Category Archives for "South America"

If travel teaches you anything, it is this: that one man’s hangover-inducing, paint-stripping, memory-erasing spirit shot is another man’s artisanal specialty. Take tequila…

Update: this article just won a Latin American Travel Association Award at the RSA House in London. I’m pretty chuffed about that and over on Facebook, some of you have been asking what the award was for: Well, here you go! Pre-Columbian Art in Ecuador and the Surprising Question It Asks Christopher Colombus. One nation’s […]

I know before I unzip the tent that I will find ice outside. I know, because there was ice there last night. Ice on the path, ice hanging like swords from the trees and ice, simply ice, forming the glacier…

When it comes to Quito, Ecuador has the kind of problem countries like to have: a kaleidoscope of world class things to see. While hummingbirds flutter through cloud forests inland and turtles glide past pink sands in the Galapagos, Quito stands on the sidelines like a screenwriter at the Oscars: brimming with character and underpinning the action, yet curiously […]

Galapagos Island Facts As names go, it’s one of the lip-twirling best: the blue footed booby. As wildlife sightings go, it’s not too shabby either. Where are the Galapagos Islands located? Boobies, of the red, blue and Nazca footed variety thrive in the speckled volcanic islands of the Galapagos, 886 miles from mainland Ecuador. Or […]

Remember the age old riddle: what’s black and white and red all over?* That’s what Quito’s Mercado San Francisco reminded me of, claiming to be both the oldest and the youngest covered food market in arguably the world’s highest capital city (we’re accepting La Paz as “not quite official” for this, largely because it’s rude to […]

Quito: The Highest Capital In a quiet corner on a dusty shelf in the highest capital city on earth, the tip of a paintbrush moves slowly. The paintbrush ignores the curious debate that surrounds the high altitude claim ( La Paz in Bolivia stands higher than Quito at 3650 metres but its shared capital status with […]

The cloud forests of Ecuador are not awash with colour. Instead, they pick a single one and run with it. Green isn’t just green here, it’s gob smacking, gut punching, grandstanding green, a green that explodes with greedy, reckless abandon. A green that brings lesser sights to life, like the web of a spider or […]

Over one hundred and eighty metres below the ground, in the cool shadows of Colombia, lies the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira. Over 3000 people attend mass each Sunday at this subterranean Roman Catholic church. The lack of bishop, however, means that the use of the word cathedral is a creative, affectionate touch from the citizens […]

A priest. A still-beating heart. Blood flowing down sacrificial steps until it flooded the ground some 30 metres below.

That’s my first mental image of Mayan culture, the…

Before I open my eyes, I think I can smell the rain outside. It’s early, very early…