transportation Archives - Wandering North

USA

Detroit: A Surprising Weekend in Motor City

Why Detroit?

After my trip to Belize, I wanted to get a Nexus card. For people who don’t live in Canada or the United States, a Nexus card is something that gets approved by the Canadian and American governments that allows you to cross the border by going into express lanes on the freeway and in the airport and without answering a bunch of questions because they’ve already vetted you as a not a security risk. I thought it would be handy to have because sometimes I’m transiting through airports in the United States and I have gotten ensnared in long immigration queues and almost missed my flights. The problem was that you must get an interview done and I had been trying for close to a year to get an interview at the closest place to where I live in Vancouver, but the interview slots were always full. Apparently, this is a common problem. When I looked for alternative interview spots, one place that always had available times was Detroit. I had been a bit curious about Detroit, so I thought this was a good opportunity to do a weekend trip somewhere new and accomplish something practical at the same time. And that’s how I ended up going to Detroit in April 2025.

Initially I thought I would just go for one night do the interview and come back the next day, but I wanted to be able to bring cigars back into Canada, which requires staying out of the country for at least 48 hours, so it became a two-night weekend trip. Of course, I was going to go solo as I basically always do and is my preference.

Not Solo Travel

But then things changed. One of my cigar buddies from my cigar club (we will call him ‘Mariner’ for the purpose of this post) mentioned that the weekend I was going was the season opener for the Detroit Tigers (a baseball team) and he has a dream of visiting every professional baseball stadium in America and he had not been to the one in Detroit. So, he said, maybe he would go the same weekend as me and we could go to the game together. And this is how I got hoodwinked into going to Detroit for a weekend with a cigar buddy. #notsolotravel.

I agreed to it though; it’s not like he ambushed me, but I was a little bit nervous. What if it spoiled the whole weekend? It didn’t. It was certainly a different experience, and I don’t think I would trade in my solo trips for buddy trips very often, but it was a good time. I think traveling with someone easygoing is probably the key and Mariner is good company and easy going.

We landed in Detroit separately. I arrived first and took a taxi directly to the interview station, which is in no man’s land between the United States and Canada. They did the interview in five minutes and sadly did not ask me to recount my travels to far-flung and dangerous locales, and I took the taxi back to my hotel to begin my short holiday. I was a little bit nervous about applying for the Nexus card because I thought, surely, they will never give it to me after I’ve been to so many countries that the United States warns against, but a few months later I received approval for the card.

Where I stayed in Detroit

I had selected the Siren Hotel. I looked at all the hotels in downtown Detroit and most of them were way too expensive, especially considering the Canadian / U.S. dollar exchange. I wanted to stay somewhere central and there were a couple that were less expensive but did not look very appealing. I picked The Siren because it was just barely in my budget and it was oozing historical charm. It was designed by architect Robert Finn in 1926 as the headquarters for the Wurlitzer organ company, and then it was recently almost torn down but was saved and turned into this hotel. They’ve embraced the historical design of the building, and it is picturesque at every corner. The rooms are a little more basic but still cozy. I absolutely loved it; I think it might have been a step down for Mariner, but he could have stayed somewhere else.

Art and Protest

The first thing I decided to do, because I didn’t think that Mariner would have any interest in it, was I went to the Detroit Institute of the Arts.

I walked there and paid a small fee. The museum is fantastic. Like, it’s New York or London fantastic. It has historical paintings and portraits as well as 20th century works of art that are significant. It’s probably most famous for having the Diego Rivera paintings called The Detroit Industry Murals (1932–1933), which are impressive depictions of early 20^th Century industry, but I liked the most some of the very modern works of art by black artists. It was just excellent and exceeded any expectations that I had.

*one wall of the* *Detroit Industry Murals (1932–1933)*

When I left the building, outside there was a massive protest against Donald Trump. I was in the USA and happy to see that people were exercising their civil liberties. I had been a little bit nervous about going to the States at this point because I had heard so many terrible things about the border and because relations between Canada and the United States had taken a surprising downward turn, but I will say that everyone I interacted with on that weekend, including the border officers, were incredibly friendly. In fact, many people that I talked to, when they found out I was from Canada, actually thanked me for coming down and apologized for their president. Certainly, they didn’t have to do that, but it was nice to feel so welcome.

Leaving the art gallery, I decided to take public transit back to my hotel. There was a streetcar that was headed in that direction. I sat at the stop and chatted with a couple of older ladies that had just left the protest. And on board, the two ladies and everyone seemed to be chatting with everyone else. Say which will about the US, but I find the people to be extremely friendly. The incredible thing about the streetcar was that it was free. In fact, all public transportation in Detroit is free. If I want to take the bus for two blocks in Vancouver it cost me over $3. This was great. Downtown Detroit also has a monorail (Monorail!) which I rode at one point just for the views of the city and, again, it’s free so why not?

Cathedrals of Industry and Finance

Back at the hotel, I met up with Mariner, and we went out for tacos and strolled around. We had two major objectives, apart from my Nexus interview, on this trip; one was to visit all of the cigar stores and lounges and the other was to go to the baseball game. More on the baseball game later. But we also wanted to check out Detroit, so we walked around the downtown core to take in the vibe and the architecture. It was Saturday, so maybe it was quieter than it would be during a weekday, but the city felt almost deserted. It was a little bit unsettling. Where were all the people? I had heard that Detroit was unsafe and there was no part of it that felt unsafe to me, but it did feel strange that it was so quiet. Maybe it is partly due to people driving their cars and not walking very much so it leads to quieter sidewalks? I never did get the answer, but I didn’t love the vibes of downtown Detroit; that said, there are a lot of beautiful things to look at in downtown Detroit; some interesting sculptures and some murals, but what it really shines for are the buildings.

Detroit was one of the major cities in the United States in about the 1920s as it was the centre of automobile manufacturing, giving it the nickname ‘Motor City’ and it became extremely wealthy. This is obvious as you walk around because there are many tall and beautiful buildings all built in around that period. The terrific thing is their lobbies seem to be open all the time so you can just walk in and appreciate the architecture, which we did. Some of them are truly extraordinary, incorporating with elaborate church-like arches, painted ceilings, and glittering mosaics. Really inspiring stuff. The best downtown one was definitely the Guardian (500 Griswold Street), built in 1928-1929 it has an art deco style with Aztec Designs. It is amazing.

We hit up a cigar lounge, again more on that in the next post, and went to the baseball game.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

I am not a sports person. I enjoy a bit of boxing and American football at my cigar club because it is on a lot, but I don’t follow any sports and I think it’s all a bit silly, but I am always up for new experiences, so I agreed to go to the baseball game. Mariner is a baseball fanatic. Like a savant. He knows every statistic, every player, every mote of history and trivia. He was excited to be at the game, but maybe not as excited as I was once I walked into the arena and saw how much of a spectacle it was. All around the stadium there were festivities. Buskers playing music. Vendors selling disgusting foods. People dressed up in jerseys and costumes. Inside, there were even games and best of all, a Ferris wheel where each of the little compartments was shaped like a baseball. Of course, I insisted that we ride on it and we were the only adults on board without any children to accompany us. It was excellent. But then came the time to watch the actual baseball. I have watched baseball on TV and it is extremely boring. Watching baseball at the stadium though was pretty good. It was a sunny day, and we had excellent seats and it wasn’t loud and obnoxious like a hockey game. Everybody was chill and no one tried to high-five me. I liked reading about the players on the big screen and analyzing the walkout songs that they played for each hitter. Did I really pay attention to the game? No, not really, but I had popcorn and I was enjoying being there. I don’t remember who they were playing and I don’t remember who won. We left after the 8th inning. I’m not entirely sure why, but Mariner just said he had seen enough so we left and we went for more cigars and dinner.

*Comerica Park-Home of the Detroit Tigers*

We went for dinner at the London Chop House. We picked it because it was a fancy steakhouse, and Mariner likes fancy steaks, but also because it is one of those classic old school steak houses where everything is rich brown woods and leathers with dim lighting and live jazz. It was actually a person I met at a cigar lounge in San Pedro Belize who recommended this cigar spot in Detroit. Anyway, it was a perfect place. The average age of the band members must have been about 75 and they were terrific. It was just the right atmosphere. I had salad and a martini. We then went upstairs to enjoy cigars in the lounge, which lacked a bit in atmosphere, but a leather sofa, a cigar, and a cocktail was enough to bring me happiness.

After that it was late and Mariner tapped out and went back to the hotel to sleep. I carried onto the third cigar lounge of the trip.

(More on these and the other cigar lounges we visited in this post: Where to Smoke Cigars in Detroit.)

Street Walking in Nostalgic Detroit

The good thing about traveling with Mariner was that he was not keen to get up and do anything right away in the morning, while I was. So I left him to read the newspaper and sleep in and eat eggs or whatever people do, and I went off exploring. I walked countless blocks in a different direction with the goal of seeing a particular building that I was interested in seeing and a mural that I had heard about that had both Axel Foley from Beverly Hills Cop and Tom Selleck from Magnum PI painted on it, as well as RoboCop.

While Detroit might be famous for its baseball team or its car manufacturing history or its tradition of gun violence, to me Detroit will forever be the city that Axel Foley was from in the movie Beverly Hills Cop. My favourite comedy of all time. That opening scene in Beverly Hills Cop where it shows the people of Detroit as Glenn Frey’s “The Heat is On” plays is burned in my brain forever, and as I walked around on that morning I listened to that song on my headphones and the city really came alive. Especially as I walked around the more economically depressed areas. Why not create my own soundtrack for movies for cities that I’m visiting? You can’t do that when you’re walking around with someone else. I found the mural and took some pictures of it. I know that RoboCop was set in Detroit and I’ve seen it but I’m not a big RoboCop person but I was excited to see Axel Foley and also Tom Selleck dressed as Magnum Pi, another of my favourite TV shows. Tom Selleck is a native of Detroit which is why he wore a Detroit Tiger baseball cap in the show.

Anyone who’s reading this and is under the age of 40 probably has no idea what I’m talking about and that’s fine. This part isn’t for you.

In that area were other impressive murals and appealing old houses.

I walked over to the Fisher Building and admired its stunning lobbies. There’s a theatre there as well, which I couldn’t get into, but I bet it’s stunning. I went for coffee at a charming little spot called Café Sous Terre and then I caught an Uber over to a different neighbourhood to visit a couple of businesses.

I kept reading about how Shinola was this famous Detroit store and that it was a must see kind of thing and so I decided to go to that store and I guess it is historic and everything they make in there is from Detroit and all the leather goods and watches seem nice but it really was of no interest to me; however, next door was Third Man Records. A record shop owned by Jack White of the White Stripes who is also from Detroit. It’s super cool and I thought it was worth the visit, unfortunately on the weekends the record manufacturing part of it wasn’t in operation but you could see it through a window. If you go at the right times during the week, you could take a little tour and watch them making records. I would have loved to have seen that. But in the record shop itself it was neat there was lots of music memorabilia and vinyl for sale and books and it just had a really cool vibe. Sometimes they have concerts. I left there and meandered my way back to the hotel to meet up with Mariner.

After that, we went for a cigar at a lounge and just sort of ambled about the city. Had a tasty dinner at Standby, where I had a cocktail made with roasted leeks (interesting but not amazing), followed by more cigars and then sleep.

The next morning, we flew home separately via Toronto.

It was a delightful trip to Detroit. I think if you are in North America and want an unusual city break weekend, it is a good choice, but if you are into cigars I would definitely recommend it.

I go into more detail about the cigar lounges in this post.

And I write about my brief layover visit to Toronto in this post.

Belize

24 hours in Belize City

I left the island paradise of San Pedro not the way I arrived, on a tiny plane, but by ferry. I wanted to have both experiences: one flying above the technicolor blue waters and the other skimming on top of them. I preferred the plane, but the ferry was cheap (about $30 US) and convenient.

I boarded at the San Pedro Ferry Express terminal on San Pedro Island. I bought my ticket online ahead of time for the 7am departure and picked it up in person. I queued up with the other travellers. The boat was close to sold out and the seating was first come first serve and if you end up in the back of the queue you might end up on the upper deck or on the sides, in which case you would be in the sun the entire time. Not fancying melanoma, I got a seat in the middle. (It looks like there might be different types of boats, but the one I was on had two levels and was open on the sides and on top.) It isn’t particularly comfortable; just a hard seat to sit in for the 90 minute journey. The sea air was nice, but there wasn’t much to see and it was loud. The plane was more fun, but I was very happy to arrive at the ferry terminal in downtown Belize City. No need of taxis or buses, I was able to walk to my accommodations.

But first a breakfast by the water.

I walked to my hotel, the charming One South Place Hotel. It is in an old house just steps from the water, and I had a room on the top floor with a private patio and view of the sunrise. I would only be there for one night, but it was a nice place to spend time.

*My accommodations and me on the street out front*

I had only about 24 hours, so I had to make the most of it. I started walking. Reading about Belize City there really were not any major attractions I wanted to see. There weren’t even any minor ones. But the day started out promising. I walked through my neighbourhood back to the downtown centre. It was sunny and I was in a good mood. On the way I was delighted by the large sea-worn houses with accents and showing the ravages of time. The streets were pretty. Flowering bushes. Cats and dogs.

The closer I got to the centre of the city, the buildings became a little grander and there were statues of people that I was unfamiliar with. It also got busier. Belize City feels a bit like a poor city. There is no fancy or modern downtown core. The whole place feels a little bit rough, but lively during the day. I walked past people playing checkers and groups of people buying food from street vendors and sitting in parks passing the time. I visited a cute little bookstore slash café (Bricks & Books), how could I resist that? Even if Belize City was not postcard pretty, it was colourful.

Belize City, with a population of just under 65,000 people, is the biggest city in the country. It was founded in the 1600s by the British. I assume there were already people living there. Although Belize City is the largest city in the country, it is not the capital. That honour goes to a small city called Belmopan, more in the centre of Belize and with only about 20,000 residents. Apparently it was some planned community from the 1970s. Being the biggest municipality, Belize City should Have a little more going on than it seemed to. It was, in my opinion, a bit sleepy. Maybe it’s because I was there on the weekend, but it felt very quiet.

I made my way over to the Museum of Belize, which was the only attraction that I had planned to go to. If you’re in Belize City and passing time, the museum is worth a visit – but just barely. It’s small and not particularly interesting. It did not have too much on display and I was a bit disappointed, but still there are some nice and interesting things to look at and it was good to be out of the heat for a short time.

I walked around the neighbourhoods more. The thing that I did like about Belize City was all of the dilapidated buildings. You could see that a lot of them were quite lovely at one point in time. For example, one had balcony railings with swans carved into them and others had delicate wooden trim around the rooftops like gingerbread houses, but they were all in pretty poor repair, some of them maybe even abandoned. They still had a certain beauty. I also liked all the various colourful end differently designed breeze-blocks that added interest to even basic buildings. Essential in a climate like this.

After several hours of mostly aimless wandering, I really had nothing else that I wanted to do, except that Carlos at the Havana Cigars store in San Pedro had told me about a good place to enjoy a cigar on a patio, and so that is where I went next. The Cork Street Whisky Bar might be my new favourite place, at least in Belize City. It was in what I can only assume was once a mansion just across the street from the sea, set on a green yard with a big patio. The inside was beautiful like an old library or a men’s club; all outfitted in leather and mahogany. But I had my sights set on the patio, which was sheltered from the sun and off the ground and had lots of comfortable seating options. I settled into a wicker chair and had two cocktails and two cigars and watched the waves crash in. Very relaxing.

I went back to my hotel room for a bit and then decided that I was starving and I wanted to get something to eat. I was a little bit nervous because I had heard nothing but bad things about the safety situation in Belize City. It felt fine during the day, but night was a different question and I wasn’t exactly right in the centre. I decided to go out but just to stick to the main streets; and it did seem fine although the streets were quite empty. I walked a little ways until I found a restaurant that was open and I had a completely uninspiring vegetarian burrito sitting by the canal where they wouldn’t let me smoke a cigar because they said people would complain, notwithstanding that everyone else was smoking cigarettes.

I walked back to my room, passing some particularly interesting murals along the way.

*Murals, the last one with a voodoo theme?*

The next morning, I had a little bit of time before I had to head to the airport, and so I went out for a nice breakfast and a walk.

Belize City is barely worth a visit. I hate to say that. I hate to be mean but, it was not that interesting. Spending a day and a night there was perfect; any longer and I would have struggled to find things to do. I am glad that I visited it as I think it would have been a shame if all I saw of Belize was San Pedro. I wouldn’t object to going back to Belize and seeing some of its jungles or Mayan ruins, but it is not high on my list; San Pedro however will continue to live in my memory fondly.

And so ended my workation to Belize.

My next trip would be just a couple of weeks later and will keep me closer to home. A cigar weekend in Detroit.

Belize

Island Life in San Pedro, Belize

One of the perks of my job, in addition to my vacation time, is that every year for the past three years I get to take a week and work remotely. I can travel anywhere, but I stay in North America to remain in similar time zones for work availability. So far, I’ve done these ‘workations’ in Antigua, Guatemala and Estelí, Nicaragua. This year, I decided to try something a bit more tropical and go to San Pedro, Belize. I had never been to Belize, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Last Night I dreamt of San Pedro

Belize is, of course, the tiny country clinging to the east side of Guatemala and just below the tip of Mexico, on the Caribbean Sea. Its mainland has jungles and Mayan ruins, but what I wanted to visit was one of its many islands: San Pedro. Why did I pick San Pedro? One reason was just that I wanted to try a tropical island vacation, which I don’t think I’ve ever done (Cuba doesn’t count); but I specifically picked San Pedro because I saw that it had several cigar stores and because it is the island that Madonna sang about in her song La Isla Bonita. Honestly, the Madonna thing was really the reason that I chose it, but the cigar stores made it definitive. I was a huge Madonna fan as a kid and I’m sure I sang “Last night I dreamt of San Pedro” a million times, so why not visit the island itself?

Getting There

I flew to Belize City and then caught a tiny little plane on an airline called Tropic Air to fly the 15-minute flight to San Pedro. There are two options for getting from Belize City to San Pedro: one is the short flight and the other is a ferry. I decided to take the flight there and the ferry back because I wanted to have both experiences. (I wrote about the ferry trip in my post about Belize City.) The plane was super cool. It was tiny and it flew over shockingly turquoise waters and tiny little islands. It was amazing. And the airport, if you can call it an airport, is right in downtown San Pedro and it was about a two-minute walk from where I was staying.

Where I stayed: A Trailer by the Sea

Accommodations for workations are a little bit different than what I would book if I was on holiday. Since I am going to be in the place for about a week or more, I need to make sure that I have a suitable space for working and strong Wi-Fi. It has to be comfortable enough and I need a place where I can enjoy a cigar. I couldn’t afford a resort and the central hotels looked lacklustre, but I found this terrific little Airbnb. It was a bit weird. It was a trailer that had a little bit of an extra space added onto it (to add width to the kitchen and put in doors that open onto a wooden patio. It sat on the beach in downtown San Pedro and was painted blue and it looks very cute. It also might look a little trailer trash to some people, but I spent my early years in a trailer, so I was right at home. Really, the whole thing was bigger than my apartment and I thought what would be better than waking up in the morning and having my coffee on my own private patio looking at the beach or spending the evening in a hammock with a cigar.

*i know, it is not fancy, but very cozy*

It was an awesome place to stay. I loved it. I had all my needs met. I even had a trio of cats that came to keep me company on the patio each morning. The only downside was that there was a boat that was parked on the beach in front of the Airbnb and there was a homeless man that was living in the boat. For the most part, it wasn’t a problem; I didn’t see him or he was just doing things around the boat. To be clear it wasn’t his boat; he was just squatting in it. I am sure he was harmless, but I felt a little bit creeped out at night staying in the trailer with its big glass patio doors that didn’t have a curtain, meaning that anyone could just walk by and peer in, but I never felt unsafe. I live in a high-rise so ground level accommodations always feel a little weird to me. But, hey, this is island life; there are no highrises.

How I Spent Time

I was in San Pedro for exactly a week. I arrived on the weekend, so I had time to explore before I started working. San Pedro is small. During my time there I walked the length of the island a few times. But for the most part I stuck to the centre where most of the businesses were. You’re never more than a blocks from the beach in San Pedro.

Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that I don’t like the beach, but I can’t deny that it was beautiful to look at. Fortunately, the downtown area of San Pedro has a string of restaurants and cafes all of which have beach-side seating. So I got to enjoy a lot of coffees, cocktails, and cigars looking out at the waves and the swaying palm trees.

San Pedro was a great destination for my workation because, while it was very beautiful, there’s not much to do. In a day and a half, I felt like I had explored the island and seen what I wanted to see, so when Monday came and it was time for me to settle into work I didn’t feel distracted things that I wanted to enjoy. The island is mostly beaches and resorts and beach bars and beach restaurants and shops selling hammocks and flip flops and souvenirs. Away from the very touristy areas it was interesting to see the neighbourhoods where people lived and the little food kiosks they shopped at and some local cafes and bars. A lot of the houses were still brightly coloured and adorable.

It is all completely pleasant. One of the neat things about the island is that there are no cars. Except for a few delivery vehicles, everyone gets around by golf carts. And there are a lot of golf carts. Tourists rent them and they seem to drive them everywhere, even if it would be faster for them to walk. The streets are positively clogged with them and if I was driving, I think it would be very annoying, but as a pedestrian I wasn’t bothered by it. It was just charming and quaint.

Speaking of tourists, while I had visions of myself going to some of these popular beach bars and enjoying my evening cigar, that idea went away quickly once I visited a couple of these spots. The tourists that were at these locations were probably nice people but not people that I really wanted to hang around with. A lot of conservative politics and alcohol. A little too loud and just not my crowd; so after that, I picked quieter spots where I could simply listen to the waves or enjoy a book or a podcast with my cigar.

So, I walked and I took in the views of turquoise waters and palm trees, white sands and colourful buildings and little glimpses into the lives of people that made this island their home. Many of which were immigrants or expats from other countries.

One thing that was a little bit of a drawback for having San Pedro as my location destination, as opposed to when I went to Guatemala and Nicaragua, was that San Pedro was expensive. My Airbnb was a very good deal, but going out for food and drinks was pricey. Everything was priced similarly to how it would be priced at home in Canada except it was priced in American dollars so for me that meant that everything was about 40% more expensive. It wasn’t prohibitive, but it certainly wasn’t a bargain. What was shockingly expensive was groceries. On the first weekend I went to a local supermarket and bought some supplies for the week. Coffee, yogurt, fruits, that sort of thing, and I couldn’t believe how much it was. I think I found a can of chickpeas that was about $7.00 US and a package of four yellow peppers that was $14.00 US. I guess this is part of the problem of island life.

Once my work week kicked into gear. I started each day with a walk somewhere nearby to grab a coffee and get a bit of exercise and then I worked until about 5:00 PM and then went out for dinner and a cigar. There were lots of appealing restaurants to choose from in San Pedro and most of them had at least one vegetarian dish – usually a delicious coconut curry. Most nights I had a virgin piña colada or some other tropical drink sans alcohol. Sitting on a patio with a cigar and listening to some music was very relaxing.

Smoking Cigars in San Pedro

As I said, one of the reasons that I chose San Pedro was because it had cigar stores. There were three, two of which had proper lounges and one that had a little patio for smoking. Smoking on patios and Belize was not a problem, but it’s still nice to go to a lounge to visit with other cigar smokers. On my first day I went to all three lounges.

One was called Saul’s Cigar & Coffee House. They had some of their own cigars and some other brands that they sold including some Cubans although the Cubans were, in my estimation, fake. I bought some of the cigars they rolled themselves to try and sat on their narrow front patio and watch the traffic roll by. Their cigars were OK but a bit expensive, although the staff was very nice and it was a pleasant place to sit.

There was also the newly opened La Casa del Habano Belize which was gleaming and pristine. It was a beautiful store with a well-stocked humidor selling all Cuban cigars. In wonderful condition and with OK prices compared to Canada. I went there twice and both times I got a cigar and sat in the air-conditioned environment in a leather chair enjoying an espresso and chatting with the women that work there. They were very nice, but they weren’t cigar smokers and were still learning about cigars. I just chatted with the staff or did a bit of work on my computer. It wasn’t my favorite place to go but I can’t deny that it was a nice place for a cigar.

My favourite place, and the place that I went nearly every day that I was in San Pedro is a cigar store called Havana Cigars. It is owned by a fellow who lives in San Pedro and has for many years, but he is originally from Havana. Nearly every time I went in there were other people, locals and tourists, stopping in to buy or smoke cigars. It had just the right atmosphere. I felt like I was a local almost from the first time that I went in and everyone went in was up for chatting. He was a great host and I enjoyed chatting with him. Particularly I got the scoop on local politics in San Pedro and we talked about the situation in Cuba. I won’t recount the stories that he told me, but he told me some incredible tales about his life in Havana and how he left on a small boat bound for Miami. I’d never really heard anyone tell me their story of fleeing Cuba and it was fascinating and emotional. It’s his story to tell, but I feel lucky for having heard it.

i think a third of my camera roll was cigar pictures.
And, yes, i did travel to Belize with an ashtray from my law firm. That’s normal, right? (Bottom right)

Looking Back

San Pedro was great. I would recommend it to pretty much anyone who wanted that sort of a beachy, chill trip. In addition to the cigar smoking and staring at the waves experience that I had, there are beaches to visit and stingrays and to swim with and other similar activities. I had planned to take a short flight over the Blue Hole (one of the main activities) but it was exorbitantly expensive and so I scrapped that idea. If I had not been in San Pedro working I think it would have been perfect for me as a two-day trip because I would have been bored after that; but it was wonderful to be there on this slower pace where I could keep busy with work and in my off hours I could just enjoy the island vibes. It was a special experience.

Onwards

After my week in San Pedro, I still had about two days before I had to be back at work (one of which would be taken up with flying, so I decided to spend a day and a night visiting Belize city before returning home. More on that in the next post (here).

Argentina Argentina/Uruguay/Paraguay trip 2025 Uruguay

From Buenos Aires to Montevideo

From Buenos Aires, Argentina, I was heading to Montevideo, Uruguay. Flying was an option, but I decided to go by ferry. The two capital cities are separated by a large estuary called the Río de la Plata. Flights are only about 50 minutes but factoring in the hassle of going to and from airports against the relative pleasure of riding a boat, it was an easy decision.

There are lots of ferry options between the two cities, many of them were slow ferries, stopping along the way, taking up to 7 hours. The express ferry takes 2.5 hours and is direct. That was the one that I decided to take, operated by Buquebus. I booked in advance, which based on the crowds on the ferry, I think was a good idea.

I booked the earliest ferry I could find online (departing at 7:15am and arriving 9:45am), and on the morning of my departure I walked from my hostel in Buenos Aires to the ferry terminal. Part of the reason I had picked the hostel I did was because it was walking distance to the ferry terminal. I arrived early and there was a large crowd waiting to pick up their tickets. Even though I had booked online and had no luggage to check, I still had to pick up a paper ticket. The ferry terminal is new and modern and has a cafe and Wi-Fi, so it wasn’t a bad place to pass the time.

I picked up my ticket and boarded the ferry.

There are four classes of ticket for walk on passengers and they range from about $80 to $150 US. Normally I would get the cheapest, but in this case, I decided to get the first-class ticket. In hindsight that was a good decision. I think at the time it was the only class that offered free Wi-Fi, which was part of the reason that I selected it. It allows priority check in and boarding, but it also meant that I got to exit the boat first which was a huge time saver or given how busy the ship was and how slow it appeared people were disembarking. I had access to a lounge with free drinks and snacks prior to departure.

On board, there the first-class seating was comfortable and on the top of the ship. It had kind of a weird 60s décor, but the seats were very comfortable and there was free Wi-Fi and charging ports and some complimentary beverages. Most importantly it was very calm. The other cabins when I walked through them as I was leaving were absolutely packed and full of lots of noisy families and they just didn’t seem as appealing. I found the journey incredibly tranquil.

The business class seating looked pretty nice too, but they didn’t offer the free Wi-Fi.

As they had checked my passport when I was boarding the ship, when I exited, I just walked into Montevideo and was steps away from the city centre. There was none of the hassle of airports and taxis. It was maybe 1 of the easiest non-European border crossings I’ve ever had.

And just like that, I was in a new country and ready to explore Montevideo, Uruguay.

Cyprus Christmas trip 2024 Germany

Night Lights: Overnight in Munich at Christmastime

I left Nicosia and flew out of Larnaca, Cyprus, headed home to Vancouver, but first I had a layover in Munich. I was to arrive at about 8pm and leave the next day at about 11:30am. I booked myself a night at the Wombat’s City Hostel Munich Hauptbahnhof in a six-bed girls’ dorm.

Unfortunately, my flight was delayed so I didn’t arrive in Munich until about 11:00pm. I took the S-Bahn train (line 1 and 8 run every 10 minutes or so into the city centre and the trip is about 40 minutes).

I walked out of the train station and into the night air. It was dark. It was cold. The streets were empty, but they were festive. It was beautiful to see Christmas trees and Christmas lights, and with the cold night air it felt so festive. Even the regular buildings that were not decorated were illuminated in some way and it just felt a little bit surreal. I could have taken the metro a couple of stops to get closer to my hostel, but I was so happy to be outside that I decided to walk. Everything was closed unfortunately and I saw only a few people walking around. I got to my hostel and went to my room. And forgive me as I go on a bit of a hostel rant.

Some hostels are well designed. They have dorms with soft blue lighting that won’t wake other sleepers when you come in, they have beds with curtains so that people have privacy and more darkness at night. They have lockers and cubbyholes where people put their items. This was not one of those hostels – or if they did have those things no one chose to use them as their stuff was all over the floor. I walked into the hostel dorm, and it was pitch black. There was no gentle motion light, and the only options I had was to stumble around in the dark or turn on the overhead light. I wasn’t about to turn on the overhead light and wake everyone up, so I decided to let my eyes adjust for a second and then try to make my way to my bunk bed. But because there was no place to store luggage properly, people had bags and suitcases and shoes all strewn about on the floor and I tripped over things multiple times as I tried to find my bunk. Also, trying to find your bunk in a pitch-black room that you’ve never been to before is extremely challenging. I finally found it and it was one of those ones where they don’t put the sheets on the mattress or the cover on the duvet or pillowcase and you have to do it yourself. I wasn’t about to fiddle around with that in the middle of the night on a top bunk so I just slept in my clothes on top of the plasticky mattress covered with naked duvet cover. I fell asleep quickly. Unfortunately for the people that I was sharing the room with, I wasn’t only the last person to bed, but I was the first person awake. I got up a few hours later showered and dressed and left again. I walked back to the main train station and went back to the airport. I stopped for a little breakfast on the way, but the city didn’t feel as magical as it had the night before.

If I was doing it over again, I think I would have booked a better hostel or a private room for that one night, but it’s hard to argue with the price of a hostel dorm. So, I didn’t get to do a lot in Munich on my layover, but I really enjoyed being there, even briefly. And so ended my Christmas trip to Cyprus and my final trip 2024.

I would be homebound for about two weeks and then I would be off to Miami.

Germany Romania-Moldova Trip 2024

Layover in Freising

I was flying back to Vancouver from Bucharest and I had a five-hour five-minute layover in Munich. Whenever possible I like to go into the cities where I have the layovers, and if I had five hours in Frankfurt, I would have gone into the city, but Munich is a different story. Munich is a little too far from the airport for that length of a layover. I waited for a moment and thought I could go in have a coffee and immediately come back, but that seemed a bit stupid, so I looked at other options and I found one 15-minutes away: Freising, Germany.

Freising is a small medieval city, founded in 739AD, apparently the oldest in Bavaria, and it’s very near to Munich airport.

I landed at about 7:15 in the morning and immediately made my way to a bus stop just outside the airport. There is a train that goes from the airport to Freising, but on this particular day or this particular time the train wasn’t a convenient option. The bus was super convenient and quick. It was just before 8:00 when I arrived in the city. It was cold and it was misty and pretty much everything was closed. I saw only one or two other people out on the streets. It felt kind of magical. The city apparently has a population of close to 50,000 but arriving in the historic centre that seems hard to believe. The centre is very medieval and picturesque.

I did a little research later and found out that over the years Freising has been at the centre of all sorts of misfortune, from being sacked during the Thirty Years’ War, to being bombed during the Second World War, to inadvertently harbouring a key member of al-Qaida. Of course, my favourite historical tidbit was that it was a site of witch hunts, during which time they executed several witches. Between 1590 And 1722, at least 47 people were executed for witchcraft in the town of Freising, most by either burning or beheading. The batch of witch trials in the 1700s were primarily against beggar children who were accused of witchcraft, several of whom were ultimately beheaded. Children. Did you know that German has a word specifically for witch trials against children? It does and it is Kinderhexenprozesse. Excellent.

Of course, I didn’t know any of this when I was in Freising that day because I picked the town and went there spontaneously. All I knew is that it was a charming little town shrouded in mist. I had a very pleasant walk around and eventually a café opened up, and I had coffee before heading back to the airport by the bus.

I would be happy to have another layover in Munich just long enough for me to visit Freising, but hopefully a little later in the day so I could see what the town is like when things are actually open, and people are about. Plus, I believe there is a museum there that focuses on the witch trials, and I would like to visit that. It was a delightful end to a wonderful trip to Romania and Moldova, and which allowed me to be able to say that I have now visited every country in Europe.

Back at the airport in Munich, they had a proper Christmas market outside, which was delightful.

It was late November, but my travels for 2024 weren’t over. As I had a Christmas trip to Cyprus coming up next.

Moldova Romania-Moldova Trip 2024

Chișinău, Moldova

After my initial two and a half days in Bucharest, Romania, I took a short flight to Chișinău, Moldova. If I had had more time I would have preferred to have taken the train, but the flight was quick and convenient. I was excited to visit Moldova for a couple of reasons. Reason one was that it was my final country in Europe and there was something satisfying about getting to colour in all the countries on my map of that continent. Reason two is that I had heard that Moldova, perhaps along with Belarus, was one of the more Soviet-feeling countries that were formerly in the Soviet Union. Immediately upon landing I realized that I was going to like it.

I took a bus into the city centre which was cheap and convenient. On the way in we passed by huge Soviet or post-Soviet apartment blocks and signs and churches off which made it very clear that this was a country with its with its 20th century roots in the Soviet Union. I was delighted.

I was staying at the Hostel Amazing Ionika Center City, a cozy little hostel downtown. I booked a private room. The hostel had a lot of men from Ukraine living there, presumably having left because of the war, who went off to work each day, but there were also other travelers.

I don’t think that I had even given Moldova any thought until I was in Uzbekistan in 2011 staying at a hostel where no one spoke English but the proprietor insisted that he share some of his cognac with me and he told me with great pride as he held up the glass of burgundy liquid, “Moldova,” he said nodding his head like ‘this is some good stuff.’ Moldova has Been making wine for over 7000 years. It’s not that famous outside of its region but I think it’s actually pretty good, from the little I have tried.

For many years after Uzbekistan, I had been reading about Moldova, but it seemed off limits. For a long time, it was considered to be the most difficult country to visit in Europe because it had prohibitive and seldom-issued tourist visas, but things had changed. I no longer needed a visa to enter the country, and Moldova was on the track to enter the EU. Even more modern accounts of people visiting Moldova described it as poor and unfriendly and uninteresting. I can’t debate the poor element, but I found it quite to my liking. There is something about many of the Eastern European countries where I understand that the people are described as unfriendly. This is not my experience. I find that the people are a bit stern, and they lack in unnecessary or unwarranted smiles and polite chitchat, but all of this suits my temperament perfectly, as I am also chronically immune to superfluous smiling and I have been accused of being unfriendly myself. Maybe it’s the Eastern European ancestry on my mother’s side. Anyway, I felt quite at home in Chișinău.

Also, the weather was perfect. It was cold, single digits for the most part, but it was sunny, and I had a winter coat, and I just thought it was delightful weather for walking around. Plus, in a city like this I kind of want to visit when it’s cold. It seems like a slightly poor former Soviet city should be cold. Always. Just to give you a little feeling of the hardship that was so pervasive in its history.

On that first day after arriving early in the morning, that’s what I did, I walked around, I got the lay of the land, and visited a few churches and cafés. The city feels poor – it’s not grand or impressive like a Kyiv or a Minsk – but it has a nice feeling, with leafy squares and beautiful Orthodox churches. There are a couple of museums that I would visit in the coming days.

I had missed breakfast but I went for a lunch at a quirky and cozy little restaurant called Eli Pili and had pierogies and borscht.

Later in the day, I wanted to go smoke a cigar. Unfortunately, Moldova has some pretty strict anti-smoking laws. No smoking inside and most of the places didn’t seem to allow smoking on their patios, but even so, most of the patios were closed because of the cold weather. There is a cigar lounge there called Churchill’s, and I went to it but there was an incredibly high cover fee to go inside and you had to buy one of their cigars, but their selection was dismal and pricey. I would have been happy paying the cover if I could have smoked one of my own cigars, or I would have been happy not paying a cover and buying one of their crappy cigars, but I wasn’t going to spend money on both.

I did a little bit of detective work, and I found a restaurant called Mojo. This restaurant has a no-smoking section and a smoking section, however, in the smoking section they will only let you smoke cigarettes and shisha. They wouldn’t let me smoke a cigar. No problem, so I had a light dinner and some shisha. It was a really lovely restaurant; not cheap, but cheaper than it should be for how fancy it felt. I asked the waiter how it was that they got away with smoking inside when it was banned. He said, “It is better that you do not ask.” Fair enough.

I walked back in the direction of my hostel. Chișinău felt perfectly safe to me at night. I notice that along one street was a stretch of kiosks selling fresh flowers that were open very late. Even past 10:00pm. The next day I asked about it and apparently the flower shops stay open late so that men who stay out too late drinking can buy flowers to bring them home to their wives.

And later in the evening I went to an excellent cocktail bar called Marlene. No smoking was allowed inside which is a shame because the inside basically felt like someone’s house and it was very cozy although quite crowded. I chose to sit outside on the back patio. It was freezing cold, but they provided blankets and given that almost everyone smoked there were other people out there. I had two excellent cocktails and two cigars, which was a wonderful way to end and my first day in this new country.

The next day I had a guided tour planned to visit the semi-autonomous region that is officially no longer called Transnistria. This obviously merits its own post, so read on here. I would return to Moldova for a full day and two nights after that trip, so my Chișinău experiences would continue.

Vietnam Vietnam Laos trip 2024

Hanoi: Vintage Motorcycle Tour

On my second evening in Hanoi, I realized that I had done most of what I wanted to do but that I still had a half a day before I went to the airport the next day. So I looked into what sort of walking tours perhaps I could do. But I found something even better: a tour of Hanoi on a vintage motorbike. This was offered by Hanoi Backstreet Tours and I booked it immediately.

I was picked up at my hotel by a fellow riding a vintage-looking army motorcycle. We were joined by another two guides each with a guest on their motorcycles. A couple from Japan. And off we went. It was terrific. It took us through areas of the city that I had not visited and gave me some small photo opportunities. They also took us through tiny little back streets, that we skilfully wound through on the motorbikes. They took us to some interesting shops including one that made wedding cakes and another that made replica luxury goods out of paper for burning to achieve good luck in the afterlife. We went to a market and saw chickens and fish and other creatures. A lot of interesting historical details were shared.

We even left the city at one point and went across a bridge and saw some of the shantytowns down by the river.

While near the market, we passed a small square where young men were smoking big bamboo pipes. I had seen this already the day before in my walk around but I wasn’t sure what they were smoking in them. The guide explained that they were smoking tobacco, called thuoc lao. It’s not cigarette tobacco. It is closer to the sort of tobacco that you would use to roll a cigar, though it is not fermented in the same way. The pipe, made from bamboo and called a điếu cày, Is kind of like a water pipe. Of course I wanted to try it.

The guide spoke to one of the young men who agreed to let me try his pipe. He lit it for me, got it going, and then handed it to me. I placed my mouth over the end and inhaled deeply, taking in a lungful of the potent smoke. I am a daily cigar smoker but I have never smoked cigarettes, so inhaling is not a natural thing for me. I immediately started coughing and laughing at the same time, much to the amusement of the small crowd of young men that had gathered around to watch the idiot tourist try the giant pipe. Below is a still from a humiliating video of me trying the pipe. Still, it was a fun experience I’m glad that I tried it.

It all wound up with an excellent lunch. It was superb. We covered more ground on the motorcycles, and it was just fun.

Rather than having them drop me off at my hostel, I asked her to drop me off at the La Casa del Habano, that I had passed earlier. I had just enough time for a cigar. I went in and had a Quai d’Orsay in a very civilized environment before catching a Grab back to my hostel and a taxi to the airport. It was a terrific way to wind up my time in Southeast Asia on this trip.

My next trip would be to Eritrea and Djibouti, via Cairo.

Laos Vietnam Laos trip 2024

Vientiane to Luang Prabang by train

There are two main ways to get from Vientiane to Luang Prabang: train and plane. The express train is about two hours (others are not express and are much longer) and the plane is about half of that. Both are inexpensive. Usually, I am all for saving time, but I love a train ride and going that way also allowed me to skip all of the airport check-in and security hassle. Easy decision.

Taking the train in Laos, at least on this route, is not something you want to book last minute as it sells out. Allegedly you should be able to buy it online through the railway, but that was not functional, so I booked my ticket through the 12GO website. Booking was easy and I received my ticket by email. (You can book though the railway’s app, but you need a local phone number.)

I took a taxi to the train station, which was huge and modern. It didn’t have a lot of amenities, but it had extremely high ceilings and one big open area. I queued up and ended up chatting with an American guy who was traveling for a bit during his tenure in China as an English teacher. Nice guy. I forget his name. I’ll call him ‘Chains.’ (Chains and I would meet up a day or two later to visit a waterfall outside Luang Prabang.)

The train ride was lovely. Very comfortable. The thing that made it great was the scenery. We raced past scenes verdant and pastoral. Rice fields, small villages, and then dramatically steep emerald mountains, pushing up through the clouds. Just stunning. Of course I took some pictures through the windows.

At Luang Prabang, the train station is quite a way out the city and taxis are hovering to pick up the arriving passengers. I met up with Chains (he had been in a different class on the train), and we shared a taxi into town.

I was immediately impressed with Luang Prabang. Quaint and pretty with lots of temples, and picturesque streets leading to the Mekong.

I was staying at the Khemkhong Guesthouse, a little inn in an old house. No breakfast, but charming rooms and a great location. I picked the one room with a balcony facing the river. It was wonderful. Cozy and well-appointed with a balcony perfect for cigar smoking. The fact that this room was $40 CDN a night was amazing. Southeast Asia is a bargain traveler’s dream.

I spent the next two days exploring Luang Prabang, visiting temples, hiking hills, smoking cigars, and spying on monks. More on that in the next post.

Memphis long weekend 2024 USA

Long Layover – 10 Hours in Charlotte, NC

Coming back from my excellent long weekend in Memphis, I was going to have to change planes somewhere on my way back home to Vancouver. I could have gone for shorter layovers in any one of several cities that I have been to before, but I saw an opportunity for a 10 hour layover in is city that was new to me: Charlotte, North Carolina. It seemed like a great opportunity to check out a new place.

I’ve never given Charlotte, North Carolina a moment’s thought. I didn’t know anything about it, so this was a perfect opportunity to see something of it during a layover. I landed at about 10:00 in the morning and took a taxi from the airport into the city centre and asked the driver to drop me off somewhere in the middle.

Charlotte is the biggest city in North Carolina with a population of almost one million people. It’s named after the former queen of England who was married to King George the third (and not after The Cure song “Charlotte Sometimes”). It’s not really famous for much. It has a lot of banking and industry and sports teams.

The centre of Charlotte is a business district, and it was Monday morning so everything was busy. I went to a coffee shop and had a bite to eat before walking the streets of the central area and seeing what there was to see. It wasn’t much but it was nice for a walk. There were a few nice buildings and some public art, some green spaces and fountains.

I went to the Bechtler Museum of Art, which was also in the centre and just across the street from the Mint Museum. The Mint was closed that day but the Bechtler was open. It was a small museum but worth visiting and had some nice pieces.

I took a stroll down luminous lane, a public art project in which a back alley street was covered with and surrounded by colourful murals.

After that, I decided to take the light rail public transportation system out of the city centre and to the Optimist Hall. The train was easy to navigate. There is only one route going in two directions and affairs were very reasonable.

The Optimist Hall is a former industrial textile mill from the 1800s that has been converted into a building full of fancy food halls and some cute shops. It was nice train ride from downtown to the Parkwood Station, from where I walked to the Optimist Hall and had a delicious vegan lunch. (Lots of non-vegan foods there as well.)

Following that, I decided to go back downtown but to a different area, the South End. I got off at the East/West Station and walked around a bit, having a coffee at a cute little doughnut shop and exploring a little.

I felt like I had seen everything that I wanted to see, so I decided to spend my last hour or so at a local cigar lounge. There are a few in Charlotte, but the one that was most convenient to my location was call the Vintage Whiskey and Cigar Bar. It was a really nice space with friendly staff. I went in, bought two cigars, and sat there comfortably smoking until it was time to get an Uber back to the airport.

I can’t say that I would recommend going to Charlotte on a holiday, but having a layover with time to kill there was an enjoyable experience. I’m sure this would be true of just about everywhere; anywhere is interesting for a few hours.

And that was the end of my long weekend in Memphis. In a month I would be off to Laos via Vietnam.

Tag: transportation