Category: Geography

Coleman Coastal Xtreme Series Marine Portable Cooler 70L

On By arcoleoIn Beach, Food Storage, Outdoors, Travel, TripLeave a comment

For the money, this really can’t be beat. I did a bunch of research and this cooler held food cold for 3.5 days in 80 degree days, whereas the Yeti, at 10x the price, lasted only 4 days. Scientific? No, but close enough. At under $40, you just can’t beat it. Is it large? Yes. It’s useful only for car camping, picnics, having beer cold when everyone is over for a bbq, etc. I sometimes wish I had gotten a 50L because this holds far more food than I care to carry and takes up valuable bed space in the truck. Ah well, I don’t feel like buying another.

Make sure you get the Marine version – the hinges are metal instead of plastic. It should last longer. It’s also white so it doesn’t get bleached by the sun.

Gregory Zulu 65

On By arcoleoIn Activities, Backpacking, Backpacks, Gear, Jungle, SummerLeave a comment

I did my Colombia trek with the Zulu 40 and it worked perfectly. The pack is made to stay off your back so sweat doesn’t stick to you, which is great in the jungle. I noticed however that the upper compartment on an airplane can easily fit a 65L pack, and not even long-ways, so why go for smaller? Yes, smaller looks neater, but it’s easy enough to tighten the straps and you have the extra room when you have to carry things for other people… so I upgraded. It’s not my go-to summer pack, but I haven’t used it much yet because I broke my leg and well, Covid.

Colombia III – Ciudad Perdida Trek

On By arcoleoIn Colombia, Jungle, Outdoors, Spring, TripLeave a comment

After the scuba diving I signed up to do the Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) trek.  It was advertised as being 50km long and four days.  What a lie.  It turned out to be 73km with three days of actual hiking.  Being out of shape, it was brutal for me.  I did however get in much better shape than I thought I could in three days.

[insert long summary here]

One thing that came out of it was realizing I could push myself into much better shape than I thought.  When I got home I started running.  I’m currently only able to run three miles in just over half an hour, but that’s more than I’ve been able to run without stopping in over twenty years.

Colombia – Part II – Scuba Diving

On By arcoleoIn Colombia, Outdoors, Summer, Trip, WaterLeave a comment

The second part of my trip was spent Scuba diving.  I spent four days in Taganga with Poseidon Dive Center.  It was fantastic.

I did the following

  • Deep diving to almost 40 meters
  • Drift diving where you just drift with a current
  • Night diving where I saw crabs fighting, giant colorful lobster, and fish sleeping in the water
  • Regular diving where I saw fish of every color and tons of clams, moray eels, etc

The water was about 75 degrees which was perfect for me for skin diving.  Every day I dove Nitrox so I never felt tired afterwards.

I also got my Advanced Open Water PADI certification, so that was nice.