My best vacations require a long scenic drive, whether my own car or a rental car (manual preferred), with lots of random side stops along the undetermined route to explore deeper and get a more authentic experience of the town, state, or country. It’s important to try the local roads over the highways, because you’ll just miss all the architecture, local shops, food and people. The trick is not to have a set itinerary, be flexible with your time and what activities you want to do, this will open up plenty of options when you discover them on the road, with no time restrictions.
What makes a great drive? I am always looking for well paved roads that have a lot of twists and bends with elevation changes, either along the coast line, a cliff, or a mountain side. Being able to scale a mountain and look down 3,000 feet is awe inspiring, while driving along a cliff knowing if you don’t pay attention, you could easily be at the bottom of the cliff in a mangled wreckage, will keep your heart at a high pace. The speed of the drive is relative to the contours of the landscape. It’s more fun to take a slower car and pushing it to the limit, than having to take a fast sports car and idling around a bend. If you really want to experience full control, either drive your own manual car or rent a manual car outside the States.
I will try my best to describe my top favorite drives around the world in order starting from the best. I will be available for hire as an international driver if anyone is interested!
I adopted El Bob from Ceyey, Puerto Rico. I drove down there from San Juan to have some lechón (suckling pig) at local restaurants, or lechoneras. It only cost $3 to adopt this piggy from being eaten. Don’t worry, I did’t eat in front of him. Unfortunately Bob didn’t get into any other photo opportunities other than Old San Juan. I’ll post the other photos of my Puerto Rico trip next.
I dropped Bob near the water fountain when I was trying to take a picture, and his ear broke off. While doing some window shopping I spotted a butterfly store selling ugly yarn dolls. I met store owner Cirene, a gorgeous woman, who explained all the stories behind each yarn doll. I found her intimate knowledge of about 100 of these dolls extremely attractive, as I am attached to all of my ugly dolls back home. When she heard about Bob’s accident, she was heart broken and immediately offered to help me reattach his ear on the spot. As her gratitude for making her day more interesting, she offered to let me take a picture of Bob with the butterflies, since her store has a “no photography” policy. I can easily say my experience with her was the best 20 minutes of my entire trip.
All photos were taken with my point and shoot, Sony DSC-W170. The trick is to use a tabletop tripod, set your ISO at the lowest possible, and use a timer to take longer exposure shots for the best quality. Of course in daylight, you can just snap away handheld. I also have grid display on my LCD so I can easily apply the rule of thirds. One of the very few advantages this Sony has over my Canon Elph is the wider lens.
