Raul
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A Weekend in Mendoza, Argentina
More Details: A Weekend in Mendoza, ArgentinaMy current business trip to Santiago is for 2 weeks so I had a weekend in between to either: walk around Santiago and re-discover parts of it, opt to go and visit southern Chile (Puerto Montt or Pucón, for example; both of which I had visited in 1991), or go to nearby Mendoza, Argentina (capital…
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Santiago Visit Continues – Lucky Me
More Details: Santiago Visit Continues – Lucky MeSo, I came back to Santiago after 18 yrs. That was 3 weeks ago. I went to the US and then I turned right around to come down to Chile! Crazy? Heck, no. I don’t mind coming to this town and country! I am traveling here for business but seldom is business travel the vehicle to…
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Fast Forward Santiago, Really Fast: from 1991 to 2009
More Details: Fast Forward Santiago, Really Fast: from 1991 to 2009I arrived in Santiago de Chile this morning to a different airport and entrance fees than in 1991. Why charge an entrance fee of $132 is beyond me (yeah, yeah reciprocity; that’s what you call it when you don’t want to admit you are just as capitalistic as everyone else…). And why not have it…
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Back to Chile – What I Hope to Enjoy Again
More Details: Back to Chile – What I Hope to Enjoy AgainIt has been a while since I write on the blog. It has been a busy time as I have been on job search. But, that period is coming to an end and, lo and behold, my next job will start with a business trip to Chile. Lo and behold for many reasons. One, though…
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Climbing Croagh Patrick – An Ancient Irish Pilgrimage
More Details: Climbing Croagh Patrick – An Ancient Irish PilgrimageGuest post by fellow traveler, Chris Sanders. Having walked the Camino de Santiago, I am always searching for opportunities to embark on other pilgrimages – big or small. I found one such opportunity on a recent vacation to Ireland. In addition to visiting Athone, Galway, Kilkenny, and Dublin (including attending a U2 concert!), my wife and I joined…
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A Wonderful Spot in New Hampshire
More Details: A Wonderful Spot in New HampshireWhat did I know about New Hampshire before I went there? Well, an uncle was born there. A high school friend (and NH resident) boasted about the natural beauty. A place where folks have an independent spirit. Somewhere crunched in New England. No, I had never heard of the old man rock (sorry) nor of…
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Who Says Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire? The Smokey Mountains
More Details: Who Says Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire? The Smokey MountainsI went to Gatlinburg to spend a week with family touring the area. By far, it is the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP) that has been my favorite part of the trip. The towns around here are geared to tourists, which makes sense, but they seem to cater more to the tourist shoppers or…
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Visiting Old Cairo – and Feeling Cairo
More Details: Visiting Old Cairo – and Feeling CairoI am fortunate to have visited Cairo two times: once in 1998 and then in 2007. The first with friends and the second for work. However, while we hit some of the key places to see in Cairo in the first trip, one grave mistake was not to explore Old Cairo… Old Cairo is the…
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A Very Southern City – Dunedin
More Details: A Very Southern City – DunedinWell, by southern I mean “geographically”. It was the southernmost city I visited in New Zealand and I was expecting it to be frigid but, mercifully, it was not. In fact, we had some really beautiful days though one morning we had minor rain. Dunedin with about 130,000 inhabitants is quite a pleasant town to…
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Random Observations during Trip to Australia and New Zealand
More Details: Random Observations during Trip to Australia and New ZealandAs I used to do when my writing was in email form to friends and family, I am going to share some of the random things I observed that caught my attention in my trip to Australia and New Zealand. These are not earth-shattering observations or anything that is better or worse in the places…
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Criss-crossing the southern island of New Zealand
More Details: Criss-crossing the southern island of New ZealandBesides flying into and out of the country and riding the TranzAlpine train, buses (or coaches) were my main mode of travel. I was surprised that trains were not talked about much in my readings about how to move about the country but it seems buses are the main way to get around (outside of…