Going to Guyana

by Erik Olsen on

When you think about it, there aren’t many countries left in the world like Guyana. The country still has a fairly vast rainforest teeming with exotic life, and tourism there has remained pretty low due to the political situation and the overall lack of infrastructure. But that may be changing.

I enjoy posting pieces about off-the-beaten-track locales as often as I can. I discovered this piece in a terrific Canadian magazine called Outpost that talks about how quickly Guyana is becoming one of the top eco-tourist destinations around…or at least it is for the more determined and dedicated eco-tourist types (you know, the ones that actually know a hundred species of bird and enjoy gnawing on tree bark for breakfast). The article takes you (via a Toyota land Cruiser) on a visit to the village of Surama, one of the half-dozen or so Amerindian villages in Guyana’s interior that have recently started to cash in on the eco-tourism thing. There the author deals with stealthy snakes, nosy tapirs, monkeys, birds, and a particular golden frog whose nerve toxin is “160,000 times more powerful than cocaine.” (Important safety tip: Don’t lick the golden frogs).

Of course, with the rise in eco-tourism there, it is easy to be concerned about the degradation of the very environment that is being appreciated. Increased tourism will lead to more development, which will lead to forests being felled. So perhaps now is the time to follow the article’s advice and see Guyana for yourself. For more on Guyana’s rainforests and eco-tourism opps, check out this link.

Gadling Destination Podcast: Cafe Reggio

by Erik Olsen on

We’re going to try
something a little bit new here with our gadling podcasts. We’re calling
them Destination Podcasts, and they are little audio slices of life from various places we
visit. For this one, we started off with
someplace easy: a small cafe in New York called Caffe Reggio that is famous for attracting clientele like the Beats,
Bob Dylan and the poet Joseph Brodsky. Give a listen and tell us what you think!

Give a
listen.

Host: Erik Olsen.
Format: 4.5 minutes

A Night at The West Virginia Penitentiary

by Adrienne Wilson on

Reading this gave me chills. I’m a sissy and when it comes to prisons, prison tales, and prison
shows I couldn’t imagine leading a life of crime.
OZ never made television
viewing pleasure for me. It’s too real, gritty and harsh. Though reading about famous defunct prisons like
Alcatraz and Devil’s
Island is often interesting I still find myself very uncomfortable with the idea of ever having to stay in one
of those institutions. If you, on the other hand think they can handle a night in the slammer, you might wish to check
out the West Virginia State Penitentiary.

Featured as a Roadside America Sight of the Week, the tour
runs about 45 minutes long, but the tour guard Tom, typically stretches it to twice the time. Filled with stories
about prisoners hurling urine and vomit onto the guards, others getting stabbed in the eye, and mock hangings it makes
for an intense day-trip. But Tom sometimes finds a couple of macho men and women in the pack who think
they could easily stay in the prison’s clean, but less than comfortable 5×7 foot cells for a night. I don’t believe
sleeping in the cells is part of the stay at the pen, but you can participate in their monthly “ghost hunt” sleep
over and sleep in the empty unlit buildings. Don’t expect too many amenities.

Michael Fay Interview

by Erik Olsen on

I will bet you today that when the history books are written about great explorers of this
century, one name that will be more than a footnote is that of Michael Fay. Fay, you may remember, completed an amazing
journey crossing Africa on foot. He called it the Megatransect. And just recently, he
also crossed the entire continent
in a small plane, recording data to help us better understand the environmental changes taking place there.

NPR does an interview with Fay as part of
their superb worth listening to. This is a modern day adventurer who is teaching us a great deal about a place we
hardly know. Btw: don’t miss the additional material on Fay and his exploits
here.

Deep Diving on Outside

by Erik Olsen on

Over at
Divester, we mentioned
an article in this month’s Outside that
is a must-read for all diving fans and adventurers in general. The article tells the story of extreme diver Dave Shaw,
who was diving the bottom of the biggest underwater cave in the world, a place called Bushman’s Hole in South Africa.
In the story, Shaw goes deeper than anyone in history, and at the same time encounters the body of a young man who
had disappeared ten years earlier. What does he do? Well, you should read the story. It’s long, but intensely
riveting and a great subway/bus read.