With its powder-white beaches and sparkling turquoise water, Zanzibar was to be a four day respite after a vigorous week-long safari in Tanzania; four days of R&R, a place to rest and relax before the thirty hour flight home to an impending Canadian winter.

​

But, Zanzibar turned out to be so much more. It opened its sun-warmed arms and drew us in, each day wrapping us a little tighter in its island embrace.

There are over 130 different tribes in Tanzania. Each has its own customs and traditions and its own language or dialect. Some tribes are large and some are small, and they have each held onto their traditional ways to different degrees. All speak Swahali though, the language taught in their schools, making them surprisingly bi-lingual.

​

The Hadzabe are a small tribe, numbering less than one thousand, and indigenous to the Lake Eyasi area of Tanzania. They are traditional hunter gatherers, they do not raise any cattle or grow any food. They have no rules or calendars. They do not keep track of days, months, years, or even hours. Time is measured only through cycles of the sun and moon. Their existence has changed little in 10,000 years. But, they are gregarious and welcoming.

From Treetops to Tarantulas: An Unforgettable Eco-adventure in Peru’s Amazon Rainforest.

​

Travelling in the Amazon rainforest at the age of sixty is not quite what you imagine in your twenties or thirties.  While it might sound romantic or adventurous, I had no desire to pitch a tent deep within the jungle, at one with nature. Yet, I was keen to experience it in as authentic a way as possible.

​

The answer was Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica, an award winning eco-lodge in Peru’s Amazon Rainforest area.

Just a short ferry ride and you’re there, surrounded by rocky shoreline, towering Douglas Firs and majestic twisted Arbutus trees. You won’t find a single high-rise tower or trendy condo complex. The only traffic you will encounter is the line-up of cars departing the ferry with kayaks and Thule racks on top. You can smell and taste the salty sea air. You can hear the ocean waves crashing against the rocky shore. Eagles soar in the breeze and otters scamper along the coastline. 

​

​

A three-week ultimate sister getaway, just the two of us, lucky to be at that wonderful time of our lives when the kids are grown and independent and we can tackle that very long list of "some days".

​

At the top of that list was Italy: three glorious weeks exploring all those magical places you see in movies, travel magazines and history books - Rome, Florence, Venice, Tuscany.

​

But perhaps the most memorable was the four days spent in the small seaside villages of Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera.

​

​

                                   
We landed at Kelowna International Airport within minutes of each other, 3 sisters flying in from different parts of the country, meeting up for a long weekend getaway in British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Wine Region. No husbands, no kids, no jobs. We danced around, hugging each other enthusiastically. It had been far too long since we had seen each other. It was the beginning of September and the long weekend beckoned.

​

Gingerly I step through the crumbling watchtower at Samatai West and onto the Great Wall of China.

I will never forget that first moment. The wall snaking off in either direction as far as the eye can see, the trail undulating up and down along the crest of the mountain ridge. It stops you in your tracks. It takes your breath away. Steep, narrow trails up to watchtowers where guards in centuries past would have watched for invaders, followed by crumbling steps down the other side where we would pick our way carefully make our way back down.

​

​

​

​