We believe that the best souvenirs are stories. Read them here.
Ireland’s Castle Leslie: a Luxury Castle Stay with a Story (or two)
Why just stay in an ordinary hotel when you can stay somewhere with a story? There’s certainly no shortage of stories in Ireland as the country is known for its colourful history and storytelling talent (“craic”), and there’s no shortage of castles here, either…
Exploring the Mayan Ruins of Ek’ Balam, the Yucatan’s Hidden Gem
Twenty years ago I stood sweating in the humid, stifling gloom inside one of the most famous Mayan ruins in the Yucatan, the giant pyramid of Chichen Itza. Although not generally claustrophobic, I found myself having second thoughts as I contemplated climbing the steep….
Grand Oasis Tulum: An Oasis of Calm on the Mayan Riviera
“There’s another one!” I heard someone on the beach exclaim, as I stuck my snorkelled head back into the water, searching now for not two, but three stingrays that had been spotted just offshore. Sure enough, there it was, another ray gracefully skimming the ocean floor just meters away from a fishing boat anchored in water that was barely chest-deep. Following it through my underwater camera’s display as Henk and I swam behind it, I couldn’t believe that I had seen a trio of these underwater creatures for the first time, mere meters offshore from the Grand Oasis Tulum resort where we were staying. Despite the resort’s tagline as ‘an oasis of calm’, I was about as excited as a novice snorkeller could get!
Cenote Maya – a Fountain of Youth in the Yucatan?
I had just celebrated my birthday a week earlier in Toronto, and now here I was, suspended from a pair of ropes 80 feet in the air inside the largest cenote cavern in the Yucatan, Cenote Maya, rappelling my way down with Henk to take a dip in the underground pool’s clear, cool waters. As I dropped down past huge stalactites dripping from the roof above me, I purposely slowed my descent so that I could really appreciate the natural beauty of the cavern surrounding me, all the while thinking: if this is what 57 looks like, I am all in!
