This Week on Get Packin'

Get Packin' is our weekly travel radio show that airs Saturday afternoons at 4:00 on Freedom 95 in the Indianapolis area (95.9 FM, 950 AM, and streaming worldwide at www.freedom95.us).  We run down the latest travel news, talk about the week's Hot Destination, pass along some travel tips, count down a fun Top Ten, interview travel experts, and generally impart our travel wisdom.

In front of the Treasury
at Petra during our
G Adventure tour.

On this week's show (3/19/16) we talk to Sean Simmons of G Adventures (@GAdv_SeanS).  G Adventures isn't your typical travel provider.  As the name implies, their tours are of a more adventurous nature: hiking, snorkeling, animal encounters, cultural immersion, and more.  We've had the pleasure of traveling through a G Adventures program twice.  Our February 2016 trip to the Galapagos Islands was through G Adventures and its partnership with National Geographic.  And in 2014 we toured Jordan with G Adventures, seeing the amazing sights of Petra (right), Wadi Rum, and the Dead Sea.  We'll talk to Sean about G Adventures' multitude of itineraries that span the globe.

Would you like some
meth with your decaf?

In our Top Ten, we'll countdown the ten best TV & Movie-themed Bars and Restaurants around the world. They're not where you'd expect them to be.  A Greek restaurant based on the film Mama Mia! in Stockholm? A Breaking Bad-themed coffee shop in Istanbul?  We'll have more details on the show.


Having your neighbor mow your lawn while you're on vacation is one of several travel tips we'll have about how to keep your home safe while you're away.  Tips on how to convince your neighbor to mow your lawn? Well, that's up to you.  And finally, we'll have the shocking story of a woman who tried to smuggle a child onto a flight in her carry-on luggage.

All that and more on this week's edition of Get Packin'.  You can hear past episodes on the Freedom 95 Podcasts Page.  Be sure to scroll down to the Get Packin' links.  And to plan your own 'excellent adventure', call Ann at Travel Leaders in Carmel, IN, 317-573-6666 or 800-525-1570.

Welcome to the Hotel Quito

It was our last night in Quito, Ecuador.  We had spent the week touring the Galapagos Islands where we saw the famous giant tortoises, as well as land and marine iguanas, sea lions, and all manner of boobies (the red- and blue-footed flying variety, for those of you with your mind in the gutter).

The Boobies!
(top-to-bottom:)
Nazca, Red-Footed, & Blue-Footed.

But it wasn't until this night that we encountered Eagles.  I'll explain the capital E in a moment.  After dinner at Mama Clorinda, a Quito restaurant where guinea pig is featured on the menu, we hailed a cab for the short ride back to our hotel.  We said to the driver, "Hotel Quito,"  He nodded politely as we climbed in the cab.

Before pulling away, he removed the Spanish-language music CD that had been playing in his car stereo and replaced it with something that we assume he assumed would be more amenable to his American riders. "Hotel California" by the (capital E)agles.  He was right, we did find the song a welcome piece of Americana far from home.  But that wasn't the best part.  As Don Henley belted out, "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair," so did our driver!  In the best English he could muster, our cab driver sang along with the American classic rock standard.  So we decided to make it a trio.

NOT the Hotel Quito.

About the time we reached the entrance to the hotel, the three of us had reached the first chorus.  "Welcome to the Hotel California!" we sang together.  As we paid the fare and started to get out of the car, it was clear our driver wanted the sing-along to continue.  "Plenty of room at the Hotel California.  Anytime of year, you can find it here," he sang.  Had it not been so late, and with an early flight the next morning, we might have stayed to sing with him to the end. Instead, we gave him a smile and a wave and got out of the cab.  He drove off into the night with the sound of the Eagles fading into the distance.