Portugal

June 20, 2026 by Janet Levinger

We had a lovely trip to Portugal. We started with a few days in Porto. Then bicycled from Porto to just outside of Lisbon: 5 days, 250 miles, 10,500 feet elevation gain. We finished with a few days in Lisbon.

Porto

We really enjoyed walking around Porto and Gaia. And we walked miles over the days we were there. I loved the red tile roofs, cobblestone streets, and tiled buildings.

A very special highlight of our stay was a visit to the Ramos Pinto Cellars and Museum in Porto, followed by a drive to the Douro Valley to visit their estate and have lunch.

The Bike Ride

Our bike journey.5 days, 250 miles, 10,500 feet elevation gain. We were blessed with amazing weather. No rain and temperatures in the 60s so while chilly in the morning, we never got too hot. We followed the coast and went through summer beach towns where most things were still closed since we were pre-season. We cycled through forests and farms, near dunes and lakes.

It was just the four of us riding. The bike company provided detailed instructions for the route, along with information on what we would see along the way and ideas of where to eat lunch and dinner. We left our bags in the hotel lobby each morning, and they moved them to the next stop so they were waiting for us when we got in. We had amazing food, met very friendly people, and saw the Portuguese coast up close.

Janet used her old cell phone as a camera, keeping it in the back pocket of Will’s bike jersey for easy access. Will had his Meta glasses and amused all of us with his (sometimes angry) conversations with Meta and his excitement when he realized he could have Meta take a video and post it instantly to his Instagram account.

Day 1: Porto to Costa Nova — 60 miles

We got moving only 20 minutes later than expected. Getting out of Porto was terrifying. We traveled down steep, narrow, cobblestone-paved streets, dodging traffic and people. Just when we got to the other side of the river and were about to take off, we got a flat tire. Turned out that the tubes we had packed were not the right size. Fortunately, Will was able to patch the tube, and we continued on.

Most of the day, we were on a fairly flat, paved bike trail along the coast. We came to a village with a bike store and bought new tubes. We rode sometimes on a paved trail and sometimes on a wooden bike trail. We passed through a pretty forest. At the end of the day, we took a ferry to Costa Nova, which is a seaside fishing village known for its brightly striped buildings. We were told the stripes helped the fishermen identify the village from the sea.

Day 2 Costa Nova to Figueira da Foz — 45 miles

We were mostly on the nicely paved Euro Vela Road, though with 3-4 miles of gravel. We had 14 mph wind at our back. Will and stood, and the wind pushed us like sails – we were going about 8 mph without peddling at all. The ride was pretty, with picturesque bridges and lakes.

After a while, the scrubby vegetation along the shore got a bit boring. But I never tired of seeing the water. We passed many shrubs that we initially thought were olive trees. But on closer inspection (and with the help if Google Lens), we identified them as an invasive plant called the long leaf wattle. We passed the first of many windmills and took a break at a pretty lake with a huge swing. The day ended with a steep climb!

Day 3 Figueira da Foz to São Pedro de Moel — 38 miles

Today was the shortest ride. We started on a brief ferry ride and then rode through forests of fir and eucalyptus trees, which were planted to make paper. We also rode by the paper factory. Again, we passed by a pretty little lake. São Pedro de Moel had a lovely beach, which we walked along to watch the waves roar over some rock formations.

Day 4 São Pedro de Moel to Peniche — 56 miles

This was a long day with steep climbs at the end. Early in the day, we rode about 10 miles of unpaved road around a lake that had lots of kite surfers. Toward the end, we had about 5 miles of unpaved rural roads, some of which were pretty sandy, so harder and slower to ride – not relaxing at all.

We saw many farms with an abundance of vegetables: corn, potatoes, leeks, peppers, cabbage, and beans. We also passed grape vines, pear trees, and a lemon orchard.

We had lunch in a cute little beach town that was mostly empty since it was pre-season and still chilly for the beach.

As we got to Peniche, we saw a burned forest with many fallen trees. The hotel owner told us there was a fire in 2017. Then a huge wind storm in 2025 with winds up to 90 mph. The trees that had survived the fire were not strong and were felled by the windstorm. He said the town was lucky in 2017 with the fire. The wind was blowing inland, to the east and blew the fire away from the town. Otherwise, it would certainly have been destroyed or damaged.

Day 5 Peniche to Ericeira — 45 miles

This was the hardest day with more climbs than other days, though not as steep as Day 4. Beautiful coastal views, cute beach towns, and lots of farms.

Lisbon

Our friends left their rental bikes in Ericeira for the tour group to bike up. We packed our up into the suitcases and we all took an Uber into Lisbon. Lisbon is a big city so we were very glad not to be biking in!

We were in Lisbon for the Santo António Festival, which honors Saint Anthony, the patron saint of the city. The festivities begin in early June and culminate on June 12. During this period, Lisbon’s streets come alive with street parties, parades, music, and dancing. The festivities truly last all night. We had to close our window at the hotel.

I really liked the buildings with tile and the narrow winding streets. We had an amazing view of the port from the hotel.

Filed Under: Travel

2024: A Big Year for Will & Janet

December 27, 2024 by wpoole8

Putting politics aside, 2024 was a momentous year for both of us. We started the year staying at our place on the Big Island of Hawaii as we’ve done for the past three years. Work starts for me long before sunrise. Janet stays on a less early but still busy schedule. We entertained ourselves with visits from friends and family, bike rides, scuba diving, and amazing sunsets nearly every day. We ended the year in Hawaii as well, with me partially recovering from surgery for a partial retinal detachment from which I’m now recovering from a second less invasive surgery the second week of January, and for which I’ve included a public service announcement at the end of this blog. If you’re particularly nearsighted, please be sure to read it.

I’m 25% Swedish but had never been to Sweden even for business. Our good friend Janet M. is 50% Swedish and was in the same situation. In June, the two Janets, Janet M’s husband Tim, and I went to Copenhagen and then drove across Sweden. We visited our ancestral homelands where we enjoyed both the countryside and Stockholm, and completed our trip in Kiruna, the Northern-most inhabited Swedish city, inside the Artic Circle.

In October, we joined friends in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) India for about a week to experience an annual event called Durga Puja, during which the goddess Durga’s victory over evil is celebrated. Even our Indian friends pointed out “…it’s really crowded…”, which says something. Millions attend, similar but likely larger to the numbers for Carnival in Rio. The crowds were not as bad as we were warned, and it was visually stunning along with great cultural immersion, learning, and wonderful Bengali food. More here.

Fulfilling Work for Both of Us

While we did have two nice vacations this year, Janet and I both worked as hard as ever, enjoying most of it as usual. Janet finished her time on the Seattle Foundation board, ramped up her engagement with the Womens Donor Network, and helped the reproductive rights nonprofit she co-founded get into high gear. All of the younger generation are doing well, with William still using big data and AI to help find the fountain of youth at Altos Labs, Sarah with a thriving therapy practice as well as a thriving new office concept for therapists, The Reflective Collective, and Aabha happily working to bring healthcare and AI together at Commure.

I remain focused on venture capital investing in India and the Global South, with a team distributed around the world. There are now only four of us in USA, five spread from Mexico City to Sao Paulo, two in Nairobi, fifteen in Bangalore, and two in Jakarta. We had two big milestones this year – one very profitable sale of a gig enablement company in India, and a second similarly profitable partial sale of our stake in a payments company (that’s now a unicorn!) addressing the under-banked in Nigeria. It helps grow one’s VC business when you start chasing your investors to get their bank info to send them money. With three other companies preparing for IPOs in 2025, the year ahead will not be boring; planning and capacity building is the name of the game. I’ve also been writing quite a bit about VC and Generative AI in the Global South, with some interesting posts here and others here. And I am almost through the first draft of a book I’m co-authoring, titled “Flourishing with AI“. I’m always looking for interesting people to interview for the book – please send anyone my way you think would be interesting (target age 27 to 40).

A Public Service Announcement: Take Care of Your Eyes

As alluded to above, I ended the year with a narrow miss in losing vision in my right eye, and as of week 1 January, I’m still not out of the woods, with a second less invasive surgical recovery in the process. I’ve known I’m at risk of retinal issues as they run in my family (my dad had a detachment when he was 30, and his mother and grandmother had issues as well). I’ve been religious about getting annual exams and watching for anything remotely out of the ordinary. To make a long story short, I had my third posterior vitreous detachment (“PVD”) in late October, which led to a partial retinal detachment likely at the same time, but not diagnosed by two different specialists until I saw a third the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (Nov 26th). The detachment was not caused by my mountain biking or anything I did other than being fathered by someone with similar issues that he inherited as well. Genetics are what they are; being acutely aware is usually all you can do. This is how I spent a week post-surgery, lying on my side or face down, 24×7, other than a few breaks a day. And how I’m doing it again after surgery #2. Ugh.

If you are very nearsighted (which you can determine by a negative number in your distance vision correction in your glasses or contacts being between -3.5 to -6) or extremely nearsighted (greater than -6), and/or you have a family history of retinal issues, please pay attention. Being over 50 is another contributing factor. If you’re farsighted or average nearsigned and have no family history, this situation is not likely to be a problem for you.

PVDs as the Beginning: PVDs are quite common in people over 50 who are modestly nearsighted. In their simplest form, they create a floater or two and nothing else. But they can be indicative of a potential for a future retinal tear, which is why you should learn the symptoms of a PVD, how to distinguish between a floater and a sign of a retinal tear, and to in all cases ensure you see a good retinal doctor as immediately as possible if you notice a PVD.

Your Eyes and Detachments

Vitreous Humor: This is a gel-like substance that fills the eye, primarily composed of water and collagen. At birth, it has a gel state due to a network of fine collagen fibrils. With age, the collagen fibrils aggregate and the vitreous becomes more liquid, leading to a condition known as vitreous liquefaction. This process typically begins around age four and continues throughout life.

Vitreous Detachment: As the vitreous shrinks and liquefies, it may pull away from the retina, a phenomenon referred to as posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). This usually occurs after age 50, with increased risk as one ages. During PVD, the vitreous can exert tearing pressure on the retina due to its attachment at certain points. This can lead to complications such as retinal tears or detachment.

Symptoms: Common symptoms of vitreous detachment include an increase in floaters (small dark spots in vision) and flashes of light in your peripheral vision. These occur when strands of the vitreous cast shadows on the retina and/or tug on it. You need to get them checked, but chances are you are OK. The things to be really focused on are symptoms of retinal detachment. They include bright flashes of light, especially in peripheral vision, blurred vision, new floaters in the eye that appear suddenly, and/or what happened in my case, shadowing or decreased peripheral vision that seems like a curtain or shade across your vision. The latter is a big deal – don’t let anyone try to convince you that it’s “just a big floater” which is what happened to me.

Treatment Speed: Time is of the essence once your retina starts to tear or detach.

I know two people who had partial detachments and were not able to able to treat them as quickly as they should have. One has regained full vision, the other never will. Fortunately, I noticed the symptoms, went to specialists three times, and during the third visit, Doctor Eugene Ng (to whom I’m most grateful) said “uh-oh”. This is not something you want to hear. We did the ultrasound and saw it was clearly torn. The two lines at the bottom of this ultrasound image are my retina pulling off the back of my eye. I went for emergency surgery later that day. That entailed flying from the Big Island of Hawaii to Oahu which is about a 30 minute flight away, where they have a hospital with appropriate specialized equipment and trained nurses to support the surgeon. We came back the next day and I then spent the following week working from my phone lying face down and/or lying on my side looking at the palm trees and listening to podcasts. Thankfully I had Janet and other family members around to help out. And then 4 weeks later, going in for a routine post-op checkup, we found some anomalies, went to a specialist who did the deep imaging, and found that I have yet another partial detachment in evidence. Hence surgery #2 which is a little different and hopefully will be a once-and-for-all fix. Dr. Eng used a series of laser zaps. Imagine looking into a bright light and the doc looking through a special lens to see the places to fix and he pulls the trigger and a laser cooks a little bit of your eye to make the scar tissue hold it all together. I’ve done this twice now, which hopefully is all that’s needed. I will not know that for another month or two, but everyone is fairly confident that this will work.

Summary

When I had my first PVD 2.5 years ago, it freaked me out and I went to see a specialist immediately. They confirmed it was not a problem, and they said I was likely to have one in the other eye within a year. That indeed happened about a year later, and I took it in stride, going to see a specialist a few weeks after, as I was a bit of an expert at that point. It was the third time, about 9 months later, that the symptoms were different. Thankfully I jumped on it and monitored closely, ultimately getting surgeries not too long after the tears kicked in, and I’m confident I’ll have a full recovery. Recommendation to my readers: if you have any of the correlated risks noted above, dive in and learn more, do not doubt yourself when you see things that do not seem right, don’t take chances, and be prepared to do whatever it takes to get it fixed quickly if this happens to you.

Will

Filed Under: Personal Reflections, Travel Tagged With: health, pvd, retina

Kolkata India — Durga Puja and More

October 15, 2024 by Janet Levinger

Will and I went to Kolkata India for Durga Puja. This is a festival in honor of the goddess Durga and is a huge event in Kolkata and the surrounding area of Bengal. Literally millions of people attend. (One web site said there were 30 million visitors in 2022). Durga Puja is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage event. The festival lasts for many days with each day having different meanings. We went for 2 ½ days

Describing the scene is difficult and even photos and videos do not do it justice. There are thousands of displays which are called pandals. Some are massive, multistory buildings. Most are modest with each neighborhood or apartment complex creating their own pandal each year.

Pandals

The pandals are temporary and all have basically the same format: The Goddess Durga with 10 arms is in the center with a trident and blood on her hands and riding on a lion. Beneath her is Mahishahura, a demon that is part buffalo and part human. Durga has or is killing the demon. Then to Durga’s left (our right), you see Saraswati the goddess of knowledge and music who rides on a swan and to her left (our far right) Karthik the god of war who rideps on a peacock. On Durga’s right (our left) is Lakshmi goddess of wealth who rides on an owl and then Ganesha god of good beginnings and the remover of obstacles who rides on a mouse.

As I understand it, Durga was created by the three main gods, Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, to kill the demon Mahishahura. Mahishahura cannot be killed by gods or man. But that meant he could be killed by a woman. So, Durga kills him.

Another tradition is to have a Durga Puja Bhog meal which means it is free for all. We were invited to share one with friends. It consisted of several dishes, a tasty chutney and a sweet dessert.

The festival goes on 24 hours a day for many days with amazing lights during the dark hours, plus lots of drumming and incense at various times. It was crowded and noisy and smoky and very hot. But worth seeing.

We went out the afternoon and into the evening the first day we were there. Some of the large pandals which I am told cost millions of dollars were extremely crowded with lines to get in to see them. There was security which kept everyone moving but it was hard to see things. Most of the large pandals have themes such as water, connecting with mother earth, or peace. They also have exhibits leading up to the actual display which were impressive.

Because the evening was so crowded, we decided the next day (which was the last day of the festival) to get up early at 4 am and go out while it was still dark so we could see the lights but with fewer crowds. We took an Uber to a place with many pandals and then wondered around.

As we were walking around — we saw a tight rope walker, bottle recycling, and some colonial houses.

Videos

This is a small neighborhood pandal we walked by at dawn.

This one the following video are from a large pandal with a theme about water. It was huge and very crowded.

The second video from the pandal about water — this is further along.

The only one with female drummers — this was a smaller pandal.

This was on a street leading up to some pandals.

Also on a street leading to pandals.

Immersing the Pandals

As I said, the pandals are temporary. The statues are mostly made of clay. So, at the end of the festival, they prepare the gods and goddesses and then bring them – over the course of several days – to immerse them in the river Hooghly which is a distributary of the Ganges. First the small, local pandals are brought. Then the large ones – they use cranes to lift the large ones into the river. Will went out at night to watch them immerse the pandals.

Other Sites in Kolkata and Wandering

On our last day, we toured some Kolkata sites, but also took in a about 10 additional pandals that had not yet been dismantled. We visited a lovely Jain Temple and took a boat ride under the Howrah bridge. We also went to the Marble Palace, the Indian Museum, and a local market.

Boat Trip on the Hooghly

Jain Temple and Area

Wandering

On the day we got up early, we got a little lost along the way so we walked through a low-income neighborhood at dawn. Two white people looking lost clearly amused the locals. We saw very very few western tourists during our entire trip — even at our hotel. I did not get many photos because I try to be discrete.

Filed Under: Travel

Copenhagen and Sweden

June 14, 2024 by Janet Levinger

We spent two weeks in Copenhagen and Sweden. We had an awesome time. Lots of things to see and do, great food, super friendly people.

Copenhagen

We were in Copenhagen 2 ½ days. I could easily have spent another day – or even two! I loved the energy. We toured the main tourist sites. We also visited the botanical gardens which were lovely. The truck hanging from the tower was for a yearly festival called Distortion which just happened to be going on when we arrived. Big outdoor party.

Sweden

The reason we went to Sweden in the first place is because Will is one-quarter Swedish and our friend is one-half Swedish. Turns out they come from towns very close to each other.

Malmo

We took a train from Copenhagen to Malmo just across the border to Sweden and rented a car. We spent a few hours in Malmo. Had a great lunch including our first Swedish Meatballs in Sweden!

Lund

We drove to Lund where we spent the night. Lund is a university town and fun to walk around. The Cathedral has an astronomical clock from the 1400s (and restored since then). Twice a day, it becomes animated with heralds raising their trumpets and statuettes of the the Three Kings and others paradign across the top of the clock.

The Kulturen is an Open Air Museum that is several blocks big. It contains historic buildings from the middle ages on as well as some old runestones. It was surprisingly interesting. The homes, farms, and other buildings were well preserved and presented. I learned a lot.

Helsingborg

After Lund, we drove to Växjö and stopped on the way for lunch and a short visit in Helsingborg. Helsingborg is only about 2 miles from the Danish coast. Because of its strategic position, it has a 12^th century fortress. We climbed up to see the view which showed both modern including a modern ferry, and old. Beautiful view.

Växjö

From there, we went to Växjö where we spent two nights. We went to the House of Emigrants Museum where we did an audio tour about Swedish emigration and then met with a specialist where Will and our friend looked up info about their families. Växjö (pronounced something like “vek-chwa”) is a lovely town with several lakes with a beautiful double spired cathedral. I walked four miles around a lake which had a charming, mostly shaded path and sculptures along the way.

Anbey

We stopped briefly in Aneby – the town where Will’s ancestors are from. The records about his family are from the church below.

Stockholm

We spent three days in Stockholm. We stayed in the Old City. We went to see the Royal Palace and changing of the guard. We took a boat ride through the Stockholm Archipelago which has 30,000 islands. We went to the top of City Hall which has a spectacular view of the city and we visited Sodermalm which also provides wonderful views. We walked all over the city – I clocked 12 miles two days and 10 miles the other day. I loved the old and the new.

Kiruna

Finally, we flew to Kiruna which is the northernmost city in Sweden and in the arctic circle. I wanted to go because I love the Midnight Sun. It truly never got dark while we were there.

Kiruna has the largest iron ore mine in Europe. This has brought great prosperity to the town. But the mining has also caused the land to be unstable so they are moving the entire town to a safe area.

We asked several random people – someone we met hiking, someone we met standing in line at the food truck, as well as the guide (who is actually Finnish) about the mine. None of these people were unhappy. The town has grown 30% since 2016. There is full employment between the mine and the other companies supporting the mine (as well as tourism in Winter). The government gave people 125% of market value for their old homes. They are proud that the mine is 2% of Sweden’s GDP. I am sure there are others who object. We did not run into them.

While here, we went hiking in a nearby ski resort, took a Midnight Sun boat ride on the Torne River, and visited a Sami open-air museum to learn more about the Sami culture and pet some reindeer. We also stopped by the famous Ice Hotel and I confirmed that I definitely would not want to stay there.

Filed Under: Travel

Mexico City

June 10, 2024 by Janet Levinger

I spent a week in Mexico City in May 2024. I was fascinated to learn that Mexico City was originally built on a group of islands in Texcoco Lake that the Spanish drained to have more land and to control flooding. The Aztecs came from the north (apparently their language is similar to Cherokee). The tribes living on the lake were not welcoming so the Aztecs moved to the islands. The Aztecs were not good to the other tribes which the Spanish exploited when they came to the area. The Spanish were able to convert surrounding tribes and get them to fight against the Aztecs. As the adage says, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Mexico City is a huge city. Traffic is terrible. Air pollution bad. It was unusually hot when we were there and many places did not have air conditioning. Mexico City is also at high elevation — about 7300 feet. I had not realized this before either.

Merced Market

I went to Merced Market twice — once with a guide as I did an “overview of Mexico City” tour and once with the group on a food tasting tour. It is a fun and vibrant place, selling everything. We tasted tacos and tamales, mole and fruit drinks. And bugs.

These are murals in a building near Merced Market. As with so many murals in Mexico City, they show the struggle of common people against a corrupt elite.

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

I went with the guide to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The story is of a great miracle where an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appears on the cape of an indigenous person. As she looked like the native people and there were other symbols that locals understood, it helped the Spanish convert the local people and enlist their help to defeat the Aztecs.

In the compound are several churches built over the years. The smallest one is the highest up and has a beautiful view.

In addition, local people would come with pictures of people in their families who needed help because they were sick, for example, and post them in the Basilica. The guide told me that Frida Kahlo was very influenced by these.

We stayed in Polanco which is near a great park with has the Modern Art Museum and the Anthropology Museum. I liked these fingers outside the Anthropology Museum.

Murals

We did a Mural Tour where we visited the Palace of Fine Arts and the xxx.

The Palace of Fine Arts is Neoclassical on the outside with an Art Deco interior. It has murals by Rufino Tamayo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. I loved having a guide to tell us more about the art and the architecture.

Filed Under: Travel

Cool Birds from New Orleans

January 2, 2024 by Janet Levinger

Went to New Orleans with some friends. Had a lovely walk in Audubon Park and saw the biggest swan I have ever seen as well as hundreds of black bellied whistling ducks.

Filed Under: Travel

River Rafting Middle Fork Salmon River Idaho

August 12, 2023 by Janet Levinger

August 2023

We did a six-day river rafting trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho organized by Mountain Travel Sobek. We flew into Boise, then took a small plane to Stanley, Idaho where we spent the night. Because the water was low, we took another small plane ride the next morning to the place we put ito the water. We then paddled or oared down river through lots of fun rapids to Salmon, Idaho. Along the way, we relaxed in hot springs, took some beautiful hikes, and cooled off in fresh streams. We had fun with long-time friends and made a lot of new friends. We were lucky that the weather was not too hot — or too cold — though we did get rain three nights in camp. One night, we had rain and hail.

I did not get a lot of photos from the boats since we were too wet going down the rapids to have my phone out.

Filed Under: Travel

Brazil

June 20, 2023 by Janet Levinger

We had eight days to visit Brazil and went to Iguazu Falls, Rio, and Sao Paulo. Despite being winter, the weather was fine — except morning at Iguazu. We loved the food and the music.

Iguazu Falls

First stop Iguazu Falls — we went one day to the Argentinian side where we walked along the paths, seeing the falls, flora, and quite a few pretty critters. The next day we did the Brazilian side and were glad to see both as the views were so different.

Iguazu Falls are the widest in the world. Niagara Falls has the most water and Victoria Falls is the steepest. Our guide told us that there are really about 250 separate falls.

We saw lots of pretty butterflies and birds around the falls. The coati are a nuisance, stealing food from people who are picnicking.

And a highlight — a cachaca tasting at the hotel.

Rio de Janeiro

Second stop: Rio. Unfortunately, Rio was gray and foggy while we were there. Still we saw Christ the Redeemer and took the gondola up Sugarloaf Mountain. We did a fun Carnaval Experience — complete with trying on costumes and getting a brief samba lesson. We walked around downtown. We went for a lovely hike in the Tijuca Forest. No photos of food but we enjoyed the street food as much as the fine restaurants. We did private cooking class one day and sampled lots of traditional and more modern Brazilian food.

View from Gondola on the way to Sugerloaf.

Monkeys in Tijuca Forest

Below are photos from our Carnaval Experience

Sao Paulo

We only had a day in Sao Paulo to tour but enjoyed parks, street markets, and fairs as well as the view from the Museum of Contemporary Art. And as usual, we tried lots of great food including an Amazonian restaurant where we sampled ants that were fed exclusively on lemon grass and a street cart that sold traditional Afro-Brazilian food.

Food From Great Amazonian Restaurant in Sao Paulo

We had dinner with colleagues at a wonderful Amazonian restaurant in Sao Paulo called Banzeiro. The food was great. And yes we did eat ants. They are farm raised, fed only lemon grass, and then freeze dried. They taste like crunchy lemon grass. The fish was fresh water — Brazilians says “sweet water.” Note the photos were taken by Will.

Filed Under: Travel

Chiapas Mexico

December 26, 2018 by Janet Levinger

Just spent five wonderful days in Chiapas Mexico. We toured the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, a colonial town founded in 1528. It is at 7200 feet elevation so chilly. I especially liked the markets where the fruit was arranged artistically. We climbed up a hill to see a local church — apparently the Spanish did not mix with the locals even at church. From there we had a beautiful view of the city including a colorful community next to a quarry. We also watched the sunset from the roof of our hotel.

San Cristobal de las Casas

San Cristobal de las Casas — sunset from our hotel

The next day was long! Five+ hour drive to Palenque and Agua Azul. Palenque is a 1000-year old Mayan city. Our guide said it was the third largest. It had been covered by jungle and is now partially restored.

Ancient Mayan City Palenque

Agua Azul is a waterfall. Then we had the long drive back.

Waterfall near Palenque called Agua Azuul

Water fall near Palenque called Agua Azul.

We visited two indigenous villages. Zinacantan is known for artisan textiles elaborately embroidered by the local women. It is also known for growing flowers and there are many greenhouses.

Indigenous Village Zinacantan where women make beautifully embroidered textiles

Indigenous Village Zinacantan

Indigenous Village Zinacantan — local women embroidering with their babies

Indigenous Village Zinacantan where they have green houses for flowers.

The people in the other village, Chamula, practice a unique combination of Mayan and Catholic religion. They also wear distinctive wool clothing — especially the women. The skirts look like shaggy rugs.

Indigenous Village Chamula where locals practice a unique religion that combines Mayan and Catholicism

Indigenous Village Chamula where locals practice a unique religion that combines Mayan and Catholicism. Note the unique wool skirt worn by the women.

Indigenous Village Chamula where locals practice a unique religion that combines Mayan and Catholicism

Our last day, we took a boat ride through Sumidero Canyon which is about 1 km deep. We saw a crocodile, a monkey, and lots of birds. We then drove up to the viewpoints and looked down.

Sumidero Canyon

Sumidero Canyon -Colorful Cave with statue of St Guadalupe-

Sumidero Canyon

Will, me, and the kids at Sumidero Canyon

Filed Under: Travel

Alaska Cruise

June 25, 2017 by Janet Levinger

I went to Alaska with my 89-year-old Dad, my 83-year-old step mom, my 79-year-old mother-in-law and a friend. We left from Seattle and went to Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. We stopped for a few hours in Victoria BC but we did not get off the ship. It was a great way for my parents to travel. The scenery was beautiful, though not that different from what I have seen in the San Juans, Desolation Sound and other places in British Columbia.