Heavy rains in Peru in mid-March caused flooding and landslides that left at least 94 people dead and millions without power or clean water. More than 800 towns and cities were declared disaster areas, including the capital, Lima.
The flooding was the worst to hit the country since 1988. The rains were unusually heavy this year due to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
Heavy rains caused multiple rivers in the Putumayo province of southwestern Colombia to spill over their banks on April 1, resulting in flooding and landslides that killed more than 250 people and injured many hundreds. More than 200 people were still missing as of press time. The floods and landslides also washed away roads and bridges, hampering rescue efforts.
Heavy rains were predicted to continue, leaving 182 towns in a status of high alert for further flooding and slides.
In London, England, on March 22, a man struck pedestrians with his car on Westminster Bridge before approaching Westminster Palace, home to the UK’s Parliament, on foot and stabbing a police officer. He killed four people, including the police officer and an American tourist. More than 40 other people were injured. The attacker was killed by police before he could enter Westminster. Police are describing the incident as a terrorist attack.
Pointing specifically to the countries of Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, where the UN estimates that more than 20 million people are facing starvation from famine, the United Nations in mid-March proclaimed that the world is witnessing the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945.
In each of these countries, war and insurgency are not only causing food shortages, they are preventing aid from reaching the people most in need of it.
Kip Sturdevan of Encinitas, California, wrote, “Several of our friends have taken walking tours on which the organizing companies have arranged accommodations and made sure the luggage was moved every day to the next night’s lodging, thus allowing the walkers to carry only day packs. Each day’s hike tended to vary from 7 to 14 miles.
Early in my life, I learned how much fun it is to travel. I’ve decided that a love for travel must be a genetic condition; my mom and dad both loved to travel.
When I was a child, our family took summer vacations by automobile (before the interstate system), and by the time I was a teenager I had been in all of the lower 48 states.
Berlin’s newest concert hall, the 682-seat Pierre Boulez Saal, designed by architect Frank Gehry and acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, opened in March. Housed in the former storage building for the sets of the Staatsoper, the hall, with seats surrounding the stage, provides a venue for young musicians from Israel and the Middle East.
This past June, my husband, Fred, and I rented a car and drove through Bulgaria and the Transylvania region of Romania. As I planned the trip, I discovered the monastic history of both countries and their numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Beginning in Bulgaria
Potsdam’s new modern art museum, Museum Barberini (Alter Markt, Humboldtstraße 5-6, 144467 Potsdam, Germany; phone +49 331 236014, museum-barberini.com/en), opened on Jan. 23. Housed in the rebuilt, 18th-century Barberini Palace, it has 17 galleries, including temporary exhibitions, with a permanent collection emphasizing East German art and art post-1989.
