The first leg of my world adventure, Latin America, is nearing its conclusion. As I begin writing, I am flying over the Caribbean, from Quito to Havana, after a layover in Lima. I’ve been excited going into each part of this trip; this time, I’m not only nervous, but also anxious. First, there is the illegality; second, Cuba is a very different type of place. I’ve heard a lot about it over the past three or four weeks from fellow travelers, and also from a guide, and, frankly, their insights are quite different from what I had heard in the past. [View Full Entry]

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A Week with the Sea Lions I am off to my next destination early in the morning, and again will be off the grid, so I wanted to get one more entry / photo album out there for you before I did. This posting will, therefore, necessarily be short, but for the most part, the pictures and their captions tell the story anyway. I spent last week in the Galapagos Islands, and what a week it was! Galapagos is legendary for two major reasons. The first is Darwin, and the second is the modern tourist experience [View Full Entry]

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Hola amigos, It’s been a while, and I have been many places. I’ve written this entry on a bus, in Cusco airport, under my mosquito net at Lagunas Surf Camp in Mancora, which is just south of the Ecuadorian border, during my cruise cabin in the Galapagos Islands, and now back in Quito. My days have been full enough that on numerous occasions I have found myself lying in a bed thinking, “Have I slept here before? Was I here last night?” My Bolivian experience was l [View Full Entry]

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Amigos, I must be honest. The first blog entry was quite a bit out of date. In fact, I’m starting this second entry before the first is even posted. The main issue was the pictures. Let’s face it; you’re not going to read these twice, and if I post an entry before the pictures are ready, well, then you’ll never see the pictures. And the pictures tell most of the story—to a large extent, literally, as I’ve put a lot into the captions. I figured out Picasa (if you hadn’t signed up with Google, sorry for making you, but at this [View Full Entry]

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!Hola amigos! I write from my home for a week, room 110 of La Casa de mi Abuela, in Arequipa, Peru. Arequipa is said to be the unofficial capital of Southern Peru. It is the second largest city, by a small margin, and it has a certain modern feel that did not exist in Cusco, and, from what I understand, certainly not in Lima. It is arid here. You can feel it in your skin and your nostrils. I have seen nary a cloud in, what, four or five days here. And at above 8,000 feet in altitude, the Sun shines [View Full Entry]

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