Larry F Profile

Avid travler (60+ countries and counting), business & technology enthusiast, and amateur anthropologist.

Among the WHS I've visited:

Favorite - Tie between Galapagos (Ecuador) and Tikal (Guatemala)

Least favorite - Singapore Botanical Garden - it was a beautiful garden, but didn't understand the WH significance.  That said, Singapore itself deserves a WH nomination, for its melting pot of cultures, Gardens by the Bay, and being the epitome of a modern city state.

Most inaccessible - Nan Madol (Micronesia) - from San Francisco, it took 5 flights via Honolulu, Majuro, Kwajalein, and Kosrae, a 2-hr car ride to the opposite side of Pohnpei and a small canal crossing by foot

Most intrigued - Hal Saflieni Hypogeum (Malta) - Wow!  How did people build this mega-monument 5000 years ago, to be so well preserved and only so recently rediscovered. A true time capsule and gold-mine for neolithic cultures!

 

Visited Sites Larry F

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Legend

  • Cultural
  • Natural
  • Mixed

Recent Reviews Larry F


Stone Town of Zanzibar

Larry F United States - 04-Dec-21

Time of visit: July 2016

Duration of visit: 2 days

Mode of transportation: by propeller plane flight from Dar es Salaam (sit in the co-pilot seat if you can!)

Review and experience

I visited Zanzibar almost by pure chance - I had come to central Tanzania with a small group for a volunteer project. However, before I could board the return flight on Turkish Airlines, a military coup erupted in Turkey and Istanbul closed its airport. So when life gives me a lemon, I ended up making lemonade and extended my stay in Tanzania with a few days in Zanzibar. 

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Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley

Larry F United States - 04-Dec-21

Time of visit: November 2021

Duration of visit: 2 hours

Mode of transportation: by rental car, en route from Puebla to Oaxaca

Review and experience

Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Valley features beautiful landscape full of cacti, particularly the unique single column cacti that reminded us of garden eels in [...]

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Xochicalco

Larry F United States - 02-Dec-21

Time of visit: November 2021

Duration of visit: 2 hours

Mode of transportation: by rental car, day trip from CDMX

Review and experience

My initial expectation of Xochicalco was just "a little known Mesoamerican pyramid site," especially after damaging our rental car en route in Cuernavaca and feeling grumpy because of the very dumb mistake I made, but I left impressed and with a new understanding and appreciation of the Epiclassical Period that I hadn't previous read about (unless I fell asleep during this section of the lecture in university). 

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Querétaro

Larry F United States - 02-Dec-21

Time of visit: November 2021

Duration of visit: 3 hours

Mode of transportation: by rental car, from San Miguel de Allende en route to Puebla

Review and experience

Lovely historic centre and definitely one of the cleanest city cores we visited in our 3-week stays in central Mexico. To our surprise, having done very little research ahead of time, the overall city of Queretaro was surprisingly large and modern, with many skyscrapers in scattered around the city. The city core was a pleasant contrast to the modernity of the broader city. It was calm, quaint, and not particularly packed with foreign tourists that we had otherwise experienced in San Miguel de Allende. 

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San Miguel de Allende

Larry F United States - 02-Dec-21

Time of visit: November 2021

Duration of visit: 2 days

Mode of transportation: by rental car, from CDMX

Review and experience

Alas, we fell to the tourism trap of San Miguel de Allende. Okay, I'm half-joking. Yes, the town is filled with tourists and the commercialism of SMA is rampant, but its charming and colorful buildings, the magnificent Baroque-style cathedral, and its hilly and winding cobblestone streets certainly do have their magical draw for visitors.  It was nice to come to SMA after spending a week in the bustling metropolis of Mexico City. Everything in SMA just felt so quaint and quiet, so it was a well needed respite from the exciting chaos of CDMX.

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Profile Data

Name
Larry F
Country
United States
Most Impressive
Galapagos
Proposal
Wikipedia (call me blasphemous but this is our world's heritage in the 21st century!)

Recently Visited WHS

Update 23.11.21
Rating Stats
Huanglong 4.5
Nan Madol 4.5
Puebla 3.5
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