Filicki

There were a few things we thought we needed to tick off before leaving Miami and the Everglades was one of them. When we initially started talking about this we had grand ideas of getting our boating licenses specifically for the Everglades (there is a special one just for here) and renting a houseboat for a few days, but ultimately we just grabbed a room at the National Park Hotel.  Having stayed at National Park hotels in the US before and having looked at the restaurant menu we didn't have high expectations (unlike Canada) The Flamingo Everglades Hotel was about 40 miles into the park, but the #1 rated walk on AllTrails, the Anhinga trail , was just after the entry booth so we stopped on our way. We quickly learned that an Anhinga was a native bird and we saw many. The trail was along a boardwalk and short, but we brought our NOCS and had a great time using Merlin and finding birds- and on our way out we spotted an alligator. Achinga bird Grasshopper Boat-tailed Grackle We got ...

Our last week in Peru included a couple of nights in Arequipa at Puqio's sister resort, Cirqa - an old monastery with 11 rooms- followed by a couple of nights on The Belmond train and our final two nights in Lima (Miraflores).  We had a beautiful room at Cirqa - it was spacious with high rounded ceilings and walls of old stone. Despite the ancient structure, the room still felt very modern. The meals were very good (we tried alpaca) and the staff attentive, although both nights the noise (either a roof-top party or neighboring music) lasted well into the night making it difficult to sleep - which was disappointing.  We had a 8:30 car take us to the train station on Sunday morning. When we arrived they welcomed us into a large open parlor where they served canapés and drinks as they collected luggage and gave instruction about what came next.  There was a string quartet playing and Peruvian dancers performing while wearing silly hats.  String quartet  Dancers wit...