Twelve Black Code Monkeys

This was the first country outside of the U.S. I traveled to. I was 14 and went there with my mom and sister. We went to Puerta Vallarta. Initially we went to a tiny motel that was very rank. My mom decided it was unacceptable and we headed off to a Hilton or something similar - a big nice hotel where we spent the rest of the week. I don’t remember a whole lot other than having lots of meals out and looking in shops and buying a few things made out of stone. Probably one of the most memorable parts of the trip was when we took a bus trip into the country to a restaurant that was right next to a place that sold odd-shaped drinking glasses and probably other artwork. We ate on a terrace overlooking a creak and dined in the company of tiny lizards on the nearby fauna. We ate fresh crayfish - I’ve never had better crayfish since. I wish I could remember where this place was and what it was called, but this was about 20 years ago!

I’ve always loved the idea of traveling to new places, but this unfortunately hasn’t translated into reality as much as I’d like. I really like travel narrative and if I had the money and the time I would do a lot more traveling myself. I have, though, gotten to at least some nice places, so I thought I’d just go ahead and write down as many as I could think of as an exercise of travel narrative. I would of course love to actually get paid to go all over the world and write travel books, but somehow I don’t think that’s very likely. Actually, I got this idea from another blogger, Blogging Burt, who’s just linked some of the places they’ve been, but I thought it would be cool to elaborate a little. I will start shortly with the countries I’ve visited outside my home in the United States.