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, in 2026, the Scandinavian Arctic.

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; and 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.

The final leg of the trifecta will transpire in May 2026, when my family and I travel to Lapland and the Scandinavian Arctic when my granddaughter graduates from college.

We will fly to Helsinki and Rovanieme, Finland, the capital of Lapland, from which we will explore north through Sweden and Sami country to Alta, Norway, on edge of the Norwegian and Barrents Seas.

Lapland has more reindeer than human beings; the Sami are Europe’s only indigenous peoples.

Alta is the world’s northernmost city with a population of 15,000 or more.