Blogs from Colorado, United States, North America - page 171

Hello to everyone, This is a preemptive kick off email to what I expect to be a steady stream of crazy and colorful travel stories over the next 3 to 6 months. For those of you who did not yet know, I am setting off on a Latin American adventure at 8:30 a.m. today when I board a plane to Lima,Peru. I plan to explore the country and pay a visit to Machu Picchu during the first few weeks before continuing on into Bolivia where I shall spend some months working at a wildlife refuge in the rainforest. I expect to seek out further work/travel opportunities after that, but don't yet know what to expect. It will be a solo adventure unlike any other I've undertaken. Unpredictable - yes. Eye-opening - I imagine. Crazy/exciting/frightening/liberating/enlightening - unquestionably. ... read more

The train journey from Denver to Winter Park was a short but enjoyable one. We left at about 8.05am and proceeded west until we reached the mountains. The train then snaked it´s way up the mountain side, doubling back and forth on itself, climbing only short distances at a time (the train could only go up a max. gradient of 3%). As we climbed we passed through small tunnels carved out of the rock. Eventually we reached the top and could see the peak which was surrounded by clouds. By now my ears had popped on numerous occasions due to the altitude. As we travelled along the mountain top we passed tiny little towns made up of a handful of houses and a frozen stream ran parallel to the train. I arrived in the small town ... read more

Well, just a few short days ago i called me mums to rub it in that i was bicycling in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Today, i am biking on snow and ice. That was not as bad as the fine ice particles floating in the air stinging my eyes as i forgot to wear glasses. Not to worry, i made my destination fine with only one slip(no fall), even though that was of course the only time that a car was passing me. Fortunately, there are not too many cars out on the backstreets today. ps: I attempted to make a snowman with my 8 year old neighbor but it was too dry.... read more

Well... we are on our way! We had our first meeting as a Rocky Mountain region in the form of a Thai dish potluck on Sunday. It was great to meet new folks and see the familiar ones again. We had a great dinner and Juelle led a conversation about what to expect on our trip. What an amazing group we have. We are truely blessed!... read more

A long delayed update... I won't try and catch up on all our travels since I originally signed up for this blog site. The stories from our wandering across the US by VW van, the two months in New Zealand, the trips to SW Utah and Iceland, and the cruising by sailboat in Maine and the Bahamas will have to be related in person - or you can at least get the visual story from the photo page at my website, http://web.mac.com/steve_hoge . Now Kate and I are embarking on a somewhat more ambitious, long term trip with our bicycles, beginning in Spain and onto Morocco and beyond. In the usual frenzied final weeks before leaving Boulder, we rebuilt our bikes, put our finances on computerized autopilot, got all of our shots (THREE weekly injections for ... read more