Guest blogger and husband Phil Deering shares his tips on how to plan for multiday, long (and successful) hikes. If you read my last post April 5th, you know I will not be among the group of friends that takes these trips!! More power to them. For each of the last five years, I’ve taken long, … More 10 Tips for Planning and Enjoying Long Hiking Trips with Friends
When my son began living in Medellin, Colombia, back in 2009, one of his first volunteer projects was to pay a visit to a coffee growing commune in San Jose de Alban. In college he had done a summer internship with Peace Coffee, an organic, fair trade coffee company in Minneapolis. Now finished with school … More Producing Coffee the Artisanal Way in Colombia: Part 4
On our fourth week of March in Colombia we headed for a pre-planned trip into the part of the Andes called Los Nevados National Park. About 8 hours by bus from Medellin toward the west, Los Nevados consists of mountain peaks of up to 17,000 feet, glaciers, volcanos, and a wide array of ecological regions. … More Adventure Travel–Don’t Panic: Part 3
My Colombian daughter-in-law has been building a lovely traditional two storey house above Medellin in a town called San Pedro de los Milagros. She has been project manager from Minnesota via cell phone while at home with a new baby and a preschooler. Now that she is here for a few months, she is managing a … More Maybe a bike-oriented Airbnb in Colombia?: Part 2
Note: My husband and I are spending a month in and around Medellin. Our Colombian daughter-in-law is here with her family and her two young children. She is sitting out the Minnesota winter and completing a project of building a simple house in a small lovely village above Medellin called San Pedro de los Milagros. … More La Transformacion: Part 1
Guest blogger: Lily White, who just spent one month in Argentina. Thanks, sis! Sometime between the 1970s and 80s, hitchhiking fell out of fashion in the USA. Signs began popping-up along the entrance ramps to highways, and stories of dangerous hitchhikers circulated around our small Midwestern town. My mother and Aunt Dorothy cut cautionary articles … More Hay Maté!: The case for picking up hitchhikers in 2019
Lately Minnesota has been rebranding itself from being part of the Upper Midwest (i.e. flyover country) to being True North. We are proud of having the second coldest winter in the lower 48, after North Dakota, even though global warming is doing a number on our bragging rights. We have a friend whose son has … More Finding Our True North
Four years ago my permaculturist daughter decided to take her 20 month old daughter Alder with her on a month-long trip to Costa Rica. Half of the time would be spent in the central mountains on an organic farm as a WOOFer. Not having been to Costa Rica before, I began to worry about the … More Grandma to the Rescue—or so I thought
BAIT I have not traveled solo very much except for times related to work: many times in Bangkok for the weekend before or after work in Cambodia; once for a week going to Dalat, Vietnam from Cambodia for a brief return stint; once going in and out of Sierra Leone for my Masters in Public … More Traveling alone while female: I couldn’t have said it better (warning: bait and switch)
Unless you are a hundred miler with a strong heart, do not visit Death Valley in the summer! This amazing national park is best visited in late fall, midwinter or early spring. I have visited twice—once in February and more recently around Thanksgiving. What makes it inexpensive is that you can take advantage of cheap flights … More Death Valley: A cheap, inspiring, nostalgic winter getaway
Other states, other lives, other souls 