History
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From Style On The Streets To Horses On Ice: Milan, St Moritz & The Bernina Express
Elegant, stylish, classy: words we would all associate with Milan and accolades which this city effortlessly lives up to, with its lofty majestic buildings and wide open piazzas. By day these imposing, ornate structures tower over the streets in proud glory; at night, tastefully illuminated by well placed floodlighting, the grand buildings assume another yet more alluring pose in what is effectively an architectural catwalk. Emerging from the metro and out into the square at Duomo station is to soak in one of THE great cathedral views as the shaped facade of this magnificent building soars above the piazza like some giant ice sculpture. The famed Duomo is in good…
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Gamboa: Life In The Canal Zone
Drive something like twenty kilometres down a dead end road, deeper and deeper into the rainforest, the Panama Canal to your left, until eventually you reach the waters of the Chagres River. Cross the narrow, low slung bridge over the river….and enter Gamboa. Gamboa is a place with an unusual history which is absolutely tangible as we walk past the mostly empty, odd looking box shaped timber houses, through the sultry, dripping rainforest yet feeling almost as if we’re in a residential street. Jungle sounds are all around, agoutis scurry past our feet and howler monkeys call overhead yet we could just as easily be walking through American military quarters.…
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Across Panama To Pedasi: Into Cowboy Country
The heavy cloud which tends to envelop Panama City every afternoon is visible from the ferry some time before we reach the marina, large grey smudges marking cloudbursts and darkening the skies behind the lines of tankers and container ships waiting for their turn to pass through the Canal. Even the Bridge of the Americas looks dark and brooding rather than majestic. Passing through Panama City again – the second of four times we’ll be here due to the shape and layout of the country – we are now very ready for the next stage of this adventure as we collect the hire car and head out of town. Our…
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Drug Barons, Michaela’s Knee And An Island Named Accountant: Days In Paradise
We have to admit that we’ve been a bit self-indulgent for the next seven days – well, it is Christmas after all. From now until 28th we’re on the ridiculously picturesque island of Contadora, out in the Pacific about 90 minutes on the little ferry boat from Panama City – a ferry boat which, with echoes of how Greek ferries used to be, crams as much goods and produce into its limited space as it does passengers. An early departure time means we’re down at Flamenco Marina before daylight and disembarked and checked in to our room-with-an-incredible-view on the island shortly after 10am. Before coming here we’d read that the…
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Exploring More Of Panama City
Once inside the Iglesia San Francisco de Asis in Plaza Bolivar, the lady behind the cluttered desk motions us towards a door at the side of the church and explains that the nativity scene within is a permanent display, not just for Christmas, and is one of four in Casco Viejo. It’s an extensive and impressive display, but passing through the next door we are cast into some sort of ethereal, pretend world. In this ante room there is, in working model form, an entire replica of an American town at Christmas time. Fairgrounds are alive, music ekes out from various venues, the Big Top issues sounds of a crowd….lights…
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The Mighty Panama Canal
The narrow, eel-like shape of the isthmus which is Panama, plus the layout of its network of roads, means that we will be passing through the capital city several times over the next few weeks, and no visitor can come here even once without taking in one of the 20th century’s greatest engineering achievements. Of the several available ways to experience the mighty Panama Canal, the best is reputed to be to pass through the locks on what is known as a transit boat. Be prepared to commit a day to it though: the operation of the locks is a slow process made even slower by waiting for the larger…
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Rose Hall: Great House Of Horrors
As we turn off the main A1 and climb the driveway towards the grand house, we only have a small inkling of the lessons in history we are about to receive. But before we start on the startling and dramatic story of Rose Hall, a brief partial history of Jamaica is necessary. The earliest known inhabitants of this island were the Taino from South America who arrived on these shores in the 8th century. By the time Columbus arrived, first in 1494 and more significantly in 1502, it is estimated that the Taino population had reached around 100,000. It was the Spanish who first started importing African slaves, yet they…
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The Good, The Bad And The Silly: Adventures Around Falmouth
Is it just me or are wind chimes slightly sinister? Does the sound make you picture a deranged axeman who grins inanely to the tinkling sound as he brutally removes the head and limbs of a victim? No? Must be just me then… The sea breeze here in Falmouth is enough to keep the airbnb chimes doing what they do but not enough to deter the unseen, biting insects from doing what they do too. If Michaela isn’t dabbing cream or gel on herself then she’s scratching around the little red mounds which are appearing everywhere; these little perishers have even put a few marks on my flesh, an area…
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To The North Coast: Lime Tree To Port Antonio
Driving Jamaica is very heavy on concentration levels, mainly because the roads are in such appalling condition. Giant potholes, boulders in the road, piles of builders’ rubble, sudden narrowing of road to single line traffic…main roads which suddenly hit an unmade stretch without warning. It’s all here. You have to keep your eyes on the road surface as well as the other vehicles for every inch of every journey. Consequently it’s a long slow drive from Mavis Bank to our next destination at Port Antonio on the north coast, a drive which involves climbing right over the top of the mountain range before descending through sumptuous green valleys alongside the…
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Kingston: Heroes And Thankfully No Villains
Our walk out from the comfortable surroundings of the Liguanea Club each morning takes us across Emancipation Park with its manicured gardens and one-way jogging circuit where copper coloured doves peck among the benches and resting gentlemen call out a greeting, or a welcome to Jamaica, as we walk by. This park is part of the land which was gifted to the Government by the original and exclusive Liguanea Club as the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew burgeoned in size when merchants and workers alike sought better working and living conditions. Much of the area of what is now known as New Kingston sits on the Liguanea Plain which…
