Chilean wines of world class quality tend to be less expensive than similar European wines due to Chile’s lower labor costs.
Posts by: Dallas Smith
Our fourth Viking port of call was the country of Panama, at the port of its huge modern capital, Panama City. Panama originally was part of its Southern neighbor Columbia. But American “gunboat diplomacy” separated Panama early in the 20th century into an American “protectorate”. This allowed the US to proceed with the ambitious project of constructing the Panama Canal, whose length of approximately fifty miles qualifies it as one of the greatest engineering projects in human history.
Our third Viking port of call was Puntarenas, Costa Rica. As usual, several excursion choices were offered. We chose one entitled “Walk in the Clouds.” We boarded a bus for an hour’s drive from the coast up to the highlands of the central valley running through the country. Our Costa Rican tour guide spoke for[…]
Following our first port of Cabo San Lucas and three days at sea, our second port of call on the Viking world cruise was the famous tourist city Puerto Vallarta. Puerto Vallarta is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, a state which is approximately the size of South Carolina. Tourism is its main[…]
Above: Rock formations at the entrance to the Cabo San Lucas harbor Departing Los Angeles and three days at sea, our first port of call of our world cruise was Cabo San Lucas, at the tip of the Baja California (Lower California) peninsula. The word “cabo” means “cape” in Spanish, referring here to the termination[…]
Welcome to the adventures of traveling during Covid. Did you hear about the Alaskan state legislator who refused to wear a mask? She caused so much trouble and upset in trying to fly from Anchorage to Juneau (which is only accessible by plane or ferry), that she was banned from traveling on Alaska Airlines (the[…]
I’ll never forget a conversation that occurred in Norway some years ago as Susan and I met retired hospital architect, Knut Bergsland, to tour his hospital in Trondheim, Norway. Knut said, “Welcome to Norway. You should know that as long as you are in Norway, if you have any medical problem, you can go straight[…]
Here’s a mental exercise: Assume that this photo above represents a newly discovered virus somewhere in China. After first being observed and ignored, and following a suppression of the news about the virus’s discovery lasting many weeks…Suppose that the Chinese city recognizes a dangerous epidemic in the making and seeks to quarantine itself. The tumors[…]