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PANAMA | Fri, 21 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [910]
OF PANAMA’S ROUGHLY ONE THOUSAND BIRDS, seven are found only in Panama. With our previous birding birding trips in nearby Columbia we had already seen all but 90 of the species. No, problem, though. This trip was not jus about birds—it was ... Read more >
PANAMA | Mon, 17 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [892]
SUNDAY WAS AN EASY DAY, as if Oscar wanted to test our mettle. Breakfast at 6:15 followed by three hours of birding on Sendero el Balsal. This isn’t primary rain forest—much of it is a teak plantation—so we all piled into the back of ... Read more >
COSTA RICA | Wed, 5 Mar 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [802]
OUR SPIRITS NEEDED A JOLT OF COSTA RICAN Pura Vita before returning to the sturm und drang of the USA and a condo in the beach town of Jaco was just the ticket. This is our fourth visit to Costa Rica, we’ve already covered most of the country ... Read more >
PANAMA | Tue, 18 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [801]
ANOTHER EARLY START TODAY, first a van to Yaviza and followed by another panga ride on the Chucunaque River to El Real and onward by truck to the Embera village of Pijibasal where our Crested Eagle trek would begin.
Our Guide ... Read more >
SAUDI ARABIA | Tue, 22 Oct 2024 | By kiwiaoraki | Views [331]
Jordan has Petra, Croatia has Dubrovnik, and Japan has Kyoto. In its fledging tourism industry, Saudi Arabia has Al-Ula (sometimes spelt AlUla, which is the spelling I prefer because that makes it a perfect palindrome), which is the gateway to Mada'in ... Read more >
PERU | Wed, 22 Jan 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [192]
WITH APOLOGIES TO RED SKELTON, we flew in to Lima yesterday and, boy, are our arms tired! The flight was only three hours long but after getting up 2:30 in the morning for the only direct flight from Salta, it’s not just our arms but our entire ... Read more >
CHILE | Fri, 6 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [190]
EVEN FOUR DECKS UP, SPRAY FROM the bow streamed down our balcony windows. Oosterdam had been fighting gale-force winds and three-meter waves since we sailed back into the Pacific. Everyone was weaving like winos on a Friday night and the west wind ... Read more >
FALKLAND ISLANDS | Tue, 10 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [155]
FOR GREAT BRITAIN THE FALKLAND ISLANDS are strategic. For Argentina Islas Malvinas are a matter of Pride. For Oosterdam , it’s all about penguins! Colonies of Gentoo and Magellanic Penguins—even some King Penguins—nest on the islands ... Read more >
PANAMA | Mon, 18 Nov 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [140]
THE PANAMA CANAL IS AN ENGINEERING MARVEL with a touch of political chicanery and a soupçon of colonialism thrown in for flavor. It was prohibitively expensive to build at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, both in dollars and lives lost ... Read more >
USA | Thu, 24 Oct 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [132]
WE VAGABONDS HAVE TO BE SOMEWHERE; a hotel or hostel, a birding tour or cruise ship. Or an AirBnB in Myrtle Beach SC. It’s a logical stop on the way to Florida, the price is right and we enjoyed our visit in the spring of ’21.
... Read more >
ARGENTINA | Mon, 9 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [128]
WE ARE OFFICIALLY “MOSSBACKS” and have the right to wear a hoop earring in our left ear. “Rounding the Horn” doesn’t have the same significance today that it did in the days of wooden sailing ships—especially today-... Read more >
USA | Wed, 6 Nov 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [126]
IN THE 50S WHEN SPACE WAS THE NEW FRONTIER, families would gather in front of tiny b&w TVs and anxiously count-down with each new space launch. Today, 65 years later, launches from Cape Canaveral have become ho-hum events—we actually watched ... Read more >
PANAMA | Sat, 15 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [126]
BIRDING IN DARIÉN HAS BEEN ON OUR RADAR for years. Until recently the logistics and cost were daunting, the rivers were frequented by drug smugglers and illegal immigrants and decent lodging was non-existent.
... Read more >
COLOMBIA | Sun, 17 Nov 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [125]
WE SECURED THE COVER ON OUR CAR, checked-out of the AirBnB and Uber-ed to Port Everglades. Boarding was smooth and efficient—we had already done the gruntwork online—and we were onboard in time for lunch. As cruise ships go, Oosterdam is ... Read more >
PERU | Fri, 24 Jan 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [114]
THE ROAD FROM HUACHO TO HUARAZ took five hours, had hundreds of hairpin turns and climbed 13,000 feet into the Andean Cordillera Blanca before descending to the sprawl that is Huaraz. Our suite at Villa Valencia was another gem, the equal of many of ... Read more >
USA | Fri, 11 Apr 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [112]
NO TRIP TO THE HOUSTON AREA would be complete without a visit to Sabine Woods Audubon Sanctuary—at least for birders like us. Yes, we know we’re here too soon for the Spring migration but we’re hoping to see a few of those famous Early ... Read more >
AUSTRALIA | Fri, 3 Jan 2025 | By besoka | Views [112]
More notes only, though this one loaded with less swearing at least.
Day 0 = Sun 29 Dec
Train to Stockholm
Got to Stockholm Centralen
Tiny old slow lifts that took 2 people at a time
Long distance train station that doesn't ... Read more >
URUGUAY | Fri, 13 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [110]
WE THOUGHT WE HAD BEEN TO MONTEVIDEO in 2012 when in fact we had taken the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, over one hundred miles away. No wonder we didn't recognize anything!
... Read more >
AUSTRALIA | Fri, 6 Dec 2024 | By kiwiaoraki | Views [110]
10 years ago, I met the lady who would change my life. Little did I realise that, on that train ride, I would meet someone who would remain so dear to me. Anikka is my bestie, the lady I love most, and my favourite lady in the universe. Speaking of which, ... Read more >
ARGENTINA | Fri, 3 Jan 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [107]
A DAY MAY STILL HAVE TWENTY-FOUR hours but the years seem to be passing more quickly. It seems like like only yesterday that we were getting haircuts in Bali and it really was yesterday we both got haircuts here in Cordoba. Argentina, that is, not Cordoba ... Read more >
PERU | Mon, 27 Jan 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [100]
BASED UPON THE CARVINGS AT EL BRUJO, the Moche weren’t the friendliest people—pretty much what you would expect from people ruled by Warrior-Priests who worshipped a god known as Decapitator at a site called El Brujo (sorcerer) by the Spanish ... Read more >
USA | Tue, 29 Oct 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [95]
EVEN THOUGH IT’S ONLY ABOUT 400 MILES from Myrtle Beach to St. Augustine, we broke up the trip with a stop in Georgia. When we last visited Savannah in ’05—the details are a bit fuzzy in my mind—we seem to recall having a good ... Read more >
CHILE | Sun, 8 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [93]
HISTORICALLY—BEFORE THE PANAMA CANAL—the main reason to go to Punta Arenas was to continue on to somewhere else. Magellan and his fleet didn’t tarry long, leaving only his name. Ernest Shackleton, Raold Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott ... Read more >
AUSTRALIA | Tue, 14 Jan 2025 | By besoka | Views [92]
Helsinki II - Heavenfloati
Day 1 = Sun 12 Jan
Train
Possible snowplough at 3:30am
Woken up in Tampere
Packed up and off at Helsinki
2 Cabs to accom
Accom
2 level penthouse in Docklands-ish part of town
Emma succeeds ... Read more >
USA | Wed, 30 Oct 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [91]
ST. AUGUSTINE IS THE OLDEST CITY in the United States. It is also the last “Friends and Family” stop on this leg of our Grand Tour. John’s sister Jean “Charlotte” and daughter Carli moved down from “Joisey” about ... Read more >