Category: Travel

The Dzongs (?) of Bhutan

Our earlier blog talked a bit about Bhutan and how to get there. The latest government pro-tourism project is called, “Why not Bhutan?” The tiny country is now pretty well set up for “high value” (or high cost) and low-impact tourism. A variety of tour companies run treks in the country, though no mountaineering is… Read more »

The Last Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom: Bhutan

Our trip this October took us back to South Asia to visit old friends in both India and Nepal and to make new friends in Bhutan, a country we had never visited before. We found Delhi and Kathmandu as chaotic, bustling, polluted and wonderful as ever, and this made our stay in bucolic and unique… Read more »

The New “Great Game” on the Silk Road

The 19th century “Great Game”,  the subject of Kipling’s classic book “Kim,”  referred to the geopolitical jousting between Czarist Russia,  busy expanding into Central Asia, and Great Britain, long established on the Indian subcontinent. The two great powers almost came to blows along their common border in the high Pamir Mountains.   They finally agreed… Read more »

The neatest place you have never heard of: Tajikistan

Why go to Tajikistan? In the 1990’s Fred served at the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan, while Sharon served at the Embassy in Kyrgyzstan. Sharon’s country seemed like a happy Dr. Seuss country, while Fred’s was embroiled in a nasty civil war.   This conflict had transformed the USSR’s best mountain adventure destination into a no-go zone… Read more »

Argentina’s Clever Orcas: Part Two

Seeing the clever Orca “Killer Whales” of Peninsula Valdes has long been on our bucket list of things to do.  Our last blog talked about visiting the Southern Right Whales’ breeding grounds around Peninsula Valdes, and this second part centers on another fascinating whale-watching reason to stop here – – its unique Orca population. In addition to Southern Right Whales… Read more »

Whales in Patagonia – Part One

We love whales.  We live in Langley on Whidbey Island and regularly see both Orcas (Killer Whales) and Gray Whales from the deck of our house. We are involved in Orca Network’s Langley Whale Center, and haven’t hesitated to travel to see whales in Maui, Mexico, Oregon and Maritime Canada.  So it will be no surprise… Read more »

Patagonian Cowboys and their Rodeos

Argentina’s vast plains–the green pampas in the north, and drier steppes in the south–are similar in many ways to the American west.  They have spawned a historic horseman culture not unlike our own. Before we visited Patagonia, we knew a little of the Argentine gaucho culture, horsemen who herded cattle and other animals, using weighted… Read more »

Chile & Argentina

During our recent trip to Patagonia, we visited both Chile and Argentina.  We liked the flora, fauna and folks in both countries, but wondered why they have had so much trouble getting along throughout their history. Looking closely at a map–you notice that there is a section of their joint border in the southern Patagonian… Read more »

Why Patagonia?

Fred and Sharon spent November of this year in Patagonia–that windswept expanse of flat lands and high mountains of southern Argentina and Chile. Why, our friends asked, did you go to a place not known for rugs or textiles and where, uncharacteristically, you can drink the water out of the tap? Yes, Argentina is less… Read more »