Curiosity, Travel and Change
January 1, 2023: Arrived in Kochi (Cochin), located on the far southwestern tip of India, from Delhi on New Years Eve. But the real party in Kochi seemed to be on New Years Day, when the streets were filled with costumed and bewigged people atop floats that would parade through the city. Women of all …
Continue reading "Kochi, Kerala and an Ancient Jewish Community: India Travels Part 3"
December 28, 2022: I don’t often post about hotels, but sometimes they are so unique and memorable, I must send praise. Fort Bishangargh, an 18th century Shahpura fort from days when this region was peopled with warring kingdoms, has been renovated into an elegant hotel, with rooms carved out of the granite. From above you …
Continue reading "Jaipur by Way of Bishangarh: India Travels Part 2"
Some people test their mettle camping our or climbing a mountain. My latest personal challenge was India. Three days wandering around Delhi, three in and around Jaipur, and then nine days in Kerala, the lush tropical state at the southwest tip of India. A month after returning and I am still processing what I saw …
Continue reading "Navigating Delhi: My India Travels Part 1"
Me in the hot springs There is something disconcerting about that helplessness you feel when you learn you will spend the next two days without access to email or social media. You don’t want to believe you are one of those people so hopelessly addicted to your phone that its loss causes anxiety. But you …
We arrived at Caleta Tortel and parked at the edge of this tiny town near the end of the Carretera Austral, having driven another 12 miles on a dirt side road till we reached the porous coastline of Patagonia. We strapped on backpacks with our stuff for two days, and started walking. Walking to our …
Continue reading "Chile Part 2: Caleta Tortel, the end of the road."
Chile is almost as long as the US is wide, but it snakes along the Pacific Ocean for 2700 miles, hemmed in by its portion of the 5,500-mile Andes range. Most of its 17 million people live in the center, within a couple of hours of Santiago and at its extreme ends are sparsely populated …
Swept Away Inn, Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, BC In the late afternoon, the sea-chilled air rushes up the Alberni Inlet from the Pacific Ocean, and when it meets the warm inland air in Port Alberni, fierce gusts of thermal wind blow across Harbour Quay. Moored to the pier is a 70 year old tugboat, now …
Continue reading "Two Nights on A Tugboat: Port Alberni, BC"
What could be more picturesque than those lavender fields and bastides—the medieval fortified villages hugging hilltops— of Provence? Cezanne and Van Gogh marveled at the luminous light and the ever-changing purples, vermillion, and ochres. Provence is the stuff of travelers' dreams, of memoirs of rejuvenation and inspiration. But on a recent trip through the south …
Dancing on Rue St. Denis When you visit places in the summer that have long, dark and cold winters, you experience the unbounded joy of people absorbing light and sunshine into their cells, as if they could store it for the winter like canned tomatoes. Montreal is one of those places, a city that vibrates …
Continue reading "Montreal: Summer in the City and a Lost Jewish Neighborhood"
On May 14, the day of Bans off Our Bodies rallies around the country, my friend Judi and I decided to ditch our plans for a morning hike and headed north up Route 28 to Long Lake New York, where a rally had been planned. We had given some thought to heading to Albany, where …
Old and On the Way 