To begin this cross country journey, we went north by train to Oregon, where we had to resort to taking a replacement bus to meet our connecting train that left Portland before we were due to arrive. Once on the next train east, we made our way toward Glacier National Park.
The east side of Glacier National Park was no less spectacular than the west side. We continued our day hikes in the area and stayed in one of the historic lodges. A day trip to Waterton National Park in Alberta, Canada was a highlight.
After spending time in national parks, arriving in a big city like Chicago was a big change. During the three days we spent here we visited several museums and saw a Chicago Cubs baseball game.
New York City was our final destination on the Trans USA train journey. Here we visited a variety of locations in the city, including the United Nations, Brooklyn Bridge, Greenwich Village and Central Park.
We flew to Cuzco from Lima and spent a day there touring the Sacred Valley before going to the Amazon Basin. After that trip, we returned to Cuzco to use it as a base for our trip to Machu Picchu. On both occaisions we enjoyed the beautiful and historic city.
Two days were spent in the Lake Titicaca region, including a home stay with indigenous Aymaran families on one of the islands. Getting to the lake was half the fun, via a 10 hour train trip over a 14,200 foot pass and through the beautiful stark altiplano landscape.
We have been at sea for three days now. We are now approximately halfway between New York and Southampton, at about 600 miles south of Greenland.
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.
As I write this, we are nearing the end of our journey on the Tazara train from Kapiri Mposhi (K.M.), Zambia to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our train departed two days ago at 3:10pm. The total journey is 1860km (a little more than 1100 miles).
We just completed our six-day trek in Western Sikkim, India. We met our guide, “Paul” at the airport near Darjeeling.
