chango

Corsica has been a real adventure!!! We've raced across the island in a rented turbocharged ralley car, rode a train into the heart of the island past deep ravines and seven-thousand foot tall mountains, and swam at three beaches and in a river. In the port town of Bastia we quickly realized that Corsican's take pride in the fact that Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio on the south coast. We arrived near Rue Napoleon and then were informed at the tourist information office that we could choose between Hotel Napoleon or Hotel Bonaparte. (We chose Hotel Napoleon...much less formal sounding.) On our first night in Corsica in the port town of Bastia we dined at one of many many waterfront restaurants offering fixed price menus of three courses consisting of Corsican dishes and French favorites. ... read more

The weather in London was clear, dry and warm; typical of London in the summer...wait... that was for about ten minutes. OK I'll try again...The weather in London varied through every type of weather nearly every day, from very windy, to rainy, to 'spitting', to the sun breaking through and it feeling warm, to somewhat windy. Due to the constant variable weather, we spent a lot of time walking through the parks practicing putting on and taking off our jackets. During our walks, we picked up two different types of salami and some sharp (actually, sharpe) cheddar cheese from Harrod's food hall and had a picnic in Hyde Park. We visited a really good cafe in Highgate that served very creative foods like a salad of peaches and butternut squash. We walked distances that Londoners, when ... read more

We decided to stay a couple nights in the rain forest in a former US Air Force Radar Tower, which was once used to track planes coming from Columbia carrying "valuable cargo". The tower was converted into a 7-room eco-hotel by Raul Arias de Para, a former banker and activist in Panamanian government. The tower has been rated one of the top ten places in the world to see birds. The canopy tower is perched on top of a mountain in the center of a rainforest with 360 views above the canopy which allows you to see for miles in all directions as well as down into the Panama Canal. Within minutes of arriving, we were treated to the sight of a three-toed sloth that was at the same level as the windows on the fourth ... read more

On the Island of Isla Bastimentos live these tiny, adorable frogs. Actually, these frogs live in different spots throughout Panama, yet on every island the frogs can be found in only a couple of variations in color. The colors found on Bastimentos are mostly red and orange, but white, blue, and brown can be found as well. Tony and I went for a walk to a cemetary on Bastimentos, about ten minutes up the path from Tio Tom's, to go searching for the little guys. We were told they were easy to spot by listnening to their call, yet we had a difficult time spotting them at first because we were listening for the wrong sound. We almost gave up, but were lucky to spot one on a tree on our way out of the cemetary. ... read more

We started with a 5 AM wake up call-which in Panama seems to be the owner poking his head in your room and mumbling something. Then we went downstairs and were aided in hailing a cab by a lonely and friendly graveyard shift police officer who looked like he was ready to go into combat. On the way to the airport our crazy cab driver missed our exit and decided to back up on the highway to our exit. Upon arriving at the airport we were informed that out flight was changed from 6:30 to 8:30 (it least it was still AM). Then the plane pulled up...Marianne got very nervous (and so did I) because the plane looked like Zsa Zsa Gabor could have flown on it in the 70s. Fortunately, the flight was tranquilo and ... read more