Well we are on the road again, this time for a 10 day trip to Ecuador. We flew to Miami on Sunday and then took a four hour flight to Quito, Ecuador. It is the second highest country capital in the world at about 9,500 feet.
The highlight of our journey to Uganda was viewing the endangered mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. We had two opportunities to see them and had different experiences both times.
There is no electrical grid in Buhoma – the name of the settlement that includes the buildings both inside and outside of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. It took 180km (111 miles) of poor dirt roads to get here and the nearest paved road is 85km (53 miles) away. Our purpose for coming to Buhoma was to see the mountain gorillas in the wild.
Our final stop and national park experience in Uganda was at Lake Mburo. Here we took a late afternoon walking safari to see the animals in a more intimate setting.
We are now flying over the Atlantic in the midst of a 30+ hour odyssey home, which is comprised of four flights: first to Nairobi, then Brussels and Chicago, before the final leg to LAX.
The highlight of the second part of our Costa Rica trip was a day trip to Corcovado National Park, which provided some great hiking and nature viewing opportunities amidst the rain forest and ocean beaches.
We are currently on a bus back to Chiang Mai. We’ve spent the last week in the north near where the boarders of Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos meet.
Beijing was the first stop on our three week trip. We visited the Forbidden City in addition to our day trip to the Great Wall.
It was a 5 1/2 hour journey on a double decker express ‘K’ train from Luoyang to Xian. The next morning we went back to the train station to catch the bus to the Army of the Terracotta Warriors. Nothing prepares you for the enormity of seeing the warriors in lines as you first enter.
After some rough traveling, we first visited the pandas in Chengdu and then relaxed in Dali. Among the highlights there was a visit to a local market.
