My Five Favorite Places Around the World

I think my friends can attest to the fact that I can never shut up about all the beautiful places that I have been to and how they’ve made an impact on me. Indeed, it’s true. The world just has that much to offer that my amazement is boundless.

However, I’ve decided to pick five that are my favourite places in the world.

Number 5. Los Roques, Venezuela

Years before when I was in Caracas I was told about Los Roques, a small archipelago off the northern coast of Venezuela that at the time I was told was a popular destination. I knew nothing about it, of course. Nevertheless, I boarded the small plane, that flew me to a small island, where I got on a small boat, that took me to a much smaller island. There were very few people on this beautiful island. Just myself, my companion, another couple, and a handful of people who prepared the food, served as snorkelling guides and set up the hammocks. The island was very small, so small that there were only a few palm trees. There was nothing else around, no other land in view of the naked eye. It was one of the most tranquil and solitary moments of my entire life. I highly recommend that you should try to find yourself on a tiny island at least once.

Number 4. Camiguin Island, Philippines

Last year, at the very start of our island hopping adventure in the Philippines, our first stop was the island of Camiguin. From the port of Baligoan, the island was in clear view. It was an incredibly amazing spectacle. The small island had a volcano in the middle and therefore managed to give a very picturesque, very island look. The island is only about 9 kilometers in diameter, though it is quite full; full of people, of life, of culture and of wonder. There were several waterfalls, numerous choices for snorkelling, giant clam farms and scuba diving, hot springs and cold springs, plenty of beautiful beaches and even a sunken cemetery. This is one of my favorite places in the world because it feels very much as if, Mother Earth has so much to show us, even in just a very small space.

Number 3. Angkor Wat, Siam Reap, Cambodia

I will forever be fascinated by the ruins that that been left behind and sometimes forgotten. I feel that these majestic temples are a testament of the wonder of humanity. Empires are built and empires fall but we persist. We’ll build magnificent empires and enormous symbols of our ingenuity and prowess but we are human so we will err, we will be conquered, destroyed, forgotten at times, but we persist. We are still here. We move, we fight we run away and we take back. This is what these ancient beauties say to me when I walk through their halls.  Just a few kilometres from the town of Siam Reap in Cambodia, Angkor Wat is a magnificent complex of many different but equally majestic temples. I spent a couple of days going from one to another, exploring every dark corner and dusty corridor while my mind begins to imagine what they walls could have said if they could talk.

Number 2. Machu Picchu, Peru

Nothing can ever equal to the feeling of being at Machu Picchu. At some 8000 feet on top of a mountain surrounded by mysterious peaks, sits Machu Picchu. A marvelous human achievement, Machu Picchu is a stone city designed with precision and offers only a hint of the might of the ad    ncient Incas. At the end of my tour, the guide told us that the Incas considered the mountains to be very sacred and powerful. And perhaps we should take some time and talk to the mountains. I wandered away from the crowd and gratefully found myself in a quiet and deserted area. I sat on the ledge, stared at the beautiful mountains that surrounded me and possibly for the first time in my life, I felt truly connected to the Pacha Mama, the people in my life, and I felt somehow that I was precisely meant to be exactly where I was, at that exact moment; sitting at Machu Picchu talking to the apus.

Number 1. Cabo Polonio

Sitting at the table with the friends of my friend in Montevideo our talk turned to travel and where might I, the yanqui spend my time in Uruguay. It was, I remember clearly, unanimously decided that I must simply go to Cabo Polonio. So, I did. I discovered that Cabo Polonio is a very small beach town on the coast of Uruguay and part of what is known as the Uruguayan Riviera. It is isolated and separated from everything else by 7 miles of sand dunes and accessible only by dune buggies. It is beautiful. The sun was always bright and with the absence of artificial light we are bathed in moonlight in the evenings. The air tastes fresh, the water enticing, and in the distance a colony of sea lions play. This is my most favorite place in the entire world. I hope it is more or less the same the next time I go back.

Click here, to read more about Cabo Polonio. 

*It seems I really like places that are far and isolated from everything

Sinulog

When I was young I lived in a city called Cebu in the Visayan region of the Philippines. Each January of every year the entire city comes together for the celebration of Sinulog. The word Sinulog they say comes from the word “sulog” in Bisaya which means flow of the river. On the last day of the Grand Parade the streets turn into rivers, from which over flow people, music, dancers, colors and music. 

I was no more than 5 years old the last time I had seen the Sinulog Parade. I can recall being lifted off of my Papa’s shoulders and onto a tree in the park so that I might have a better view. Always on a hot, sunny day the parade goes on from morning until night. Dancers from every imaginable school, institution, and organization participated. The parade, as a river, never stops.

It had never been a religious affair to me, I was too young for such things. The origins of the festival has deep spiritual roots, as it continues on today. It celebrates Santo Nino, or the Holy Child Jesus and the iconic symbol of the Sto. Nino, a child dressed in red and a red cape adorned with gold who holds the world in his palm is carried, lifted and rejoiced a thousand times throughout the day.

 

Millions come to celebrate. The streets are hot and crowded, the sun always bright and glaring in this tropical paradise. On the streets are the dancers and the performers, on either side on the sidewalk, on balconies, standing on chairs, standing on cars, standing on top of trucks, and hanging off trees are the spectators. 

 

Its delirious and mad. Spectators and performers hide behind masks, costumes and paint. Imagination functions at its highest. The energy of the city is at its strongest.

 

As is a river, the dancing goes on. The parade snakes through the streets of Cebu. Giant speakers fill the air with music. The drummers beat, the trumpets blare, the feet stomp. There is no end.