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World AdventurersNovember 09 Creative destructionLike the fall of the Berlin Wall, I blew away our former WorldAdventurers.com web site. Like a home constantly being added to and remodeled, it desperately needed a makeover. I archived the old site and am starting over from scratch. You're welcome to take a tour here:
There's not much to look at yet. Like this blog, it will take time to fill up again with photos, stories and updates. However, I've fundamentally changed my philosophy on this blog and the World Adventurers web site -- doing it is best done in moderation. If I do a bit little by little, I'm more apt to continue it than if I sit down to do an epic amount of work. Check back frequently for updates. November 08 Apple and Google - Gifts that Keep GivingA year after I bought shares of Apple and Google, I am happy to announce that I still own them and that they've been paying dividends. Well, not true dividends -- neither company offers dividends to shareholders. However, Apple's stock gained over 115 percent since last October, and Google over 60 percent. My only lamentation is that I wish I had bought shares of Amazon.com, which is also up substantially. Thankful, the contrarian strategy of buying equity in concentration rather than diversifying worked well during the economic rebound.
What's next? Real estate. We're moving cash out of equities in anticipation of buying a property in the next year. If you have any extra cash, you might consider the same strategy. The best time to buy is when things look most bearish. Google Alerts - ZambiaI'm curious whether Google Alerts will pick up on this blog entry through RSS feed if I include the word "Zambia" in this test post. You never know when or where some overly sensitive Luddite will take exception to an innocuous statement and politicize it for a nefarious reason. Time to RebootIt's been almost one year since I last updated my blog. One year! Where did the time go? Even the spam bots gave up on me.
Well, I'm back. I've missed posting updates. It's time to dust this site off and reboot. There are new stories to tell and insights to share. If you're not a spam bot and have this page on RSS, feel free to stop by again soon.
-- World Adventurers November 30 Uruguay – Of Buildings and BeachesHere's an article I wrote about our recent trip to Uruguay. Enjoy!
With the weather heating up in Asuncion, our family decided to cool off for a few days during the off-season in Montevideo and Punta del Este, Uruguay, before the summer crowd arrived on vacation. Thousands of visitors descend each year on Uruguay during the January-February summer season to escape the summer heat and spend time at the ocean.
Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, is a feast of Spanish colonial architecture and surrealist art inspired by Uruguayan painter Joaquin Torres Garcia. Many of its buildings have been restored to their original splendor, and its architecture is similar to that of Buenos Aires located just across the delta of the Rio de la Plata. Montevideo is a good excursion for those who enjoy great architecture, colonial history, music and dancing, and fine arts. (Montevideo also hosts Uruguay’s largest Carnaval celebration.) The city offers an understated elegance and tranquility befitting a vacation getaway. Many of the city center’s primary attractions are located within walking distance of Plaza Independencia and Plaza Constitution, the city’s main squares. Consider starting your tour of Montevideo with a walk through the old city, Ciudad Vieja, near the waterfront, and wind your way through quiet neighborhoods to the tomb of Jose Artigas, the “Father of Uruguay,” in Plaza Independencia. After taking in the city center, consider heading to La Rambla to take in the beach and have lunch at “El Viejo y El Mar,” one of the best restaurants in town. Or consider dining at the Market at Ciudad Viejo located in a renovated warehouse on the waterfront. The Market offers an excellent selection of barbeque (parrilla) restaurants.
We also spent two days in Punta del Este, Uruguay’s best known resort destination. Located just 1.5 hours by bus from Montevideo, it’s an attractive destination virtually any time of the year. The city’s population ebbs and flows with the season, and during the off-season, lodging and beach access are easily available. The city sits on a peninsula surrounded by the restless Atlantic Ocean (Punta Brava) and the more serene Rio de la Plata (Punta Mansa), Great waterfront views and beach access are just minutes from virtually any hotel. The city also offers shopping, although many shops are closed or scale back operations in the off-season. Casa Pueblo, designed and built by Uruguayan painter and sculptor Carlos Paez Vilaro, the Punta del Este lighthouse, and “Los Dedos,” a hand-like sculpture protruding from the beach on Punta Brava, are its main attractions. Real estate in Punta del Este is attractive to those searching for potential retirement homes. Condominiums with waterfront views in Punta del Este listed for as little as $150,000 when we visited.
We spent the night in Montevideo at the Hotel Lafayette, an aging but decent hotel not far from Avenida 18 de Julio, the city’s main boulevard. We stayed at the Days Inn Punta Brava in Punta del Este. Consider staying near Avenida 18 de Julio in Montevideo and at a hotel on the beach in Punta del Este. The Uruguayan peso-U.S. dollar exchange has also improved, and Uruguay is now a more affordable destination for a short getaway trip. Now that the Uruguayan airline PLUNA offers cheap, direct flights between Asuncion and Montevideo, Uruguay is closer than ever. November 28 Best of 2008I haven't had much time to post entries lately, but I did manage to post some of my favorite photos from the past year and a half. Enjoy! November 09 Biking to Build SchoolsI haven't been blogging as much because I've been busy lately. We just got back from a nice weekend retreat at a colleague's ranch (estancia) in rural Paraguay about 1.5 hours east of Asuncion. We had a wonderful weekend. It is a nice respite from the hectic time we've been having in Asuncion and at work. I am working on posting some photos from the trip and will write about the it later. Today I wanted to highlight the efforts of some Peace Corps volunteers to support school building in Paraguay. Through their "Biking to Build Schools" initiative, they hope to raise $35,000 to help a local NGO, the Center for Campesino Education Training and Technology (CECTEC), build schools in rural Paraguay. In 2009, the volunteers plan to ride 6,000 miles in South America from Ushaia, Argentina at the southernmost point of South America to Asuncion to raise money via donor pledges. I think it's a noble endeavor. Please consider donating to their cause via their web site, http://www.bikingtobuildschools.com/. October 18 Hogar Unidos por CristoMy wife and I went to a charity benefit dinner at Club Centenario on behalf of the Hogar Unidos por Cristo ("United for Christ Home") a children's home in nearby San Lorenzo. I posted some photos from the event. Over 190 children live at the home founded six years ago by Patricia Bozzano, a devout Catholic. What started as a small sanctuary for abandoned children grew and grew, and now the home is seeking donations to build a school. Patricia lined up an impressive group of sponsors, including Club Centenario, Asuncion's most exclusive club, which donated space to host the event. The event was excellent. Some of the children performed two songs, and we were treated to a buffet dinner. We had never visited Club Centenario and were glad to have had a chance to attend an event at the club. October 14 Thanks, Google and AppleAfter over two weeks of watching my investment portfolio get pummeled, I decided to take matters into my own hands and try some market timing. I sold six "safe" -- actually, lousy -- mutual funds that had been trounced in the market, and ploughed the money into Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL). The funds were attempts to hedge against the domestic financial market, all 5-star Morningstar rated funds with moderate risk, high return ratings. Some were international funds and hedge-type funds. They lost over 40 percent collectively since I bought them last fall. Forget about being cautious. I decided to go back to my tried and true friend, Google, and pick up some shares of Apple. I've won with Google twice, the first time being when I picked up shares at IPO ($85) and made a killing. Google dropped from $707 per share last year to almost $320 last week. I picked up shares of both on the bounce. While the financial markets will probably be volatile for the foreseeable future, these two companies are undersold. My gut tells me to ride them on the bounce until they recoup my loss and then jump off. I think it's a good contrarian move. While it's not always a good idea to concentrate in a limited number of stocks in a volatile sector such as technology, there's one rule that trumps this adage -- sometimes it's better to go with your gut. October 07 Exploring the Amazon RainforestMy wife and I collaborated on this travel article about our July trip to the Brazilian Amazon. I also posted photos of our trip in a photo album. I was finally able to post them at last because I can finally access Spaces. Enjoy! We spent five days in July visiting the Amazon Rainforest at the confluence of the Rio Negro and Rio Solimões, the two tributaries that form the Amazon River. Our experience was nothing short of amazing. We were astounded by the vastness and diversity of the Amazon Basin. At the same time, we developed a healthy respect for the Amazon’s treasures – and perils. We launched our Amazon excursion from Manaus, a gritty, industrial city carved out of the jungle on the banks of the Rio Negro. Manaus is a four-hour flight from São Paulo with a stop in Brasilia. If you plan to stay the night in Manaus and tour the city, be sure to stay at the Tropical Hotel, the best hotel in town. Manaus itself is an easy day tour; one can walk around the center and tour the historic Theater of the Amazons and São Sebastião Church, the Indigenous Museum, and the wharf. The Manaus has a couple free-for-all markets that sell a wide assortment of kitschy and knock-off goods. Nevertheless, we ended our Amazon tour wishing we had spent more time in the jungle and less time visiting the city. We stayed four days and three nights at the all-inclusive EcoPark Resort located 20 minutes upriver from Manaus. The resort is only accessible by boat and is completely unplugged. Television? No. Internet? No. Telephone? Nope. Bring any electronics you might miss with you. The resort has plenty of amenities, including clean but spartan rooms, a cocktail bar, and plenty of ecotourist activities led by native and English-speaking guides to keep you occupied. Our activities included a two-hour hike in the Amazon rainforest, where our guides showed us wildlife and foliage with medicinal and other useful properties; a cruise to the “meeting of the waters,” where the black waters of the Rio Negro converge with the brown waters of the Rio Solimões; a visit to an indigenous village; a trip to a “Monkey Sanctuary” where monkeys roam freely and even crawl on your shoulders; piranha fishing (piranhas are tasty); and the best of all, caiman “hunting” on the Rio Negro at night. Our guide somehow caught a baby caiman – a relative of the alligator – after jumping from our boat in a murky alcove spookier than any Disneyland ride and catching it in the dark. Sitting at night on the dock at the resort, gazing up at the full moon illuminating the still black waters of the river, listening to the music of the wildlife wafting from every part of the jungle, will leave you in awe. We left the Amazon with some amazing memories, and the nagging feeling that we had barely scratched the surface of this immense wilderness. We also realized that we experienced the ecotourist version of the Amazon. After spending a few days in the midst of wildlife and foliage armed with defense mechanisms that epitomize the phrase “survival of the fittest,” we were thankful our guides kept them at bay. Although our trip was expensive, it was worth it. Few people ever have the chance to experience the Amazon up close and personal. If you’re looking for an unforgettable travel destination, try spending a few days in the heart of the jungle. Thanks for visiting. Please leave a personal message. Spam will be deleted.
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