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!
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.
Read OnTehuacán-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 [...]
Read OnXochicalco
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).
Read OnQuerétaro
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.
Read OnSan 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.
Read OnProfile 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
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Visited WHS
Rating StatsRedwood 5Carlsbad Caverns 4.5Guanajuato 4.5Huanglong 4.5Nan Madol 4.5Dengfeng 4Puebla 3.5Sian Ka'an 3.5Campeche 3Camino Real 2.5Valongo Wharf 1.5Reviewed WHS
Visited TWHS
- Amalienborg and its district (T)
- Auckland Volcanic Fields (T)
- Baroque Temples of Collao (T)
- Bimbia et ses sites associés (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- California Current Conservation Complex (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Chapultepec Woods, Hill and Castle (T)
- Chinese Section of the Silk Road (T)
- City of Granada and its natural environment (T)
- City Walls of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (T)
- Civil Rights Movement Sites (T)
- Dali Chanshan Mountain and Erhai Lake Scenic Spot (T)
- Delhi - A Heritage City (T)
- Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo's Home-Study Museum (T)
- Dreams in Stone - the palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee (T)
- Guano Islands, Islets, and Capes National Reserve System (T)
- Historical-town planning ensemble of Ston (T)
- Khor Dubai (T)
- Knights Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta (T)
- La Camargue (T)
- Lake Titicaca (T)
- Les Alpes de la Méditerranée (Monaco) (T)
- Les passages de Bruxelles / Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (T)
- Les témoignages matériels de la construction de l’État des Pyrénées : la Co-principauté d’Andorre (A) (T)
- Les villes bastionnées des Pays-Bas du nord-ouest de l'Europe (T)
- Mdina (Citta Vecchia) (T)
- Monuments, Sites and Cultural Landscape of Chiang Mai, Capital of Lanna (T)
- Mount Vernon (T)
- Peruvian Central Railway (T)
- Rade de Marseille (T)
- Ring of cenotes of Chicxulub Crater, Yucatan (T)
- Sites along the Uttarapath, Badshahi Sadak, Sadak-e-Azam, Grand Trunk Road (T)
- The Ancient Waterfront Towns in the South of Yangtze River (T)
- The Central Axis of Beijing (including Beihai) (T)
- The Chinese Section of the Silk Roads (T)
- The Four Sacred Mountains as an Extension of Mt. Taishan (T)
- The historic urban site of Počitelj (T)
- The Historical Port City of Izmir (T)
- The natural and architectural ensemble of Blagaj (T)
- Thingvellir National Park (T)
- Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade Routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (T)
- VIKING MONUMENTS AND SITES / Thingvellir National Park (T)
- Volcan Masaya National Park (T)
- Waters and seabed of Fiordland (Te Moana O Atawhenua) (T)
- White Sands National Monument (T)
Reviewed TWHS