The last time we came to Miami (with Jimmy for our 50th) we had the opportunity to catch up with a long-time friend of mine (Brad) from back in the late 1980’s and beyond.
We were idiots together back in the day when there was no photographic evidence of the stupidity that we got up to.
This sort of relationship has a solid and unrelenting basis and when we have come together several times before, after long periods, and time had stood still. This is the way for many of my long-term relationships with the boys. So over time Brad had turned himself into a superyacht captain and has been running his world from Fort Lauderdale (with the odd stints in the Mediterranean) for the last 20-plus years.
Upon arrival, he picked us up and took us for a tour around his office for the last 7 or so years. The ship was in dry dock and was undergoing a full refit, but it was clear that he had truly been doing it tough.
Other than just catching up with an old mate was the pure envy of being able to hear about his recent holiday.
Brad and his wife Keri had spent the preceding month or so touring around South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
They bounced around the Okavango Delta, various Game Preserves and National Parks, even taking in the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls.
So the opportunity to hear first hand about this trip was to be amazing.
The idea of doing a South African safari has been a long-time bucket list item that keeps getting benched due to the extreme prices charged. I have friends who have done this and the prices have been in the $35,000 range for a couple of weeks holiday. Needless to say, this is way beyond a grotty backpacker’s budget. The extreme prices pay for a good and reputable operator, and having heard some of the stories, it is better to pay than go with a cheaper cowboy-style operator.
Add to this the fact that Brad had spent the last decade or two teaching himself to be an amazing photographer. We got to see his Rolls Royce shots and not just the snapshot sample that I poached from his and Keri’s Facebook posts. It truly was an amazing trip and by all accounts was worth the money, as a once in a lifetime experience.
OK so back to our bit, our first port of call (after our boat tour) was to Pompano Beach, a trendy beachside area of Fort Lauderdale. We sampled the local beers from a little microbrewery that will be burned into my taste buds. I have never been a fan of fruity microbrewery beers made by hipsters with man buns…and it seems I am still not.
Sadly, this is where the wheels fell off the plans that Brad and Kerry had for us.
We had a good catch-up on the first night where we sampled a fine Nicaraguan sugar free rum.
Waking up a little dusty Brad and I had a quiet sort of day until he took a COVID test and set the thing off like an alarm.
They had planned all of this stuff for us to see and do but it all went out the window with that one positive test result. This did not upset us at all as we were happy to just chill and catch-up, and do our domestics (the dreaded travellers laundry curse). Add to this that they both cook very well so we kicked back and ate at home rather than hitting the town. But they had concert tickets to people they really wanted to see and had been planning trips to show off Fort Lauderdale and surrounds.
That said, we still managed to get out and about and see things, just not to the level that they had hoped. We got to the beach, walked along the pier, checked out some local artworks, sampled some restaurants and bars. We just did it in a masked up and avoiding all others, COVID safe sort of way.
We headed into downtown fort Lauderdale and checked out the riverfront walk while generally just soaking up the beauty of a town built on the water. On one of our drives I asked how far Boca Raton was (mainly from hearing about it in TV shows), so we drove up there and bounced around too.
As we were on the leadup to Christmas, the town lighting displays had started. There was one home that had taken this to the extreme. So while nobody was in good shape, we made the short hop to see the most ridiculous house in the area.
While our time in Fort Lauderdale was not what Brad and Keri had planned, a good time was still had and it was fantastic to catch-up with a mate. We will be transiting Miami a few more times before we leave, so maybe we can get another catch-up when everyone is healthy.
Puerto Rico, despite being well and truly its own entity, sadly only counts as a territory of the United States and does not add to my country tally.
Although Puerto Rico is an American territory, it competes as its own individual country in both the Miss Universe contests and in the Olympics. Yet another reason I think that it should count.
But wow. If this little dip of the toe into the water of visiting Puerto Rico is any sort of glimpse, the place is amazing. It is the smallest island of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean and sits a bit east of the Dominican Republic. The temperature permanently sits in the 20’s and 30’s all year round. There are around 3.2 million people in Puerto Rico, and close to 5 million Puerto Ricans living in the U.S.
The Island has almost 300 miles of coastline and nearly the same number of beaches. And being ostensibly American, it has the largest shopping centre in the Caribbean.
San Juan
Our entrance to Puerto Rico was on a cruise ship (along with 2 others on the same day) which saw us coming into the port of San Juan. A really lovely (not so) little town that saw us cranking up the step count for the day considerably.
A predominately walled city there is a huge level of fortification (especially to the sea) with all of the gates and things that you would expect from such a town.
Castillo San Felipe del Morro is better known locally as El Morro. It is one of the largest fortifications built by the Spaniards in the Caribbean during the 16th century. It is made up by six staggered levels that integrate barracks, dungeons, and storerooms. It was designed to protect the city and still has some of the original cannons facing the ocean. According to the blurb in its history, El Morro was never defeated by the enemy.
The fort is massive and is set far out on the point with large green areas surrounding it. It was originally designed to protect the city from attacks from the sea.
Castillo San Cristóbal is the other fort that stands and was meant to defend from enemies approaching by land. Covering over 27 acres, this fortification is the largest one made by the Spaniards in the New World. This castle holds the famous Garita del Diablo, center to many military tales and stories in the Island.
The Capilla del Cristo is a small sanctuary at the top of the walls of the city. Legend has it that two men were racing their horses down the street and one of them fell over the cliff and survived. This inspired the construction of a sanctuary dedicated to the saints of health. Its altar is made of embossed silver and the room is decorated with two José Campeche paintings.
Between the two forts, you can see the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery. This was established in the 19th century and was built outside the city walls because of their strong fear of the afterlife. Its oceanfront location derives from a superstitious belief that the deceased started a journey over to “the great beyond” and being close to the sea symbolised the beginning of eternity.
This cemetery is the final resting place of Puerto Rico’s most prominent natives and residents. A nice touch that we found was some mosaics of each town that have been laid into the footpaths along the way.
As usual, the Cathedral de San Juan takes up a prominent place in the heart of town. This one is an example of medieval architecture during the time when the Spanish ruled the New World. The Cathedral de San Juan is the second oldest church in the Americas, after the one built in the Dominican Republic.
La Fortaleza (officially El Palacio de Santa Catalina de Alejandría) is the oldest state residence of the New World still in use.
It was originally built in the mid 1500’s and has served as a fortress, a prison, and an arsenal, and is now the official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico. This executive palace conserves traditions (such as candlelit-only dining rooms) and has original Spanish objects from the colonial era.
Calle Fortaleza (more commonly known as Umbrella Street) extends from the Governors mansion and is Instagrammers heaven. When we arrived there were hordes of them striking all the poses under the sun (never looking at the camera).
The surrounding streets are full of the funkiest restaurants in town.
When chatting with our local barman on the boat we were told that San Juan was the original birthplace of the Piña Colada. Being the butch and manly type that I am, I am partial to a Piña Colada. To find its origin we had to hunt down the restaurant called Barrachina. Which we did, only to find that 2023 was the 60th anniversary of its invention.
Casa Blanca is the oldest residence in Old San Juan. It was once the home of the first governor and has since been converted into a museum.
In Cataño, Puerto Rico, you will find the the largest premium rum distillery (Bacardi) in the world.
Puerto Rico is also home to the only rainforest in the American National park system (El Yunque).
If friendliness counts for anything, then this place is amazing. The smiles and happiness that you are greeted with here is something to behold. I am very happy to come back here again and explore more of the isalnd.
A large group of people were all heading into the US. We were all converging from around the world with the main intent of meeting up to join the Claudia birthday cruise (previous post). Claudia and Jeremy (Jimmy) have featured often throughout the posts most notably on our Miami sojourn for our (mine and Jimmy’s) 50th birthday Caribbean cruise vacation.
For us it was a simple journey from Vancouver in Canada up to Anchorage in Alaska, where we hung out for a bit before catching a train down to where the boat left.
Anchorage
Flying into Anchorage is an impressive sight, no matter what time of the year. Jill had the window seat and was constantly clicking away as the views were that good. High peaks and snow capped mountains everywhere you look. This place is stunningly pretty.
Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska (a bit under 300,000 people) it was first settled as a tent city near the mouth of Ship Creek. It was built to house workers being used for the construction of the Alaska railroad. Archaeological evidence suggests that the first inhabitants arrived about 5000 years ago.
Wiki tells me that, in 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward brokered a deal to purchase Alaska from Imperial Russia for $7.2 million, or about two cents an acre. In 1888, gold was discovered just south of Anchorage which led to an influx of prospectors, and small towns.
The city is on a flat coastal strip of land beneath the Chugach Mountains. This means that it is ringed by snow covered peaks for most of the year. There is a short window in summer when all of the snow will (sometimes) melt. When we arrived we got some green on the hills but still plenty of snow on the peaks.
Getting off the plane one of the first things that you are met with at the airport is a giant stuffed moose buck.
As I have never seen a live moose, this was a big ticket item for me to see. Anchorages’ proximity to the wilderness means that it has its fair share of wildlife that are in and around the town centre.
According to the blurb, Moose are a common sight in the Anchorage area. There is a summer population of around 250 moose, increasing to as many as 1,500 during the winter.
The tourist blurb also estimates that there are around 250 black bears and 60 grizzly bears that live in the area and are regularly sighted within the city.
The visitor’s center is a small log cabin in the heart of town. As you would expect, it is surrounded by a ton of tourist and trinket shops, along with street food vendors offering reindeer hotdogs. Of course I had to stop and try a reindeer hotdog.
As it wasn’t winter, and we didn’t have a car the opportunity to see bears and moose around town were not leaping out at us. So we decided to hop on the free shuttle bus that did the loop between the visitors centre, aviation museum, the wildlife centre and the botanic gardens. Stopping at the wildlife centre I got to see my moose. Add to this a polar bear, bald eagle, grizzly and brown bears and some other things to boot.
As timing would have it we would be in America on Independence day (4th of July). We met up with Brad and Nora (from the earlier Philippines posts) and decided to head to town for the parade and festivities. It was exactly as you would expect, loud, obnoxious and wildly (perhaps even blindly) patriotic.
The local park turned into a theme park style celebration with food trucks and obscenely sized and overpriced food offerings along with the odd kids ride. All things considered it was an ok day with a happy community and a nice wander around town to finish it all off.
The Alaskan Railway
The next day we (Jill and I) hopped on the Alaskan Railroad for the four and a half hour ride from Anchorage to Seward. The trip took us past lakes, glaciers, mountains and wildlife.
This was truly one of the world’s greatest train journeys. At virtually every turn there were magnificent sights to be seen. Towering snow covered peaks, multiple glaciers and we even got to see wild bears, eagles and moose as we rolled down towards Seward.
About 15 minutes outside Seward we passed through a valley called eagle point. This was an area where an avalanche had diverted the river, making it shallower than the main river, thereby providing perfect fishing grounds for the eagles. At this point of our journey, eagles were everywhere. We counted 5 bald eagles in a single tree at one part.
Seward
Hopping off the train, we set to walking the 1 mile distance to the heart of the town of Seward. There was a free shuttle but that ran every 20 mins, but there was also a full train load of people and luggage all trying to head to the same place. So we chose to walk, dragging our big bags with us. Once landing in town we could not check into our hotel for another 3 hours so we had to amuse ourselves.
There is not really too much to do in Seward. There are a few bars, some tourist trinket shops and the odd restaurant. The exception to this is the Alaska Sea Life Centre. Brad and Nora joined us again (they had an extra day in Anchorage) and we did the tourist schlepp. Apart from a seal, a sealion and a few seabirds (puffin being the pick) the place was pretty lame and certainly was not worth the $50 admission fee.
Alas while watching the sealion, which was huge, an American woman was standing next to me asking what it was. My response was (typically) that it was a rock sausage. A couple of minutes later I heard her earnestly telling others that it was a rock sausage. This amused me far more than it should have.
Hubbard Glacier
The Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in North America and it spans both the USA and Canada. From its source in the Yukon, the glacier stretches 122 km to the sea at Disenchantment Bay. At the bay, the face of the glacier is around 9 km wide and rises about 100 meters above sea level, (equivalent to the height of a 30-story building). Unlike the vast majority of glaciers, Hubbard Glacier has been both thickening and advancing since the International Boundary Commission first mapped it in 1895.
The glacier is magnificent but unfortunately our phone camera’s were not good enough to pick up the colour contrasts between the sea, the ice and the sky (overcast and cloudy day).
Juneau
Juneau is the capital city of the state of Alaska and has a population of a bit over 30,000. Virtually the whole place runs on tourism. The day we arrived, we were one of 4 cruise ships that had lobbed in for the day. This translated to around 10-15,000 people descending on the tiny little town.
Like most places in Alaska, the scenery was stunning. Virtually everywhere you look there are high mountains, snow covered peaks and dense forests.
Juneau had a cable car (the Goldbelt Tram) that is just south of downtown Juneau and right on the cruise ship dock. Jill bought the tickets and we took the tram to do the six-minute (1800 feet) ascent up Mount Roberts. When on top there was more touristy rubbish including a restaurant, theater, and retail shop.
Sadly once up there, there were also a bunch of nature trails to walk that go to varying points on the mountain overlooking the town. And of course, Jill wanted to walk them. So we spent the next couple of hours sweating our rings out as we schlepped along dirt paths on the side of a mountain.
Every now and then you would pop out onto a clearing and have a pretty spectacular view.
While we were hanging out and climbing mountains, Brad and Nora paid the big bucks and took a helicopter flight up the real mountains and put on the super warm gear. This included ice cleats so that they could hike on the glaciers. This ran a little rich for our budget, but I was happy to steal his photos and share them.
Skagway
Skagway is a tiny town of around 1200, it was an important port during the Klondike Gold Rush. The White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge railroad was originally built in 1898 for mining but now operates purely for the tourist trade during the summer months.
While purely a tourist trap, it does provide a great ride through the town and forests providing amazing views of waterfalls, gorges, glaciers, trestles and historic sites, all from vintage rail cars.
Skagway is a popular stop for cruise ships, and the tourist trade is a big part of the business. So too is the alcohol trade, with numerous bars and microbreweries all through the place. While the old sex trade may have gone, much of the naming of establishments has kept the more risque elements alive.
We found a micro-brewery that actually delivered a semi-drinkable beverage (as well as the stupid fruit-infused abominations) but they soon cut us off after a sample (the law…no misbehaviour). So we migrated on to the Happy Endings Saloon, which sat next door to the Morning Wood hotel (subtle lot these Alaskans).
Haines
Haines is another tiny town of under 2000 people that is only 45 miles from the US-Canadian border. It is yet another coastal town with mountains rising out of the ocean. Many ships have sailed these waters, giving rise to the name of the “Inside Passage”. At the northern end is the longest and deepest fjord in North America.
The crazy thing was that as we pulled in, there was a bunch of locals entering the water for a swim. There was snow on the mountains, we were in long pants and jackets, I may have even had my beanie on, and these idiots were going for a dip.
The scenery around Haines is amazing and according to the blurb there is also an abundance of wildlife here, from bald eagles and bears, to whales and orcas.
Icy Strait Point is a 100% tourist stop designed and built to service cruise ships, with nothing else to it. It is wholly owned and operated by the local Alaska Native tribe with all profits directly supporting the nearby community of Hoonah (Alaska’s largest Native Tlingit village).
While it was built solely for the tourist trade, it is still pretty good. There is a an old cannery that can be visited and a couple of cable cars that will take you up the mountain. The first is free and drops you at the top of the (downhill) nature walk, the other you have to pay for and takes you to the peak and more walking trails.
We did both cable cars but alas once we got to the top tier we found ourselves enveloped by cloud and our view down was non-existent. Once up there, however, we took a guided walk with a native Alaskan, who wandered around with a rifle on his shoulder the whole time in case we had an unplanned bear encounter (we did not). All the while, eagles soared overhead, and we even spotted the nest.
Icy Strait Point also has the world’s largest ZipRider, with six ziplines travelling over 1.6 km and dropping around 400 meters. So if you do both cable cars to the top, you have the opportunity to skip them both and fly down the hill on a zipline. After launching, you will accelerate to speeds nearing 100 km/h.
Ketchikan
Ketchikan is the beginning of the last frontier. It is the southernmost entrance to Alaska’s famed Inside Passage and is best known as “The Salmon Capital of the World.” It is a photographer’s dream with amazing views and sights in almost any direction. It is set in the midst of the Tongass National Forest, a 17 million acre rainforest.
The catch-cry of Ketchikan is “the place where both men and salmon have been coming upstream to spawn for hundreds of years”. The crystal clear waters and salmon swimming upstream meant that, right in the heart of town, sat a bald eagle, just waiting for its opportunity to swoop and scoop one of the huge fish. This made for some pretty good photos.
Alaskan Beers
As is my way, I made a point of trying the local amber offerings as I traversed around the state. The mass produced commercial versions were ok without being startling and were a bit insipid if truth be told. But this time around we came across the odd microbrewery that did a very passable version of a pilsner.
We were even able to find a high-strength beer (8.1%) that tasted nice. Typically these taste like old shoes and should be avoided at all costs, but the Hurricane lager was the exception. The Alaskan Pilsner and Kolsch also rate very highly, brewed in German traditions they do not try and bash you with hops or malt, just a nice smooth blend.
And finally…
Not even the frozen wilds of Alaska is free from the ever present and ubiquitous…
Instagrammers.
Travelling the world in a pre and post COVID state
