Category Archives: Travel Articles

Articles, stories and advice on travel.

I Went to Machu Picchu and Had a Good Time

December 29, 2013 Red Hunt 2 Comments

I finally caved in and went to Peru and Machu Picchu.

Happily, I must say that I enjoyed it and had a good time. The reason for enjoying my time in Peru? Spending it with good people, slowing down my travels to take more time for photography and avoiding the larger groups and crowds.

The required Llama at Machu Picchu photo

Avoiding Peru for 8 years

While most people put Machu Picchu high on their travel list, I aggressively avoided it for almost a decade. You see, 9.5 years before I finally went I started working for a (then small) tour company called Gap Adventures. The company grew every year and I watched more than 100 colleagues and co-workers over the years travel to Peru, show me their photos and exclaim how amazing Machu Picchu and the country of Peru were.

During those years I wrote tour itineraries, newsletter stories and website articles about Machu Picchu nearly every month. I answered phone calls from travellers and sold trips to people who were convinced that I’d hiked the Inca Trail, as I knew it all by heart and could envision the entire trip in my mind. Blah blah blah…start at Km 82, blah blah blah…Dead Woman’s Pass…blah blah blah…Sungate. I knew all the trails – The Lares Trek, Salkantay Trek, Classic Inca Trail and more. Peru was a permanent fixture around the office and as the company grew and stories kept pouring in, I lost all interest in visiting.

Cusco in Peru — Cusco, or Cuzco, was actually quite a bit of fun – tasty Alpaca steaks and craft beers

I felt like I had spent an eternity in Cusco and hiking in the Andes to see Machu Picchu. Visiting Machu Picchu became as exciting to me as watching an inch worm slowly make it’s way across a tree branch. (Actually inch worms seemed more interesting.) People I worked with started to simply assume I’d been to Peru and seen Machu Picchu – it practically became a requirement that your first work trip was to Peru.

The country, the experience, “Peru” itself had become a commodity over those years. I mean we used to brag about sending more people on the Inca Trail than any other company. We had trips laving every day, supported a weaving project for women in the Sacred Valley, we trained porters to guide tourists on the Inca Trail, our offices in Cusco and Lima had more staff than many other adventure travel company’s had at their head office – Peru was everywhere and everything.

Taking a break at Moray, Peru — Taking a break at the interesting site of Moray after biking around the Andes Mountains in Peru

Being freed from the daily Peru onslaught

Almost 8 years after selling those first Peru trips, I parted ways with the now not-so-small tour company called G Adventures and never made it to Peru.

After being freed of the incessant barrage of Peruvian information I slowly started to gain a bit of wonder about Peru. I mean it did create many life-changing experiences for travellers year after year, going by the emails and testimonials I used to receive. There had to be something special about Machu Picchu perhaps?

Alpaca yarn colours — Alpaca yarn. The bright colours are dyed with chemicals, whereas the duller colours are dyed naturally

Fast forward a year and, as fate would have it, I ended up winning a trip to Peru with another company called Intrepid Travel.

Heading to Peru, by way of the Galapagos

I had a new job and new freedom, life was good. So after living down in the Galapagos Islands for a while, a (free) side-trip to Peru seemed like a no-brainer. I could finally judge for myself what this Machu Picchu place was about, without actually having to spend much to get there. I was able to keep expectations low.

I had a great time in Cusco, eating Alpaca steaks and mountain biking around the Sacred Valley. I hooked up with two other travellers for a short 3 person tour to Machu Picchu and I think it was the ideal experience. It didn’t feel like a group trip, it was like we were just 3 friends who hired a guide to show us some towns and bring us to Machu Picchu. If I was going to like Peru, this was the way to do it.

Finally Visiting Machu Picchu

After about a week in Peru it was finally time to see what all the fuss was about. Time to head to Machu Picchu.

A drizzly, overcast day greeted us, which was actually great as it meant we didn’t have to get up quite so early to take the bus to Machu Picchu. (That “watch the sun rise” at Machu Picchu dream isn’t often a reality as the mountains are commonly shrouded in mist and clouds early in the morning.)

Wayna Picchu at Machu Picchu — View of Wayna Picchu in the clouds at Machu Picchu

My little group of three had a couple hours of touring around the Machu Picchu ruins before parting ways with our guide and having the place free to roam as we wished. We slowly walked around the site, visiting the Inka Bridge and many popular spots, waiting for the heat of the later morning sun to start to burn the clouds away and unveil Machu Picchu, Wayna Picchu and the entire mountain area.

I passed by a couple of G Adventures groups, and thought how lucky I was to be sharing this place with just a couple of new friends, for some reason the people in those groups weren’t smiling and didn’t seem as enthused about Machu Picchu as my two travel buddies. I think, perhaps, they must’ve hiked the Inca Trail and spent the past two days hiking in rain and sleeping in flooded tents. Any Inca Trail hikers I ran into that day told me they had wished they had skipped the Inca Trail as the weather had been terrible.

The Inka Bridge at Machu Picchu – looks safe, right?

And so, after a couple more hours it came time to head back to Machu Picchu Pueblo for a late lunch. I’d been satisfied with my time at MP. I took photos, I enjoyed what I saw and I was happy it happened. It wasn’t as magical as some people made me think it would be, but I imagine that is because I’ve been to many other amazing places and my preference has always leaned towards wildlife destinations.

My favourite part of walking around Machu Picchu? Spotting a couple of lizards, some llamas and small rodent things, similar to Chinchillas!

Still, I was super happy to visit Machu Picchu. Unlike the Galapagos Islands, it isn’t high on my list for places to return to – I can understand, however, that it has a big impact on many travellers who appreciate the history, culture and impressive setting of the “Lost City of the Incas”.

Feeding some Alpaca Huacayos in the Andes was even more fun than seeing Machu Picchu

Travel Articles

A Royal Resort in a Borneo Rainforest

November 25, 2013 Red Hunt 2 Comments

Royal Mulu Resort – this is the place to stay when at Mulu. It is right on the edge of the park and offers everything you need. Spa services, a pool and up-scale accommodations offer a surprising amount of comfort in a jungle location.

Now when I say it is the place to stay, it is pretty much the only place you can stay right near the park, with the exceptional of the actually Mulu National Park accommodations which include a dormitory room and some nice wooden cabins.

Royal Mulu Resort - Lounge Area — Royal Mulu Resort – Lounge Area

The resort is actually on the edge of the park and just a few minutes walk from a nearby town, where beers are much cheaper and snacks can be had for a bargain price, so you can splurge as much or as little as you want if you stay at the resort. Personally, I thought the buffet dinners at the Wildflower Restaurant in Mulu Resort were great. They had different options each night, including some unique specialities like sea urchin and manta ray. The manta ray was delicious, one of my 10 Surprisingly Tasty Animals selections!)

Gunung Mulu National Park - Pathway at Resort and Dorms — Gunung Mulu National Park – Pathway to Dorm Rooms near the Resort

There was a cafe here that had snacks and ice cream too, which go down really well when you’ve been hiking around in the humid forest all day! This is a muggy part of the world, where you can sweat simply by sitting. The resort has pretty much everything on offer from ATV rides to kayaking and caving adventures that can last for 15 hours. I was kind of sad that I didn’t have more time here as I was only able to choose a couple of the activities and chose mostly to explore the park by foot, which allowed more time for photography….at the expense of not doing some more exciting adventures.

The canopy walk was probably my favourite activity in the park, even more-so than exploring the famous caves. Overall, you need a few full days to explore the park and I’d suggest 4-5 days in case you get some bad rainy weather, which can happen.

It’s not the cheapest place to stay if you do hang out for 4-5 days though, so perhaps splitting your time between here and the park’s dorm accommodations is the way to go. That’s what I did (stay at the dorm first, then splurge at the end). There are tons of hikes around this part of the park, including the Head Hunters Trail and a challenging hike to the impressive Pinnacles – jagged limestone peaks carved out by rain and weather.

Royal Mulu Resort. Stilted Bungalow view. (Hazy picture due to extreme humidity!)

Mulu National Park - Dormitory Room — Mulu National Park – Basic Dormitory Room

I really liked visiting Mulu in Sarawak, Borneo but the only thing I was slightly disappointed about was the lack of wildlife. Aside from small creatures like lizards, geckos, butterflies and bugs, the most exciting thing I saw was some monkeys far away in the distance. If you’re going to Borneo for wildlife, I suggest heading over to the Kinabatangan River for your fix, instead of Mulu National Park.

Wildlife and Nature

Birds of Bundala National Park

September 1, 2013 Red Hunt 2 Comments

Storks and flamingoes, parakeets and pigeons, bee-eaters and eagles, peacocks and darters.

Simply put – Bundala is for the birds!

Visiting Bundala National Park, on the southern side of Sri Lanka was a last-minute decision. I had been travelling around the country for nearly a month already and Bundala hadn’t stood out to me as one of the top parks to visit. It was actually my driver and guide who sort of made the trip happen. He was a decent birder and insisted we visit Bundala as it is a famous stopover area for migrating birds.

A Painted Stork in Bundala National Park, Sri Lanka

He wasn’t wrong either, any birders I’ve talked to about Sri Lanka bring up Bundala as a top place to visit in the country.

Sold more on the possible elephant and monkey sightings more than anything, I soon found myself being schooled on birds in Bundala. As much as I resisted and tried to avoid getting pulled into the birding world, my guide Nandana was simply too passionate and eager to show off his birding knowledge that I soon came around and started to play the “what bird is it” game.

A Peacock in a Tree, Bundala National Park

The first bird I managed to identify correctly was a peacock. Trying to stump me, Nandana asked if was a male or female bird, but luckily I knew it was only the males who had the bright, flashy feathers (to impress the ladies of course).

Then I thought I saw some small parrots, but it turned out they were rose-ringed parakeets. I should have known better, as I’d seen such birds in pet stores in Canada when I was a kid. The small birds proved to be quite tricky to photograph and even spot before they flew away, so I stuck to the bigger birds for the most part.

Flamingoes were an easy one. Plenty of them around, often mingling with some storks, or painted storks, to be more precise.

It turned out that it wasn’t good enough for me to call a bird an eagle or stork, I had to know which specific species it was. Was that a painted stork or an Asian open-billed stork? Like this eagle above. I spotted it first, before our safari driver or my “eagle-eyed” guide Nandana, who was sporting his big binoculars. But when I proudly pointed out the eagle, he was unimpressed as it was a mere crested hawk eagle also called a changeable hawk eagle – nothing special apparently.

I took a picture of it anyway.

While I was happy looking at the big, colourful birds, the biggest excitement of the day came from Nandana spotting a pigeon. Yes, a pigeon. Apparently the Ceylon, or Sri Lanka, wood pigeon is listed as a vulnerable species. It looked like a regular old pigeon to me, but I took a picture anyway.

Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon — The Ceylon, or Sri Lanka, Wood Pigeon!

Then there were the bee eaters. I’d seen these type of birds in Africa before and wasn’t totally clueless about them. Nandana was impressed when I knew they were bee-eaters, but of course then he asked me what type of bee eaters they were and I had no idea.

They have cool colours, that is all I cared about, but apparently blue tails and green bodies and purple heads and such all mean different species. I managed a picture of the blue-tailed one, which we saw many of. I also snapped a red-headed one, which may be a chestnut-headed bee eater, but I really don’t know for sure. These little birds were a bit beyond my interest and I didn’t feel the urge to look them up in any of the bird books my guide was lugging along on the trip.

Blue Tail Bee Eater in Bundala National Park

The sheer number and variety of birds in Bundala was what impressed me most. I had no idea which ones were rare and which ones were residents or just passing by on their migration routes. I’ve seen big flocks of birds at home and on my travels, and I’ve seen plenty of weird birds around the world, but nowhere else compared to the variety I saw in one single day at Bundala.

Wildlife and Nature

Kayaking Adventures on Georgian Bay

August 25, 2013 Red Hunt Leave a comment

Sea kayaking is one of my favourite water activities and since I’m in Ontario, with no actual “seas” around, the best kayaking to be had is on beautiful Georgian Bay.

For those who haven’t been, Georgian Bay is almost the size of Lake Ontario, so we’re talking about a big, open body of fresh water. How is that for a nice bonus over our coastal provinces who have to deal with annoying salt water on their kayak excursions?

Kayaking time — Kayaking on Georgian Bay!

Kayaking along the coast of Georgian Bay you glide through calm channels, past light houses and cottages and colourful, rugged rocky coastlines. The windswept trees and classic Canadian Shield scenery have drawn people here from far away who yearn to escape the crowds and be with nature. It was a favourite area for famous Canadian artists like Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.

On my most recent kayaking adventure on Georgian Bay, it was a hot day, but thankfully quite overcast, so we avoided getting burnt to a crisp while out on the water. It was a half day paddle out of Snug Harbour, which wasn’t long enough for me! It was really just a tease of a kayak ride that the people from White Squall Paddling took us on. We did get out towards some bigger islands like Franklin Island but didn’t have time to explore, which left me yearning for more and wanting to pull out some smores and pitch a tent to go camping.

Kayaking through a channel with my kayak buddy Jill.

Ahh, no kayak camping trip this time, but it was still a great trip and gave me a bit of an introduction to an area of Georgian Bay that I hadn’t been to before – an area I will definitely return to. Despite having a little bit of wind on our way out towards some islands, my kayaking partner Jill, from Jack and Jill travel, and I got into a good rhythm and were gliding through the water quite effortlessly.

Some colourful, odd rock formations along the Georgian Bay coastline

Kayaking is definitely a peaceful watersport and it isn’t as hard to learn as some people may think. You can just float along and take in the surroundings with nary a sound, aside from the occasional splash of your paddle. I think that is one of the reasons why I enjoy it so much. No motors or noisy engines to disturb the peace. But don’t confuse peaceful with boring. Kayaking is anything but boring. One of the great fun things with kayaking is trying to “surf” waves when conditions are ideal. It’s really quite amazing how fast you can get going in a kayak once you have some momentum built up!

As summer starts to wind down now, I’m thinking it may be time to return to Georgian Bay for some more paddling. Come September the summer camps and crowds will be gone, making it an even more peaceful paddle out on the bay.

Kayaking buddies — More kayaking buddies – Aaron and Lisa in the tandem, and Anita behind our White Squall paddling guide

This kayaking adventure was courtesy of White Squall Paddling Centre and Explorer’s Edge as part of an epic 3-day “Quintessentially Canadian” tour in Ontario.

Editorial note: I had this post written for quite some time but never got around to publishing it for some reason. Then, today I learned that one of the people I had the pleasure of kayaking with on this trip, and getting to know while exploring part of Ontario with for a few days, is suddenly no longer with us. This post is dedicated to the memory of Anita MacKinnon, who had a passion for kayaking, an infectious smile and will be missed by many.

Road Trips

Why Canadian Road Trips are Different

August 24, 2013 Red Hunt 6 Comments

How far do you have to drive for a trip to be considered an official ‘road trip’?

Do you need to stop overnight somewhere? Or can a drive to a nearby town for some wine or cheese be considered a road trip?

I think any time you get into a car and take off on the road without a solid plan, just an idea of something you want to see / somewhere you want to go, it can be called a road trip. But there is something compelling about the long-distance Canadian road trip that separates it from your average experience.

Canadian road trip — The long, lonely road – classic Canadian roadtrip scenery

I’ve done numerous day trip road trips to the US or Quebec to pick up some beer. They may have only taken me 6-12 hours total, but I still consider them to be roadtrips. Right now I’m working on a weekend camping trip and deciding if I should drive a mere 4 hours north or 11 hours (each way). Either is fine by me.

It brings up the question though – how far are you willing to go? When was the last time you drove on a full tank of gas and had to fill up not once, but twice in a day? Driving 10-15 hours a day isn’t a big deal for me and many other Canadians, but to others it seems insane.

Road trip ferry ride — A real road trip in Canada often requires a car ferry ride, like this one to PEI

My longest weekend road trip was from Toronto to New York City to catch a baseball game. I was only actually in the city for 4 hours, the rest was spent driving and camping.

My longest 3-4 day day ‘long’ weekend roadtrip, thanks to summer holidays, is a toss up between driving to the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick or to Wakami Lake in northern Ontario, each taking more than 12 hours to drive to. Then of course there was my 4,000 mile 10-day US roadtrip. It was kind of like being in Canada, except there seemed to be cities and towns every 30 minutes, instead of long, wide-open roads. Oklahoma, Kansas and other central states in the US came much closer to the Canadian experience I’m used to, but still felt different. Their expansive land was mostly farms and agriculture, instead of forests and lakes. The influence of people was around, even if you didn’t see them.

It’s just a different mindset and experience here in Canada, compared to Europe or even the US. Most of it has to do with infrastructure I think. You can take high speed trains or super-cheap low cost flights between countries in Europe, where fuel costs and rental prices are high. So, why would you drive? Plus, everything is packed together, you’ll more often than not just be driving from town to town in traffic, instead of enjoying what we like to call the ‘wide open road’. There isn’t a need to take a road trip, it’s almost a forgotten travel experience in some countries.

Arctic Watershed Sign — A uniquely Canadian road trip sign

In the US, roadtrips are common but the US has denser population centres and plenty of cheaper flying options throughout most of the country, creating more options and less of a need to drive long distances. In Canada though, the roadtrip is more of a necessity. It often costs more to fly across our own country than it does to fly to South America or Europe. Our trains are great, but considered overpriced by almost anyone who visits. Would you pay $1,000 for a one-way economy train ride across your country? Sure, it takes more than 3 days but that doesn’t include meals or a bed! For those extras you have to pay $2,500.

We simply have so much land, so spaced out, that cheaper transportation options often don’t exist. A gruelling bus ride is possible across the country, but only has so many stops, there is no freedom to get out and explore where and when you can. If you want to explore Canada properly, you need to hit the road on your own.

Road trip wildlife — Checking out the wildlife on a Canadian road trip

I’ve enjoyed road trips in many countries and am happy to say Sweden, Korea and New Zealand had some nice escapes, where you could drive out into the wilderness and have an almost Canadian experience, but it still usually seemed like the next city or town was right around the corner. The road trips were all great fun, but still somewhat “short” compared to what I was used to here at home.

Here, I know many people who think sitting in a car for 10 hours isn’t considered a waste of time, it is considered part of the adventure and part of the fun in Canada. Sure, you may spend 24 hours driving a car for a weekend road trip, but that’s just the way it is. On a real Canadian road trip you either take a break at some quirky roadside attraction, or just drive until you need fuel. It seems that from my travels the only people who really understand the Canadian road trip are Australians. Perhaps that should be my next road trip destination?

I guess the journey is often just as big an adventure as the final destination here in Canada.

Red Hunt Travel