Pat here:
I spent a good part of October in South America. IT Guy and I are fascinated by ancient civilizations, hence our trip to Egypt last year. This year, we finally made it to Machu Picchu, not nearly as old as Egypt but with a lot of uncanny similarities, which is what fascinates us. As much as I would like to study the origins of the Incas, I simply don’t have the time to devote. Should I ever retire… I’d probably keel over in a coffin. So let’s not go there. We just visit and admire.
I'm madly trying to finish this year's book, Once a Laird, so I'm invoking Wenchly Privilege to rerun an older post. Since currently travel isn't happening, I thought it would be fun to go with one of my earlier travel posts, and cruising on the Amazon seems delightfully distant and exotic. So here we go! (The colorful straw frogs to the right were centerpieces on the dining room tables.)These days when we talk about Amazon, we're probably referring to the mega-selling online site, but after visiting the real Amazon, it was easy to understand why Jeff Bezos chose to name his company after the mightiest river in the world.
The longest river in the world can be disputed–just exactly where do the headwaters begin?–but everyone accepts that the Amazon River is the largest river in the world.
Statistics abound: the water flow is greater than the next seven rivers combined. The world's largest drainage basin by far. The estuary at its mouth is 150 miles wide. The Amazon Basin includes parts of nine different nations. No wonder it's sometimes called the "River Sea."
The Amazon is a distant place of jungle and danger, myth and mystery, and Sean Connery movies. Naturally the Mayhem Consultant and I wanted to visit. <G>
For several years, I eyed an Upper Amazon cruise offered by the partnership between Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society.
by Mary Jo
When I blogged about our cruise on the upper Amazon, , I threatened another blog about Lima, the capital city of Peru. I don't make idle threats. <G> But never fear, mostly I'm going to show pictures.
I spent very little time there, just two overnights in a hotel, and a coach tour of city highlights the morning before we flew into Amazonia to catch our cruise boat, but Lima made a strong impression on me.
Peru itself is a fascinating country, sharply divided into three distinct climate zones. The coastal area where Lima is located is harsh, narrow desert, and the city's microclimate 
produces months of fog but almost no rain despite its closeness to the Pacific Ocean. Most of the city's water comes from rivers that flow down from the Andes, the dramatic mountain backbone of the country. (Luckily, our touring day was lovely and sunny.)
by Mary Jo
These days when we talk about Amazon, we're probably referring to the mega-selling online site, but I'm just back from a visit to the real Amazon, and it certainly explains why Jeff Bezos chose to name his company after the mightiest river in the world.
The longest river in the world can be disputed–just exactly where do the headwaters begin?–but everyone accepts that the Amazon River is the largest river in the world.
Statistics abound: the water flow is greater than the next seven rivers combined. The world's largest drainage basin by far. The estuary at its mouth is 150 miles wide. The Amazon Basin includes parts of nine different nations. No wonder it's sometimes called the "River Sea."
The Amazon is a distant place of jungle and danger, myth and mystery, and Sean Connery movies. Naturally the Mayhem Consultant and I wanted to visit. <G> For several years, I've been eyeing an Upper Amazon cruise offered by the partnership between Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society.
