We’re 15 Years Old!

As promised, I turn now to the Itaipu Dam – the third-largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. It sits on the border between Brazil and Paraguay next to the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu, which is also famous for the nearby Iguaçu Falls. So let’s go for a walk inside the power plant […]

Back in Kamchatka, and it was time for my favorite installment of any trip there (and there’ve been several, if not a dozen or so): when we head back toward the south of the peninsula… I was especially thrilled to be heading south this time since, unfortunately, during our northern escapades, the weather was most […]

Brazil is a huge country that, just like Russia, actually stretches across two hemispheres. The difference is that while Brazil sits across both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, Russia straddles the Eastern and Western ones. But perhaps what sets Russia apart from Brazil the most is that Russia’s territories mostly lie on permafrost. Brazil is […]

Continuing my winter globetrotting tales, today we’re back in Saudi Arabia; specifically – in the mountainous Wadi Al Disah nature reserve…

My “Another day – another different corner of the globe” series continues! Today – back to Kamchatka!… Some 350 kilometers north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is one of the most magnificent volcanic sights in the world – the Klyuchevskaya group of volcanoes. It’s the largest “agglomeration” in Russia – combining 14 volcanoes (including four active ones) and […]

My recent trip to Saudi Arabia was spoiled somewhat by some logistical troubles – of a suitcase! – on the way back. It was something that had never happened to me before: ALL the luggage of ALL the passengers got lost! It happened on the Riyadh–Moscow Saudi Airlines flight. The plane arrived in Moscow with… […]