Escorted Tours

We arrived in Beijing at about 6:50 am & getting through immigration was easy. This was a huge but very well-run airport. 

I will arrive in Tokyo today.

We toured around the swamp in the Atchafalaya Basin on a small boat made for about 2 dozen people. We saw hundreds of alligators our tour guide threw food to, getting them to come closer for our photos.

I went to Atlanta, Georgia as part of my Southern States tour in 2012. As well as looking at many of the large homes in Atlanta, we also visited the CNN Centre and the Martin Luther King Memorial Visitor Centre.

Today we set off early to take a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands, a protected area that is home to Humboldt Penguins, Peruvian Pelicans, Peruvian Booby, Neotropic Cormorants, Inca Terns & Sea Lions.

We didn't have very long at Carlsbad Caverns, but I did manage to get to the bottom of the main cave & back up. 

I woke up early & had a cup of tea around 6:30 in the Yangtze Bar before going for breakfast. I saw Selina, our waitress, before she left, thanked her for looking after me & then went for breakfast.

Today, we travelled from Arequipa through the Colca Canyon to Chivay. We passed through many small villages in the rugged volcanic landscape, where farming was still the major source of work & way of bringing money into the local economy.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills in Custer County, South Dakota. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse & pointing into the distance.

I stayed in a hotel just outside the Custer State Park at Keystone, it seemed very familiar, and I am sure I once stayed there before on a road trip in the late 1980s with my friend Alistar Parry.

Today, I joined a few others on another short tour of Cuzco to a few buildings we couldn't see previously because they were closed due to the bank holiday.

After yesterday's long day, I was glad to have a lie in this morning. After breakfast, at around 8:30 am, I sat in the lobby, just watching people coming & going. One of Peru's biggest football teams stayed in the same hotel as us & I talked to a few of the players in the lobby.

I went to look around Deadwood, South Dakota, after our tour coach stopped at our hotel in Lead. We were given 20 minutes to rest, and our coach driver offered to drop us off in Deadwood.

Denver, Colorado, was the starting point for my National Monuments & Parks tour in 2011. 

I liked the Arizona, Sonora Desert Museum and was disappointed we didn't have more time to spend there.

We were not scheduled to visit the Devils Tower National Monument. We were supposed to be going to the site of the battle of Custer's Last Stand but due to landslides, we couldn't get through to it. 

This morning, I ate at the breakfast buffet, & drank one or two cups of Coca tea that I had gotten used to on this trip. 

Today, we visited many exciting places in Beijing. It was like walking through the pages of a history book.

Shanghai is the fastest developing city in China & today went on a sightseeing tour of the city. 

Today, I flew from Heathrow in London to Lima in Peru via Madrid in Spain with Iberia Airlines. Getting to the airport was easy. Tony, a friend of mine, took me to Heathrow & because of a clear run, we were there an hour before we needed to be.