Bucket List Places From People That I Know

Posted on June 29, 2014 by jaynezak

Bucket List Places From People that I Know

“People don’t take trips . . . trips take people.”– John Steinbeck

Where is the place you most want to visit?

Tibet and maybe part of Mt Everest. RA

Tracking the gorillas in Rwanda because they are so fascinating and so like us in so many ways. CL

Scandinavia because they make great short films. LZ

Argentina for wine and steak. KZ

Alaska i want to look out and see snow and polar bears. SR

Venice because I have never been there. TN

Grand Canyon with my family, the Straits of Gibraltar, Easter Island to see the Moabs and Sicily for pizza. JZ

Dubai because it looks rich, fun and interesting. KR

Scotland to play golf. PF

Great Wall because you can see it from space. AR

Istanbul and ballooning over Cappadocia, Turkey. JF

Harry Potter Land In London with the kids. BE

Thailand to experience a Thai Buddhist monastery. JR

Malta I think it would be fantastic to take the ferry from Genoa. HM

Machu Picchu. EH

Jerusalem because I would like to see the places I read about in the Bible. Greece and Rome because of all the history there. JR

A Safari in Africa with a lot of animals. VC

Morocco because of the music and history. IF

Brazil I was there before and want to go back. I love the lifestyle, the people, the food and the Capoeira. GW

Antarctica I want to see the penguins in their natural environment. JL

Northern Lights because I want to see part of the Universe that is greater than us. SL

Myanmar They have a deep-rooted Buddhist tradition that I would like to experience. JB

Israel I want to lie on the beach in Tel Aviv. CB

Russia. I want to spend some time there – especially in St. Petersburg and SIberia. RC

Buenos Aires because I fell in love with the language in Spain but I’ve never been to South America, because of my nerdy obsession with the musical Evita and my affection for bustling cities with classical architecture. KB

Italy because that is where my ancestors are from. VB

Petra, the Ganges River & Himalayas. EK

I want to go through the Amazon Rainforest and see all the different indigenous tribes and the TranSiberian Railway. TM

Spain because I love the culture and hear great things about it. RA

Patagonia, Chile because it looks so beautiful. AR

Eze and Cap Ferrat because I love France and have not been to those cities yet. RW

Champagne for wine tasting and Monaco for the F1 race. RH

Fiji It has clear water and beautiful beaches. BM

China because I have always been interested in the culture. SF

Galápagos. LA

Buckingham, England The Hughenden Manor- the home of Disraeli, Queen Victoria’s much loved Prime Minister. I admire Disraeli who was a writer, social thinker as well as a prime minister. His Manor carries the same name as The Hughenden Hotel built in Queen Victoria’s reign. SG

Egypt, Cambodia, Vietnam, that’s it. been everywhere else I want to go. DL

Ireland to find out about my heritage. AD

New Zealand because I had a pen pal from New Zealand when I was a kid. CG

Kilamanjaro and Nepal because I love mountain climbing. MS

Japan The people are very honest and polite. DH

Any more?

Fly Safe,

JAZ

Cartagena, Colombia

Posted on June 25, 2014 by jaynezak

Cartagena, Colombia

“I wondered about the explorers who’d sailed their ships to the end of the world. How terrified they must have been when they risked falling over the edge; how amazed to discover, instead, places they had seen only in their dreams.” Jodi Picoult

The heat in Cartagena gives it a sleepy feeling which kind of makes it okay to sit on the wall, browse through shops and street vendors, buy fresh fruit from a woman carrying it on her head and not go to a museum.

The city was founded in 1533 and was the main South American port for the Spaniards. They stored treasures pillaged from the indigenous people in Cartagena to ship to their homeland. Silver, gold, cacao beans, chile peppers and tobacco from the new world were shipped to Spain. Cartagena was a marketplace for slave ships coming from Africa. It was probably the most looted port in the world. As a result of constant pirate attacks, the Spanish built a solid wall to surround the town to protect their valuables. It was built during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries and is the only walled city in the Americas. It took more than two hundred years and fifteen million African slaves to build the wall.

The main fortification was the Fort of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas (named after Spain’s King Philip IV) which is located on a 130-foot-high hill towering over the city. Originally built in the mid-1600s, it was rebuilt and enlarged several times over the years to become the greatest fortress Spain ever built in the Americas.

Las Palenqueras are the famous fruit basket ladies you see around the walled city. They come from San Basilio De Palenque which is an hour away from Cartagena.

These women are the descendants of South American slaves and San Basilio De Palenque was the first city in South America of free slaves. Las Palenqueras keep their African culture and traditions.

The food market in Cartagena is hot and dark with a lot going on. The smell hits you. It is a mixture of sweet smelling fruit, fish smelling fish, raw meat and live birds.

The thing I always notice in these markets is that they use every part of the animal and the parts are all there to buy. There are always flies and fast-moving, knives, machetes and hammers.

Tables are filled with all the local fruits and vegetables. I eat delicious tamarind from the pod. I have never seen a raw one before. (tamarind)

Everyone is moving quickly carrying a lot on their heads or in their arms. It is a market for locals and you can buy anything from toiletries to clothes as well. I bought flip-flops.

La Boquilla is a poor fishing village twenty minutes outside of Cartegena. (poor but happy)

It is a peninsula at the end of a beach with the Caribbean Sea on one side and a lake with mangroves on the other.

The guide takes you on an old canoe through mangrove tunnels with flocks of birds and fishermen fishing for crabs ,shrimp and small fish.

After the canoe they pull out a fresh coconut and make a hole for a straw with a machete. When you finish the water they quickly open it up and slice up the meat. It was clearly not the first coconut they’ve opened with a machete. It feels very far away from Cartagena.

Then I walk for a long time with my feet in the Caribbean sea. I have lunch on the beach of fresh fish, plantains and coconut rice.

Day and night the sound of clip clopping horse and carts carry tourists around the city. I prefer to wander around and walk the walls at dusk.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez became a writer in Cartegena. His novel Love in The Time Of Cholera Is set here. It is one of my favorites. I see Fermina riding in the horse and carriages and Florentino wandering everywhere in despair.

You can see how much of Cartegena is in his books. Garcia Marquez or Gabo died a few days after I returned . But now I can picture him sitting in La Vitrola, Café Havana or in a square in Cartegena writing his stories. ( a person standing in front of Gabo’s house, some famous characters from another author play chess in the square)

Thank to Jose and Kevin Rodriguez for their kindness and knowledge of a city they love.

Colombia is now one of my favorite places. One of my best trips happened because I said yes to something I never thought I would be doing alone. Thanks Jeannine Cohen from Geox for planning this wonderful adventure.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

Ten Things That Separate New Yorkers From Los Angelenos

Posted on June 20, 2014 by jaynezak

Ten Things That Separate New Yorkers and Los Angelenos

“When its 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When its 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.” Neil Simon

Comparing people in NY and LA is like comparing apples (big) to oranges (they grow them).

1. If a person in NY says they hate you, they hate you. If a person in LA says they like you, they hate you.

2. Women in LA like to be “healthy”. They are tan ,(usually fake) do juice cleanses, eat kale and hike in the canyon. Women in NY like to look pale, very skinny and on the verge of death.

3. In LA, you are judged by the car that you drive. In NY you are judged by your address. No one actually has to see your apartment, but where you have chosen or can afford to live is who you are.

4. People In NY eat dinner late. People in LA eat dinner early because they have to go to the gym in the morning before work.

5. LA could be burned to the ground at any time or destroyed in an earthquake. New York could be under water or snowed in. So be correctly prepared.

6. People in LA seem tired and move slowly (unless they are jogging or power walking). People in NY always act like they had an extra cup of coffee that they didn’t need.

7. People in NY hang out with interesting, motivated people. In LA they hang out with the people they grew up with.

8. The car is still king in LA though they are trying very hard to improve the public transit system. So don’t text or pick your nose while you are driving. In NY most people cannot afford to park their cars so public transportation is the norm. Keep your head down, avoid eye contact and grab that seat before someone else does.

9. In Los Angeles, they know how to make a good salad. In NY, they know how to make a good bagel, pizza, egg roll with duck sauce and cannoli.

10. People in LA are always between projects. People in NY better be doing something with their lives.

Fly safe,

JAZ

Luz A Salento Music School In Colombia

Posted on June 16, 2014 by jaynezak

Luz A Salento Music School in Colombia

“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!” JK Rowling

In one room kids are playing the clarinet. The youngest children are singing downstairs. There is a violin class going on in an outside courtyard.

It could be any music school in the world but this one is in the town of Salento, Colombia. It is Luz A Salento a music school geared to training and teaching local students ages 6-14. They start with lessons in violin, violincello, clarinet, flute, drums and eventually become part of the children’s orchestra.

The founders of this program believe that “ if these young kids take an instrument in their hands, that instrument will never be changed for a weapon.”

The Arts teach discipline to children without their knowledge. They are learning it because something is enriching them and they want to go to the next level. They begin to put the time in to get better. It isn’t about being the best. It’s about being the best you can be which translate into school subjects as well. Does listening and playing music make you smarter? Studies say Yes.

Art and Music should be within the reach of every person. Countries with strong dividing lines between rich and poor make the cycle of poverty hard to break. There is not just material poverty in these villages but also a spiritual poverty. Teaching music teaches skills which translates into learning to value high achievement. Playing an instrument is empowering to children. They learn in group lessons which promotes confidence in what they create together. The children in this town are doing something that people don’t expect them to do. This music school is teaching them something that they never would have had the chance to learn.

But they need help. This isn’t a big foundation. It’s a small school in a town in the mountains of Colombia. They don’t have access to a lot of advertising and fundraising.

So any music lovers who want to help………..

If you don’t speak Spanish and want more info email Edeardo Olier (a retired dentist who has taken over running and funding the school) at edolier@hotmail.com.

You can wire tax-deductible donations to any of these accounts: 7248-7230658 BancoColombia –Armenia Norte 07707024-1 AvVillas Bogota 31206054-4 Av Villas Armenia Norte.

The school email is luzasalento@gmail.com.

Music is the great uniter. It’s a thing that people and countries who cant’ agree on anything else can have in common. Music speaks to everyone when words cannot.

Please send anything you can.

Viaje con cuidado, JAZ

First World Problems

Posted on June 11, 2014 by jaynezak

First World Problems

“All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” – Samuel Johnson

First world problems are the day-to-day struggle of living in the first world. Here are some of mine this week.

I had to park three blocks away.

I couldn’t find a taxi.

My air conditioner upstairs doesn’t work.

My car still isn’t ready.

I had to drive ten minutes for a blood test.

I ruined my manicure.

I forgot my ATM card so I can’t get cash.

I can’t find the remote.

We waited an hour for a table.

I can’t get out of jury duty.

They are out of greens 2.

I dropped my cellphone.

I have no food because I forgot to go to the market.

I’m not sure who I’m voting for yet. i don’t like any of the candidates.

I paid the full price for these shoes and two weeks later they were on sale.

My stomach is not flat enough to wear a bikini.

I said I wanted ice in my water.

I have to wait to use the treadmill.

I don’t know how to tivo .

They made the dog wait for over an hour at the groomer.

My cellphone battery is dead.

The housekeeper quit.

I can’t connect the iPad to the internet so I have to use my computer.

I think the salad had gluten in it.

I haven’t seen a Starbucks in ten blocks and I need coffee.

My cell phone doesn’t work at my house.

While I was complaining, Tibetan monk Hua Chi was praying.

He has knelt to pray so many times that his footprints remain deeply, perfectly ingrained on his temple’s wooden floor . He sometimes prayed 3000 times a day excessive even by Buddhist standards. This photo really touches me. I found it in a magazine in Thailand and carried it around with me in Asia. It says to me to use more time for praying, gratitude, kindness, contemplation and meditation and less time for thinking about myself and my first world problems.

Fly safe,

JAZ

Photos From Filandia And Salento – Towns In The Coffee Triangle, Colombia

Posted on June 7, 2014 by jaynezak

Photos From Filandia And Salento – Towns In The Coffee Triangle, Colombia

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign” Robert Louis Stevenson

Viaje con cuidado,

JAZ

When I Am Old I Will Take Vacations

Posted on June 3, 2014 by jaynezak

When I Am Old I Will Take Vacations

“And [he] sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him and it was still hot” Maurice Sendak

When I am old, I will take vacations. I will shield myself from all the smells, discomforts and quirks that are the basis of my travel memories today. I will not ride public transportation or eat street food. I will not eat food if I don’t know what it is. There will be cruises and trips to safe places with good air, handrails and handicapped bathrooms . Every bathroom will have a toilet seat , toilet paper and paper towels.

I will see the United States and Canada. Vacations will be relaxing. I will not get up at 4am to catch a flight. I will eat gluten. I will not get lost. I will take naps during the day instead of more coffee to keep go ing so I don’t miss anything. There will be spa hotels or beachfront villas. I will not leave my comfort zone. Someone twill always speak English. I will wear the hat with the logo on it they sent me from the company I am traveling with. I will buy those pants that zip off into shorts. You will see me wear bright colors instead of black. I wont power walk or use the treadmill early every morning. There will always be electricity and hot water.

I will become a good photographer. I will be able to recognize the different birds I see in the rainforest. I will learn to play bridge, golf and marjonne (which I had to learn to spell first ). I wont needs to know what it feels it like to wake up in the strangest place I have been in and find some breakfast and coffee. I wont need to find the perfect souvenir beaded bracelet for friends and family. I will no longer be cool and it will be ok.

But I will miss the moments of unscripted perfection – the ones that come from unexpected encounters with people, food, sights and smells. I will miss being out of my comfort zone and immersed in another culture. I will miss connecting with people and communicating with hand motions, bad Spanish and photos. I will miss doing all the things I am afraid of and not knowing the outcome. I will miss a lot.

Most people who are waiting to travel the world, never do. But we are always on a journey So I have to make the most of the time I have and keep exploring, learning, dreaming, and carrying toilet paper and Pepto Bismol. It’s now or never.

Fly safe

JAZ

The Cocora Valley, Colombia

Posted on May 28, 2014 by jaynezak

The Cocora Valley, Colombia

What did the tree learn from the earth to be able to talk with the sky? ~ Pablo Neruda

The Cocora Valley in the Coffee Triangle is very beautiful. The national tree of Colombia which is the wax palm grows here up in the clouds (6000-8000 feet above sea level.). They are very skinny, incredibly tall trees – the tallest palm trees in the world.

Wax palms grow up to 200 feet and can live for up to 120 years. The leaves are dark green and gray and the trunk is covered with wax. The wax was used to make soap and candles. The outer part of the stem of the palm has been used locally for building houses, and was used to build water supply systems for farmers. The fruit served as food for cattle and pigs

For centuries, the Christian worshippers used to cut palm fronds from their wax palm trees to celebrate Palm Sunday, The exploitation of the indigenous people reduced the number of wax palms, prompting the Colombian government to give protection for the remaining trees. In 1985, an edict sponsored by both the Catholic Church and the government, forbid the cutting of wax palm fronds. We hike for a while along a muddy path and rickety bridges which heads up into the Andes.

Lunch is served at the Bosques de Cocora, a countryside restaurant that serves regional cuisine, including the area’s famous trout.

Throughout the coffee triangle you will see Jeep Willys. After WWII, the United States had a surplus of these, which Colombia bought very cheaply. Their durability is great in the coffee region and you can see them in all the towns.

The “Ritual de Palma” is a way to help the continuation of the wax palms. Visitors from 48 countries so far have helped plant future wax palms here.

It would probably have been better without the rain and sprained wrist. I had help.

Someone planted these tall skinny trees a long time ago and I felt connected to those people hoping that in the far future , people will be planting trees to grow as tall as mine.

Many Thanks to Alex Rodriguez for showing me the coffee triangle of Colombia with kindness, knowledge and humor. This is a better and safer job then your past one and you are good at it.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

Picking Coffee In Colombia

Posted on May 24, 2014 by jaynezak

Picking Coffee In Colombia

“As long as there was coffee in the world, how bad could things be?” Cassandra Clare

Coffee is my most important meal of the day. In my life, morning is not possible without coffee. I am in the coffee triangle of Colombia – the Utopia for coffee drinkers. The coffee triangle is the region of Colombia where most of the coffee crops grow.

The Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia was recently declared UNESCO World Heritage Landscape for its “centennial tradition of coffee growing”.

The exquisite landscape is characterized by rivers, steep hills with coffee plantations and coffee farms. The major cities are Armenia, Perreira and Manizales. I flew into Perreira.

My coffee lesson begins at the beautiful Hacienda Venecia. (http://www.haciendavenecia.com)

Lunch is served.

It is my new favorite Ajiaco soup and that is their specialty. It is a chicken soup made with three kind of potatoes and Colombian herbs. It is served with avocado and cream. (the chefs)

Coffee beans begin as red berries.

The coffee beans are the seeds.

We head down across a river bed to pick coffee beans.

They are always hand picked off the vine and don’t pick the green ones.

We start along a path but gradually we are walking through thick bushes smacking us all over.

I’m sure I must be getting malaria. The lives of the coffee pickers are hard and the work is tedious and difficult. ( I just walked out of that)

We learn how the beans are processed and about all the machinery, certification and care involved in transforming the berry into coffee beans.

, The fresh beans are examined. I was slow at finding the good ones.

These are good ones. Not broken and no scars.

Then we roasted my beans in a special toaster. (my coffee beans)

We smelled different coffee bean aromas from tester bottles.

The premium beans are dried and sent to Europe and North America. They are sold to a distributor who is responsible for roasting and export.

The low-grade beans stay in Colombia and are brewed into a sugary watery coffee called tinto sold all over Colombia. The Colombian coffee “revolutionaries” are trying to change that by introducing their quality bean coffee in Colombia. Juan Valdez cafes and chic coffee houses are popping up everywhere like Starbucks. But it is hard to get people to change what they have been drinking all their lives.

We have a last cup of coffee at the coffee farm. It is starting to rain. I think about all that work that went into producing this one cup of coffee . I think about picking those beans every time I have a cup of coffee now. Coffee will always reminds me of Colombia.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

Am I Prejudiced In America?

Posted on May 20, 2014 by jaynezak

Am I Prejudiced In America?

“People who insist on dividing the world into ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ never contemplate that they may be someone else’s ‘Them’.” Ray Davis

Donald Sterling said he was not a racist after making racial slurs. This made me wonder how you decide if you are a racist. I took some online tests. According to the internet, I am not. But I already knew that.

The more serious question for me as a“tolerant” liberal is, am I prejudiced? And if so against who? There was a period in my life where I would only have pretty friends. Was I vain and shallow or prejudiced against ugly people? My daughter told someone I would never have a fat dog. Does that make me a bigot where fat dogs are concerned?

In Germany, I loved the beer, sausages, pretzels, art and scenery. But I did find myself looking at groups of older Germans picturing them in Nazi uniforms saying Heil Hitler. Do I discriminate against old Germans?

Growing up in New York City, I was surrounded by different immigrant populations. I heard many foreign languages daily. In fact, my friend and I would often converse on the subway in a made up language and watch people try to figure out what we were speaking. I have lived in LA and Miami so I am very comfortable around Spanish-speaking people. But how would I feel at Anderson Cooper’s family reunion (according to not reliable Wikipedia his ancestors have been here for a long time)? Does that qualify as a prejudice against non recent immigrants or people who were here before the Civil War?

I think I would probably be fearful visiting a small town in the South or Middle America alone. Would that make me intolerant toward Americans who don’t live in big cities?

I love intelligence, hate math, like creative types, dislike politicians and hate divorce. Does that make me biased against stupid people, people who leave their families, mathematicians, people with boring jobs and the government?

Many Americans have a bias against the elderly. Was I one of them? My mother once told me that people talked down to old people so I try to be aware of that. I’m getting older. Now I look at them and think which one am I going to be? I’m definitely nicer now that it concerns me.

What about unconscious prejudice? Those are cultural lessons that we have learned over a lifetime. They can be passed on by mass media, parents, peers and other members of society.

Children as young as three can pick up prejudice without even knowing what it is. When my son was six he brought a New Kids On the Block lunchbox to school. Some of the older kids teased him and called him a faggot. He came home crying. I explained it as a very unkind word to my six-year-old. My three-year old daughter heard all of this. A few days later, an adult friend who she adored said he couldn’t come to her birthday party . She was upset and angry. She thought of the most unkind word she could think of, the one that made her brother cry and she called him a faggot. He happened to have been gay and though I tried to explain it, he never spoke to us again.

As a Caucasian person, I see racism in America as much better than when I was growing up. But the African-American , Latino, Gay, and Muslim communities say different things. So I listen, read and learn more. I try not to walk in their heads with my dirty feet as Leo Buscaglia would say. I keep traveling. The further out of my comfort zone I go, the more tolerant my world becomes. The tolerance along with education and understanding, is the beginning of acceptance.

Fly Safe,

JAZ

Travel Well, Fly Safe

Travel

Bucket List Places From People That I Know

Cartagena, Colombia

Ten Things That Separate New Yorkers From Los Angelenos

Luz A Salento Music School In Colombia

First World Problems

Photos From Filandia And Salento – Towns In The Coffee Triangle, Colombia

When I Am Old I Will Take Vacations

The Cocora Valley, Colombia

Picking Coffee In Colombia

Am I Prejudiced In America?