Road Trip: North Carolina to Austin, TX to Oaxaca, Mexico
Destination Austin, Texas. I’m packing up La Tuga (short for La Tortuga or turtle in Spanish), the 2004 Honda Element EX manual transmission I just bought that will be the car I drive in Mexico. Well, I’m not exactly packing yet. I’m thinking about it. In three days, on December 12, 2013, I will set […]
Morocco Journal 1: What To Wear and Other Notes
The debate about how a woman from the western world is to clothe herself while traveling in the Moslem Kingdom of Morocco continues. I want to be respectful and also comfortable as the temperatures hover close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover your elbows, advises one friend. Another says, elbows are okay, just don’t show forearms […]
Vacation Packing Tip: Improvised Sturdy Basket Becomes Luggage Shipping Container
See the handwoven bamboo basket laying on its side on the left side of my suitcase? It cost about four dollars ($4 USD). I used it to transport three bottles of great mezcal and a blown glass Xaquixe decanter from Oaxaca to the USA. It traveled by bus and then plane. Of course, I wrapped […]
Travel Luggage: Weight Counts or Ode to An Aging Suitcase
Struggling to pack and getting under the 50-pound weight limit is a challenge for me. Why, you might ask? She is is supposed to be practicing the meditation of “traveling light.” I haul back and forth to/from Mexico a six-plus pound projector, a weighty camera lens, usually a tripod, paperwork, a couple of pairs of […]