PROMPT: Top 10 Travel

Daily writing prompt
What are your top 10 travel destinations?

I am not sure whether this is meant to be aspirational, by frequency, or by the appeal of the place. I’m also not sure what level of granularity to use. So, I will arbitrarily go with the countries (and things that quack like a country) that I’ve most enjoyed traveling in, placed in no particular order: – Taiwan; – Vietnam; – India; – Peru; – United States; – Kenya; – Georgia (Republic of); – Thailand; – Korea; and Kyrgyzstan.

NOTE: This list is not stable, and I hope to add and knock off some in the near future.

DAILY PHOTO: Sunlight Painting Clouds, Corozal

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Photograph of clouds, oddly lit, taken in Corozal, Belize.

PROMPT: Live Anywhere

Daily writing prompt
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Someplace inexpensive, with beaches and hikeable hilly / mountainous terrain within a reasonable distance, and where beer prices are not disproportionately high vis-a-vis the general cost of living. FYI — I call the latter the “stick-up-the-bum” index because if beer prices are relatively high, it usually means they are heavily sin-taxed (it’s not an expensive product to make,) and so disproportionately high beer prices suggest the society is trying to micromanage personal behavior. I may or may not want a beer (I’ll want one,) but I prefer to live in a society with a live-and-let-live mentality. Candidates exist in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Central Asia / Caucus region.

DAILY PHOTO: Red House and Treetops, Caye Caulker

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San Ignacio Limerick

An Italian chef living in San Ignacio
invented a cereal he called Nazi-O's.
Be careful which way
you spell sobriquets
so you don't make ignoble, San Ignacio.

Belize City Limerick

There was a chef from Belize City
who tried way too hard to be witty.
He liked to serve pork,
but when it was on fork,
tell his guests it was rat, just not itty-bitty.

NOTE: Gibnut [a.k.a. Paca] is a huge rodent eaten in Belize. It’s been called the “royal rat” because it was once served to Queen Elizabeth II.

DAILY PHOTO: Macal River, Belize

Taken near San Ignacio, Belize around 2010 [From Hawkesworth Bridge]

Belize City Limerick

There was a salesman from Belize City
who called it: “where noir meets gritty,”
which means a crap-hole
that’ll suck out your soul.
Move on, the rest of the country is so pretty.

Belizean Limerick

In greeting an old woman of Belize
a tourist praised, “You speak English with ease.”
“I know it, you fool;
they teach it in school!”
English is the state language of Belize.

DAILY PHOTO: Fun Structures, Caye Caulker

Taken on Caye Caulker in Belize about a decade ago.