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Thailand, Bangkok to Chiang Rei
We spent five full days and five nights in Bangkok being taken care of by Wanida(Ann) and The Siam Hotel. We took care of our flights from Boston to Bangkok but “Black Tomato” and their partners on the ground by the name of “Smiling Albino” in Thailand have booked all of our domestic flights within…
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Bangkok, Last Three Days
We have only had 1 and ½ days of touring the city so far but the tour company fortunately gave us a down day to recover before starting the serious touring. On our down day, we had our usual al fresco breakfast at the riverfront restaurant. Good Night and sweet dreams. Our dreams will probably…
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Sandy’s Birthday in Bangkok
One of the major reasons for taking this trip at this time is that Sandy begins her 80th year of life on March 14. We believe in celebrating birthdays in a big way and how better to celebrate this significant occasion than by making it a yearlong party. We really began this celebration back in…
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SE Asia – Bangkok
Thailand and Vietnam have been on our list to visit for a few years but we have been reticent to even consider them as they are quite exotic and alien to what we are used to and the weather is much too hot to even consider a two to three month stay. Jim came up…
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Colombia, Coffee tour
Just after starting our two hour drive to Guatapé with our guide, Juan Carlos, Casey asked him if he could add on a coffee plantation tour also. He texted his boss who approved the add on which worked out so nicely as the coffee plantation was almost within the shadow of the rock. Our last…
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Guatapé Colombia
We have two types of houseguests, the friends who come to see us, hang out and let us be their tour guides and the other type who come with a pre-planned agenda of activities, tours and restaurants. Deb and Casey fall into the latter category. They had researched places to go, tours, activities and restaurants.…
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Paragliding in Medellin
Deb and Casey had paragliding on their list of Colombian activities. Sandy said that she was in so Jim had no choice but to go along with the majority. We were picked up at our home by a driver contracted by the paragliding company to deliver the victims to the top of a nearby mountain.…
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Medellin with Houseguests
Ever since our first houseguests in Paris in May of 2017 we have always anticipated each arrival as if it is Christmas morning. Jim’s cousin Paul Steen arrived seconds after midnight on February 12. Jim was sitting on the front stoop and Sandy was sleeping. Paul is Jim’s eldest nephew, son of Jim’s eldest brother…
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Exploring Medellin
This has been a tough stay for us as the temperatures hit 80℉ by noon which is too hot for us. In spite of that we try to choose cloudy days to explore different parts of the city. These are a few of our outings. Even though this destination has been a bit tough for…
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Los Conquistadores, our Medellin neighborhood
This large city has numerous neighborhoods and one of our toughest decisions in this nomadic life is deciding what area of a large city we will be happiest in. Jim usually researches and comes up with a neighborhood and then finds an acceptable home for us. His research for Medellin came up with Los Conquistadores…
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Panama City
Copa Airlines (COlombia PAnama) does offer free stopovers for all flights connecting through Panama City which we are doing on our flight to Boston next month, but we won’t really have the time for a stopover and wouldn’t want to be there with all of our luggage. It is only an hour and a half…
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Cartagena Colombia
Everybody says that we should visit Cartagena because it is such a beautiful resort and beach town but we really have no appreciation for either resorts or beaches and had no plans to go to Cartagena. We made a somewhat last minute decision to go when we learned that our UK friends Paul and Sigi…
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Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu seems to be one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world as well as one of the seven wonders of the modern world but honestly we knew very little about this place before going. Emily planned the trip, booking tickets for our visit well in advance and booking an Airbnb in…
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Cusco Peru
Cusco is the jumping off point for Machu Picchu which is exactly why we are going there. Our youngest daughter Emily has planned another Christmas excursion for us. One would think that with all of our traveling we would have planned this trip ourselves at some point, but truth be known Jim has never really…
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COCHAHUASI ANIMAL SANCTUARY
This is a brief blog about one of our tours in Cusco Peru. We arrived in Cusco on Christmas Day and spent a few easy days acclimating to the altitude of 11,152 feet. This is a private organization dedicated to the rescue of animals that have been abused, or come from illicit trafficking of wildlife.…