My son and I were invited to join Carnival in Trinidad, reputedly second only to Rio, with a Caribbean flavor. We had connected with a cousin in New York whose partner is from Trinidad and Tobago. “We go every year. Do you want to come?” she replied when I asked about the famous event. IContinue reading “Carnival in Trinidad”
Tag Archives: Travel
Peru: Machu Picchu and Inca ruins
Continued from my previous post: Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu. We met at 4:30am to begin the hike from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu (old peak) and climbed the seemingly endless stone stairs to the ruins, arriving just as the first buses pulled up. We hustled on by them up the hill, before the busContinue reading “Peru: Machu Picchu and Inca ruins”
Peru: Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu
Cusco sits high in the Andes mountains of Peru, a charming city of tan adobe structures with red tiled roofs, old Spanish churches, winding cobblestone streets up steep hills. My traveling partner, my son Adam, and I met at the Lima airport in the middle of the night. I was coming from Guatemala where IContinue reading “Peru: Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu”
The silence of Iceland: Wildlife
We had booked a stay at a horse ranch up north, west of Akureyri, ahead of time but were disappointed to learn that the owners were not opening for rides for a few weeks. While we soaked in a hot springs pool nearby that evening, my son, in conversation with friendly locals, got a recommendationContinue reading “The silence of Iceland: Wildlife”
The silence of Iceland: Nature
As one might expect from an island nation, water is the stuff of which nature and landscape is formed, but in Iceland it tends toward the extreme and dramatic. Massive glaciers blanket the mountain ranges of the inland center. Geothermal mudpots bubble and steaming geysers reach to the sky. Icebergs float in frigid lakes surroundedContinue reading “The silence of Iceland: Nature”
The silence of Iceland: City
Stenciled on a sidewalk in Reykjavik: “On the far side of the mountain the silence is more tangible” Infibjörg Haraldsdöttir: from Answer One would think, changing planes at the airport via Icelandic Airlines, on the way to or from European cities, that Iceland is a crowded place. But that’s just the airport. It’s a landContinue reading “The silence of Iceland: City”
Lotus of Ueno Park, Tokyo
The Zen of lotus leaves: graceful, reaching, curling, budding, nurturing, blossoming, caressing, open and welcoming, hiding, labyrinthine, blanketing. Sprawling Ueno Park erupts in an explosion of pastel pink during sakura season, the iconic cherry trees in bloom. People gather in small groups on blue tarps to picnic and photograph. Soon after, a shower of pinkContinue reading “Lotus of Ueno Park, Tokyo”
Armchair Historians podcast: Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami
I had the pleasure recently of being interviewed on Armchair Historians podcast about my personal account of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Although I wasn’t in one of the disastrously affected areas, I was living twenty-five minutes west of Tokyo at the time and it literally shook my world and impacted the lives ofContinue reading “Armchair Historians podcast: Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami”
New York, New York
After a few days in New Jersey on a recent trip (Inspiration), I spent a week in New York. It had been many years since I was last there and, this time, I had no appointments, no business to attend to, no one to visit, just a time to savor old memories and explore newContinue reading “New York, New York”
A Japanese treasure
I first become interested in Japan in my college days, when, along with a generation of hippie potters, I was inspired by the works of Shoji Hamada. Declared a Living National Treasure, Hamada and his twentieth-century contemporaries created functional stoneware vessels. Sturdier-looking than decorative ceramics, in simple but graceful shapes, but with a strength andContinue reading “A Japanese treasure”
Ruth Rosenfeld 