South America
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Landing in Sao Paulo and Experiencing It
More Details: Landing in Sao Paulo and Experiencing ItAs a travel blogger, I read other bloggers’ blogs because, you could say, I like the topic. I always enjoy when one of them goes to Brazil for the first time and I get to read their writings about their experience. Those writings remind me I want to go back badly. I traveled to Brazil…
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Photo of the Week: The Basilica de Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia
More Details: Photo of the Week: The Basilica de Nuestra Señora de la AltagraciaThe title of this post seems like a mouthful: Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia (Basilica of our Lady of Altagracia). This massive structure in Higüey, Dominican Republic is to honor the Virgin of Altagracia, national patron saint of the country. It was inaugurated in the 1970s and is within reach of many tourist…
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Photo of the Week – Santiago’s Fresh Seafood at the Mercado Central
More Details: Photo of the Week – Santiago’s Fresh Seafood at the Mercado CentralI loved spending a year in Santiago, Chile with the Andes as a majestic backdrop and in a country that offers so many beautiful landscapes from deserts in the north to fjords in the south. One of my favorite places in Santiago is the Mercado Central where one cannot only shop for fresh seafood but,…
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Going to Heaven’s Door – and a Challenge in Gender ID in Lake Titicaca
More Details: Going to Heaven’s Door – and a Challenge in Gender ID in Lake TiticacaBased on the recommendation of the local contact at work, I decided to spend the weekend exploring Lake Titicaca and its islands (Uros, Amantani, and Taquile) with a boat tour. I barely scratched the surface as I stayed within the Peruvian side of the lake (I really had wanted to go to Isla del Sol…
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Photo of the Week – The Grandiose Andes
More Details: Photo of the Week – The Grandiose AndesThe Himalayas sound remote and far away? Well, the Andes are ALMOST as tall and with spectacular views too. You can take a VERY short flight from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina (for peanuts if you buy the ticket in Chile) and you get this impressive view. I fell in love with the view in…
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A Propos of Earthquakes
More Details: A Propos of EarthquakesAs I have written elsewhere in this blog, I missed the Chile earthquake of Feb 2010 by a day and a half. How lucky of me! Our company did not allow us to return for 3 weeks and in those 3 weeks the more powerful aftershocks took place so I also missed those mercifully since…
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Photos of the Week – Sights of Chile
More Details: Photos of the Week – Sights of ChileI loved Chile from a 3-month stint there 20 yrs ago before I went back in Dec 2009. I have written about what I saw, did and felt in other entries in my blog so I won’t repeat myself, but I continue to long to go back even after spending all of 2010 in Chile… …
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On the List for a Future Trip to Patagonia
More Details: On the List for a Future Trip to PatagoniaReminiscing about my trip to Patagonia and the southern tip of the Americas, I think about what I didn’t get to see… Somehow, 7 months later, Patagonia’s grasp on my mind and my spirit is still very strong. I don’t know if it is the remoteness, the “unspoiltness” (though there is tourism there), the closer-to-how-it-used-be,…
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Photo of the Week – A Colorful Home
More Details: Photo of the Week – A Colorful HomeLast December, I finally fulfilled a dream almost 19 years old: to go to Punta Arenas and see the Chilean Patagonia. I have written about the trip already in the blog but I thought this picture merited a Photo of the Week entry of its own. This is a home in Puerto Natales, near the…
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Best of Chile Itinerary | What to See and Experience
More Details: Best of Chile Itinerary | What to See and ExperienceHaving traveled a good bit throughout Chile while visiting and working there, I’d like to share a “best of” Chile itinerary. This itinerary of what to see in Chile is geared to those with enough time to do more than a couple of days’ worth of exploring (but not boundless time either….). I elaborate on some…