My trek the top of Mount Roraima was an accidental adventure. Serendipitous? Yes. Rewarding? No doubt about it. However, there were times when I would have given anything to be anywhere other than on that mongrel of a mountain in Venezuela. A table-top mountain or mesa — synonymous with this [...]

I had been enchanted with Sugar Loaf Mountain ever since I saw it in the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker, in which Bond battles with Jaws on a cable car traveling up Rio de Janerio’s most famous landmark (along with the Christ the Redeemer statue that sits at its top). [...]

Is there nothing better than shipping off on a red-eye flight in the depth of a cold winter night and arrive, half-a-day later far on the other side of the Equator (assuming you’re coming from the north) in warm South America? Plants are budding, locals are excited about the onset [...]

Let’s face it, the U.S. economy is limping along at best, and the last thing it should be doing is making it difficult for people outside of the country to come and spend money here. Take Brazil for example, a nation which spent a whopping $5.9 billion in the U.S. [...]

Having just returned from Barcelona — a city that was immensely impacted by hosting the Olympics — I saw firsthand and heard in almost every story about the history of the city how hosting the Olympics helped transform the city by creating public beaches, cleaning up once dingy neighborhoods, and [...]

Brazil. The word alone conjures visions of dark-haired, curvy women, swaying to samba in the sultry heat of a mid-summer’s night, clinging to their equally gorgeous counterparts on the coarse sands of Copacabana beach. The country just sort of exudes this sexy, vibrant, beautiful vibe to the average pale-faced foreigner, [...]

You don’t have to be in Brazil this March 4th to have your very own Carnaval experience. The samba schools that compete for Carnaval honors in São Paulo hold open rehearsals in the months leading up to the big night. For travelers it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an up-close experience most people [...]

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 [...]

The Amazon — with its 1.4 billion acres — may get all the glory when it comes to Brazilian rain forests, but visitors to Rio and the southern part of the country have just as good of access to a rain forest, without having to travel the several hours to [...]

There are some people who choose to remain busy, and there are those that are able to take things as they come. Then there are those people who can do both. Finding a balance may start in a hammock. Figuring out how to relax while away is probably one of [...]