tours - 2/10 - i should log off

Photo: Too much salt?

May 25, 2011 By Jillian

Too much table salt is bad for your health, but what about this kind of salt? The salt flats of Bolivia are one of the world’s most significant salt deposits. As you can see from these mounds of salt, that’s not an amount to sneeze at.

The locals harvest the salt from the flats, package it and sell it, mostly in Bolivia. The most valuable resource isn’t the salt at all, but what it covers- the lithium. Approximately 50-70% of the world’s lithium deposits are under the salt. In some places the salt deposits are several meters deep, making it safe to drive across.

So how did it all get there? Actually the salt flats are very high in elevation and in prehistoric times the entire area was a lake. Eventually the lake dried, leaving to smaller lakes and the incredible salt flats. The lithium underneath the dried salt is actually a lake of brine, as deep as 20 meters in some parts. Although some mining companies have explored the region, the Bolivian government has refused to authorized any foreign mining and plans to build an extraction plant of “modest” production by 2012.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.Bolivia is home to many natural wonders. From the salt flats to the altiplano to the jungles, there’s a lot of interesting stuff to see. Check out our Bolivia guide for ideas, maybe you’ll even catch late holiday deals!

A Guide to Rail Tours in Canada

May 22, 2011 By Jillian

A train journey across Canada offers breathtaking scenery and appears on many people’s bucket lists. It’s an excellent way to see the country, whether you choose to travel from coast to coast or whether you just take in one region. Travelling overland across Canada’s vast landscape you will come across emerald green forests, crystal clear lakes, snow-capped mountains, vast wilderness areas and cosmopolitan cities. If you’re planning any rail tours to discover Canada, here are some tips to get you started.

Train Operators

VIA Rail Canada is the operator running long-distance trains across Canada. VIA Rail trains will take you between Canada’s major cities, and even all the way across Canada on the between Toronto and Vancouver. The other very popular train company is the more luxurious Rocky Mountaineer, which takes you through the Rocky Mountains from Vancouver via Kamloops & Jasper. Travelling through this area of rugged natural beauty, you will go past mountain ranges, glacier-fed lakes and rivers.

The Routes

On VIA Rail’s inter city trains you can travel between the major cities of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, plus there is a service which links Montreal and Quebec. ‘The Canadian’ takes four nights to complete, traveling all the way across Canada from Toronto to Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper and Vancouver. ‘The Ocean’ is also a spectacular route along the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Halifax. There are also plenty of day trips: you can travel between Victoria and Courtenay on Vancouver Island, do the ‘Whistler Sea to Sky climb’ with Rocky Mountaineer between North Vancouver and Whistler, or take the train between Toronto and Niagara Falls. Rocky Mountaineer offers three rail routes through the Canadian Rocky Mountains so you can observe the magnificent snow-capped mountain peaks from the comfort of a luxurious train.

Accommodation on trains

If you choose to take ‘The Canadian’ with VIA Rail, considered one of the world’s best train journeys, you’ll be travelling in an original 1955 stainless steel coach. You can either choose to sit in a reclining seat in Economy Class, or travel in a private sleeping car with meals included in ‘Sleeper Touring Class’.

The Rocky Mountaineer has three classes of service: RedLeaf, SilverLeaf and GoldLeaf. The RedLeaf coach has large picture windows and you can sit back in a roomy, reclining chair. You receive complimentary soft drinks and snacks, as well as chilled meals served to your seat. The SilverLeaf coach is a single-level glass domed coach with large windows. You get roomy, reclining seats, breakfast and lunch served to your seat, plus complimentary soft drinks and snacks. GoldLeaf is the most luxurious coach; a two-level, glass domed coach with full-length windows and exclusive dining room, gourmet hot meals and complimentary beverages and snacks.

Rail Passes

If you’re backpacking Canada on a budget, then you can save money on train journeys by getting a rail pass with VIA Rail. The Canarailpass-System is best if you are travelling coast to coast, and is valid for 7 one-way trips in Economy Class within a 21-day period. There is also the Canarailpass-Corridor, which is suitable if you are exploring southern Ontario and Southern Quebec. This pass is valid for 7 one-way trips in Economy Class within a 10-day period. Traveling by train all the way across Canada can sometimes be expensive, but you can cut down on the cost by focusing on one region or looking out for special deals with VIA Rail or Rocky Mountaineer.

Thanks to Iain Miller for today’s guest post. If you are interested in guest posting with IShouldLogOff, email us at info [at] ishouldlogoff.com. Thanks!

Pictures courtesy of freewallpapers.com, titanhitours.co.uk and,VIA Rail Canada.

Photo: End of the World

May 20, 2011 By Jillian

We couldn’t end Bike to Work Week without a photo from perhaps our favorite biking experience- the death road in Bolivia.

If you’ve never heard of it, the death road is a somewhat infamous stretch of road stretching from La Paz, Bolivia to the amazonian lowlands. It’s a narrow road with sharp turns and a steep drop. Before the road was closed there were huge numbers of vehicle accidents every year.

The old death road is now closed to vehicles (the Bolivian government has built another road) so it’s completely open to cyclists. It’s an extreme adventure- five hours of downhill riding takes you from 4800m to about 1200m in elevation. It’s quite a climate change as well- at the beginning we were cold and the air was incredibly thin, by the end the temperature was somewhat tropical and we ate a late lunch in a jungle like setting.

Besides the awesome, completely downhill ride, we were dressed in cool protective gear that made us feel somewhat invincible. It’s definitely a dangerous activity, as you can see from the picture, the road has no shoulder, just a sheer cliff and unfortunately there have been a significant number of bike accidents. All the reason I tested the brakes time and time again before we actually started our descent.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

Bolivia is a very inexpensive destination and a great place to go if you’re looking for cheap holidays abroad. It’s got an interesting combination of climates and plenty to do from extreme mountain biking (like the death road) to luxurious amazonian jungle lodges. You can check out our Bolivia Guide for interesting things to do.

Best Wine Tours of 2011

March 21, 2011 By Guest Blogger

The best thing about a wine tour is that you get to taste some of the finest “grape juice” in the world, straight from where it is made. You could be a novice in wine tasting or an oenophile, a wine tour can be stimulating and instructive besides being a joyous journey. Here are some of the best wine tours around the world.

India

Nashik has the highest grape productivity in the world. This grape growing town is close to Mumbai in the Western India. A company called Groove Temple Entertainment conducts a two day tour to some six wineries in the region. The Bespoke Nashik Wine Trail Experience takes you to some wineries with astounding sceneries of the rolling grape fields and the hills as a background. One of the wineries also holds a festival called Sula Fest in the month of January every year where wine, dance and food rule the roost. Wine makers from Australia, France and South Africa come and live in this Indian town for months for the grapes.

New Zealand

Villa Maria Estate is the largest privately owned company in Auckland, New Zealand. The trip to this historic winery is known as Maungakiekie / Villa Marie Estate Winemakers Picnic, which takes place between 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Previously known as the Cornwall Park owned by the late Sir John Logan Campbell, this estate was an ancient Maori Pa site for more than 500 years. The private guided tour actually takes you through the wine making process in the winery and you get to taste 8 award winning wines with some antipasto and breads. This winery and vineyard is located in the rim of an ancient volcano.

Thailand

Wine Tours Thailand conducts tours to wineries near Bangkok city. These are either one-day or two-day tours and include visits to the vineyards, wine restaurants, lunch with a glass of wine, visit to national parks, Buddha temples, night safari and elephant rides through the jungles and river.

Europe & North America

Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours are gentle and classic tours of major vineyards in Europe and other wine countries. Lynette Arblaster and Tim Clarke are passionate about wine and have been specializing in wine tours for the past 25 years. They have a few surprises planned for this year’s tour plus their usual Champagne weekends are on the cards. They have 18 wine countries on their 2011 list including some wine regions of the New World.

Their April Bordeaux Wine & City Weekend coincides with “En Primeur” trade tasting. Top London wine buyers and some famous wine journalists will taste for the first time vintage 2010 clarets, and you could be a part of this premium tour.

Their Great Chateaux & Winery visits ensure private wine tastings and invitations to some wine cellars and visits to chateaux including the famous Bordeaux chateau. All their tours are led by famous names in the wine industry – either wine writers or connoisseurs and friends of the wine makers. Arblaster & Clarke wine tours are truly a rich and heady experience.

The Napa Valley Wine Train is a tour through the wineries in Napa Valley. Their wine education dinners inform you about the pairing of food and wine – which wine goes best with which food. You get to learn about the history of the wine in hand, its characteristics, the individual flavor, where and how it is made.

Traveler’s Tip: You can buy the wines straight from the wineries without paying extra taxes; a unique facility among wineries all over the world.

Author: Elias Cortez is a freelance writer and the editor of Top Net Book Picks, a website which provides detailed reviews and information for net books. You can learn more about him and the best net book to own at his website.

Thanks to Elias for today’s guest post. If you are interested in guest posting with IShouldLogOff, email us at info [at] ishouldlogoff.com. Thanks!

Photo of the Day: Fun with Doritos

January 31, 2011 By Danny

These photos were a ton of fun to make but took a fair bit of work too. (Not to mention the time spent in the convenience shop before leaving to pick up the ‘subject’ matter.)
In this one the Doritos bag was placed just a few feet in front of the camera while I got into my position a good distance further back. All of these shots took a few tries to get right but eventually it was worth the effort. There are plenty more that we didn’t even upload that weren’t so great. All in all we were upset at how limited our time was when it came time to take the photos but the alpaca steak lunch more than made up for it!

Special thanks to Flickr user Itinerantlondoner for marking this photo as a favorite.

To see a few of our favorite photos from Bolivia click here.

Our PHOTO PAGE has links to all of our collections on Flickr. Be sure to mark some of your own favorites so that we can include them on this column. We’ll be highlighting a different photo every day.

Remember, you have until the end of today to mark your favorites and be entered in our photo contest!