Earlier this week we started counting down our ten most popular posts of the prior year. Today we finish with the year’s best five.
It was a trip so big the story took two blog posts to tell. We’re not at all surprised that our favorite trip of all time also became one of our best blog posts ever.
A thermal pool at Yellowstone National Park
With 2012 coming to a close it’s once again time for the annual retrospective. This year, instead of us selecting our favorites, we trolled through our blog statistics to try to discern which of our posts were most widely read and shared. What we came up with is a kind of “Reader’s Choice” roundup.
The results are a somewhat eclectic mix of travel stories, how-to pieces and general musings. If there is a message to us in this it is that we should keep writing a variety of articles, throwing stuff against the wall because we never know what’s going to stick.
But that’s a topic for another day. Today we’re all about revealing the first five posts of 2012’s Top 10:
You just get back from the most amazing trip and rush to download the hundreds of photos you took only to discover – Meh. I’ve done it. I still do it. Although these days I’m doing it far less often.
Taking great photographs doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, today’s cameras are so user friendly you no longer need to know your ISO from your a-hole to capture awesome images. But while technology has shrunk the photography learning curve from a mountain to a molehill, care and attention is still needed to get the most from your gear.
Here are eight easy tips you can use right now to dramatically improve your travel photos.
Imagine living out of a suitcase no bigger than a 1.5 square foot box. That’s basically what Shannon and I did for two months backpacking around Central America. We’re proud to report that not only did we have the smallest bags of anyone we met but that our 40 liter packs were perfectly adequate for this specific trip.
While “perfectly adequate” is a true enough description of what we experienced, “barely adequate” fits too. We’d have been in trouble if we needed to plan for colder weather or multiple seasons. Traveling through Central America we had the luxury of packing lightweight clothing, although the highlands of Guatemala got surprisingly chilly. I was happy to have a heavy fleece I didn’t originally intend to pack but brought along because Houston was so damn cold when we left.
Even in colder climates, we probably could have made the 40 liter backpacks work if not for all of the electronics we hauled: two laptops, a digital camera, a video camera, an iPhone, a surge protector, a universal power adapter, battery charger, and the cables needed to power all this junk. Leaving the electronics at home would have freed up almost an entire bag – but we’d never do that.
Over the course of our three hour commute from Punta Gorda to Placencia in Belize we got to talking with a couple from the U.K. When the boat docked we said our goodbyes. They turned to their guidebook to look for accommodations and we consulted a map to chart the best course to the guest house we had booked a couple days earlier.
As we waited for our room to be ready we pulled up a seat at a “road”-side restaurant and watched the throngs of tourists from what looked like a cruise ship convention amble by. Apparently it was the last day of some kind of festival and the place was mobbed.
Before we finished our lunch we saw the U.K. friends we had traveled with earlier in the day, only this time they looked dejected. They couldn’t find a room and were leaving. From Placencia they’d have a four hour bus ride to Belize City, on top of a likely hour or more wait for the next bus. By the time they arrived in Belize City the last water taxi to their next destination, Caye Caulker, would have long since sailed. “All part of the experience,” they said.
Everywhere Once 