Paracas is not one of the top destinations for people visiting Peru and who only have a week or two, but for those who spend time in the country, they find a way to make it down to this beach town. The town itself does not boast anything special that you could not find in any beach resort anywhere in the world. There are numerous restaurants, and sandy beaches, but it is when you get out of the town and look at the sights a little distant from the shores that you discover what Paracas really has to offer.
One of the things that many people do is to take a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands, a group of two jagged outcropping that was once used to harvest guano and brought to Peru many riches. It has since been taken over by the government and kept as a nature reserve that you can take a two-hour boat ride out there to see the various animals that now overrun the islands. It is often called the poor man’s Galapagos, and though the islands are rich with animals, you cannot see the diversity that Darwin discovered that made the other island chain as famous as it is today. Still for only twenty U.S. dollars, you can enjoy a nice morning traveling around the islands and watching the birds, crabs and sea lions that call it home. It will also take you along the coast of Peru where you can witness one of its more famous Nazca lines, strange traces in the earth all along Peru that were left behind by an earlier civilization and nobody knows much about except they are cool to look at.
The islands itself is best visited in the months of December through March because that is when the wildlife is out their in abundance. It is the perfect place to look for penguins as they jumps their way over the rocky cliffs and jump into the water to go for a swim.
It is also the time of the year when the sea lion are out there engaging in their mating rituals. They will move off to warmer waters soon afterwards, but at the end of March, they are engaged in raising their newly born children and relaxing on the beaches that are a part of this island.
It is not always the perfect nature reserve though. There are still the remnants of a time when humans controlled the islands. Most of these ruins have been left behind, but the Peruvian government has built up a couple of the buildings so a couple of people couple work there to make sure that they could conserve the area of this preserve and make sure nobody came along to destroy the delicate balance of nature that is left behind.
Though many people who make their way out to Peru will never witness this little piece of paradise, it is a nice spot to go to for those who are willing to spend a little more time out in the area. It is easily the biggest highlight on a trip to Paracas and one you should consider if your path takes you our here during the months of December through March.
The salt air will never erode away That this town continues to operate. Both of us are always going to stay; We will figure how to co-habitate. It will eat at the corrugated steel That gives us shelter from wild weather, But we know that the rusted roofs will heal When they are replaced to overexposure. The warped wood is part of our city’s charm That only the outside will notice. When they say something they do not mean harm; The longer you live here, the more you miss. I enjoy life in this fishing village At the edge of the continental stage.
Mountaintops peek out from a sea of ice Hoping to survive from its greedy bite, Knowing time will enact the ice’s price. They know they cannot win against this fight, So they will still stand while they are able Before the slow advance breaks them apart, Leaving behind a pile of peeble Flowing down where the ocean will start. It is here the mountain becomes the sand And the glacier turns into the water Reuniting upon a distant land That neither of them had thought to charter. Will they ever return to that first sea That is dying because of you and me?
When the final scallop has been eaten And I’ve mopped up the spicy sauce with bread; When the volcano top has been beaten, Just so I could disprove what you had said; After the kayak has been put to shore From skimming out to a calving glacier; After we have visited the gift store We are forced to see on a museum tour; When the mementoes are in the cases That we have purchased without much thinking; When we have gotten rid of all traces In hotels where our butts had been sinking; With the memories of this holiday, We can return to our regular fray.
Winter storms have covered the land in snow, And the chilly winds have kept folks indoors. They have to shovel if they wish to go To any of the restaurants or stores, But they wish to stay away from the slop That coats roads in an obstacle course Where sometimes they are unable to stop, And physics operates in a new force. If only they could get away from there Where winter is a distant memory, A warm place with a desert atmosphere With a pool under a stand of palm trees. It’s a lifestyle they might not have heard, Leaving cold behind to be a snowbird.
After all the time we spent together Traveling the vast globe from pole to pole, After a month of seeing all weather From the icy winds to the blazing sol, After we have put the parents to bed Reversing the roles we now have to share, After the good nights which we both have said Accompanied by a kiss of our care, After we have unpacked the suitcases Finding spots in our house for new trinkets, After we have bathed and washed out faces And got into bed under thick blankets, We can put away our long vacation Returning to our normal rotation.
Sunlight filters through the cracks of the tent, And tries to reach the safety of my bag Where I dig in more to avoid the glint, Giving the morning the okay to lag. The sun burns off the night but not the cold As I can see my breath hang in the air. Leaving the warmth of my bed would be bold, And I will give it time before I dare. Both the campfire and the hike can wait; They will still be there once I have risen Because where I find myself now is great, And those other things I am not missing. This is my favorite part of camping, To start each day continuing napping.
Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by palm trees and swimming pools on a hot day? Who wouldn’t want this to happen in February, usually one of the coldest months in the Northern Hemisphere? There are many people in the northern part of the United States that ask themselves this question every year, and some of them actually do something about it. They pack up their belongings, hop on a plane or rev up the old car, and head south to warmer climes. If they live on the East Coast of the United States, they usually end up in Florida, but on the West Coast, they end up scattered all over the Southwest. One of the places that you can find a lot of them is in Coachella Valley in California.
Coachella Valley is the perfect place to escape to during the months of December, January, February, and March. Basically, the place is a desert, but during these months, it is not too hot, and it makes for each day to be a pleasant experience where hanging outside, and enjoying the stark landscape is all that you need to feel like you have escaped from the cold weather from the north. Oddly, it felt a bit warmer there from where I had just voyaged from, and that was in the southern hemisphere where they were experiencing summer. However, I was on the southern tip of South America in the Patagonia region, and even though it is summer there, it still has the ability to get quite cool there. So I was enjoying the warmer weather and it was perfect.
Even at night, it would cool off a bit, but I could still wander around the neighborhood we were staying in wearing the shorts and t-shirts designed for the summertime in other parts of the world. It was hard to believe that I was living in the heart of the winter months while I was there. I could see why many people travelled to this part of the world to get away from that cold.
It made me start to reconsider what I would usually do for vacation during those colder months of the year. I was able to start and see the benefit of being one of those snowbirds, of collecting my bags, and renting that house to occupy for a week or two. It made me feel like I was at home and on vacation at the same time, and I think that is what is at the heart of being a snowbird, having that feel of both things at the same time.
Until next time, I hope you look for those opportunities to live the life of a group that you never thought you would join before.
Over the hills east of Los Angeles about two hours way by car, there lies a dessert valley that first got discovered by the stars of the golden age of movies. They built houses out there, and soon the valley became populated with tennis courts, golf courses, casinos, and polo grounds. It was a paradise surrounded by large granite mountains that protected the valley from harsh weather, and the prying eyes of the metropolis just 120 miles away. Way back in 1935 an electrical engineer named Francis Freeman Crocker proposed to build a tram up one of the mountains so people could explore the wilderness that sat on top of the rocky peak. It wasn’t until 1963 that his dream became a reality and it has since then been one of the larger tourist sights in the valley bringing thousands of people a day to ride up to the top and wander around through the beauty of nature that is possessed there.
The tram itself is the largest rotating aerial tram in the world, and the two and a half mile voyage to the top of the mountain takes about ten minutes to complete as the room they put you in rotates around so you can view all of the wonders that come with this spectacular spot. It is a crowded car where they put up to eighty people into it. Despite the numbers, it is still not as claustrophobic as you would think, and if you sit a little back away from the window, you can find a rail to lean against that will rotate with the room so you will not feel as if the room is rotating with you.
The ride is worth it because it does take you up to an amazing view of the valley below. From up there you can look out of the wilderness that sprawls out on top of the mountain or turn around the other way and see Palm Springs, La Quinta, and Indio as it spreads out on the dessert floor. Also if you look close enough, you can pick out the San Andreas fault as it threatens to split California in two. It is also a great way to escape the heat from the city as it can be over ten degrees cooler on the top even to the point of collecting snow on a few of the winter days.
As I looked over the valley, I couldn’t help but to think about how beautiful it would be looking at it when it was night and all of the city lights were on. There is an option with the tram to take it up there during the night time and have a meal at the restaurant that is on the top so you can look at the night lights. If you are thinking about doing this, keep in mind that it can be very expensive as an adult ticket costs at the time of the writing of this blog, 43 dollars per person and only offers a cafeteria style kind of meal. This does not include parking that you will need to get up to the tram, and that is an extra 15 dollars per vehicle. You can still get a reservation at the restaurant on top of the mountain but that is also expensive, and will require a ticket to go up the tram which is at 37 dollars per adult.
Just know that it does cost some money to take the tram up to the top, but once there there are many hiking opportunities. There is a three-quarter of a mile nature hike that is rather easy and takes you to some pretty spots. Or you could take the mile and a half trip out to the dessert viewing point, and for the very adventurous person, you could take the twelve hour hike that will take you past the campgrounds and deep into the wilderness. It can get cold up there which is a dramatic shift from the dessert floor where we originally started from, so if you do plan on doing some hiking, I recommend that you bring layers of clothes with you to make the adjustments needed depending on the changing weather.
It is a great day trip to take if you find yourself in the Coachella Valley. I spent a good four or five hours there, and did not really look into the museums that were at both the bottom and top levels of the tram. There is of course shopping there as well as a fifteen-minute informative movie that is shown at regular intervals. You have plenty of options of things to do, and all of them make for the perfect day up top of San Jacinto Peak.
Until next time, enjoy those little gems wherever you may find them.
I’m sorry about the lateness of this post. Usually I am sharing with you the biggest posts of the year right around New Year’s Day, but because I was traveling through Patagonia at that time, I wasn’t able to sit down and sort through all of the data until now. 2025 was a crazy year for most of us for various reasons, and this was no different for me. I had taken a new job in Peru in July, so I spent a lot of the time getting all of my stuff together and moving it halfway around the world in Jordan. During that time, I was able to travel to many places such as Egypt, London, around Jordan one last time and a couple of trips back to the United States, but most of my time was spent moving all of our stuff and our puppy to Peru. Because of the visa requirements, I was not able to leave Peru once we arrived, but this was not a bad thing because the time I did have off was spent traveling through this amazing country. I hope you enjoy this look back of last year, and here is to more opportunities to see the world this year.
2025 was the last year that I spent in Jordan, and before we left, we started to have visitors. I was able to make the Jordan Loop, (Petra, the Dead Sea, and Jerash) one last time. It was a month before I left, and it was like my farewell tour of the area. I do consider myself lucky that I was able to make this trip that one last time, and do it with such good friends. It allowed me to create great memories of Jordan before I left it forever.
Egypt featured heavily in the posts for 2025, showing up four times in the top 10. The first time was a poem that I had written while out there, thinking about what it would be like to be a mummy so many years after you had been rediscovered by archaeologists. It was great to see them, but it was also gave me a sense of dread of what it would be like to have your body on display in a museum so people could come by and view you.
My first post of the year was also one of your favorites. I spent a lot of time in the States this year, and I had spent some of that time with my family during the holidays. It is easily the best way to spend this time of year, and it always makes for great memories, but at the same time, there comes that moment when you have to pack everything up, and return to the life that you live. It is the reason that January is always a quiet month for most people, but it was still nice to have this to hold on to during that quiet month.
I made a big move this year, coming from Jordan halfway around the world to land in Peru. Because it was my first year there, I needed to stay in Peru for my visa. It is not a bad place to be stuck in as there are a lot of things to see. We were holding off on the big one, Machu Picchu, because we knew we would have visitors and we would see that eventually, so we went off to other locations. Our first big trip was to Arequipa, and it is a place in Peru that is not talked about enough. The monastery is a great place to visit if you are in Arequipa, and a lot of people enjoyed the post.
A return to Egypt with another poem about my time in Cairo. I really enjoyed this unexpected trip last year as what I thought would be another experience in a Muslim country turned out to be a cultural education about one of the oldest places in the world. The thing that struck me the most about the place was the way that the people embraced both aspects of their past. There was a huge pride in both their connection to Islam and the Egyptian kings of centuries past. At times, it seemed as if these cultures were at odds with each other, but there was a marriage between the two that allowed them to exist in perfect harmony in this part of the world.
For many people, 2025 was a tough year. The world seemed to be imploding, and as I left one of the parts of the world where that struggle could really be felt, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my time there. I started to take one picture a day during my lat 100 days in Jordan as I went about my routine and posting that picture to Facebook. I was not trying to be political or get people motivated to think a certain way; I was just documenting the mundane. I received a lot of feedback from doing this as it gave people a reprieve from the crazy they were seeing on social media. This little experiment resinated with you as well, and oddly enough, it became a simple way to bring a little happiness to people’s lives during a time when they needed it.
I had gotten back into one of my favorite hobbies, board games, during the 2020 pandemic. It was a great way to have fun with the few people that I had contact with at that time. It turned into something that stuck with me beyond that strange time in the world. As I explored this hobby more, I have gone to a couple board game cafes, but never the one that was right down the street from where my dad lives. Over the summer of 2025, I met a few of my friends down there to finish off our Dungeons and Dragons campaign that we were unable to finish due to me having to leave Jordan early. I am glad that I had finally gone into this place. It has opened the door to look for more of these little places around the world as a way to enjoy a couple hours of downtime during my travels. It was also nice to give Enchanted Grounds a little plug to keep them busy for future years.
As I started to explore the board game hobby more, I started to review the games that I picked up along the way. I have only done one or two reviews a year, but they always seem to be very popular, and people continue to come back to them as they decided on the board games for their collections as well. This year I reviewed one of my favorite solo board games, Onirim. Many people must have been just as curious about this game as I was when I first came across it because it was one of the posts that was visited, and is still visited, the most last year. I still stick with my initial assessment that the game is fun, but the free app is a better way to enjoy the game.
Usually when I think of Egypt, I think of the ancient culture with its pantheon of deities, or the modern people with their position in the Middle East. What I tend to forget about is the fact that Egypt plays a prominent part in the Bible. Jesus and his family spent a lot of time in this part of the world, and even some of the more important saints, such as Saint George, have part of their stories told in Cairo. There is a little corner of the city where these Christianity stories come to life, Coptic Cairo. It added a deeper level of nuance to a part of the world that already held a lot of depth, and it is one of the places on this trip that really stuck with me.
Egypt has been putting a lot of energy and resources in order to get this museum open, and as of October 2024, it was 90 percent of the way there. I was able to visit it shortly after the opening in February of 2025, and the place is easily the best museum that I have ever been in. The collection of antiquities that can be found in this place is overwhelming, but I was lucky enough to have a guide to take me to the things that I really should be seeing. I must have stuck with a lot of you as well because it was the biggest post of mine last year.
Thank you for going through this walk down recent memory lane, and joining me on all my voyages throughout the year. I hope to see you more often in 2026, and look forward to sharing with you all that this crazy world has to offer.
