Views From Greenland and Kathmandu

I have gotten very behind in sharing all the news, photos, and highlights from my recent tours to Peru, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and back to Costa Rica. But I’m behind in lots of stuff. I got my taxes submitted just in time, something I couldn’t put off any more.

Just to quickly fill in a gap in reports on my blog, here is some scenery from the past few days.

On a long-planned trip dating back to last early September, when I booked my business class ticket with nearly all of my frequent flier miles, I departed Tucson this past Tuesday, spent the night in Chicago, then boarded a flight to Abu Dhabi. One third of the way through the flight, I looked out my window to see astounding views of the southeastern coast of Greenland.

Our 13-hour, 45-minute flight path then took us over the southern tip of Iceland, over Denmark, across the western tip of the Black Sea, then over Turkey and western Iran before our final descent over the Persian Gulf early in the morning. I had only a short layover there, then flew on to Kathmandu, arriving at about 7:30 p.m. local time, nearly 20 hours after departing Chicago.

The next morning I woke up to these panoramic views from the roof patio of my friends’ house in the capital of Nepal, along with the contant whistles of an Asian Koel, chattering of an Oriental Magpie-Robin, and constant activity of House Crows.