Epcot Center, Disney World and Downtown Disney 2003

I first heard of Epcot from a young American backpacker who was on the same bus I was in. He was headed for the Everglades National Park and I was traveling on my own across Canada and US of A on a 21 day Greyhound bus pass. I heeded his suggestion to check out Epcot after visiting Disney World. I liked what I saw and experienced, I went back a second time with my family. A few years ago, I found myself in Florida again and I decided to revisit Epcot, Disney World and Downtown Disney.

By the way, a good and cheap way to see most of North America is to buy a Greyhound bus pass for 7 to 60 days, depending on how much time you want to be on the road. No advance reservation is required to travel so you are free to go anywhere and anytime you want, subject only to the places serviced by Greyhound and its affiliates and the duration of the pass. This deal is good for young travelers on a budget but not for older people who cannot coup up with rigors of long bus rides.

Epcot Center

Epcot Center

The Moroccan Pavillion at the Center

Note the signature globe in the background

A presentation near the German Pavillion

Inside the Living Seas Pavillion

Note the humongous pumpkin!

Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney

An open air show at Disney World

One of the modes of transport in the Disney complex

then and now....

now...My two brothers and I took this free bus ride to the Barona casino in San Diego to take advantage of the casino's promotional offer - "If you lose $48,000 playing the slot machines, we'll give you a free cup of coffee; if you lose $2,000 more, we'll let you take home the cup." Just joking! Actually, the offer was a free roundtrip bus ride to the casino and if you play the slot machines for at least two hours, the casino will refund (in cash) your loses up to $200. They give you an incentive bonus, too.. if you win. I didn't care what it was because every time I play the slot machines (Las Vegas, Reno, etc.) I always lose LOL. I was just there for the free ride and to satisfy my curiosity.

The guy in the red shirt was the driver and the lady with the clipboard was the one-woman welcoming committee, "OK, who are here for the first time? Good! We have a lot of freebees for you and I hope you all have a good time..(I hope we can convince you to be a regular contributor to the economic well-being of our casino LOL). It was a day of fun though for us - a good way to kill the day.


then......I went on a fishing trip with some friends to Punta Colorada (a few miles north of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico) and this was our "harvests" for the day - a shark, a marlin and a dorado. Really nothing to crow about but we worked hard to catch one of them (not really, the deck hand helped us set the hook on the marlin and he encouraged us with beers while we took turn fighting it LOL).

Actually, while trolling you are supposed to set the hook if the marlin bites and then you "work" on it SOLO until you get it close enough to the boat to be gaffed so you can claim credit for catching it. The only credit we claimed was we provided the hotel guests with a marlin dinner that night LOL. Personally, I'd rather go for the smaller varieties of fish with a very light tackle. Try catching a 20 pounder fish with a light tackle and a 2 lbs. test line. It is less work and it is more rewarding....if you can successfully land the fish. I've lost too many of them my wife said if I were fishing for a living I'll starve to death LOL