Having spent the last half-hour fighting nausea brought on by curvy mountain roads, when my tour van finally pulled into the parking lot at Misol-Ha Waterfall I briefly considered dropping to my knees and kissing the hot, motionless asphalt. I might have done just that had the tour guide not insisted we hurry, since this would be only a 40 minute stop. Instead, I gulped fresh air and headed down the hill to view this lovely ponytail stream that falls over a rock lip into a circular pool at the bottom of a gorge.

Walk behind Misol Ha Waterfall and up to a wet cave on the other side of the gorge

Descending the concrete stairs I carefully picked my way over slick rounded boulders littering the path to walk under the cascade. Beyond the cataract the path climbed to a cave on the opposite ridge. Up I went, grasping naked tree branches and ducking under rocky overhangs along the unimproved trail. Anything for a good photo. Afterward, hurrying back over the treacherous wet path, I groused silently, “I hope the lighting at the next waterfall is better.”

Back in the van we wound deeper into the mountains. From hilltops scalded by sunshine we descended into dense jungle tunnels that all but blocked the sun. As I squinted and blinked, trying to adjust my eyes to the alternating light and dark, I suddenly smelled smoke. With each passing mile the scent grew stronger, until we rounded a long curve that opened out on a broad valley pocked with gray columns slowly rumbling skyward. Everywhere, the rainforest was being set aflame to clear farmland. Here and there, blackened patches littered with Read the rest of this entry »

Just in time for my trip comes this video:

Since we’re all driving more and flying less, I want to pass along two very interesting safe driving tips that were emailed to me yesterday.

WEAR YOUR SUNGLASSES WHEN DRIVING IN A HEAVY RAIN: During a heavy downpour, visibility is bad, even with the wipers on high. Wearing your sunglasses will vastly improve visibility, even at night. The drops on the windshield will still be visible, but not the sheet of falling rain. It also helps to eliminate the “blindness” from the spray of passing semi’s, and the “kick up” if you are following a semi or car in the rain.

NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY: Snow, ice, slush, or even rain can cause wheel-spin and hydroplaning. If the cruise control is on when the tires lose contact with the pavement, the car accelerates to a higher rate of speed and takes off like an airplane. Although cruise control can be disengaged by tapping the brake pedal, the extra reaction time Read the rest of this entry »

I was lying prone on the table, blissed-out in the middle of my massage, when it began. The backup alarm on a construction vehicle began to sound – beep – Beep – BEep – BEEp – BEEP! I know the alarm must have been sounding at a constant level, but it was so aggravating that is seemed to be escalating with every repetition. Oh well, it’ll stop soon, I thought. But no, on and on it went.

From the sound of the alarm it was obvious that the vehicle had to be in the side street, which is only a block long. Even if it was crawling at 5 mph, there is no way it could have been backing up that long. Either the driver sat in one place with the vehicle in reverse or the alarm got stuck in the ‘on’ position.

Later, I did a little research. According to the Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America, 16 percent of all work zone fatalities are caused by backing equipment, primarily dump trucks. In many of those cases, the vehicles involved in the fatalities were equipped with back-up alarms, but that apparently was not enough of a warning. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve learned the hard way never to keep all my money in one place when traveling, not even when I have access to an in-room safe. On more than one occasion, my room safe has failed. In each instance, I was amazed how easily hotel staff could access a master key and how simply the safe was opened. So I spread the money around a little. Some stays in my wallet. Some goes in the safe, if one is available. But the rest gets stashed in strange and unusual places, like the following: Read the rest of this entry »

A few days ago, Forbes Magazine released their 2008 list of the top ten most dangerous travel destinations in the world. Among them, in position #9, was Zimbabwe, Africa. I am extremely familiar with the problems in Zimbabwe, since it was one of my destinations during my around-the-world trip last year.

I had always dreamed of going on safari in Africa, and of seeing Victoria Falls, which happens to be located in Zimbabwe. I’m no fan of tours. I prefer to wing it and just wander. When I left on my six month trip I had only six nights booked in hotels or hostels. However, Zimbabwe was quite another matter. The hotels no longer accept Zimbabwean dollars because they are virtually worthless (the country is experiencing 8,000% inflation each month), thus all my arrangements had to be made well in advance and I had to wire U.S. dollars to a tour operator in South Africa in order to reserve a hotel room.

When I departed on my journey in March of 2007, the situation in Zimbabwe was deteriorating, Read the rest of this entry »

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that I am a fearless solo female traveler. The bad news is that I am a fearless female traveler. I used to be fearless to the point of taking foolish risks, until a few years ago, when I was camping on the island of Kauai – my tent was slashed while I slept in it and all my stuff was stolen. Fortunately, I was not harmed, but it was traumatic – this occurred about a year after 911 and it was nearly impossible to get a hotel room without any ID, credit cards, or money, not to mention that I lost my camera, keys to the rental car, glasses (without which I could not read a menu or drive), cell phone, passport, etc. The experience taught me a lot of lessons, the most notable of which was to never ignore my inner voice. I KNEW I shouldn’t have been in that campground – it was full of negative energy – but I ignored what my gut was telling me because I wanted to “wake up to the sound of the waves.”

Following that disastrous vacation, it took a monumental effort to let go of my fear of traveling solo. Before leaving for my next vacation I made exhaustive preparations, created lists after list and layers of backup safety precautions. It took about a year, but the fear subsided and I am back to being a fearless traveler, albeit a much wiser one, and I decided it was worth sharing my hard-won wisdom in the following list of precautions I take when traveling: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a bad week for credit cards. Last Sunday I received a phone call from CitiBank Fraud Early Warning Department, informing me that they were canceling my CitiCard MasterCard because of a “merchant compromise.” They explained that someone had hacked into a merchant’s database and stolen all their stored credit card information. When I asked who the merchant was they refused to tell me, saying that the information was part of a criminal investigation and couldn’t be released. Apparently, however, my credit card information was part of the compromised database, so I asked them to confirm the recent charges on the card. Sure enough, there was a fraudulent charge from the day before, $30 from Macy’s. CitiBank overnighted me a new card, which arrived yesterday, but that started me thinking. Read the rest of this entry »