For the nature lovers, thrill-seekers and those in between (like myself), Queenstown, New Zealand is the ultimate playground. In the four days that we were in town, we would collapse into our hostel bunks, our bodies achy and tender from the most physical activity we’ve demanded of ourselves since our college volleyball years. There was so much to do and, as the cliché goes, so little time.
Some of my favorite travel bloggers, like This American Girl and Young Adventuress seem to have the unplugged, unbridled wanderlust thing down while simultaneously using social media to help capture and illustrate their story. As much as there are news articles floating around the internet about how our wired world is negatively impacting our society, when it comes to travel I believe technology, or Social Media rather has a place in this world to help us better share, discover, engage in our adventures near or far.
Here are the reasons why I embrace tech when I travel: Read the rest of this entry »
Typical breakfast back home; Portugese sausage, eggs and rice.
Whether I’m deplaning at Kauai’s airport or Honolulu International, where my sister now lives, homecoming always feels the same and I hope that will never change. It starts with the slow creep of damp air that seeps through my half-day-old travel wear as I wheel my carry-on toward curbside pick-up and ends with a bittersweet sense of appreciation and longing for the islands that raised me.
At Honolulu’s arrival terminal several weeks ago, I smile when I hear it: the familiar island twang of Hawaiian pidgin, which is today a product of the ethnic groups imported to till the sugar cane fields more than 150 years ago. The Filipinos, Chinese, Portuguese and Puerto Ricans did their best to find a cohesive way to communicate with one another and thus, the inverted grammar of the creole vernacular is one of the few remains after the industry collapsed in the ’90s.
The next morning I pop into Brue Bar off Bishop Street in Downtown Honolulu. I’m in a slight daze and need one more cup to activate the brewed drip my brother-in-law made for my sister and I before they both shoved off for work. Blank faced, I placed an order for a Chai latte.
the curious passport 