Grand Cayman is famous for Stingray City, but we were not interested in a (pricey) boat tour with a bunch of other tourists. Instead, we went snorkeling from the shore at two locations south of Seven Mile Beach. Our first stop was Eden Rock Dive Center, which has a parking lot plus lockers and picnic tables too. After checking-in with the staff and getting some tips on where to go, we took the center's ladder to get into the water and swam out to the well-marked buoys off the shore. On the ... continue reading...
Grand Cayman: food
Grand Cayman is known as a pricey destination, and we definitely found that to be true. However, we were pleasantly surprised at the general quality, so at least you are getting a commiserate value for the higher cost. To save a bit of money we stopped between the airport and the hotel at Kirk Market, a recommended grocery store. We were able to find a few reasonably priced snacks for our two days (passion fruit juice, chocolate covered craisins, and the rosemary crackers were great). On ... continue reading...
Grand Cayman: Kimpton Seafire Resort
The main reason to go to Grand Cayman was to use two free night certificates from IHG that were expiring. After investigating several California properties, we decided we'd rather go to the Caribbean, and the Kimpton Seafire Resort was highly recommended so we built a mini-trip around it. First impressions: wow! Check-in was very friendly, with complementary sparkling rose and cookies on arrival. Since it was our first time there we we were given a quick tour and escorted to the ... continue reading...
UK January 2020: Bracknell
Bracknell is a convenient town for accessing my UK office, but it generally lacked interesting restaurants. After a multi-year development the downtown is completely re-done, including new restaurants, so I thought I'd check it out on this trip. I choose the Grange Bracknell Hotel in large part due to its proximity to both the train station and the Lexicon (the name of the outdoor shopping center downtown). The style is rather dated, with boldly colored rooms, and most of the lights are ... continue reading...
UK January 2020: London
In mid-January I had a work trip to the UK which gave me some time to head into London. Leandra wasn't able to come on this trip, so I focused on theater shows and museums she was less likely to want to check out. It wasn't intentional, but I happened to be in the UK for the official Brexit on January 30, 2020. Luckily, I was in London that night, so I headed down to Parliament Square for the historical moment of separation. A large crowd stretched multiple blocks from the square and the mood ... continue reading...
Patagonia: Puerto Varas food + drink
We arrived into town on a sunny Sunday and after checking into our B&B we decided to walk into town and grab lunch. Puerto Varas has some lovely views of the lake and volcanoes, and as with other Chilean towns, signs of the October unrest were present during our visit, as higher end stores, hotels, and banks were boarded up to protect the windows. Cassis Cafe - We were seated on the rooftop terrace which had great views, plus we enjoyed watching firefighters train on tanker fillings. Eric ... continue reading...
Patagonia: Alerce Andino National Park
For our last full day in the Lake District we ventured south to Alerce Andino National Park to visit a couple of waterfalls and scenic lake overviews. Unfortunately, this was also our most frustrating day of the trip due to weirdly early park closures and volcanic washouts. See below for an interactive map of our hikes in Alerce Andino National Park. Our first stop of the day, Salto Rio Blanco, was inaccessible because of a volcanic eruption in 2015. This information wasn't easily ... continue reading...
Patagonia: Puyehue National Park + Las Cascadas
We awoke to a grey and drizzly morning, but with hope that the rain would be relatively minimal, headed north on the 2+ hour drive to Puyehue National Park. Our GPS was set to avoid toll roads as it wasn't obvious if there was an attendant at every exit. Consequently, we ended up on a gravel service road for 7 miles paralleling Hwy 5 to save $0.75. #thanksgoogle Sweeping panoramic views were nonexistent due to the weather but the route we took was still pleasant, through forests with ... continue reading...
Patagonia: Petrohué Waterfalls + Osorno Volcano
Our early morning flight out of Punta Arenas meant we had plenty of daylight to explore after checking into our B&B and grabbing some lunch in Puerto Varas. We decided to start with the Petrohué Waterfalls and then drive (and hike!) up the Osorno Volcano as the weather and light were still good at 6:30pm. See below for an interactive map of our day one travels in the Lake District. The Petrohué Waterfalls is a very popular place on a Sunday afternoon, despite the rather steep entry ... continue reading...
Patagonia: Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas is a popular transit point for getting in and out of Southern Patagonia. Our bus ride from Puerto Natales took us through hours of open fields, before suddenly hitting the edges of this small city, making it feel pretty close to the edge of the world. After a few stops we pulled up the bus depot, leaving us just half a mile walk to our hotel for the night. After checking in we decided to take advantage of the sunshine and walk around town - here we saw the most evidence of the ... continue reading...
Patagonia: Torres del Paine food + drink
Restaurante Pehoe - This restaurant had a great view and good Google reviews, but a recent menu change and incompetent staff resulted in the worst meal we had on the trip. On Thanksgiving no less. I stopped in earlier in the day to make a dinner reservation for 8pm (when they started dinner) and was assured a window table with lake and mountain views. When we arrived at 7:50p it was chaos. Some guests just started seating themselves wherever and instead of moving people, the staff was arguing ... continue reading...
Patagonia: TDP, Day 3: Mirador Condor + Lago Gray
Since we were now staying on the edge of the park we were able to get up at a leisurely time, enjoy breakfast, and still make it into the park before 10am. We were running low on short hike options, so we decided on Mirador Condor and Glacier Grey for our last full day in the park. It was pretty brisk at the start of the Mirador Condor hike so each of us put on all our layers. The wind subsided a bit for the switchback portion then roared to life again at the small pass near the top of the ... continue reading...
Patagonia: TDP, Day 2: Salto Chico, Mirador Cuernos
On our second day in Torres del Paine we took the southwestern route back into park. This road was quite bumpy with some construction and a lot of potholes, but of course, the views were amazing. All the parking spots were again taken at the Salto Chico lot, so I sent Eric ahead and waited for someone to leave. Thankfully it was only a five minute wait and I caught up as he was setting up his tripod. The trailhead is well marked but the short hike to the overlook is on rickety boards ... continue reading...
Patagonia: TDP, Day 1: Laguna Azul, Amarga, Sarmiento, Nordenskjöld, Salto Grande
Since we were starting from and returning to Puerto Natales all in one day, our first day in Torres del Paine involved the most driving. In the morning we entered via the Amarga gate on the northeast side of the park, and in the late afternoon exited via the southwest Serrano gate. See below for an interactive map of our travels in the park. The road to the Amarga gate was paved until the town of Torres del Paine, where it switched to gravel. Crews were working on a new road during ... continue reading...
Patagonia: Puerto Natales food + drink
Puerto Natales is a small town that definitely caters to people visiting Torres del Paine. Unimarc is the main grocery store in town. The parking lot was a mess with cars parked along the perimeter of the small lot and a line of cars in the middle (some with people waiting in them, sometimes not...). On our first visit, we found a spot to back into and the second time we just parked up the street and walked. The store was busy, with lots of people gearing up for camping and hikes. We found some ... continue reading...
Patagonia: a day in Santiago
After checking into the hotel, our first goal was to get some cash as we knew we were going to need it for one of the hotels in Puerto Natales and to pay for the Torres del Paine park entry. Every bank we saw in Santiago was boarded up (to protect against protesters), including the outdoor ATMs, and most had only a single door open, usually with visibly armed security person. For some reason my main ATM card refused to work at several of the banks but thankfully my back-up card worked fine and ... continue reading...
Patagonia: a day in Atlanta
Originally we had tickets to fly into Atlanta a few hours before our late Sunday evening flight to Santiago, but about three months out Southwest cancelled that flight and moved us to a 6:50am flight instead... No thanks! Instead, we moved to a direct flight on Saturday night, giving us a full Sunday to explore Atlanta. This also meant we were able to hang out with our friend Chenoo who we had missed during our weekend trip over Easter earlier this year. A Lyft ride got us to Ponce City ... continue reading...
Patagonia: ground transportation
Santiago We booked an airport transfer through Vem Me Buscar the day before we left. The airport pickup was fine - driver was a bit late but timely response through WhatsApp. We did receive a handy re-usable bag and water, and were told that we would pay for both trips on the return. The next morning we were picked up on time and had an easy trip to the airport. Puerto Natales The airport doesn't seem to have a reliable way to get to rental cars, so we asked our accommodation host for a ride. ... continue reading...
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