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COSTA RICA | Wed, 5 Mar 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [1393]
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 | Fri, 21 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [1519]
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 [1481]
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 >
PANAMA | Tue, 18 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [1404]
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 >
USA | Fri, 11 Apr 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [149]
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 >
SAUDI ARABIA | Tue, 22 Oct 2024 | By kiwiaoraki | Views [373]
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 [229]
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 >
PANAMA | Sat, 15 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [151]
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 >
USA | Sun, 6 Apr 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [69]
AFTER TWO WEEKS OF SLOTH ON FLORIDA’S Turquoise Coast we’re back on our Grand Tour. This leg took us through Alabama and Mississippi to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. After our 8-hour journey from Pine Island to Destin, the two-hour ... Read more >
UKRAINE | Tue, 23 Jul 2024 | By kiwiaoraki | Views [289]
This may sound like I'm insane, but I'm in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than two years but I've been here two days and you'd never believe that there was a war at all as I stroll around Lviv. Getting through the border was a ... Read more >
USA | Sat, 22 Jun 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [229]
YOU DON’T HAVE TO TRAVEL TO HOLLYWOOD to see the World Premier of a film—you don’t even need to dress up! Yesterday we attended the World Premier of T.REX in 3-D right here at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and not even ... Read more >
CHILE | Fri, 6 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [207]
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 >
USA | Sun, 15 Sep 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [190]
WE AGREED TO MEET AT SUNNYSIDE on the Hudson River near Tarrytown NY. Jenny, Matt and son Ryan came down from Connecticut, Debra from nearby White Plains and we came across from North Jersey. Debra and Jenny are “John One’s” nieces ... Read more >
FALKLAND ISLANDS | Tue, 10 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [189]
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 >
USA | Wed, 12 Jun 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [184]
WE HAVE BEEN BACK IN COLORADO FOR exactly a month—and, boy, have we been busy. We got much needed haircuts and retrieved some essentials from storage even before we checked in to our latest AirBnB, our fifth “same-but-different”... Read more >
USA | Sat, 6 Jul 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [173]
IT HAS BEEN NEARLY 15 YEARS since we visited Colorado ski country—each year we promise to make the trip but keep putting it off. But Houstonian friends Greg and Laura were in town on grandparent duty and a day in the mountains seemed like a good ... Read more >
USA | Mon, 9 Sep 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [156]
SEEING RELATIVES IS ONLY PART of the plan on our Grand Tour and when it comes to Connie’s family there is still much to be discovered. Now that Ron, the family genealogist, is hors de combat we have to go to the horse’s mouth for the stories.... Read more >
PANAMA | Mon, 18 Nov 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [152]
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 >
BERMUDA | Tue, 1 Oct 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [147]
AFTER TWO NIGHTS AND A DAY OF SAILING the good ship Venezia docked at the aptly named Dockyards in Bermuda, about 800 “seagull miles” from NYC. While Hurricane Helene was wreaking havoc on the Southeast US, we were barely affected. Seas ... Read more >
USA | Fri, 11 Oct 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [144]
WE HAD AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE FOR STOPPING in Virginia. Of course we wanted to see old friends Steve and Roz but we had also arranged to have our South Dakota absentee ballots forwarded to them in Fairfax. This year especially, voting—forgive the expression—... Read more >
KUWAIT | Thu, 10 Oct 2024 | By kiwiaoraki | Views [142]
Numerous travellers before me have described Kuwait as being about the most boring place they've ever travelled to. Would it be? I just had to find out for myself. Only yesterday did my planned CouchSurfing host, Mohammed, cancel on me due to a family ... Read more >
ARGENTINA | Mon, 9 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [141]
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 | Sat, 3 Aug 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [140]
THEY SIT FROZEN IN TIME, WAITING FOR A TRAIN that has left the station for the last time. A sailor and a soldier ready to ship out. A young girl waiting as Mom buys their tickets. A couple saying good-bye after a 3-day pass. The porter helping a family ... Read more >
USA | Thu, 24 Oct 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [139]
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 >
USA | Wed, 6 Nov 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [136]
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 >