Oh my heck! This trip just gets better each day. Today was the Big Ice hike on the Perito Moreno Glacier. This is the reason that I am down here in Patagonia. When I start to plan my trips, I pick up tour guide books and come up with very broad strokes of where I want to go and what I would like to see. From there, I purchase air tickets in and out. That gives a good base of what I can do and then I start picking the who, what, when, where and why. Actually, since I travel alone, it isn't so much about the who as it is the other 4. Big Ice was the why and El Calafate, Patagonia was the where. I can honestly say that I had never heard of ... read more

Well, today's title refers to all that I have done here so far. At home I am a quiet, stay at home kind of person. I would never dream of zip lining, rappelling, taking a helicopter ride or whatnot, but here all that has changed. If it sounds fun, I am on it like (insert your own metaphor here, this is a family blog.) In other words, the active Jeannie is on the loose here. My driver picked me up at 8 again this morning. We went through immigrations to go to the Bazil side of the Falls. I knew that they were not going to be as extensive as the Argentine side, but I knew I would find some good views and things to do. We were there a half hour before the Park opened, ... read more

Yeah, I know. Two blogs in a row with cheesy titles. I guess I am on a roll here. Since I had seen the major sights that I wanted to see, I decided to take a 2 hour cruise around Guanabara Bay. There is something relaxing about a short cruise and quite honestly I was looking forward to just sitting for a while. I put on some walking miles over the past two days. Somehow I didn't plan my time well this morning, so skipped breakfast and coffee and high tailed it to the Metro station. It was an easy trip to the station, but out of the station I ran into what happens so often here. No signs. The flyer said to take the footbridge to the marina. That was all well and good, but ... read more

It is Tuesday night in Rio and I am about ready to call it a day. I left the house yesterday at 7 AM and spent the next 26 hours traveling. It was a very nice trip, so I can't complain, although I did have a couple moments that were more "Uh oh" than "Ah ha." Having learned from my money woes in Spain, I tucked some extra cash and a credit card in a book in my carry on. As I was finishing my packing, I moved the Brazil guidebook to my check through. On the way to the airport, I realized that I had tucked money in it, so went frantically searching for it when the van stopped to pick up another passenger. The book was there, but no money. Naturally I thought that ... read more

Sometimes I lost sight of the fact that I live in an area that is full of incredible day trips. It is often only when a friend comes to visit, or I am included in a group outing that I take advantage of these places that are really destinations. This is a quick blog about 2 recent wonderful trips. A very good friend came to visit me from Canada. With my work schedule, I didn't have a lot of free time to spend with him, so I picked one of my favorite places to spend an afternoon- the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's a quick and easy drive to Monterey from San Jose. The route I always take goes through Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world and then alongside fields of artichokes and other farm produce. ... read more