a table with slices of several pies on small plates

Arriving in Quito

This is going to be an interesting trip. We bought our airplane tickets just two days ago. We drove home late Monday evening after camping in Canyonlands. Wednesday around noon Brett said he found cheap tickets to Quito this week and we had 2 hours to decide if we were going. We have talked about visiting Ecuador for years. Our only choice was to say yes. So we bought tickets Wednesday afternoon to fly out at the crack of dawn Friday morning. We drove to Salt Lake Thursday after work and started planning the trip that night. We figured out a good outline of what we wanted to do and see, booked the first few hotels and activities, and went to bed sometime after midnight. About 4 hours later we were driving to the airport. I think that’s a record turnaround for us. ...

June 2, 2023 Â· 8 min Â· jtalbot
a man and woman stand on a beach made entirely of salt with the turquoise waters of the Dead Sea behind them

Up the Dead Sea to the River Jordan

There are three main ways to drive between Aqaba and Amman. When we drove from Amman to Aqaba a few days ago, we took the center route (highway 35). Today, on our way back from Aqaba to Amman, we decided to take the western route (highway 65) along the shores of the Dead Sea. I think the eastern route (highway 15) may actually be the “fastest” way, but it didn’t look very interesting, so we never took it. ...

February 3, 2023 Â· 6 min Â· jtalbot