Wish We Were There
Falkland adventures
My travel dream is to visit the Falkland Islands in the Atlantic Ocean near South America. The Falklands are one of the world’s best places to see penguins. You can see thousands of them in nesting season. There are five kinds, and they are reputed to be noisy and smelly. Other seabirds include albatrosses, skuas and petrels. You can see all these at very close range, and they are not afraid of humans. There are also marine mammals like seals, sea lions, dolphins and orcas.
All of this can be seen with the scenery of rugged coastal cliffs and white sand beaches. The hospitality is British, but the islands are uncrowded, so the air is clean and you can hear the sounds of nature. The best time to go is when it is summer down there, which is winter here.
While I am down there, I would also like to see Iguazu Falls, on the border of Argentina and Brazil. It is known as the world’s most spectacular waterfall, being 1.7 miles wide (and) divided into 275 individual falls.
— David Ogilvie, South San Francisco
Canadian Rockies by train
After several cruises got canceled, we decided a better bet would be something closer to home — and on land. We have now booked travel for October of this year on the Rocky Mountaineer luxury train that takes tourists from Vancouver over the Canadian Rockies.
A novelty is that this train, strictly for tourists and sightseeing, runs only in the daytime, and every night is spent in a nice hotel. There are actually several itineraries, but we have picked the one from Vancouver to Calgary, with overnight stays at Kamloops, Lake Louise, Banff and finally Calgary.
A few of the many sightseeing highlights include Hell’s Gate, a narrow canyon on the Fraser River; the spot where the “last spike” completing Canada’s transcontinental rail line was struck; the Spiral Tunnels, a railway construction marvel; and the Lake Louise train station, seen in the “Doctor Zhivago” movie. The food and service on the train are supposed to be spectacular, but rumors that bears and moose sometimes try to climb aboard for a snack are probably exaggerated!
— Mike and Sandy Heller, Danville