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PANAMA | Fri, 21 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [2820]
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 >
COSTA RICA | Wed, 5 Mar 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [2684]
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 | Mon, 17 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [2738]
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 [2671]
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 >
PERU | Wed, 22 Jan 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [408]
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 >
USA | Fri, 11 Apr 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [291]
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 >
USA | Sun, 6 Apr 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [221]
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 >
SAUDI ARABIA | Tue, 22 Oct 2024 | By kiwiaoraki | Views [500]
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 >
CHILE | Fri, 6 Dec 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [319]
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 [311]
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 | Sat, 15 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [282]
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 | Mon, 10 Mar 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [240]
IT’S BEEN TWO AND A HALF YEARS since Hurricane Ian crashed through Fort Myers and just a single lane on the only bridge connecting Pine Island to the mainland is open. On-going construction regularly stops traffic dead. Businesses along Pine Island ... Read more >
PERU | Fri, 24 Jan 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [232]
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 >
PERU | Mon, 27 Jan 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [230]
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 >
ECUADOR | Sat, 8 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [227]
THERE ARE TWO WAYS THAT ANIMALS originally arrived in the Galapagos—a sea voyage or via the friendly skies. Blown offshore by winds, birds—just like seeds—eventually reached the islands. Animals that are strong swimmers like sea ... Read more >
ECUADOR | Mon, 10 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [205]
DARWIN’S FINCHES ARE THE BEST-KNOWN of the one hundred or so resident bird species in the Galapagos. They may have inspired his theory of evolution but the seventeen species are actually in the tanager family—they are not even closely related ... Read more >
PERU | Thu, 30 Jan 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [204]
WE DECIDED TO BYPASS CERRO SECHIN and Chankillo on our way north and save them for our return to Lima. Photos of Cerro Sechin depicted intricate carvings on real rock, not mudstone, and we figured we would see much more at the site. Not.
... Read more >
ECUADOR | Fri, 7 Feb 2025 | By graynomadsusa | Views [195]
THE JURY IS STILL OUT as to whether “ galapágo ” is an old Spanish word for “saddle” or for “tortoise” which the saddles resembled. Either way, the Galapagos would be nothing without the giant tortoises that ... Read more >
UKRAINE | Tue, 23 Jul 2024 | By kiwiaoraki | Views [408]
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 | Sun, 15 Sep 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [283]
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 >
USA | Sat, 6 Jul 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [258]
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 >
PANAMA | Mon, 18 Nov 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [254]
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 | Mon, 9 Sep 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [250]
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 >
USA | Thu, 19 Sep 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [244]
A GLANCE BACK AT OUR JOURNALS CONFIRMED IT—it’s been twenty-one years to the day since last we were in Southern Vermont. A lot has changed since then and much of what hasn’t isn’t quite like I remember it!
... Read more >
USA | Thu, 24 Oct 2024 | By graynomadsusa | Views [244]
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 >