Until the last minute, we were all over the map, so to speak, about where to spend the final two weeks of our South American adventure. In the end, we landed on Pichilemu, Chile, which we chose for two reasons: it had a Spanish school and it was on the coast. Most Spanish schools in …
Continue reading “Wrapping it up with happy accidents in Pichilemu, Chile”
The icing on the cake of our South American adventure was our five-day tour in and around Torres del Paine, a Chilean national park in Patagonia (the southern tip of South America shared by Argentina and Chile; the “end of the world”). Peter took the below pictures during our flight and descent into the Puerto …
The pure joy of our son Eli’s November 23 arrival in Buenos Aires is captured on our faces in these photos, taken the day he met us. After a gourmet lunch (courtesy of Peter), we headed out to explore the Palermo neighborhood in Buenos Aires, taking in its enormous urban park, Parque Tres de Febrero …
Continue reading “And then we were three: Argentina and Chile with Eli”
Travel always warps my sense of time, but the effect has been particularly prounounced during these past weeks in Argentina. Our pace has slowed considerably since our arrival. Days slip through our fingers, while weeks linger on. Sort of the mirror image of raising children, when, as they say, “the days are long and the …
Bolivia! Its scenery is mind-blowing, its culture diverse and intriguing, and its civic engagement inspiring. In just one week, we enjoyed the shores of Lake Titicaca from Copacabana; we spent the night on Isla del Sol, the car-free “birthplace” of the Inca culture; we took in La Paz from the ground and from the green, …
More than six months ago, just after we finalized our decision to take this trip through South America, Peter and I booked a 5-day trek along the Inca Trail, culminating in a visit to Machu Pichu. The trek was to begin October 20 (which, even in the beginning of April, was the soonest available date). …
As it turned out, for a variety of logistical reasons, our jaunt to northern Peru lasted only 48 hours. But during that time, we took quite the journey back in time. First, we visited the Chan Chan ruins. Chan Chan was the center of the Chimú civilization, which existed between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, …
First, an update on the political crisis, which has settled down a bit since my last blog post. As I mentioned last week, on September 30 President Martín Vizcarra dissolved Congress. Initially, Congress decreed itself still in existence, and swore in the Vice President, Mercedes Aráoz, as Peru’s new President, despite that Vizcarra still considered himself …
We closed out our six-week Ecuador adventure on a high note: a three-day biking tour through the Andes with the Biking Dutchman. Day one began with a drive up Cotopaxi, an active volcano whose peak stands more than 19,000 feet above sea level. Our driver dropped us off at a point 4500 meters (nearly 15,000 …
As hoped, week two in Cuenca afforded us more time to explore the area. Some of the week’s highlights hit us by surprise: a herd of alpacas all to ourselves; a celebration of the moon and the earth; amazing indigenous dances. Others were planned: biking through the city; hiking in the national park; a spa …