Theme Week Philippines – Puerto Princesa

21 January 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Portal of Plaza Cuartel © Joelaldor/cc-by-sa-4.0

Portal of Plaza Cuartel © Joelaldor/cc-by-sa-4.0

Puerto Princesa, officially the City of Puerto Princesa, and often referred to as Puerto Princesa City, is a 1st class Highly Urbanized City in the Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 255,116 people. It is a city located in the western province of Palawan, and is the westernmost city in the Philippines. Though the seat of government and capital for the province, the city itself is one of 38 independent cities within the Philippines not controlled by the province in which it is geographically located and is therefore an independent area located within Palawan.   read more…

Theme Week Philippines

20 January 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  17 minutes

Boracay Island © panoramio.com - Alexey Komarov/cc-by-3.0

Boracay Island © panoramio.com – Alexey Komarov/cc-by-3.0

The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Vietnam to the west, Palau to the east, and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south.   read more…

Half Moon Bay in California

1 January 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  8 minutes

Ritz-Carlton Hotel © Elisa.rolle/cc-by-sa-4.0

Ritz-Carlton Hotel © Elisa.rolle/cc-by-sa-4.0

Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, United States. Its population is at 11,000. Immediately at the north of Half Moon Bay is the Pillar Point Harbor and the unincorporated community of Princeton-by-the-Sea. The urban area has a population of 21,000. Half Moon Bay is located approximately 25 miles (40 km) south of San Francisco, 10 miles (16 km) west of San Mateo, and 45 miles (72 km) north of Santa Cruz. Neighboring towns include El Granada, Princeton-by-the-Sea, Moss Beach, and Montara to the north and Purissima, San Gregorio, and Pescadero to the south.   read more…

Theme Week Indonesia – Kalimantan on Borneo

22 May 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  14 minutes

Banjarmasin Floating Market © Muhammad Haris/cc-by-sa-4.0

Banjarmasin Floating Market © Muhammad Haris/cc-by-sa-4.0

Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east of Sumatra. The island is politically divided among three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, and Indonesia to the south. Approximately 73% of the island is Indonesian territory (East, South, West, North and Central Kalimantan, Kalimantan). In the north, the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak make up about 26% of the island. Additionally, the Malaysian federal territory of Labuan is situated on a small island just off the coast of Borneo. The sovereign state of Brunei, located on the north coast, comprises about 1% of Borneo’s land area. A little more than half of the island is in the Northern Hemisphere including Brunei and the Malaysian portion, while the Indonesian portion spans both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The largest Indonesian cities on Borneo are: Samarinda, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Pontianak, Palangka Raya, Banjarbaru, Tarakan, Singkawang, and Bontang. Borneo is home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world.   read more…

Theme Week Indonesia

20 May 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  15 minutes

Borobudur, the world's largest Buddist temple © Gunawan Kartapranata/cc-by-sa-3.0

Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddist temple © Gunawan Kartapranata/cc-by-sa-3.0

Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world’s largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands, and at 1,904,569 square kilometres (735,358 square miles), the 14th largest by land area and the 7th largest in combined sea and land area. With over 261 million people, it is the world’s 4th most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world’s most populous island, contains more than half of the country’s population.   read more…

Costa Rica in Central America

13 March 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Bonita Beach in Limón Province © AndSalX-WWECR/cc-by-sa-4.0

Bonita Beach in Limón Province © AndSalX-WWECR/cc-by-sa-4.0

Costa Rica (spanish: literally “Rich Coast”) is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around 5 million, in a land area of 51,060 square kilometers (19,714 square miles). An estimated 333,980 people live in the capital and largest city, San José. Other large cities are: Puerto Limón, Alajuela, Heredia, Desamparados, Liberia, Puntarenas and San Vicente, with 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants. Costa Rica is composed of seven provinces.   read more…

Del Mar in California

17 December 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Annual San Diego County Fair © Jessicaowenphotos/cc-by-sa-4.0

Annual San Diego County Fair © Jessicaowenphotos/cc-by-sa-4.0

Del Mar is a beach city in San Diego County, California. Del Mar is Spanish for “of the sea” or “by the sea,” which reflects its location on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Del Mar was named after the famous poem The fight on Paseo Del Mar. The Del Mar Horse Races are hosted on the Del Mar racetrack every summer. Del Mar is located between Los Angeles and San Diego.   read more…

Theme Week Panama – Antón

24 January 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

El Valle © Smithsonian Institution - Lee Siebert

El Valle © Smithsonian Institution – Lee Siebert

Antón is a corregimiento in Antón District, Coclé Province. It is located near the north-western shore of the Gulf of Panama. It is the seat of Antón District. It has a land area of 106.3 square kilometres (41.0 sq mi) and had a population of 12,000. Most of them are mestizos, Chinese or African Americans. For Panamanian standards, the city is quite small, in the center there is a casino, three small supermarkets, run by the Chinese (“chinos”) and a market where livestock (chickens) are slaughtered and sold.   read more…

Baja California in Mexico

22 May 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Rosarito Beach © flickr.com - cesar bojorquez/cc-by-2.0

Rosarito Beach © flickr.com – cesar bojorquez/cc-by-2.0

Baja California (English: Lower California) is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, comprises the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California (El Territorio Norte de Baja California). It comprises the northern half of the Baja California Peninsula plus oceanic Guadalupe Island. The mainland portion of the state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by Sonora, the U.S. State of Arizona, and the Gulf of California (also known as the “Sea of Cortez”), and on the south by Baja California Sur. Its northern limit is the U.S. state of California. The state has an estimated population of well above 3,3 million, much more than the sparsely populated Baja California Sur to the south, and similar to San Diego County, California on its north. Over 75% of the population lives in the capital city, Mexicali, in Ensenada, or in Tijuana. Other important cities include San Felipe, Rosarito Beach and Tecate. The population of the state is composed of Mestizos, mostly immigrants from other parts of Mexico, and, as with most northern Mexican states, a large population of Mexicans of European ancestry, and also a large minority group of East Asian, Middle Eastern and indigenous descent. Additionally, there is a large immigrant population from the United States due to its proximity to San Diego and the cheaper cost of living compared to San Diego. There is also a significant population from Central America. Many immigrants moved to Baja California for a better quality of life and the number of higher paying jobs in comparison to the rest of Mexico and Latin America.   read more…

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