Wandering through Portland, Oregon’s Skidmore Market on a Sunday I saw a fun and self-deprecating shirt announcing; “Paris was too expensive, so I’m in Portland.” Honest, perhaps, but I think I’ll take Oregon. Portland is an eminently livable city. Green, friendly and relaxed, it is full of pubs. Oregon's beer culture is widely celebrated and gradually I am learning to accept … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2015
You Can Help Save Wildlife! Fight Poaching
As I live in the Canadian Rockies, I am very much surrounded by wildlife and am therefore very interested in animals. Just the other day, my uncle Graham and I went looking for salamanders. We caught two little salamander nymphs in a tiny pond, near Canmore. I will take care of them until they mature and will then release them back into the wild! This year in grade 3, I had … [Read more...]
Don’t Say Ruin – Inca Culture is Alive (Cusco, Peru & Machu Picchu)
The so-called Lost City of the Inca’s, Machu Picchu (MP) is so indisputably Peru’s most iconic attraction that suggesting anything to the contrary is simply argumentative. I have actually sat in meetings discussing tourism legislation (which remarkably, does not really exist in Cusco) where ‘de-Machu Picchuisation’ was actually discussed as a way of furthering tourism in the … [Read more...]
Boycott Saudi Arabia
Boycott Saudi Arabia Support human rights and end the arms trade with religious fascists. The backward and abusive Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is again making clear its views on free speech. Recently its fundamentalist patriarchs sentenced blogger Raif Badawi to 1000 lashes for criticizing Islam. This may well kill him. Raif, who started the Liberal Saudi Network, has been … [Read more...]
Burning Through BC – British Columbia, Trains and a Forest Fire!!
Beautiful British Columbia actually claims to be - and I quote - “The Best Place on Earth.” It has an argument. But on this trip we passed right through a forest fire. 60-70% of BC’s massive territory is mountainous. Its dignified capital, Victoria, is perched on the southern end of truly magnificent Vancouver Island. Vancouver is Canada’s crown jewel of a city and … [Read more...]
