We landed in Berlin bleary eyed after getting up at 2 o’clock in the morning for our flight. (Danny never went to sleep) and immediately something was different. No less than 10 minutes after getting off the plane, we stood in line to buy train tickets, customs and immigration completed, luggage in hand. Right on schedule the train appeared, opened it’s doors and we were whisked away to the center of Berlin. It worked like clockwork. “German efficiency, welcome to Europe,” I thought.
There’s a lot to see and do in Berlin, but first on our list was actually the Egyptian museum. Crazy, I know, considering it has been two weeks since we stood in the …

Arriving in Cairo after two long days in the car, we were excited to check into our hotel and grab a drink. A long time ago a fellow blogger told us there was a Chili’s in Cairo and frankly we’ve been dreaming of nothing but a big serving of chips and salsa and an almost-the-size-of-your-head margarita ever since then. It was a schlep into Cairo but the whole time we kept saying, margarita’s tonight! Sitting down to order we looked at the drink menu: slushies, not margarita’s. We were devastated. No margarita’s at Chili’s? Consoling ourselves in fajitas and copious amounts of salsa, the four of us celebrated our arrive to Cairo with some “Jani Water: Red Lion” rum, which …

To say apartheid was segregation is an understatement. A state-sponsored policy until 1994, apartheid impacted the lives of every South African, black, white or colored. Yes, I said colored. What is a derogatory word, and unpleasant reminder of our past in the United States, is actually a socially accepted means of categorizing people of mixed racial background in South Africa.
Standing in the Apartheid museum in Johannesburg reflecting on the differences between our separate but equal policies and the policies of apartheid I was struck with how significant the impact of apartheid is today in South Africa versus my impressions of segregation’s ongoing impact in the United States. Segregation in America had been over for over 15 years when I was born …

After saying goodbye to Lima we arrived in Arequipa early in the morning looking to do two things, hike in a canyon and eat some great food. As eating great food has never been a problem in Peru we quickly got to work seeing all the things this “white” city had to offer us before heading to the canyon.
And that was mummies, lots of them.
It seems the dry desert air combined with the frigid temperatures at high altitudes make a great environment for preserving mummies. We began with a small archaeological history museum in the center where we saw our first set of mummies and it was there that we decided that we didn’t want to take any …