So, in the midst of the worst downturn in travel book sales in a decade is there a point in continuing? Will our yet-to-see-the-light-of-day tomes ever… well… see the light of day?

According to Bookseller.com travel book sales have slumped more than 10% over last year’s sales figures which themselves were almost 30% lower than the year before that.

Some imprints had modest increases apparently — Rough Guides for one — but across the board business has been terrible. What, with Icelandic ash clouds, airline strikes and Bangkok turning into the OK Corral, travel guides particularly haven’t been selling. But marketing always has its greatest impact in times of struggle. Lonely Planet tackled the downturn in a unique fashion by giving away their iPhone City Guide apps for free when volcanic ash closed many of Europe’s key airports.

If the global economy is coming around as most financial pundits seem to believe, and if the summer travel season begins to percolate, then perhaps all these setbacks will be nothing more than short-term events and we can all get back to doing what we do best: reading, writing and road trips (the three ‘R’s…?)

[REW] – [Source]

Today, my heart is heavy for Guatemala in general and San Pedro in particular.

First it was Volcan Pacaya, spewing lava and ash into the air, wreaking havoc with air travel and claiming lives.


Then it was tropical storm Agatha. It slammed into Guatemala from the Pacific this weekend, leaving the country battered and broken. Nearly 100 people are dead. Roads are out. Houses destroyed. Lives uprooted.

San Pedro, my home for most of last year, lies between Volcan San Pedro and Lake Atitlan. The beauty of this community is matched only by the people there. And they’re hurting.

Please contribute to relief efforts – or put Guatemala on your “must visit” list. They need you.

Lake Atitlan near San Pedro

San Pedro la Laguna City

These photos were taken last year during my stay. This link will take you to a friend’s site where you’ll get a better idea of the kind of destruction a landslide can bring.

Also, you may wish to read these other Wanderism stories about life in San Pedro.

• The First Part Of A Story About Living In Guatemala

• The Second Part Of A Story About Living In Guatemala

• If You Go To San Pedro, This Is What You Need To Know

• A ‘Lomoized’ Photograph Of San Pedro la Laguna

[DCM]

Comments below. Thanks.

I’m close enough to a group of white tourists in the market area of Takoradi, Ghana to determine they’re from an English-speaking nation. Likely Canada. If pressed, I’d say Ontario. Toronto, maybe?

They’re the perfect subjects to test my theory on something that I’ve noticed happens a lot here in Ghana: The ‘obruni’ snub.

I look over at the group, smile and say hello. They stare for a second and then turn away. Ah ha! I knew it!!

Obruni is the local word for “white man” and snub describes what white people do to each other here.

I first noticed the obruni snub shortly after arriving in Ghana. Before heading out to the countryside, I spent a couple of days exploring the capital, Accra.

You see a fair number of white folks in Accra. And they see you. But you’d never know it.

When two black people pass, they usually greet each other. Same goes for when a white person and a black person pass. But when two white people pass, they tend to look the other way. Obruni snub!

I wasn’t even aware of how prevalent the snub is until I met a reporter from Halifax. He had been travelling around West Africa and our paths happened to cross at a local beach resort.

Over beers one night he explained how other white people constantly snubbed him. They would shoot dirty looks, look through him, or simply look away.

We concluded that it has something to do with the “African experience.” White people come to Africa for a lot of reasons. Many come for some magical “pure” experience. As if microwave ovens, shopping malls and horseless carriages don’t exist here.

Some foolishly assume that talking to other white people somehow cheapens their three-week-17-country-bus-tour-of-sub-Saharan-Africa experience. Meeting white people isn’t why they came. They came to see the real Africa. You know, like lions and shit.

But just because you’re in Africa doesn’t mean that you have to be a dick.

If only the snubbers could take a lesson from Ghanaian children. They run up to you, grinning from ear to ear, to find out where you’re from, what you’re doing, where you’re going and what you think of Ghana. And they don’t want anything other than your attention.

Saying hello to someone is just polite. You might even find you have something in common (I like the Indigo Girls too!). Or exchange a great travel tidbit (hemp shirts are so comfortable!).

But many folks won’t change. A friend of mine once called these people “little lost souls.” They travel the world with this faux idea that wearing a Che shirt is not only cool, but that it will make the world a better place — unaware that they’re financing a sweatshop in Cambodia. Nice going, Chet.


Travelling is about experience. Experiencing the place you’re in, the people that live there, and, yes, the people you cross paths with. You don’t have to buy them dinner — but a smile to acknowledge that you’re a long way from home doesn’t mean you’re selling out. It just means you’re being human.

[DCM]

Have you ever had any similar experiences? Where…? Let us know.

The vision of rolling lush countrysides dotted with hundreds of thatched-roof pubs serving up a dozen varieties of English bitter in a comfy, convivial atmosphere is the result of a hundred years-worth of travel writing, assisted to a certain extent by movie imagery. Having spent my fair share of time quaffing pint after pint in various such establishments over the years, I can tell you there’s a reason why writers and filmmakers resorted to such lore… it’s largely true!

But the ideal of this grand (and dare I say delicious!) ‘jolly olde’ institution has taken more than a few hits during the past 25 years. For every pub there is a publican – the man or woman who owns and runs the house. And for every publican there is a business. And the business of running a British pub ain’t what it used to be.

In a recent issue of Country Life magazine, an editorial appeared bringing attention to the state of the pub in contemporary English country life. While any travel writer can expound on the experience of finding a fabulous beer ‘just around the corner’, we found it fascinating to read the editorial and gain a little insight into Britain’s beer business written by someone who actually lives in England.

Country Life has graciously allowed us to reprint this editorial in its entirety here at Wanderism.


So, the next time you find yourself in the Cotswolds, or the Lake District or in Suffolk, sitting in a quaint town pub downing a sleeve or two, raise your glass to the publican – they’ll appreciate it. And have one for us too.

[REW]

Time To Toast The Country Pub
When inflation bites, credit shrinks, services close and animal plagues stalk the land, there’s only one thing for country people to do: go to the pub. Except that the doors of this great village institution may have shut, along with those of the school, the post office and the police station. The British Beer and Pub Association says that pubs closed at a rate of four a day last year. We now have half the pubs we did in 1979.

Poor urban areas have been badly hit by the smoking ban and the extra tax that Alistair Darling has put on beer. But the countryside feels its pub closures as keenly as anywhere – perhaps more so. The pub is one of the few places where the community gets together, building its sense of common identity. In an age when vicars are shared between parishes, it may well be the only thing left to suggest that the village has an independent life of its own. Warmth, jokes, pint-pot philosophy, the prospect of whiling away summer hours in a beer garden, or watching cricket on the green; or of battening down the hatches against winter gales and gathering, pint in hand, around an open fire. It’s easy to romanticise the village pub, but there’s much at stake when one closes.

Pubs can offer more than just a pint and a piece of local wisdom. They have to if they’re going to survive.

Country pubs generally need more custom than that provided by just the village to keep going. Thus, the crackdown on drink-driving, however desirable in other ways, has hit them hard. And other factors have contributed to the decline. Stand up that bête noire of so much of rural life, the supermarket. Supermarkets are still selling alcohol below the price of production, in their bid to win customers, despite the Government’s concern about the effect this can have on binge drinking. Add to this the growth in home entertainment, and the result is a generation that prefers to down lager at 58p a pint [About a dollar as of this writing. - Ed.] in front of the widescreen TV rather than share the conviviality of the pub, where the same drink might cost four or five times as much.

That is to assume that the pub is the convivial place one would like it to be. It isn’t always. Like village shops, village pubs can be the authors of their own woes. Simply existing is something, but may not be enough. Pubs, like any other business, have to adapt to the challenges that face them. These include a change in customers’ expectations. Successful landlords have spotted the new trends and responded. Although we lament the numbers of pubs that are closing, not least because, in expensive areas, the premises might be turned into homes and will never then reopen, we also observe a new style of country pub, which often does very well. It serves a range of different beers, offers well-cooked local food, and if accommodation is provided, the rooms will be freshly decorated. Gone, for better or worse, will be the old-fashioned turkey carpet, capable of absorbing any manner of stains, in favour of polished floorboards and rugs; Wi-Fi may well be available.

It would be invidious to mention any by name, but when one of our number recently found himself running out of petrol on a dark Wiltshire night, The Beckford Arms at Fonthill Gifford appeared as a very oasis: heaving with customers and good cheer. There’s a new affluence in some country areas, the possibility of attracting tourists in others. It’s possible to appeal to these clienteles without excluding local trade; indeed the presence of village characters is part of the recipe for success.

When The Prince of Wales visited Cumbria last month, he was heartened to see a newly opened village shop and post office at Ravenstonedale. It’s been created out of a former bedroom in the Black Swan Hotel. The shop provides an outlet for local produce. It may not give the publican a much better profit than the bedroom would’ve done, and certainly costs him more trouble – but it provides a service and helps make the pub a village focus. This serves as a practical demonstration of the Prince’s ‘Pub as the Hub’ philosophy. Pubs can offer more than just a pint and a piece of local wisdom. They have to if they’re going to survive.

[Editorial Courtesy: Country Life Magazine - Subscription Number: 0845 676 7778]

Where can you find the best beer in the world? We want to know. We’re thirsty! Comments below.