“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ~Marcel Proust I am deeply grateful to Francis, Jelena, Desi, Samuel, Isabella, Augustina, Bojan, Doina, Julia, Paolo, Fabio, Cristian, Volha, Marco, Milena, Janice, Lector, Mishra, Sergei, Claudiu, Milan, Nicoletta, Gusti, Sasha, Vitali, Levante, Subhamoy,…
Continue reading →When we met with very rough seas leaving Columbia, the Captain announced that we would be forced to skip our last port of Key West and, to avoid the impending storm, take a longer route farther to the east around Cuba. So, the last days of our long voyage would be spent captive at sea,…
Continue reading →Cartagena has gotten a bad rap from years of misinformed media, suffering from a past reputation for drug trafficking, kidnapping and violence. While, as in every destination, one must be alert and take precautions, it seems the bad guys here have pretty much killed each other off, and left behind a charming and breathtakingly beautiful…
Continue reading →One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal, was begun by the French in 1881, to cut a 48-mile ship passage across the Isthmus of Panama and create one of the most significant waterways on earth, connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea). The conditions…
Continue reading →Traveling with friends can be the perfect storm either way, a disaster or a triumph. With Tom, Charmaine, Jack, Linda, Dean, and I, it has been the best of times. We’ve shared day trips ashore, had parties, dinners, celebrations, toasts, and even formed our own “Flatlanders” trivia team to test our collective knowledge of useless…
Continue reading →It’s always special to see a country from the inside out, with a local. And that is what I got to do, a little bit, for an afternoon in Costa Rica. Allan, our friend and neighbor back home, is from this warm, friendly country and his family in Puntarenas, whom I had met last summer…
Continue reading →We were warmly greeted at the port of Corinto by shy, pretty girls in native dress and a marimba band with guitar, güiro, a Latin merengue rasp-like percussion instrument, and guitarilla, a small guitar like a mandolin, playing for our pleasure and their hope of monetary offerings. With a population of about 16,000, the small…
Continue reading →Like it’s national bird and symbol of freedom, the dramatic and sacred Resplendent Quetzal, the mystical bird of the Mayans with its iridescent plumage, Guatemala has its own splendor. It has a wide diversity of landscape from humid highlands, tropical jungles, rainforests, volcano-guarded mountains and spectacular ancient ruins, all in a country about the size…
Continue reading →Huatulco is a tourist development in my favorite Mexican state of Oaxaca, where I spent several extended visits much earlier in my life. We docked at Santa Cruz Port, a favorite with the crew for it’s easy access to the beach of the same name, located right next to the pier with cafes and souvenir…
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