BCAA Travel Blog

Are we chasing the storm or is the storm chasing us? As we drive northward through the Okanagan Valley it is difficult to tell. Angry clouds are swirling overhead and rain is hammering the windshield in intermittent bursts. Up ahead the sky looks positively menacing. Leonard is at the wheel and we have our road tunes playing on the stereo. I’m riding shotgun, listening to Leonard talk about his Métis childhood growing up in the bush in northern Alberta and his former military service in the Canadian Army. He now gives courses in weapons training and says he has a surprise hiding under his bed for anyone who breaks into his house during the night. As usual, we are behind schedule and so there is not much time to stop and admire the landscape. Motoring past Vernon, the late afternoon sun begins to break through the churning blackness and I stick my lens out the window. Continue reading…

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Yes, I had planned to hit the hay, but there is a full moon tonight and those amazing Smoker Marchand sculptures are out there twinkling in the darkness. I was recently given a new digital camera for my birthday and this looks like a good opportunity to see what it can do. I have to admit that after shooting for 30 years with a single-lens reflex, I’m finding the digital version a bit baffling. The manual that came with the device is only slightly smaller than a Gideon Bible. My teenage daughter, who effortlessly converted to digital two years ago, has assured me that the camera is smarter than I am. At least, I think she meant this to be reassuring. Anyway, I spend an hour crazily snapping away in the gloom until a red light on the viewfinder begins flashing and the camera unleashes a frantic series of beeps. Then everything goes black. The battery has died. Continue reading…

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The first thing that hits your eye when you drive up the winding road to the Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort & Spa is a large metal sculpture of a Native chieftain sitting astride a horse. His arms are lifted skyward and resting on his open palms is a peace pipe. The warrior looks right at home amid the surrounding Okanagan grasslands of sage and antelope brush. The sculpture is the work of Virgil “Smoker” Marchand, a member of the Colville Eastside Reservation in Omak, Washington. It is one of several of Marchand’s pieces that decorate the grounds of the elegant Santa Fe-style resort, all of them commissioned by Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band to honour the local native history. The hotel’s striking design and Marchand’s impressive metal sculptures are only two aspects of what ranks as one of B.C.’s most imaginative and surprising tourist developments.

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 Inside Guide to London: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Get the inside scoop on London from a local. Learn about correct “Tube” etiquette, Must see attractions, The Tower of London and The Crown Jewels.

This podcast was produced in partnership with Lonely Planet.

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As we lurched through the chaotic traffic of downtown Kuala Lumpur, I realized with a sinking sensation that Shirley, my Chinese driver, had only a passing familiarity with the automobile. She savagely grinded the gears of her company’s Mercedes into submission and weaved between lanes like a drunken sailor, leaving a chorous of angry horns trailing in our wake. Any pedestrian unlucky enough to venture into our flightpath saw their life suddenly flash before their eyes. As we careened past yet another terror-strickened face, I finally shouted in exasperation, “Holy smokes, you almost hit that guy!” Shirley showed not an iota of concern. “When I used to be walking, drivers did that to me all the time. Now, I just paying them back.” Continue reading…

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Ascribing meaning to ancient monuments is a tricky business. However, that doesn’t stop archaeologists from trying. Take Stonehenge, for example. This enigmatic circle of pillars on England’s Salisbury Plain, has long fascinated and puzzled academics, as well as the thousands of wide-eyed tourists who visit the site each year. The landmark has been variously described as a celestial observatory, a giant calendar, a royal cemetery, and a landing site for extraterrestrials. In the latest twist, a pair of British researchers has declared that Stonehenge was a Neolithic nursing home for the sick and infirmed, an early precursor to Lourdes.

Continue reading…

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1. The 1974 James Bond film “The Man With the Golden Gun” made the strangely shaped limestone islands of Phang Nga Bay world famous. Where is this bay located?
A. Thailand
B. Hawaii
C. Malaysia
D. Vietnam

2. According to a recent international survey of hotel employees, which nation has the most obnoxious tourists?
A. Germany
B. China
C. France
D. The United States Continue reading…

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 Turtle Tourism in Costa Rica: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Join Westworld writer Cam Sylvester as he takes part in Costa Rica’s Turtle Tourism.

You can also read an interview between Cam and Kerry Banks: Costa Rica Turtle Tourism

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Each summer under the cover of nightfall, more than 30,000 female green sea turtles crawl out of the ocean and drag their 200-kilogram bodies up the palm-lined beaches of northeast Costa Rica–often the same ones on which they were hatched—and scour out a pit in the sand. There, grunting and weeping, they lay 100 or so rubbery, ping-pong-ball-like eggs, from which, two months later, tiny babies will emerge and madly scramble down to the moonlit sea. The mothers, who swim thousands of kilometres to reach this birthing place, never see their young. Continue reading…

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When I was kid I didn’t know much, but I did know that Antarctica was one place that I definitely did not want to visit. I’d read about the horrors faced by the early 20th century explorers, and they scared me silly. British explorer Robert Scott and four of his comrades froze to death in their tents in their quest to become the first to reach the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the youngest member of Scott’s team and the sole survivor, later wrote a book about the ill-fated expedition, entitled The Worst Journey in the World. Although he did not perish, Cherry-Garrard did his share of suffering. He shattered most of his teeth due to chattering in the frigid temperatures. As you can imagine then, a trip to Antarctica has never been my idea of the ideal holiday. Continue reading…

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