Travel on a Shoestring carnival – in Ecuador

Many thanks to the Travel on a Shoestring Carnival for including my post on Warm baths and Waterfalls about my time in the town of Banos in Ecuador last October. I’ve still got a few tales to tell about the trip but in the meantime you can see all my other Ecuador posts here.

As well as South America, the carnival was covering Africa and in particular Marrakesh. Maryam’s blog has put her city on the wish list for many a blog reader and I suspect that I will have to camp in her olive groves if I visit the Peacock Pavilions, as it will be fully booked for months after it opens.

The National Geographic destination guide featured also covered Marrakesh with plenty of useful resources such as blogs, podcasts, books and movies to draw on. I like this approach to using different types of media when planning a trip, as I love to immerse myself in the culture of a place, by reading and hearing about it before I visit. There are other destination guides on offer and I’ll definitely be checking them out in future when planning my trips.

Another site that was mentioned in the carnival was the Amateur Traveler which I’ve recently discovered and been listening to on my way to work – I mentioned the site and some other podcast resources in my last post – Sounds of the city.

I also enjoyed reading about the Voluntour of Duty from Intelligent Travel about working in a volunteer project in Mozambique. The writer discovered as many of us do, that working among those with very little is a humbling experience and can tip us up-side down in ways we least expect.

Read Related Posts
A Politician in the Rainforest
Internet in the Rainforest in Sarayaku in Ecuador
Kapawi ecolodge at the World Travel Market

Thanks to aaron freimark for the photo on flickr.

www.flickr.com   heatheronhertravels’ Ecuador – river journey photoset

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Roman holiday – the movie

I’m going for a full-on multi-media experience in preparing for my forthcoming trips and with this in mind I borrowed a couple of films about Rome from my local library.

First on was Roman Holiday. This is a charmingly lightweight tale of a princess (Audrey Hepburn) who briefly escapes her gilded cage to go wild (by 50s standards) in Rome for 24 hrs with an impoverished but principled journalist (Gregory Peck). I put it on at the weekend, hoping to watch it with my son for some mother and son bonding before our Roman Holiday.

First mistake – try prising any boy away from an MSN conversation with his friends. Reluctantly he joined me.

Can I just watch it for half an hour?

We settled down but during our negotiations he had missed so much that I had to keep stopping to explain what was going on.

This is one of Audrey Hepburn’s most famous films, I said brightly – She was the Julia Roberts of her day.

Who’s Julia Roberts?

Pause, then

Why is it in black and white? The Italian Job wasn’t in black and white. Nor was The Great Escape.

I managed to keep him long enough to see Audrey eating ice cream on the Spanish steps before he escaped back to his computer.

What do you think are the chances of him sitting through La Dolce Vita? I think you may know the answer to this if you have sat through La Dolce Vita, as I have. Ben Hur anyone?

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The Mouth of Truth at Santa Maria in Cosmedin
Three coins in the Trevi fountain
Gelato on the island in the Tiber

See all my Rome photos on Flickr

www.flickr.com heatheronhertravels’ Rome – This is Rome book photoset

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Sounds of the city – podcasts

After the rather emotional theme of my last post on ways to remember the dead, I decided we were in need of practical and informative post to redress the balance.

I’ve been observing how different forms of media are converging – the division between print media and on-line media is blurring and more blogs are incorporating podcasts and videos as well as photography and the written word. It’s one of the benefits of the on-line media that we bloggers can create a multi-sensory experience both to invoke the feeling of being there and to provide useful information for the traveller.

So in the interests of research and hoping to find something useful for my forthcoming trips to Valencia and Rome, I started exploring the travel podcasts available and have been enjoying the audio experience as I walk to work each day.

If you’re the kind of spontaneous traveller that likes to just turn up and feel the vibe, then this approach may not be for you. But if you’re prepared to put aside a little time to ensure you get the most from your trip then I’d recommend you get downloading and listening. If you download all the podcasts you can find on your chosen destination, you can use them in the following ways;

- Listen before you go while walking, cycling or driving to give a flavour of your destination.
- Listen while travelling to the destination, killing time on buses or in airports.
- Give to your children or travelling companions when on the journey. It helps to stave off the boredom and it’ll mean more to them when you get there.
- Some of the podcasts will guide you round a particular area or tourist attraction to get the most out of your sightseeing.

There are a couple of podcast travel blogs that I’ve noticed. One is the Amateur traveller blog which publishes a weekly broadcast, usually on a different location or other travel related theme. Sometimes the show is an interview with someone about their trip, or is by Chris Christensen himself about a place he’s visited. Click on the Episodes for a list of past shows to see if there’s one for your chosen destination.

The second podcast blog I found is Indie Travel Podcast run by Craig and Linda who are full-time travellers. The blog concentrates more on travel advice than destinations – check their Archives to see if there are topics that might interest you.

Checking out the English newspaper sites, I found that the Guardian has some destination podcasts in their Sounds of the City series. Currently they have six guides to Mediterranean destinations which included Rome and Valencia. They gave a great overview of the city and were very well produced. Another benefit is that you can link from the podcast to tips from readers and travel articles previously published in the Guardian.

On the Independent website, I found four destination audio-guides which you can download (Barcelona, Athens, Dublin, Nice) and some video guides that you can view on your computer too. Sadly Rome and Valencia weren’t included in the list, but I enjoyed the one about Barcelona.

Lonely Planet has some good podcasts – click here and scroll down to see the list of podcasts about different destinations. They’ll give you a flavour of the destination from different angles rather than being a step by step guide to all the sights.

If you’re visiting Spain, the Notes From Spain website is a great resource. It has many different podcasts on places or aspects of Spanish life that you can download – from Spanish wine to cycling across Spain. The website and poscasts are but together by Ben Curtis and his Spanish wife Marina who are based in Madrid and there are some good language resources to download too. I enjoyed the podcast about the noisy Fallas festival in Valencia – there’s a video too which will give you the effect at full volume.

If you’re visiting Italy, the Italyguides site has free podcasts you can down-load, although you need to have or buy win-zip to unzip the file. For Rome there were podcasts on the Colisseum, Pantheon and Circus Maximus, and other resources like an interactive map and travel tips.

i-Audioguide.com have more than 40 podcasts for European and International destinations. They cost €4.95 to download, but you can hear a sample before you buy.

The AudioGuides2go site had links to many different audio-guides for tourist destinations – there were several for Rome, although you have to pay to download.

So if, like me, you’re visiting Rome or Valencia, here are the direct links to the podcasts you can download. Please do let me know if you come across any other good free podcast resources, particularly ones covering Rome and Valencia.

Rome
Amateur Traveller – Episode 29 That’s Amore – Rome
Guardian – Sounds of the City – Rome
i-Audioguide on Rome – costs €4.95 to download
Italy Guides on Rome - Episodes on Colisseum, Pantheon and Circus Maximus (needs Win-zip)
Audioguides2go has links to many different guides to Rome, but you have to pay to use them(from this link, search in Rome).

Valencia
Guardian – Sounds of the City – Valencia
Notes from Spain – Podcast 57 La Fallas

Thanks to the following on Flickr for their photos – Patrick Mayon, Not Forgotten, Lostpup , Giampaolo Macorig

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www.flickr.com heatheronhertravels’ Valencia – city scenes photoset

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