Want to bike the loop? Don’t bike the loop. Take the ferry to the good bits.
Cycling the archipelago 5: Nådendal to Åbo and home
A piffling 16 km back to Turku and a morning at the castle!
Cycling the archipelago 4: Nagu to Nådendal via Själö
Up a hill, down a hill, repeat, reach Nådendal, have pint.
Archipelago 3: Nagu island
Lost in the forest, stumbling upon an ancient maze!!
Cycling the archipelago 2: Pargas-Nagu
Heatstruck bike zombies hit Nagu.
Cycling the archipelago 1
This summer I fulfilled a medium-term dream and cycled the Archipelago Trail, a loop through the southwestern Finnish archipelago Åbo Skärgård (as it’s called in Swedish). I’d imagined cruising along next to the sea by the smooth rounded cliffs of the local geology, beach grasses swaying and maybe salt spray cooling us off. I recruited…
Books list Q1 2018
My friend Asbestos Bitch only blogs once a year, to publish her “books read” list. I thought it might be nice to try the same, actually writing down the titles I’ve read. Over 30 years of near-constant reading I’ve never made the attempt. Here’s Q1’s list, whose winner is…. Running in the Family by Michael…
Since 1528
San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas: the second oldest colonial city in the Americas, epicentre for the making contact with the zapatista movement, a cool mountain refuge from sweltering capital Tuxtla, anthropologist capital of the world. If you head straight east from here you end up in Mauritania. The picturesque colonial-style city centre is dominated…
Swim review: a brook at Arcotete
Park, climb up the rocks by the brook, have a dip, have a picnic.
Swim review: lagoon and waves at Boca del Cielo, Chiapas
Bathwater, scary towering waves, mozzies and seafood strip.
Swim review: bad vibes in pretty Tulum
Tulum was my first taste of the famous dream beaches of the “Riviera Maya” in Quintana Roo. The beach certainly was pretty and the water lovely. I stayed in an unambitious concrete hotel in town for MX$500 and rented a bike for $100 to hit the beach. Thinking back, that bike ride was probably the…
Pre-roadkill
I just got my first look at a Chiapas state driver’s license. On the front it has your organ donor status in big letters, standing out more than the personal information above it. On the back it has your blood type and emergency contact. I can’t decide whether the authorities are morbid, in the pay…
Swim review: Hunucma cenotes
One of the best ways to swim that I’ve come across! These are the cenotes on the former sisal plantation in Hunucmá, Yucatán state. It’s close to Acanceh, about an hour east from Mérida. Around there you can just cruise along the road and you’ll see people with colourful placards advertising cenote visits, also good,…
Book review: A Supposedly Fun Thing…
My ebook version of “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again” by David Foster Wallace came with three essays: one on David Lynch, one on professional tennis, with the titular one last. I gave up halfway through the tennis essay: Lynch gives me the creeps and I’ve never had an interest in tennis, so…
