When we booked the trip to the Pantanal, we were “upsold” to spend a few days at another one of the owner’s properties. He promised maned wolves, a macaw hide, and nut-cracking capuchin monkeys, so we decided to give it a go. From the Pantanal (Cuiaba airport), we flew to Brasisila, and then drove four […]
From Rio, we flew west to Cuiaba. It was a three hour drive to our first stop, the Santa Teresa Farm. The plan was to visit their bird viewing stand, and have a bite to eat to break up the journey. We also switched vehicles, from a van to an open safari-style truck. It was […]
(Location: Rio, Brazil) “You probably want to go away for a few days.” That is what our realtor recommended. We were selling our house, and the market was hot, so she expected back to back showings for a few days straight. Logical people would go to Galveston. We decided to go to Brazil. Our destination […]
(Location: St Vincent & the Grenadines, Caribbean) We’d heard the Grenadines was “like the BVI was 20 years ago.” The BVI had become pretty developed, so were intrigued. We’d also heard that “the BVI is where you go if you want to drive your boat from bar to bar, the Grenadines is where you go […]
Kirindy, Madagascar When we booked this trip, we asked the travel agent when the best time to travel was based on what we wanted to see. I remember him saying, “If you go in the first few weeks of November, all of the fossa are mating so you will be more likely to see one.” […]
Berenty, Madagascar We’d been warned about flight delays and general inefficiency in Madagascar. But our flight to Berenty actually departed four hours early! Our guide found out late the night before, so we were up early for the now 6:45am flight. I guess this is why our travel agent insisted we have him with us […]
Andasibe National Park, Madagascar The drive from Tana to Andasibe was a little rough – lots of passing on one lane roads, and very, very, windy roads. We were both glad when the four hour drive was over and we arrived at the Vakona Forest Lodge. We were in room #1, which was conveniently […]
Antananarivo – The Hub of Madagascar We usually don’t use travel agents, but it was kind of a must for this trip. In addition to insisting that we have a guide travel with us, they insisted that we have day layovers in Antananarivo (Tana) due to flight…irregularities. We’ve traveled quite a bit, so thought this […]
Traveling Light Getting to Madagascar from the US takes a bit of time, especially if you are on frequent flyer tickets. We’d booked forever in advance so we got business class tickets and were flying Houston – DC – Johannesburg – Antananarivo. There was a hurricane in the Atlantic, so we were watching the weather […]
(Location: Munich, Germany) Andy had a work trip to Munich, which happened to coincide with Oktoberfest, so I tagged along for a long weekend. Oktoberfest is something you have to do once. It’s kind of like the Houston Rodeo, but stickier, and with more singing (slurring) and dancing (swaying). The entire city seems to get […]