SF Narrated Boat Tours

by Erik Olsen on

Gotta hand it to the California
folks for always being in front of the curve
technologically and politically correct, um, correctally. The city of San Francisco is now offering wireless narrated
boat tours of the City starting on May 24. The tours depart from the city’s
Ferry Building, and users will be given wireless headsets before they head out.

The tours are for
cruises of the Bay and last about 90-minutes. Looks like you can choose from several tours which focus on the city’s architecture, natural history and Native
Americans. Actually, it sounds pretty cool, but the obvious lameness comes from having to buy and don the headsets.
Shouldn’t these come through your cell phone or something? Yeah yeah, I know most phones probably aren’t
equipped, but I still think the smart folks there should come up with something…maybe an implantable chip in
your ear or something. But still, pretty cool. I could see these being great for a place like New York.

Adventure Travel with Reality Stars

by Erik Olsen on

Don’t know how much you’re into the reality
television thing. To be honest, I more or less wish it had had its 30 minutes of fame and died a few years ago, but
alas, it is still with us, which means that lots of folks who have done the reality show travel thing are finding ways
to capitalize on their "success".

To wit: we have a company called Reality Trips, run by former Survivor stars Burton Roberts (pictured…Survivor:
Pearl Islands, Eco-Challenge Fiji) and Jenna Lewis (Survivor: Borneo, All-Stars, Eco-Challenge
Fiji). The team leads trips to many of the same, or similar, exotic locations where they discovered their TV fame.
Places like Morocco, the Inca Trail in Peru, and Belize, where they will take you diving.

Actually, I think
it’s cool that these folks are doing this It’s far better than leveraging your fame in some other, less-savory way, say
doing commercials for toothpaste or something. In fact, given the chance, I’d probably take one of these trips. But
then, I’d most likely get voted off the island.

Rainforest Video

by Erik Olsen on

I was doing some browsing around for interesting video on
Google video and came across this pretty cool piece about the Puerto Rican
rainforest. I am guessing that we’re going to start seeing a lot more interesting travel video on Google in the
coming months/years. Already there is a fair amount, if you search travel when you go there. Some of the stuff now is just
horrendous, so I’m kind of hoping that a much better rating system is developed to weed out the bad from the good, but
for now, a quick search can make for some light lunchtime viewing.

Red Corner: Bush Cracks Down Harder on Cuban Travel

by Neil Woodburn on

More trouble for those trying to travel to Cuba. The Bush Administration is cracking down even harder on agencies that specialize in travel to the forbidden island of Cuba. In the last few months, audit investigators from the U.S. Treasury Department suspended the licenses of four travel agencies and six religious organizations for illegally providing travel to Cuba. Religious organizations!?! Since when does the Bush Administration crack down on religious organizations? Old Jeb must really be courting that Cuban constituency hard!

Cuban-Americans who once supported the ban, however, are not as enthusiastic about it as they once were. Prior to 2004, they could legally travel back to Cuba to visit relatives. But then Bush tightened the reigns and passed legislature limiting the definition of “family” to exclude nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins. These relatives are no longer considered family and are prohibited from traveling to Cuba just like the rest of us. Only siblings, parents, grandparents and stem cells are allowed to visit.

And just how are these new sanctions affecting Castro’s authoritarian rule? Are they chipping away at his power and slowly toppling his regime as no doubt intended? Hardly. Check out this article in yesterday’s LA Times highlighting Castro’s recent crackdown on entrepreneurs and capitalism. Years of American sanctions haven’t done a bit of good.

Branjolina Helping African Tourism

by Erik Olsen on

Karen posted about the newest do-gooder exploits of Branjolina and we just couledn’t resist adding our two cents here. People Magazine reports that the both-divorced duo are personally propping up the tourism industry of Namibia through their efforts to…well, just by visiting the country.

Yes, here they are awaiting the birth of their child, and all the magazine covers, all the E television stories the tabloid coverage has had the added benefit of making Americans aware that you can actually visit Africa, that it’s not just a big, dark place on the map where people die. The Namibian ambassador says the Namibian embassy in Washington has been “inundated with calls from the media and individuals inquiring about Namibia.” “It would be an honor for Namibia to become the birthplace of the Pitts’ first biological child,” he said.

Star power. Man, how about that?