After traveling 122,000 miles (so far) across 7 continents, you tend to run into a traveler or two that have found their way to some extraordinary places on the planet. The people we have come across have floored us with their experience and knowledge. You name the place — Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, on a ship from Montevideo to Lisbon (21 days), Svalbard in the Arctic Circle at one end of the world and the Peninsula of Antarctica at the other. They come in all varieties and have travelled in every way imaginable. World class kayakers like Bill and Mary Neal; Rick Remmel who recently hiked to Mt. Everest’s base camp; Gaetan and Perrine (who saved us and our broken car in Patagonia) and drove from California to Alaska onto Boston and then started over from the top of South America to its bottom; Mike Hyman who has run amok in 113 countries (at last count) and our old friend Francis Hurteau (sadly, no longer with us) who insisted we must visit Madura, India, “home to the greatest massages in the world, period.” It’s on the list Francis!
Our friend Francis Hurteau.
Having gathered all of this
abundant information, it seems unfair to withhold it from the rest of you. So
here, with some photos and mostly in their own words, are selected recommended
locations from just about everywhere, shared over scores of coffee cups and
wine glasses, meals and miles by the many terrific people we have met who know
a thing or two about hitting the open road. (And there will be more!) Most of
these are locations we have not yet seen or will not be able to share ourselves
because we missed them, or have yet to reach on our world tour. You can’t
see everything after all.
If you have anything you’d like
to share, please do in the comments at the bottom of this article so others can
see your thoughts, or if you have any articles throughout our rapidly expanding
website you’d like comment on, please do. We have hundreds of articles and
recommendations and you can chime at the bottom of any page on the website. Or
simply send me an email. We always want to hear from you.
Columbia,
Bolivia and the Galapagos
Tayrona
National Park, Santa Marta Columbia
We met the Fedele’s, who hail
from Colorado, while were were traveling on the Navimag
Ferry, which travels every week from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, Chile
through a thousand miles of the Chilean Archipelago, some of the most remote
locations in the world. You can learn all about our
experience there in our Daily Journal. We loved John and Andrea because
they were up for anything, as you’ll see, along with their two children, Elena
and Dante. These suggestions are only a small sample of their many excursions.
I’m very grateful to them for sharing this information.
“We enjoyed the Caribbean coast
of Colombia. We mostly just relaxed on the beaches/pools. We stayed in Tayrona National Park as well as
a resort east of there in Palomino, Aite.
The beaches were great as was the food.
And we really loved Cartagena and wished we would have spent more time
there in the old town which resembled Cuba.
This was the last stop on our trip.
[NOTE: John and Andrea and their two tween children spend a year
traveling through South America exploring the cultures and learning Spanish.
Andrea is an M.D. and Johns a successful cabinetry business in Colorado.]
We did stay on an island off the
coast that was a lot of fun, Tierra Bomba.
The Blue Apple resort had a great beach, pool, and food. And again we mostly relaxed except mom and daughter
rode horses a couple days and we did a day tour on a boat to the other islands
nearby. You can see their adventure on PolarSteps.
BOLIVIA
Also, we all were really
impressed with Bolivia. And not just
because we settled in for over a month and did not have to pack and unpack
every 2-4 days…The Salt Flats, or Salar De Uyuni, were quite impressive. We also toured the national park just south
of the flats. This was one of our
favorite experiences of the trip. We
basically were off-roading to different sites with a guide who was Quechuan and
spoke no English and poor Spanish, and in an old Land Cruiser, while he chewed
on coca leaves the entire time.
We also went to Lake Titicaca and
stayed on Isla Del Sol which was really cool.
There are Incan ruins on the island and we hiked around and did some
sightseeing. Bolivia was the kids’
favorite place, partly because we met other families and backpackers at the
Spanish school. Not to mention, we
really lucked out with our host family.
They were awesome and had four boys, 7-17 years old. Poor Elena [the Fedele’s daughter] :-). They built a beautiful new house in the heart
of Sucre during Covid. And we had ladies
come every day to cook our meals and clean, yet it was ridiculously cheap. We really got spoiled there.
THE
GALAPAGOS
The Galapagos were kinda like the
grand finale even though we still had a few more weeks to travel around in
Ecuador and Colombia. Everything about
that experience amazed us. The tour
company we hired, Quasar, took care of everything. We flew from Quito to San Cristobal island. From there we boarded the Evolution and began
our adventure. The crew of around 20
took care of the 25 or so guests. The
food was incredible, the three naturalist guides were great, and the whole
experience on the islands and snorkeling was awesome. Each night before dinner, everyone met in the
lounge and a guide would go over the schedule for the next day. The guests were divided in to three groups,
we happened to be the boobies. It took
the kids three days to not crack up every time they said boobies…Even though we
were in groups, everyone made it a point to eat at a different table with
different guests each day. Everyone on
the boat was great, mostly retired American gringos. We were the only ones with kids.
Our days entailed hiking on the
islands, snorkeling once or twice a day, and kayaking/paddleboarding. The wildlife and pristine nature was
incredible. So many species unique to
the Galapagos. We visited the Darwin
center as well and saw the giant tortoises.
Our best day was the one when we snorkeled with sea lions, sharks, sea
turtles, rays, and dolphins. It really
was the highlight of the trip, the dolphins were unexpected bonus. We were heading back to the Evolution and our
guide noticed them out in the open ocean.
So, we raced to them on our panga and all jumped in, it was
awesome! Our trip ended and we flew from
the island of Baltra to Guayaquil. I
would absolutely recommend Quasar Expeditions
[the company that handled the expedition].
They have 8 and 15 night expeditions.
The boat travels at night and you wake up at different island each
morning. It is quite comfortable with
large rooms and AC. And, they often have
deals, 40% off, or if you book last minute they are willing to work with
you. That’s what we did, booked it
within 30 days and got almost 50% off.
We would not have done it otherwise as it is quite expensive.
Resource: https://vagabond-adventure.com/library/the-best-places-to-visit-from-around-the-world-recommendations-from-our-fellow-travelers
0 comments:
Post a Comment