By Doug Hansen June 20, 2022 As America began to emerge from many months of pandemic restrictions, interest in travel, cruising in particular, soared. But many travelers continued to worry about the potential health risks in the post-COVID-19 period. My wife, Sharen, and I, wanting to see for ourselves what conditions were like in this…
Category: South America

Surprising St. Lucia offers natural beauty and friendly people
“I want to go to somewhere nice in the Caribbean,” my wife asked me maybe a thousand times. So finally, for her birthday, I arranged a five-day visit to Saint Lucia that, I’m relieved to say, exceeded our expectations. Even though getting there required a couple of flights from our home in Carlsbad, CA, it…

Ecuadorian Amazon is a Watery Paradise
If I close my eyes, I can still feel the warm, tropical breeze blowing across my face as our cigar-shaped motorboat purrs down the brownish, silt-laden Cuyabeno River, heading for the remote Siona Lodge in Ecuador’s Amazon region. Our two-hour boat ride into the heart of the 2300 square-mile Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve exposes our small…

Close encounters with South America’s penguins, glaciers and Cape Horn
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” –St Augustine A surprisingly cold wind swept across the desolate beach at Volunteer Point, one of the Falkland Island’s most popular tourist destinations, but the throngs of king, gentoo and magellanic penguins didn’t seem to mind. This sight made the…

Ecuador’s Shangri-la of the South
A growing number of travelers from around the world have begun an exodus to a tiny town in southern Ecuador—Vilcabamba—that sits tucked away in a green valley surrounded by a series of undulating mountains. Some, like my wife and myself, are drawn to its scenic beauty and mild weather for a brief getaway, while others…

Is Cuenca, Ecuador, Still the World’s Top Retirement Place?
Back in 2008 and 2009, three influential magazines published highly complimentary articles about the relatively undiscovered Ecuadorian town, Cuenca, that set off an explosion of foreigners moving there. Choosing a city rather than a country for the first time ever, International Living rated Cuenca as the world’s #1 retirement destination. Germany’s influential Stern magazine rated…

Ecuadorian Nature Reserves Provide Dazzling Bird Displays
(This story has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Orlando Sentinel, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlanta Journal and San Diego Union Tribune, as well as in The Week magazine) In 1998, a small group of birdwatchers stared intently as a diminutive bird darted along the ground and soon they realized that they had discovered a Jocotoco…

Following in the Footsteps of Darwin and My Dad in the Galapagos
Weeklong Galapagos Islands visit cruises through evolution’s birthplace “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” — T.S. Elliot I always knew that someday my global explorations would lead me to the Galapagos Islands, since…