It’s the new year and time to dust off the traveling togs and hit the road, this time to Central and South America.
Actually, we just returned from a fantastic family adventure in the British Virgin Islands over Christmas week. Captain Jeff, along with crew mates Carter and Reagan, piloted the 42-foot Arctic Paradise II for seven days, December 22 – 29. Rebecca, Esme and Griffin joined us for the latter half of the trip, December 26 – 29, and quickly trained in as capable deckhands. We sailed in great breezes all week, snorkeled several times, became adept at mooring, anchoring and managing sails, and ate way too much every evening ashore. But of course the highlight was being with all our kids and grandkids for a relaxing time together and a challenging sailing adventure.
I spared the world from daily blogs but Judy and I did snap the shutter a couple of times. You can see the pictures, if you’re so inclined, at https://zenfolio.page.link/DjEvJ.
After the sailing trip, Judy and I flew back with the kids to Melrose for a week of socializing. The main reason for our trip to the frozen north (it got all the way down to 30 degrees one day) was a surprise party for Rebecca. Her boyfriend Sammy arranged the party to celebrate Rebecca’s recent completion of the Doctorate in Nursing Practice degree at University of New Hampshire. Nineteen friends and family members met in a local restaurant’s wine cellar for great socializing and great Italian food. The surprise was complete and much enjoyed by all. Judy and I embarrassed ourselves when our buttons burst with pride over Rebecca’s accomplishment. We’re pretty proud of our other shipmates as well. Pictures of the week in Melrose are included in the link above.
Our upcoming trip involves back-to-back Tauck tours, one through Costa Rica and Panama and the other through Columbia. We leave on January 10 and return January 30.
We’ve been to Costa Rica twice, once back in 2002 when Rebecca was doing a Northeastern University quarter there to learn Spanish and two years ago when we spent Christmas on the beach at Tamarindo with the family.
This time the two of us will spend a day on our own in San Jose and then tour with the group for two additional days in Costa Rica before boarding our small cruise boat (the Bellot; 200 passengers or so) at Puntarenas on the Pacific coast. The boat stops twice in Costa Rica before reaching a remote village on the Panamanian coast. Then, we spend a day sailing through the Panama Canal from west to east. We make a stop at a remote island community on the Atlantic side before leaving the ship in Colon. From there we travel by land across the Isthmus to Panama City. Ten touring days in all. Here is a map of this part of our trip to give you an idea of where we’ll be:
Next, we fly to Bogota, the capital of Columbia, for a day, followed by stops in Medellin and then Cartagena for three days each. Lots of coffee and, I hope, history stories about Columbia’s violent past and as a close ally to the U.S. in the wars on Communism, Drugs and Terror over the past 50 and more years. Here’s the map for this trip.
As usual, I’ll try to blog every day, conditions permitting. If you’ve been on our daily notification list for past trips, you’ll get the daily notifications automatically. If not, send me an email and I’ll add you in.
Hasta luego!