On our 2005 visit to Cuba, both of us got sick, with Evelyn’s cold developing into bronchitis, so we’ve wanted to come back to experience the real Cuba for some time. When we got to the airport, it took more than an hour to get our luggage and clear customs. Then, we changed money into […]
Photo Tour Travelers
Wow… Five countries (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia) in six weeks. Mehmet Özbalci organized this tour through his company Fantastic Photo Tours, based in Istanbul, Turkey. We used him in 2016 for a tour of Turkey, and liked his approach so much that we decided to use him again for these countries. I thought we would […]
Armenia 4 – Dilijan
We continued our travels along the Silk Road, an ancient network of trading routes between China and the Mediterranean. Enroute to our next hotel in Dilijan, we stopped at the Orbeliani Caravansary, a structure where caravans on this Silk Road used to stop for the night. From the outside (upper left), it is rather unimpressive stone building, so we […]
Georgia 2 – Kutasi
We spent our second night in Georgia in Kutasi. Enroute, we made several stops for photography. Our local Georgian guide, Gvantsa, liked daisies and picked them whenever we stopped. Seen above, she has found another field of wild daisies, and is picking a bouquet for her seat on the bus. Throughout Georgia, we often pressed […]
Uzbekistan 2 – Samarkand
We are now in Samarkand, the second city on our Silk Road tour in Uzbekistan – just in time for Evelyn’s birthday! Jamil is our local guide in Uzbekistan, and his parents showed up to meet our train, greeting Evelyn with a bouquet of roses from their garden. His mother also baked one of the best birthday […]
Uzbekistan 1 – Tashkent
We have now entered Uzbekistan, and started our photographic tour with Mehmet Özbalci, the same guide we used on our photo tour in Turkey last year. The above block gives a taste of the guidance Mehmet gives us. He had taken us to the Khast Imam Mosque to photograph in the late afternoon. There was a small […]
Turkey – Cappadocia Timelapse
Last year, we spent three months in Turkey (click here to see the blog posts from that trip). We traveled to Cappadocia as part of those travels (blog here and here). I rarely show photo or video work from others in my blog, but am making an exception today. I came across this fascinating 3 […]
Turkey in Spanish
Today was the final class of the year for the Coffee Club Spanish class that I attend. Our homework for the final class was to write a short story about some trip that we have taken in the past. The instructor suggested I write about Turkey. Some other students suggested I do a photo presentation […]
Burt’s 3 Years of Cooking
Mushrooms Stuffed With Cheese Are a Guest Favorite Appetizer When I wrote our 3-year anniversary blog yesterday, I forgot to add a section on food and the joy of cooking, which has been a major theme in our lives since we arrived in Cuenca. Mercados. From the start, I have shopped for fresh fruits and […]
3 Years In Ecuador – How Time Flies…
Families still wash clothes in the Tomebamba river that flows through Cuenca Hard to believe where the time went, but today marks our 3rd anniversary of the date we landed in Cuenca to start our retirement. We start with a near empty slate every week, and our calendar is booked by the end of the […]