A Sober Look at America’s Future

I feel fortunate to have been born in the mid-1950s and to have lived during most of the period 1950-2000, which I believe will prove years from now to be the sweet spot of civilization. I believe the world since World War 2 was a better place because of American exceptionalism and fear that when another country takes her place, the good life as we know it on this planet will come to an end. Many believe China will succeed American hegemony; I don’t believe that will happen and would be unfortunate if it does. Despite all of America’s challenges right now, I don’t see any other region ready to take the reins of planetary leadership away from us; Russia’s threat to dethrone us ended when the Cold War ended in 1989; Europe and Japan appear by all measures to be dead in the water, struggling to survive. I also believe that if and when America falls it will be our own doing, from the growing weakness from within and lack of resolve from our and future generations, rather than due to another country’s strength to take it away from us.

I am glad I am no longer a teenager, because today’s world makes no sense to me and bears little resemblance to the one I grew up in nearly 70 years ago. My generation, the baby boom generation, and the generations x and y (aka the Millennials) that followed have done a poor job instilling our children and theirs with the values, ambition and self-reliance that made this country great. We have effectively abolished the nurturing that only comes from a nuclear family, we’ve offered few good role models for our young to emulate, we’ve let their formal education languish, and we’re telling them that sexual identity is a matter of choice not biology. We haven’t given them the confidence and backbone to be self-reliant, take responsibility for their actions or own up to the consequences of their actions when they screw up. Instead, we’ve given them the internet and social media and hope they’ll somehow grow up on their own.

Making matters worse, many of our political and business leaders are insincere and often show questionable judgment, like ignoring and lying to us about some of the most pressing challenges facing our country, while dithering their time on projects that sound promising but are unlikely to offer few benefits to us, especially in the short term. We’re hearing a lot of hype about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence (AI) as if those new technologies are somehow going to save our financial system, a system that has been overextended for more than a decade. They say things like bitcoin is better than gold knowing only too well that gold has been money for thousands of years and has many unique desirable qualities that make it indispensable in some industries and for personal use, whereas bitcoin was invented early this century and is actually the product of some arbitrary math problem that serves no societal benefit and can be easily substituted by thousands of other cryptocurrencies. They hype the hopeful positives (and play down the potential negative consequences) of artificial intelligence, knowing full well that those benefits are far into the future (more on AI later).

At the same time, half of the adults in our country are telling our kids that letting everybody and anybody into our country through an open border is a good thing, that the police are evil and should be de-funded by the public tax payer, and that criminals are the real victims of our society, not the folks they attack. Any wonder the kids today are confused? Now we’re telling them that with the help of AI we’re going to train computers to do things more efficiently than they can, leaving them with the real prospect of being chronically unemployed for the rest of their lives.

Seeing how bad my and subsequent generations have done during the past several decades, I shudder to think what life will be like in 2050 and beyond, when the responsibility for running things on the planet is turned over to the next sheltered, neglected, misguided, poorly trained, and spiritually bereft generation.

Historians agree that the Roman Empire gradually crumbled over a period of about 700 years, for many reasons such a foreign invasions, mass migrations, economic and financial challenges, loss of traditional social values among its citizens, political instability, and government corruption to name a few. Some of those may sound familiar as they are evident today in America.

America’s politics have run amok.

The new millennium brought with it cracks in our Republic that have since become more apparent. The 2001 presidential election divided the country politically and with time and has turned friends, families and neighbors against each other (in many cases violently). You might remember George W Bush became president by a slim margin that made many democrats believe the election had been stolen from their candidate, Al Gore. To retaliate, democrats, with the overwhelming support of a dominantly liberal main stream media, managed to persuade us that the most inexperienced and unknown candidate in history should be elected twice to the presidency. Subsequently, election shenanigans escalated throwing serious doubt about the legitimacy of recent elections among many on both sides of the aisle. As a result, today the country seems more divided along party lines than at any time in recent history, making effective federal governance difficult if not impossible at times.

Many will argue (persuasively I might add) that America sowed the seeds of its current decline back in the early 1970s when the dollar’s gold backing was abandoned, contributing to the high inflation of that decade and the liberal bank lending policies and profligate borrowing practices of American families. This enabled families to imprudently spend more than their incomes would allow and to become more in debt.

This century began with three major setbacks.

I believe the first event highlighting America’s vulnerability came on 9/11 and showed all of us that none of us were truly safe from the murderous attacks of global terrorists. For all of modern history America had been fortunate to fight wars on foreign soil and to keep attacks offshore as well; this attack brought our enemies to the forefront of our consciousness, right up and personal. Do you feel less safe since 9/11?

The second tangible indication of America’s fallibility came with the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) when our global financial system nearly failed causing many to lose their homes and their life savings. The economic “good times” and wild spending of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s finally culminated in a financial disaster that I believe has not fully played out. I believe that when (not if) it does, many people will experience a lot of hurt for many years to come. The system has been barely held together and not much improved since 2008 based on the widespread (but ultimately likely false) belief that global central bankers and governments are capable of keeping this system operating indefinitely. There has been so much manipulation and tampering with market mechanisms and financial metrics it will be impossible to know when the system will fail again. However, there is still far too much global debt (3x more than global equity) to be sanguine about the future; and with gold rising to an all time high of more than $3,000 per ounce recently, historically a bad sign for the economy, we can only wonder about what’s really happening behind the scenes right now. The economic dislocation and hardship caused by the GFC caused many to protest against the unfairness of capitalism and gave rise to the socialist, even communist, movements that have been visible for more than a decade in America. The GFC undoubtedly contributed to the angst among the younger generation about their futures and have left them with the idea that the American dream is dead. Do you feel more financially insecure since the GFC?

Approximately a decade later, in 2019, the third and probably the most ubiquitous event demonstrating our vulnerability came with the global outbreak of the Covid 19 virus, which brought widespread severe illness and death to millions of Americans and virtually crippled the global economy for several months. That plague and hiatus of normal activity has undoubtedly left scars on the psyches of many who endured those hardships, especially the younger generation whose development was stymied during their formative years toward adulthood. Once again, the combination of societal disruption and economic dislocation and the economic concessions that were provided by government to soften their effects may have encouraged the younger generation to believe that government and the world at large owed them a living and always will. The enormous public debt that they are saddled with (i.e., $100,000 per person in America) may give some credence to that claim.

The political fallout from the 2001 election, the fear for personal safety created by 9/11, the growing financial insecurity and hardship caused by the 2008 financial crisis, and finally the health scare brought about by Covid 19, has caused Americans to feel more vulnerable now than at any time since the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Those events may have fostered the apparent apathetic attitude by many of the younger generation, making them victims of a seemingly futile system that offers little hope for their futures.

Technology has historically led our progress.

It’s only natural for us to seek new technologies to improve our lives, as they have done for thousands of years, taking us from living in caves 10,000 years ago to the current comfortable standard of living we enjoy today. New technologies have always disrupted the status quo living conditions and sometimes caused dislocations that were difficult to adjust to but ultimately gave way to better living standards enjoyed by everyone. This time is no different, but I fear some of the new technologies now being introduced run the risk of marginalizing us as human beings and could be self-destructive to our species over the long term.

However, technology is a double-edged sword.

We can all agree that the widespread use of the internet late in the last century has been a boon to civilization and has fundamentally changed for the better how we access information and communicate with each other, but like all new technologies, there is an adjustment process that can be difficult and even painful that can have negative consequences. Many believe the introduction of artificial intelligence will be a giant leap forward but the experts seem split as to whether it will be a net gain for society at large. Personally, and certainly in the short run, AI could be detrimental to our welfare as human beings, making us dumber and lazier than the internet has already made us, and thereby could even threaten our survival. Specifically, among other uses, artificial intelligence is attempting to replace the human element in many of our daily activities, thereby diminishing not only the economic value of human labor but the ambition, drive and feeling of self worth among human beings.

Proponents of such technology believe paying folks not to work is the answer without giving any consideration to the detrimental social effects of rendering an increasing share of humanity disenfranchised from their own existence. It’s as if society at large has implicitly decided that it’s more productive to train computers to emulate smart, well trained employees than it is to actually educate and train young people to do their jobs. Making matters worse, a major portion of all that free time now available to the unemployed is being wasted by mindless activities offered by the internet.

I agree that machines and computers should be used to substitute for labor wherever they can improve the efficiency of tasks, but today it would appear that labor is being substituted prematurely with computers that really don’t improve the quality of services provided by many companies, and it is customers that bear the brunt of the mistakes, malfunctions and inconveniences with little or no recourse to engage a human who can assist in solving problems. Have you ever been stuck on a phone trying to resolve an issue with a company only to spend several minutes trying to navigate a phone system trying to get a human being on the line to resolve your issue? In the meantime, in the medium term, trained labor is being displaced and faced with terminal unemployment. In the longer term, companies should acknowledge the need to train labor to meet the needs of a workplace that is increasingly relying on computers to deliver services.

There have been the emergence of certain companies and technologies that have enhanced human productivity; for me personally, the advent of Microsoft’s word and spread sheet programs late last century made my working life much more productive, as did search engines like Yahoo and Google. Cell phones also made communication easier and more efficient although it would appear that the emergence of smart phones early this century may have made some workers more productive but have rendered many others less productive because of all the distractions smart phones offer. Today they have become a permanent hand-held accessory used to avoid social interaction in public and for day dreaming throughout the day.

I’m not sure Amazon is a net gain or loss for society; yes, shopping has never been easier, cheaper but is it necessarily good that younger generations don’t seem to feel the need to leave home to shop? The internet allows them to work from home, which can be beneficial but in the extreme prevents workers from valuable training and socialization that can only come from working alongside their colleagues in offices. The same is true of online education which greatly and necessarily expanded during Covid lock downs; speaking for myself, my education and social skills were greatly enhanced by sitting in classrooms surrounded by my peers, or getting into schoolyard squabbles afterward. Even entertainment, like movies and TV, is available to individuals consuming it on their personal internet devices. Although Covid is squarely in the rear view mirror, it seems that large segments of society still prefer activities in solitude over getting out into the world and interacting with friends and the general public.

Is social media a net gain for our civilization? Do juggernaut companies like Meta, one of the most valuable on the planet, really add any real economic substance to our economy? It makes money from advertising, a process whereby your personal data is made available to companies that want to sell you products. Facebook enables billions of man hours by nearly half the world’s population to be spent trawling among their friends and family websites, time that would be better spent actually physically engaging with those people. Even though half the planet feels the need to participate in Facebook, it seems to me to be a huge waste of time and one that has proven detrimental to the emotional development of the younger generation.

Technology that stifles personal development and marginalizes the human race should be reconsidered.

It seems that the smarter technology becomes, the dumber and lazier people have become. Before electronic calculators, my dad urged me to develop a facility to do arithmetic in my head instead of using a slide rule (a very popular device used in the 1950s and 1960s) and mom encouraged us to refrain from watching too much TV but rather to spend our days reading or going out to play with our friends.

Today children aren’t learning penmanship and language itself is being subverted by the widespread use of sign language, emoticons and other visuals that don’t require any truly verbal communication to conduct activity; those non verbal methods are an obvious attempt to engage the growing number of non-English speakers in our country, but the loss of verbal skills will not serve us well in the long term.

Even adults have proven a willingness to forgo thinking by relying on electronic devices to keep their schedules and help them navigate their own neighborhoods. GPS is a great tool when traveling in an unfamiliar area, but should we use it locally so much so that we don’t really know where we’re going or where we’ve been and have no idea where important landmarks are around our homes? Even more surprising, I am hearing that many adolescents today don’t feel the need to get driver’s licenses and seem to be content using Uber/Lyft for all their travel needs; soon, if we believe the hype, those vehicles will be robotic and won’t even use human drivers! Robots would be the logical next step since Uber/Lyft drivers can already do their jobs without speaking the local language or even knowing where they’re going (thanks to GPS), so the human aspect of the service has already been eliminated.

Our growing reliance on machines to do our thinking for us cannot possibly be good for the advancement of our species, and I shudder to think about how we will scramble when some external event (like a blast of solar radiation) or man-made event (such as an internet network malfunction, like the one that froze global airline activity for days starting on July 17, 2024) renders the internet, smart phones and computers worthless (even if temporarily) for accomplishing any daily activities.

When I was a kid, my peers aspired to be doctors, lawyers, astronauts, scientists, athletes and so forth. Kids today want to become You Tube millionaires or do any other occupation that uses a smart phone application that will allow them to sit on their butts while working. Perhaps some day that transition from people to computers will be perfected, but right now we’re left with computers running amok and people standing around unable to make them work properly.

The American economy transitioned from manufacturing to services more than 50 years ago and for me services necessarily require the involvement of trained human beings. It’s bad enough that we don’t make anything anymore, now we are embarking on a course where we won’t be trained to do anything anymore either. Unfortunately, it would appear that many company business models incorporate an approach to customers designed to misrepresent or even deceive them into buying or overpaying for things they don’t need. Worse yet, others sell things that either malfunction or never worked to begin with. And now the only recourse we have to rectify those situations is to do battle with some website that may or may not provide us with satisfaction.

Moreover, all the boasting companies make these days about their ability to cut costs due to technological enhancements makes me wonder how much cost cutting comes at the expense of lousy customer/client service. My favorite example is the airline industry. Fifty years ago taking a flight involved consulting a travel agent or airline booking agent, booking a flight, receiving tickets, checking in at an airport, and taking off. Now you are routinely referred to a website where you must navigate a (sometimes confusing and often malfunctioning) website obstacle course of options, make the effort to either print or download tickets to your personal phone, check yourself in at the airport, all without the aid of a human being. It seems to me that they’re saving money by shifting the burden of acquiring their service from THEIR employees to CUSTOMERS. Think about how many businesses you use in your daily life that make YOU do all the work that was formerly done by trained personnel. How many times do you buy products that are defective in some way, and do you remember how much of a hassle it was to get somebody on the phone to remedy the situation? Is that progress? Is it good for the economy?

Beyond the economic fallout of many new technologies, the reality is that the effect on the younger population cohorts, especially born after these technologies were introduced, has been to render them incapable doing anything without the aid of their smart phones. Even their social interactions are smart phone driven, and have led to feelings of isolation that they believe only “social media” can remedy.

In summation, we are transitioning to a society that has minimal interest in training its youth, shrinking career opportunities, increasing laziness, and providing the youth in America with little desire to get out of bed in the morning.

Leisure activities are also exhibiting the negative consequences of recent new technologies.

Look at the impact of technology on our art, culture and entertainment. There are more venues and ways to access music, movies and TV than ever before, but have you noticed that the music still most popular and heard everywhere in the media today was created in the last century? Fifty years ago there were a handful of TV stations and always something worth watching; today there are hundreds of cable TV channels but nothing anybody wants to watch.

Moreover, when was the last time you saw a decent new movie? Have you noticed that the majority of movies and TV shows these days favor fantasy themes and animation techniques made possible by new technologies that encourage the public at large to escape into a video game-like alternative reality, with no story line or dialogue that might enrich their understanding of their own lives or the reality of living on this planet? Besides these cartoon fantasies, many “new” movies are remakes of great movies made during the last century, which are the only ones that have decent stories and dialogue. I suppose it makes sense that current movies are mostly visual expressions so as to be marketable globally where most potential customers don’t speak English.

Also, when was the last time you visited a museum and saw anything that was original and worth seeing? It appears that our growing obsession with new content DELIVERY technologies is taking the place of creating new, original and interesting CONTENT.

Medical knowledge has advanced but medical care has declined.

Despite the wondrous advancements in medical equipment and prescription medicine, our species continues to become more obese and out of shape, exacerbated by our mental and physical idleness. Would it surprise you to learn that most young men today are ineligible to join the armed forces because of obesity, mental illness or criminal records? The medical profession acts as though they think medication is always the answer, and rarely advises us that the best single thing we can do to be healthier and ward off the major diseases of our current society (most notably cancer, heart disease, and diabetes) would be to lose weight naturally and to exercise regularly. The global human lifespan in recent years has started to decline, probably for the first time in human history, and is a clear indication of our failure to get and stay healthy. We’ve managed to wean kids off cigarettes and to a lesser extent alcohol, but haven’t done a very good job of keeping them off drugs, marijuana, opioids and the like.

Access to medical care is becoming more difficult and taking longer. Years ago patients could make appointments to see their physicians within days and GP's were willing to handle all but the most specialized problems of patients. Today, it may take weeks to get an appointment with your GP who merely serves as a gate keeper and is unwilling to diagnose or advise about any condition except the most trivial effecting patients; instead they send you to specialists which could take weeks to see. Recognizing that shortcoming, tele-health options are emerging to meet that need for immediacy by providing access to medical experts via the internet. Time will tell whether that technology will compensate for poor access via traditional in-person appointments.

The real problem is that most physicians these days seem to limit their roles to whatever abnormalities your blood work reveals and by prescribing medications to treat those abnormalities, offering no more insight than what laymen can find themselves on the internet. How is it that a surgeon can reach into your chest to give you a heart transplant, but a GP can’t be bothered physically examining you by listening to your heart and lungs and looking into your eyes, ears and throat? Makes you wonder why you bother consulting physicians?

The food we consume has exacerbated our health challenges.

Despite the advancements in our knowledge of nutrition, the population at large is consuming a poor diet of food loaded with preservatives. Junk food has been part of the American diet for decades, but it seems to have overshadowed good, wholesome cuisine in all but the most exclusive and expensive restaurants. Supermarkets have aisles exclusively devoted to chips, snacks and soda, and the packages have steadily become gargantuan. When I was a kid family sized soft drink was a 32 ounce coca cola bottle; today, customers walk around the streets with 22 ounce re-fillable cups of soda.

In an effort to offer customers tasty new recipes families and restaurants have felt the need to “improve” on old recipes by dumping all kinds of spices on them, numbing your taste buds in the process, or, for example, loading up pizza with every conceivable topping, including stuffing the crusts with cheese and hot dogs. A slice of pizza isn’t supposed to weigh a quarter of a pound or be a dumping ground for every conceivable fruit, vegetable or meat you have in your refrigerator. Today’s eateries offer contrived over-seasoned recipes for the sake of originality, use poor, ersatz or preservative-laden ingredients, execute poorly (serve food cold) and serve obesity-promoting portions, all so they can charge ridiculous prices. One thing is certain, if you dine out all the time, you’re going to get fat! Restaurants and their patrons have also fallen prey to bad internet habits, with families of patrons sitting there each buried in their smart phones. Restaurants now make customers download QR codes on their phones just to see menus, a bad habit understandably started during Covid, when folks were freaking out over the potential transmission of germs from physical menus. But in its aftermath, when I go to a restaurant, I have an expectation that it will advise me of its menu without requiring me to download anything on an internet device. Is that too much to ask?

Conclusions.

Internet technology is a scientific wonder, but the current attempt to substitute it for personal human interactions is ill-advised and is ineffective in most cases. Labor saving technology makes good economic sense but at the extreme where we seem to be headed, is leading to a general public that is isolated, alienated and losing touch with reality. In the meantime, we’re getting fatter, flabbier, unhealthier, emotionally softer, isolated, antisocial, dumber, lazier, duller and less creative. Are those the traits of a civilization that is progressing?

What is the hope for the future?

I believe that our tremendous progress during the last century was at least in part attributable to the fact that the greatest generation (parents of the baby boomers) suffered many hardships including two world wars, a flu epidemic and the great depression during the first half of that period. I believe that struggle gave them a mental toughness and physical agility to cope with and even rise above those hardships and usher in the great period of prosperity we’ve enjoyed during the second half of the twentieth century. Perhaps when our global financial system ultimately fails (and I believe it must before progress is made), that experience will give that future generation a similar toughness and ability to spawn another period of prosperity; it won’t be easy, quick or without pain for those living through it. Years ago the greatest generation grew up in poverty and became prosperous in adulthood despite many hardships and adversity. Unfortunately, current generations have flipped that trajectory and began life with tremendous wealth and advantages that continue to wither over time.

Rio De Janeiro: Third World City With European Style

Before this trip Brazil had been an abstraction, obviously a real place but not a place I thought much about. My total awareness consisted of a childhood memory of the band Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66, the Girl from Ipanema song, soccer star Pele, the bossa nova, the samba, the movie title Blame It On Rio, and most recently Brazilian steak houses. All that changed 10 days ago.

Brazil is the largest country in South America, the only Portuguese speaking country there, ranks fifth in population (212 million) and first in Catholic population. Portuguese explorers are credited with its discovery around 1500 and for 500 years harvested its natural resources for Portugal; first sugar cane, then gold and subsequently coffee. For about a decade during Napoleon’s reign in Europe, Portugal’s capital was moved to Rio De Janeiro, an historic first and last for any European country.

Brazil takes its name from a hard wood tree that yields red dye that became a valuable commodity for dyeing clothing back in Europe centuries ago. Rio De Janeiro (hereinafter referred to as “Rio D”) is the second largest city in Brazil with 13 million persons amounting to 5% of both Brazil’s population and its economy. Its name means “January river” and was incorrectly named by the explorers who assumed its bay was the mouth of a river.

We came to Rio D for its internationally-acclaimed beaches, Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon and can vouch that its reputation is well deserved. The beaches boast a crystal clear ocean, and a wide, nearly 10 miles of pure white sand with no rocks or broken seashells to bombard your feet. Right now Rio D is in winter with a climate perfect for beach goers: 70s for both surf and turf and enough humidity to keep the chill away.

We stayed in Ipanema, which is smaller, more upscale and more laid back than Copacabana, and has small boutique hotels and dozens of cafes nearby. Copacabana, to the east, is much larger with an impressive hotel skyline, but with a much less accommodative collection of local bars and cafes, even though two thirds of Rio D’s visitors go to Copacabana. Just west of Ipanema is Leblon beach, a quieter residential area.

Five million visit these beaches annually, and mostly during Rio D’s summer. It is difficult to imagine more people here because the crowds now at the beach and in the streets during their winter are overwhelming and appear to be near capacity.

Copacabana and Ipanema are considered two of the "sexiest beaches" in the world, probably because the display of female and male pulchritude is abundant and extraordinary. The Brazilians take fitness very seriously especially at the beach where dozens of joggers, bicyclists, and soccer and volleyball games can be seen throughout the day.

Brazilians take soccer very seriously where kids and adults of all ages fuss with soccer balls wherever you go. Although soccer jerseys are ubiquitous and prevalent, occasionally you will see basketball jerseys too, most notably from the Chicago Bulls (especially Michael Jordan 23) and L.A. Lakers. Most surprising are the many New York Yankees caps worn by both men and women especially because Brazilians typically don't play the game and don't follow major league baseball.

Most Rio D visitors come from neighboring Argentina. Visitors from the USA and Chile rank second and third, respectively. Perhaps Brazil is South America's Florida for its neighbors, especially during their winter months.

We stayed at Sol Ipanema, which is a 4-star rated boutique hotel with 90 rooms. The physical features were adequate but I believe the 4 stars comes from its beach front location, the high level of service provided by the concierge and staff and the fantastic restaurant that performs a dual function that offers hotel guests a complimentary gourmet quality buffet breakfast, and is open to the public for lunch and dinner as a top rated Italian seafood restaurant called Masserini.

Despite the outstanding physical amenity of the beach, the dozens of mobile beach vendors make the beaches less than relaxing. You can buy apparel, personal items, food and drink, and even massages from these seemingly ubiquitous vendors, but must endure constant noise, cooking fumes and peripatetic commotion that accompanies this frenetic activity. My sense is these youths are expending lots of energy for very little pay. Just another reminder of the large scale underemployment that exists in this emerging economy. Also, we were advised to pay cash to these vendors who have been known to play fast-and-loose with credit cards. Making matters worse, few vendors advertise the cost of their products.

When was the last time you went out to dinner to nine different restaurants and were satisfied each time? We were amazed at the excellent food quality, consistency, variety, and concentration of eateries everywhere, across all food types; meat, fish, seafood, fruit, bread, and desserts; certainly the best we've had in this post Covid world and even the best I have experienced since I started traveling 40 years ago, even compared to places known for their great cuisine such as Italy, France, Spain and Holland, which obviously offer some great food but I have found each to be inconsistent. My only disappointment is that for such an agriculturally rich country, evident from the abundance of great fruit, vegetables were not featured in recipes in typical meals. It is a head-scratcher, because when vegetables were offered, they were superb.

Even more amazing is how generally inexpensive food and drink is here. Brazilian beer (e.g., Brahma, Praya) cost $3 and cocktails (e.g, caipirinhas made with cachaca rum, Brazil’s own) were downright cheap at $5, sandwiches cost $6-8, great burgers made with real beef with fries and club sandwiches cost only $10-12. Typical entrees in most cafes are less than $20 in most cases, and maybe reach $40 for swanky luxury dining. And portions are most generous as a rule. By comparison, McDonald's in our neighborhood was rather pricey. Even though not publicized, a 10-13% service charge is usually included in your bill even though it often does not specifically appear as a line item. But additional tipping is not expected, as in Europe.

In addition to our hotel, we dined at Rio Brasa, a local churrasqueira which is their name for a Brazilian BBQ. It was like our Las Vegas favorite Fogo de Chao on steroids, with more variety, better quality, and less expensive. A full all you can eat meal there including a cocktail, dessert, and service charge cost us less than $70 per person. We dined at one of the best known fish restaurants in Rio D called Satyricon for a similar cost. Even the simple cafes a few steps from our hotel offered outstanding meals. The Girl from Ipanema Cafe, just around the corner from our hotel is the actual site where the lyricist of that song was inspired by a 17 year old girl passing by in 1960 (who by the way is 83 years old now). Great eats. Barzin, another 2 minutes away, has in the words of our concierge the best burger he ever ate, a statement we can defend after sampling the goods. Barzin also offered some of the best tapas we’ve had in years! Others in the area were great too. Further away we found a gem of a Chinese restaurant that served us a great traditional meal that even included mu shu pork, which apparently most folks west of the Mississippi in our country have never heard of. Great stuff!

All of the aforementioned eateries have been in existence at least 25 years, with many approximately 50 years old.

If you plan to come here or most places in South America, you need to at least fake your way through Spanish and even if you do, a group or private tour is well advised, and Brazil is no exception. This is a Portuguese speaking country and although few speak Spanish or English here, many do understand some. English is spoken by 5% of the population. Despite the language barrier everyone we encountered here was friendly and tried their best to assist us.

Assuming language is not an issue you must remember this is not Europe, where travel infrastructure has been developed over many years. Communication and organization is idiosyncratic here at best, which means plans are not always executed as expected. Be prepared to be surprised and even disappointed at times. When we took our city tour, we had to pursue the tour bus twice to ascertain our place on the tour. Even obtaining typical services from our hotel didn't work the same way two days in a row. Be patient and be prepared to be pro active.

Physical infrastructure here is also lacking. Getting on and off the beach was a struggle in many places, and poor sidewalks make walking around the city more challenging than you might imagine. Beach entrances are makeshift, and sidewalks can be difficult to navigate.

Despite all the hectic pedestrian and vehicular traffic, the atmosphere is generally easy going but the obvious police presence is reassuring. Most of the residential and commercial structures in our area had huge imposing steel gates to shore up security and made us wonder what circumstances caused them to be deemed necessary. Also, despite all the commerce taking place at the beach and the complete lack of trash receptacles, this area of Rio D is extremely clean.

Rio D is a great place for those seeking a world -class beachside experience and some great food and drink. Those seeking a more cultural experience may be disappointed. The city tour is basically a trip to Christ the Redeemer, which, as one of the world's seven wonders, is well worth the trip. But the rest of the city tour is a half hour drive by you can easily do without. A visit to Fort Copacabana, a museum that acknowledges Brazil’s significant involvement in World War 2, is near Copacabana beach and is worth a trip and provides a nice vantage point to view the entire beach front. There's a nice outdoor cafe there too.

One final note. You can't get there from here, at least not easily. Las Vegas is approximately 6,300 miles from Rio D and it takes at least 18 hours with required transfers and layovers. Door to door you’ll be traveling more than 24 hours. By comparison, a nonstop flight from London, a hemisphere away and slightly shorter distance is 11 hours. To us that means if you come here from Vegas, plan on spending at least a week because it will take several days to recover from the trip there and back.

Those who know me know I would be remiss if I didn't complain about something so here goes. I have often complained about the health risks of traveling on a jet-propelled petri dish in sub-humanly sized accommodations (you'll need to be double-jointed or to engage a chiropractor to use those tiny lavatories or sleep in those tiny seats). However, when you add in the obstacle course of running around an airport with heavy bags because of poor signage trying to catch your flight, waiting on long TSA and immigration lines that seem to serve no real purpose, you have the makings of a stress test that NASA ought to consider using to condition astronauts for flight. On the plus side, I was inspired to write about our trip to take my mind off the physical discomfort and horrendous waste of time of getting there and back, which I hope you found useful reading.

Hawaii: The "Other" Eight Islands

Las Vegas is considered the ninth Hawaiian island, because of its large Hawaiian population and its involvement in Hawaiian culture. This note is about our trip to the most important of the other eight islands, Oahu, for which we had no knowledge but many expectations based on our life-long devotion to some TV dramas: Hawaiian Eye (1959, by the way, the first year of Hawaii's statehood), Hawaii 5-0 (1968) and Magnum P.I. (1980). Our goals for this trip were to take a beach break from winter while soaking up some exotic Hawaiian culture and to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial site. We also figured it was high time we reconciled the many preconceptions we developed over the years with the reality of the place.

We chose a hotel on the beach in Waikiki (the word means "spouting water"), which is a major neighborhood in Honolulu (a word that means "calm port"), on the island of Oahu (which means "gathering place"). Although Hawaii consists of eight islands, 70 percent of Hawaii's 1.5 million residents live on Oahu (25 percent of the entire state's population resides in Honolulu, which we learned is also the hometown of Peter Hernandez, who we recognize as Bruno Mars). One of the eight islands is totally uninhabited.

Tourism, hospitality, government (especially U.S. military), real estate and construction are the primary drivers of Hawaii's economy, which is quite easy to understand after learning the modern history of the area and seeing all the hotels, high-rise condominiums and retail mall space. Everyone knows that the cost of living is very high in Hawaii, but those prices are obscene in the areas, such as Waikiki, that cater to tourists. Prices fell dramatically as we moved away from purely tourist venues.

Not surprisingly, Hawaii's population is dominated by Asians, especially Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos, but it was surprising that only 10 percent were native Hawaiian and that more Hawaiians live outside the state ( for example, Las Vegas has the largest concentration of Hawaiians in the U.S.). Some European influence is still evident today in various cuisine and we were surprised to learn that the ukulele, only associated with Hawaiian music, was introduced to these islands by Portugal more than one hundred years ago.

The surf and turf conditions were exactly what we expected and fabulous; weather a bit warmer than usual in the 80s and no rain. Ocean temperatures were in the high 70s, the surf was very calm and a sandbar allowed bathers to wade out nearly a quarter mile. However, the image instilled in us of an isolated expansive pristine beach didn't materialize; rather this was a very small, urban, congested beach in the midst of a bustling city with huge high rise hotels and condos towering over us.

Exotic seashells or sea creatures and birds were nowhere to be found. (Even in the city, pigeons were the only birds we saw, and mostly moving freely in and out of restaurants, not something we east coasters are accustomed to seeing.) Maui is probably the place to find the beaches we had imagined were everywhere in Hawaii.

We also didn't imagine that Waikiki would be a seemingly limitless chain of luxury shopping malls that extend in all directions like those on the Las Vegas strip, including the Royal Hawaiian Center and the International Market Place. Even most hotels had retail catering to shopping rather than the immediate needs of hotel occupants, like food kiosks and decent restaurants. Foreign tourists must be the target shoppers for those products because mainland Americans have easy and cheaper access to such products back in the states. All that high-end retail space eliminated any possibility of picking up a local vibe anywhere throughout Waikiki.

Wherever we travel we like to indulge in local cuisine, and supposed that an undeveloped land mass like Hawaii would boast a rich variety of fruits and vegetables and many tasty new dishes. It doesn't. We had great pineapple but it wasn't as ubiquitous as we imagined, and there really were no other fruits worth mentioning. Further, surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean we also expected to be introduced to a variety of fish and many new recipes. We were disappointed. Honolulu is apparently one of the most important U.S. fishing hubs and is 72 percent of Hawaii's commercial fishing industry, but don't ask what they do with all that fish because it doesn't appear to be sold locally.

The food quality everywhere was mediocre at best, so it didn't really surprise us to learn that spam in nearly 23 varieties features prominently in the Hawaiian diet, and that a dish called "Loco Moco" consisting of a hamburger on a bed of fried rice smothered with onions and brown gravy is a staple of the Hawaiin diet. We were skeptical of our own harsh assessment of Hawaii's cuisine until our Pearl Harbor tour director, a native of Hawaii, confirmed our evaluation when he recommended a fish place frequented by locals that he claimed was Waikiki's best and it turned out to be a total bust, serving tough, fishy fish. Our conclusion: Hawaiians eat an unhealthy diet limited in variety, and do not generally include the use of fruits and vegetables.

There are a few bright spots; apparently, some of Hawaii's spicy fish dishes such as poke are very good and it's Kona coffee and banana bread were outstanding. And if you're wondering about over-priced King's Hawaiian bread, know that although it originated here more than 60 years ago, it's been made for decades in California, and we didn't see any evidence that folks in Hawaii actually eat the stuf.

It took us a couple of days to realize that the main sources of prepared food consumed by tourists weren't restaurants but rather food courts and hybrid stores combining groceries, packaged food and extensive deli items. ABC stores, which are ubiquitous in Waikiki (practically every 200 yards), seem to feed most of this neighborhood and are particularly noteworthy. Our experience is that the fresh daily packaged food is generally better than restaurant food.

Midway through our week we took Hawaii's most popular historical tour of Pearl Harbor, which included a visit to the Arizona memorial, the actual grave site of more than 1000 sailors (out of the nearly 1200) who died on the USS Arizona battleship that blew up the day Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, and the battleship Missouri memorial, the vessel that served as the venue that, among other events, hosted the surrender ceremony that ended the war with Japan in 1945. We learned on the tour that the "surprise" attack had been anticipated by many in our Government, but we also learned that the day of the attack there was a radar warning of a potential attack had been carelessly dismissed as a false alarm! We will never know how a proper response to that warning might have changed the extent of the devastation that day but we can be sure that many lives would have been saved. I wonder if that's what FDR really referred to when he said that day "would live in infamy"! This tour was quite a sobering experience and no visit to Hawaii is complete without a visit to Pearl Harbor.

In addition to the obvious advantages of travel, such as a refreshing change of environment and an opportunity to learn new things, it also provides a reality check on the evolving state of the leisure and travel industry. We've noted in previous posts that trends in those industries have for some time shown an overall decline in customer service and this trip shows that trend continuing.

We were fortunate this time to have one non-stop flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu so our travel ordeal was merely 10 hours between airports (7 hr flight plus 3 hr waiting at the airport). However 10 hours is a very long time to have very limited access to food and drink, including the airport and flight. Thank heaven our airline offered us a small sandwich (no choice) and soft drink. Only very light snacks were available for purchase on the flight, and the airport barely had some kiosks offering junk food. Is that really the best they can do?

Upon hotel arrival there was no information available in our room indicating hotel amenities including restaurants within or outside our hotel and it took a couple of days to sort through the possibilities to find eateries offering decent food at a less than an exorbitant price. Eventually we found a few places in close proximity to each other on side streets. Based on our Las Vegas and Hawaiian experience it would seem that tourist purveyors are conforming to a mushroom business strategy: keep consumers in the dark, engage them in a one shot transaction and not worry about repeat business (much the way restaurants on the Las Vegas strip do). Even our Pearl Harbor tour, which was worthwhile despite a marketing deception, offers an example: it was sold to us as a 7 hour guided tour but ended up a 4 hour tour with a 3 hour free-for-all waste of time. All of this happens because nothing is available in writing.

Our sense is that there is a constant tension between vendors and customers, with vendors giving "deals" with one hand and attempting to short change customers with the other. There's very little "leisure" involved in "travel" these days and it's likely to get worse with time.

Our trip to Hawaii had been a long time coming and we feel fortunate to have finally made it. Some of our preconceptions and childhood dreams were dashed, others confirmed. We imagine that Maui might uphold some of the preconceived images of what we thought Hawaii is and our next Hawaiian trip will delve into that island.

Global Outage Puts Airlines (Temporarily?) Out of Business: Letter to Delta CEO

Mr. Ed Bastian Chief Executive Officer Delta Airlines

Dear Mr. Bastian:

No doubt you've already heard from thousands about the poor customer service Delta and other airlines provided this past weekend just about everywhere due to the global outage, and although unprecedented in scale and scope you and your colleagues should have been better prepared for dealing with its fallout. Also, you must be aware that your industry's increasing reliance on technology instead of labor to provide customer service practically guarantees that future abrupt service interruptions will be even more calamitous next time around.

In our case, because of a missed connection our pre-arranged scheduled tour in Peru had to be canceled, and I consider us among the fortunate who did not leave Las Vegas only to be stranded in another airport. We had an hour flight scheduled to leave Las Vegas for Los Angeles at 9am Friday. That flight was delayed continuously almost hourly until it finally departed at 4pm. With that one delay our planned vacation to Peru instantly vanished.

I contend that the mess (a mob of travelers, confusion everywhere, no personnel available for advice) that transpired at Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas over the weekend could have been avoided if management had realistically assessed the fallout from the outage and advised customers to make other arrangements instead of coming out and being stranded, in many cases for two days. Airlines and airports do that all the time when hurricanes and other storms threaten travel and I believe this man-made mess is at least comparable to a 100 year storm. Headlines warned of the problem late Thursday, so there was no need to have a capacity crowd at 6:30am Friday checking in for flights. By the time we got to our gate there were already hundreds of stranded travelers. The announcement delaying our flight came 15 minutes after we should've started boarding and the excuse was a pilot was needed. Really? It's difficult to believe that important fact wasn't known before we checked our baggage at 7am.

The mistake to allow travelers to come to the airport was compounded by the lack of personnel and their inability to advise travelers wisely. Management should have encouraged staff to level with customers instead of offering bad information and false expectations about when our travel arrangements could be secured. Our baggage had been checked for our flight to Los Angeles and poor advice throughout the day caused us to remain at the airport until 7pm waiting to retrieve our baggage. We finally returned to the airport Sunday to pick up our bags.

This weekend’s mess also points out the reality that technology cannot completely take the place of adequate and competent staff. The moral of the story is clear: When one wakes up the morning of a flight and there's even a hint of system dysfunction or outage involving airlines, one should cut their losses, avoid the airport, and try to make new travel arrangements from home.

I find it somewhat ironic that one of Delta's corporate ancestors, National Airlines, in 1963 ran a TV commercial asking the question shown in the subject bar of this letter and of course the answer back then was a resounding yes!! (As you are aware National Airlines merged with Pan Am which was subsequently acquired by Delta in 1991.) Friday's poor display by Delta as well as other airlines pursuant to the global outage, proved that declining customer service from airlines is a fact of life we all need to accept.

At the very least, Delta and the airline industry at large needs to plan better for such future contingencies.

The Golden Age Of Leisure Travel Has Passed

With each passing year, I am struck by the overall decline in the quality of the leisure travel experience, primarily due to dramatic service cutbacks in both the airline and lodging industries. It's difficult to pinpoint the precise peak of luxury travel but it seems obvious that the ugly and slow death of luxury leisure travel became apparent with the 9/11 calamity and the ensuing travel risks and uncertainties that brought about new safety standards and protocols. It accelerated with The Great Financial Crisis of 2008-9 that brought with it general economic hard times and a spate of bankruptcies that disrupted many industries, including the travel industry. The last gasp of luxury travel came in 2020 with the covid19 debacle that brought most economic activity, including travel of all kinds, to a halt for two years.

I remember the good ole days during the last quarter of the 20th century when you phoned an airline or travel agent, arranged a flight, showed up at the airport within an hour of departure for most trips, visited a human-attended kiosk to check-in and then waited the few remaining minutes for your flight to board. On board, you were greeted by flight attendants who stood ready to answer questions or tend to your specific needs, served you a drink and a snack, even a meal if the flight was 3 hours or more, offered you other goodies as needed, and created an environment conducive to a comfortable nap, music or movie entertainment and more. Upon arrival at your hotel, you checked in easily and your hotel room was well stocked with goodies and necessities, and everything was in good working order. Every aspect of your trip was a luxury and a welcomed upgrade from your daily life.

Those days are likely gone forever. Covid19 decimated the global economy and with a leisure industry facing extinction it took measures to recover its losses by expanding its market by first lowering prices to boost revenues and then by relentlessly cutting costs to maintain profitable operations. Those measures have given way to cutting corners in both services and infrastructure. Last summer gave us the most egregious example of the dramatic decline in service when 20% of all domestic flights were either canceled or delayed, mainly due to lack of personnel to operate airports and airlines, and, to a lesser extent, because airports and airlines had equipment deficiencies and failures. Even now that there has been a "recovery," the new "normal" service and routine still leaves a lot to be desired.

Smart technology and smart phones are enabling airlines to adopt business models that enable them to cut their workforces and utilize untrained, incompetent, and non-English-speaking employees, all of which require travelers to use their phones to do the various tasks that were formerly done by airline employees. The result is long check-in lines and a lot of confusion and made worse by a lack of personnel or decent signage to help travelers navigate what have evolved into non-standard airport and airline protocols.

After checking in with airlines, since 9/11 travelers must submit to TSA check-ins, which are time consuming and arguably don't need to be as cumbersome to assure traveler safety; TSA pre-check-ins are a joke as they are often unavailable. Lines are long and the process is sometimes confusing, even reminiscent of old Soviet Union food lines and once again exacerbated by ineffective signage and personnel unavailable to answer questions. While it's not clear those lines are making air travel safer, it is clear that requiring travelers to disrobe and juggle their clothing and luggage is, at best, time consuming and stressful and, at worst, creates the potential for travelers to misplace important personal items and travel documents.

These days airports and airlines are showing their age with wear and tear and poor maintenance becoming more common place; equipment malfunctions and out-of-order signs are becoming more apparent in airports and airlines. Out of order lavatories in airports and airlines are no longer rare occurrences. Where is the maintenance crew? Where are the inspectors? Hello, is anybody paying attention?

The airlines latest strategy to "unbundle" every flight feature (seats, baggage, food) is ostensibly to allow travelers to choose and pay only for the features that suit them, but has anybody figured out whether at the end of the day travelers end up paying less for their flights? Also, unbundling is also creating unintended consequences, the most obvious example being that most airlines punish travelers who have the foresight to pay for their checked luggage in advance by allowing those who bring carry-ons aboard flights the opportunity to check their luggage for free!! Obviously, that policy is sending a counterproductive message encouraging careless travelers a cost incentive to do the wrong thing! One fact is certain, all that "unbundling" makes the process of reserving flights much more complicated and time consuming.

Contrary to good health practices, airports and airlines seem engaged in a conspiracy to more or less force travelers to eat and drink junk food and to pay outlandish prices to do so, assuming travelers have time after submitting to those long, protracted check-ins. Travelers must arrive at airports these days three hours before flight departures if they plan on eating at the airport. Many airlines and airports offer very limited choices to purchase food and drink. I recently had a 12 hour trip with one layover that didn't allow me to purchase any food; luckily I realized that possibility the day I departed and brought food with me.

Food availability aside, the airline industry needs to rethink the whole bottled water fiasco. TSA check-ins require travelers either to fill water bottles at unsanitary restroom water fountains or purchase bottled water for a king's ransom. Airports should make a goodwill concession to travelers and allow them to purchase bottled water at cost, because their procedures are making it impossible for travelers to bring their own from outside, and good health policy should promote keeping travelers properly hydrated!

Seats aboard aircraft are too small and don't provide nearly enough leg room to accommodate the average traveler. People today are twice the size as they were 50 years ago, yet seats and legroom has gotten more stingy than ever. And if travelers are fortunate enough to bring food aboard there's no place to store it during the flight as storage pouches are smaller than ever on new aircraft.

Too small lavatories have undoubtedly contributed to the poor hygiene that most travelers practice on flights; by mid flight, restrooms already compare with the most disgusting you'll ever see in your life.

Cramped seating, lack of food and drink and disgusting lavatories leaves travelers more with the feel of a medieval prison than a comfortable luxurious flight. It seems incongruent that in a post-covid19 world where many folks still wear face masks that such close, unsanitary flying conditions should be acceptable to the general public.

In recent years hotel services have deteriorated measurably. Nearly all the hotels I have visited in recent years have had some deficiency involving plumbing (such as clogged sinks and leaking showers), electrical (no lights, no TV service, no working phone) or mechanical (doors and windows that don't close properly); some don't have adequate towels, toiletries or clocks, and none offer information packets about the hotel or its neighborhood; the onus once again falls to travelers to do their own research using their phones and the internet. These are name brand lodging companies in major cities and near airports, not mom-and-pop motels along the side of a road.

Today's leisure traveler cannot expect a luxury experience but can expect to take more time, and endure more inconvenience and aggravation than ever. I guess the good news is that it's cheaper than ever to go on vacation, but it's less obvious you're really getting your money's worth.

Puerto Rico Offers A Foreign Feel Without Leaving the USA

Puerto Rico, which means rich port, is a Caribbean island and unincorporated territory of the United States with not only famous beaches but also mountains, waterfalls and a tropical rain forest.

I have been curious about this little island since childhood as I recall many folks from my New York City neighborhood routinely shuttling back and forth there. More recently, as a resident of South Florida, preoccupied with hurricanes, I have wondered about Puerto Rico's plight in the aftermath of hurricane Maria in 2017. Now, after nearly five years in the Nevada desert metropolis of Las Vegas, and the urge to get back to the Atlantic Ocean, it was high time to visit Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is actually an archipelago consisting of four islands and appears as two distinct landscapes, one to the north, a lush green area reaching the Atlantic and the other to the south, a tropical desert reaching the Caribbean. An East-West mountain range bisects the two areas. San Juan was the destination of our trip, which encompasses about 10% of the territory's 3.2 million population; Puerto Rico's second largest city is Ponce, a Caribbean city about a third the size of, and a two hour drive south from, San Juan.

Just west of San Juan is Old San Juan and an opportunity to revisit the history of the early explorers we learned about in elementary school, but this time from a new perspective. Although the history of this land dates back to 400 BC, modern history begins with the 1493 landing of Christopher Columbus and later to a much greater extent with Ponce DeLeon's involvement with the island. The 16th century landmark known as El Morro is the major attraction and consists of a long imposing wall with a fortress at one end and a castle fortress at the other; it is considered the "most iconic fort built by Spain in America." Puerto Rico's strategic location made it a natural port for ships arriving from and departing to Europe; the fort was necessary to secure the Spanish city from pirate vessels and various European enemies seeking provisions and treasure to continue their voyages to and from the new world.

From that long active trading history brought forth a diverse Puerto Rican population, which today exhibits a complex blend of European, indigenous (Taino) and African cultures.

Our Puerto Rican experience seemed unusual as it had the "feel" of a foreign vacation even though we never left the country. Puerto Ricans are naturalized citizens of the USA but don't possess all of US citizen protections under the US constitution, e.g., native Puerto Ricans can be elected president of the US and are able to vote in presidential primaries, but cannot vote in our general elections for president, nor do they have congressional or senatorial representation in Congress. Additionally, native Puerto Ricans pay into and participate in social security and Medicare and pay some federal taxes, but many are exempt from federal income taxes.

The week at the beach and visit of old San Juan was greatly enhanced by our trip to Puerto Rico's leading rum distillery called Ron Del Barrilito, literally "rum in small barrels." Although Puerto Rico's Bacardi is the world's leading rum producer, we learned that its founders' roots are from Cuba. The founder of rum in small barrels was hopeful of elevating rum from its modest historical significance as a common man's or pirate's drink to a more elite status, and did so by aging his rum in white oak barrels previously used for aging European sherry. Here we tasted several rums ranging in age from 3-5 years to 35 years, and ranging in price from $20 to $700. (I found it interesting that the airport duty-free store offered that rum for a 30% higher price than the distillery.) These rums all reminded me of cognac brandy and were quite smooth and pleasant.

The only disappointment on this trip was the local cuisine which left a lot to be desired, especially considering the diverse cultural influences evident there. The locals urged us to try "mofongo," a dish consisting of mashed plantains seasoned with garlic, salt and olive oil. We tried it in a highly recommended (by locals) restaurant and had to return it...and much to our surprise the waiter took it back gladly and commented that he believed most Puerto Ricans don't eat the stuff. Other locals are more positive, so tread carefully when ordering the stuff. For those who read my discussion of my trip to Canada last year, my comments here will remind you of my comment about "poutine", a Canadian dish we had been urged to try at that time.

Beyond mofongo, as best as I can tell Puerto Rican cuisine consists of a few other dishes made of plantains, such as pasteles which are typically made with tarot root and plantains and take the form of tamales. Not surprisingly, rice and beans is a universal favorite, and was decent everywhere I tried it. Other favorites include tembleque, a coconut pudding and coquito, a beverage made of rum, coconut and vanilla, but, oddly enough, didn't appear on the menus of the local restaurants we tried.

Puerto Rico offers a great place to escape your American routine without leaving the country, where dollars are used and there's no need for passports. The week we spent in Puerto Rico was a welcomed respite from winter where this time of year daily sunshine produces air and ocean temperatures in excess of 80 degrees.

Eastern Canada: Cities Spawned by the St Lawrence River

This was my first visit to eastern Canada and I approached it with many preconceptions most of which were either confirmed or contradicted after 10 days exploring the region.

Canada, which means village or settlement in Iroquois, is the second largest nation by land area in the world but has a small population less than 40 million, slightly less than California. My trip focused on four (4) major cities: Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal that formed and grew because of their strategic location between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, connected by the St Lawrence River.

Toronto and Ottawa lie within the Province of Ontario and Quebec City and Montreal within the Province of Quebec. Those provinces account for 60 percent of Canada’s population. The four cities we visited account for more than a quarter of Canada’s population, which is not too surprising as 85 percent of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the USA, and those four cities are within a few hours drive of New York State, Vermont and Maine.

I never realized that major parts of eastern Canada extend further south than many of the northern borders of Midwestern states, most notably Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota and other Mountain and Western States.

I always thought Canada was a sleepy, slow growing nation with a homogenous population but upon arriving in Toronto I discovered that was not the case as it was quickly revealed Canada is a melting pot with a diverse population base of indigenous people (which they call “First Nation”) but dominated by English and French speakers coming from Europe and many other areas including Asia and India.

English and French are both official languages of the entire nation and most provinces, but Quebec Province’s official language is French only and neighboring New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada.

There's a palpable tension between the English- and French-speaking populations that dates back hundreds of years, even to the point that the province of Quebec has attempted to secede from Canada twice in the past 40 years. French Canada is trying to maintain its place in the rich history of Canada, especially as having a key role in its founding; it is trying to keep the French language actively spoken in an increasingly English- speaking nation. Besides declaring the official language of Quebec to be French, Quebec has adopted strict laws to ascertain that public, traffic and business signs accentuate French over English. By the 1980s, French nationalism grew when it became apparent that Toronto would become Canada’s most dominant city, eclipsing Montreal which had held that place for hundreds of years. (I often wondered why Canada’s one Major League Baseball team was in Montreal during the early 1970s and was advised it was probably because Montreal was its most important city in those days. In 1977, the Toronto Blue Jays were founded around the same time Toronto took Montreal’s place as the nation’s most populous city.)

Along side the permanent struggle between the English and French for domain, Modern Canada has also undertaken an effort to recognize that “First Nation” people have played an important role in Canada’s history and development.

In addition to those cultural dynamics, Canada’s physical growth and development becomes apparent as one approaches Toronto and Montreal, evidenced by the many skyscrapers and new construction. Toronto boasts more high-rise condominiums, and more cranes, than just about any other city in the world.

Toronto’s metropolitan population of 6.4 million and robust growing skyline is a world class modern city made possible by Lake Ontario. Its size and stature and the prevalence of modern architecture makes for easy comparisons with some of our major modern cities, for example, Houston or Los Angeles. The word comes from the Mohawk language and means "where the trees are standing in water". We visited the CN Tower, one of the world’s tallest, and got a bird’s eye view of the entire city. Sports buffs will note that the National Hockey League Hall of Fame is in Toronto.

Ottawa is the nation's capital of 1.5 million and is a charming, quaint reminder of the rich history of Canada dating back hundreds of years. The name is Algonquin meaning “to trade”. In our tour of many Federal buildings, we passed the Prime Minister’s home at 24 Sussex Drive, Canada’s 10 Downing Street if you will.

Quebec City is more than 90 percent French, as is the entire province with the same name, and Old Quebec was one of the original European settlements, a small walled city that is still evident today. A major attraction there is the Château Frontenac, which is operated today as a Fairmont Hotel, overlooking the St Lawrence River. With fewer than one million persons, Quebec City was the smallest city we visited and the name comes from the Algonquin word for “narrow passage or strait,” as the St Lawrence appears to narrow at that point.

Montréal was named by Jacques Cartier, the first European explorer to map the St Lawrence gulf and river, and comes from French meaning “mount royal” which is attributed to its most obvious natural mountainous feature. On top of the mountain is St Joseph’s Oratory, a rather impressive structure that offers great views of the city below. Although today much smaller than Toronto with a metropolitan population of more than four million, it was the first European settlement dating back to 1642 and was up until recent decades the most important city in Canada. As such, the city has blend of new and old architecture that reminds me of New York City.

We visited the sites of the Expo 67, Canada’s World’s Fair from 1967, as well as the Olympic stadium built for the 1976 games, the former giving the Montreal Expos its name and the latter being the venue in which the first Expo games were played. Another ‘fun fact” about French Canada (Quebec Province) is that it produces 80 percent of the world's maple syrup.

In addition to these cities our tour included Niagara Falls, the old city of Kingston and a cruise among the thousand islands in the St Lawrence River (which actually number 1,863 and for which the salad dressing is named).

Ever since my first visit to Canada, which was to Vancouver and Calgary in 1997, I expected the food in Canada to be better than the US generally and because of the presence of French cuisine in this year’s tour, let’s say my expectations for outstanding food were very high. BUT THIS IS NOT FRANCE NOR IS THIS FRENCH CUSINE!! I will admit that the coffee, bread and pastry was better there than here in the USA, but it falls far short of the standard I became accustomed to in Paris, France.

As I recall in France, portions were small, recipes were delicate, execution was perfect and the taste was superb, but that's generally not true in Canada, even in Quebec and Montreal, where they take pride in offering “poutine” ( a dish of French fries, gravy and cheese curd) and “beaver tails” (deep fried dough smothered in sugar and other sweet toppings). Unfortunately, I had the misfortune of ordering dessert crepes in Old Quebec City, from a long standing highly recommended place only to be served crepes that were so heavy and tough that they were served with steak knives to eat them! Traditional French cooking is clearly a distant memory in modern day Quebec and Montreal.

In all it was a great trip, the sights were great, the group we traveled with was engaged and fun, the weather for the most part cooperated, and our tour director was absolutely superb in every respect. Travel is about new experiences and I’m happy to say there were many, including the opportunity to use an umbrella for the first time in ten years and getting drenched by Niagara Falls!

A word about our bus tour. This bus tour was directed by EF (Education First) Go Ahead Tours and was led by a terrific tour guide, very knowledgeable, attentive and eager to assist us in our specific needs and aspirations. We had a cooperative and like-minded group of 27 and generally found this to be the most efficient, time and cost effective way to explore unfamiliar territory easily. It would have taken us months of research and planning to accomplish what we did over our ten day tour. However, the obvious disadvantage of group tours is that individuals have less flexibility and time to fulfill their own needs. So, unless you have a specific set of sights and/or goals you want to accomplish, a group format may be right for you!

About vacation travel in a post Covid world: the golden age of leisure travel is officially dead and is probably another casualty of Covid. Slowly but surely there has been a ubiquitous decline in travel infrastructure. Airports are unkempt, facilities broken, airline delays and cancelations are rampant, hotels are in a state of neglect and disrepair, and most of the travel personnel you look to for service, assistance or counsel are either few and far between or incompetent.

It took us effectively two days to travel to Toronto from Las Vegas, first due to a 9 hour last minute “delay” (which was a cancelation in my judgment) and included a 5 hour layover in Philadelphia in order to take a one hour flight to Toronto. The return trip took nearly a day and included our pilot warning us that we might need to land in Ontario, California because of a non existent “weather” condition in Las Vegas. He later admitted that airports/airlines are running with skeleton crews, with not enough personnel to get the job done! Just about everyone I know that has traveled in the past few months has faced a similar fate, and this is peak season! My advice is to plan your recreational travel accordingly!