PROJECT: Retirement Travel Trifecta

Ticuna Indian Maloca, San Martin de Amacayacu, Colombian Amazon

My Retirement Travel Trifecta is a project I launched after retiring from 27 years teaching journalism at Indiana University in 2022 that has taken me and my Nikon from the Austrian Alps to the Adriatic Sea to the Colombian Amazon to the Scandinavian Arctic in 2026.

The first leg reunited me with some friends I knew while traveling through Colombia in the 1970s, who now live in Austria and Spain. In October 2023 I spent three weeks split between the two countries with them, photographically exploring Austria, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain.

Among the destinations: the Austrian Alps; the Italian Alps and Adriatic coast from Trieste to Venice; Slovenia’s Soca River Valley; the Spanish Mediterranean coast from Barcelona to Alicante.

The second leg realized a 46-year dream of photographing the Colombian Amazon that I had harbored from my Colombian travels. In June 2024, my family and I flew to Leticia, Colombia, where we spent a week exploring the Upper Amazon around the tri-border area where Brazil, Peru, and Colombia meet on the world’s most magnificent river.

We spent a week at the Casa Gregorio Ecolodge in the Ticuna Indian village San Martín de Amacayucú. While there we explored Tabatinga, Brazil; Santa Rosa, Peru; and the Colombian destinations Leticia, Puerto Nariño, Lake Tarapoto, Mocagua, and the Maikuchiga Monkey Sanctuary.

I completed the final leg of the Trifecta in late May and early June 2026, when my family and I traveled to Lapland and the Scandinavian Arctic to celebrate my granddaughter Raina’s college graduation.

We flew to Helsinki and Rovaniemi, Finland, the capital of Lapland, bearing due north through Sami country to Alta, Norway, where we experienced more than 6,000 rock carvings that date back 7,000 to 2,000 years and the magnificent Altafjord on the the Norwegian Sea.

Lapland has more reindeer than human beings. In addition to the world-class wilderness and world history, we were treated to a divinely inspired parade of Europe’s only indigenous people the Sami, in traditional garb at the world-famous Northern Lights Cathedral.

Alta is the world’s northernmost city with a population of 15,000 or more. The sun never set when we were there. In six months, it will not shine,