Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
Sphinx in Egypt, 1995 on a father and son tripJim & Kenan 2021, on a father and son trip Abu Simbel near the Sudan border Country Background: The capital of Egypt is Cairo, though there are currently existing plans to build a new capital. About 100 million people...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
This girl was staring at me … they OBVIOUSLY don’t get many tourists here! Country Information: 15 million people live in Chad and the capital is N’Djamena. The primary languages are French and Arabic, though Chad is called the “Babel Tower of the world”...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
Helsinki, Finland: Jim and Susan in 1992, sitting at the statue & flowers in front of the White Cathedral Country Information: Finland gained independence in 1917. The capital is Helsinki. About 5.5 million people live here and the official language is Finnish...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
In tropical Samoa (known as Western Samoa until 1997), founded on New Year’s Day in 1962. About 191,000 people live here (2013), and the official languages are English and Samoan. Most Samoans are Christian, Catholic, or some other Christian denomination. Its main...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
Country Information: In the Kingdom of Tonga (Tonga), an archipelago of over 170 islands with 36 of them inhabited. It’s capital is Nukuʻalofa and its main languages are Tongan and English. About 104,000 people live here (2011). The main religion is the Free Wesleyan...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
Country Information: Fiji gained independence in 1970. About a million people live here, and the main languages are English, Fijian, and Hindi. The weather in Fiji is almost always perfect for going to the beach. Temperatures stay between 79 and 89 degrees year round...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
Country Information: Formerly called Pleasant Island, Nauru is a phosphate island country in Micronesia that gained independence in 1968. The capital is Yaren. About 10,000 people live here, though with immigration, there may be more. The official languages are...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
Country Information: The tropical Solomon Islands temperatures are wet and warm year-round. The name comes from King Solomon de Mendana, the nephew of a former Peruvian governor. About 700,000 people live here. The islands gained independence in 1978 from Britain and...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
I traveled to Nicaragua in 1986, during the Contra War. This was another proxy war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. On one side of the conflict were Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, Soviet puppets or sympathizers. On the other were the rebels, known as...
Feb 12, 2018 | Travels
At Peninsula Papagayo, outside of Liberia, Costa Rica Country Information: The Republic of Costa Rica literally means “Rich Coast”! It was founded in 1821 and its main language is Spanish. About 6 million people live here, with almost a million people in the...
