After a lovely Easter in Vancouver, we took a 3-day trip up to Whistler. Lucky for us, spring had arrived. The snow was powdery and the warm weather suited our casual skiing outfits well – several…
2 coasts and the central valley in Costa Rica
On February 23, we took the short flight from Panama City to San Jose, Costa Rica and after a couple hours waiting at the Airport Marriott and a quick stop in…
The sun and the stars
After saying goodbye to Chris and Julie in the Santiago airport, we continued north with Alex’s parents to the Elqui [elki] Valley which enjoys over 320 days of sunshine a year, making…
Volcanos, hot springs, markets and islands
We spent a couple of days in picturesque Puerto Varas, located on a mountain lake with a view of the almost perfectly conical Osorno Volcano. We had this magnificent volcano in…
Expedition cruise to Cape Horn and the Magellan Strait
We spent last 4 days on the expedition cruise ship Via Australis first sailing south to Cape Horn, the southernmost point in the world, and then navigating north through the…
Glaciers and whiskey
The world’s third largest ice field (after Antarctica and Greenland) is located in southern Patagonia and feeds the Perito Moreno glacier. Our morning started with a 1,5 hour coastal walk to various…
Experiencing a working ranch in Patagonia
We spent 3 days at Hosteria Alta Vista, a guesthouse on a working Patagonia ranch. The original farm was established by true pioneers in 1908 and predates the town of…
Estancia Cristina
We spent 4 days at the Estancia Cristina, one of the few private ranches still allowed to operate in Los Glaciares National Park. While originally a working ranch dating back to 1914,…
Bird watching and the catch of the day
From Bariloche, we flew south to El Calafate where we went bird watching in Laguna Nimez Nature Reserve. We stayed in Califate 1 night before boating to the remote Estancio Cristina…
Bula!
Fijians are a very welcoming people and always greet you with a smile and “Bula!” (hello) even when you’re just passing in the street or driving by in your car.…
New Zealand’s South Island
We arrived in smallish but beautiful Queenstown on November 16th where our first encounter with Kiwi culture was taking the bus from the airport. Already on the bus there were lots of friendly greetings “how’s…
Chiang Mai and Bangkok (part 2)
After a number of travel days (the Mekong boat trip and a bus from Chiang Khong) it was great to settle down in Chiang Mai. Here we enjoyed some delicious Thai food, checked out the famous night…
Temples and waterfalls
The former Lao capital of Luang Prabang is a city (more of a town really) of 50.000 people and over 60 temples. We didn’t visit all of them but the ones that we…
2 days on Ha Long Bay
With its majestic mist shrouded islands and cliffs, Ha Long Bay is virtually the symbol of Vietnam (or at least it’s one the first pictures that comes up when you…
Paklenica National Park
During our stay in Zadar, Croatia, a small town up the coast from Split, we drove out to Paklenica National Park were we spent over 6 hours hiking, swimming and…
Camping in Lagos (or why hammocks are awesome)
We spent 3 nights camping just outside of Lagos in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. There we explored the harbor town, visited Praia do Camilo and surfed at Sagres, the southwestern tip of Europe.…
Surfing in Ericeira
We stopped for 4 nights in the town of Ericeira, just north of Lisbon, right in the heart of Europe’s only World Surfing Reserve (4 kilometers of amazing beaches dedicated…