Snapshot: Carnaval de San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca Mexico

August 23, 2020

Located around 40 minutes outside of the city of Oaxaca, the small town of San Martín Tilcajete is best known for its iconic yearly carnival.

Residents cover themselves in thick, tarry paint from head to toe and wear elaborate headdresses while dancing and chanting in the street. Joe and I somehow happened to be in the right place at the right time this February and joined in one of the world’s most bizarre street parties!

Culture trip has a more in-depth article about the Carnaval de San Martín Tilcajete

Exploring Megas Lakkos, the lesser known lookout point of Vikos Gorge

August 23, 2020

If you’re visiting Zagori and Vikos you’re probably likely to hear about the short walk to the Beloi lookout. The views are spectacular. You can see almost the entire length of Vikos gorge. The only problem is that this is the one viewpoint of Vikos that most people know about. Unless you go at dawn, you’re unlikely to have the view to yourself.

The last time we visited the Vikos National Park, we discovered Megas Lakos almost by accident. Megas Lakos is a gorge that branches off from Vikos. Even though you can’t see all of Vikos gorge from Megas Lakos, the views from the Kakia Skala steps are a great alternative (or addition) to the Beloi Lookout. They're harder to get to, but there are no other visitors and the views are wonderful. There’s also a little thrill about the whole experience as there are no barriers or walls to protect you from the sheer 600-metre drop.

We visited in July when wildlife was everywhere - we found many beautiful orchids, wild strawberries and the meadows were filled with butterflies and the buzzing of bees.

The walk is relatively easy, although the path can be quite hard to follow at times, and it was very overgrown for us. In fact, I wasn’t able to find any other references to this lookout spot online, so I don’t think it’s a well-trodden path at all!

The start point is where a farm track branches off from the road to Vradeto. We followed the track for a short while before reaching a very decrepit looking paddock. At this point, the path follows along the side of the mountain. The path is reasonably well defined at the point, just make sure you don’t follow the other path towards Vradeto.

The path continues to hug the hillside, with varied scenery and increasingly large rocky outcrops.

Eventually, the path reaches a hanging valley. To the left is a well-defined peak (with good views), and to the right a ridge. Even though the path isn’t well defined, the route descends into the valley through a lush meadow. At the bottom of the valley we kept to the right, and then right again up to a small ridge with a sign and a small cairn. This is the start of the Kakia Skala steps!

Even though the Kakia Skala stairway is called a “stairway”, it really isn’t a stairway. It’s nothing like the better-known (and engineered) Vradeto steps. In fact “Kakia Skala” roughly translates to “bad/hard stairway”. It is simply a path created by farmers and animal herders as a means of getting animals down to the valley for grazing, and for collecting firewood.

The descent from here was steep, overgrown and relatively difficult. Even though progress was slow, the views were wonderful. Luckily there wasn’t too far left to go. After descending for a few minutes we found a nice rock to in on to take in the view and eat some lunch.

The views

Route details

The route back was straightforward, and much faster now that we knew the route! If you’re interested in exploring Megas Lakkos and the Kakia Skala stairway for yourself, the walk is roughly a 7km return and I’ve mapped the route on AllTrails. You can walk the return route in around 2 hours, although we were much slower as we kept stopping to take in the scenery.

Route map on AllTrails

How to Hike Vikos Gorge

August 17, 2020

We recently returned to the Zagori region of Northern Greece. Specifically to visit Vikos Gorge.

We first visited back in 2015, but realised Zagoria was the perfect place to return to during Covid times. You can easily hike for a whole day without seeing another soul, and the villages are quiet, beautiful and almost always have a small taverna serving excellent food.

Both times we visited Zagoria we ventured down into the gargantuan Vikos Gorge from numerous points. It has to be one of my all-time favourite places to hike. This is a brief guide to hiking the still relatively unknown Vikos Gorge.

Option 1 - my favourite way to hike Vikos Gorge

This is our preferred route. Unlike other routes, you start and finish in the village of Vikos. This doesn’t mean the hike is any less interesting than hiking end to end from Monodendri. It has the advantage that you don’t need to organise a taxi, and you can also make the route as long, or as short as you wish. It’s also worth noting that the scenery is so incredible, it doesn’t feel like you are repeating yourself at any point on this walk.

It’s also easy to park at the outskirts of the village of Vikos (map)

The walk starts with a descent from the village of Vikos (map) into Vikos Gorge. From the very beginning, the view is spectacular. The first part of the descent is like walking through a long-abandoned garden, with herbs flowers and fig trees.

The path starts to get a little steeper once you reach a small stone shrine at a look-out point.

Throughout the descent, you are treated to a breathtaking view of the Towers of Astraka, the third highest peak of Mt. Tymfi.

You also get a fantastic view of the Voidomatis springs and the Panagia (Virgin Mary) chapel at the foot of the gorge.

After around 40 minutes of descent the path starts to level out a little and enters young woodland. It’s at this point you have the option of turning left and heading further down the gorge to the Voidomatis springs. Personally I’d recommend doing this on the way back as it’s the perfect way to cool off before the ascent back up to Vikos.

At this point in the walk we noticed how lush and vibrant the gorge is. Everywhere you look there are wild flowers, butterflies and fragrant smelling herbs. You can actually buy some of these wild herbs at a small shop right next to the lookout point (map) in the village of Vikos.

As the hike continues you’ll pass through a wonderful variety of scenery from thick moss covered forest, to lush meadows, rocky riverbeds and even cave like channels hugging the side of the valley. It seems that every few minutes you enter a different world.

In the summer and autumn the river past the Voidomatis springs is completely dried up.

The further towards Monodendri you go, the wilder the hike seems to get. We passed a few tortoises exploring the undergrowth and were constantly surrounded by butterflies in every imaginable colour. The sound of the birds and insects as you walk is almost mesmerising.

You’ll eventually reach a few places where the path gets quite rocky and you have to do a little (very easy) climbing to stay on the path.

After roughly 8km of walking we stopped, walked down to the riverbed and find a nice lunch spot to eat our greek pie for lunch.

We then started hiking back towards Vikos. The great thing about doing the hike in this return manner is it’s completely up to you how much of it you do!

The best thing about the return leg of this hike is the treat towards the end…

Swimming in the Voidomatis springs (map) are (literally) breathtaking. They emerge from out of nowhere in the riverbed at the foot of Vikos Gorge. They’re clear, clean and seriously cold at only 4 degrees centigrade.

There’s a rock which is perfect for jumping in too. We jumped in 4 or 5 times before heading back to Vikos.

The ascent is the hardest part of the walk. Having said that, even if you take it really slowly it shouldn’t take any longer than an hour. As with the descent, the views are spectacular, especially in the late afternoon light.

Option 2 - Monodendri to Vikos (with taxi back to Monodendri)

If you’re set on hiking from one end of Vikos Gorge to the other, this is probably your best option. You’ll have the same scenery but will possibly miss out on some of awe-inspiring views as you descend into Vikos Gorge from Vikos.

This route is around 12km and takes roughly 6 hours, although you’ll want to factor in extra time for cooling off in the Voidomatis springs.

The main drawback with this route is finding a way of getting back to Monodendri once you have arrived in Vikos. There are a few small tavernas in the village of Vikos and I’ve read that most of them will offer to call a friend to provide you with an ad-hoc taxi service back to Monodendri for somewhere between €20-30. If you’re planning this, Hristoforos Tsoumanis is a good place to ask, and they serve ice cold drinks which are exactly what we needed at the end of our hike. Back in 2015 we ended up giving a lift to an Australian couple who found themselves stranded in Vikos.

Route map and details

Vikos Gorge hike route map courtesy of AllTrails - expand map

AllTrails has a route map of the entire route from Monodendri to Vikos.

You can use this map for options described in this article.

If you’re planning to hike in spring, summer or early autumn I’d recommend taking a lot of water. Although the heat is generally dry, and there’s a lot of shade, we ended up drinking 2 litres of water each.

We’ve hiked Vikos Gorge numerous times, and although it can be hot in the summer, in our experience it’s never been uncomfortably hot.

Happy hiking!

Viñales - Illegal hiking in the "Zona Milita", waterfalls and rum

August 16, 2020

October 25th. Joe and I took a sabbatical in 2016 and travelled around Central and South America. This is an extract from the journal kept while on the road.

Today we got up to the most amazing breakfast at our casa in Viñales. The woman who prepared it gave us much more fruit than usual, and cooked scrambled eggs with an egg yolk cooked in a ring of pepper. It was delicious. She gave us lots of useful tips for the day, like for example it is fine to explore the area without a guide, and that we can organise walks ourselves. She gave us a few handy pointers from the beautiful hand painted map on the wall in the breakfast area.

After hunting down Sandra and Signe (our Danish friends we met in Playa Giron) in Viñales we headed out to Valle de Ancon – a really small village a valley over from Viñales. We parked the car some distance from the village and witnessed 10-20 vultures circling a bloody pile of intestines in a field.

As we arrived it was clear that it was not going to be simple, there were a handful of incredibly persistent guides telling us that we could not walk alone unsupervised with a selection of reasons why this was the case. They told us that it was a ‘Zona Militar’ (military area) that was out of bounds and that there was no way we’d be able to find the way alone.

Not believing a word they were saying and getting increasingly frustrated Joe asked an old lady carrying a plate of minced meat if it was okay to go walking in the area. She told us that it was completely fine and briskly ordered her husband to give us directions. An old man showed us a turning through what appeared to be the garden of a house and pointed us in the direction of a waterfall.

As we were entering the forest cover a man in a bright pink t-shirt ran up behind us asking if we had authorisation to enter the forest. Joe told him the old man said it was okay, and we continued our journey. Hiking unaccompanied is not easy in Viñales!

The path ascended steeply to a ridge where we spotted a number of wild pigs, beautiful orchids and finally a tiny green hummingbird. We followed the ridge down, got slightly lost and eventually stumbled upon an incredibly beautiful lookout spot over the valley.

As we were leaving we bumped into another tour guide who was again insistent that we should not be out there on our own… we ignored him, and not wanting to create a scene in front of his clients we were let off relatively easy.

The path descended into a valley of increasingly thick jungle where we spotted a long winding trail of leafcutter ants. The path got increasingly muddy and hard to follow until we reached a point where we had to cross a log bridge which led us to a beautiful waterfall. We spent some time paddling before heading back.

On the way back we reached what the hustlers had originally claimed was a military checkpoint. Unsurprisingly it was completely deserted now we weren’t in the market for a guided tour!

Relieved to see our car was still where we’d parked it, we drove back down the winding pothole-filled road to a small restaurant where we had an excellent lunch of fried chicken, rice, Cuban vegetables, and for first time in ages avocado and tomatoes.

At sunset, we all jumped in the car again and drove up to a scenic viewpoint with a great view of the view over Viñales. We sipped some cold drinks while watching the sun go down before heading back into Viñales for more drinks.

The evening progressed into Joe and I being dragged out to the salsa dancing club. It was a fantastic atmosphere though, set in a smoky courtyard behind the local church and replete with a live band and burlesque dancers.

Many strange Cuban/Non-Cuban couples filled the night, and it seemed that every person in the place was a character of sorts which led to great people watching. The hawk-eyed local boys eager to teach some salsa or book you in for the first horse tour the next morning, the group of Swedish girls looking to avoid yet another dance, the awkward Western tourist men shuffling on the dancefloor, the out of town Cuban fisherman who dreams of moving to Paris, and the barman who kept the glasses of neat rum coming. One of the interesting things of being in a small town like Viñales is that you quickly recognize and see many of the same faces, so despite just arriving there was a sort of homely feel to everything.

Day Tripping - Viñales to Cayo Juitas beach

October 26, 2016

October 26th. Joe and I took a sabbatical in 2016 and travelled around Central and South America. This is an extract from the journal kept while on the road.

After a sumptuous breakfast at our Casa, and meeting our new German neighbours we set off for Cayo Juitas. What a drive. It was spectacularly beautiful and the roads were almost entirely mostly empty, but in typical Cuban style, it was back-breakingly difficult.

Around 20 minutes or so into the drive the road started to become increasingly potholed, but this was just the beginning. As the palm tree covered landscape gave way to towering pine trees, the road became utterly treacherous. We were barely able to go faster than 20 miles an hour, and after carefully observing the local driving style realised it was much easier to actually drive off-road alongside the road.

Eventually the landscape (but sadly not the road) flattened out and we drove out onto a long key surrounded on both sides by water. Right at the end of the key, and after what seemed like a half day expedition we finally reached the beach!

It was an expanse of blue sea, white sand and palm trees, with the first hundred meters or so littered with sun loungers and parasols. We purchased some coconuts from the beach bar and then walked to the end of the beach in order to see if there was anywhere more appealing to set up camp. Sun sun loungers aren't really our thing.

We weren't dissapoitned.

The beach gradually gives way to a mangrove forest. We followed a sandy path for 20 minutes or so and finally found a little slither of paradise in which to set up camp. We had our stretch of beach completely to ourselves, and spent the afternoon swimming in the warm, refreshing water and chilling in the hazy sun.

Later on we continued exploring. If you navigate far enough through the mangrove forrest you'll reach a much larger expanse of sandy beach.

It ended up turning into a pretty perfect beach day, but I do feel really sorry for the next owner of our rental car.

Zagoria, Greece's hidden wilderness

June 29, 2016

Forget the island hopping and hordes of tourists; we decided to head to Zagoria, an unspoilt mountain wilderness tucked away in northwestern Greece.

When you hear about trips to Greece the most obvious destinations are islands such as Crete or Corfu, or perhaps city breaks to Athens or Thessaloniki. For the most part, mainland Greece is largely ignored by foreign visitors.

Recently, Joe and I embarked on a road trip hoping to explore some of Greece’s less travelled roads. For the first leg of this trip we spent 4 nights in the Vikos-Aoös National Park (map) in the Zagori region of Northwestern Greece. We spent our days hiking in the mountains, and swimming in remote rivers and eating delicious local food.

We flew into Thessaloniki and spent a night there before hitting the road in our battered Peugeot convertible. Getting to the Zagori region from Thessaloniki is a relatively uncomplicated three to four hour drive. Within an hour of leaving Thessaloniki the traffic had thinned out and we were leaving the expanse of a vast plane and heading into the mountains.

Metsovo

It’s possible to reach the Vikos-Aoös National Park in three hours if you choose to drive non-stop, but we stopped off in the small alpine town of Metsovo (map). Sadly on the day we visited, Metsovo was blisteringly hot and overwhelmed by vast crowds of Greek and Balkan coach tours. I really hoped this wasn’t a sign of things to come! After a brief lunch of souvlaki and salad we decided to skip Metsovo and press on to Zagoria.

Dilofo

We stayed in a small guesthouse named Aithrio with our wonderful host, Olga in the tiny village of Dilofo (map). Dilofo is without a doubt one of the most charming and well preserved villages in the Zagori region. This is partly because it’s impossible to drive a car through it’s extremely narrow cobbled alleyways, and partly because almost everyone who was born in Dilofo seems to have deserted it. An ex-local who had returned for the summer told us over a carafe of local (and surprisingly palatable) wine that there are now only six full time residents in the village. Sadly, most residents have left for work, and only return for the summer. This lends the village an eery, slightly ramshackle charm.

At the centre of Dilofo is a giant sycamore tree surrounded by a paved square and a wonderful taverna. We ate there most nights. The BBQ spit roast mutton was just too good to pass up, and the tzatziki was the best I’ve ever tasted. Thick, creamy, and properly garlicky. Dinner always evolved into drinks with the owners and other locals. By the end of our stay we knew pretty much everyone living or in the village, (as well as the feral horses which passed through the square each evening). Even though we were there for less than a week, we felt like we were part of the community.

Bridge of Kokkori (map) - one of Zagoria's many traditional arched bridges.

Hiking Vikos Gorge

The main focus of the Vikos-Aoös National Park is the vast, world-record-holding, twenty kilometre long Vikos Gorge. It’s utterly mesmerising.

While it is possible to walk the entire length of the gorge, it’s an 8 hour one way hike with no transport links at each end, so we opted instead to walk a portion of it. We set off from the village of Vikos (map) at the head of the gorge. The walk starts with a steep descent into the gorge. The views are simply spectacular, and it’s easy to miss the incredible views walking down a valley covered in wild herbs. sage, oregano and lemon balm. We made slow progress as Joe kept stopping off to pick figs from precariously hanging fig trees.

At the foot of the valley there is a small disused monastery perched on the banks of a deep azure coloured river which appears from nowhere out of the river bed around two hundred metres upstream. We spent a few hours lounging on the riverbank and daring each other to jump into the icy cold water before continuing our hike.

On our return we met a badly prepared Australian couple in their fifties, who had decided to walk the eight hour one way hike in trainers with a single bottle of water. At the top we shared a beer with them and discovered they were also staying in Dilofo. We offered them a lift back to Dilofo before remembering our Peugeot only had two seats. Somehow though, and with a lot of contortion all four of us managed to cram into the tiny car. When we arrived back in Dilofo they invited us to dinner at Dilofo’s more upmarket restaurant. The food was superb, and the views beautiful, but the cheaper taverna is better and more authentic.

Beloi lookout and waterfalls at Iliochori

If you don’t fancy a day long hike, there are still plenty opportunities to take in the incredible views of Vikos gorge. Beloi lookout (map) is around a two kilometre walk from the small village of Vradeto and offers some of the most spectacular views of Vikos Gorge (provided you don’t suffer from vertigo).

sitting on the edge at beloi look out vikos

The village of Vradeto is also home to one of the best tavernas in the area. As far as the internet is concerned, it doesn’t seem to exist. If you do find it, I’d recommend the stuffed baked peppers and filo pasty pies with local ‘horta' herbs (wild mountain greens).

After lunch in Vradeto, we drove North, towards Albania in search of a waterfall our host Olga recommended to us. As we drove North the landscape gradually transitioned into a mountainous, forested wilderness. It didn’t feel like Greece at all.

The waterfalls at Iliochori (map), a sleepy, all but deserted mountain village, are not easy to find. You have to follow a steep path down through the villages vegetable gardens, past a precariously perched monetary and down a trail which is more of a landslide than a path. The waterfalls are worth it though, we spent the rest of the day cooling off in the pool underneath the waterfall. It was the perfect way to cool down after a hot day.

Zagoria, (and specifically Dilofo) was an incredibly difficult place to leave; because of the wonderful hospitality, great food and wonderful views. As we left Olga gave us local wine and a packed lunch to take with us - we then headed off to Meteora.

If you visit, my only advice would be to stay for longer than 4 days!

Quick tips for a weekend in Berlin

November 20, 2015

A friend recently asked me for some tips for a weekend in Berlin, so I thought I’d make the most of the opportunity and write a quick blog post. This list is by no means exhaustive; Berlin is one of those cities where there is an almost unlimited number of things to see and do, but here are a few of my favourites:

Berlin Free tour

I first took this free tour of Berlin back in 2008 when I was practically penniless. The tour hasn’t changed much since, and importantly is still free, but that’s not why you should take it. The tour starts right next to the Brandenburg gate and explores sights such as Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Memorial and some of the few remaining examples of the Third Reich architecture such as the oppressive Luftwaffe headquarters. It’s the best way to get your bearings if you’re visiting Berlin for the first time.

Berlin Free Tour

DDR Museum

Located nearby the TV tower where the Berlin free tour ends, the Berlin DDR Museum offers a fascinating glimpse into what life was like in the GDR controlled East Berlin.

DDR Museum

East Side Gallery and Michelberger Hotel

Even though the Berlin Wall came crashing down well over 25 years ago there are still a surprisingly large number of stretches of the wall still standing. One of the best places to see the wall is the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. It’s a 1.3KM stretch of wall plastered in artwork by over 100 street artists from all of the world. Once you’ve taken in the art, what could be better than sipping a cocktail at the incredibly hip Hotel Michelberger? They have a great selection of cocktails and the coolest menu design I’ve ever seen.

Homework - The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor

No trip to Berlin would be complete without taking a walk along one of the last remaining sections of the wall, but to get a bit of background to Berlin I’d recommend reading Frederick Taylor’s Berlin Wall book. It’s a fascinating account of Berlin from the end of World War Two right up to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. Having a sense of what the city has been through in the last 70 years makes sightseeing so much more interesting.

Book pick - The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor

Climb the dome of the Reichstag Building

From the top of the futuristic dome crowning the Reichstag building you can peer down into the German Bundestag (parliament) and see a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin skyline. What’s more it’s free, provided you book in advance. It’s particularly captivating if you visit at night.

Book Tickets to visit the Reichstag Dome

Late Sunday Brunch at the Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg

I won’t say too much about this incredible palace of delicacies other than it has to be the best place to get breakfast in Berlin on a Sunday. Markthalle Neun is a vast indoor market is crammed full of stalls selling delicious breakfast items. Check opening times though, as the market doesn’t open every weekend. If you’d like to read more about breakfast places in Berlin, check out Joe’s blog post:

Galloping Ghrelin - Brunching in Berlin

Snapshot: A halt on the Bohinj Railway, Slovenia

September 15, 2015

One of the most unexpectedly fascinating journeys I’ve taken was travelling by train from Venice to Ljubljana.

Despite being connected by direct rail lines, the only way to travel from Italy to Slovenia by rail is on foot. Our train took us as far as the Italian border town of Gorizia, where we had to walk two miles, cross the border, and finally catch another train at Nova Goricia. We knew the second leg of the journey was going completely different from the first from the moment the ancient graffiti covered train pulled into the station. The empty train creaked and groaned as it hauled itself up into the mountains. This photo was taken moments after clearing a particularly long tunnel, when we were greeted by our first sight of snow on this cold Spring day.

I’m planning to write more about how to travel between Venice and Ljubljana (and also cram in a visit to Lake Bled) in a future post.

Snapshot: first light at the Hoi An fish market, Vietnam

September 14, 2015

It was one of those dreaded 5am starts that you only agree to before fully grasping the implications of what you’ve just agreed to. We were on our way to see the My Son ruins, which are around an hour out of Hoi An. On the way our guide offered to take us to the local fish market, so we parked up our motorbikes to explore the early morning scene. From the moment we entered the crowd we were lost in the flurry of activity. A woman hurls a large container of fishy meltwater over my foot as another carrying a large basket of small silver fish elbows me out of her way. For the first time in Vietnam we were invisible.

As the early evening light fades a woman carries a heavy load of cattle dung on her head while tourists pose for photos against the backdrop of the Taj Mahal.

Snapshot: the other side of the Taj Mahal

September 14, 2015

The less photographed Northern side of the Taj Mahal is a world away from all of the glossy travel brochures. The Northern banks of the Yamuna River house the village of Kachchpura, which is one of Agra’s poorest slums despite being meters away from one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions. I visited back in June 2009 on a sticky pre-monsoon evening. We hired a tuk-tuk to take us on the long crawl through Agra and across the river to the Mehtab Bagh gardens, where we were promised an incredible view of the Taj Mahal. Built by Emperor Babur, the grandeur of the once lavish Mehtab Bagh gardens has now faded, but the view is no less spectacular.