Christy and Jay travelled to Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef back in 2000 so we wanted to explore new territory in Australia during our short 1-week visit. Australia is as large as the continental USA (imagine having a week to visit the US!), so we choose to focus our time on the island of…
Category: 2013 Trip
Queenstown, New Zealand – Adrenaline Junkies Paradise
After several months in Africa and South America, we had kind of forgotten how easy it is to be in a western, English speaking country. When we arrived in Queenstown, it felt a little like we had arrived back in Boulder. Queenstown is an outdoor mecca in one of the most picturesque settings you can…
Bora Bora, Tahiti – A Vacation from Traveling!
I know what you are thinking. “What! You need a vacation from traveling? Come on – really?” Really – traveling (as opposed to vacation) can get tiring. Our time is taken up with planning, experiencing and moving. When we have any free time, we badger the boys to do their schoolwork and once in a…
Easter Island – A Gem in the Middle of Nowhere!
We didn’t know what to expect on Easter Island, which is primarily and almost exclusively known for its enigmatic statues. The guidebooks and Trip Advisor didn’t have much to say about the island, other than the statues, and even suggested you could visit the island in one day. Luckily, we had planned to spend 3 1/2 days…
Chile Part 3 – Peaks of Patagonia!
We spent our final 10 days in South America surrounded by Patagonia’s towering mountains, calving glaciers, rushing waterfalls and endless beauty. There is much debate over which wilderness area is more spectacular, Argentina’s Glaciers National Park with its Fitz Roy mountain range or Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park with its multicolored towers. We decided…
Chile Part 2 – Bending the Cape
We only had one day in Chile’s southern-most town, Punta Arenas, before sailing around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America (“bending the Cape”), but we made the most of it, exploring the town and getting some new “waterproof” clothes for the upcoming boat trip. It’s hard to bring all the right clothes when…
Chile Part 1 – Travel Like a Chilean
Our first two weeks in Chile were a little frantic as we stayed in 6 different places. The big surprise was that we suddenly couldn’t speak Spanish! Right away, we wondered if we had taken a flight to Brazil by mistake – the people might as well have been speaking Portuguese! We learned that Chileans…
Final Week in Peru – Arequipa, Colca Canyon and Lima v2
Killawasi Lodge We finished off our stay in Peru with a visit to the historic city of Arequipa and the small town of Yanque near Colca Canyon, the Grand Canyon of Peru. In Arequipa, we visited a museum which tells the story behind several frozen bodies found on peaks around Peru and Chile. The highlight…
Lake Titicaca – The World’s Highest Lake at 12,503 ft
We pampered ourselves with a day aboard the Orient Express train from Cusco to Lake Titicaca. We were entertained non-stop with fashion shows, Pisco Sour cocktail making lessons (Peru’s national drink), and elegant meals as we spent 10 hours passing through small towns scattered throughout the beautiful countryside. We continued spoiling ourselves with a night at…
Machu Picchu – A True Wonder!
So what do you write about a world wonder…..I wonder! And we did wonder, or more accurately, we were awed. We broke away from Cusco to visit one of the most famous locations in the world. The highlight of our three day, two night journey down from Cusco was Machu Picchu. In fact, many people…