Greetings from Peru


The Sacred Valley of the Incas


Machu Picchu


Iquitos

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The Banaue Rice Terraces: A Living Cultural Landscape

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My interest in exploring the northern part of the Philippines started from looking at a piece of art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California.   Among the display of ceramics and pottery engraved with gold and other decorative stuff,  a wooden carving of a male figure squatting on a platform with the lower arms on top of each other, resting upon his knees, caught my eye.  According to the docent, the wooden sculpture was called "Bului" which literally means "granary guardian" in the "Ifugao" tribe dialect. The carved wooden sculpture was set on a platform on top of another platform, a mortar.   Our docent explained the significance of the wooden mortar (which was used with the pestle, to separate the husk from the rice, sort of rice mill) and linked the story to the Rice Terraces in the Cordillera Mountains of the Philippines built 2000 years ago by the “Ifugao” tribe. So two years and three hundred kilometers north of Manila later, we explo...
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Greece: Corfu & Meteora

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From Shimmering Sea Caves to Sky-High Monasteries: My Two Favorite Places in Greece When I booked my recent trip to Greece, I thought I had everything planned perfectly—until I realized I had a major scheduling conflict: Meteora or Rhodes? Both are UNESCO World Heritage sites, both stunning in their own right, but my heart had been quietly leaning toward Meteora for a while. My research confirmed what I suspected: while both destinations are equally rich in history and beauty, Meteora has that wow factor—especially for someone like me who’s passionate about photography. But before reaching the stone spires of Meteora, I returned to a Greek island that has long held a special place in my heart: Corfu Corfu: From Sea to Sky in Paleokastritsa This wasn’t my first visit to Corfu. On my previous trip, I had explored Corfu Town, the Old Fortress, Mon Repos Estate, and taken a brief dip at Paleokastritsa Beach. But this time, I wanted to really get to know Paleokastritsa.  And it didn...
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Amalia Glacier, Patagonia

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I 'm like a first grader when it comes to a glacier . I was so excited  to feel  and see it up close that I could not wait to go out on the bow of the ship . I also took copious notes from our onboard travel guide. So blame my note-taking for any missing information, and blame our onboard travel guide , who happened to be standing by the bar while doing the narration , for any misinformation. So do n't take  the following  information as  academic research . The Amalia Glacier is also known as Skua Glacier and is within the Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, near the Canal Sarmiento. Bernardo O'Higgins National Park is the largest protected area in Chile, covering both the regions of Aysen, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. Amalia Glacier is part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. This ice field is the second-largest field of polar ice. It is the larger of two remaining parts of the ice...
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