Tuesday, November 25, 2014
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Monday, November 24, 2014
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Satellite & Radar imagery of NY snowstorm - Nov 18-21, 2014
Satellite & Radar imagery of NY snowstorm - Nov 18-21, 2014
Let The Game Begin - Zipolite, Mexico As the sun dips behind the hills flanking Oaxaca’s Pacific coastline the heat of the day slowly fades with it. On cue, the men of Zipolite begin to amass halfway along the beachfront - somewhere between “Sel Y Pimienta” and the ramshackle beach bar advertising “Ginebra Y Coco”. Goals are erected from wooden poles retrieved from the bushes and after a few warm up kicks the twilight football match begins…
Let The Game Begin - Zipolite, Mexico
As the sun dips behind the hills flanking Oaxaca’s Pacific coastline the heat of the day slowly fades with it. On cue, the men of Zipolite begin to amass halfway along the beachfront - somewhere between “Sel Y Pimienta” and the ramshackle beach bar advertising “Ginebra Y Coco”. Goals are erected from wooden poles retrieved from the bushes and after a few warm up kicks the twilight football match begins…
Shot With Nikon D800 + Nikon 16-35mm f/4.0
Tagged: #liambyrnephotography #lensblr #artists on tumblr #original artists on tumblr #photographers #the photographers society #travel#Travel Photography #mexico #oaxaca #zipolite #soccer #football #team #sport #beach #beachlife
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10 Rules for Planning Round-the-World Trips Ed Perkins, November 19, 2014
http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/20921854/10-rules-for-planning-round-the-world-trips/?source=45568&value=2014-11-23+00%3A00%3A00&u=LIGIAOHBZG&nltv=&nl_cs=20976799%3A%3A%3A%3A20955025%3A%3A
10 Rules for Planning Round-the-World Trips
Traveling 'round the world (RTW) isn't for everybody. A RTW trip takes more time and money than the average traveler might have. But for a fortunate few, it's a great way to explore a range of destinations—new and old, exotic and mundane—that you might not ever be able to visit on individual trips.
My recommendations are based both on my own experience and reports from other travelers. I've done it four times—probably more than most. Two of the trips were for business, but the trips on my own provided great experiences. Here are 10 key lessons I learned while planning RTW travel.
Figure Out the Basics
A good RTW trip requires a lot of planning, starting with making a list of what you really want to see and do. "Around the world" isn't a destination; it's a set of flights. Start by cataloguing your top must-visit places. The most popular RTW trips seem to be limited to North America, Europe, and Asia, although longer trips can also include the South Pacific, Africa, and South America.
Unless you're doing a full year abroad, spring and fall are often the best times to do RTW trips. During transitional seasons, you'll avoid the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Of course, near-equator stops like Bangkok and Singapore are hot all the time.
On my latest RTW trip, I decided to travel in the spring. I started off with interesting places I had never been to, then I ended the journey with a relaxing stop in a longtime-favorite European area. But you could follow special interests, hook up with international friends you've made, visit the "10 most-something-or-other" destinations you saw on an intriguing list, or plan your trip based on just about anything.
Take Enough Time
If you're going to be flying 25,000 miles or more—that's at least 50 hours in the air—you should spread it out a bit. My recommendation is to spend at least a month on the road; any less than that, and you're going to be in a state of perpetual jet lag. The longer the trip, the better you'll feel overall.
Give Each Stop Ample Time
Avoid too many short stops. These days, any single flight takes up most of a day, door to door: packing, checking out of your hotel, schlepping to an airport, going through the airport hassles. I have a tough time thinking of any destination worth visiting that you can cover in a single day. (That's one of the big problems with cruises.) You usually need at least a day to get a feel for a destination, then extra days to visit the sites you want to see and do the things you want to do. Even an itinerary full of one- or two-night stops will yield a trip centered on catching flights and checking in and out of hotels. Overall, my recommendation is a minimum of three nights per stop—or better yet, four.
Move In One Direction
You'll want to keep traveling generally in one direction, east or west. That's a requirement on some RTW tickets, but even if your ticket or tickets do not impose that requirement, you should do it anyway. Doubling back adds time and expense to your trip.
Most reports (and my own experience) show that traveling westward is easier on jet lag than traveling eastward. Extending a day is easier than compressing a day.
For Easy Booking, Get a Single Ticket
The easiest way to arrange a RTW itinerary is to buy a single-price RTW ticket. Only one airline, Air New Zealand, can fly RTW entirely on its own routes. But the itinerary is so limited that it's virtually worthless.
Each of the three big alliances, Oneworld, Skyteam, and Star Alliance, offers RTW tickets, and they provide user-friendly (if tedious) online RTW planners. Fares typically start at about $4,500 for up to 29,000 miles and limit you to Asia, Europe, and North America, with maybe a dip into North Africa or Central America. Expect to pay up to $7,000 for the 39,000 miles you'd need for an extensive trip that covers the South Pacific, South Africa, and South America.
RTW tickets typically require voyagers to complete travel within a year and are limited to 15 or 16 stops or flight segments. They also limit the number of stops or flights in any given region, and most RTW tickets limit you to a single stop in any city (unless you're making a connection).
Several less-inclusive airline partnerships also sell RTW tickets. Prices are somewhat lower than alliance tickets, but stops and routes are more limited.
To Save Money, Get Individual Tickets
For most RTW trips in economy class, you can cut the total cost a lot by buying individual tickets for each flight. Customizing a set of individual tickets is the cheapest way to do a RTW trip. You can arrange those flights through a specialist travel agency, or you can book them yourself through one of the big online metasearch systems. Individual tickets also provide ultimate flexibility on routes and stops—something you don't get when you have to confine yourself to the airlines in a single alliance.
Is JetBlue Becoming Just Another Airline? George Hobica, November 19, 2014
http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/20924743/changing-checked-bag-policy-at-jetblue/?source=45568&value=2014-11-23+00%3A00%3A00&u=LIGIAOHBZG&nltv=&nl_cs=20976799%3A%3A%3A%3A20955909%3A%3A
Is JetBlue Becoming Just Another Airline?
JetBlue is about to make some of its customers, well, blue.
The airline has been profitable this year, but apparently that's not enough for Wall Street. In order to appease investors, the company announced today that it will follow a business model familiar to passengers on Frontier, American and other airlines: offering multiple airfare "bundles," one of which won't include a free checked bag, and cramming more passengers into its planes by installing those abominable "slimline" seats.
It's not the only recent policy change to dismay customers. Earlier this year, the airline changed its once-generous full refund policy (in the form of a travel credit) in the event of a fare drop after purchase.
"Beginning in the first half of 2015, customers will be able to choose between three branded fare bundle options. The first of these will be designed for customers who do not plan to check a bag, while the latter two will offer one and two free checked bags, respectively, along with other attractive benefits, including additional TrueBlue points and increased flexibility. This new merchandising platform will enable JetBlue to tailor its offering to individual customers' needs in a way that is simple and transparent."
That will leave only Southwest, for now, offering free checked bags.
This sounds similar to Frontier's pricing model, which offers its lowest fares if you pay for a checked and/or a carryon bag (Frontier used to offer three fare types, now reduced to two); American has a similar three-tiered model with its "choice" fares—in basic, essential, and plus flavors.
More seats, maybe not less legroom
Worse, perhaps, JetBlue is cramming 15 more seats into its Airbus 320's by installing those dreaded "slimline" seats that have less padding (or "give") in the bottom cushion, or at least that's how I experience them.
Again from the release, "the reconfigured cabin plan for the A320 will preserve JetBlue's product advantage and highly-rated customer experience while helping to generate higher returns. Using lighter, more comfortable seats, JetBlue will be able to increase the number seats on its planes while continuing to offer the most legroom in coach." Translation: the seat pitch (the distance between any one point on a seat and the same point on a seat in the adjacent row) is being reduced by one inch.
Even so, at 33 inches of pitch, JetBlue offers more space between seats than most airlines, which typically set rows 31 inches apart, and because the new seats will be slimmer there may be just as much knee room (actually more important than legroom) as before. And before we get all outraged, JetBlue still offers free inflight TV and free WiFi. But there won't be more overhead bins for those extra passengers, that's for sure.
JetBlue reckons they'll gain an extra $450 million per year with these new initiatives. But it may lose what made it special in the first place. At least the Terra Blues chips will be free, for now.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Mamasita now has a Master Mezcalier Posted by Meg Crawford on Nov 20, 2014 in Food & Drink, News
Mamasita now has a Master Mezcalier
“For everything bad, mescal; for everything good, the same” – old Oaxacan saying.
Mescal, like its compatriot spirit tequila, can conjure up visions of youthful, ill-advised drinking hell, but Nick Peters, manager of Mamasita, is on a mission to improve its image.
Peters’ first experience with mescal wasn’t flash either, although things have changed pretty radically since then. “About nine out of ten people had a pretty terrible first experience with tequila or mescal,” Peters laughs. “They come into our restaurant thinking that and they don’t want to try it, but nine out of ten people will actually take the plunge and give it a bash. It’s a lot different from the stuff we used to drink in the park.”
Peters has been at Mamasita, Melbourne’s best-loved authentic Mexican drinking and dining establishment, for four and a half years now and became an operating partner as of this year, but his love affair with Mexican cuisine goes back way further. About 15 years ago he was kicking about in Spain with a couple of Mexican, Central American and South American fellas who helped him to get a grip on Mexican flavours and understand the Spanish influence on the food. While he’s kept a pretty keen interest in Mexican tucker since, he’s equally interested in mescal and tequila, so much so that he’s just qualified as a Master Mescalier.
In order to qualify, Peters undertook a pretty rigorous course sanctioned by the Mexican Government in Oaxaca, the home of mescal, which tested him on every aspect of mescal making: all the way from identifying various types of agave plant, from which mescal is made, and telling whether they are ripe, through to production and bottling.
The qualification also means that the Mexican Government deems him competent to produce his own hooch.“It’s given me a very different level of appreciation for what’s involved with mescal production as opposed to other spirits,” Peters explains. “Every single aspect of making mescal is difficult, the initial part being that plants take from six to 20 years to mature. It’s not like grain or corn where you’re getting a crop every year. You’ve really got to think about what you’re doing.”
You can grow agave anywhere there’s not too much rain, but you can only call it mescal if it comes from one of the eight certified mescal making States in Mexico. That said, Australia’s got some suitably arid bits, so Peters is now keen to investigate making a home-grown spirit. “I know people who have got stills who are dying to do it,” Peters enthuses.
Just as excitingly, Peters has also been given the green light to run the initial stages of the Master Mescalier training in Australia (the last stage needs to be completed on the ground in Oaxaca). Depending on interest, Peters is looking to run the course here as early as next year.
The course has also inspired Peters to broaden the already impressive array of Mamasita’s beverages. While Mamasita has always had a gob-smacking tequila and mescal list, it’s always been more heavily weighted towards tequila. Peters plans to rectify the imbalance by introducing more mescal and bumping up the mescal cocktail list. It’s a timely development because folks are becoming increasingly curious about mescal and Peters has some views as to why.
“It’s really old school and romantic – a mum and dad cottage kind of thing,” he observes. “In a time when everything is being corporatised and big brands are owned by bigger brands, with mescal there’s still a really good opportunity to get products and brands that haven’t been messed up by a boardroom. It’s a guy with a donkey on the side of a hill and a hole in the ground and he cooks the stuff himself and puts it in a bottle.”
If you’re interested in the course drop Peters an email at info@mamasita.com.au.
Magic Falls Photo: cascadas mágicas de Copalitilla
Magic Falls Photo: cascadas mágicas de Copalitilla
cascadas mágicas de Copalitilla (Iosifkirov, May 2013)
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