Serena Mountain Village

... us an $8.00 piece of paper! We briefly checked out the curio shops and headed on our way. We arrived at the Serena Mountain Lodge aka the tree hotel in time for lunch. Our room was about 3 stories up, it was almost directly level ...

... chairs tipping over – that come from this tiny cellar room late at night. The pisco was good too. Then back down the mountain we went, with a quick stop in Vicuna for Helado (ice cream), back to La Serena.  An excellent excursion, well worth ...

... to put it the "little north" of Chile.  The ride was a straight shot on the Pan American Highway with beautiful mountain views.   Around 3PM we made it to La Serena and stopped for lunch since they have incredible seafood ...

... hours, two shopping centers and some very bad Spanish/Aussie speakers later we find one! Yay. Lucky for Mr Apple junky. We got some mountain bikes from the Hostel and rode all the way around the foreshore, up a MASSIVE hill and back (all in all I'm going ...

... so far.  Unpaved, with much dust and many potholes.  At the end lay our hotel, a magnificent resort called Serena Mountain Village.  It was originally a coffee plantation.  It’s lush.  With the cutest thatched roof huts that ...

... dam.  We got out and walked along the top of it.  The view was amazing.  On the other side of the mountain, the guide pointed out villages on the hillsides – they had been re-located when the dam was built as their original homes ...

... hour and a half outside of town to a national nature reserve. One the way we were driving along some great twisty and turny mountain roads and we spotted some wild goats, wild horses and even wild Llamas!!! We made our way to a tiny little fishing ...

... one is different, with an intentional effort to decorate in the culture of the area. 1.       Mountain Village, near Arusha, had those cute thatched roof huts and loads of bougainvillea, all situated on a lovely lake that ...

... sunlight reflecting on it, but I think it was snow.  As we approached the airport, we could see the bottom of the mountain rising into the clouds.  List complete. The flight was Arusha to Dar Es Salaam to Amsterdam and was ...

This is the view of Kilimanjaro mountain taken from the Precission Air on the way from Nairobi to ...

... which was a pretty crazy experience.  After Nairobi on our safari we visited Samburu Game Reserve, Lake Nakuru Game Reserve, the Mountain Lodge (near Mt. Kenya, where there is snow on the equator...wow!), and Masai Mara Game Reserve.  They all ...

... Where the Mountains Meet the Sea".  This sign captures the area perfectly.  The verdant green Mata Atlantica (coastal mountain rainforest) tumbles down in a jumbled mass of vines, branches and leaves onto the white sand beaches of ...

... of each.  From the air, we finally see just the tip of Mt. Kilimanjaro, very impressive and majestic with no other mountain around it.  The view of Zanzibar from the air is also impressive and inviting, with turquoise blue waters surrounding the ...

... other than make gorillas noises. The guide directed her to stay still and the silverback walked right by her, continuing up the mountain. Definitely an awesome experience that we will not forget! Aside from the gorilla trekking, we have spent a lot of ...

... a glimpse of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Apparently global warming is doing its job there, too.  There was hardly any snow on the mountain and we were told that the few glaciers that exist there are melting rapidly.  From pictures we have seen of it ...

... us as "Ass Pounding Corrugation"!!! What an expression...... The first day's riding was great everyone was on a bit of a high and the 'mountain bikers' were primed. We arrived at camp after about four and a half hours of fast riding. On the way ... plenty ...

... .  A silent, lonely stage after a show had ended and the actors had gone back home. My face flushed with invigorating mountain cold, I sipped my tea and dragged on my first cigarette of the day and tried to snuggle even deeper within the comfort of ...

... least it was not MY third ticket. Next day, Randy and I went on an 4 hour/ 30km mountain bike ride with a guide. We spent some time discovering a village called Mosquito City and went then on towards the lake, where we biked in between Wilder beasts, ...

... car.  We headed straight up to Valporaiso. This is  a very quaint bohemian sort of town....goes straight up the mountain, with very thin narrow  streets, with no clear signage and many of them one way.  The town is heritage listed ...