Category: Uncategorized
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Luxor Part 2: (More) Mortuary Temples and tombs
We awoke early, long before sunrise… for a hot air balloon ride over Luxor! The process is a lot of waiting.. of course you get there early, but a lot of waiting still. The tourist police give permission to travel to the balloon field and put the balloons in the air (usually based on the…
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Luxor Part 1 – the Valley of the Kings
The next part of our trip involved a plane ride and then my first riverboat trip. We took a plane from Cairo to Luxor. Our guide said that once you check in with an airline in Egypt, the plane won’t leave without you. We made it to our gate early so didn’t test that. Flying…
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The Mosaic City – Madaba, Shobak and Mt. Nebo
From Petra, we traveled north, towards Madaba. On our way, we saw a crusader castle, the Shobak Castle, and maybe more interestingly to me, the smallest hotel in the world, a VW beetle that you can sleep in (@The_smallest_hotel). The guy that owns it lives across the street, his home enclosing a cave in the…
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Learning Ojibwemowin
I have had learning Ojibwemowin (the Ojibwe language, spoken by the Anishinaabe) on my bucket list for a couple of years now, and was at the local tribal college in June 2018 for a workshop for work. The college was signing students up for classes, and I knew then, that it was time to move…
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Isla Lobos and San Cristobal
We hiked on Isla Lobos, a half mile loop through the very small island. The name of the island refers to ‘wolf’ – sea wolf or sea lion! It seems that each day builds on the last. First, we saw frigatebirds from a distance, then up close and everywhere. This island has many frigatebirds looking…
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Isla Española
The Galapagos sits on the second largest caldera in the world, the Sierra Negra, just one mile below the surface of the earth. There is one large volcano in the western Galapagos, and many smaller parasitic volcanoes throughout the western part of the islands. Santa Cruz Island (where Puerto Ayora is) has no volcanic or…
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Galapagos – Baltra y Santa Cruz (Tortoises!)
The Galapagos islands are the 4th area of Ecuador, and the first UNESCO World heritage Site. To go to the Galapagos, you must have a special visa which is not needed to visit the mainland of Ecuador. The tour company took care of this for us prior to our visit, so everything was ready to…
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Baños
Our last full day on the mainland was spent at Baños de Agua Santa (I have figured out how to use accents on my ipad!) People just call it Baños. Like much of the country we had been in, there are volcanoes around. Its name in English refers to the Church of Our Lady of…
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Cotopaxi
Our next day was spent going to Cotopaxi volcano, one of the highest points in the country. It is a National Park, and one must have a guide to go into the park. Cotopaxi is the tallest stratovolcano (cone-shaped), active, snow covered volcano. You can hire a guide when you arrive, as there are many…
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More Quito and Mindo Cloud Forest
We have seen much of Ecuador by now, and it is hard to keep up with everything! I will tell a bit more of the history, and the churches we went to, then a little bit about our second day. In 1809, Ecuador started its road to freedom from Spain. There was a group of…