Show Me Your NY! TBEX 10 T-Shirt Give Away!!

Calling all travel junkies, bloggers, writers, or dreamers who will be heading to New York this summer to be a part of the Travel Blog Exchange ‘10 conference! Hop & Jaunt has just opened up our travel-inspired T-shirt store and wanted to share the fun with you!

Here’s the story: We’ve NEVER been to New York!! I know, I know, but it’s the truth. And since we’re headed up for the TBEX 10 we’ve also decided to spend an extra week in N.Y. to explore. This is where you come in. We need some input on what to see and what to do while in the Big Apple. And in exchange you might just pick up some swank gear in exchange.

The Competition:

Show Me Your NY! Top 5 UNIQUE Things To See Or Do In N.Y.

How To Enter:
Enter your top 5 UNIQUE things to see or do while in N.Y. in the comment section below. If you’ve been through our blog you know we are pretty much open to anything, so don’t hold back!

We’ll select the top five entries that we think are the most original and what we’d love to see or do. These top five people will be posted on a poll on our Facebook page where everyone can vote for their favorite! The deadline for posting comments will be June 12th (Aly’s birthday) and then polling will be opened up until to the 15th. This should give us enough time to get the winner’s size and get it shipped.

Though it’s mostly for people interested in TBEX anyone can enter. After all this shirt manages to convey three messages at once, and you might like it for any of the three reasons: I Heart N.Y., I Heart TBEX, or I HEART Hop & Jaunt

Looking forward to seeing what suggestions you have for a unique N.Y. experience!!
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Hop & Jaunt’s Funky Travel Store Now Open!!

Hi everyone!!

We’ve just launched our travel gear store! It’s been a creative outlet and fun side project for us and we wanted to share what we’ve made with you.

Alien Attack! Be Prepared With A Cool Tee

You will probably notice right off the bat, with the aliens and retro model shots, that this is not a typical travel store. The truth is this is our playground that we want to invite you in. While traveling we were disappointed with both the overall quality and lack of originality in the destination souvenir t-shirts. So while out roaming about, we began sketching ideas for shirts we wished we could have gotten. This site is where we will be showcasing the designs.

The store is a work in progress, we still have a sketchbook full of ideas and designs to put in. But we’re eager to get the feedback from our fellow traveler what they think! We are creating a contest (posted shortly) for our fellow travel bloggers where we will be giving away the TBEX 10 NY shirt. The rules will be quite simple, submit your top 5 unique things to do while in New York and from the entries we will choose the top five we think are the best, then we will have a poll on our facebook page for everyone to vote on the #1 top 5 unique things to do in NY!

TBEX 10 NY Shirt To Rock The City In

We’re working out the details and will post the official contest on our blog today.

Aly & John in: “Pirates of the Paria” (a graphic blog episode)

Excerpt from Travelouge April 1st, 2010

We were now somewhere in the middle of the Gulf of Paria. Alyson and I were both uneasy. Neither of us had stopped scanning the horizon since we had entered the “Boca del Serpiente” Channel just before sunrise. The Paria is a small body of water separating the isle of Trinidad from the Venezuelan mainland, and it’s notorious for pirate attacks. Passage through the gulf can only be made through the two separate channels leading in and out of the Paria. Entry from the south via the Mouth of the Serpent and from the north by the Mouth of the Dragon.

“In the mouth of the snake and out the mouth of the dragon.”

A route we would rather have avoided, but weather conditions dictated that we had to sail today…and this was the quickest passage. Sometimes it is hard to decide who to fear more…man or Mother Nature. Hopefully, if all went well we would be passing out of the “Boca del Dragon” Channel in a couple of hours.

The winds had been picking up steadily since day break. A 20 knot breeze out of the southeast kept us on a broad reach making between 6-8 knots. Despite the increasing winds, we carried on under full genoa and main. We were anxious to put the Paria and its rumors of pirates to our stern.
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New Design Sneak Preview!

This is a screen shot from the new design we are working on for our site. The concept is a fusion of our two interests, work, and passion. We will have a home page where you can choose between our featured articles, go to our travel blog, go to our design agency, or browse our travel inspired t-shirt and travel gear store! Here are a few screenshots from what we are working on.

Let us know what you think, we’re still working out some of the kinks so before we say “I Do”. Are there any objections to this union of the new design and Hop & Jaunt? If so,  speak now or forever hold your peace!

Home page with links to the 3 different sections, featured slider, flickr photos

The Blog Home Page

The post page

The main portfolio page with rotating images from different projects

This is the basic lay-out of our indivisual category portfolio page

This is the idea of the design so far, we’ve got a few kinks still to work out but if you have any suggestions let us know we still have a little time to change!

To leave a comment click on the title of this post, and scroll to the bottom of the article.

Teatro Heredia

The Crew of Hop & Jaunt

When you’re traveling abroad knowing the native tongue is a handy asset (obviously), and since Alyson is well versed in Espanol it saves me alot of  time with complex translations.  However, I do like the challenge of being able to do things myself.  Living in Colombia has definitely helped my Spanish to improve.  Alyson also has been a good tutor and often gives me the opportunity to take the lead in some conversations.  The practice has helped me come a long way from my first failed attempt at trying to rent a computer at a Colombian internet cafe.  As we approached the counter I was so surprised and unprepared when Alyson told me, “You try this time” that the only Spanish word I could muster was “Senor”.  As in ” uhh…I’d like to use a computer…Senor.”  That didn’t really get me anything but a blank stare.

Luckily though I’ve gotten much better.  Now its absolutely no problem for me to go out in the city to do things on my own.  But on occassion I do find myself in conversational situations that exhaust my basic knowledge of the language, and I’m forced to resort to awkward charade-like gestures.  Today it happened again when I attempted to purchase tickets to tour Cartagena’s World Famous Teatro Heredia.

Relaxing on the Balcony

We woke up midmorning today with nothing in particular to do.  The day was warm and the skies were clear.  While enjoying the view from the balcony of our new hostel room we decided it would be a good day to take the cameras around the city and take some photographs.

View from our suite.

Nice warm weather here with cool December breezes.

Hitting the streets in search of coffee.

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Amazing Knockers

Cartagena is home to some amazing knockers. Though plastic surgery is almost a national pastime here, we are not talking about the girls today. Sorry boys. Also known as “The Door To The Americas,” Cartagena boasts some of the most beautiful architecture in the Americas. Once you’ve strolled through the romantic streets of the old city you’ll understand why it’s been designated a world heritage site since 1984. We have walked these streets almost everyday since being in Colombia and still never tire of seeing something new in a building or plaza that we missed the last time around. The details that adorn the buildings and streets are what keep it so interesting. So today we will start with some of the details of the city that have fascinated us and from there pan out to the overall city and sights. I hope you find these knockers as fascinating as we did.

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Designers of Curacao

Island Tour of Curacao

 

The Fort atvSpanish Water

Hello, Hop&Jaunt fans! As you dedicated readers are well aware, Alyson and I are currently in Curacao (pronounced Curacao). Though we have been here for quite some time, we have been extremely busy. Over the past few weeks, we have had few spare dates available on our social calendar. Our growing network of friends and acquaintances have kept us well entertained and occupied. This has left us with plenty more stories to tell, but unfortunately less and less time to write to you. But to quote Steve Martin…”Hey! What do you think I do? Write letters all day?”

Being anchored in Curacao for so long has definitely been great! If you saw the photos from our last blog post, you can see that the scenery here is very much different from our excursions through Venezuela’s outlying islands. Big colorful buildings, outdoor cafes, and hundreds of restaurants and shops make living here long term much more convenient. Although, without a car of our own, maneuvering about the island requires long periods of waiting at various bus stops. And while we haven’t had any major Jaunts in a while, Hopping from bus to bus has helped keep us true to our name.

As we’ve probably written before, the boat is anchored in a protected little bay known as Spanish Waters. It is located on the southwest side of the island. Basically, it is very much like a large salt water lake with only one narrow channel that leads out to the sea. Large, rocky hills covered with green shrubbery and cactus surround the bay on all sides, and of course interspersed along the landscape sit several water front homes. The anchorages here have been filling up steadily over the past few weeks with transiting sailboats and motor trawlers. Sailors on their voyages west to Central America stop here to wait out the hurricane season and look for decent weather windows before continuing on to Aruba, Columbia or Panama. Naturally, this is our reason for remaining here, as well.

Being in this holding pattern has its benefits. We’ve been able to see much more of the island and meet more of the people; however, with Spanish Waters being remotely located on the southwestern side it can sometimes be difficult to maneuver about. Most businesses, restaurants, bars, cafes, theaters, and public services are located in downtown Wilemstad, which is about a 30 minute bus ride away. Other attractions, beaches and points of interest can be spread across the island and tucked away in hard to reach places. To visit just one beach or plantation house in the north by bus could literally be an all day event. Fortunately for us…we have the time…and friends with cars. (more…)

Windsurfing In Curacao

Island Surf

Guess what we did Tuesday morning? We went windsurfing! There is a little windsurf shop on the water here in Spanish Waters and for the past few months we have been sitting on our cockpit watching them zoom by. As you may or may not know already, John and I have started in earnest our graphic design business. While in Curacao we have had time to think about what direction we wanted to head, and being our own boss while doing what we loved seemed an unbeatable option. While on this course we got in contact with Hilde, the manager of Windsurf Curacao, and ended up trading design for lessons.

Windsurf Curacao

With the design heading for the printers we arranged for a lesson at 10am this morning. The shop was just opening up when we pulled onto the beach with our dingy. Windsurf Curacao is situated on the western coast of Spanish Waters. It had a definite surf-islandly atmosphere with driftwood benches and chairs, surfboards propped up by the water, and the obvious fact that is was indeed a surf spot on the islands.

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