We enjoyed our past trips to Africa, but have not been on that continent for 25 years. We have been on safaris to Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa, each on separate trips. It was time to visit this continent again. We have just finished a few days in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia and will be […]
Birds of Prey Rescue Center In Tarqui
Soledad Riquetti de Gould (aka Sole), owner of La Yunta restaurant arranges trips for expats weekly, usually for cooking classes. Yesterday, she arranged a special trip to Cetreria (the Falconry Center) and the Yurak Allpa Zoológico Refugio in Tarqui, which were featured recently in an article on CuencaHighLife. We were so intrigued with the article that we registered […]
India 8 – Hola Mohalla
A few days after the Holi Festival, the Sikh hold a three-day celebration of Hola Mohalla. There was very little throwing of powdered paint here. Instead, the big event was a show of horsemanship, martial arts, archery, and military skills. The Sikh are easily identified as all men must wear a turban. Many of the turbans were […]
Portugal 9 – Lisbon
Our three month adventure in Europe and Central Asia is now over. This is our 37th and final blog entry covering this trip that has taken us to Italy, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, and finishing with a month in Portugal. On our last day in Lisbon, we decided to check out their zoo. We […]
Portugal 8 – Lisbon Oceanarium
We went to the world-class Oceanarium in Lisbon today. We were joined by David and Debi Billings (right column), friends we knew in Cuenca who have recently moved to Portugal. The Oceanarium opened in 1998, was the centerpiece for the World’s Fair, and is the largest indoor aquarium in Europe with more than a million […]
Kyrgyzstan 3 – Eagle Hunters and Headless Goats
Our last evening in Kyrgyzstan was spent watching two local traditions that are unique to this part of the world. First up was a form of falconry with three nomad eagle hunters. Though often associated with Mongolia, this form of hunting with the golden eagle on horseback actually originated here. In addition to posing for the camera, as seen […]
Puerto López 2 – Fishermen
Yesterday I described the whale watching trip and Isla de la Plata. Our favorite activity in Puerto López though is to photograph the fishermen as they come in with their daily catch. Peak activity is between 8AM and 11AM…. As you approach the stretch of beach near the wharf where the fishermen come in, there […]
Puerto López 1 – Whale Watching
Last week we rented a car from CuencaCarShare and drove to Puerto López, a small fishing village on the coast of Ecuador, with two friends. We stayed at Hostería Mandala, just as we did on our first trip to this area in 2012. They have added some new deluxe suites, which we stayed in. The […]
Amsterdam Redux
The flight from Istanbul, Turkey to Guayaquil, Ecuador is a lot longer than we prefer to stay on an airplane. We therefore decided to break up the long flight home with a night in Amsterdam on the way back. We weren’t expecting very much, other than a chance to stretch our legs and grab some […]
Turkey 19 – Sea Life Aquarium
We are now in our final week in Istanbul, and are starting to explore places that have been on our “would like to see if we had time” list. Today, that brought us to the Sea Life Aquarium. Because our first two businesses back in the early 1970’s related to tropical fish (a long story […]
