photobombed by Alain who we met on the trail to Pico March 12 With our first week of volunteering concluded at UBHA school, we were free to spend a 3-day weekend hiking through the stupendous Chicaque Natural Park. On Saturday morning, we set out on a hike to visit one of its landmarks: Pico (the … Continue reading Exploring the Trails in Chicaque Natural Park
Although it's only half an hour from the buzzing metropolis of Bogota, Chicaque Natural Park is like a lost world, and parts of it seem far removed from any signs of civilization. It's 300 hectares (741 acres) of mountains, streams, thick vegetation, with a few but not too many tourist amenities like campgrounds, lodges, restaurants … Continue reading UBHA the One-Room Schoolhouse in a Colombian Cloud Forest
Puyo, Ecuador turned out to be a bit of a disappointment -- at least as far as the city itself. We didn't see why anyone would recommend going there except for nearby attractions. Like the Amazon -- Puyo is the closest jumping off place to tour the jungle; even the tours leaving from Baños go through … Continue reading Monkeying Around in Puyo
Having feasted our eyes (and our capacity for awe) on the Mayan ruins, we were ready to cross the road and feast at least a couple of other senses at Choco-Story, an outdoor (sort of) museum dedicated to the history of chocolate and the culture of the local region that has produced it for millennia. … Continue reading Mayan Ruins and Chocolate (Part 2)
December 3, 2021 - Part II > If you're going to visit the Yucatan Peninsula, you simply have to see some Mayan ruins. And the best place to do that is the enormously famous Chichen Itza, right? So we thought. And so we'd planned. It is after all, one of the seven wonders of the … Continue reading Mayan Ruins and Chocolate (Part 1)
Goats, hinnys and zeedonks, oh my!
Things that flutter, by day and by night. That's the focus of this week's Act!vated Adventure. We were in Gainesville at the University Of Florida. In the daytime, we took a tour of the Florida Museum Of Natural History, which has an amazing collection of fossils from mastodons, mammoths, and other extinct critters, some older … Continue reading Batty Butterflies
world travel with a theatrical flair 