The Amateur Traveler talks to Dan Stromberg about his recent trip to Mali. Mali is a destination so remote that Dan says “I couldn’t imagine myself being here when I was there”. Dan started in the capital city of Bamako, before heading out to Bandiagara and Dogon country. The highlight of the visit was a [...]

The canons outside the Maritime Museum hint at its original purpose as a fortress defending the the old Royal Navy Dockyard. The main structure on the left is the Commissioner’s House which during the Second World Wa served as Allied headquarters for North Atlantic submarine radio interception. For more travel photos check out Photo Friday.Posted [...]

The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta has one of the finest collections of dinosaurs that I have seen. It is worth the couple of hours drive out into the middle of nowhere to see. Drumheller is in an area of badlands Northeast of Calgary.Posted from .

This church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist is located in the quiet and beautiful suburb of Mexico City known as Coyoacan. This church was built on land donated by the Spanish conqueror Cortez whose personal home is nearby. Posted from .

I just had a nice phone call with my wife. This is not particularly unusual except that I am in New Zealand, she is in the USA, I was calling for free, I was talking on my cell phone but not making an actual phone call. Some recent changes in technology are useful for travelers [...]

Another picture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City of a statue of an archer in one of the wonderful interior courtyards of the museum.Posted from .

See the tiny dump truck in the lower right of this picture. That dump truck has tires that are 8 feet (2.5 meters) tall. You are looking at the Martha open pit gold mine in Waihi New Zealand. This mine had been closed down but re-opened in 1987 and is just now wrapping up mining [...]

Te Puia in Rotorua is an area where you can see some of the geothermal activity in the Rotorua area as well as Moari cultural presentations. This Maori “warrrior” is trying to intimidate you. For full disclosure, my airplane ticket was purchased by Air New Zealand and the Tourism New Zealand. Tourism New Zealand also [...]

This building in Rotorua, New Zealand was built as a bath house where one could “take the cure”. Now the building is the Rotorua Museum. It was for many years both a museum and a night club. For full disclosure, my airplane ticket was purchased by Air New Zealand and the Tourism New Zealand. Tourism [...]

Chris, the Amateur Traveler himself, talks about a recent trip to New Zealand’s North Island where he went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and took a dolphin watching cruise up by the Bay of Islands. He visited the Coromandel Peninsula with Cathedral Cove and Hot Water beach, toured but can’t talk about Hobbiton near Matamata, [...]