The Destinations Guru
The Destinations Guru

A Man’s Home is his Castle

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They say a man’s home is his castle but it is rare that a home really is a castle. We generally think of European royalty, but there is a distinctive group of wealthy industrialists who built homes that resembled castles. The Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California is one notable example. Another is the Boldt…

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Chilliwack Sunflower Festival

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The owners of the Chilliwack Sunflower Festival had been hosting an annual tulip festival since 2006. Then in 2017, while on vacation in Hawaii, they saw a sunflower festival there and pondered the possibility of expanding their operation. After some investigation, they opened the Chilliwack Sunflower Festival in 2018. My wife and I along with…

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The Other Antigua

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When we think of Antigua, we usually think of the Caribbean island, but there are in fact three others. Two of them are small towns, one in Australia and one in the Canary Islands. The subject of today’s tour is the ancient city of Antigua in Guatemala. Founded in 1543 as Santiago de los Caballeros,…

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Birding in a Tainted Paradise

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The next stop in our Panama Canal cruise, after leaving Panama, was Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We had booked something called Tárcoles River: An Eco Adventure, one of eleven different excursions available at this port of call. It is promoted as Jungle Crocodile Safari, which is a bit of a misnomer. But they also promote it…

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Monkey Watch

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Monkey Watch was one of the excursion options on our recent Panama Canal cruise. The tour left from the pier at Panama City, after we had transited the canal itself. Panama has a large harbor but it is not set up to accommodate cruise ships so we took one of the tenders to get to…

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