Out of Pod Experience

Santorini, Greece.

Amazingly blue water, a clear, cloudless sky, viewed from your perch on the caldera of an ancient volcano. You sit and watch the cruise ships come in, cutting a small hunk of feta cheese and placing it with a locally-grown olive in your mouth. A small sip of the local roset washes it down, while you watch the waves. You'll go out walking in the mild evening air, but later. For now, a bite of cucumber and a deep breath of the clean sea breeze.

On Santorini, it never rains, it mists. The grapes they grow there make fantastic white wines, that go well with the day's catch. The beaches are beautiful, and the sunsets are some of the most amazing you will ever see. From a look out atop the high point of the largest island, near the church, my new wife and I watched the sun melt into the Aegean sea. We saw the Green Ray for the first, and possibly last time in our lives.

If you get the chance, go.

Island of Kauai for me.

Not sure why but it just feels so right for me. So far away from everything!


Helps that I have a good friend that grew up on the island so he takes me to all the off beat spots. Untouched private beaches (its amazing how many sea shells are on the beaches that nobody goes too!), local and underground bars, riding choppers up the canyon roads etc.

Love that place.

I have a summer home in Hell, youre welcome to come visit anytime

Caye Caulker in Belize.

No cars, people drive around (mostly they walk) in golf carts
Island is just large enough for a prop plane to land
Nice diving
Relaxed atmosphere, bohemian etc. Not resort like.
People speak English in Belize
Every year they have lobsterfest: they pull up so much lobster that you get it in your omlette for breakfast.
Also, the stone crab they have there is delicious.
Belikin is nice beer!

Bali, Indonesia. I hope it's not spoiled now, I visited there many years ago as a cheap backpacker. Just beauty everywhere, garden-like tropical foliage, terraced rice fields, beaches of all colors of sand, volcanoes, lakes. Good food and nice people.

But mainly, there's just so much art everywhere. Check out some gamelan music, if you don't know it already. Pretty intense. That video just shows the musicians. The dancers telling a stylized abstract stories from the Ramayana, or doing the kebyar warrior dance, or the barong lion-dog thing, or the kecak mass trance chanting ritual-- another dimension. I wish I'd had more time to hang out in Bali.

For me It was Dominican Republic, just gorgeous beaches in Punta Cana, ...

But as a Venezuelan , no beach, EVER, not even Greek ones in the Mediterranean or fancy ones like Fiji (to which I have been) compares remotely to anything like Los Roques.

Just , just remembering those beaches makes me shed a small tear for my lost country and make me ponder a bit about my exile, but those beaches, the people, the food, everything.

Los Roques is a top notch destination within our country and quite a lot of foreigners enjoy the place too.

If there was a Tropical Paradise envisioned by the Gods, Los Roques would be it , heck my whole country ... despite the issues there, we have a little bit of everything and even things no other country has.

Ahhh ...


o/