Exclusive Tents

Dwell Show in Los Angeles

2009-07-07T15:10:00.005-07:00

Greetings all,
We have just returned from showing a Shawu tent at the Dwell on Design Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
We has such a blast with so many people totally blown away by the tent and the interiors, at times the tent was so mobbed with interested people, we had to ask some people to return so as to get into the tent.
We are back now for just over a week and here are a few pics we would like to share with you.
Take care
Paul

Mauritania and back

2009-04-29T14:06:00.008-07:00

Greetings
Sorry for the lapse in comms on this trip but we were on the road (sand) a lot and internet access was rather limited.
Be that as it may, the trip was fantastic and most educational not to mention the really hospitable and friendly people we met wherever we went.
It is a peaceful Muslim country with so much to give but not beer and wine to be sure :)
We traveled mostly close to the coast far north to Banc De Arguin an amazing coastal national park with a very rich diversity of ocean and bird life.
We then went right down to the Senegal border where the desert runs in to Acacia scrub and is also beautiful in itself.
The the Sahara desert is simply stunning in its vastness, stark beauty and desolation.
Here follow a selection of pics which ends with a view from our hotel room in Nouakchott and toward the top you will see the same scene after the wind kicked up a bit and one could only see two blocks in front of the eye/lens.
Take care
Paul and Angelika

Mauritania

2009-04-23T04:57:00.003-07:00

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Greetings all
You wil have to bear with us as we have little to no internet or phone access but wanted to post a few pics.
At some time when we are not moving and get some free time I will add text to the trip but in the mean time enjoy these pics from a truly amazing part of this earth
Take care
Paul and Angelika

2009-04-15T14:16:00.002-07:00

A few new pics of our tents...

Back again

2009-04-15T11:13:00.001-07:00

Greetings all,
It has been awhile since we blogged here but we are back on the verge of a new adventure to Africa.
There have been two newsletters sent out this year, if you have not received or wish to be added to our mailing, please send an email requesting this to krazy@exclusivetents.com
We were down in S. Africa this last November and again in January and on the former trip, we went to the Kruger Park to meet old friends so we have included a few pics here to share with you.
This weekend, we head to Mauritania where we will be doing 3 site evaluations in one of Africa's largest coastal parks which is also a World Heritage Site. Mauritania is also the only country where the Sahara pushes all the way through to the coast as far as I know.
Keep checking back here on the blog next week as we will start blogging on the trip and posting interesting pics.
Take care all
Paul & Angelika

Pictures:
Grysbok
Water Buck
Cape Bufflao
Very Large Scorpion
Young Spotted Hyena

France and back

2008-10-23T14:44:00.002-07:00

Greetings all,
Yea, we have been slack on the blog recently so mucho apologies.
Last week we were in France meeting with clients who are planning on opening a large tented resort about 60km from Limoges. This will be a rather challenging project as it is planned to open on the 1st of July 2008.
This African themed resort will feature 100 luxury tents, floating tent restaurant and a further 6 floating tented honeymoon suites, water park, dine in the sky and tons of activities for the guests.
The part of the country we visited was really beautiful (our first visit to France) with small very old villages - there seemed to be a sense of old history wherever we went.
The province of Limosin is famous for its porcelain work and beef cattle farming.
Keep checking back for more news at this project moves forward.
We are also planning a trip back to Africa to visit family and also to the factory for meetings but more news on this later.
Take care
Paul

These pics taken on the site in France

2008-10-23T14:44:00.001-07:00

In between

2008-10-07T12:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings again,
It has been quite busy since our return from Baja but we have no complaints about this, taking into consideration the current economic crisis.
We got the job done well in Baja and can tell you that it is truly stark but very beautiful with places that have higher mountains than I ever imagined.
This weekend we will be heading to France to visit with a client doing a very exciting African themed lodge & resort.
In November we will all be going to Africa as we have much work to do at the factory but we will keep you all updated with news.
We have also developed a few new variations to the Kingfisher, Kambaku and Fish Eagle Tents, all with covered verandas and also a new tent called the Shilowa Tent.
Keep checking the website www.exclusivetents.com for more info that we will be posting soon.
Take care
Paul

Baja Mexico

2008-10-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings all
Things have gone well here with the tent setup and we will update you all next week, all we can say for now is that it is starkly beautiful, hot as can be, humid and with tons of mosquitoes.
Catch you all on the other side of the week.
Paul and Angelika

Baja Mexico

2008-09-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

..Just a brief note to let you all know that we are heading out at noon today for central Baja, Mexico where we will be assisting in the setup of a 3-tent pavilion for one of our clients.
Check back for updates on our progress there before we return back to office this Friday.
Take care
Paul & Angelika
Pic included is of another pavilion we did in last year in the Maldives

...a little more news

2008-09-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,
As you might have guessed, we are back from Turkey where we had a good but challenging time setting the pavilion of tents up there and spent all of this past week catching up.
We never got to see much of Turkey but met some wonderful people doing the job and the site was simply stunning and peaceful.
We had to make some improvised changes as they told us that the area gets up to 1.5m of snow.
We are in office this week with a client flying in to see us but head out the following week to set up another pavilion of tents in Central Baja.
In one of the pics above, is one of the Kambaku tent (that was recently taken by one of our new clients) of the setup at Costa Carmel, Costa Rica - these are the first pics that we have seen of these tents.
Lastly, for those of you interested, Angelika is going to be focusing more on the marketing of our classic line of safari furniture (www.barefootinteriors.com) and can also be reached at angelika@barefootinteriors.com
Take care
Paul & the rest of us

2 Pics from Turkey

2008-09-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

More to follow

In Turkey

2008-09-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

Greetings
So here Angelika and I are here in Turkey between Istanbul and Ankara near a town named Bolu setting up a tent pavilion in an incredibly beautiful area.
The tents look over this truly beautiful valley that is covered with pine and other such like trees.
Our customer is taking real good care of us and we are staying alone in this most beautifu,l elegant but rustic home of theirs.
The workers and staff are amazing and wonderful to work with and also over zealous to get the tent up and done with.
We will be leaving here on Friday and once we get back I will be sure to post some pics from the trip to share with you.
I will try to update the blog more frequently now that we are over the jet lag thing :)
Take care
Paul & Angelika

2008-08-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,

The last quarter of the year is now coming to a close rapidly and for the first time since returning from the Expedition, I feel somewhat caught up.
This unfortunately will be short lived as Angelika and I will be leaving next week from Sept. 3rd to Sept. 12th to Turkey where we have a 3-Tent Pavilion to setup.

The Tent Villa’s we supplied for Sir Richard Branson’s Morocco Retreat, which is part of Virgin’s Limited Edition Portfolio, are mostly setup but still have to have the interiors and landscaping completed.

We got very sad news of one of our oldest clients in Mexico, who this month had his young 14 year old son kidnapped and then murdered.
I hope you all can share in thought, your best wishes for a family having to go through such a dreadful and senseless grief.

Of interest and great excitement to us, we have come up with a new variation to the Kingfisher, Kambaku and Fish Eagle Tents.
Essentially what we have done is to reduce the size of the tent body which then allows an additional area for a covered verandah.
As you can see from the rendered drawings above , the tents are put together in the following fashion:

Kingfisher tent frame with Bateleur tent body - 30 m² / 323 Ft²
Kambaku tent frame with Kingfisher tent body - 40 M² / 430 Ft²
Fish Eagle tent frame with Kambaku tent body - 48 m² / 518 Ft²

For quotes on these new tents, please contact Jake Dinkel at: jake@exclusivetents.com

Please keep in mind that the factory will be closing for a month around the 12th of December for the year-end holidays.
So any orders received after September, may only ship out after the factory reopens in January 2009.

Unfortunately once again we must notify you all that we have been forewarned that the Steel Prices will be going up again at the beginning of September. If anyone needs to have quotes revised, please let us know.

We just heard back from one of our clients in Florida whose tents recently got inundated by Hurricane Fay. He told us that they had 18” (457mm) of rain in a 24 hour period with high gusting winds with 50 year flood levels at the site.
He commented: “The tent itself is absolutely fine. The wind and rain had no effect, other than to deposit debris. It also looks like a few critters took refuge on the deck during the storm. Amazingly, there were no leaks in the tents at all”

One last thing, we will be adding a few new items to our Safari Range of furniture – keep checking the Barefoot Interiors website as we will be adding the new items shortly.
Pic: The new Kalahari Table

Just as a sidebar, Jake, Zane and Anders will be playing in concert on September 1st with the ‘Misfits’. We will not be in office on this day.

Take care
Paul and the motley Exclusive Tents Crew

PS Elsie should have her new HD radiator installed today and once again she will be on the road but only after a required inspection by the motor vehicle dept.

More about the blog

2008-08-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,
Thanks to you all who spent the time following our adventures and misadventures together with us.
So we are back and trying to play catch-up on office and expedition follow up work.
We worked out that we covered a total of 16,621 Km (10,327 miles) with 'Elsie' during the expedition.
In mentioning Elsie, we will soon start making permanent repairs to her where we had to make temporary repairs along the way, she also need a new radiator and a few other other parts that we will start replacing.
We still have to find the source of the vibration that followed us the last two weeks of the expedition - so we have quite a lot of work still to do on Elsie before we will be happy and start riding her around again.
Just to update you on the last day of our journey back into the USA, we did a solid 16 hours on the road with Elsie tending to overheat at times so we nursed her along.
We passed through the entirety of Mexico and all the Federal and Military road blocks without once having to show our passports (we do not even have a Mexico stamp) ore even Elsie's papers.
On arrival at the US Border at Nogales, we sat in this long line of vehicles clearing Customs into the USA and Elsie had overheated to a point that the radiator developed a leak and as a result the diesel was percolating air into the fuel line, forcing Angelika and I to jump out, lift the hood, add water to the radiator and bleed the fuel line and back in to move a few inches forward before the engine died again - and so it wnt on for almost an hour before we cleared Customs into Arizona.
Our passports were checked but again not Elsie's papers, they were more upset about us carrying 2 Jerry Cans of Diesel int the USA than a foreign registered vehicle.
So we limped to a gas station and poured 2 cans of 'Stop Leak' into the radiator and waited for the leak to seal before we trundled the last hour back to Tucson with regular stops to check water levels and temperature (remember that none of Elsie's gauges were functional).
So now that we are back I have decided to keep the blog updated from time to time about news and what is going on with us here at Exclusive Tents......
This weekend I am expecting one of our Mexico clients to be flying into Tucson to meet and discuss the selections and layouts of a unique 5-Star Boutique Tented Lodge with us.
Dates are not firmed up yet but it looks like I will be going to Istanbul, Turkey next week to set up a 3-tent pavilion - I will confirm the dates but I should be out of office for about 10 days.
I am also waiting on a client in Italy to decide if they are going to set their tent up themselves or have one of us go over and do the job.
The Tent Project we did for Richard Branson in Morocco, is progressing very well and looking absolutely stunning at this time and they have not yet even started on the landscaping or interiors.
I gotta run off to a meeting so I will end off here but please do keep on checking back for new postings.
Take care
Paul

Tent Specials and Other News from Exclusive Tents

2008-08-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Serengeti Tent

Kingfisher Tent

Greetings All,

After a long 3-½ months on the road, the Central America Expedition is over. We drove for over 16 hours yesterday and finally returned safely home last night. Even though the Expedition was an exciting adventure, nothing compares to returning home to family after being separated for so long.

If you didn’t have a chance to keep up with us on our journey, it’s still posted on our blog at www.exclusivetents.blogspot.com. There you’ll find stories from the road as well as tons of pictures that we took along the way.

End of Year Manufacturing

The time is rapidly approaching to get orders in for the end of the year! Our factory is closed for most of the month of December, so to ensure that your tent will ship this year, orders MUST BE PLACED BY THE END OF SEPTEMBER. Any orders placed after September may not ship until 2009.

Serengeti Tents in Stock

We currently have 9 Serengeti tents that are ready to ship immediately. The manufacturing time is usually 8-10 weeks on these tents, so these won’t be available for long! There are two different combinations of the tents that are available and they’re listed below.

We have 6 of these tents available:

6 Leg Mild Steel Frame
4.6 m x 3.5 m Canvas Body (Olive Exterior, Sand Interior)
Olive PVC Rain Fly
Olive Shade Fly
Body Poles
Tensioning Chains
Square Tubing

We also have 3 of these tents available:

6 Leg Mild Steel Frame
5.2 m x 3.5 m Canvas Body (Olive Exterior, Sand Interior)
2.1 m x 3.5 m Canvas Bathroom Extension with Shadenet Roof (7.3 m x 3.5 m total Canvas Body)
Olive PVC Rain Fly
Olive Shade Fly
Body Poles
Tensioning Chains
Square Tubing

We’re currently selling these tents at a discounted rate, and remember that they won’t be in stock long! It’s first come, first served so please contact Jake at jake@exclusivetents.com for pricing information.

Kingfisher Special

The Kingfisher tent (40m2 or 430 ft2) is currently being sold at a special price as well. This tent functions perfectly in a variety of applications ranging from luxury accommodation to reception areas and art or yoga studios.

We’ll be running this special through the end of September. Contact Jake at jake@exclusivetents.com for pricing information.

In Closing

It was a great pleasure meeting those of you whose paths we crossed along the Expedition. Your hospitality was superior and meeting with you made the expedition an exceedingly enjoyable experience.

We will be doing another newsletter shortly with more of a focus on the Expedition. We will also continue to update the blog (www.exclusivetents.blogspot.com) with continuing developments from projects in Central America.

For those of you we couldn’t see or those not in Central America, we hope that soon, you too will become part of the Exclusive Tents family. As always, if you have any questions regarding any of our products, please do not hesitate to contact us at news@exclusivetents.com or at our phone number listed below.

- Paul and Angelika

Exclusive Tents
35 West James L. Sullivan Street
Vail, AZ - 85641
USATel: +520-762-9293
Fax: +520-844-1271
www.exclusivetents.com

Mexico ends

2008-08-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings again...I think this is close the 50th blog posting we have done to date.
So we have been trucking up the pacific coast as best we can with the worn pinion gear in the rear differential and also had to work on Elsie's brakes.
Today we passed through some truly amazing wetlands close the Mazatlan and soon thereafter the region changed rapidly to a more arid drier type environment and a lot more crop agriculture.
Many Agave (type of sisal plant) are grown in the region for the production of tequila which is readily available wherever one goes.
We hope to be back in office by Wednesday.
Take care
Paul and Angelika

Elsie again.......

2008-08-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings all

This posting is for ‘Elsie’ as she is sure testing our endurance and patience these days.

We still have air somehow getting into the fuel system that we have to bleed air out every morning before heading out and for the heck of me I cannot fathom where the air is bleeding from.

Just before getting to Acapulco, this strange sound came from under the hood and on closer inspection found that the arm tensioning the alternator had cracked and as a result loosened the fan belt so we ducked into the local welder (soldadora) and patched that up.

On arrival in Acapulco we that found that the one radiator support had broken loose and suspect it was from the frigging speed bumps (Topes, reductores, vibradores or velociraptors as we call them).

We also fixed an oil leak at the oil pump which had one washer instead of two as normal.

I tied the radiator down with inner tube as a temp fix unto we found a welder today who kindly patched it up for us and then we went looking for a mechanic to look into a vibration that has been haunting us these last few days when we start approaching 70 km/h.

Before getting that far we had to find and get a look at the famous cliffs in Acapulco which in their own right are quite insane as they are very high and the drop off is into a rough ocean ‘canyon’, not to mention that the cliff slopes back a lot making hitting water a real challenge indeed.

It was also interesting to learn that the public are no longer allowed to dive, it is all done by one family who perform daily from about 1pm until 10 pm (under flood lights)

We finally made it today (August 7^th) to Ixtapa and Elsie attended to discover that the the pinion gear in the rear diff needs replacement – bad news is that there are no such parts here so we had them do an oil change and have decided to risk the journey back as we are and hope the gear will hold up.

As of today we are close to 12,000 km that we have covered on the expedition and with a few thousand yet still to do.

We are staying tonight in a converted 2-car garage with AC, microwave and fridge (yes also another cold shower) but it is clean and comfortable and will afford us a good nights rest after a long intense and hot day.

With a candle burning beside me and Angelika asleep already, I bid you all a good night/day from Ixtapa.

Take care and stay well

Paul and Angelika.

PS we are in San Blas tonight August 9th

Yesterdays pics

2008-08-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

More Mexico

2008-08-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again,

We are here in Chiapas tonight and all I can say is that the roads are so bad but it is truly beautiful here.

Once again, sorry for the lapse in updates but we have been dealing with Elsie as well as moving quite some bit this last while.

In Villahermosa we stayed with Roberto A Pérez Díaz at his Best Western Maya Hotel as his guest – this guy is another rare but true gentleman.

Elsie was losing oil out of the 4x4 transmission box but in short order, Roberto had arranged for a mechanic to come check her out, yea the dude came out to see Elsie and not vise versa as usual.

We left him to his devices with Elsie and we headed out to look at the Pantanos De Centla National Park which is an amazing wetland that encompasses the confluence of three major rivers just prior to exiting its massive body of water into the ocean.

Pantanos is truly an amazing place but very difficult to gain access to without the right water craft – the area also has some rare and unusual birds and fish species and I am sure some yet to be discovered.

Tobasco state is really beautiful and the next day Roberto took us south to Kolem Jaa to look at an adventure tour operation run by his uncle – the location is truly beautiful with jungle, river and lots of water falls and twenty rooms.

Back in Villahermosa we met with the Secretary of Tourism who also had an interest in the tents.

For a government official she was truly an amazing lady with her openness and enthusiasm about her job.

In Roberto we both know we had met another fiend for life and know we will be seeing again sometime soon.

True to his word when it came time to leave yesterday, Elsie was all patched up again and ready to roll on towards Palenque where we were to meet Carlos and Lyndia who we visited in Merida when we were there.

Palenque is a little known Mayan City Ruin but it so breathtaking and amazing in terms of the detailed architecture that was not evident in Tikal – as with Tikal, it is a very expansive ruins with only about 5% excavated.

The only drawback when we visited the site was that there were so many local tourists crawling over and through every orifice of the ruins – it is holidays here and thus lots of folks are on vacation.

A thing of interest in Palenque was that we saw about 6 new cars adorned with ribbons driving through the town honking their horns, they were on some path and passed us by three times – later Carlos and Lyndia explained that the ‘drive through’ was to announce the arrival on the new cars in town and obviously available for immediate purchase.

We also visited their site where they intend building a tented lodge close to the ruins – this boutique lodge when completed, will be so truly unique to the region.

After visiting an very beautiful waterfall and having a few ales, we headed to a small farm (finca) that they knew of with two cabins overlooking, yes more water and rapids.

There was the constant sound of water on the rapids and the howler monkeys creating the greatest cacophony we have heard to date and this was how went to sleep later the night though the monkeys crashed before we did.

Tomorrow we head south and hope to reach the Pacific by the end of the day.

One last thing of note about Mexico, wherever you go there are police and army bristling with automatic weapons and many stopping one on the road checking for whatever they are looking for.

Also, I will be so happy if I never see another speed bump in my life again J

Truth be told, as much as we have been worried about these security stops, we have only been treated well by them and hope this is the case for the rest of our journey through Mexico.

Take care

Paul & Angelika

PS: We have just arrived in Juchitan, a town very close to the Pacific Ocean, after a fantastic ride from 8000’ down through the mountains of Chiapas – The Chiapas is truly a beautiful state in Mexico.

Yucatan

2008-07-29T05:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings again to you all,
Today we are in the City of Merida which is busy, large and boasts one of the oldest cathedrals in Latin America.
It has been a hectic few days and with more 'Elsie' adventures - as we were approaching Playa del Carmen (south of Cancun) we started to loose clutch fluid from the small slave cylinder near the clutch plate housing and by the time we got to the city I was driving with no clutch at all.
Luckily I found a mechanic close by who confirmed that the seals were bad and needed replacing and this was a Saturday afternoon when most places are closed.
First the runner kid went off in search of the seals but soon came back with news that none can be found so we tried pulling some old cylinders apart in the hope that any of the old seals woud work but these were all too small.
As a last resort we sent the runner kid off again with the whole cylinder to look for an old or new replacement unit - I was so happy to see him run in back with a new cylinder gripped firmly in his fist and a big smile on his face.
In short order we had a new but very stiff clutch working and we were on the road again to Cancun - we missed Cozumel because of the time spent on Elsie.
Cancun is just like Miami, overdone and over exploited and we found to be just more of the same and very expensive.
Elsie also never seemed to fit in over there but with a little bit of conferring with one of the hotel bellmen, we found ourselves in a quaint small hotel in downtown Cancun.
After dark we went out to eat and walked around only to discover it was way more fun away from the big resort hotels.
A client wanted to see us on Holbox Island which was some distance out of our way but we decided to take the time to visit them and made arrangements that we would arrive the Monday morning on the Island on the ferry.
We spent Sunday night in the only little hotel at Chiquilla that we could be on the ferry early in the morning as it is only a 30 minute ferry ride.
The crossing was smooth and on arrival we got on a golf cart taxi and bumped through puddles and trash to this small resort of the client.
No one was there to meet us so we had some breakfast and waited more than an hour for the client to show up at her own resort.
After the no-show continued we decided we had wasted enough time and got back on a taxi and headed back to Elsie and the road to Merida.
The Yucatan is really flat with low forest and very few physical features or even rivers as I guess most of them are underground and the roads in places are very narrow for the breakneck speeds some of these people travel at.
The last bit of the toll road into Merida was really good though very much patched up.
In Merida we stayed at our clients boutique hotel located right downtown in a very old building.
See what a truly amazing renovation job they did and believe me their attention to small detail is really amazing - http://www.piedradeagua.com
We will be meeting these same people further down the road this weekend when we reach Chiapas.
Today we will be heading towards Villahermosa but will most likely only get there tomorrow.
Enough for now...
Take care
Paul and Angelika.

Ola Mexico

2008-07-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings all from Tulum,
This is the start of the Maya Riviera and we are still south of Cancun which we will pass in the morning as we head north.
Needless to say it is hot, steamy, swampy and sticky here :)
It is so different here yet also beautiful and we did two site evaluations and on one we saw these amazing underground rivers called Cenote's that are mostly interconnected with each other.
I am writing this in the dark so I will sign off now ant try to do an update tomorrow.
Wishing you all a fantastic weekend.
Take care
Paul & Angelika

Hello Mexico

2008-07-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings and salutations
We are in Chetumal, Mexico tonight.
Elsie rode well though she has a bit of a 'hard start' going on and she never overheated at all.
Tomorrow we head to Talum for a few meetings.
Crossing into Mexico was rather strange because as we entered Mexico, the place was buzzing with cops and the minute they saw Elsie we were hauled over for 'inspection' - the cope dude poked his head into both doors looking for contraband and such like but then quickly waved us on.
I almost asked where we get our passports stamped but thought to myself not to invite more than we we will have to already go through as we have heard the worst about Mexico's officials.
So off we trundled slowly past more officials and then nothing.....I said to Angelika, "I think we might already be in Mexico".
It was the most painless crossing of all and NO ONE even looked at our passports at all, so legally or illegally, we are now in Mexico and loving it.
Keep tuned in for more updates and adventures.
Take care and stay well
Paul and Angelika

Wednesday - Elsie

2008-07-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hi all
We are hoping Fedex will deliver the parts by noon today - if this is the case and all goes well, we hope to be on the road again tomorrow morning, so please check back here for updates on our status.
Take care
Paul & Angelika

Elsie update

2008-07-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,
Yesterday we were on the island of Ambergris Cay and share these few pics with you.
Elsie still has her 'guts' out as we wait on a head gasket set, seals and a fan to arrive from the States and we hope to be back on the road to Mexico by Wednesday or Thursday.
Keep checking back here
Take care
Paul and Angelika

Elsie update

2008-07-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,

So we have our own adventures and those with ‘Elsie’, yesterday sure was one of the latter type events.

We had an early meeting with a client and then headed out north intending to cross over into the Yucatan of Mexico.

Elsie was running sweetly and was the quietest ever with the new manifold/exhaust gasket so we were happy even though everyone was talking of a possible tropical storm forming offshore.

All went well until we passed Corazol and we had already gathered all our “Elsie Docs” in preparation for the arduous usual border crossing with her, when we stopped to pee alongside the road and Elsie started to cook and steam.

I got her cooled down but was worried about our cylinder head gasket because there was too much pressure in the radiator for comfort.

We limped back to the town and opted to have the Toyota agent in Belize City (who knew us by now) sent out a trailer to fetch us so that we could have Elsie taken care of today.

The truck arrived late and we drove Elsie onto the trailer whilst the weather was still going nuts – not happy with the tie downs they had, I winched Elsie securely to the front of the trailer and we both piled into her as the truck headed back south to Belize City.

Now that was a funky experience, sitting in Elsie on the back of the trailer while trundling in another fashion cross country. – Quite trippy indeed.

We settled down in Elsie and had a few ales to celebrate Anders’s 20^th birthday and chatted a few times with him.

After it got dark and approaching the city, thank goodness we had to slow down for a speed bump because the trailer wheels literally and figuratively came off and disappeared into the night as we ground to a rapid halt.

Without much ado, I hauled Elsie off the trailer, filler her with water again, we left the fellows waiting for their manager to come assist them, as we did the last few miles back into town on our own ‘steam’.

As parts are so scarce for Elsie, we have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday for the parts to come in fro Guatemala City, so all things being equal, we hope to be on the road to Quintana Roo, Mexico by Wednesday latest if we can find the parts.

A last note of interest, as we were sitting in Corazol waiting on our ‘ride’, Angelika noticed this Creole dude pick some flowers and started to approach her.

Not knowing what to expect she thanked him but in short order he informed us that they were for all the raw ‘mozzie’ scars on our legs (yea we are pretty bitten up).

It was not the flowers; it was the leaves that he ground up in his hands until they made up a watery poultice.

There was no hesitation, itching as we were these last few days; Angelika wiped the green goo all over her one leg – it was almost like magic to see all the red inflammation recede within 10 minutes and the itch back off.

We were both sold on this newfound potion so we gathered up the leaves and saved them in a sealed bag for use down the road.

So we learned yet another thing and who knows, Angelika might yet start dispensing leaves in the future J

We hope you all have a great weekend

Paul & Angelika

Back to Belize

2008-07-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

We're having some problems with Elsie's cylinder head gaskit and thus are having to turn back to Belize for repairs.

We should be heading back to Mexico by Sunday or Monday depending on how the repairs go. Anybody who needs to contact us can reach us via e-mail or via telephone at +1-520-465-7078

Finally Mexico on the horizon

2008-07-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again,

Belize is a truly amazing country going back to Columbus and the Buccaneer days.

Though small in size and known as British Honduras in the old days, it is only populated today but less than a quarter of a million people.

There are quite a lot of Maya people as well as enclaves of the Mennonites amongst them. Belize City is also very small for the capital city and really has no beaches – all the pretty pics one sees is of the off shore islands and the long barrier reef, the 2^nd largest in the world we are told.

Getting back to the last few days of adventuring, we had a great time meeting up with Josh Berman, a journalist for the ‘Moon’ travel books and writing on Belize and Honduras.

He had heard of us being in the area and we had heard of him as well – so the moment came when we met up at Ken Karas’s Belize Lodge and Excursions, Indian Creek Lodge.

Ken has our tents on his Moho Cay island that we wanted to see and Josh was making his first visit to Ken’s three lodges.

On Tuesday we headed out on a small boat down the swift flowing river with Josh and the Maya guides, ducking and diving to avoid the low lying branches and thorns that had an aggravating habit of latching onto one’s self and shaking all and sundry of the insect world out of the branches and into the boat.

Despite this it was such an amazing experience to cruise the jungles and river into such remote country that we were taken aback when we rounded a corner and there was Ken’s Jungle Camp, in all it’s majesty, this is truly a camp built on steroids and very luxurious.

More stunning was the WW2 landing vessel moored at the dock that Ken uses as a work horse on the river and at sea to work on the erosion at Moho Cay.

After a 4 course meal we all turned in to sleep and were up early for a breakfast and then climbed onto a power boat and breezed the rest of the river out into the ocean to Moho Cay.

Moho Cay is small but really beautiful and it was so cool to see the tents in such a beautiful tranquil location.

We spent a short while there before departing to Punta Gorda where we got a ride back to where Elsie was waiting for us at Indian Creek.

Two things of note is that Angelika has now bypassed me on the quantity of ‘Mozzie’ bites, mainly on her legs and the itching has been driving her to distraction but she plugs resolutely on regardless of the discomfort.

On the other hand Elsie’s exhaust/manifold gasket started to break away and exhaust fumes and black soot started coming into the cab and also heated up the already hot interior.

The further we got the more throaty she was getting that we tried to patch the gaping hole with exhaust putty that Tom had given us.

When we left this morning for Belize City, it took only a few miles for the putty to break loose and by the time we arrived here, Elsie had lost the entire gasket and she sounded like a tractor doing Mach 1 and running on a mixture of steroids and Nitro.

Thanks to the guys at the local Toyota dealership who did a sterling job getting Elsie all fixed up whilst we visited a very unique proposed tent site in the Peccary Hills, run by Discover Belize.

So tonight we find ourselves preparing for Mexico as we plan on leaving in the morning to the north of Belize to enter Mexico just south of Chetumal.

Paul & Angelika

A quick note

2008-07-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings all
Just a short note to say we are back from the jungles and a little worse for wear with 'mossie' bites but will be in Belize City today and most likely into Yucatan tomorrow.
I hope to update the blog tonight with pics of our most recent adventures but for now please check out the blog of a fellow adventure traveler we met whilst in a Livingston/Stanley moment - http://blog.joshuaberman.net/08-07/down-golden-stream-the-tranquilo-traveler-meets-the-krazy-african.html
Check back soon for more
Take care
Paul and Angelika

More Belize

2008-07-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings all

Well this last Friday was a runaround day trying to find appointments here close to the western border region and orient ourselves.

Before going on, there are quite a few voids in cell phone reception here and we are not always able to make or receive calls – also our comms provider has no agreement with the local operators for data service so please not that we are and will be unable to receive e-mail on the mobile phone for the duration of our stay here and will thus be only checking e-mail in the morning/evening when possible.

Be that as it may, yesterday we met with Tom Wilson of Baka-Bush Adventures, who with amazing graciousness gave us so much of his time and treated us to a more than full day of his time, knowledge, dry but keen wit than anyone has done since we set out on the expedition.

This included the privilege of seeing and experiencing the back country of this region as we are sure, few get to see or to share with him – this included more than two hours in one of the thousands of wet cave systems, riding bush tracks through the forests and ‘savanna’ patches that left me with so many déjà vu moments through the day.

These caves are so amazing to behold and would be insane to try and describe in their beauty and graceful elegance, not to mention the rich Mayan history coupled to them.

As we could not carry the camera, we include only a few pics taken before we commenced.

This awesome and breath taking experience also included riding zip-lines over and through the forest canopy, repelling down cliff’s to a few zip-line stations and ending up with a final zip descent through and into a huge cave opening.

Sometimes one moves through life and on those rare occasions one bumps into one’s kindred spirits, Angelika and I sure found this to be so true when it came to Tom, a true gentleman and a real man with a genuine love and connection with the bush and his environment in which he lives.

Sunday: We met up again with Tom in the morning close to Belize City where he keeps his Air Boats docked alongside the main road and next to a canal of water that connects to a vast marshland that few get to behold because of the inaccessibility thereto except with the use of these shallow draught boats powered by 400HP engines driven by aircraft propellers.

Noisy as they are, they allow one a rare insight and passage into an environment very difficult to access and strangely enough, the birds and other creatures do not seem to care about the cacophony and intrusion.

Riding an airboat was as close as one can come to an aquatic helicopter ride and so totally a trip to behold.

Leaving Tom was like saying goodbye to an old buddy, knowing we will meet up again soon down the road and being able to pick up within in seconds, whenever we meet up again……which we will.

We piled back into the ‘Elsie’ and headed south to meet up with such an amazing couple, the Ushers, who also in their own right, live on such an amazing piece of land with such a diversity of ecosystems that range from ‘savanna’ to forest, riverine, salt/fresh water lagoons and ocean frontage.

Just like Tom, it is so refreshing to see people who have a passion for the land they live upon, and yea, like Tom, we hope to soon see our tents becoming an integral part of that natural environment.

Belize, is very unusual, very beautiful, full of history and a place looking for something to happen when it already started to do so.

We packed in a quick river ride in the morning to evaluate the potential sites there and then packed up once again and headed further south to meet an old customer of ours at Ken at Belize Lodge.

So much going on here but we will try to update again tomorrow but we have no cell comm’s here but we do try to get e-mail at least once a day.

We hope to be in Belize City for our appointments by Thursday.

Take care

Paul and Angelika

The last of Guatemala and start of Belize

2008-07-11T05:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings all
Gosh so much has happened since we really posted a detailed blog but that is the nature of the beast in being constantly on the move and as you have seen if you follow this blog, we have covered a lot of distance this last while.
Guatemala was truly beautiful and good to us even though we had only a few appointments there, we met some really good people and saw some truly beautiful country.
Most impressive are the Mayan ruins of Tikal in the northern province of Peten that cover a stunning area of 5000 square kilometers, most of the ruins are not excavated except for the palaces and Grand Plaza between them.
The gem of Guatemala is truly in the Peten Province and the "jungle's" in the region are particularly stunning even though they do not reach the heights of those in Costa Rica.
Dear "Elsie's" developed a short in our second battery (remember the waterless battery story in the beginning of the expedition) that had us having to jump start her - this led to the discovery as well of one terminal in the alternator that had broken loose and the indicator relay had given in once again of which we still need to get fixed here in Belize.
The crossing from Guatemala into Belize was absolutely fantastic on both frontier points with friendly personnel and an inexpensive and smooth transit through - this was so refreshing for us that we could not help but thank everyone for the experience and also 'Elsie' breezed through without much ado.
For these next few days we will be staying in a small place between Belize City and the Border to meet appointments on either side.
Above are a few pics ranging from Antigua to the Tikal ruins.
Take care
Paul & Angelika

next Belize

2008-07-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings
Elsie had yet another hiccup we had to attend to so we will only be entering Belize today, Thursday
More later on updates
Take care
Paul & Angelika

Trundling along in Elsie

2008-07-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Guatemala City,
This Sunday finds us here for two meetings and then on to Peten in the north before entering Belize on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The past few days have been so hectic and we have covered a lot of ground.
Antigua is a really pretty city, old and with a lot of cool old buildings and a ton of character even though it is a total tourist trap.
There is also a huge volcano looming over the city but then I think Guatemala makes and exports volcanoes as there are so many of those awesome mountains here.
Yesterday we met with a wonderful lady who own a beautiful coffee plantation in the SW of the country - she wanted to see us about starting a luxury tented lodge on the property.
She is a biologist herself so she has made a remarkable effort in combining and integrating the plantation with the natural forest.
After walking the plantation and visiting with her we headed towards Guatemala City, getting here in the late afternoon tired of the insane traffic of the highway and unsure of how we were going to wade through the big city.
We muddled our way along fine until we were unsure of of whereabouts, that I called through the window to a cop passing us on the road, as to where the main Avenue Reforma was?
He pulled away indicating that we follow them and before we knew it we had the blue lights flashing and we were getting the "Royal Escort" into town.
They left us close to the hotel we were looking for but before long we were lost again but soon found our way and was happy to finally be out of the city traffic.
At the hotel we had another dilemma as Elsie would not fit into their secure parking garage (we never stop at any hotel unless it has vehicle security) so I told the manager I would park her right in front of the hotel and his security guards will just have to watch over her but this he did not like so we compromised and parked her across the road. As soon as he left the hotel the security dudes called me to come and move her to the front of the hotel as suggested.
When I went to check on her this morning she was the main center of attention with an admiring crowd around her who all had tons of questions about Elsie, us and our expedition.
Wherever we are she is quite the crowd collector :)
Sorry about the no pics but I cannot find the cable to pull the pics off my camera but hope I find it in Elsie a little later and will hopefully get more pics up soon.
Enjoy what is left of the weekend and have a great new week.
Paul and Angelika

.

Guatemala et al

2008-07-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings tonight from Antigua, Guatemala.
Yesterday we got stood up by our client so we enjoyed a fantastic lunch right over the ocean in La Libertad and last night we spent our last night in a quaint room in the tiny fishing village of Los Cabanos still in El Salvador and were treated to a great storm with amazing lightning that made daylight of the ocean as we sipped on some cheap wine.
Getting through the border this morning took quite some time but it was refreshing to see that we had to stand in line with the rest and not have to go through the bribe thing and all we have experienced in Guatemala so far is friendliness with cops and all.
Guatemala is so beautiful and even though Antigua is a 'gringo' tourist trap, it is beautiful in it's own way with a lot of very old buildings and cobbled streets with a huge volcano looming up over the city.
Tomorrow we head to the Western part of the country and then to the North East to meet up with a number of clients and then hopefully by the end of next week we shall enter into Belize where we have a lot of work to do.
Lastly, for those of you keeping up on 'Elsie' she is doing so well now and trundling along like a trooper, though she does not like climbing mountains.
We will post a few more pics tomorrow.
Take care and stay well
Paul and Angelika

Pics of the last week

2008-07-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Nica/Honduras/El Salvador

2008-06-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings all

Wow, so much has happened in this last short while since entering Nicaragua – we met Stacy and Mike at the second “end of the road” destinations since starting the expedition and we were so amazed and impressed by this out of the way remote resort with the most pristine and beautiful beaches and one of Central America’s largest estuaries that is about 10 “Elsie” miles down the beach – check it out at www.redwoodbeachresort.com

Anyone wanting to adventure to such a remote but truly beautiful and comfortable resort and be treated to Stacy and Mike’s spontaneous hospitality, should make the effort to go, just don’t expect to leave in any hurry as time means nothing there.

We worked on them setting up a few tents up there that will be rather unique if they decide to proceed.

This destination is truly also a fisherman’s paradise for those who care to get on the ocean and catch those underwater critters.

After bidding our farewell’s we headed to Honduras where the border crossing was a total nightmare with bribes up the Wahoo.

After just a short distance in Honduras, we were constantly harassed by the cops and fined for the most incredulous things that I started to get a real uneasy feeling in Honduras and by the next morning, I was not at ease and was not able to reach any of our clients that we were to meet in the north of the country that we decided to trust my instincts and get out of the country.

So early the next day we boogied across the border into El Salvador and I was real happy about our decision to do so.

El Salvador has welcomed us and we are happy to be here, so much so that Elsie got her first wash today and is looking better that the two of us for now…..

We are unable to upload images, so they will have to wait for another day - so sorry as they are cool pics.

We expect to be entering Guatemala by the weekend and then onto Belize.

Life is beautiful and then you can marry it and all is good.

Paul and Angelika

Now Nica...

2008-06-24T04:58:00.000-07:00

Now Nicaragua,
We got through the border crossing with much ado about how much 'bucks' each person needed in 'permits' etc. and headed without knowing in the wrong direction to meet a client and spend the night.
Only after chasing Elsie's tail to get there by dark, did we only first realize that we were totally in the wrong part of the country.
The whole atmosphere here is different but the countryside is very beautiful and everyone so far has been really friendly to us.
After arriving here and checking with the cops that no one here knows the people or the resort we were looking for, we found ourselves parked at the beach wondering what next to do as we do not drive at night, when I noticed a small hotel on the beach.
It is not much but we got a cool room with balcony only 15 meters from the beach and a cold shower and they kindly let me park Elsie on the patio amongst the diners because of my concern of leaving her on the road - most unusual looking sight indeed.
After checking in I went to get a local brew and the owners asked where I came from and after telling them I was born and raised in Africa, we all discovered that I was their forst guest from the dark continent.
The next thig all the cell phones were out and I had to do a photo session with everyone here :-)
As soon as we get moving this morning we will be heading to Managua which is not too far from here, so those of you in Managua waiting to meet with us, we will be there today and be calling you from the road.
Sorry we missed you Stacy but you will see us soon and I will try to contact you tonight again
Take care
Paul and Angelika

Nicaragua here we come!!

2008-06-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,
Tonight we find ourselves back in Liberia after visiting the St Elena Peninsula yesterday and camping in our rooftop tent in a little isolated campground on the beach of a very tranquil bay with waves the got to a mere 6" high.
On the way in to the campsite we met up with a few monkeys who did not like our presence and kept chucking sticks and foliage at us from way above in their safe zone.
After watching a very beautiful sunset, we walked back to Elsie to find that a bunch of the cute little raccoon "bastards" had munched on our mango's and took off with our rare multi grain bread but the rest of our goods was secured enough to keep them at bay but they did try all night to get to Angelika's left over soup.
This morning we went to check out the small Junquillal bay north of the peninsula that is just across from Nicaragua.
We had a few ales and made some sandwiches in the rain and and then headed back to Liberia.
I must say that Elsie is finally really running well now and we get the last few things patched up early tomorrow, Nicaragua here we come, the place will never be the same again :-)
Take care
Paul & Angelika

CR last stops

2008-06-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again!
We left Hotelito Si Si Si in Junquillal this morning and drove through "Monkey Trail" arriving at our final destination today in Playa Hermosa. We will go to Playa del Coco tomorrow before heading towards to Liberia to get our last spare parts for Elsie. We plan to cross over to Nicaragua early next week, just after we tour the Santa Elena Peninsula.
Take care
Paul and Angelika

Elsie again

2008-06-17T17:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings again,
We have had quite a few calls and e-mail wanting to know what we have been up to in these last few days and why there have been no recent blog entries….
As mentioned in a previous entry, we met up last week with family who flew in from Atlanta to be with us and share in a bit of the expedition and yea, Elsie has tested us to the limits again.
We had a fantastic time with the family, Russ and Jax, who treated us to a rare but unique experience of booking us into to the active Arenal volcano observatory lodge.
Before we could get there Elsie had shut down the alternator, so our second day comprised of hanging out at a workshop for a full day having the alternator rebuilt.
The volcano is an intense experience to behold (when not enshrouded in cloud) because it cranks up almost constantly with lateral emissions that come billowing out in huge cloud formations and also almost close to the summit is this red glowing vent that chunks out molten rocks the size of Elsie and larger that come hurtling and pounding down the mountain slope with the of the like of the sound of a herd of elephant bashing through the bush hell for leather – this all visible with a naked eye.
The sound affects are also so spectacular and the brief moment we saw the summit in the dark it was like a fireworks display.
We had such a good time together and then came Elsie, with brakes pulling so dangerously to the left that we pulled into a gas station in the sleepy town of Arenal to ask where we could find a mechanic.
The fellow stood up and said to us that he was our man, so we found ourselves in yet another workshop with a dirt floor and the rain pouring down incessantly making mud everywhere.
Our mechanic dude, Jason found a leak in the one brake drum and then one thing lead to replacing the cross members of the universal joints and another thing lead to another thing when we found that the gearbox and transfer box had gear damage and the bearings were shot – so out comes this entire gear assembly, crashing to the bottom of the pit because Jason had no pro equipment at all.
We spent all Saturday from 9am to 5am Sunday getting the gear box and transfer case assembled and had to manhandle it back in position without the gadgets one normally uses and it was a job I do not care to remember for the rest of my life.
Angelika held out stoically as our “spanner girl” until 2qm and when I got back I showered for a half an hour and slept for an our before we got up and headed with haste to the coast to meet with a client in Garza Beach.
Not long after we left Elsie started to make this vibrating sound that sounded like it was related to the gear boxes and drive train so we drove slowly not wanting to cause more damage.
After our meeting we headed to Samara for a meeting the next morning (Monday 16th) and we took this cool road through the forest until we hit this nice river crossing that looked pretty ok to cross in a diagonal path.
Even though it was pretty deep all went well until I hit a sand bar and Elsie put her butt right down on the bed of the river and refused to budge even an inch.
The exhaust was totally underwater so I bailed out and Angelika kept the rev’s up as water poured into the vehicle.
The heck with the croc’s, I grabbed the winch cable and was grateful that we just had enough cable to reach the closest tree that was only about 6 inches across and secured the cable to it and hoped it would hold and headed back to the intrepid Angelika as the rain cam pouring down.
Back at Elsie, when I got back in the vehicle, the river was flowing through her with brake fluid and other containers floating around.
As soon as the winch started to pull Elsie, she leaped up on the river bed as if to say “screw the winch”.
Back on the bank of the river, we were so happy, we left Elsie on a gradient to drain the water off and we went back to swim in the river and cool off in the rain.
So we pulled into Samara sopping wet, checked into a hotel but we were still worried about what to do in this small village with Elsie’s problems.
We met with a really nice client the next morning (also got a ton of laundry done) who suggested we go back to San Jose to get the job done right but I was not prepared to risk the distance and cause more damage in so doing so we decided to head the next morning (today) to the slightly larger town of Nicoya and try to get the help we needed.
After arriving here we went from one work shop to another getting turned away because they were all to busy but finally we found one just out of town who was willing to help us.
In no time he found the problem in the rear diff with some more worn parts that we got in town and he replaced for us.
This left us with one last mission, trying one last time to get the brakes working right, so back into town we went to find someone who would work on the brakes for us – By 4.30 we had this job done but would still have to work on the hand brake in the next week before heading to Nicaragua because we could not find the parts we needed here.
As it stands today, we will be heading tomorrow to Guiones Beach and head north to meet our appointments along the way, hopefully with no more hassles from Elsie.
We will be updating more regularly again from now on so long as we do not find ourselves in more workshops.
Take care and stay well
Paul and Angelika

Northern Costa Rica

2008-06-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the town of Liberia.
This will be a brief post, we will be in the Arenal volcano area for the next few days with family who have come to visit us and also to see a few clients.
By the weekend we will be heading back to the Northern part of the Nicoya Peninsula to finish up in Costa Rica and will then be heading to Nicaragua.
Yesterday we got good news from Panama that we got the green light and are to go ahead with a 5-star fishing camp in the Pearl Islands.
We also found a few more parts falling off Elsie, first the welding gave way on the water reservoir for the radiator (we seem to have stopped the reservoir leak now) and got that repaired - we also managed to find some screws to refit the window guides that had come loose and fallen off.
The snorkel had also come loose but this we secured very well with strips of inner tube.
More stories and pis later
Take care
Paul and Angelika

Made Montezuma

2008-06-08T06:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings from another beautiful morning on Nicoya
We had a fun day getting here yesterday and might have to spend another night here tonight.
It was truly a fun day trying to get here, we were turned back by two rivers but persevered through many other rivers, some in 4-wheel drive and others not but Elsie did just fine to be sure.
We are at the very beautiful Ylang Ylang resort and it is really cool how one gets here, traveling the last short distance along the beach.
Sorry this is so short but we have to get ready for this mornings meeting.
Take care and we will be back here soon
Paul & Angelika

Nicoya or bust

2008-06-07T05:57:00.000-07:00

We made Samara yesterday afternoon which is on the Pacific side of the Nicoya Peninsula. After waiting on an exit permit in San Jose that we will need to exit Costa Rica to Nicaragua, we headed towards Nicoya.
There was so much traffic backed up on the road with slow moving trucks, breakdowns and clearing mudslides that is was slow going and came to long stops at times.
At one point the passing lane road was merging to a single lane road and we merged into the single lane in front of an 18 wheel truck who was not at all happy he had to slow down to let us merge – a the first opportunity he came tearing passed us very close to Elsie and I said to Angelika he is going to ride us off the road at the same time it started to be come evident that this is exactly what he was attempting.
I tried to hold Ellie steady as I moved to the shoulder of the road and when it was getting serious I hit the brakes and the truck roared off ahead still pulling his truck all the way over to the side.
Had we not taken this defensive move we most likely would have been gonners today.
We are heading to Montezuma Malpais today along the coast and from what we are hearing we have quite a tricky road ahead with a number of large river mouths to cross.
We also have to stop before noon to call in on the satellite to Dave Mason’s radio show in the USA.
Wish us well and we will make contact from the ‘other side’
Paul and Angelika

next stop Guanacaste

2008-06-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

hi all, we leave San Jose tomorrow morning (Friday) for Guanacaste - to contact us call our US Intl Mobile phone +1-520-465-7078
Paul and Angelika

Back in Costa Rica

2008-06-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

Greetings on another soggy Central American day.

Apologies for the delayed postings to the blog but with this incessant rain it is not always possible to get online and we do not want to use the satellite unit in the rain either.

Much has happened in the last few days but tonight we find ourselves back in San Jose for a few days.

Backing up a bit, on Sunday we took the first day off since we started the expedition and drove up the one side of the island and found this beach with no undertow and spent hours just swimming and relaxing by the ocean.

We had a good trip back on the ferry on Monday afternoon and drove till dusk to a small border town and crashed for the night.

Early the next morning we got to the Panama Costa Rica border and had to go through the normal under the table shenanigans to get through, though this time it was a little less expensive, it cost us two bus tickets.

The bridge crossing back to Costa Rica was also an experience unto itself because the bridge is an old railroad bridge with old planks and the railroad tracks still intact and in place that one has to keep the wheels centered between the wheels – it was quite the experience for the first time…

Back in Costa Rica we headed down the coast past Puerto Jiminez to Manzinillo where we camped out on Elsie on the beach for the night.

It rained a bit and was a little steamy but it was awesome going to sleep with the sound of the ocean and rain on the rooftop tent.

Leaving this morning we decided to head back to San Jose as we had some recent issues with Elsie to deal with once again – she is no cheap date to be sure.

Apart from still nursing the wipers along my blood ran cold on Tuesday morning when inspecting Elsie, I discovered that the nut on the rear left shackle bolt had worked loose and fallen off and the bolt had started to come free – all I can say is that I am so grateful to have spotted this as it could have meant a total disaster for us if it had in fact come free.

Also yesterday we were on some soft beach sand and started to bog down when I decided for the first time to engage the 4-wheel drive only to discover that the linkages to the transfer case had broken loose. It was only my past experience in 4-wheeling that got us out of the situation.

So that is the other reason we are back in San Jose a little earlier, to fix up Elsie and we also went to meet an attorney here who is a not only a gentleman but also someone I would highly recommend him to anyone looking for excellent representation in Costa Rica and he is also totally fluent in English.

For those of you in Guanacaste, we will start heading there on Friday if things go well tomorrow.

After a discussion with a client in Thailand and experiencing the same intense lateral rain that prevails in these high rainfall regions, we have come up with a method of covering the zippers to prevent the little water leakage that sometimes occurs.

Lastly we would like to thank everyone we have met so far for the kind welcome, hospitality and friendship you have all shown us, this has been truly appreciated.

We hope to get back on the blog by the weekend again.

Take care

Paul and Angelika

Bocas or bust

2008-05-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings and sorry for the delayed postings but truth be told, the other night I wrote the entire blog update and just before I was ready to post it, my browser froze and closed itself down and I was too tired to start all over.

So to get back to Panama City (we are on a vehicle ferry as I write, heading the the islands of Bocas del Toro) besides the back to back meetings and re-meetings, we made on attempt to get to the Pearl Islands last weekend in a twin aircraft but shortly after take off the weather got so wild that we had to turn back.

At one time the up and down draughts were so intense that when we tried to go down to avoid another plane in the clouds, the strong up draughts were preventing it – though it was a little intense, it was a bunch of fun.

The next day it was decided to rather fly in and back on one of the commercial small planes (an old twin otter) and have a boat meet us to take us to the various islands and sites we were to look at.

The flight over went well and we had to take cover as we landed because it was pouring with rain.

We waited for a break in the weather before piling in a lake boat (Boston Whaler) with a total of 5 passengers on board and headed to the islands with excitement to see the islands.

Not long after departing it became apparent that this was not going to be a joy ride as the boat started pounding the swells with jaw jarring intensity – if this was not enough Angelika and I were asked to move forward to shift the weight forward and stood holding on for dear life doing the “Boston Shuffle”.

Before we could reach destination, the sea was getting so rough that we all started to raise the white flag of surrender and had to turn around.

No one was sorry about this so we headed back but diverted to two islands to visit two amazing island sites that we evaluated.

Strangely on the latter site my old instincts kicked in when I found tracks and saw vultures that led to the discovery of two poached turtles of which one had been totally slaughtered and removed, the other was quite small and was left behind.

Coming back to Panama City in the evening was another beast as the ocean was really cooking, it was getting late, the rain was almost constant and it was an almost a 2 hour rodeo ride.

We got in at last light sopping wet and cold to the bone and ready to have a hot shower and to just be on terra firma.

A few meetings later found us leaving early on Wednesday morning with our friend Nigel, pointing us in the right direction towards Boquete in the NW Mountains – ‘Elsie’ seemed to be happy on the open road again and rearing to go so rode all day getting into the mountains in the late afternoon, having traveled through lots of rain through the day.

The wipers are still shaky but are holding their own but when we got close to Boquete, the heavens seemed to open up and the wipers were no competition to the incessant rain.

Tired and ready to relax we found a cabin with hot water and extra blankets for the bed – yes it was frigging cold!

That night it rained so much that we thought it would be prudent to first check if we had grown webbed feet by the time we got up.

No such luck (cuz it would be handy to have webbed feet when we get to go snorkeling) but we did get up early have a quick breakfast and were ready to hit the road towards Bocas Del Toro Islands and the Caribbean.

Getting off the mountain was a challenge with the constant rain, poor visibility and numerous mudslides we encountered along the way, not to mention that the road was mainly a series of steep turns and switchbacks.

Once on the other side of the watershed, the weather cleared up but the wind kicked up and was pushing us all ov er the road in our already top heavy ‘Elsie’.

We made the town of Almirante and found a cheap room with no view and bribed our way into a space on the vehicle ferry for the next morning at 6.30 am.

So we took ‘Elsie’ to sea for the first time and did a cool crossing to Bocas Del Toro where we find ourselves this tranquil Friday night in the tropics.

We expect to be leaving Bocas by ferry on Monday afternoon and head towards Port Limon in Costa Rica.

Wishing all of you a spectacular weekend.

Paul & Angelika

Leaving Panama City

2008-05-28T03:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings all
Sorry for the lack of updates, it has just that we were swamped with meetings and re-meetings since we got here.
We will be heading this morning to NW Panama to Boquette and then onto Bocas Del Toro.
We will do an update on the last few days once we get to our next base with internet access so please bear with us.
Take care ya all
Paul & Angelika

Panama City

2008-05-24T04:00:00.001-07:00

Greetings this morning on our second morning in Panama City.
Weather has been really nice the last few days with not so much rain in this city jammed with high rise buildings around the edges on the numerous bays.
After heading the other day (we seem to loose track of time sometimes) towards Panama City, we left very early and were lucky to miss the afternoon showers before getting to the city.
'Elsie' ran just perfectly all the way through and we did not stop for much except for the odd pee break in obscure places along the way.
We had one appointment, Nigel, who had found a room for us in a small hotel, who were going to meet on the waterfront and follow back to our 'base' for the duration of our visit here.
On getting into town we missed the turn off and we found ourselves trundling through the slums of Panama City, not a pretty site to be sure and Angelika was nervous about even taking pics at the time. Be that as it may, I stopped to ask a cab driver for directions and he kindly lead us out to where we needed to be but through the insanity of Panama City traffic where little or no road rules apply.
Crossing over the Panama Canal Bridge was really cool as we have heard so much about it and to be there to see all this tankers lined up out in the ocean waiting the get through was quite a sight, as was it when we saw it last night from the heights of a tall hotel club.
Nigel has been incredibly kind to us and has facilitated numerous meetings and contacts for us since we have been here and run us around town on our errands in his very compact little car.
Once we go to our hotel we hit the road running and went directly into our first meetings.
As we have much to accomplish in the City, we tried to get as many appointments into the first full day here so yesterday was back to back meetings, most all of them kindly came to meet us here at our hotel except for one where we had to look at a site on a 14th floor terrace of a high rise.
Panama is incredibly friendly and literally every person we have met has asked us if we are enjoying and like Panama or have welcomed us in their opening words - there is truly a pride here and the hope that every visitor will enjoy their visit here.
Today is Saturday and we have only a few meetings but also need to get 'Elsie's' fluids changed because the engine oil looks like tar and we have had little time to deal with this issue until now because of all the other vehicle hassles we have had recently.
We also need to stock up on some supplies today but got our all our laundry cleaned yesterday for only $4 - it is a lot cheaper here than in Costa Rica and they use the US Dollar so it is easy to know what we are spending without making mental conversions all the time.
Tomorrow we will be out most of the day visiting sites on two islands to the south, called the Pearl Islands. we will either be going out by plane or boat depending on the weather - we are very excited about this vist as the projects there are pretty exciting with much uniqueness behind them and the folks we are working with are very nice and interesting people.
We also have a few follow up meetings in the next few days so we do not expect to be getting out of town before Tuesday or Wednesday of next week and will then be heading towards Bocas and Bocas Del Toro in the NW of the country before reentering Costa Rica on our way west through Central America.
I am sure we will be updating this blog again before we leave the city, so please keep checking back.
Pics, In the boat heading the other day to Cebaco Island with Joe, Angelika's lobster dinner, the famous island hotel and just a shot from the beach the morning we left.
We hope you enjoy.
Paul & Angelika

Panama City

2008-05-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again from a very wet Panama
Yesterday we were on this incredibly beautiful island doing a site evaluation for our client Joe, one truly fascinating and peaceful character.
We spent the night in a "fishing hotel" on the island after stopping the boat at a tiny village to haul some poor lobsters butt out of a holding crate for Angelika's dinner.
For a princely amount per night, we got 3 fans that ran at full speed all night on a generator in a bed with a mattress that was so hollowed out one had to virtually use climbing gear to get out of bed.
The shower had 3 speeds, cold, cold and cold - your choice!
We awoke bright and early to watch the day break and with enough time to meet the boat picking us up at 8.30 "Central American Time" which is much like "Africa Time" :-)
As a result we got off the Island late and with too little time to make it passed Santiago where we are spending the night.
Another reason for our delay is that the windshield wipers gave in again and we had to drive really slowly, pulling over at times when the rain got to heavy.
Be that as it may, we found a hotel room and Angelika and I made some "Heath Robinson" repairs and got the wipers going again but for how long we are not sure, so long as it gets us through to Panama City tomorrow.
To all of you guys in Panama City, we hope to be in town by noon tomorrow (Thursday) and if anyone has suggestions of a cool place to stay that is quite, inexpensive and where our vehicle will be secure, please do not hesitate to let us know - USA international mobile number +520-465-7078 or krazy@exclusivetents.com
Lastly to friends and family, we are both doing fine, seeing beautiful places and having the time of our lives meeting some truly amazing and hospitable people.
Paul and Angelika

Into Panama now

2008-05-19T16:53:00.001-07:00

Finally greetings from Panama,
What an ordeal of scams and schemes to get out of Costa Rica and into Panama but here we are tonight in a town called David.
We left the Osa today and headed to a real quaint town of Golfito to meet with an Ex Pat selling properties there - it is on the gulf of Dulce and has a very different but very nice laid back atmosphere.
As usual the rain was on and off all day and "Elsie" was enjoying getting passed 2nd gear after we did some final welding on the roof carrier which now seems very secure now.
After getting into Panama, we tried to make as much distance as we could as we have about 200 km to do tomorrow to meet up with our next appointment.
As we were entering the town of David, the rain was pouring and the wipers decided to die on us, so it was back to another workshop but the bottom line is that we will have to try and replace two of the components tomorrow before heading out in the morning.
We
have two properties to visit with the client on both north and the south coast so we will not know until we meet up how long this visit/appointment will take until we meet up tomorrow.
We do know we will most likely be on the island of Cebaco in the gulf of Montija at some time tomorrow.
We will update you all again soon
Take care
Paul and Angelika

PS Costa Rica is a very expensive country to visit, Panama is way better even the Diesel is cheaper

2008-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings from a gloomy Sunday afternoon in Puerto Jiminez.
We just got in a while ago from Carate, nursing Elsie along but she is doing actually quite well with only a few more things to do on her her tomorrow before we head to Golfito and then onto Panama.
This side of the Osa Peninsula is also so incredibly beautiful and the forests tall and dark in places that even the GPS goes into night mode and loses sat. contact from time to time.
on Saturday very morning we were awoken by a cacophony of sound from the howler monkeys - these dudes make such an amazing ruckus that reverberates throughout the whole forest.
We also went through lots of rain and at one river crossing Elsie's hood (bonnet) was under water but she has been holding up really good.
In Carate yesterday we met some potential clients and later set up camp on the high water mark on a really beautiful beach.
The ocean currents were really intense and it was hard to stand upright even in the shallow water - the sand was actually a course sand and in 5 minutes, it had scoured one of my toes to the flesh and had to get out.
This morning we woke to a looming storm so we quickly broke camp and headed back to Puerto Jiminez
I hope you enjoy these few pics
Take care ya all
Paul & Angelika

Next Panama

2008-05-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

Warm wet and friendly Friday greetings from Drake Bay on the Osa Peninsula,

We have had a few more vehicle hassles in the last days that kept our attention in the wrong direction be we have got on the move again and have driven through some truly amazing rain and cloud forests. We have solved the problem of being flooded in the vehicle during the frequent downpours of rain by using a strip of duct tape (this stuff is a low tech winner).

Back to our movements and other stuff, we really met some amazing clients in the small town of Uvita and did site evaluations on two very stunning forest properties, one small and the one large but so diverse in vegetation and features that it was quite breath taking.

Yesterday, in crossing the Osa Peninsula we drove mostly in the rain on a track so studded with potholes, it took us a long time to do the 30 odd Km in mostly 2^nd gear.

At one point I realized we had another problem with the vehicle and we stopped to do an inspection only to find out that our roof carrier with the tent, spare gas & water cans together with our 2^nd spare wheel was so loose that it was on the verge of falling off.

We did what we needed to with the relief that it did not because there was no way Angelika and I would have ever been able to have got it back up again, not to mention the damage that it would have caused on coming down.

Today we head back to the other side of the Osa and will spend a day or so there depending on what we find but expect if all things are equal, we will be entering Panama on Sunday or Monday.

Paul & Angelika

2008-05-13T04:35:00.001-07:00

Greetings all, we hope the be in Palmer Notre today but still have issues with the vehicle that needs urgent attention.
If things go well with the vehicle we will also try to push on the Drake bay area.
We can be reached by e-mail krazy@exclusivetents. com or out US mobile +1-520-465-7078.
Will update this again soon
Take care
Paul & Angelika

2008-05-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

2008-05-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Estrillo Este on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica on our first morning of the Exclusive Tents Expedition.

As you all know we arrived in CR about 10 days ago and expected to get going in a few days.

Little did we know the frustration of the last 10 days to get the Land Cruiser (“LC” aka Elsie) prepared for the expedition.

Without getting into too much detail, the workmanship was so poor that things that were added or repaired had do be redone on numerous occasions, most of this in a variety of backyard workshops of San Jose and not to mention that the smallest repair can take hours to do.

We were fired up to leave yesterday morning but first the brakes needed to be bled as they were rather squishy and the reverse lights redone because of some short in the wiring.

Finally LC was done and with great excitement we loaded her up in a hurry that we could ‘burn some rubber’ and make some distance.

This turned out to be more true than we imagined because we had done less than a Km to realize the rear suspension was too soft and the new tires were rubbing against the vehicle body that it would not be possible to drive any further this way.

Long story short, we found ourselves again in a backyard, huddled in the rain while the dudes extended the rear shackles and inserted an additional leaf into the rear springs.

In the process it was discovered that one of the leaves was clean broken and a replacement had to be cut and fitted, this after we assured by the same guys a day earlier that it would be just fine.

Finally we made our second departure with revived excitement and headed to the mountain passes that would take us to the coast.

Not long into the passes the rain came down, some of it trickling through the back of the dash over our feet making puddles on the floor and shorting out our alarm and whoever knows what else.

Apart from getting used to driving a slightly top-heavy vehicle, we traveled well until the car in front of slammed on brakes to avoid some road digging that was not cautioned and LC was fishtailing all wheels were squealing and the same with the vehicle behind us.

The vehicle in front of as pulled over in his skid giving me enough time to recover and get around the obstruction safely.

Because we departed late we decided to overnight in a small beach hotel for the night instead of the place we had planned on camping at.

Today Sunday, we have decided to take a day off once we get to our camp site and decompress after the last too may days of frustrations.

Tomorrow, Monday the 12^th we will be on the road again and be meeting up with our first appointments and hopefully we will have no further vehicle hassles.

Keep checking on this blog for more updates on our progress.

Paul and Angelika

Arrival in Costa Rica

2008-05-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

We've arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica today May 1st. We have meetings with clients in San Jose beginning next week. We are looking forward for the final kitting on the Land Cruiser to begin our expedition to Panama. Keep checking back for further updates.

Paul & Angelika

C.A. Expedition and Other News

2008-04-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,

With so much going on, time has been flying by at an amazing rate as we wait to get the Central American Expedition Underway.

Around the 24th of April we will be packing up for the expedition and then head off to set tents up on Grand Cayman Island for a few days.

Thereafter we will head to Costa Rica to pack and prepare for the Expedition.

On arrival we will be spending a few days checking over the vehicle and making the final changes if need be.

The one-week planned diversion to Ecuador that we mentioned in the previous newsletter is now off as the client has postponed the visit without a future date, so we are open to any alternative proposals.

We expect the Expedition to be underway on or around the 5th – 11th of May and departing from San Jose, Costa Rica.

We will keep you updated on our Blog Page on our actual departure dates – Please Bookmark our Blog Page for referencing our Expedition news and progress.

We hope to be updating the blog daily for those not only interested in our Tents and Barefoot Furniture but for those who just simply want to share in the adventure. We will also be posting pictures and video clips of our more interesting adventures and encounters, to the blog.

The kitting out of the vehicle is going well and still on schedule. Some of the additions include a heavy-duty roof rack (to accommodate our custom-made rooftop tent and other gear), security alarm system, winch and recovery gear (sponsored by Overland Experts), 2nd battery & spare tire, snorkel, 31” tires and a few other custom modifications.

See the above picture of Angelika and our 1979 Diesel Land Cruiser, prior to it being kitted out for the expedition.

We would also like to thank our good friend “Homeless” for sponsoring all of our marketing and printed materials and Polar Bear Coolers with their promise to keep our beers cold forever.

Last but not least, we have also been sponsored with inspiring expedition music by the talented Rock Band, The Last Act of Defiance (LAD), their magic constituting a unique mix of
Electric and Acoustic music.

The initial route we will be following from San Jose, will take us to Jaco on the Pacific Coast and east around the Osa Peninsula and Golfo Dulce past Golfito and then on to Panama.
Once in Panama we will mainly follow the Pacific Coast as best we can around the Azuero Peninsula and then onto Panama City.

We do plan to cross the Panama Canal and visit the area around the Portobelo National Park on the Caribbean side but we will not be going much further east in Panama unless we get any appointments in that area.

In heading back to Costa Rica, we will first head up to Bocas Del Toro for a number of appointments and then onto Port Limon on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. We will then cross through the volcano rich part of Central Costa Rica passing through the towns of Siquirres, Guapiles, La Virgen, and the Lake Arenal area on our way back to the Pacific Coast.

Once back on the coast we will follow the coastline around the Gulf and Peninsula of Nicoya to the remote & less traveled Geotectonic interesting Santa Elena Peninsula, before heading into Nicaragua.

Once we are underway on the expedition we will lay out the routes we will be taking through the rest of the Central American Countries will be traversing (Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and finally through Mexico and back to Arizona).

As we already have close on 50 appointments already set up so please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to schedule an appointment with us to visit with you, even if it is slightly off the routes described above.

We are offering an Expedition Special on the 6-Leg Serengeti Tent that will run through the duration of the Expedition. (See Picture Above)

This tent offer includes a mild steel frame and has a room that is 7.2M x 3.5M (23.7’ x 11.5’), which includes a 2M x 3.5M (6.6’ x 11.5’) area in the rear for the bathroom.

The tent has an overall footprint of 10.5M x 5.1M (16.7’ x 34.4’)

The Serengeti Tent
The Serengeti Tent components consist of the following:
Mild Steel Frame (stainless steel frame is an optional extra)
Shade Fly
Rain Fly
Canvas Tent Body
Tension Chains
Body Poles

For Quotes please contact
Jake directly at jake@exclusivetents.com

Prices will exclude freight, local delivery, wooden platforms, layout, electrical, plumbing, interiors, fixtures, appliances, setup, duties, local delivery and related costs.

Manufacturing Lead Time is about 10-12 weeks.

Though we will be posting all our expedition contact info on the Expedition Blog Page, please also find it below and copy it for future reference.

For those of you who are new to the newsletter, please check the Blog Page to see the past two newsletters and the new Shawu Tent Drawings. Also see the truly beautiful Mabarule Tent – these two tents along with the Kambaku & Mafunyane Tents are named in memory of the Magnificent Seven Elephants.

Expedition Members:
Paul Zway (The Krazy African)
Angelika Kanizsai (The Krazy Hungarian)

EXPEDITION CONTACT INFO:

Exclusive Tents Ltd.
Fax: +1-520-844-1271
Global Mobile Cell: +1-520-465-7078
E-Mail: krazy@exclusivetents.com
E-Mail: angelika@exclusivetents.com
Websites: www.exclusivetents.com and www.barefootinteriors.com
Skype: krazyafrican

Expedition News

2008-03-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,

We have a few new exciting destinations for the tents as I write this newsletter; namely Grand Cayman Island, Ambergris Cay (Turks & Caicos), Turkey, Greece and Baja Mexico.

To note, the 3-tent pavilion mentioned in the previous newsletter is no longer available.

Most important to note is that the prices on all raw steel rocketed up 22% about a week ago with murmurings that there might yet be more increases to come in the near future.
This unfortunately means that all quotes made prior to this will no longer be valid and if required, we can re-quote anyone upon request.

We would also like to use this newsletter to introduce our new tent, the Shawu Tent, which can be seen in the drawings above. This tent will be 53 M² (570 Ft²) in area and will be available for production in May ‘08. There will be an extended version of this Shawu Tent as well, which will be 64.5 M² (694 Ft²).
The Shawu Tent is another of our tents, named in the memory of one the “Magnificent Seven” elephants.

Things are moving forward at a very rapid pace with the planning and logistics for the Exclusive Tents Central American Expedition.

The response back has been very exciting since our last newsletter and we already have over 40 appointments set up with just more than a month left before we get underway.
We leave this Saturday (March 29th) for Costa Rica where we will spend a week kitting out our ‘antique’ 1979 Diesel Land Cruiser in preparation for the expedition.

The expedition start date will be based on when the vehicle will be ready but we are still hoping and targeting our departure for the first week of May.
As the vehicle is in Costa Rica, the expedition will start in San Jose and then along the Costa Rica Pacific Coast from Jaco and head towards Panama City.
Once in Panama City we will be taking a week off the Expedition, to visit with clients in Ecuador.
When back in Panama City we will travel backwards towards Costa Rica again but along the Caribbean Coast via Bocos Del Toro and then continue on to Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and finally through Mexico to Arizona in the USA.

We must mention and thank the numerous people who have made appointments for us to visit with them during the Expedition, who have ever so kindly and graciously, offered us gratis accommodation in their establishments and those who have offered us the same in the expedition just passing their respective locations. We are very grateful for this genuine kindness and generous hospitality extended to us and we will be sure to thank you all personally when we finally meet up.
This kindness will be much appreciated because we will mainly be making use of a specially made, small custom made “Rooftop Tent” that will fold forward from on top of the cab roof to over the hood (bonnet) of the Land Cruiser.

Be sure to keep up on the expedition progress once we get underway, from our Expedition Blog.

Those wanting to contact us once underway on the expedition, please check on the Expedition Blog Page for our E-mail, Mobile Phone number and Skype contact details.
Even though we will be in many very remote parts with no service, we will still be able to check mail and make calls via our Bgan Satellite communications system.

We have been asked many times how long the Expedition will be and take us to complete but there is no clear answer. We do however expect to be doing about 6000 miles (9600km) and take about 2 months to complete the Expedition.
We may also have to break away from the Expedition for a week or so, to set up tents in Morocco and Turkey.

Sponsors:
Dave Mason
Polar Bear Coolers
Overland Experts
Bocas Breeze News
Be sure to let us know if you wish to become a sponsor of this expedition.

Computer Talk with Dave Mason

2008-03-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

This past weekend, nationally syndicated talk-radio show host Dave Mason had Paul on to discuss the dirty business dealings of 'Broadway Photo' and to introduce the partnership between the Show and Exclusive Tents on the upcoming expedition!

Click here for part 1 of the interview

Click here for part 2 of the interview

Also make sure to check your local listings and tune in regularly as once the expedition is underway, we'll be checking back whenever we can!

Also make sure to click on the link to the right if you are interested or know any interested parties who want to meet with us along the way.

-Exclusive

Central America Expedition!

2008-03-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,
There has been much and a little bit more going on here with us at Exclusive Tents and Barefoot Interiors.

Most exciting is the preparation work we have started on a project, in which we will be taking the business on the road with an audacious 4X4 overland expedition through all of Central America and the expedition will kick off in early May of this year.

The expedition will take us from Panama all the way through Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize) and then onto the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, down to the Pacific and up the coast to finish up in Arizona.

We will be traveling to very remote parts of each country, at times only on 4x4 tracks to visit eco-locations and also to visit the myriad of unique forests, ocean parks & reserves, in an effort to meet clients to promote our eco-friendly luxury tented accommodations and furniture.We will also be visiting and meeting up with our existing and new potential clients, architects, interior designers, property developers and just regular locals along the way.

As a wildlife conservationist with 17 years experience in S. Africa's Kruger National Park, this expedition has also been planned to visit and experience as many new and unique wild places and to meet up with as many wild creatures and to behold the spectacular flora found in this amazing part of the world.

In Panama we plan on kitting out an old Land Cruiser 4x4 with a Rooftop Tent and other accessories to make such an odorous expedition possible.

Most communications will have to be via Satellite, as we maintain contact with our office, do our daily business and keep up an Expedition Blog on our movements & progress that we hope to update frequently - in other words it will be a high tech expedition that will also include the use of GPS/Navigation.

As vehicle crime is high in many of these countries we are also looking for a high tech security system, that will not only secure the vehicle, it must also have a GPS tracking capability in case of vehicle theft or loss of our vehicle.

We will also be making use of a world cell/mobile phone that is CDMA compatible and will cover all the countries we will traversing.

We will also be sponsored by and will be calling in every Saturday during the expedition to the Nationally Syndicated Radio Show "Computer Talk with Dave Mason" in the USA, to update his listeners on our progress and the technology that we will be using along the way.

Thanks to Bruce Elfstrom of Overland Experts who is sponsoring us with some recovery gear needed for our vehicle.

Any companies/individuals willing to sponsor the expedition will be getting exposure on our vehicle as well as on our blog as well as in the regular Newsletter.We will also be doing occasional updates on the expedition via our Newsletter that now reaches over 12,000 recipients and on our Expedition Blog.

We are asking any/all interested parties wanting to meet up with us during the course of this expedition, to please immediately contact us directly so that we can make the necessary arrangements.

Anyone knowing any particularly unique locations or persons who might have an interest in meeting up with us whilst on this expedition, please feel free to share your suggestions/recommendations with us – contact Paul directly at:
krazy@exclusivetents.com

Before getting into any other news, we have a client in the Caribbean with a “3-Tent Pavilion” that is about to come out of production, who have asked us to assist in selling his tents. His project timelines have been changed to later in the year and has no need for the tents right now.

This “3-Tent Pavilion” consists of 2 x Kingfisher Tents and 1 x Kambaku Tent , all with 304-grade stainless steel frames.

More details on this tent offer can be seen on our Tent Specials Page and for pricing & shipping info, please contact Zane directly at zane@exclusivetents.com.

We have a couple of clients very interested in a few of the Albatross Tents but not in the quantity to meet the 15 tent minimum quantity required for this particular design. They have asked us to include a request in this newsletter, for any other interested parties of this tent design, in the same situation and willing to partner with them, to please contact Jake at jake@exclusivetents.com to coordinate this if there is an interest.

As mentioned in the previous Newsletter, we have some very exciting tents projects coming up in this season, one with Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotels ‘Limited Edition’ Retreats, also another very exclusive resort that will soon be going up on one of the Seychelles Islands.

Barefoot Interiors is also expanding in popularity with our client base and we urge all who are related/involved with interior decorating & design, to please visit the Barefoot Interiors website and you will be surprised at what great items and the variety of interiors that we have to offer.

SPONSORS

Dave Mason

Overland Experts

Saludos a todos.

Ha habido mucho y poco aqui con nosotros en Exclusive Tents and Barefoot Interiors.

Lo mas emocionante es la preparacion del projecto que hemos empezado el cual nos estara llevando de una manera audaz en una expedicion en un 4x4 por toda America Central.
Todabia no tenemos la fecha exacta para comenzar la expedicion pero estamos pensando en Mayo de este año para la partida.

La expedicion nos llevara desde Panama por toda America Central (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize)y despues a la Peninsula de Yucatan en Mexico hasta la Costa del Oceano Pacifico para terminar en Arizona.

Nosotros estaremos viajando por lugares muy remotos en cada pais, a veces por carreteras que solamente un 4x4 puede conducir y estaremos visitando lugares ecologicos y un gran numero de bosques muy singulars, Parques Oceanicos y Reservas Forestales con el proposito de conocer y de hablar con clientes y promover nuestras carpas de lujo con muebleria que son Eco-amigable.
Nosotros tambien estaremos visitando y reuniendonos con nuestros clientes antiguos y nuevos clientes, arquitectos, diseñadores de interiores, constructores de propiedad y a la gente de comun cuando estemos viajando.

Como un conservador de la vida salvaje con 17 años de experiencia en el Parque Nacional Kruger de Africa del Sur, en esta expedicion tambien se ha estado planeando visitar muchos lugares nuevos y unicos y ver muchos animales salvajes y admirar la flora tan expectacular que se encuentra en esta parte del mundo .

En Panama vamos a modificar un Viejo Land Cruiser 4x4 con una carpa en el techo y otros accesorios para hacer posible esta expedicion tan ardua.

La mayoria de las comunicaciones tienen que ser por via satelital, para podernos mantener en contacto con la oficina y continuar con los negocios diarios y seguir un diario de la Expedicion en el Computador acerca de nuestros movimientos y progresos que esperamos ponerla al dia lo mas frequente posible, en otras palabras esta expedicion sera con alta tecnologia que tambien incluira el uso del sistema de posicion global y de navegacion.

Como el crimen vehicular es muy alto en estos paises, nosotros tambien estamos buscando un sistema de seguridad de alta tecnologia, que no solamente proteja a nuestro vehiculo, pero que tambien tenga el sistema de posicion global que sea capaz de rastrear el vehiculo en caso de robo.
Nosotros estaremos haciendo uso de un telefono celular mundial que es CDMA compatible y que cubra los paises que estamos atravesando.

Tambien vamos hacer patrocinados y estaremos llamando todos los sabados durante la expedicion al programa radial “ Hablando de computadores con Dave Mason” en los Estados Unidos, para poner al dia a los radio-escuchas acerca de nuestro progreso y de la tecnologia que se estaremos usando.

Muchas gracias a Bruce Elfstrom de “Overland Experts” quien nos esta patrocinando con el equipo necesario para nuestro vehiculo.

Cualquier compania o particulares que desen patrocinar la expedicion seran mencionados en nuestro vehiculo como tambien en la pagina de computador y en nuestro diario.

Tambien estaremos ocacionalmente poniendo al dia la expedicion en nuestro diario, que hoy en dia llega a mas de 12,000 individuos en nuestra pagina de la Expedicion en la Computadora. Nosotros estamos pidiendo a los interesados que quieran reunirse con nosotros durante esta expedicion, que por favor se comunique lo mas pronto possible para poder hacer los planes necesarios.

Cualquier persona que sepa de un lugar en particular o de personas que tengan interes en reunirsen con nosotros durante esta expedicion, por favor sientese libre de compartir sus sugerencias o recomendaciones con nosotros, contactarse con Paul a : Krazy@exclusivetents.com.

Antes de dar mas noticias, tenemos un cliente en el Caribe con una “3-Tent Pavilion” que ya va estar lista para produccion, el nos ha pedido que si le hayudamos a vender sus carpas.
Su proyecto ha sido cambiado para mas tarde y no tiene necesidad de las carpas por ahora.

Esta “3-tent Pavilion” consiste de 2x Kingfisher y 1x Kambaku carpa, todos los marcos son de 304 grado de acero inoxidable.

Mas detalles de esta carpa se pueden ver en nuestra pagina “Especial de carpas” pare que vean la informacion del precio y enviado, o contactar a Zane directamente a zane@exclusivetents.com.
Nosotros tenemos un par de clientes que estan muy interesados en unas pocas Carpas Albatross pero no en la cantidad de 15 carpas requeridas para este diseño en particular.

Ellos tambien nos han pedido que incluamos en esta revista, para cualquier persona interesada en el diseño de esta carpa y hacerse socios con ellos, por favor contactar a Jake a
jake@exclusivetents.com para la coordinacion si hay algun interes.

Como lo mencionamos en la revista de Noviembre, tenemos muy excitantes proyectos de carpas para esta epoca, una con Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotels “Edicion Limitada”retiros, y otro lugar de retiro muy exclusivo que se va a construir en una de las Islas Seychelles.

Barefoot Interiors tambien se esta expandiendo en popularidad con nuestros clientes y pedimos a todos los que estan relacionados con decoracion y diseño que por favor visiten Barefoot Interiors pagina de computador y usted se sorprendera de los buenos productos y variedad de interiors que tenemos para la oferta.

Paul Zway
“El Africano Loco”

An Introduction of Sorts

2008-02-21T10:27:00.001-07:00

It seems fitting to give all of you a bit of insight into who we are, what we do, why we do it, and how this can affect you.

We specialize in the design, construction, and implimentation of ultra luxury, eco friendly tents. Our tents can be found worldwide at resorts, spa centers, and safari camps (to name a few). Our tents are also perfect for guest housing and vacation homes. We also offer design services and authentic mahogony and leather furniture which compliment our tents.

The real benefit of our tents is that they are extremely low impact structures - leaving virtually no footprint in the area if the tent is ever taken down.

How does this affect you? Many local governments are now imposing stricter regulations on what can and cannot be put on certain property. Because our tents are considered temporary structures, they can easily be placed in environmentally sensitive areas with no long term damage.

Moreover, the environment has become one of this generation's defining issues. This being said, it is our responsibility to consider every option on the table when it comes to making choices about our lives. We pride ourselves in offering that alternative.

-Exclusive

Welcome!

2008-02-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Exclusive Tents Blog Page!

We're just getting started, but make sure to check back regularly for updates on our upcoming Central America Expedition and for occasional promotions we'll be having.

Also make sure to check out or homepage (link in the about me section) and have a look around!

Thanks

Exclusive Tents