Ethiopia, historically known as Abyssinia, is an amazing country located in the Horn of Africa and well off the regular tourist track. In January 2015, my wife, Sandra, and I spent three weeks there, with the first 11 days as part of a 20-person photography tour with National Geographic Expeditions ($17,000 for the two of us). This tour concentrated primarily on the tribal areas in the south. 

Following that, we spent nine days on a private custom tour ($6,000, total) arranged...

Answering an advert in the back of International Travel News for a single, senior woman to share expenses/travels/stateroom for an extended Indian Ocean trip with Voyages of Discovery (Scottsdale, AZ; 866/623-2689, www.voyagesofdiscovery.com), beginning in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in late November 2014, I made the split-second decision to take the leap, sight unseen.

The trip included a pre-cruise tour of Sri Lanka ($1,399) and three back-to-back cruises: “Treasures of the Indian...

My partner, Arcadio, and I departed Los Angeles on April 15, 2014, for Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, as guests of my dear “adopted brother” Pepín Orlando Jordán and his lovely wife, Blanca.

I had met Pepín in San Ignacio in 1966, where he had gone to study in the colegio run by the priests at the old mission there and where I was working as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was renting a room in the house where he lived. 

Pepín made arrangements for the four of us...