Category Archives for "South America"

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.

The cloud forest column runs virtually along the whole country. At 2000 metres above sea level, its steep slopes and subtropical valleys teem with wildlife.

And you can visit. Here’s how, with cloud forest facts and a plan to get you to Ecuador.

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…

 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 rile […]

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 […]

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