2022 Annual Report: Travel

Well, we managed some travels

We thought 2022 would be different. It was, sort of. We both had COVID despite all our precautions. We undoubtedly were infected on our travel home from Bolivia, when we spent 4 hours in the Aeromexico Lounge. Unlike Bolivia, where almost everyone wore a mask, the lounge was full of norteños who knew better. After we got the latest booster, Linda tested positive the next day. I was exiled to an undisclosed location to avoid contagion. Didn't work. I moved back to our bedroom with its nice TV and told Linda she could sequester if she wanted to.

This complicated plans to hold a memorial for Linda's sister, Mary, in Santa Barbara in October. I tested negative, but had a rebound infection there. I had no symptoms except a positive test. (We all tested ourselves.) Since people are still dying from COVID, even several hundred a day somtimes, it seems churlish to complain. But...

The memorial happened, though with a reduced number of attendees. Santa Barbara is a nice place to visit when it isn't raining. Mary did her granuate work, and met her husband, John, at UCSB and always remembered it fondly.

2022 Travels

• First up, Costa Rica, one of our first birding trips 25 years ago. It was quite different, but we still had some terrific views of wildlife. A writeup (PDF) is here. Photos are here.
• Next, we flew to Barcelona with our good friends and traveling frequent traveling companions, Jenny and Terry Cloudman. After a few days sightseeing, we took the train to Seville to meet up with a tour of Spain. A writeup (PDF) is here. Photos are here.
• Toward the end of the year, we went to Bolivia, a seldom-visited spot with a fabulaous list of birds, many of them new for us. The trip turned out to be harder than we expected due to some high elevations. But it was all worth it. A writeup (PDF) is here. Photos are here.

Comments and corrections appreciated as always.