Travels With Maria

Travel

There is so much to see…

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Along the Himalayas to Bhutan

Up at 3:15 this morning to meet the group for a 4:30am departure from the hotel.   Through the Indian version of silly security then sit and wait for our 7:30 flight. When we asked for a window seat on the left side of the plane, she told us they were all taken, but we could get aisle and center on the left. Better than nothing, we said sure. When we boarded, no one was sitting in the window seat, but he came eventually and asked if we wanted to move over and sit on the window. Turns out, he was in a group of 20 and wanted to move…
More

First Day in Delhi

After 2 long flights and 10 time zones, we arrived in New Delhi just past midnight on Tuesday, on a journey that started Sunday. After collecting our luggage and passing through immigration, which included a silly, malfunctioning fingerprint reader, we exited into a chaotic hubub of people waiting for passengers. One guy had a sign with Maria's name on it, so that part worked! We had arranged a ride from the airport with our AirBnB. The guy took us on the 45 minute drive to the apartment in the center of New Delhi. Third floor and mercifully, air conditioned. We conked out.   Up at 6:45 to get into Old…
More

Tarangire: Cheetahs and a Village Visit

At 6:00am, a guy knocked on our door. Time to get up. Breakfast, then we were up and on our way at 7:15. We drove past some tiny villages of different tribes until we arrived at Tarangire National Park. More giraffes, elephants and impalas. We saw our first herd of wildebeests, who were walking single file towards the river. They had several zebras with them. Wildebeests can smell well but have week eyesight. Zebras can see well but can't smell too well. Wildebeests like to eat short grass, zebras cut the tall grass and the wildebeests the can munch on the stubs. We spotted an ostrich doing a mating dance,…
More

In the Wilds of East Jamaica

We are in a house across the road from the beach in Long Bay, Jamaica. Long Bay is a little village on the coastal road between Port Antonio and the town of Manchioneal. It has maybe 50 houses, a little supermarket, a gas station, a post office/library combination, a bunch of churches (today is Sunday, we passed several churches and saw many church ladies in their hats), a school and a dozen or more bars, which are little shacks made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. All sell beer and drinks; many serve food. The bar across the street from our house is run by LaToya, who has been keeping…
More

Jamaica and Senegal

Avoiding Jamaica's resorts, we got a car and headed to the boonies and were struck by how much this place reminds us of driving across Senegal. Cities and towns built by past colonials crumbling into disrepair, yet still functioning to some degree. Shacks made of sheet metal and cast off lumber where someone has set up a shop. Transportation centres like the gare routieres where too many people are cramming into route taxis that resemble newer sept places. The Jamaican patois is loaded with African words. Rastafari are a lot like the Baye Fall. A lot more rain and vegetation here. We can converse better in English than our broken…
More

Ocho Rios is Kinda Sucky

We arrived in Ocho Rios on Monday, March 13. We had driven, mostly without incident, from the Montego Bay airport. We found out too late that Ocho Rios is a cruise ship port. Every day a new behemoth arrives and disgorges its load of passengers who wander around town buying souvenirs. Consequently, numerous shops and market stalls have sprung up to sell these people crappy junk. Besides the cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts abound, where sun seekers can pay $350 per day to a hotel corporation to sit on a beach, get fed and entertained by loud DJs who exhort them to get up and drink. The only money that goes…
More

Discoveries

https://youtu.be/ZyHpdZc-frI Discovery 1: Playa Balendra rocketed to the top of our list of favorite beaches in the world. It's in a bay off the Sea of Cortez. Shallow water that is so clear you can see the fish better than we've seen snorkeling with masks anywhere else. We saw several kinds of tropical fish that we've seen elsewhere, plus a pair of dinner-plate-sized rays, all in knee deep water. The sand is fine and white, the beach offers maybe a mile of walking, some in the water. The bay is surrounded by 300 foot mountains, the deeper water nearby is Caribbean blue. Discovery 2: White wedges of coconut with salt,…
More

Finally in La Paz

Woke up at 1:45 this morning to catch a 5:00am flight to Chicago then on to Los Cabos. Flight was uneventful, we arrived around 12:45 and after immigration, car rental (Alamo was really great!), all at a Mexican pace we were on the road by 2:00 for what we expected would be a 2-1/2 hour drive up to La Paz. Starting out, we drove the road between San Juan del Cabo, a "real" town and Cabo San Lucas, empty desert meeting beautiful beaches and clear blue water, blighted by resorts and ugly commerce serving drunken frat bros on spring break. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, stopped a couple of…
More

Winter 2015

Some photos of this record winter: Here in Marlborough, we have had 36 inches of snow followed several days later with 8 inches. 4 or 5 days after that, we got 14 inches. A week after that, 8 inches. The following week, today, it snowed probably about a foot - hard to tell exactly, because it was blowing so much. We have abandoned the sidewalk and our walkway to the street:   This is what our house normally looks like: Here is a photo from a "bad snow storm" in December 2005: The same view today (well, almost the same, I couldn't get to the same place today): We have…
More

Tiny Village Near Dakar

Meisa took us to a little village that immediately was identified as without health care facilities or schools, leading us to think it was a donation opportunity. We were shown around the village by a son of the village chief, who we later met in person. He narrated in Wolof, which Meisa translated for us. We saw how they draw water, how they prepare food, some of their animals, some of their farming. Then, just like so many tours around the world, to the gift shop. The chief's son suddenly switched to French when exotic native time ended and sales time began. After some standard bargaining, we bought a couple…
More

Bandia Wildlife Refuge and Wrestlers

Guide Meisa and driver Mas took us to Bandia park for the day.  Mas is very devout, he was fingering prayer beads and murmuring prayers as he drove.  At a stop, he opened the trunk, got out his prayer rug and bowed toward Mecca. After Bandia, we stopped at the beach at Popenguine.  Kids were practicing wrestling, which is the Senegalese national sport. The Bandia Reserve has many animals roaming freely across a section of savanna of 3500 hectares (about 13 square miles). (more…)
More

Why Africa?

Why Senegal? West African culture has contributed a lot to the Americas.  I see it in everyday life and in travels around Latin America and especially the Caribbean.  I wanted to see what it was like first-hand. (more…)
More

Istanbul – Shopping

A few short blocks away from the Istanbul Hippodrome is the Grand Bazaar, supposedly with 8000 shops. We were expecting / hoping for a rat’s nest of confusing narrow alleys packed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Like this: (Souk in Tunis) But instead we found a shopping mall: We did stop in to a leather shop, where Maria tried on some really beautiful red and black leather jackets, but could not find a size that worked. Upon exiting, we got a little bit of half-hearted hustling from the other leather vendors, but not the true Middle-Eastern harassment that is really part of the experience. We headed straight for…
More