Saturday, November 18 This morning we have a 10:30 flight from Puerto Montt to our southernmost destination, Punta Arenas (literally “Sandy Point”), on the Strait of Magellan. To get to the airport we have to ride the bus a half hour to get to the ferry, then the half-hour ferry ride back to the mainland,…
Thursday, November 16 Today was not about seeing beautiful scenery or learning about history or politics or economics or geology. Today was about people. Specifically, today was about the people of Pargua, a community of about 800 on the north shore of the Chacao Channel separating Chiloé Island from the Chilean mainland. We spent a…
Tuesday, November 14 As the crow flies it’s only about 80 miles from Bariloche, Argentina, to Puerto Varas, Chile, but to drive around all the lakes took the better part of the day. And that was to our benefit, because we got some beautiful scenery all the way. It was remarkable how quickly the terrain…
Saturday, November 11 It was about a two hour flight from Buenos Aires to Bariloche. We checked in to our lovely hotel about a mile outside of town, and after we got settled we went back into town for a brief orientation walk with Federico. One of the things Bariloche is famous for is chocolate,…
Thursday, November 9 By the time I got to sleep last night, I didn’t really get to sleep last night. I was still on island time, two hours behind Santiago time, and then I was just restless. Plus, with a 5:00 a.m. wake-up, I kept checking the clock to make sure I wouldn’t oversleep, in…
Sunday, November 5 We had a very early start this morning, departing from our Santiago hotel at 6:55 to get to the airport and fly to Rapa Nui. We flew on a 787 Dreamliner, my first time on this plane. Instead of window shades, they have buttons under the windows that allow you to darken…
Remember when I said I am a worrier? Two weeks before I was set to leave on this trip, I fell and twisted my ankle. For a day, I couldn’t walk, and I wondered if I’d have to cancel the trip. Fortunately, the ankle healed. Until I fell again last Monday on the same ankle.
I’m a worrier. I don’t know why I’m a worrier, and I’m not going to worry about why, because I have enough other things to worry about. But here I am, just about two weeks from my next big trip, and I’ve got all these things I’m worried about. Will I pack efficiently? Will I forget…
I never heard the term “decolonization” before. Here are some definitions: Process by which colonies become independent of the colonizing country –Encyclopedia Brittanica The undoing of colonialism, where a nation establishes and maintains its domination over dependent territories –Wikipedia The process of breaking your identity with and loyalty to this culture—industrial capitalism, and more broadly…
Sunday, September 3, 2017, 7:45 am I kind of feel like I should let the pictures do all the talking. (Click on the pictures to view them full-size.) And it started when the plane took off Friday. I had a window seat and got some great photos as we flew out of SeaTac. Landing in Juneau…
You know that feeling you get when you’ve planned a trip that includes a one-day jaunt into Brazil, and so you have to get vaccinations that cost over $300 and you have to pay an additional $265 to apply for a Visa? Yeah, me too…
I’m off to spend the weekend in Juneau. I’ve spent the entire summer in Seattle, which isn’t necessarily a terrible thing. The weather here is beautiful in the summertime. But it’s nice to have a little getaway, so with the three-day Labor Day weekend coming up, I decided to make a quick trip to the…
