Notes to Self

I’ve been tagged. Caitlin over at Roaming Tales has nominated me to share three travel secrets under the Trip Base Blog Tag. I tend to not like the idea of highlighting obscure places, because I’d like for them to remain obscure. But for Caitlin and the travel blogging community, why not?

My whole raison d’etre for traveling is to study, see works of art, architecture, and archaeological sites outside of my art history books, to study and photograph landscape, and to eat local food. So my three best kept travel secrets have to be listed under one or more of these categories. My three best kept travel secrets also happen to sit in plain sight.

1. The Maya Ruins

Any Maya ruins. Yes, yes, Chichen-Itza is now one of the seven wonders of the world, but even still, there are many Maya archaeological sites in southern Mexico and Central America that remain almost in isolation even though they’ve been “discovered” and uncovered and are ready for visitors.  If you’ve only been to Chichen-Itza, you haven’t yet been really immersed in the ancient culture of the Maya. Or at least not in its archaeology. Beautiful, mysterious, and full of mythology, there are number of sites where you can walk alone, or almost alone, through the jungle.

2. Big Sur

In the last thirty years I have traveled often up and down Highway 1 through Big Sur and in all that time the landscape has never ceased to amaze me. It has probably never been the same landscape twice, on any one of my road trips through the area. Most people drive from one end of Big Sur to the other as fast as possible – like it’s something they don’t really want to do, but want to tick it off of their must-see list. It’s like they are seeing the multiple hairpin curves as obstacles rather than nature’s way of getting them to slow down and look. And rarely do people take the time to camp and hike in the area. For me, even though I had spent a lot of time in Big Sur because I lived at the south end for a number of years, it wasn’t until 2002 that I stayed more than one night along the coast in Big Sur. It’s not only my favorite stretch of road to drive in California, now it’s also my favorite escape when I want a couple of week’s worth of camping in the off season when no one is around. Big Sur is a landscape artist’s dream and taking the time to really spend some time in the area is a peaceful gift to oneself like no other.

3. Winged Victory

How many people in this photograph are actually looking at Winged Victory? It’s like she isn’t even there. Invisible in plain sight. The Winged Victory of Samothrace is that one piece of art in the Louvre that is constant. Throughout the years, as the museum has undergone its changes, while pieces have moved, as pyramids have been built, Winged Victory has always remained in the same spot at the entrance to the Denon wing of the museum. I always look for her on my visits to the museum. She serves as a touchstone, a centerpiece, a starting point.

I’m nominating these 5 bloggers to share their top 3 travel secrets on their blog:

Caroline Wampole at RoadMuse
Cheryn Flanagan at DestinationTBD
Christine Cantera at Miss Expatria
Angela Nickerson at The Gypsy’s Guide
Tara Bradford at Paris Parfait

The final list of Top Bloggers’ Best Kept Travel Secrets will be published in a special blog post on the Tripbase blog and shared across the internet.