Nicaragua was colonised by the Spanish and has the old colonial buildings and cobbled streets to show; it has the oldest cathedral in Central America, and Granada is reputed to be the oldest city on the western hemisphere. Nicaragua has also had more than its share of destruction through earthquakes and revolutions. Managua, the capital was hit particularly hard by the 1972 earthquake which pretty much wiped out what was the centre of town.

This tour takes in the “best” of Nicaragua in 10 days. It is not a big country so everything is within easy reach and there is a reasonable bus system. Everyone seems to agree that Ometepe Island is the highlight of Nicaragua, followed by Granada. No one much seems to like Managua, saying it is a bit dodgy. You could do most of this itinerary as day trips from Managua, but the Beetle recommends that you get out of Managua – not such a great place – and stay over in different places.

Day 1: fly into Managua. Managua, the capital of Nicaragua is on the southern shore of Lake Managua. Settle into your hotel/hostel and explore. Managua itself is a bit of a sad city. Despite the new building boom, it is not hard to see that the centre is still astonishingly devastated from the 1972 earthquake, so it a curious place as there is no real centre any more, it is spread all over, wherever funding allows new building. The Intercom hotel is something of a landmark, it is built in the shape of one of the old Mayan pyramids, some consider this as the centre – it was the only building that survived the 1972 earthquake. The lake is brown and has waves and looks like the sea, but it is dirty and not nice. Things to see include the Plaza de la República, the newly renovated cathedral which is now a museum, the Peace Park where you can see the giant lighthouse, and the tank and thousands of guns mummified in spray-on concrete. Near the cathedral is the grave of Carlos Fonseca, the founder of the Sandinistas, the Palcio Nacional, and the new Casa Presedencial. There are several museums, including a Museum of the Revolution. There are some places to swim, in the lagunas that are volcanic crater lakes. People tend not to stay in Managua, they usually head straight out to Granada – note Granada not Leon. There is a good bus network though, so getting around is easy. If you have time, take a morning bus to the Laguna de Xiloá, a crater lake that is a popular swimming spot about 20km north west of Managua and have a swim. Return to Managua.

Day 2: do a day trip to Leon. Take the bus to Leon, north of Managua and not far. Leon allegedly has Central America's oldest cathedral that took over 200 years to rebuild. It has some large paintings of the 12 Stations of the Cross and also houses the tomb of Rubén Darío, the poet. There are monuments to the revolution and Sandanista murals all over Leon. Leon is smaller than Granada and will not take more than a half day to look around, have some lunch and return to Managua. You can wander the streets and admire the colonial churches and the whitewashed adobe buildings with red roofs. There’s plenty of info about the 1978-79 revolution too for those interested in some of Nicaragua’s past. If you find, like the Beetle, that there is not a lot to keep you in Leon, then take the bus back to Managua and then on to Granada.

Day 3: Take a bus from Managua to El Trapiche, 17km southeast of Managua. El Trapiche is a place where large outdoor pools have been formed by near by natural springs. It is quite pretty as there are gardens and restaurants. Have lunch and have a splash. You may meet some tourists here! From here, continue to another 5kms southeast to the Massaya Volcano Nat Park. It is only 23kms south east of Managua and also 20 mins drive from Granada. The volcano is still active and you can see (and smell!) the steam coming out of it. There are some hot springs, the usual sort of volcano stuff. There's also a big market at Massaya where you can buy hammocks etc. When you have had a look around, take the bus to Granada and overnight there.

Day 4: Granada is only around 45kms away from Managua. It lies at the base of the Mombacho volcano and is on Lake Nicaragua so it has a constant cool breeze. Granada has cobbled streets and you will see lots of Spanish style colonial architecture, the cathedral, the Colon Park and Mombacho. It took the Beetle less than a day to visit and explore Granada, although she did not go on the lake. Some say that Granada is the oldest city in the western hemisphere. If you are a bird watcher, there are over 350 volcanic islands in Lake Managua. The islands that people visit are called Las Islets de Nicaragua where you can see nesting cormorants etc. You can go kayaking here if that is your thing.

Day 5: take a trip out onto Lake Nicaragua and visit some of the islands. San Pablo has a small fortress built by the Spaniards to protect against British pirates in the 18th century, Isla Zapatera is a national park and has some old stone statues. Isla del Muerto also has tombs and rock carvings to see.

Day 6 and 7: From Granada take the bus to San Jorge, near Rivas it’s about 4 hours by bus and take the ferry out to visit Ometepe Island, the largest freshwater island in the world (complete with fresh water sharks!) Ometepe is the highlight for most people visiting Nicaragua. Once there, you can lie around on the beaches or if you are feeling slightly more energetic, you can climb up Volcano Maderas. Take the bus from San Jorge to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific coast.

Day 8, 9,10: laze on the beach at San Juan del Sur. Day 10 take the bus back up to Managua to fly back home.

Alternative: there is a five-hour boat trip down the Río Escondido to Bluefields, on the Caribbean coast. Most travellers reckon that this is not worth it and the Beetle has not seen many good reports about Bluefields….but, the Corn Islands in the Caribbean just off Bluefields are worth the trip. To get there, the best way is to fly from Managua – around $100 return. Little Corn Island in particular gets some rave reviews for sunning and swimming.

Big Red Barn Ent. in Vancouver, Canada, are presently in post production on a documentary called “Bikes on Ice”, where they sent a small digi-cam along with a team of 3 arctic cyclists to the Yukon and Alaska. They documented their journey – in journal style – they successfully retraced the bicycle journey from Dawson City to Nome Alaska in 49 days, done by two men in the year 1900 during the gold rush.

They are now looking seriously at another 6-7 expeditions to present for the series “X-PLORE” for CTV Travel, OLN and Discovery. “Bikes on Ice” was considered the pilot and will air on CTV Travel June 24, 2003 in Canada. They are looking for unique and exciting expeditions we can document for the series (one hour doc's).

Do you know of any expeditions in the works – sailing, polar, skiing, kayaking, canoeing, they're looking for a variety of possibilities around the world.

Please visit the www.bikesonice.com site and have a look at what our pilot doc. for the series is about and do visit our company site www.brbmg.com

The Santorini Ferry or as it is lovingly called Mama Tanzania, is one of those amazing things that can only be found in Tanzania. This boat is an experience in itself. The Santorini ferry is a 1960’s Greek cruiser and is run by a Greek Crew. It is in good nick for its age and is certainly the most upper-class thing ever to hit Mtwara.

The boat takes roughly 18 hours crossing time. You leave Mtwara lunchtime on Friday and are in Dar-es-Salaam by the morning. On return you leave Tuesday lunchtime and arrive Mtwara Wednesday morning. There are five classes, A-F ranging from class A at 40,500 Tsh to class F at 11,500 Tsh. Class A, B and C all have cabins although only class A has an en-suite bathroom! If you are in the top three classes you have use of the two restaurants one which serves Swahili food which will set you back about 2000 Tsh and is self-service canteen style and another which serves European food and is waiter service. This cost me about 8,000 Tsh but I did have three courses and a salad, what can I say Mikindani makes you hungry! And a good bowl of mushroom soup followed by spaghetti bolognaise followed by fruit salad was a well-deserved treat, I thought! Volunteers must be warned, local eating habits do not apply here and attacking food hyena style is not advised, believe me, I know! When a man wearing a T-shirt saying “ABIBAS”(ADIDAS) looks at you in disbelief you are really put in your place.

Despite this you are made to feel quite comfortable in the top three classes on this mystery boat. The bar is well equipped with two satellite TV’s and and a DJ, as I suppose you could call him – the man who bangs out tunes for the entire journey. This is needed, as the majority of passengers use this room just to keep their bags in, this is a style adopted by our very own Emmanuel who managed to make it the whole 18 hours propped up at the bar so I was told by the stewardess ladies on board who all remember Mr Casanova very well! This is a lively place, not for the faint hearted. If you suffer seasickness or hate rap avoid this bar like the plague. I seemed to know a lot of people and like anywhere in Tanzania everyone is related somehow!

Class D and E are made up of rows of armchair seats inside with a small counter to by snacks and drinks. All classes A- E are air-conditioned. Class F is a plastic seat outside that runs down the hallways of both sides of the boat. On the top deck there are benches covered by a canopy. In rough weather these seats can be a bit difficult and on the top deck is very windy and the coldest I’ve ever been outside in Tanzania. If you want to cool down, clear your head and get a wonderful view of the stars then this is the place to be. All in all I would recommend using the Santorini as a reliable way to travel from Dar-es-Salaam to Mtwara. Especially for future volunteers, it is a cheaper alternative to flying and the 1960s décor is bound to keep you amused!

Update: our friends at Trade Aid tell us that the Santorini has been pulled from this route. We do not yet know if this is permanent or not.

For more information about Trade Aid, volunteers and their work, please visit their website www.mikindani.com

Win a Frommer’s guidebook on Australia 2003. See www.frommers.com for info on Frommer’s guidebooks.

Some people have said the quiz is difficult, we say do some research; try google.com or Ask Jeeves, if you need help with the answers.

The winner of last month's Frommer’s Guide to Seattle is Tom Calvert. Please let the Beetle know your postal address so that she can send you your prize.

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

We had easyJet (which spawned low cost imitators including Ryanair) and now easyCruise is coming our way in 2004. Not many people know that the low cost pile ‘em high and give them crap so called low cost airlines was started by the serial entrepreneurial Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Now, Stelios, as he likes to be known, is looking at a low cost cruise business. Don’t forget that he comes from a shipping background before making his name creating the UK’s extremely successful first no-frills airline.

He has plans to charge around £30 or US $50 per night on Mediterranean and Caribbean cruises. Prices will be berth-only, with extra charges for meals and drinks – sound familiar? (The Beetle rather cynically wonders if you have pre-allocated cabins or is survival of the fittest as to who can get there first?!) Passengers can choose where they join and leave the ship subject to availability. Summer cruises will take place in the Mediterranean and in the winter months in the Caribbean.

He hopes to attract a younger clientele, backpackers and even young families for whom previously, the notion of cruising has been prohibitively expensive.

If anyone can take on the big cruisers such as Carnival-Princess, RCL and Star Cruises, he can. The company is currently looking for smaller passenger ships and says that operations may start at Easter 2004. The easyCruise concept will be bookable on-line with early booking discounts available. Watch this space!

Globetrotters meeting 3^rd May by Acorn

Our first speaker, Windy Baboulene spoke to us for over 45 minutes, without slides or props, of his time as a youngster in the merchant navy and some of the outrageous escapades he got up to.

His first story concerned his favourite safari hat, and how one of his children had thrown it out of the car window whilst in a controlled safari park in the UK; was he brave enough to get it back? That would depend on whether his story of lone survival on the Serengeti Plains was The Truth or not. He went on to tell us the actual events behind his Kenyan safari so we could decide for ourselves. He and his fellow shipmates had been on safari, but had not taken it seriously. They had played “dares”, such as running away from the safety of the truck and dancing – on the plains in the Rift Valley – around an imaginary handbag, whilst the nearby wildlife watched on, amused. During Windy's turn at performing a dare, his 'friends' drove off and left him. Just for a laugh, you understand. Was he brave…?

Another one of Windy’s stories was about being caught out boasting about his skiing prowess and being taken by helicopter along with some new found friends to ski from impossibly sheer cliffs in the Rocky Mountains of Canada.

Windy's story telling was not just funny – it was interesting and engaging too. To know more, you’ll have to buy his book, The 'Hilarious and often Bizarre true story' (ABTA Travel) entitled 'Blue Road', available from Amazon – to take a look and to see more reviews, visit Windy Baboulene's Blue Road

Our second speaker, John Harrison spoke of his seven canoeing expeditions up the Amazon. His slides showed the beauty and also the dangers of being in such an inhospitable landscape. We saw how John and his travel companions occasionally suffered the ravages of tropical diseases, including malaria when they swigged quinine out a bottle – until they ran out – and Leishmaniasis, (a horrible parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of some species of sand flies) that causes huge sores. We also saw pictures of the Amazon, the river, its tributaries, undergrowth, enormous spiders and insects, of hidden tribes protected against explorers. John finished up by telling us of the trouble he got into with the French Guyanese authorities for having crossed over into French Guyana without a visa – they had after all travelled up the Amazon! The immigration officials in the capital, Cayenne gave him such a hard time, threatening all manner of penalties, including a spell in prison, until he realised that French speaking John was actually British, and being a part of the EU did not actually need a visa to travel into French Guyana!

Coming up in June

Saturday, 7th June
JACQUI TROTTER A Year travelling in South America – Jacqui, a regular London “Globie” enjoys a year travelling – sometimes with overland groups – and sometimes “solo.”

SIMON MYERS China – Simon spent five years in China before riding a Chinese motorbike and sidecar back from Beijing to London. His first book “Adrift in China” has recently been published.

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk

After staying overnight in San Pedro, in Northern Chile, we were off again, hot footing it down the highway bound for Santiago. But on the way we discovered that Chile has the most marvellous loos (washrooms), as I’ve said earlier, every service station welcomes one with hot water, toilet paper, toilet attendants who seem to take a pride in keeping their domain clean … And our group pigged out on ice cream, chocolate, crisps and other fattening snacks from the Esso shop! Then we discovered La Serena, a seaside resort in Chile with the most marvellous shops. I am ashamed to say we revelled in the cleanliness, the sheer European look of the place and again lots of money was spent on clothes and food and stocking up on film and even one of our members bought a tent in order to free himself from a two-man tent which wasn’t really big enough for him and his companion!

And so on to Santiago, a place we could have done with staying in a little longer but unfortunately, time was short. We arrived in the late afternoon, stayed just two nights and were away very early on the second morning, having acquired two new people and reacquired one of our members who was supposed to leave us in Santiago and join another truck as we had three new people supposedly joining us, but at the last minute, the third new person had slipped a disc and was unable to come so our departing member was suddenly rejoining us, much to our pleasure as we have all bonded now and were sorry enough to see two of our group depart at the end of their respective trips, one to return to Scotland and the other to Australia.

And so I am now in Pucón and here we stay for three days. There is a volcano to climb, horse riding to be done, rafting and trekking, etc, but at the moment all yours truly is doing is catching up on e-mails and chilling out. There is a lovely lake to go and sit beside or wander around and for the time being I am going to do my own thing and try and get some time to myself – all this togetherness tends to pall after a while and it is nice to say – “Cheerio,” to the people taking packed lunches off to their various day long activities and to as it were, mentally close the door on them and take my shoes off, put my feet up and relax!

From Pucón we went on to Bariloche, which is a small but interesting little town and I would have liked to stay there longer than the one night but it wasn’t to be. We camped outside of Bariloche for just the one night (I hate these one nighters, all that trouble of putting the tent up for 12 hours and then taking it down again) but that’s life on the road! From Bariloche we went to a place called Perito Moreno where again we spent the one night and then on to our next port of call, a place called El Chalten. We stayed here for three nights when members of our group went rafting (two fell out into the river and got quite a fright) and others went glacier walking leaving the camp site at 0500 in the morning and not getting back until 2100. They said they had a good time and although quite a frightening and challenging one as well as the weather was none too good up high and they were all very sore from muscles that were overstrained.

My friend Judith and I went on a long, long trek that was meant to last 8 hours but in fact stretched out to 12 hours as we took a different path on the way back and discovered it was a very circuitous route. Needless to say we were exhausted by the finish as we had left at 0820 and got back at 2045! Luckily the group had got a barbecue going and we arrived just at serving up time! And we beat the glacier walkers who clocked in just 15 minutes later. But the first part of our trek was fantastic. We were walking to view some glaciers rather than walk them and for the whole of our walk, the full 8 hours, on the outward and return journey, we were seeing those beautiful snow clad peaks with their blue glaciers shimmering in the sunshine and could not resist taking picture after picture after picture of virtually the same scene but seen from different aspects. I dare say we will both throw away most of them but we were enthralled. And when we eventually arrived at the foot of the glacier (still out of sight) we had to cross a fast flowing river coming down from the glacier and there were only two logs straddling each other with no handholds.

Luckily, there was a man who had attempted to cross with other women and he was standing astride the logs in the centre of the stream and another man was assisting us from the bank so we managed somehow to straddle the logs in a prone position and inch our way across with help! Judith went first and so I had to follow but my heart was in my mouth the whole time and I didn’t dare think of what might happen if I slipped or the man helping me lost his hand hold on me! But I got over and it was a great achievement. Then after a walk up a gentle slope we came to a real hard climb with lots of loose shale and small boulders with hardly any hand holds and only the occasional prickly bush to grab hold of and immediately let go of and so often it was a case of scrabbling on hands and knees to get up to the top. But finally we managed to get to the first summit, so to speak only to find a downward slope leading to another upward slope, but we were determined to carry on and it was well worth it as when we did get to the foot of the actual glacier it was the most beautiful sight we had seen in a long time as there was a brilliant blue lake and these fantastic glaciers cascading down the mountain. We sat and ate our lunch there and just marvelled at the scenery and of course took heaps more photos. But we were the only two to do this particular walk because the members of our group had gone to see a completely different more popular glacier in the opposite direction to us.

If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk

JUNE 7: Ladakh Ken Axen, who also presented the amazing Bhutan, will be back to present Ladakh. “In the forbidding terrain of the Himalayas, a robust people embellish their frugal lives with rich endowments of faith”, Thomas J. Abercrombie, National Geographic.

Experience the beauty of this exotic land through a slide show by Kenneth Axen, PhD, research scientist, graphic artist, and serious amateur photographer.

For details of forthcoming meetings e-mail newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for e-mail updates, click here at our website.

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.

U. S. Soldiers Home, Washington: during a century of travel (well 78 years!) both in and out of service I have travelled to over 150 countries (I count both North and South Dakota as countries) and for some reason have jotted signs and happenings that I thought funny at the time (and now wonder why). So here is the perfect opportunity to share some of my anecdotes.

The Brazilian experience: Be sure to get an immigration entry stamp in your passport before you leave. A tourist behind me interrupted the immigration official with a question and the immigration official did not give me a proper stamp in my passport. When I got to hotel I looked to see what their entry stamp looked like compared to mine. It didn’t look good. I was not upset but went to airline office and I thought they could straighten it out: the airline manifest would show I had arrived. They got excited. They made me go to Security way across town and said I had to go to a Notary Republic to get my statement notarised, etc etc. I wasted one full day trying to get this straightened out. When I got to security I explained to a man in the hallway what had happened. I waited awhile and was called into office. Behind desk was the man in the hallway I had explained what happened to. He smiled and entered that I had entered. I was going to go overland to Manaus in Northern Brazil and only discovered then that I did not have entry stamp. I suspect I might have been sent back to Security in Rio. I learn by my mistakes. When I did get on plane I was given a demi tasse of coffee in a coffee cup that I thought would be a good souvenir. I asked if I could keep it. The Stewardess said just a minute and brought back a cartoon of demi tasse cups. They must have heard about me! I said, “thanks but one is enough. Would you refill it?”

I read where some Mexicans tried crossing illegally into the States across the border from Mexico in a novel way. Border Patrols saw a truck go by with a portable toilet in the back. When they opened the door of the toilet there were seventeen Mexicans. They had paid $500 each to be in that toilet and there was no toilet paper.

One wag says when US customs ask you if you are carrying guns, drugs, psychotropic substances or any items harmful to the National Constitution, he always wonders what kind of person answers yes to a question like that.

When we got tired of filling our forms to enter different communist countries and got tired of all the red tape one wag suggested that on the form where it asked the reason for our visit that we put “penance”

At one border crossing someone was supposed to meet us at the border – but no one showed. It was a public holiday. The toilet on our bus had broken down and the lady in charge of the toilet at border would not let up in unless we gave her something like three cents in their money. None of us had any of their money yet and she would not take any American money. What do you do? Push her aside? Create an international incident? Suddenly I remembered that I had gotten a small amount of their money before coming and I treated everyone to a “toilet.”

Next month, Mac discusses: Thailand. If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed on: macsan400@yahoo.com

For information on Ontario meetings, please contact Svatka Hermanek: shermanek@schulich.yorku.ca or Bruce Weber: tel. 416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel. 416-694-8259.

Meetings are held on the third Friday of January, March, May, September and November. Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op, Penthouse, 133, Wilton Street in downtown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.

Cape Town has many beautiful places to visit and the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden is one of them. It is situated on the mountainside near Constantia and covers many hectares of land. When you enter these gardens it is like entering paradise. The hustle and bustle of traffic and the city fade away and you find yourself in this most beautiful of places.

For those who don't know this garden, it is the home to many of the indigenous plants found in and around Cape Town and South Africa. There is always a show of colour as thousands of plants in the garden flower in their seasons. At the moment there are proteas and many purple flowers in bloom. The lovely king protea being the main flower on show at the moment.

The gardens are laid out in beds with large grass lawns in between them. There are many large oak and yellow wood trees that provide shade and there are paths set out amongst the beds so that visitors are able to see what is in them. One area is especially set out for the visually handicapped. Plants with strong scents grow in this area. All visitors have to do is reach out and touch the plant to smell the lovely aromas given off by the plants. This is one of my favourite areas as I grew up amongst many of the plants and know their smells intimately. Signage in this area is also in Braille for blind visitors.

At the top of the garden on the highest part of the mountain slope are the cycads (Bread trees). The trees date back to the dinosaurs. The fruit looks like a large pineapple. The trees are protected as they take many years to mature. They are normally found in the Eastern Cape where they grow naturally. Unfortunately as they are scarce and popular a black market has developed. The authorities have had to take measures to stop the trade in them.

Lower down the slopes you will find a bath that is known as Lady Anne's bath. The story goes that she used to come for a swim in it but unfortunately the story is untrue. The bath was in fact built by a Colonel Bird after Lady Anne had left the Cape. It is in the shape of a bird and was used to filter water for his farmhouse that was found lower down the slope. The water in this pool is very clear, as none of the natural tannins of the surrounding plants have entered the water. The water comes straight out of the earth and does not run along the ground before entering the pool. When we visited the gardens it was a veritable league of nations. Sitting having a meal in the restaurant at tables on either side of us, we had people from San Francisco, Colorado and Australia. There were also Germans, Italians and Chinese and Dutch people walking through the gardens.

On the lawns between the beds there are a number of African sculptures which visitors found very interesting. They were sculpted from rock in the shapes of African ladies in various poses. The number of visitors posing next to them for photographs was very interesting. To spend a day relaxing in the garden is a must. The visitors I saw were just running in and having a quick glance and leaving again. This is a complete NO NO. To really enjoy this tourist attraction and the fantastic feeling of peace and tranquillity, one has to spend a good number of hours just savouring it. The restaurant can provide picnic baskets for visitors who are then able to find a spot to sit down and enjoy lunch and take in the views. There are a number of birds in the garden, which are quite cheeky. The guinea fowl will follow you around hoping for a handout if it sees you with a basket. In the larger trees are a number of squirrels and near the centre of the garden is a pond with a number of ducks on it.

This garden is not only a garden but a natural theatre as well. On summer evenings they have symphony concerts on the lawns and thousands of people arrive for them. It’s like a big family, most of whom pack a picnic basket and come and have sundowners while listening to the music. You can miss other venues and tourist attractions in Cape Town but not this one. Visit this one on your free day and spend the day.

A note from Geoff, the author of this article: a quick and easy way to discover Cape Town is to read Turtle Essays Ezine. To subscribe just send a blank e-mail to TurtleEssays-subscribe@turtlesa.com or visit my site at http://www.turtlesa.com and read the essays and articles on line.

The Texas Branch of the Globetrotters Club will meet Saturday 14^th June 2003 at the New Braunfels Public Library – note back to old location. This month’s meeting will feature a Magical Mystery slide show of Europe presented by Chris and Julie. It was such a big hit at the May meeting we are doing it again, featuring different locales across the continent.

Dates of future meetings:

July 12th – China
August 9th – To be advised

If you like independent, adventuresome, fun, daring, exciting, “off the beaten path” travel, this club is for you. Our meeting begins at 2 P.M. Come early so you won't be late! Enjoy handouts, travel talk time, and door prizes!

For more information about the Texas Branch: please contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for e-mail updates at our website (click here) or call Christina at 830-620-5482

If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

Be careful if you are planing to take a trip to Sri Lanka. Up to 400 people in Sri Lanka are feared dead or missing after floods have swept through the Southern part of the country – a region popular with tourists. The downpours have been region's heaviest for 60 years has also left around 100,000 people homeless and sparked a massive relief operation.

If you enjoy writing, enjoy travelling, why not write for the free monthly Globetrotters e-newsletter! The Beetle would love to hear from you: your travel stories, anecdotes, jokes, questions, hints and tips, or your hometown or somewhere of special interest to you. Over 7,500 people currently subscribe to the free Globetrotter e-news.

To see your story in cyber print, e-mail the Beetle with your travel experiences, hints and tips or questions up to 750 words, together with a couple of sentences about yourself and a contact e-mail address to Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

Britain's longest national walking trail, from Minehead in Somerset to South Haven Point near Poole in Dorset, will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year.

The 630-mile South West Coast Path takes in steep, ‘hog's back' cliffs rising to 800 feet, fishing harbours, pretty villages and unspoilt countryside.

There will be a wide variety of events between April and October, including guided walks, talks and displays of works by local artists, writers, musicians and other performers who have been inspired by the path. For more information, see http://www.swcp.org.uk/

Source: Britain Express

The airport is located some 15 miles (24 km) away from Dallas and 18 miles (29 km) away from Fort Worth. There are four terminals:

• Terminal A is for American/American Eagle flights.
• Terminal B serves America West, American, Continental, United, US Airways and most non-US airlines.
• Terminal C is for American Airlines.
• Terminal E is for Aeromexico, AirTran, Delta and Northwest flights.

History: the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, have a rivalry going back a long time and this is true when it came to sharing an airport. Dallas first suggested sharing an airport back in 1927, but it was not to happen for many years, until 1968.

In 1940, when both Dallas and Fort Worth were looking for funding to prop up their respective ailing airports, the Civil Aeronautics Administration tried to persuade them to join forces and offered US $1.9 million to get it going, but nothing doing. In 1941, American and Braniff airlines keen to cut costs got together with the city of Arlington to develop Midway Airport. Nice try, but this time Dallas and Fort Worth fell out over the siting of the main terminal and again nothing happened.

More than twenty years on, in 1964 the Civil Aeronautics Board ruled that Love Field (Dallas) and Great Southwest International (Fort Worth) were unsuitable for future needs and gave the two cities just 180 days to find a site for a joint airport or it would do the job for them. Under J. Erik Jonsson, Mayor of Dallas and also chairman of an Interim Airport Board things began to happen. A suitable site was found situated about 17 miles from both cities. Money was raised, prairie land was bought and the Dallas Fort Worth Regional Airport Board created in 1968.

The first commercial flight landed at the new DFW on January 13, 1974 and it has been going from strength to strength ever since. In 2000DFWwas the world's fifth busiest airport and has expansion plans to get even bigger.

Amateur and professional photographers alike, based anywhere in the world can compete for a share of the £45,000 prize package, and there's an additional competition to find the Young Travel Photographer of the Year, for those aged 16 and under. The Travel Photographer of the Year wins a trip for two people to the Islands of the Bahamas – where they can spend a day with respected underwater filmmaker Gavin McKinney. They also win £2,000 worth of prizes from Calumet, a UK photographic store and a bundle of Adobe imaging, web and design software worth approximately £3,000, a Lowepro Dryzone 200 waterproof camera backpack and a Manfrotto carbon fibre tripod. Individual category prizes include trips to Cuba, Iceland and the Galapagos Islands, and lots of other goodies.

The winner of the Young Travel Photographer title gets the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to receive personal photo tuition from one of the UK's most famous photographers, Charlie Waite. Their other prizes include Fujifilm's state-of-the-art S2 Pro digital camera with lens. Full details and entry forms from www.tpoty.com

How many places on earth have you been to that offer so many interesting surprises? Papua New Guinea (PNG in short,) situated north of Australia and east of Indonesia on the island of New Guinea offers a myriad of surprises which come as culture shock for the cultural and adventure tourists.

The Highlands of Papua New Guinea, which is made up of five of the country’s 19 provinces, is the rugged interior, whose people of short, stocky warrior farmers, make up a third of the country’s 5 million people of Melanesian and Polynesian stocks.

The Highlands of PNG is truly “last frontier territory.” The first white men set foot on this part of the world in the 1960s. The Highlands has been referred to by many travellers as wild, rugged and isolated, making it a truly amazing place for its sheer natural beauty and pristine wilderness. It’s a natural wonderland and perhaps, the very place in the world that should rightfully be given the title of “last frontier”. With its towering, cool, cloud-covered mountain peaks, deep gorges, evergreen valleys and fast-flowing rivers, it is the region in PNG that is still very much untouched and unexplored. Its people are colourful and you only have to visit one of the major cultural shows such as the Goroka or Mt Hagen Shows to see why. In one big gathering, you will be confronted with loud pulsating sounds of “kundu drums” made from hollowed logs, which are covered with lizard and snake skin and confronted with thousands of colourfully-painted faces and bodies that glisten in the Highlands sunlight. Their birds of paradise, lorikeet, parrot, cassowary and cockatoo feathers are just as amazing as they sway to the rhythmic movements of the body.

Highlands people are also industrious, most of whom still live in villages and are predominantly agriculturalists whose very livelihood very depends on their relationship with each other and the land that they have inherited. There are 5 Highlands Provinces in the Southern Highlands, Enga, Western Highlands, Simbu and Eastern Highlands. When you take the scenic Highlands Highway from the coastal port and city of Lae, you reach the Eastern Highlands first, whose capital Goroka enjoys an all year around cool, almost eternal spring-like climate. Goroka is famous for the Asaro mud men of the fertile valley of the same name and the world famous Goroka Show, held in September every year to coincide with PNG’s Independence anniversary on September 16th.

About two hours up the Daulo Pass is the rugged Simbu Province, known for its rough terrain and jazzed limestone mountain tops whose people, stocky warrior farmers, can be seen manoeuvring mountainsides with relative ease on bare foot. Simbu is perhaps best known for the highest mountain on the land in Mt Wilhelm, which at 4509 meters has attracted bush walkers, trekkers and mountaineers from far and wide. You only have to view the guest book at Betty’s Lodge and trout farm, situated at the foot of the mountain, to see where climbers have come from. There are entries from should read from as far away as Israel, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, Poland, and the United States of America.

Further up the highway is the vibrant city of Mt Hagen and capital of Western Highlands, a predominantly coffee growing region. Mt Hagen is best known as home to the equally famous Mt Hagen Show, which is held in August every year. Like the Goroka Show, this show is one of PNG’s icon cultural spectacles and it brings together colourful and diverse tribes who partake in a weekend of cultural performances called “singsings.”

The author, Steven Mago is a journalist, travel writer and tourism promoter. He was born in Papua New Guinea but for the time being is living in Sydney. Steven can be contacted on: stevenmago@hotmail.com