© All images owned by Yazmin Malcolm
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The Colours Of Panama City
Posted in Travel
Tagged Casco Viejo, colours, dyed fabric, natives, Panama City, photography, Travel, Yazmin Malcolm Photography
Springing Up From The Ruins: Tantelo
If you head to Panama City the best place to be is in the old part of town called Casco Viejo. The new part of town looks beautiful from afar but as soon as you get up close you see that there’s not much there at all, not even a high street or nightclubs, which is what I was on the hunt for.
Anyway, Old Town is full of exciting colonial and Spanish inspired buildings that are completely run down, with trees growing out of them or a whole family squatting in these gorgeous ruins.
The area is slowly being taken over by money, and is being made-over with luxury boutique hotels, wine bars and restaurants. A good example of what we can expect from the future of Casco Viejo is a restaurant that we visited called Tantelo.
We had the executive lunch, which consisted of a huge chicken or pork burrito with patacones (mashed-up plantain that’s fried) and a refillable drink for $6.50. In the evening we sampled the normal tapas menu, the food was well made and tasted good but the portion sizes were quite small for a high price, so don’t venture in if you are on a tight budget.
We were then given a queue jump pass to go to the roof terrace, which was a very popular destination in the evenings from Thursday to Sunday.
© All images owned by Yazmin Malcolm
Posted in Food, Photography, Travel
Tagged Casco Viejo, central america, Food, Panama City, photography, restaurant, review, Tantalo, Travel, Yazmin Malcolm Photography
See a shark-toothed penis and more in Guadalajara, Mexico
It’s a while since I took these photos but after looking back on them I though it would be nice to share some of the Mexican culture you can find in one of Guadalajara’s art galleries… (yes, that is a penis with teeth, wings and claws)
For some reason there was no names or details of the artist or the works but I think these ceramic plates are representing a little something about the change in Mexican culture over recent years.
Naked girl and junkie goat.
Tagged art, central america, gallery, guadalajara, history, Mexico, Travel
5 things you should bring to Africa
I’m not an expert on Africa but whilst I was there for a couple of months travelling from Nairobbery (as my taxi driver affectionately called it when he picked me up from the airport “Thomaaaas, welcome to Nairobbery, trust no-one” and then he drove me to my hotel with his head out of the window because the windscreen was too cracked to see through) to Cape Town I did learn a thing or five about what useful things to bring with you…
1) Boobies.
Yep, you read it right, I said boobies. Otherwise known as tits, jugs, breasts, bouncallies (as my friend Fre$h J calls them) or melons, these things proved to be terribly useful on more than one occasion – and I suggest you bring some.
If you don’t own any yourself, or if you’d rather not use them as a bargaining tool, then bring along some lads mags that are full of them – such as Nuts Magazine, Zoo Magazine, FHM, Loaded, Maxim, etc.
Just in case you were unfamiliar with what boobs were, see above.
Why? Because the gents manning border controls love them. During my two and a half month trip we got stopped at a border patrol on the middle of nowhere when the ford-like pit that had once contained foot and mouth disinfectant for you to drive through had run dry. We were told that we’d have to wait up to 4 hours (in Africa this translates to more like 7 hours to a day) for replacement disinfectant before we could pass.
Fortunately, perhaps with boobs on the mind, the driver grabbed some of the lads mags from the back of the truck and gave then to the boob hungry guys manning the border control. Moments later, our truck was plucked out of a line and ushered through the border and we were soon on our way. Coincidence perhaps? I doubt it.
2) Pencils & Paper.
Anytime and anywhere that you stop along your route, no matter how remote and desolate, you’ll soon be surrounded by local kids that saw you coming. Sometimes they’re just interested in who you are and what you’re doing, and sometimes they ask for (or demand) money, clothes and more. If you give them money, like I’ve seen and heard lots of Americans do, then it’s likely that it’ll get spent on Africa’s favourite drink: Coca Cola (which was frequently cheaper than bottled water, I kid you not) and hence leading to problems with their teeth.
Kids playing up to the camera at the side of the road.
Rather than money, give them a pencil and a few sheets of paper (which you’ll have brought with you after reading this post) and tell them to take it home and practice their English. You could sit with them there and then and teach them something by writing a sentence such as “Hello, I’m Tom. You should read the Bloggiest Bloggy Blog, it’s really bloggy. No really, it’s so bloggy it’ll make your eyes bleed” on the paper and getting them to copy it. Kids in Africa aren’t like many of the kids in England as they actually want to learn, rather than watching Cartoon Network or making paper aeroplanes like English ones do.
In fact, I even traded pencils for items at market stalls owned by parents. Alternatively, one of your old t-shirts will probably be in considerably better condition than theirs and will make a better gift than money.
3) A football.
After getting lost down a dirt track in Zanzibar, one of the group also managed to break down. Given that we were in the middle of nowhere, with no idea where we were and with fake driving licences (I was middle aged, black and called Matthew), we had no choice but to try and fix it ourselves.
A confused child rolling up someone’s sleeve to see if the skin on their arm is black or not.
Understandably, this was going to take a while. So, in true Musketeers style, we all stuck around rather than leaving part of our group behind.
About an hour later, some young kids appeared from behind some of the trees. They peered through the bushes inquisitively, investigating our every move whilst being wary and cautious too.
As they got less wary and more inquisitive, they came closer where we tried speaking to them in English and terrible Swahili. They didn’t seem to understand us, even with our exaggerated body language, so one of the guys had an idea…
He grabbed a football from the back of the Land Rover and kicked it across the road towards them. This was a language they COULD understand, so we thrashed them about 8 – 2.
Picking teams for our football match against some inquisitive kids whilst we were fixing the bike.
4) Postcards of your home town.
I know that you probably remember what your home town looks like without having postcards of it but they have another use while abroad…
You’ll be meeting a lot of locals who’ll be very interested in you, your travels and where you’re from and postcards are a great tool for making conversation about where you live. I befriended anyone from children asking for change to national park rangers and owners of swanky-balls resorts by using postcards to show and talk about.
When I showed postcards to the owner of a bush camp in the Maasai Mara National Park he asked some genuinely interesting questions that I did not expect. For example…
“What is the most dangerous animal in England?” (My reply was honestly… “Errr… A fox? Or actually maybe it’s a Badger) followed by me trying to explain what a badger is.
A highly venomous snake in our camp – more dangerous than a Fox?
“What types of monkeys do you have?”
A Lioness scanning the horizon for prey in the Serengeti National Park – more dangerous than a Badger?
“Are the Houses of Parliament next to the River Thames so the crocodiles keep invaders out?”
5) Patience.
No, not the card game (although cards might help with this thing), I mean you have to have patience. Be prepared to be patient.
Upon arriving in Africa you’ll quickly learn that the pace of life is not quite up to speed with Western countries and not nearly like a city like London. In London people trample others to get on the train first, then they’ll fight you to get off the train first. Then they pretty much sprint down the platform to get through the barriers and buy a tall-skinny-frappe-grande-american- mocha-with-an-extra-shot so they can live life even faster.
In Africa, a taxi driver will tell you the ride will take 20 minutes, but once he’s picked up his laundry, avoided the toll road, leant some money to his mate and dropped his kids off at school on the way then you’ll eventually reach your destination 60 minutes later. Getting the car’s engine fixed will take more like 2 days, rather than the quoted 12 hours. Sending one e-mail home that simply says “Having a great time, wish you were here” will probably take an hour or two. Firstly the computer is probably one of the first ever made, secondly it’s likely the keyboard has letters missing, and lastly there probably won’t be fibre-optic super fast broadband on tap – you’ll be lucky to find dial up, so get used to it!
Workmen filling in hundreds and hundreds of miles of potholes so tourists like you spend less days at the side of the road with flat tyres. As a courtesy, we’d fill up empty water bottles for any of these guys we passed.
You get the point yet? Yeah okay, you get the gist. Things move slowly in Africa. The quicker you get used to and come to terms with that, the more you’ll enjoy yourself. Africa is so freaking amazing it’s unreal, so leave that grande-frappe-capaccino-latte-americano attitude at home and enjoy.
Backpacking South America… in just 4 minutes.
You may have noticed me mention my friends Lucy and Russel before who have been backpacking South America for the last 7 or 8 months. As Lucy’s an Art Director and Russel is a videographer/editor, they made this rad video to sum up their experience in just 4 minutes. Enjoy.
Alos, go check out their blog, Tell Us Again, with their 225 day-by-day diary of their incredible travels. With their South America trip over, they’ll soon be looking for jobs in London so buzz them if you know of any goodun’s.
Posted in Travel
Tagged backpacking, Lucy Best, Russel Torode, south america, Tell Us Again, Travel, video, Vimeo
Look how gay my friend is… in the Blue Lagoon, Iceland
My friend travels a lot with his job and keeps sending me these pictures from around the world because my name is Tom. I think he might love me. See more here.
Posted in Travel
Tagged Blue Lagoon, dan hooper, iceland, look how gay my friend is, photography, shoes, TOMS, Travel
A different way of traveling the world (and for free-ish too)
About a year ago my girlfriend, Yaz, and I decided that we’d temporarily ditch our awesome media jobs in London for a chance to sail around the world… for FREE.
Just over 4 months later and we’re in Panama preparing to depart on a 45 foot sailing catamaran in the direction of Australia via the Galapagos, French Polynesia and various other South Pacific islands – and the travel is not costing us a thing. Why? Because we’re travelling as crew members, helping to sail the boat for the captain/owner in exchange for the free travel.
It’s a pretty unconventional way of travelling, and everyone we tell about our trip always asks how we got into it and if they could do the same. So, here’s a few ways we do it along with some of the questions that we always get asked…
1) Find boats online
There’s a few different sites online (our favourites listed below in order of which have been most useful) that you can use as crew to find a compatible boat and captain.
Cruisers Forum is a free forum for cruising yachties to share information, ask peers for advice and look for crew (amongst many other things). Just sign up for free, post a message in the Meets & Greets section introducing yourself and then browse the Crew Wanted section to get a feel for what people look for in crew. Once you’re ready, you can put up a Crew Available post advertising yourself and wait for someone to get in touch and take it from there.
Find A Crew is free to sign up and browse boat profiles but gets a bit fiddly when you want to get in contact with the boat owner. It’s a site specifically designed for captain and crew to get in contact with each other but they’ve got this really wanky way of doing so, which takes a bit of getting used to. Once you’ve set up your profile (free to do) you can browse boats and send them a ‘wave’ to let them know you’re interested in their trip. Then that boat owner can ‘Reply Yes,’ ‘Reply Maybe,’ or ‘Reply No’ after checking out your profile. If either of you have paid for a ‘Premium Profile’ then you’ll be sent their contact details so you can send them an e-mail or call them – well, as long as you didn’t get a ‘Reply No’ or course. The cost of the Premium Membership is waaaaay too steep for us, and probably you if you’re travelling on a budget but rest assured that most of these boats will be looking for crew on other sites too, so pick out some key information and Google around for them and 90% of the time you’ll strike lucky.
Crewseekers is a really good one but costs about £70 per year for a membership. You can browse posts from boats looking for crew for free but you’ll need a membership to get in contact – unless you can use some of their key information to Google around for a post elsewhere online (more difficult than Find A Crew because there’s less key information on here). We paid for a year membership but didn’t re-new it because none of the boats we contacted ever amounted to anything and they could be found elsewhere. Another disadvantage of Crewseekers is that you can’t create your own crew profile to get your name out there – very frustrating if you can’t check the site for new boats every day.
Other sites like Latitude 38, World Cruising and Sail Net have been useful too but don’t seem as popular or useful as the three above.
2) Posters/flyers
Get some posters or flyers printed up with information about you, where you are, and where/when you want to go. Include any experience you have and a sentence about your personality, interests and character. We put a photograph of us on our posters but it’s up to you if you do the same.
We find that A6 sized posters are best because they don’t take up too much space on a notice board and can double up as a flyer to hand out to people you meet. Put posters on notice boards at yacht clubs, bars that yachties hang out in and hand them out to yachties you meet.
3) Walking the docks
Word of mouth is a really good way of getting familiar with the whole sailing scene, you get to meet the type of people you could be spending months at sea with and you experience a variety of different species of ‘boat people’. Some people are helpful (giving you information about the best marinas, people to speak to and places to go) and some people are arseholes (arrogantly looking down on you from what they think is an elite class of sailors) but as long as you can take the rough with the smooth you’ll be fine.
Some posh marinas have security gates at the end of each dock but they’re often propped open while workmen come and go so you can still get onto the docks. Alternatively, hang around by the gate and wait for someone to pass through and go in with them. If that fails, go to the marina office and ask for visitor access for a couple of hours so you can speak to people.
Once on the docks, we walk from boat to boat asking people if they, or anyone they know, are looking for crew. The best time to do this in our experience is between 7am and 9am – yachties are early risers – before people have got up and gone out for the day. If they’re not looking for crew, and if they don’t know anyone looking, then ask them if they have any tips or recommendations for you.
4) Crusier’s Net
Most locations with a marina or anchorage full of passing boats will have a ‘Cruiser’s Net’ each morning. The Cruiser’s Net is effectively a community radio show held over VHF radio with a nominated host and selected contributors. It usually starts around 8am and the host will start by introducing him/her self before welcoming anyone listening to introduce themselves with their boat name. As crew, I’ll introduce myself as ‘Crew Member Tom’ as I’m not affiliated with a boat and it makes it clear to everyone from the start that I’m crew and looking for a boat to join.
After introductions the host will move on to the day’s subjects, or handing over to selected contributors to talk about various topics. These usually include things like a weather forecast, a buy and sell section, a section for local businesses to advertise, a ‘what’s on’ events section, an ‘other’ section and a crew wanted or available section. There’s often other topics but these seem to be the main ones we’ve experienced. Like you would post in a forum online, when your section is up just radio through a bit of information about yourself and what you’re looking for – if you’re uncomfortable about it just read off your poster.
A major hurdle we’ve found with the cruiser’s net is getting hold of a VHF radio to use but we’ve got round it without buying our own by… walking the docks and borrowing a radio of a friendly yachtie we’ve got chatting to or asking the local yacht club/bar if we could use theirs in the morning. When we’ve really struggled to find a radio, we’ve asked some friendly yachties on the docks if they could relay our information on the cruisers net from the flyer.
Questions we usually get asked vary but here’s a few of the key ones – feel free to post any more questions in the comments below though…
1) How much experience do you need?
None, really. Most boat owners look for people with attitude and personality over experience. They may have to spend a long time with you, and they need to trust that you have a compatible personality – everything else they can teach you as they’ve done it a hundred times before most likely.
Having said that, it’s a lot easier once you have a bit of experience or a qualification under your belt to show them that you can tie a few knots, have a basic understanding of what’s what in the language of sailing (bow, stern, port, starboard, head, aft, etc) and so they can rest assured that you probably don’t get seasick. Some boat owners we’ve spoken to are more interested in crew with our level of experience (about 1,500 miles, 100+ night hours and an RYA Competent Crew qualification) rather than people with any more than that because we won’t encroach on their status as captain like an RYA Coastal Yacht Master might – boat owners like to be called captain for a reason!
2) How much does it cost?
Nothing. Well actually it depends on what you find but the travel side of it shouldn’t cost anything if the boat owner is working on a exchange basis where you help crew for your stay and travel aboard. Pretty much all boat owners will ask that you contribute your own food costs which we’ve found is usually about $10 US Dollars per person per day or thereabouts. Some boat owners will also ask that you contribute towards the costs of fuel, marinas and maintenance but in my opinion this shouldn’t be your responsibility because they’re making the trip and these expenses anyway with or without you. In fact, some boat owners will even try and make profit out of you and in which case it becomes more of a charter boat than a boat looking for crew and you should steer clear.
Either way, make sure that your contribution towards expenses is agreed before you join the boat to avoid any nasty surprises. In addition to that, your plan B, C or D could involve an extended period of time travelling or staying on land – which is much more expensive (we spend 3 to 4 times as much on land as we do on a boat) due to the cost of accommodation, travel, eating out and keeping yourself entertained. You also need to factor in the cost of travel insurance for long distance sailing away from land (ours is about £600 per year with Top Sail), the cost of visas and the cost of getting to/from your boat.
3) What do boats look for in crew?
Personality, character and compatibility most of all. A little experience seems to help us too. Also, one of the things that boat owners really like is if you can cook a good meal and provision food for longer trips. Yaz and I are great at this and this usually helps us a lot. However bear in mind that cooking a good meal in your kitchen at home and cooking a good meal on a rough sea in a small kitchen with chilli flakes flying off the shelf, olive oil spilling in the cupboard and the oven swinging on a dumbell is a whole different thing!
4) What are the drawbacks of doing it and what should I look out for?
You’re effectively hitch hiking with a complete and utter stranger so do your research, ask every question possible before you make a commitment and proceed with caution. Unlike hitch hiking on a road, you can’t get out at the next service station if you’re 2 weeks from land in any direction so make sure you’re compatible before hand. Always have a plan B, C and D if the person that sounded great on paper and in e-mail but turns out to be mental.
The big thing to look out for in our experience above anything else is… Horny sailors. There are fucking loads of them out there and they are often very sad and very lonely so we’d recommend steering clear if possible. Captains advertising for female crew only are usually looking for a partner so bear this in mind if you’re not thinking along the same lines. If you’re a girl, travelling solo and not looking for a relationship we’d recommend looking to crew with a couple or with a family.
5) What’s the best thing about travelling this way?
It is fucking rad. You get to stand at the bow looking into the eye of passing dolphins. You get to see whales clearing the water’s surface and splashing down with great enormity. You see weird shit that you never even imagined, like sting rays jumping out of the water. You get to rock up to a secluded and deserted beach, drop anchor, swim to shore and play Robinson Crusoe. You get to reel in, de-scale, fillet and cook gigantic tuna within minutes. Seeing Fosfurescent plankton illuminate in the wake of your boat as you sail at night. You get to travel for next to nothing – paying only for your food with no accommodation or travel costs. You learn a new skill and experience it to its best.
Please post any questions you have about it in the comments below…
Posted in Travel
Tagged backpacking, boat, crew, crewing, jobs, sailing, Travel, travel methods, yacht
Look how gay my friend is… in Kristiansand, Norway
My friend travels a lot with his job and keeps sending me these pictures from around the world because my name is Tom. I think he might love me. See more here.
Posted in Travel
Tagged dan hooper, Kristiansand, look how gay my friend is, Norway, photography, shoes, TOMS, Travel
Panamians playing football on the airport’s runway
I’ve been staying (well, kind of living) in Bocas Del Toro, an island off the Caribbean coast of Panama for the past 4 weeks and have another 3 weeks here before I move on so Yaz and I have decided to start documenting this fascinatingly interesting and quirky little island.
Across the street from where we live is the one and only airport amongst the Bocas Del Toro archipelago. The big expanse of land holding the airport’s runway is also home to the island’s football pitch, complete with subs benches and a stand for the 20 – 30 strong crowd (although we’ve never seen a full turn out).
When planes take off or land on the runway, no-one on the pitch bats an eyelid and they just carry on as if they’re playing at Wembley Stadium while we shit ourselves and duck as if the plane will knock our heads off as it passes over. See the plane in the background about to take off?
Posted in Photography, Travel
Tagged Airfield, airport, Bocas Del Toro, Caribbean, football, Panama, photography, Travel
Underwater Life in Bocas Del Toro, Panama
Since we’ve been on the quirky island of Bocas Del Toro on the Caribbean side of Panama, we’ve all done our Advanced Open Water Diving with La Buga.
It seems to be one of the cheapest places to learn to dive. We paid around $225 for our course which consisted of four dives including two lessons of your choice, we picked buoyancy and underwater photography. Here are some of our shots from the dive:
Aaaand…Our mate Jill, who is a videographer and editor for Neverdry came and videoed the boys on one of their fun dives. I’m not diving in it as i had a boring ear infection! Take a look at her video of us here:
Posted in Photography, Travel
Tagged Bocas Del Toro, fish, La Buga, Neverdry, photography, scuba diving, Travel, underwater, videographer, Yazmin Malcolm Photography
