10 latest experiences http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka en-us I love mountain hide-aways in general, and Tryavna in particular. It sits about 40 km south-west of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria’s medieval capital. The velvety ranges of the Balkan Mountains, responsible for the name of the whole region, rise on all sides. Tryavna is gorgeous and quirky, and it has visibly benefited from the joint EU and local government Beautiful Bulgaria Project. Small stone bridges arch over the river, and buildings from the 19th century line the quiet cobbled streets. Tryavna is famous for two things: icons and carving. A museum of icons painted in the naïf Tryavna style of iconography perches on a sleepy hill overlooking the town. ‘We haven’t had visitors all week,’ croaks the young, tubercular-looking museum attendant who unlocks the door to show me priceless medieval icons. Tryavna’s mountain air does wonders for those with respiratory ailments. Next, I visit ‘the house with the two sunbursts’, where two master carvers competed on the ceiling... Tryavna, Bulgaria kapka Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:24:52 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka/experience/417 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/417 Although it takes an enterprising spirit to travel around provincial Bulgaria, it only takes a bus ride from Sofia or Istanbul to reach Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s most civilized city. Handsomely appointed between two mountain ranges and set around seven hills, Plovdiv breathes history and charm. The Old Town is the place to head before exploring the more modern, commercial part. As we climb our first cobble-stoned street, we fall under a spell. Large houses with jutting upper stories painted in blue, yellow, and pink lean over the street like gossiping aunts. Some almost touch. The Bulgarian national revival in the 18th and 19th centuries spawned this romantic architecture of harmony and wealth. Many houses are named after the merchants who lived in them. A quirky old-fashioned Hippocrates Pharmacy with glass decanters and wooden counters stands next to antique shops, street icon stalls, and exquisite Orthodox Churches with lavish but damaged frescoes, incense smoke, and hairy old l... Plovdiv, Bulgaria kapka Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:16:09 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka/experience/416 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/416 Belogradchik means in Bulgarian ‘little white town’, and it is indeed both little and white. It’s dwarfed by a petrified landscape of giant, reddish rock formations thirty kilometres long. This is the centre of Bulgaria’s lovely but unloved north-west, the Cinderella of its tourist industry. Two hundred million years ago, it was the bottom of a sea, and as far as the mainstream tourist is concerned, it still is. And precisely for this reason, it’s an excellent off-the-beaten track place to visit. For rock-climbers, this is paradise. Behind the pretty but run-down main square, the petrified sea begins. See if you can make out the best-known figures: the Schoolgirl with her backpack, Adam and Eve, the Bear, the Dervish. It’s a surreal tableau in the declining light of late afternoon. More surreal yet is the derelict, chipped Socialist-era Balkantourist hotel that squats on the side of a road winding past the rock-sea and plunging into a green valley. It might be up a... Belogradchik, Bulgaria kapka Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:07:18 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka/experience/415 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/415 In the midst of a sparkling blue Mediterranean lies a picture-perfect, diminutive harbour prickly with yacht masts. Fortified stone houses with small windows guard the port, and whitewashed mansions rise in terraced layers against rocky slopes. Winding lanes lead into the interior from lazy waterside restaurants that specialise in fish and people-watching. The porter who greets us silently throws our luggage into a hand-pushed two-wheel cart, together with the day’s supplies – packs of bottled water, a watermelon, sealed boxes. We head into a padded, dream-like world of whitewashed lanes, giant pot-plants, and blue, half-shuttered windows behind which people live slow-motion lives. Welcome to Hydra, star of the Saronic gulf. It is the best-preserved island of the Mediterranean. Donkeys, horses, and cats are the only traffic here, and the only noise I hear is the tolling of bells from the small, cheerfully painted church some ten metres away from my boutique hotel window. Earl... Hydra, Greece kapka Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:54:48 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka/experience/414 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/414 Here's a tip: if you drive through the Rif Mountain in northern Morocco, heed Lonely Planet advice about driving at night. We didn’t. We started in Ouarzazate in the desert; our final destination was Tangier. It took two days to cross the Middle Atlas and head towards the Rif ranges in the north. This spectacular mountainous area is called Ketama and is avoided by visitors because of its rough reputation as one of the world’s largest marijuana producers. It was the off-season and we didn’t see any plantations. But we knew we were deep in kif (grass) territory: men on the road made smoking gestures to us. The patchy, winding road with a ravine drop to one side was exciting enough, but we had the extra excitement of being chased by a four-wheel drive packed with dealers in dark glasses. Night fell together with a sudden thick fog, and a black Mercedes tail-gated us. Hours of fun. After the fog and hustlers, we were pulled over by police. They gave us tea, searched the car... Er Rif, Morocco kapka Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:44:29 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka/experience/413 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/413 When in Tangier, go hang out at Café Tingis in Petit Socco. The kind, desiccated waiter looks like an extra in a Bertolucci film and they make a wicked mint tea. This was Tangier’s notorious heart when the city was North Africa’s party central. Cult writer William Burroughs dubbed it the Interzone. In the 50s Burroughs would sit in Café Central across from Café Tingis and size up young boys. He wrote The Naked Lunch in Hotel el-Muniria where we spent a night. It was dingy and the rusty radiators hadn’t been used since Moroccan independence in 1956. Our roof-top room had wind-swept views to a moody Strait of Gibraltar, and the cold wind blew straight from Spain. Now, Petit Socco is the hub of people-smuggling, Tangier’s most profitable trade. We are soon joined by Ahmed, the ubiquitous busy-body of the medina. He pops out of a side-lane: a djinn in dark glasses and yellow cloak. Initially, Ahmed followed us around, but realising we had no money, gave up. Now he just hangs... Tangier, Morocco kapka Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:36:55 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka/experience/412 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/412 The coastal Ecuadorian province of Manabí is famous for bananas, mandarins, and most vitally, cocoa. Try Ecuadorian chocolate, and you’ll understand why we were a tad excited. Our friend Mario was preparing a presentation on cocoa beans for his agronomy thesis, and took us to an uncle’s cocoa plantation, to show the gringos where chocolate comes from. After being bruised up like fruit in an open truck, among hills bursting with groves, birds and clouds, we arrived at the shady hilltop plantation. The uncle, a man of few words, wore rubber boots and a ‘Panama’ hat (crafted in Ecuador, make no mistake!) and waited patiently as we inspected the bright-coloured fruit gathered in piles. The care-taker, a kindly man with missing teeth and an old machete, showed us how to split the fruit, scoop the beans out, and toss them into bags, to be fermented and sent off to the producers. Cacao nacionál, he explained, comes from the best fruit – yellow – not to be confused with ... Tosagua, Ecuador kapka Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:24:32 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka/experience/410 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/410 It’s Sunday in the Andean colonial city of Ibarra, and all good Catholics are in church. We head to the hills in an open-sided bus pumping loud cumbia from its roof-mounted speakers. Soon we are at the wild animal shelter ‘Guayabillas’, overlooking the Lake Yahuarcocha, the Quichua for ‘lake of blood’. The mountain air and open vistas make this a highland paradise, so the shelter comes as a bit of a shock. This open-air mini-zoo is built and run by volunteers, mostly university students. The idea is to house rescued trafficked animals from the Amazon and the Galapagos. One of the volunteers, biology student Jesus, shows us around. We meet paradise parrots with their heads plucked; an iguana with a severed tail; a young lioness pacing in a cage, bought as a cub for a spoilt kid; five species of monkeys including the world’s tiniest; three giant tortoises found in the backyard of the man who bought them - abandoned, their shells damaged. The oldest, 90 year-old Alfredito... Ibarra, Ecuador kapka Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:15:13 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kapka/experience/409 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/409