Blog Posts

Minca, Colombia

The village of Minca is located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated mountain range less than 30 miles (50 km) from the coast. The village is a popular destination for backpacker tourists, the surrounding area a biosphere reserve with great hiking and natural scenery.

I caught a bus at Santa Marta’s municipal market for the 30-minute uphill ride on the winding road to Minca.  To get to my lodgings at the isolated Colores de la Sierra eco

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Santa Marta, Colombia

I only stayed in Santa Marta because I had a long day of traveling from Villa de Leyva and didn’t think I could make it to Minca up in the Sierra Nevada mountains before dark. Now that I know how to get to Minca, I would advise going straight there because I found Santa Marta to be kind of gritty and unpleasant. Minca is really nice.

My travel from Villa de Leyva involved multiple modes of transportation. It started

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Villa de Leyva, Colombia

After spending a few days in Bogatá, I took the bus to Villa de Leyva which sits in a mountain valley about three and a half hours to the northeast.  I really enjoyed my time there, a great combination of walking around a pretty colonial town surrounded by natural beauty, relaxing at my quiet hostal in the foothills, and a bike ride to a waterfall along country roads.

Oh yeah, and eating at some really excellent restaurants.

Villa de

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Bogotá, Colombia

I’m on a three week tour of Colombia. I flew into Bogotá about a week ago, the city at the beginning and end of my circuit through the country that includes Villa de Leyvia, Santa Marta, Minca, Guachaca, Cartagena and Medellín.

Bogotá sits on a Andean plateau at 8,660 ft altitude, surrounded by hills and mountains. The weather this time of year (late February-early March) is pleasantly cool, sometimes cold, with frequent but short periods of rain and thunderstorms.

My

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Driving for Pete (Part 3)

(Continued from Part 2)

I’m writing this just after learning that Mayor Pete has suspended his presidential campaign. That’s sad news for me, but understandable after recent results from the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday polls. I like to think that Pete decided to do this in part so as to not split moderate voters with Biden. I hope Amy Klobuchar does the same.

This final story from my days driving for Pete in Las Vegas seems more

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Driving for Pete (Part 2)

(Continued from Part 1)

After my near-miss bump into Joe Biden at The Paris, I headed back to my motel, The Downtowner, located in an old part of Las Vegas that is various stages of decay and redevelopment. I enjoyed staying in this part of the city, away from the bright lights and artificial architecture of The Strip, easy walking distance from good restaurants, many of the buildings decorated with street art murals. Walking away from town, Freemont

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Driving for Pete (Part 1)

I’m not sure how it happened, but I was given the opportunity to be a driver for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign team in Las Vegas. I had originally volunteered to canvass neighborhoods in advance of the primary caucus but received an email

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Canvassing for Pete

I started my volunteer work for Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign in Nevada on Saturday by canvassing a working-class neighborhood in East Las Vegas.  I arrived at the local campaign office on Charleston Street early Saturday morning and received a

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Why I’m Writing (Yet) Again (and Some Politics)

I’m writing for this blog again.

I hope I’ll be able to get into a habit of writing and posting regularly. I failed at my last attempt doing this and haven’t posted anything for over a year, although I did keep up pretty well with my sailing blog until I completed The Voyage last August.

Before resuming writing for this blog, I asked myself, “Why do it? Why try again? What is the purpose?”  Is it to just

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My Voyage

On January 8th I set sail from La Paz, on the Baja California peninsula of Pacific Mexico for Long Island, NY on a multi-leg voyage. I provide a synopsis of “The Voyage” in my sailing blog, Sailing Intermezzo and provide regular progress updates while sailing there. That blog describes the what, where, when and how of The Voyage. I barely touch on the why.

I’m making this voyage to learn more about just being. Yes, The Voyage has

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