Welcome To Postcards From the Pound

Being a travel writer and photographer you don’t always get everything you write published in a glossy magazine or even a black and white newspaper (those things they throw on your porch every morning and your Golden Retriever lives to bring to you) freebie article.

So, it is time to do a travel writing blog where anyone can check out where we are going; get real pictures of something other than another blazing sunset to make a decision on where to go and stay. And, most important, if you take your amazing dog companion with you, or your spouse for that matter, will you or will you not be forced to kennel them.

I plan to let you see the bathroom, the living quarters, the good, the bad, the ugly. Let’s face it, you want to know if that wood and thatch hut on the beach is a flea infested rat’s nest that you wouldn’t think to take your clothes off in or, the greatest thing since Robinson Crusoe hit the beach. Does the “city view” mean a view of the alley in a city? Do you really want to eat that wild goat burger? And if so, which is the best dive to try it at?

Now do not expect this to be a pet travel blog. Marley goes when he can and would go more often but he has weight problems. He and his crate weigh well over 100 pounds so the airlines discriminate against him. Thus his present options are limited on airlines.

First up will be Vietnam, sans husband and dog. I went with a group called Tours of Peace which is a Vietnam Veteran’s Reconciliation/Humanitarian organization that I will go into in more depth in my blog articles. As you will read, this is one of the most amazing countries. It was life transforming not just because of the people but because of how I chose to take the trip, what we did and the amazing people I shared it with.

To the right is a taste of Vietnam. This is the fish market and harbor of Nha Trang at 7 am. The boats are so colorful, not to mention the people.

Then there is the old standby, the Turks and Caicos Islands, focusing on Salt Cay where we maintain a home called the Compass Rose Cottage. It can be viewed at www.saltcay.us

You’ll hear regular reports from there as well as Park City, Utah.

Coming soon will be a 2 week tour of Nicaragua, including Little Corn Island, Selva Negra Coffee Plantation and Los Cardones Surf Lodge on the Pacific side. We’ll only spend one night in Managua and maybe I can get Mr. Enthusiastic (Joel) to go salsa dancing. I’m sure he will at least go watch if it means semi-naked women shaking themselves to music.

We will seek to answer that question posed by many people so far: Why Nicaragua?

Why not? As you will learn, my travel philosophy is the less footprints the better. No cruise ships either. If it is under communist rule, like Cuba or Vietnam, get there sooner than later. And no brand new white sneakers and fanny packs either. If that’s you, stop it. The travel fashion police will be watching.

Any airline tips, tricks or cautions I can give you, I will.

I really was surprised that the name and domain www.postcardsfromthepound.com was available and the blog name as well. I don’t think I made it up. Often, when asked to baby sit the pets of traveling friends I will send them an email postcard from their pet voicing their vacation exploits in the personality I sort of “channel” for them. If your dog is a dope then his post cards are dopey. If your pet is a snob (of which few of my friend’s pets are) they write in an uppity tone….more often I think the voice reflects the owner as well. But we won’t tell them that now will we?

In the meantime, if you want to see some of my images, you can go to www.saltcayphotography.com and wander around while I conjure up the first blog articles.

Don’t bother leaving advertising posts, porn posts, garbage, spam or anything else. It will disappear faster than you can imagine.

And yes there are ads. I want to see what this “click” stuff is all about and see if there is anything to it frankly. And I’ll let you know what I find out.

Here are the major players in this blog:

Joel and I at the top of Sentinel Dome for sunset and champagne; Marley and me snorkeling off of Salt Cay and lastly, Marley on the Compass Rose Cottage deck on a beautiful sunrise