Situated among the mist-covered peaks of the Talamanca Mountains, Los Quetzales National Park was established in 2006. This park lies 47 miles southeast of San Jose, and you can easily reach this park from Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Ocean. From Jacó it’s about a two-hour trip. The entrance to the park is on Cerro de la Muerte, just before the turnoff for San Gerardo de Dota. Most of the park area is around the both side of the Savegre river that emerges in the Cerro de la Muerte and connects to the Pacific Ocean close to the Manuel Antonio National Park. it is surrounded by natural rainforest, breathtaking waterfalls, and beautiful canyons. This park includes not only rainforests but also cloud forests, formed by the collision of warm, moist Caribbean trade wind with the Talamanca mountain range which stretches from southwest of San José to beyond the border with Panama. When tiny droplets are deposited on surfaces before they collect together and fall as rain it’s called horizontal precipitation and in cloud forests it can be the main source of moisture. Peaks enveloped by trade wind-derived clouds can capture huge amounts of water when they are covered with tropical montane cloud forests. Their sponge-like epiphytes (mosses, ferns and bromeliads) massively increase the surface area for horizontal precipitation. Vibrantly colored, from the miniature to the gigantic, Los Quetzales flora is some of the most beautiful in the world. There seemingly endless tropical flower species and even orchids. Many can be found growing wild on the trunks of giant trees.
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Relais de la Reine Lodge in Madagascar
I have decided to do posts on the resorts we visited in Madagascar as part of my tour, not because I have any financial interest in the properties, but because they were uniformly some of the most beautiful places I have ever been and because each of them reflects the surrounding area with unique gardens and plants. I actually found the sumptuous lodgings for tourists somewhat incongruous with the overall poverty of rural Madagascar although this is often the case in other parts of the world. Suffice it to say that there are more than a few wonderful “destination resorts” located around Madagascar that international travelers will find safe and more than comfortable. Relais de la Reine is one of three French-owned hotels situated in private grounds close to Isalo National Park. Isalo National Park is a National Park in the Ihorombe Region of Madagascar. The park is known for its wide variety of terrain, including sandstone formations, deep canyons, a palm-lined oases, and grassland. The closest town is Ranohira, and the closest cities are Toliara and Ihosy. A total of 340 animal species are known to inhabit the area, including 82 species of birds, 33 species of reptiles, 15 species of frogs and 14 species of mammals. We were particularly interested in the Ring-Tailed Lemur (which we saw on the way at Anja Community Reserve), the Red-Fronted Brown Lemur and of course, Verreaux’s Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) in Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park (56 miles (90 km) to the west of Isalo National Forest).
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Majestic Yosemite (Ahwahnee) Hotel
The Ahwahnee (Majestic Yosemite) Hotel is a grand hotel in Yosemite National Park, California, on the floor of Yosemite Valley, constructed from steel, stone, concrete, wood and glass, which opened in 1927. It is a premiere example of National Park Service rustic architecture, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. The Ahwahnee was renamed the Majestic Yosemite Hotel on March 1, 2016, due to a legal dispute between the US Government, which owns the property, and the outgoing concessionaire, Delaware North, which claims rights to the trademarked name. In the early 1900´s the first director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather, decided that Yosemite needed a first class hotel. While Mather no doubt enjoyed the finer things in life, and was a part of the income and status group that would frequent first class hotels, his motives weren´t entirely aimed at building the kind of hotel he and his friends would enjoy. As head of the fledgling Park Service, and a master politician he understood that the wealthy and powerful held the keys to obtaining the priority and funding that his new department would need to further it´s goals of both protecting the parks and making them accessible to the public.
Furnace Creek Inn, Death Valley
The Furnace Creek Inn was built by the Pacific Coast Borax Company of Twenty Mule Team fame as a means to save their newly built Death Valley Railroad. Mines had closed and shipping transportation was no longer needed, but mining tourist pockets seemed a sure way to keep the narrow-gauge line active. The borax company realized travelers by train would need a place to stay and wealthy visitors accustomed to comfort would be attracted to a luxury hotel. First opened for business in 1927, the Furnace Creek Inn was an immediate success. Unfortunately for the mining company, their railroad closed forever in 1930 when it became apparent tourists preferred the freedom of arriving to Death Valley in their own cars. Nonetheless, the Inn remained popular and construction continued for the next ten years. Designed by prominent Los Angeles architect Albert C. Martin and landscape architect Daniel Hull, the 66 room Inn sprawls across a low hill at the mouth of Furnace Creek Wash. With views over Death Valley and the Panamint Mountains to the west, the Inn’s location was well chosen and blends into the landscape. Most of the lodging is closed in the summer, when temperatures can surpass 125 °F (52 °C), but the golf course remains open.
Celebrity Solstice Cruise Ship
When Lisa and I decided to visit Australia and New Zealand we considered doing the visit overland via railways and airplanes. After a bit of research we decided that this approach was too overwhelming for our first encounter with these nations. Instead we decided upon a cruise ship that for two weeks would take us to various ports and give us an overview of both countries. Neither Lisa or myself have ever been on a cruise ship and yet we decided that this would give us the best opportunity to see both Australia and New Zealand, both large countries with most of the populations located on the coasts. As it turns out this was an good decision and one of our most enjoyable vacations, the cruise experience was nothing like we had imagined and in fact exceeded our expectations. It is true that you do not get the immersive experience of actually staying in the cities we visited but we spent a week in Sydney and Aukland and some of the locations we visited on the cruise would have been hard to get to in any case. I have compiled a group of photos that reflect our experience, not meant to be comprehensive.
Auberge du Bon Laboureur Hôtel and Restaurant, Chenanceaux, Loire Valley, France
We decided to stay in Chenanceau on our trip to the Loire valley and chose Le Bon Labourer primarily because they have a very good restaurant that has a Michelin star. The town of Chenanceaux has a different spelling than the château due to Louise Dupin de Francueil, owner of the chateau during the French Revolution, who is said to have dropped the “x” at the end of its name to differentiate what was a symbol of royalty from the Republic. As a result of her good relations with the village, the Château was spared the iconoclastic damage suffered by many other monuments during the Revolution. The population of permanent residents hovers about 400, as of 2012, but there is a large influx of tourists during the summer months, because the village adjoins the former royal Château de Chenonceau, one of the most popular tourist destinations in France.
Hotel Coronado, Coronado, California
Since we live in Las Vegas, we like to go to California for the odd weekend on the ocean. I have decided to write a series devoted to California ocean-side resorts. The first is the historic Hotel Coronado on Coronado Island in San Diego. When it opened in 1888, it was the largest resort hotel in the world. It has hosted presidents, royalty, and celebrities through the years. The hotel has been featured in numerous movies and books.