Avenida Amazonas - Quito, Ecuador

The view from my office window temporarily changed recently as I worked a couple of days from the offices of Andean Travel Company in Quito, Ecuador. They're based in a colonial style-building on the Avenida Amazonas in the modern center of the city. Here is the view from my temporary office, a big change from the Silicon Valley view in Santa Clara, Calif. By the way, if you're going to Ecuador, the Galapagos, Peru or Bolivia, Andean Travel Company can hook you up. They're a full service agency. 

Cartagena de Indias - Tourist Trap?

Colonial cities in Central and South America are treasures for tourists and many have been undiscovered by tourism. Granada and Leon, Nicaragua as well as Cuenca, Ecuador, are some of the places where tourism hasn't taken over. Strolling through those towns will make you feel like you've entered a different world.

Cartagena de Indias in Colombia is a bit of a different story. Yes, it is a beautiful and very special place with ancient walls around an historic center with narrow streets, colonial buildings, romantic squares and colorful bougainvillea growing everywhere. Here's a key statistic for the downside: the tiny historic center of Cartagena de Indias expects to get nearly 500,000 visitors from cruise ships alone in the 2009/2010 season.

The mass tourism has turned the gorgeous town into somewhat of a tourist trap, complete with people trying to sell souvenirs everywhere you walk or sit, pricey boutiques, mediocre restaurants with pushy runners, the obligatory horse drawn carriages and taxi drivers who try to get more money for the short trips you might take.

If you're prepared to deal with those minor hassles and don't mind seeing hordes of slightly overweight elderly people (mostly Americans) who travel in groups, following a guide and take pictures of a butterfly that landed on the hat of a fellow cruise tourist, you will be fine.

Despite the mass tourism, Cartagena de Indias is worth a visit and you will remember the gorgeous historic buildings, squares and streets. If I were to go back I'd plan to stay in the historic center and just spend two nights, with one full day, walking around the town, drinking coffee and snacking on local delicacies.

Here are some impressions of the town:

Beach Scenes At Boca Grande, Colombia

Prepare to be assaulted the moment you set foot on Boca Grande Beach near Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. It is a physical assault, but not by gangsters or mobsters, instead by massage therapists looking to sell their services. They won't take "no" for an answer and will start massaging you even if you tell them to leave you alone. "Es un regalo" -- a present, they say. But before you know if you're getting the full massage and you will spend $10 or so being rubbed in with some cheap lotion. The massage isn't bad at all, quite good actually, but the assault is a bit of an experience.

The pushy massage therapists are just the start. Once you park yourself in a chair on the beach a veritable parade of peddlers will come by. You can buy sun glasses, towels, T-shirts, fruit plates, ceviches, full lunches, ice creams, beers, tours, smokes and more from your lazy position on the beach. It is quite comfortable to sit there, but don't think you will be left in peace for long. A tip, take a book and at least pretend to be reading from it and you will be left alone by the hawkers.

Here are some shots from the beach, taken by my dad "Latino" Benno

Stanford vs UC Davis

The Stanford "Cardinals" handily beat the UC Davis "Aggies" on Sunday night. It is very rare for me to go see a sporting event, but I bought tickets so my visiting cousin from Holland could experience an American sports event. He loves basketball and he was very impressed with the size of the Maples Pavilion at Stanford as well as the game in general. One odd thing though, I bought tickets online and the only seats the Stanford Web site would sell me were high up, way in the back. I thought the game would be sold out, but there were plenty of seats near the court left. What's up with that?

12 Scams of Christmas

Last week King 5 News (NBC) in Seattle discussed some of the scams cybercrooks are pulling around Christmas time. The segment was based on a McAfee pitch about some of the tricks we've seen online during the holidays. Many broadcasters around the nation and the world have paid attention to the topic, advising consumers how to be safe online while dealing with the stress of the season and trying to get the best deals for the wishlists they have to fill. The Seattle station interviewed me, the segment is below.

Christmas In The Park - San Jose

Last night I stumbled upon a pretty cool display in downtown San Jose. All of the park on Plaza de Cesar Chavez has been turned into a Christmas display complete with tons of Christmas trees, decorations, caroling and fake snow. Here's an impression taken with my Blackberry camera.

Snow on Bay Area Mountains

This morning Silicon Valley woke up to snowcapped mountains. That's quite a rare event, it happens only a few times a year. We got one of our main storms overnight and the temperature has been close to freezing. I heard one report that snow was coming down in the East Bay this morning and the drive across the Sunol Grade, which connects the East Bay with the Silicon Valley, was akin to a drive in the Sierra Nevada.

Dreary December Day At Golden Gate Bridge

It is December in California too, so no more long hot sunny days, but a bit more frigid weather and, today, a chance of rain. I've got a visitor from Holland, so we walked the Golden Gate, looked at pelicans and sea lions. Always a hit!

Hacking License

Yesterday I saw the first "Hacking License" I've ever seen. It didn't belong to someone licensed to break into computers. Instead, it was on display on the dashboard of a Virginia Yellow Cab.

The cabbie explained to me that the "Hacking License" is something that came from England where driving around looking for fares apparently was once called (or maybe still is called) hacking.

Being a former cabbie, I guess that makes me an ex-hacker :-) (I was a cabbie in Haarlem/Amsterdam/Schiphol during my college years.)