Weather in New Zealand is a fickle beast. Baking in the scorching sun one minute and then huddled under a tree trying to escape the freezing wind and torrential rains the next. The weather forecasts are no good – as evidenced by today’s forecast of a “zero percent chance of rain” which we read on […]
I think the sizable dose of codeine found in the over-the-counter cold medicine I was taking last week (no prescription needed here in New Zealand!) was dulling my senses and making my introduction to this country seem less than spectacular. I look back on my blog post highlighting my somewhat blasé attitude about New Zealand and […]
“You’re spoiled by the world!” was the response of my friend Michelle when I told her I wasn’t yet gaga over New Zealand. I agree with her; I think I have been traveling to too many phenomenal locales lately. Part of what makes something extraordinary is when it is compared to the ordinary…and it has […]
I’ll never forget the feeling of coming face-to-face with a wild polar bear. We had been hiking through the sub-arctic tundra for a couple of hours – trudging over banks of drifted white snow, through rusty brown willows that had gone dormant for the winter and across frozen lakes made of crystal clear ice. My […]
When I was a little girl in Casper, Wyoming, we had a set of encyclopedias that were stacked next to the fireplace. I loved looking at the “M” encyclopedia because the things in that book started with the first letter of my name. I remember being mesmerized by the image of Machu Picchu, the Inca […]
Have you ever had one of those days where everything that could go wrong does go wrong…but because of the mayhem and mishaps the final results were even better than you could have dreamed? That is definitely what happened on the day that Glenn and I were booked into what has to be one of […]
I am not cut out to survive the heat and humidity of the Amazon Jungle, of that I have no doubt. We first visited the Amazon while in Ecuador several weeks ago, and upon our second visit while in Bolivia I found it to be even more steamy. Compared to the cold crispness of being […]
Sometimes it is better not to tell your mother what you are doing until after you have done it. Biking Bolivia’s notorious “Death Road” is one of those things. Surprise Mom! Before leaving for our trip I told my friend Sandra, who is from Bolivia, what we had planned and she said “What? My mother […]
Aside from my somewhat failed trail run half-marathon last year, it’s been a while since I’ve wanted to quit a physical activity. But, that’s exactly what happened when we set out to bike across the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia. After visiting the Atacama Desert (in Chile) and doing a 3-day driving tour through the Bolivian desert, […]
My experience with off-roading has generally been limited to a few hours here and there in the hills around where I grew up. So I was intrigued with the idea of embarking on a 3 day off-road trek from San Pedro de Atacama (in Chile) through the high-altitude deserts, mountains and salt flats to the […]
I have a confession. I have fallen totally and completely in love with the Atacama Desert in Chile. The varied landscapes created by the wind, the sun, and the presence or absence of water are mind blowing. We spent the first few days here exploring closer to the town of San Pedro de Atacama. These were […]
“Ride like a Chilean. Like you are making love to a woman,” Yasu our guide said about our impending horse ride. This…was our introduction to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Glenn’s brother Chris had flown down from Santa Cruz, California, to join us for a little adventuring. On this first morning we found ourselves […]
Chile’s Lake District is a very dangerous place and not just because of the looming active volcanoes. Known as the Región de Los Lagos in Spanish, much of the Lake District was populated by thousands of German immigrants in the mid-1800s (following the eventual subjugation of the indigenous Mapuche people by the Chilean government) and […]
Traveling is hard work, it turns out. I’ve had several well-travelled friends warn me of this, “be sure to plan plenty of down time” they all said. One friend recently reminded me that there is a big difference between traveling and vacation. The trick to enjoying the long-haul is to sprinkle just the right amount […]
Glenn spent our first night on Easter Island writhing in pain on the bed in our hotel room. We had come to the island, whose true name is Rapa Nui, to visit the stone figures called moai. (sounds like “mow-eye”) Unfortunately, Glenn decided to bring some stones of his own in the form of kidney […]
