A Life of Travel: Tours are finished and I'm back in Istanbul...

March 19, 2024

Current location: Istanbul, Turkey

A big welcome to the 40 new subscribers who recently signed up!

Hello,

It's Tuesday and it's time for a travel newsletter!

Yesterday I once again flew to Istanbul, this time from Marrakech...

I have just finished leading the Wandering Earl Tours I had scheduled for this year. And while it was one of the craziest schedules I've ever had - with four back to back to back to back trips - I feel so very fortunate.

Fortunate to not only run my tours again after so long but also to have had such genuinely awesome, fun, open-minded and kind groups of people join these experiences. I truly appreciate all of the people that joined these trips.

As a result, despite flying from the US to Istanbul to Romania to Istanbul to Morocco to Romania to Istanbul to Morocco to Istanbul over the past 3 months...I am one happy individual right now!

For the near future, I'll be in Istanbul for almost a week before heading over to Georgia and Armenia. I'll share more about the plans for those two countries next week.

And as for the Moroccan rug I talked about in the last newsletter...I somehow managed to avoid buying it. So, thankfully I am leaving the country rug-free!!

CubaSeen

My friend Jennifer Spelman, who also happens to be a wonderful human being and an excellent photographer, recently started a great new project.

It's called CubaSeen.

With a quarterly photo zine, she aims to show Cuba through the photographs of both Cuban and American photographers. As she describes it, "CubaSeen showcases stunning photography that reveals the cross-pollination of creative ideas, explores artistic relationships, and debunks the myths we hold about each other."

It's well worth checking out and they also accept photo submissions for publication!

Goodbye Morocco for now!

Tourism Restarts
Starting on November 15th, tourists will once again be able to travel to India after an 18-month pause on tourism. And on November 1st, Thailand will allow travelers from certain countries to skip quarantine if they are vaccinated, have a recent negative test and take a test upon arrival.

Lava Pizza
David Garcia set up a pizza business on an active volcano in Guatemala. The insane part is that he bakes the pizzas right on the hot lava rocks and serves them to tourists hiking up the volcano. It's a truly one-of-a-kind experience.

Tea Time
After drinking so much tea in Morocco lately, I was curious about other great tea traditions around the world.

Everyone's Favorite Drives
Recently I asked this question on Facebook - "What's the most scenic drive you've ever experienced?" The result was a long, diverse and useful list of everyone's favorites from all over the world!

Chinatowns
With this list of great Chinatowns around the world, you'll start craving some authentic Chinese food rather quickly.

Aerial Archaeological Map
Now you can take an aerial tour of hidden archaeological sites in England that have been mapped and recorded. This is definitely a neat tool!

Blue in the Sahara Desert
The deep blue colors traditionally worn by the people who inhabit the Sahara Desert appear to be a fashion that won't disappear any time soon.

Congratulations to David and Ann Marie for being the only two people who correctly guessed the location of the previous photo above!

The location is Tiraspol, Transnistria.

Transnistria is an unrecognized breakaway region wedged between Moldova and Ukraine. I've visited this region twice and despite being considered part of Moldova by most of the international community, you still go through an immigration checkpoint to get in. They also have their own government, military, police, postal system and currency.

There's not a ton for a visitor to do there but it's an intriguing place to visit nonetheless since it gets so few travelers.

And now...

This week's photo

Where in the world is it?

The Rules

1. Try to figure out where the above photo was taken.

2. Reply to this email with your guess.
3. The more specific the guess, the better!
4. The location will be revealed in next week's newsletter.

Good luck :)

This newsletter is always free but it does take time and money to put together. If you wish to help support it, kindly forward it to people you know, shop for my favorite travel gear (I receive a small cut), send a small donation or join one of my unique small group trips to some spectacular destinations.

Thanks so much and I appreciate you reading!

Derek

(my middle name is Earl)

WanderingEarl.com

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