Our 2nd stop today was Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, CT. Roseland Cottage was built in 1846, as we learned on the tour provided by Gloria, a Historic New England tour guide, by Henry Chandler Bowen. Bowen was born in Woodstock and then headed to New York to make his gajillions and hob-nob with politicians. He was quite involved with the Abolitionist movement and apparently used his clout and $$ to help Lincoln in his presidential bid. As a thank you, Lincoln assigned him the post of Tax Collector in New York. Anyway, he built this "cottage" in Woodstock so he could [View Full Entry]

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Very cool day today. I looked through an old Frommer's travel guide for New England my mom picked up on one of her many yard sale jaunts, and found some local attractions that I didn't even know existed. So, we spent today visiting a couple sites located in nearby towns. First up, we headed out to the Sharpe Hill Vineyard in Pomfret, CT for some wine tasting and a walk through their grounds. Their tasting was quite reasonable...$5 per person to taste 5 of their wines, $10 to taste all 12. As it was early afternoon and we had another stop, [View Full Entry]

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So, the KooKoo Review...it just happened. I thought we were going to the supermarket, but mom had other plans. She claims to have told me, but I'm skeptical. Anyway, on our way to a "car cruise" (which is not where you go to pick up hot guys in even hotter cars) I received a message from my cousin, Beth (who lives in the same town as my mom) asking if we wanted to meet up in a park downtown for a children's concert. Now, let me rewind a moment, mom had presented me this option earlier in the day and anyone [View Full Entry]

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I boarded a late morning flight in Tampa...arriving last minute, as always, and getting to the gate JUST as Southwest was boarding their B group...perfect, I was in B group. Had a flight to Philadelphia, with a short stop...no time to even get off the plane, then back in the air for 30 minutes to Providence. The 1st flight was uneventful, but full. The 2nd flight was full as well, and populated by a number of children flying alone. UGH! I am NOT a fan! One "look at me, look at me" type kiddo, about 6 years old, was flying with [View Full Entry]

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The excitement never ends...my plane from Peru left on 6/26 at 11:00 P.M. and landed on time in Ft. Lauderdale on 6/27 at 6:15 A.M., but we had to sit for about 15 minutes waiting for a gate. This gave me (and about 50 other passengers) about 30 minutes to clear immigration and customs before our connecting flights left at 7:00 A.M. I sped through immigration with 25 minutes to spare...SWEET! Then, had to claim the baggage...as the conveyor belt spun, black bag, black bag, black bag, black bag with red bow, black bag, black bag, black bag with pink polka [View Full Entry]

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Today is the last day of my trip. I hopped aboard a bus from Nazca to Lima at 1am. Unfortunately the bus broke down on the highway about 2 hours outside of Lima and we had to wait for a couple hours for another bus to come pick us up. One of the other passengers tried very hard to get that bus running, but was not able to...I felt bad for him...It seemed like he really wanted to be the one to save the day & I was hoping for him that he could (well, can for me, I wanted to [View Full Entry]

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After returning from the Nazca lines the three of us decided to go sandsurfing in the nearby dunes. The sand dunes in this area are considered the largest in the world. This was the most fun EVER! Sandboarding standing up proved a bit too tough for me so I opted for the laying down kind. I ate SO MUCH DIRT! And there was sand in every where possible, but WHAT A DAY! I can not even imagine where else we could have done this. We also drove through some ancient burial areas -- they are everywhere out here. There were remains [View Full Entry]

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This morning I woke up feeling much, much better and ready to see the Nazca lines. I was in a small group with a Columbian fellow and a guy from Switzerland. Very nice guys. We were picked up at 9am and taken to a teeny tiny airport where we watched a film about the Nazca lines and basically waited for a couple hours for some fog to clear. At 12pm we were able to board our little cesna airplane and take off to view the lines. The lines were carved into the dessert floor by the Nazca people in approx. 500 [View Full Entry]

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I got a case of the traveler stomach this day. YIKES! I had hoped to do many cool things in Nazca on the first day, but instead I spent it mostly sleeping. I caught a bus from Lima to Nazca at 430am, arriving at 1130am. I checked into my lodging and fell asleep. I stayed close to the facilities! and slept on and off until 7pm. At long last I was able to move and had some matte de coca. Basically, matte de coca is something that is prescribed here to help with any and every ailment. And, it actually has [View Full Entry]

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My first night in the Amazon was on June 20th and the sounds of things splashing in the river woke me oh, so many times. Where they sounds of things coming out of the water or going in? I had images of navy seals coming out of the water and bombarding my bungalo...or kapibari, which are HUGE, crazy looking rats! Yes, they are the largest member of the rodent family in the world & a big ol family of them lived on the river right in front of my bungalo. I arrived in Puerto Maldonado at noonish on the 20th and [View Full Entry]

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