ISLANDS – Page 2 – Travels With Miha

Crete

Meeting up with Miha in Athens after finishing her assignment in Cyprus, we flew together to Crete, where a car had been arranged through Manolis, Director of Sales at the new Gran Meliá Resort & Luxury Villas Daios Cove, just a little down the road from Agios Nikolaos, and brother of my co-worker in Florida. Arriving at the Gran Meliá, we were treated like royalty from beginning to end. The resort is located in a quiet, picturesque secluded cove. Manolis and staff were spectacular, with no detail missed. Crete is a fairly large island, with ruins, historical sites, and places to visit scattered throughout. We stayed in Crete for 3-4 days, drove much of it, and did not even begin to see all of the locations, such as Zeus’s cave. From the main city of Heraklion, it is only a short 20-30 minute bus ride from the town circle to the ruins of Knossos, and well worth the trip. Tours are available, however a bus ride and personally paid entrance will get you there and back for much less than half the price. Downtown Heraklion boasts plenty of outdoor cafés in the town center, or you can dine along the water with a view of the old fortress and carouse the cobblestone streets. Travel stores are numerous and you can book your ferry to the next island from most of them. Almost all flights return first to Athens, and then depart for one of the islands. The ferrys are less expensive, and considering a would be lay over in Athens with the flights, no time is lost. Images from Crete:

Africa, ISLANDS, Malabo

Malabo

Miha / March 13, 2012

An island that belongs to Equatorial Guinea, Malabo was one of the least developed places I have ever been to. At the time we went there, in mid 2000, the place did not have a hotel with enough rooms to accommodate the 15 of us, so we were usually split between two hotels. Hard mattresses and leeches glued on windows, the hotel rooms were not the most welcoming, but the best in town. Since then things have improved, at least in the accommodation department, as oil companies were looking into exploiting the place, and Hilton and Sofitel became part of the scenery. Tired after the 15-16 hours flights from Houston, Texas, my colleagues and I would hardly feel like exploring, but the effort made paid off in interesting experiences. From the fish market that I could not enter because of the flies and the smell that turned my stomach around, to the outside local market where all kinds of birds and animals (including monkeys) were sold alive to be cooked later, all was part of a different life style, totally foreign to us. We were strange to them, as most did not get to see white people often and I saw a mother pointing to me and telling her child “blanca, blanca”. Am I that pale? LOL From our hotel location we passed shacks and a stream of garbage in order to explore further. We saw people aligned to take water from a village well, carrying buckets and plastic cans, kids washing each other in front of their modest homes, all friendly, waving at us and laughing. We were even invited to a wedding as we were passing by, but sadly too tired and under-dressed to accept the sweet invitation.