Captivating Cartagena

July 7, 2016

It was 14 years ago that Dan and I spent about 11 months backpacking through South America. It was a true and clichéd life changing experience. I still look at that trip, and the way I felt when immersed in a Latin culture, as one of the best times in my life. We visited Chile (the country of my father’s birth), Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. Our slower pace, including 2 months living in Buenos Aires, meant that we did not have the time to include Colombia or Ecuador. We had visited Venezuela on another adventure and hope to eventually visit Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, but Colombia was always next.

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Technology Today

July 6, 2016

Waaaay back, when I went on my first extended trips (4 months backpacking in Europe and then almost a year around-the-world), there was no way to keep in touch without picking up a pen and writing a letter, or making a very expensive long distance call. Every few weeks, I’d find the nearest American Express office, which had been pre-selected for letters to be sent to and held until my arrival. I carried a small Olympus camera with at least a dozen precious rolls of film, which were not developed until I was back home, or became too impatient to wait. For music, I had a Walkman and headphone, with tapes. Through my travels, this morphed into an MP3/CD player, then an iPod. However, the biggest change came with the advent of the Internet and the ability to instantaneously email friends and family. Global Internet cafes burst open to meet this demand, replacing patience, serendipity, and true escape.

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A Voyeur in Versailles

June 29, 2016

While visiting Paris, the only side trip that I demanded of our stay, was a day in Versailles.  Both Dan and I had never visited these once Royal Palaces, and I was determined not to miss another chance.  I think I had mistakenly thought that it was much further from the center of Paris and thus a time-consuming and overly expensive excursion, when in reality, it was an easy and relatively affordable destination to include in our itinerary.  The first step is to visit the official Palace of Versailles website, which gives all sorts of tips on the best days and times to visit in order to avoid the worst of the crowds.  It also encourages one to buy tickets in advance so that you might be able to skip some of the longer ticket lines.  We decided to get a combo ticket which also allowed us to visit the Palace, and the Petit and Grand Trianon Palaces, in addition to Marie-Antoinette’s Estate.  There are also musical fountain shows and musical gardens, and special guided tours that operate in different seasons and days of the week to hidden areas of the property.

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Paris For Art Lovers

June 25, 2016

Once again, I have become a fanatical photo taker in the midst of beautiful artwork.  I troll through the galleries, snapping pics of any painting that moves me.  It is as if I think I can possess a bit of the beauty by locking it in the memory storage of my smartphone. There is no way to capture the details on a canvas with my camera, the way my naked eye can consume in person, but damned if I don’t try.  These photos represent a mere fraction of the work I appreciated in museums in Paris, Musee D’orsay, famous for its’ impressionist collection, the Musee Carnavalet with it’s specifically Paris themed art, and the George Pompidou Center, home to modern and contemporary artwork.  I made no note of the artists, but imagine many of these famous pieces will be recognizable to other art lovers. Enjoy the eye candy!

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Paris in April

June 23, 2016

When we left Africa, the children thought that we were flying straight to Miami, Florida, where we had planned a 10-day visit with Dan’s parents.  We told them to be prepared for a long flight via Abu Dhabi and Europe.  What we didn’t tell them was that we were actually going to break up the journey with a full week in Paris, France.  We kept this secret running even when we had arrived in Charles De Gaulle airport, and then boarded the metro into the city center, explaining this journey as a necessary transfer to another airport.  It wasn’t until we exited the St. Michel underground and were in the midst of the Latin Quarter that we divulged our secret surprise. Despite the fact that Stella and Gabriel were extremely anxious to be reunited with their Grandparents, they were also thrilled to be in Paris and get to fulfill their dream of seeing the Eiffel Tower.

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Getting Close to Nature in Namibia

June 21, 2016

We drove East through Kunene, Namibia, stopping to camp and visit several natural and historical highlights of the region. These included Twyfelfonstein (a UNESCO world heritage site that has the largest concentration of African petroglyphs), the Organ Pipes (a geological phenomena of dolerite columns), Burnt Mountain (with layers of red, purple & blackish colored compacted rock) and a petrified forest (not really a forest but rather an accumulation of 280 million year old enormous, fossilized tree trunks that were washed down to this location during a flood). All of these stops were only a precursor for the grand event… Etosha National Park.

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