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 […]
Cyprus 4 – Art, Donkeys, and Ruins
We have now transitioned from the Turkish-occupied North Cyprus to the “Republic of Cyprus,” often referred to as “the Greek side.” I’ll let you read the linked Wikipedia article if you want to know why. Our first shock was that all the signs were suddenly unreadable, in a non-Roman alphabet script — though usually followed […]
Turkey 04 – Karacasu and Pamukkale
This morning we got up early for a long bus ride to our next hotel. On the road, Mehmet suddenly told the bus driver to stop, then back up a couple hundred yards. He had spotted a woman herding goats on the side of the road. In what became a common occurrence, he approached the […]
Turkey 01 – Istanbul First Impressions
We have just completed our first week in Istanbul, Turkey with 4 nights on the Asian side, and 2 nights. We will next go on a photo tour of Western Turkey, before returning here to Istanbul to stay a couple months. This post is therefore just our first impressions of the city. We are doing […]
New Year’s Eve 2015 – Monigotes
This year we decided to check out Salinas, on the coast of Ecuador, for New Year’s Eve. You can read our first blog, covering the actual NYE event here. This is an addendum post about the huge variety of monigotes or años viejos that we saw in town. These doll-like figures are made from paper-maché […]
Turn Left At The Cow (Puyo)
On the fifth day of our road trip to the Amazon (aka Oriente), we decided to take an unplanned side trip to Puyo, about a two hour drive north of Sucúa, where we spent the first few days. We had wanted to visit the monkey refuge known as Fundación Los Monos Selva y Vida a […]