We are on the last full day of our trip through central South America, having arrived in our fourth and final country, Uruguay. It is the smallest Spanish-speaking country in South America, having only about four million inhabitants.
Our time in Belize was primarily in the southern portion of the country, near Placencia. Here we relaxed at our beachfront bungalow and took a scuba diving lesson.
Traveling across the USA by train is an unique way to see and experience the variety and scale of the country. We broke up the journey, stretching it into a 17 day trip in August / September 2004, by stopping at Glacier National Park for five days and visiting Chicago before reaching New York City.
We are now in route from South Africa to Namibia (about 4 hours into a 21-hour bus trip). It is a fairly comfortable vehicle with 2 stories, air-conditioning, a bathroom and fairly frequent stops to stretch one’s legs.
After two days on the train, we finally arrived in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. We splurged and stayed one night in a very nice Holiday Inn. After that we went to Zanzibar for three days.
We arrived in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) at 3:30am. We stayed with a family that consisted of a couple with a four year old boy.
As I write this, our train has stopped in the Bhopal ‘B’ train station. We are traveling on an overnight train from Mumbai (Bombay) to Agra. It is 9:30 in the morning on the second day of our 22-hour journey.
We had some delays in reaching Costa Rica, but once we arrived there we enjoyed our time at Drake Bay, on the Pacific Ocean coast. We spent time relaxing in our cabin on the beach as well as taking a day trip to Cano Island, where we hiked and snorkeled.
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 flying from Ko Sumui to Bangkok. The Ko Sumui archipelago is located in Southern Thailand. We spent three days on Ko Pha-Ngan mostly eating, sleeping, swimming and reflecting on our trip.
