Experience, design & technology.

Posts from the “Thoughts” Category

An announcement: upcoming changes

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Posted on August 10th, 2012

This is a short note to let you all know that there are going to be a few changes around here. Frustrated by the results of some of the writing I’ve seen fit to print here, primarily poor quality link posts or low value lists, I’ve decided to do a serious spring clean and bring this site back up to scratch. I’m going to go through the archives and delete a lot of clutter. I’m going to tidy up the way I differentiate between links and posts, and – most importantly – I’m going to commit to dramatically improving the quality of the writing here. This change will affect mostly the back-end of this site (much of which is now hidden from the front…

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Gimonster

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Posted on June 28th, 2012

Wicked. That’s me on the left, circa last Saturday night in Medellin (former drug capital and present day hipster hangout in Colombia). Next to me is Chris (aka Gimonster), an incredibly interesting, passionate, gentle-minded Venezuelan guy we met, over a game of pool. Chris made my birthday just that much more awesome! I’m looking forward to catching up with him again in Europe, in only (shudder) 6 weeks time. Wow, time flies!

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Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands)

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Posted on June 8th, 2012

Want to know where I’ve been, for the past week? Take a look; That’s right, we’ve been on a boat. Braving the Caribbean coast, spending two days in the beautiful San Blas island archipelago, then across open seas to cross from Panama to Colombia. Suffice it to say that I well and truly have my sea legs firmly attached, bounding around that boat like I’d been born on it!

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Sunburnt And Loving It

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Posted on April 18th, 2012

Who knew that lazing about on an island in the Caribbean could be so much fun? We left Guatemala today intending to take a left hand turn towards Tulum in Mexico, only to make a right hand turn (and hop onboard a small boat) heading to Caye Caulker off the coast of Belize. We’re literally in a tropical Caribbean paradise, purely by circumstance, chance and accident.  What next? Apart from snorkelling with sharks and sea turtles tomorrow, who knows!

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Learning another tongue

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Posted on April 17th, 2012

After one week of spanish lessons, I commented to my maestro that Spanish seems to be entirely focused on a few simple things; eating, sleeping, walking, along with wanting, being and having.  After three more weeks in friendly, beautiful, hot Guatemala, I’ve concluded that this is mostly true.

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Semuc Champey

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Posted on April 16th, 2012

You might remember I posted the other day about a beautiful place called Semuc Champey. I wanted to share with you some images from the spot, courtesy of my dear smudgarama. As evidenced above, you can swim in all of the cascading pools, and it is glorious. If you’re in Guatemala and you miss Semuc Champey, you’re crazy. Just look at the view from above, from the mirador! Wow. Semuc Champey is my fave place so far in Guatemala, one of the most stunning places I’ve ever been to. We stayed at a nearby place called Lanquin, about 45 minutes drive from Semuc (mostly due to bad, narrow or really steep roads), driving in on the back of a pickup. Very exotic. El Retiro…

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Just your standard day in Semuc Champey

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Posted on April 14th, 2012

What did I get up to today? Swimming and climbing through an underground cave, riding an inflated tube down a fast moving river, doing a 2km hike to a lookout over the most beautiful spot in all of Guatemala, jumping off a 12m bridge into the very same river (barefoot), then swimming and climbing my way all around the amazingly clear, cascading pools of Semuc Champey. Wow. Semuc Champey is a natural monument, which consists of a natural limestone bridge, underneath which a river flows, on top of which are a series of stepped pools cascading water.  If that doesn’t sound spectacular to you, I don’t know what does.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  I spent the better part of two hours…

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