A peculiarity of the Air Algerie schedule is that all flights seem to have to go through Algiers, and ususally with a terrible schedule! So when we left the desert in Ghardaia, we had to fly back to Algiers before
Cherchell and Tipasa, Algeria
Fortified Towns of the M’Zab Valley
We spent a full day seeing 3 of the 5 ksour (fortified towns) of the UNESCO-listed M’Zab Valley. An intriguing mixture of markets, medinas, and mosques that in some ways seemed to have not changed in 900 years since the
Camel Riding in the Sahara
A camel looks like something put together by a committee. Attributed to T. R. Quaife in “Reader’s Digest” As we as we said in our “Will You Ride a Camel?” post before we departed on this trip, we were unsure
Ghardaia; Gateway to the Sahara
Our first day in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the M’Zab Valley was split between the oasis and the Sahara. In the morning we walked through the palmerie (palm grove) of the town of Ghardaia, the largest of the
“Come with me to the casbah”
A more appropriate quote for the day would be Pepe le Pew’s “… you do not have to come weeth me to zee Casbah: we are already here!“. (See the Youtube clip below.) Our first real day in Algeria (post
NOT in the Footsteps of Emily!
We began our trip to Northern Africa and France with great expectations. One of us is a fan of the show Emily in Paris. In a Season 4 episode, there is an Air France product placement in which Emily visits
The Night Lights of Tokyo
In the fall of 2025, we’ll visit Japan again and start our trip in Tokyo. On our first trip to Japan we only visited Japan’s earliest capital cities, Nara and Kyoto, and we are looking forward to visiting the current
Will You Ride a Camel?
Whenever we say that we’re going to northern Africa and visiting the Sahara Desert we frequently get asked the question “Will you ride a camel?”. Actually, we’re not sure if we’ll do the almost obligatory camel ride in the Sahara.
Home for Homeless Homing Pigeons
When we visit the Amazon rainforest in Brazil next year, we hope to reach the remote village of Loof Lirpa to visit the Home for Homeless Homing Pigeons. The Amazonian subspecies of the common homing pigeon, Columba livia amazonum, nests
Amazon Cruise (ver 2.0)
When we created our trip page, Uruguay and the Amazon, we were planning to cruise the Amazon from its mouth up to Manaus, Brazil and back on a large cruise ship. We have had to pivot, and have cancelled that
Elbows Up Canada!
The feature image above is from the CBC article “‘Elbows up’ rallying cry evokes memories of Mr. Hockey” which provides the origin story for the Elbows Up catchphrase. As mentioned on our Amazon Trip Page, we’ve cancelled our plans to
The Long Road Home
When we disembarked from the ship on Saturday morning, we had an hour or so to look around Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados. Then headed to the airport for our “on time” flight to Toronto. Not sure why we had
Caribbean Island Stops on the Royal Clipper
On our Windward Islands cruise on the Royal Clipper we visited four of the Windward Islands and three of the Leeward Islands: the countries of Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Kitts and Nevis, and islands within
O’er the Bounding Main on Royal Clipper
We boarded the tall ship Royal Clipper after 24 hours in Barbados, and set sail for a week in the Caribbean “Sailing, Sailing, Over the Bounding Main”. But what exactly is the “main” and why is it bounding? What better
24 Hours on Barbados (Plus 1 More)
We were in the taxi at daybreak for the short ride to the Saint Vincent airport, where we expected the 45-minute flight to be shorter than the wait for the flight to Bridgetown, Barbados. However we caught a triple break;
Visiting Saint Vincent
We arrived back to Saint Vincent on the Bequia ferry at dusk, and by the time that we grabbed some breakfast supplies, had dinner at Basil’s downtown, and jumped in a taxi to Arnos Vale (just outside Kingstown) it was
Limin’ on Bequia
On the first leg of our trip to the Caribbean, we managed to get from Vancouver to Toronto in the early evening in a snowstorm, but only about an hour delayed. Bonus was that we got a last minute upgrade
Why Canadians are “Snowbirds”
According to Wikipedia: A snowbird is a person who migrates from the colder northern parts of North America to warmer southern locales, typically during the winter. The southern locales include the Sun Belt and Hawaii in the United States, as
Planning for 2025
We follow Audley Travel, not because we travel with them frequently, but because they always have some inspiring destinations. They recently published an article “5 Travel Trends for 2025“. In case you don’t have the time nor the inclination to
A Short Stop in Singapore
Upon our return from Perth, Australia to Vancouver, we had booked a couple of days in Singapore to break up what would otherwise be a 35-hour, 3-flight ordeal. We had planned to revisit a few Singapore favourites, including the viewing