Part of the reason that we chose Guatemala for our winter getaway was the ease of travel. Of course, in the era of COVID – and in the world of the Robbins family generally – there always seem to be complications.

As our trip to Guatemala approached, several family members urged us to postpone the trip, but in the end we decided that our health and risk tolerance weighed in favor of going ahead as planned. Guatemala has required a recent negative COVID test to enter for several months, but only recently did the CDC require one for reentry into the United States. That meant getting our brains swabbed twice, but 10 seconds of discomfort versus 40-plus sailfish seemed like a fair trade.

If you want to get out of a COVID-induced malaise, a trip to Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala is a quick way to jump start your heart.

I have been to the city of Manaus, Brazil, the gateway to the Amazon, three times – well, actually six times, because we’ve stopped there on the way in and out of the jungle on each fishing trip. It is a bustling yet friendly city, a once-wealthy home to barons of the rubber industry and now a free-trade zone.

Hanna and I are back from eight days in Alaska, and our biggest regret is that we didn’t stay longer. It was my third trip to the last frontier and her first, and we are already planning a return. If you like the outdoors, it’s a no-brainer to go there. In fact, if you have the disposable income and you still have unallocated vacation time to go somewhere this summer, it makes sense to get on the ol’ interweb and book a trip now.