My 2006 Passport
Pages 8 (the first one that can be stamped) through page 22 are full; some of the stamps are not legible. Page 23 is empty and Page 24 has a Chilean Visa stapled to it.
British Virgin Islands: 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2015: more of our many trips to Guana Island.
Greece: 2007. This was our first Ken McFarland trip. We started out in Athens for several days and then spent the rest of the time on a small boat touring many islands (storms prevented going to Santorini which I visited in 1973), and every evening we did Contra Dancing on the deck of the boat.
New Zealand: 2007. We started out in Christchurch - our hotel was across the street from the cathedral that got severly damaged in the 2011 earthquake. Across the south Island to see the glaciers, and then north to Nelson - wine country. Then to the North Island - Wellington, Napier (the city that gat destroyed by an earthquake and much of the replacement architecture is Art Nouveau), Rotarua, Aukland, and a bit further north to the coast.
London, Kenya, Tanzania: 2008. A Ken McFarland trip. Originally to Kenya, but the political mess in Kenya caused him to relocate most of the trip to Tanzania. The Safari's were incredible. Who wants to go to a zoo to see 2 zebras when you saw thousands of them? The London part was a stopover to visit a friend and avoid two consecutive long flights.
Peru, Chile: 2010. This was a pair of Ken McFarland trips. We went to Cusco and Machu Picchu - a place I'd wanted to visit for many, many years. After that we went to Easter Island. Visits to two fascinating failed civilizations with lots unknown about exactly what happened. The Machu Picchu trip was supposed to be in 2009 but severe rainstorms washed out the railroad and road so it had to be postponed.
Ecuador: 2010 - Galapagos: A Ken McFarland trip - on a small boat cruising around visiting islands, snorkeling, and seeing incredible wildlife - in some places there were so many iguanas you had to walk very carefully to avoid stepping on them.
Italy, Egypt: 2011. This was a Ken McFarland trip to Egypt. It occured right after the revolution and things had quieted down; as a result many of the sights were very empty since most people had cancelled their trips. We had a week on an old paddlewheel steamer on the Nile. We visited Abu Simbel, the temple that was moved because it was going to be flooded by the lake produced by the Aswan dam - quite amazing. We stopped off in Rome for several days on the way. I'd been to Italy quite a few tikes, but this was the first to Rome.
Canada: 2011. Probably a quick trip across the border during a camping trip in Vermont.
Ireland 2012: A Ken McFarland trip to Western Ireland that included English Country dancing every night. The coast and small villages are absolutely gorgeous.
Zurich, Spain: 2012. This was a trip to Barcelona. Such a gorgeous city; I'd been there in 1971 and 1972. Sagrada Familia was quite different this time. Construction starte in 1882 and may be completed in 2026. We also went to Cadequés, a coastal town a couple of hours away where Dali lived - his house is a museum.And we went to Rupit, a town in the mountains that I'd read about in a travel column in the Boston Globe many years before. We flew home through Zurich and took the train into the city while awaiting our next flight and had a nice meal and went to a museum; the train station is right in the airport.
France: 2013. We rented an apartment in Paris and in addiyton to wandering around Paris we took lots of short trips to Versailles, Giverny, and other incredible places. This trip was inspired by Ina Caro's book: Paris to the past; traveling through French history by Train. Our apartment was in the 6th near the 5th and the streets were lively at all times; I'd say there were at least 100 restaurants within a 5 minute walk. The Metor, and the various rail lines made travel so easy.
Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar: 2013. This was a pair of Ken McFarland trips to Cambodia and Myanmar with time in Bangkok at the beginning and end. Such incredible places. Myanmar was just beginning to open up to tourism at the time. One of the many highlights of the Myanmar trip was a few days at Inle Lake in the mountains. zipping around in longboat to get anywhere. Most of the houses were on stilts in the lake and the fishermen had a style of standing on one leg in the stern of their boat, the other leg wrapped around an oar that was tucked in their armpit leaving both hands free to manipulate nets and traps.
Pisa, Cinque Terre, and Florence: 2014. Cinque Terre is a lovely set of 5 hillside towns - we stayed in one and it's easy to get to the others by train, ferry, or hiking - we used all methods. The Florence part was a Ken McFarland trip where we did English Country dancing every night and were sightseers during the day.
Peru: 2015. Ken McFarland trips. First to Cusco and Machu Picchu, then on a boat for a week on the Amazon and some of its tributaries, and finally to Arequipa and Colca Canyon. I was glad to return to Machu Picchu. The trip on the Amazon was amazing jubngle on both sides with small isolated villages - we look lots of short excursions in smaller boats in narrow waterways and lakes - went swimming and fished for and ate Pirañas!
Australia: 2015. Our most recent trip. We went to Sydney, Daydream Island in teh Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, Tasmania, and the Blue Mountains near Sydney. Nice cities, lovely countryside and lots of kangaroos, wallabys, and Tasmanian devils.
Some of the Ken McFarland trips were dancing trips; others were not but most of his travellers were dancing. So we danced in Greece, Tanzania, Chile, Egypt, Ireland, Italy, Myanmar, and Peru. And we danced in Australia.