Zürich and Davos, Switzerland; December 20–26, 2023

It’s the second year in a row that our winter travel plans have gone awry. Last year we failed to reach the flagship destination of our trip, Socotra Island, when the weekly charter flight declined to land due to iffy weather and returned everyone to Abu Dhabi with no make-up flight (blog here). This year, about a week before our departure, Tim had a bicycle accident riding to work in downtown Zürich. After jaw surgery and lots of dental work he’ll be okay, but he shouldn’t be traveling, especially to distant locations or developing countries, as in our original plan.

That original plan was a three part 2.5 week Latin American potpourri: A few days exploring Mexico City and climbing some nearby volcanoes; a four-day rafting trip in La Venta Canyon, Chiapas (southern Mexico), just recently opened to tourists; and a week in the Guatemalan highlands primarily trekking. With Tim unable to travel far we debated a number of options, finally settling on visiting Tim in Switzerland in place of Mexico, while preserving the Guatemala portion of our trip (but without Tim). It’s not exactly a natural triangle, and travel replanning at the last minute wasn’t a piece of cake, but thanks to mileage plane tickets, a few surprisingly liberal cancellation policies, and Airbnb, we made it work.

We were very lucky to snag this fantastic Airbnb in Davos when our plans pivoted from Mexico to Switzerland.

In Switzerland we figured the bulk of our time should be spent in the mountains. We were lucky to find a fantastic Airbnb apartment in Davos available for exactly our dates. Alex and Emily have been doing a lot of backcountry skiing in the Sierras lately, so they focused on that mode with just one day of downhill skiing, while Jennifer went for the opposite. Tim, also an avid backcountry skier, fashioned a plan where he would ski uphill only (so as not to risk a fall and mouth mishap), then take cable cars or gondolas back down — Swiss ski towns are replete with a variety of ways of getting up and down the mountains.

Family photo at the top of the Jakobshorn ski area — Tim backcountry-skied up while the rest of us took the cable car, then we reversed on the way down.

Skiing in Europe, both downhill and backcountry, has a special feel to it compared with the U.S., in part thanks to huts dotting the mountains with excellent food and ever-present Glühwein, a family favorite.

Alex and Emily in the backcountry; photo credit goes to Tim.

In the meantime, Jennifer enjoying a “me day” of downhill skiing at the large Parsenn ski area.

This hut-restaurant, one of many dotting the mountains, is only accessible by snowshoes or backcountry skis.

All in all it was a great time in Switzerland and clearly the right last-minute adjustment of plans. Guatemala will be a change of scene in every respect, including Emily’s boyfriend Ian joining us for that leg of the trip as planned all along. We’ll do two multi-day treks in the highlands, along with visits to the Chichicastenago market, Iximche ruins, Antigua, and Quetzaltenango. Stay tuned!

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