After several days of mostly cooler/wetter weather in Loja (it is rainy season, after all), I felt like getting out of town and heading for some warmth and sun. Malacatos is a $1 bus ride away, in a valley between Loja and Vilcabamba. So on Monday morning we walked out to the bus stop (2…
A few mornings ago I felt the itch to get out of Loja for a bit and do something different. “Let’s catch a bus to Vilcabamba,” I suggested to Keith. We threw a change of clothes into our daypacks and walked the 2 blocks to wait for the bus. Buses travel between Vilcabamba and Loja…
I love parks! Green spaces bring a bit of nature into the concrete jungle of the city, encourage people to enjoy the outdoors and exercise more, and provide a lovely place for friends and family to socialize in wholesome ways. As a traveler, parks are among the first things I seek out in a new…
January 23, 2014 The older man with a fat nose and a round, jovial face rushed forward into the vacant seat behind us. He had been near the back of the bus since we left Guayaquil several hours earlier. He dropped something as the bus lurched forward. I reached down to see if I could…
For our first day in Ecuador, we explored a small part of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. We are staying at Hostal Perla Real Inn, less than 2 km from the airport. I selected it because our flight didn’t land until close to midnight, so we wanted something lined up to go straight to rather than…
Well, I have good news and I have bad news… The bad news: I woke up at 3:14 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep–too excited about the trip to Ecuador! The good news: We were up, dressed, and had breakfast in time to catch the 5:30 a.m. shuttle to Kansas City Airport and breeze…
Imagine being invisible. You’re standing next to wild birds, giant tortoises, sea lions, and marine iguanas in their natural habitats, watching them fish, play, eat, preen themselves, and attempt to seduce each other with bizarre courtship antics, without a care that you are close enough to reach out and grab them. Because most of the…
Pardon the mess…we’re getting ready for the first move (no doubt of many) of 2014. In case you haven’t noticed yet, we tend to move a lot and spend a lot of time outside of the U.S. Keith’s last day of work was yesterday, much to our relief, and now we’re gathering up our belongings…
December 2013 Season’s greetings from Blackwell, Oklahoma! We have just had our first snowfall and the ground outside is all sparkly under the bright sun. By the end of the day it will all be gone and the brown winter landscape of the Oklahoma plains will appear once again. It contrasts sharply with our landscape…
Here’s my final post about our 2012 trip to Africa. If you haven’t already, be sure to read about our coffee plantation tour, Kilimanjaro climb up the Lemosho route, and Safari to Tarangire, the Serengeti, and the Ngorongoro Crater national parks. And now…the adventure continues: Volunteering Fiasco Sep. 25, 2012 We didn’t actually manage to…
Safari Day 1 (September 20, 2012) This morning after breakfast (during which we had a great visit with “Dr. Canada” again) we met our safari driver/guide, Saleh. His last name is Seif (pronounced “Safe”). We greeted him with the Swahili “Nimefurahi kukutana nawe” which impressed him and he seems very pleased at our efforts to…
The Kilimanjaro Climb It’s September 12, 2012–exactly year and one month to the day after our wedding, and our official honeymoon is about to begin. (If you missed the first part of the Africa story, read it HERE.) Gladys herself–the energetic, cheerful and ambitious owner/founder of Gladys Adventure–was at the hotel to pick us up…