By Melvin Pereira | August 27, 2008

The Expo Pococi is an annual agricultural fair that takes place in the Caribbean town of Pococi in the province of Limon.  The Expo Pococi for 2008 will start on September 10 and will end on September 21st.

The Expo Pococi fair was born as an initiative to reach out and draw public appreciation to the agricultural industry.  The fair has become quite popular over the years and has attracted Costa Ricans from all over the country as well as tourists.

Aside from the traditional Costa Rican bullfights (no killing of the bull involved), tope (horse parade), ox-cart parade and cattle and horse displays, the Expo Pococi holds several other activities as well.  Visitors are able to watch the Carnival, the ranchera festival, student athletics, beauty pageant, ATV rally and a massive concert which always features an internationally famous band.

However, the Costa Rican Ministry of Health forced the town of Pococi to clean up before any permission was granted for this year’s event. Due to the town’s location and humidity, the dengue hemorrhagic fever has been a constant threat.

The Ministry of Health has requested the town to pick up all garbage and provide the town with the proper disposal methods as well as avoid all sorts of water reservoirs or puddles which allows for the reproduction of the virus carrying mosquito.

Pococi has complied with all requests on time and has assured that local and foreign tourists will have a safe environment while enjoying the event.

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Travelers Tips

Champs Elysées, Paris, France.

By Ryan Maher | August 27, 2008

The big street in the middle of Paris center. In the beginning, when you just have left the park where the Louvre is, the street isn’t anything. Just a couple of trees and benches.

But after a couple of hundred meters the shops and pubs starts to show up, and at the end you’ll be full of impressions from your short walk up from the park to the Arc de Triumf.

And please, have a seat at one of the bars, take a beer, relax, look at all the people around you. And maybe speak to some of the beautiful girls at the table next to you…

And then, please again, don’t get too chocked when you pay the beer, and understands it’s the most expensive beer you have ever been drinking in your whole life…

It was at this street the french celebrated the victory in the WW1, the liberation in WW2, and the victory in the World Cup in football 1998…

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Nice portrait at Rijksmuseum

By Stacey Whitney | August 27, 2008

I discovered this portrait from Johannes Cornelsz. Verspronck “Portrait of a Girl dressed in Blue” (1641) at my first visit at the Rijksmuseum at the beginning of the nineties.
I got very much impressed by her gentle somewhat melancholic smile.
This girl about ten years old must be of a wealthy family according to her dress and jewels. It should be noted that in that time children were considered as mini adults and girls dressed like adult women.

J. Verspronck, as always in his portraits, painted with a perfect depiction of the tissues and the details. Look at the very fine blond hair of the girl, the dark blue eyes and the red cheeks.

I always found that this portrait expressed much tenderness and emotion.

When I saw that the museum curator had chosen a large reproduction of my favoured portrait of a “Girl dressed in Blue” to hang on the façade of the Rijksmuseum building I felt very pleased.

I don’t know who she is.

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Travelers Stories

The not too good journey.

By Kelly Wesley | August 27, 2008

Well we knew it would take 21 hours to travel to valencia but nothing would prepare us for the journey we were about to do.
Firstly we got a train from pisa to tourin to get the connecting train striaght to barcelona. however our train was 40 mins late which meant we missed the train. hearing there were no other trains we had to stay the night in tourin in a hotel. when we woke up we realised we would have to get a train at 9 o´clock at night. being impateint as always we decided there must be another way. after researching this we relised we could head to milan. but never guess what happened our train was late and yes we missed it. however we thought it we coaught a train to nice it was more likely we could get to barcelona and to at least get out of italy. Shortly after we got a train to nice.
At nice we were told to jump on a mersaille train. but guess what…. there were no trains till the next day!!! so this time wse slept in the station. trying to take it in shifts to stay up and guard the stuff. to be fair i just slept sorry travis.
So we caught the train at 6 in the morning. however we could only get a train to the beginning of spain.
That day we managed to get to valencia really late at night. however realised our campsite was 45 mins away by train and never guess wat… yep we missed the last train. so we had to sleep in the streets again but only to get moved by security later that night. we managed to get to gandia our place by 6 but had to wait outside till 9 before reception opene.d however we are here now safe and happy.
but what a shit 4 days we had. we are really looking forward to the tomato festival and the weather here is amazing.
jas and trav
xx

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Our Italy Vacation.

By Robyn n Rudy | August 27, 2008

Our Italian coffee experiences in Florence fell into two categories: either the coffee was fantastic (ensuring several cups were demolished in one sitting), or so appallingly bad that it wasn’t even drinkable. Average coffee wasn’t present. Here’s a lesson for you … a tourist trap that we unwittingly fell into … A nice little cafe situated on the edge of the square. We take a seat, and flick through the menu. There’s no coffee listed on the menu, but then the waiter appears and offers a cafe latte/cappuccino/espresso … ASK THE PRICE FIRST!!

We failed to ask this vital information, and later discovered that our coffees were €4 euro each, and unfortunately they were of the abysmal variety (black drain water)! The Mafioso-mama cafe owner refused to make us a new ones that we could actually drink, and still demanded that we pay up €8 euros for “the view”! After much heated debate (with the help of some poor Read the rest of this entry »

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Orlando, Florida

By Sonia Clarke | August 26, 2008

One of our shortest train journeys (a mere 6 hours!), marked the end of our time with Amtrak. Whilst the 30-day pass has been very good to us, carrying us from L.A. all the way to Florida, I think both of us will be happy if we never set foot inside an Amtrak train again! Especially if it’s an overnight train and we have coach class tickets!

We got to our hotel on the first day and I was pleasantly surprised, Sonia had spent the previous evening reading me less than flattering online reviews of the place! But it turned out to be just fine, the room was big, clean and had cable so we could watch the start of the Olympics! The U.S. coverage is shocking though, it’s unbelievably biased towards U.S. athletes with seemingly very little interest for or knowledge about the event itself or any of the other athletes.

Not like the good old BBC! The hotel provided a free breakfast of sorts; you had the choice Read the rest of this entry »

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