TravelStream™ news feed for member mkouletio on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mkouletio en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 28 Oct 2006 16:44:58 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/burundi-2006/1161893820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/burundi-2006/1161893820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/burundi-2006/1161893820/tpod.html Sat, 28 Oct 2006 16:44:58 -0400 Switching gears to business... Burundi

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Cibitoke, Burundi

Cibitoke Province is located in the Northwestern corner and sees much cross border movement of people with Rwanda and the DRC. While a fertile area it is extremely poor, especially in the remote mountainous areas.

Cibitoke town is an easy 60 minute drive north of Bujumbura on a paved and relatively flat, straight road. In town, there are two recommended guesthouses: Guesthouse Peace and a little further down the road Guesthouse Colombe. UN staff occupied these residences in recent months and put in great plumbing systems. Some of the rooms are self-contained.

The place is quite peaceful right now but there was an odd recent squirmish along a town on the road where you can see the river separating DRC from Burundi. Apparently the DRC soldiers hunted a hippopotamus who managed to cross the river into Burundi before sub combing to its wounds. Lured by their taste buds for illegality, the DRC soldiers approached the border and fell into gunfire with their peers in Burundi. A total of three are reported to have died. In the midst of it all the soldiers all lost as the locals in Burundi managed to carve up and take away their share by the time the brawl ended. The story made the local radio but didn't seem to go beyond that.

Poaching hippo is banned but apparently military are exempt from this regulation. See Planet Ark for more information: http://www.planetark.com/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=21892
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161461820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161461820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161461820/tpod.html Sun, 22 Oct 2006 16:35:02 -0400 A lazy week in Gosier, Guadeloupe

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San Juan, Puerto Rico

After a morning at the pool and plage, we caught a flight to San Juan at 2pm. It was a gorgeous flight with clear skies so we could see most of the string of Islands and reefs.

We arrived just in time for an early stroll and dinner in Old San Juan. All we can say is what an amazing city. It is very well developed and looks bigger than most US cities. We drove by the old fort and strolled up Calle Fontaleza, stopping in at a Spanish coffee shop for paella and Chilean wine.

There is a great tourist taxi service for $19 to the Old San Juan from the airport, easily identified in orange shirts. For return services, the company has a stand at Plaza de Christophe Colombus at the end of Calle Fontaleza. Even with traffic we moved between the airport and Old San Juan within 15 minutes.

After a busy and lazy week we slept well on a 1/2 full flight to JFK with plenty of empty seats to put up the legs and just kick back.


- This travelogue is dedicated to my father in gratitude for his RCI time share certificate - thanks Dad! ------
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161396000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161396000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161396000/tpod.html Sun, 22 Oct 2006 16:10:44 -0400 A lazy week in Gosier, Guadeloupe

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Gosier, Guadeloupe

There is a buzzing restaurant called Zeina located just across the street from the Casino in Gosier where tourists escape the bore of hotel buffets. Zeina has been open for the past 3 months and serves great food with Moroccan/Senegalese influnce including grilled fish, chicken, couscous and can even whip up a pretty good vegetarian dish. The service is great and the atmosphere very relaxing. Every night we met new friends at this place.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161097200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161097200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161097200/tpod.html Sun, 22 Oct 2006 15:56:53 -0400 A lazy week in Gosier, Guadeloupe

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Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe

Today we met a long lost family cousin from my husbands side. Her father was a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris and had three children. Unfortunately the couple split and the mother moved back to her home place in Guadeloupe with her three children. Kai, the name of a Beninoise who is the third daughter has been living in Guadeloupe since she was three years old and only recently has had contact with her father who is my husband's uncle.

Anyways, to make a long story short we met Kai at a cafe lining the Place de la Liberte in Pointe-a-Pitre on a sunny Wednesday morning. The place has a market with live lobster for 1/2 the price of the restaurants and a wide selection of fruits and vegetables. Streaming from the square are alleys of local and global shops which is great for strolling. Previous research on the city indicated that it was dreary but we loved the charm and diversity of the place and found it very clean and tourist friendly.

Kai immediately took us to meet her friends and we learned how to make Ti Punch which is basically a couple of spoonfulls of sugar and fresh squeezed lime with the local rum. She knew very little about her extended family or her home country culture and life so we had a lot of storytelling. Some day we hope she'll make it over to West Africa to meet her father and rekindle ties to her large family.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161543840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161543840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1161543840/tpod.html Sun, 22 Oct 2006 15:45:53 -0400 A lazy week in Gosier, Guadeloupe

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Terre des Hauts, Guadeloupe

On Monday, we treated ourselves to a full-day Tamaran boat trip down to Saint Iles which is one of the four smaller islands of Guadeloupe located just south of Grand-Terre on the main island. We travelled with two-dozen tourists from our hotel on a boat called Tip-Top-Two which runs regular tours from Creole Beach for about 80 Euro per person including lunch.

We departed at 7am and were greeted by a heavy down pour while getting on board. Our wet heads were happy to find strong cups of coffee waiting for us on arrival. A few minutes after departing, the clouds cleared and the sun poured on us for the entire 2 1/2 hour tour down to the Iles. We arrived in the harbour of a typical village of about 1600 residents with gingerbread houses sprinkled on the step mountainsides overlooking the water. Terre-des-Hauts is famous for the Napolean Fort located 25 minutes up hill by foot but there is also a minivan that brings visitors up for about 4 Euro round-trip. We didn't have time to visit because we were drawn to the village itself with its shops, juice bars, boats, city hall and cute hotels. Some of the visitors opted to rend motor scooters and zoomed all over to hidden beaches during our 90 minute stoppover.

At one o'clock we were back on the boat for lunch, and did a mention rum and wine. It was all self-service so you can imagine some of the guests were getting a little loud. We finished the day with a long anchor for snorkeling and swimming in a private bay. There was a house here that has a beach on both sides and is rented for about 1200 Euro per week - ideal for a family reunion or a get-together among friends. It looked like it had at least 4 rooms.

We took the boat back to Gosier in foul weather with lots of bumps. We even saw a twin cyclone (like a mini-tornado over the water) and several rainbows. The crew did an excellent job keeping us afloat and maintaining our confidence that we would not sink. While overall a great day, it was sad to see the hundreds of empty plastic bottles in the sea - they were everywhere floating on the water sometimes in pairs and rows - needless to say it really distracted from the beauty of the area but was also ominous to the poor treatment of the environment.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1160877360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1160877360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mkouletio/guadeloupe_2006/1160877360/tpod.html Sun, 22 Oct 2006 15:22:42 -0400 A lazy week in Gosier, Guadeloupe

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Gosier, Guadeloupe

We flew in to Pointe-a-Pitre airport on American Eagle from San Juan at 2pm greeted by a gush of tropically heated air. The airport is very new and reminded us of the new terminals at Charles de Gaulle in Paris.

We quickly rushed through immigration (no visa required for US Citizens) and picked-up our luggage. After a thorough customs bag check on every passenger we easily hopped into a taxi and paid USD 20 for the 15 minute drive on the expressway to the tourist town of Gosier.

Through a very appreciated time share certificate, we had one week stay at the Creole Beach Hotel. This is a 150+ room hotel with small kitchens and great sea views from many rooms. It has a private beach and double swimming pool. The hotel even has wireless internet services in the rooms and a complimentary computer/internet station up at the front desk. No welcome drinks but it definitely had the feel of an East African beach resort, well worthy of its 4 stars.

That evening we went for a walk and passed the infamous casino and picked up a baguette, cheese, and fruit with a bottle of wine for an early dinner.
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