“I never dreamed that islands, about 50 or 60 miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted; but we shall soon see that this is the case.” ~Charles Darwin, … Read More
“Hello, sun in my face. Hello, you who make the morning and spread it over the fields… Watch now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.” ~Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early For a moment, it seemed as if we were sailing toward a tropical island. Lucious-looking white sand spilling into turquoise-hued waters … Read More
“I am very anxious for the Galápagos Islands. I think both the geology and the zoology cannot fail to be very interesting.” ~Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle It’s the most iconic photograph of the Galápagos Islands. Like the blue-roofed whitewashed hillside houses of Greece’s Santorini or the unmistakably stunning Eiffel Tower in Paris, the … Read More
“The natural history of this archipelago is very remarkable: it seems to be a little world within itself.” ~Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle Our zodiac had been bouncing along the Pacific at a steady clip for about ten minutes when suddenly groves of trees appeared in the open waters, lining both sides of a narrow … Read More
Getting to the Galápagos Islands is not the easiest of travel tasks. The Pacific Ocean archipelago lies about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, with 19 islands and dozens of small islets spread across both sides of the equator. Visitors must first travel to Quito or Guayaquil and arrange a flight to one of … Read More
“Love the earth and sun and the animals.” ~Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass Early morning light was washing over the golden grassy landscape of Santiago Island, creating a soft and moody scene. Lava rock in wavy, striated sculptural formations lined the back side of the beach, with low-hanging branches spilling over onto the black sand. Our … Read More
Threatening-looking clouds were hovering overhead as we left our hotel for the historic city center of Quito. Herb and I were taking a tour of the old colonial city with a group of eight other travelers before our upcoming week in the Galápagos Islands. With rain jackets tucked safely inside our backpacks, we had come … Read More
Oh, Norway. Traveling above the Arctic Circle has been simmering on the back burner for quite some time. Herb and I were set to visit the Land of the Midnight Sun in June 2020, but happily cancelled our plans when our daughter announced that we would become grandparents in July. That June trip, of course, … Read More
“Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi A few days ago, my yet-to-meet travel friend Bob wrote a beautiful piece of advice from his recent travels for a cruisecritic.com trip report. Bob and his wife Jeannie were nearing the end of … Read More
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt Bucket lists are a curious thing. There are the splashy, someday places we dream about that often take a lifetime to reach. And then there are the little aspirations, … Read More