Greetings from Istanbul

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It's spring awright!!!





Location: Istanbul Istanbul

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Madrid, Spain: Hunger

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I hope my first few articles somehow gave you some ideas on how to stretch your travel budget. Now that I have the practical talk out of the way, I hope I can share some thoughts and hopefully provide the inspiration you need to embark on your own journey. On that note, I would like to share a poem written by my niece, Rachelle Cruz – a poem inspired by our trip to Spain. HUNGER At La Casa Botin, we suck tentacles stewed in a pocket of hunger. We learn Hemingway dipped his pen in this hunger. Duende bird of ink, your house of deep song and fortress, where even cats listen, stray from their hunger. Sevilla, she swirls her mantón around arms, claps, even dance won’t defy history or Spanish Hunger. There’s a lover in California folding his dress socks, straightening his bookshelf, a mouth in absence won’t satisfy hunger. She tastes her finger of ink from the latticed bowl, I imagine we are descendants of this hunger. Each of us experiences hunger in a differen
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The Amazon, Part 1: The Riverboat and the Hoatzin Birds

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Overwhelmed by thousands of images and impressions, I could not find enough words to describe the five days I spent in the Amazon.    Words could not paint the picture of the vastness of the Amazon River, the changing color of the sky, the thousand trees and plants, and the sounds from secret places I had never known.   This trip made me understand the true meaning of the Asian proverb I read in the frontispiece of Patricia Schultz’s book, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” – Better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times.   Day 1 It was raining when our plane touched down at CF Secada Vignetta Airport in Iquitos, the heart of the Amazon jungle.   The rusting plane sitting off the runway caught my eye. The rain and the rusting plane were a subtle reminder we were in the Amazon jungle indeed – a rugged place.    Our naturalist-guide, named Vics, was waiting for us at the airport.   He did not give us a formal introduction and welcome until we got on the bus
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The Chilean Forest: Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park and the Petrohué River/Falls

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Our drive takes us along the stretch of the road sandwiched between the tranquil Lake Llanquihue set against the looming Osorno Volcano and miles of green valley dotted by farm animals, walled by spring flowers (yellow lupines), and bordered by the Andean Mountain, which rolls and soars in lush waves.  We are heading towards Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park for a walk around the Petrohué Falls. Since leaving Puerto Varas , our guide keeps looking out the window from the motor coach to check if the cloud hanging over the tip of the Osorno Volcano has dissipated.  She wanted to show us the ' breathtaking view of the Osorno Volcano ' advertised in the tour brochure, I guess.  But even screened by clouds, I see in astonishing detail the overwhelming beauty of nature that it excites my awareness. Mirrored in the clear waters of Lake Llanquihue, one of Chile’s largest lakes, are the reflections of the clouds and snow that cover the Osorno Volcano.  T
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