South America Travel
I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Helado!
You find them lurking everywhere: on the corners of dimly lit streets, in the goopy hands of people, in your freezer. You can hear the icebox-toting vendors screaming its name, beckoning for your business, “Helado! Heladoooo!” Ice cream. It is a cross-cultural thing. When venturing into Buenos Aires, some fantasize about steaks and tango, gauchos […]
Colombia’s Caribbean Coast
Colombia’s Caribbean coast is in the news big time this week, with article in both the Financial Times and the NY Times. Gone are the days when the region’s checkered history scared away tourists. Now, for better or worse (better if you’re a local depending on travelers), you’re more likely to run into a yacht-owning […]
Going To Machu Picchu This Fall? See The Rest Of Peru
The high season for Machu Picchu is roughly June through September, as summer travelers use their vacation time to explore the ruins in the predictably good weather these months bring. In October the rainy season begins, not a great time to trek along narrow paths and camp outside. Oddly enough, I know several people who […]
Forget Pandora: A Trek Into Earth’s Oldest Rainforest
By Justin Calderon Button-faced gibbons lankily toss themselves through the canopy, a petite mouse deer gnaws at a bush below, and Betek — the chief and shaman of his tribe — methodically whittles another blow dart to such slender precision it nearly becomes invisible to the eye. He sheathes the final product into a vacant […]
A Perfect Marriage Of Luxury And Culture At Lake Atitlan
I will be honest: the sound of the word “lake” causes an instant yawn reflex. Mention “beach” or “miles of sand and sea,” and you’ve caught my attention for the next hour. As a seasoned traveler, it is slightly embarrassing to admit that I almost always search for the perfect seascape to relax and unwind […]
Traveling Cheap In Central America, The Frugal Traveler Way
Have you been following the exploits of the newly-installed Frugal Traveler, Seth Kugel, this summer as he’s been making his way from São Paulo to New York? This month alone he’s traipsed around Los Zorros, a seaside fishing village on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, with his parents; shacked up with a local family in […]
Jujuy: A Financial Crisis That Allowed Argentines To See The Beauty Within
The other day, someone asked me, “If you were flat broke and could never travel again, would you be happy?” I could sense his curious frustration with my constant sighs of travel nostalgia. At times, he would notice that my gaze was distant and forlorn. I fidgeted with a loose string on my cut-off shorts, afraid […]
When You Think Nicaragua, You Think Mark Twain, Right?
It’s classic travel writing fodder: choose famous author, research trips they took during their lifetime, emulate one such trip. In fact, Rolf Potts wrote about this “tidy narrative formula” in his recent book “Marco Polo Didn’t Go There,” where he pointed out how this classic format is a great angle to pitch to editors. Which […]
Peru: Your Guide To Eating Cute, Cuddly Things
Let me just start by saying that when I was a kid, I had Guinea pigs as pets. Those Guinea pigs had babies. Those babies then had babies with their parents. Those babies had an odd number of limbs. Regardless of my pet’s incestuous behavior, I loved them. When my mom finally decided that it […]
Exploring Recife Away From The Famed Coastline
It’s probably safe to say that if you really want to get to know a city, stay away from where the scenic beaches and high-rise hotels are located. Far from the pulse of the city, these upscale, over-developed, tourist-friendly locales not only attract the crowds of tourists you’re likely trying to avoid in the first […]