Category: Featured

  • Lake Tanganyika: Vacation from our Vacation

    We made the executive decision that things were not meant to be between us and Lake Malawi (or maybe just between us and boat departures?), and with mixed feelings, we left Malawi for Tanzania the day after leaving Nkhata Bay. The journey was long and trying–we’ll spare you the details of the many buses we…

  • Pony Trekking in Lesotho

    Lesotho is a bit of a geographic anomaly: a country smaller than the state of Maryland, high in the mountains and surrounded on all sides by South Africa. It was founded in the 19th century by the charismatic leader, King Moshoeshoe, who led his people into the mountains and negotiated a peace settlement with the…

  • The Wild Coast

    Having had our temporary fill of the mountains in Hogsback, we headed yet again for the coast to a backpackers’ called Wild Lubanzi. Yes, this is the third place we’ve stayed whose name starts with the word “wild”, but this backpackers is perhaps the only one where the adjective is 100% spot on. It is…

  • Addo Elephant National Park

    In the 19th century, due to sport hunting, expansion of local farms, and a growing brickmaking industry, the population of elephants in and around Addo, South Africa dwindled from a peak in the many thousands to just a few hundred, and lions and rhinos were killed off completely. Under the pressure of agricultural interests, in…

  • Cape Town

    We’re sorry for the lack of updates lately, but we’ve been too busy experiencing all that South Africa has to offer (not to mention that much of our accommodation has been off the electric grid, running on solar power, wind power, or generators, to say nothing of Internet access). We hope to get a few…

  • Buenos Aires: Pretending to be Locals

    Buenos Aires was one of the South American sites that we were most excited to visit, because we had heard nothing but glowing reviews from those who had been there previously; and it didn’t disappoint. It’s a lively city that loves its food, drink, music, dance, handicrafts, art, and antiques, and we decided to take…

  • Bariloche: Just the Tip of Patagonia

    Our original plan for South America was to go as far south as the Patagonian glaciers–essentially all the way to the southern tip–but because of time constraints, uncertain weather, and the fact that Argentina is just really big, that turned out to be unrealistic, so the farthest south we’ll get is Bariloche, in Argentina’s lake…

  • Southwest Bolivia: Tour from Tupiza to Uyuni

    After a relaxing few days in Coroico, we high-tailed it south to the small town of Tupiza, famous for being near the (possible) final resting place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and for being the less-popular gateway to the fascinating high-mountain desert of Bolivia. We booked a four day tour and hopped in…

  • Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas

    Cusco, our last stop in Peru, sometimes gets pigeonholed as merely the gateway to Machu Picchu and the Incas’ Sacred Valley, but it’s also a vibrant and enchanting city in its own right. We had some great food, and enjoyed exploring the city’s narrow, cobblestonedstreets. The city was the Incas’ historical capital and there are…

  • Huaraz, Peru and the Santa Cruz Trek

    Fresh off our five day journey, we arrived in Huaraz, Peru tired and travel-weary. After resting in our wonderful hostel–Churup–for a few hours to recover from the overnight bus, we spent the better part of two days researching trekking companies and trying to decide on the best way to explore our beautiful surroundings. In the…