks in the comments section. Everyone, even the best at DIY, can use a new tip.
Backpackers at a party in Thailand. Photo: Jessica Rabbit / Flickr Creative Commons
Did “The Beach” launch backpacker culture, or instead capture it in words like no other book had before? For better or worse, Alex Garland’s seminal 1996 novel about young travelers finding and losing paradise in Thailand became a touchstone in the backpacker consciousness.
Our very own Rolf Potts along with Kristin van Tassel dive into this genre of travel fiction in a WorldHum piece: Sons of ‘The Beach.’ They talk about several books that were published in the wake of Garland’s bestseller. Rather than review these narratives, they use them as a jumping-off point for a broader discussion about what it means to be a backpacker.
At times, the article reads like a anthropological essay about the norms and practices of this idiosyncratic tribe. There’s even an actual academic article that gets referenced:
Researchers have noted, for example, that within backpacker enclaves there is a clear hierarchy based on shorthand status cues curiously similar to those of home. Whereas back home income and influence might lend to status, backpackers fixate upon travel experience and fashion.
As the article describes further, these novels nail the kind of “reverse snobbery” that sometimes occur between travelers. Back home, people might compete on who has the better job or lives in the trendier neighborhood. On the road, the debate is over who has the crazier experiences or did things the cheapest way possible.
Many of us have observed this kind of behavior in our vagabonding stints. It’s fascinating to see these behaviors dissected in fiction and research studies.
Near the end, the writers discuss the difficulty of “unplugging” from home. Now that the Internet, communications, and globalization have become so widespread, it can be harder to immerse yourself in another land.
While the piece could seem a bit disillusioning, I prefer to take it as a reminder to travelers not to take themselves too seriously. What do you guys think? Please share your views in the comments.
(on the road to) Weyto, Ethiopia
It’s Christmastime, which means the TV-version of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, published in 1957, has been in a few of our living rooms. Among other things it’s a nice little travel story, showing the positive effect that sliding off our perch and encountering our neighbors can have. How did the Grinch change through his visit to Whoville? According to Dr. Seuss: “Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.”
In 1990 Dr. Seuss published his final book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! It’s another nice little travel piece with lines such as these:
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
And also these:
But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.
Click here for the full text of Oh, The Places You’ll Go! (it’s short). Or, if you’d just like to look at some pictures, check out the Amazing Places that Resemble Dr. Seuss Illustrations.
Joel Henry of Latourex
Latourex, short for Laboratoire de Tourisme Experimental, is a couple of French charmers who developed their experimental travel techniques to make their trips more interesting. Instead of just doing the same old same old — go to a place, look at its museums, drink coffee at coffeeshops, attempt to blend in while suavely writing in your journal, hit on local members of your preferred gender — they offer numerous travel experiments one can perform, in as controlled conditions as you like.
Their list of potential experiments is available here, and their list of experiments and case notes from people who have committed them can be found in the new volume from (you guessed it) Lonely Planet, if you like actual bound books. Most of these trips can be done solo or with a partner (or a small group), so being alone is no deterrant…and it actually might improve those feckless evenings when you’re sitting in your hostel twiddling your thumbs thinking, “I sure wish I’d been here long enough to develop a social group.”
