Iguaçu Falls

14-15 Sept 2024

My amazing cruise ends at an ungodly hour for breakfast and departure. If there exists any criticism of my time on the M/Y Tucano, it would be no opportunity to sleep in. Breakfast – always loads of fresh fruit, scrambled eggs and an assortment of other stuff. Then it is goodbye, leave, be on your way. The ship and staff prepare for the next group of lucky souls. 

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Clearing Customs in Covid

26 September 2021

Travel is muscle memory. At least it was.  Much has changed because of Covid. I can’t utilize all the little perks of travel that once made the experience faster, easier and more pleasant. However, as I wrote earlier, travel may not be as easy but all the protections and requirements put in place are definitely worth the effort. 

One no longer travels without: 

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Just Getting There – Almost Post-Covid

8 September 2021

I have to admit travel planning is NOT what it used to be. And being a solo traveler, I might be getting too old for this worry. I am used to 50 years of getting on a plane and going wherever and whenever I wanted. I always knew my independent trips were numbered at some point, but Covid was not what I expected would be the fly in the ointment. Even less did I think the situation would be worsened because a gaggle of nationalistic fascist would threaten the freedoms of the United States of America.

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Bulgarian Cousins to Transylvanian Szeklers

8 June 2019

We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. Here, in the whirlpool of European races…What devil or what witch was ever so great as Attila, whose blood is in these veins?…Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race; that we were proud; that when the Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar, or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers, we drove them back? Is it strange that when Arpad and his legions swept through the Hungarian fatherland he found us here when he reached the frontier…And when the Hungarian flood swept eastward, the Szekelys were claimed as kindred by the victorious Magyars, and to us for centuries was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkey-land….” – Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula

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Somewhere Over the Atlantic

23 March 2017

I can’t say I am impressed with Air Canada.

I have flown many legs, hundreds of thousands of miles, and hundreds of destinations. This time, I dropped from the list of “Priority Boarding” to Zone 5 by walking across a parking lot. Not all bad, as AC does board back to front and I admit it seems to speed up boarding. I just like that early boarding line. With all my miles, frequent flyer status, and experience, I am spoiled and want the perks.   (more…)

Zippers and Pockets

31 January 2017

The romance of travel isn’t always evident by the one currently experiencing it. Truthfully, the romance exponentially decreases with the longer and farther one travels. Flying to East Africa from the west coast is right up there with a dental implant.   (more…)

Flying to Africa – A Marathon of Endurance

10-12 January 2017

Tipping our wing to the lights of predawn Chicago

Travel has become a Marathon experience. Or maybe it’s just me. Distance, time, lack of convenience, age? Either/or, or all of the above?

Distance is a challenge in itself. I am flying from the West coast of one continent to the East Coast of another: United States to Africa, California to Uganda.  (more…)