I recently received an email inquiry about how to go to the Galapagos Islands on a budget. I have an Ecuadorian friend that has worked on a cruise ship that frequented the islands, as well as a friend that purportedly made the trip on a budget. Perhaps the most relevant fact though is that I’m now (relatively) close to the islands and therefore have more immediate access to the kind of first person local information one needs to get informed about a place; not to mention that I myself was curious to find out if such a thing as “Galapagos on a Budget” even exists. Below is a copy of what I was able to find out and send in reply to the recent inquiry…
I’ve recently been given some web design projects to work on for the next few weeks while in Ecuador. So today as I am getting back into the swing of work I by this new concept called GTD. It seems to be gaining popularity and praise around the Web in the mac fanboy, programmer, web designer, and blogging sceen.
It is commonly tagged as GTD which stands for a productivity technique coined by the great David Allen in his book Getting Things Done.
In case you don’t want to buy the book you can get an idea of what its all about from the MineZone site’s notes from the book, and start working on my own DIYimplementation.
I’ve found some interesting AJAX websites like 43folders.com and downloadable software plugins to your favorite apps such as “Kinkless” that are based on the premises of GTD.
I found the idea of keeping an offline personal data assistance useful and intriguing. Here are some useful cutout templates to printout and use on index cards, to get organized, motivated, and productive.
Yeah, Haiti. I didnt make it inside because I left my passport with the motorcycle rental company. A mistake, because I really did want to cross the border and see what it was like there. There are plenty of Haitians here in the DR and from what i can gather from other travelers and locals is that its not really as dangerous as everyone (eg, media in the US) makes it out to be. the exception being of course the capital city of Port-au-Prince, which was nowhere near where I would be crossing. the fact is the people there REALLY need tourism to bring in much needed dollars. the people are poor and have been abused by their tyranical and corrupt government and the evil upper class who dont do the slightest things to help their country or their poor. In fact, from a budget traveler’s perspective, there’s no reason not to go: everything is quite affordable (much more so than even here in the dominican republic), there is great carribean climate, the weather is typically dry, the kreyole language is cryptic but beautiful, the people are amiable and proud of their music and culture and have preserved their african roots better than any other american nation. I’m a bit dissappointed even now that i have returned the bike and now have my passport, becuase i’ve realised there is no time because carol will join me in 2 days to celebrate the new years.