Destination: Mexico
Morning Links: Road Tripping ‘Amexica,’ Titty Ho and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.26.09 | 8:12 AM ET
- Ed Vulliamy drives the length of the U.S.-Mexico border. Or, as he calls it, “Amexica.”
- Is Mexico City now the world’s greatest food city?
- Paramedics bought Big Macs for stranded AeroMexico passengers in Portland. That might be the only pleasant news from the incident.
- The “tourism gold rush” has subsided in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Blame Mugabe.
- Toronto wrestles with its identity.
- USA Today explores the question of whether the Obama presidency will influence travel to the U.S.
- Super Bowl travel packages are “not exactly a hot ticket.”
- Looks who’s taking on the bad travel economy: William Shatner.
- Motherwell. Glenrothes. New Cumnock. These three towns are in the running for the most dismal in Scotland.
- Crapstone. Titty Ho. Penistone, These and other snicker-worthy place names in Britain have had bloggers, Tweeters and New York Times readers snickering all weekend. Myself included.
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Yahoo! BuzzMorning Links: Buffalo-Wing Boycott, Nashville’s English-Only Measure and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.23.09 | 8:18 AM ET
- Nashville votes no and nyet and nein to English-only ballot measure.
- Video: Spending Time With Poster Boy, a street artist who prowls the New York City subway system.
- Even the U.S. Marines are avoiding Tijuana these days.
- A different take on Mexico: How U.S. media perpetuates cliches about the country.
- An exhibition of Robert Frank’s The Americans recently opened at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Slate has a slideshow.
- Aboard the slow train through Senegal.
- Aboard the other bullet trains of Asia.
- Are high-end adventure outfitters rising “above the global financial crisis and recession”?
- Buffalo-wing lovers in Buffalo, New York, call for a Buffalo-wing boycott on Monday. It could get worse: Supplies are so low and prices so high for wings that there may be a shortage on Super Bowl Sunday. What will we ever do, particularly with all the accompanying blue-cheese dip?
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Checking In
by Alexander Basek | 01.22.09 | 8:01 PM ET
iStockPhoto Salutations! My name is Alexander Basek, and I’ll be blogging about hotels on World Hum. “But Alexander,” you interject, “do we even need a writer to cover hotels now that there’s Facebook, TripAdvisor and Twitter? The wisdom of crowds! Web 2.0!” Hold on: I love me some new media. I even got some hotel advice—unsolicited, useful hotel advice—from Twitter last week. That said, recommendations are a lot better when you know where the recommender is coming from, and once you get to know me, that’s what I aim to give you.
Canada: It’s Cheap Again!
by Eva Holland | 01.22.09 | 10:14 AM ET
Arthur Frommer points out that with everyone watching Europe’s two heavyweight currencies draw closer to parity, some other currency shifts have gone unnoticed. “We’ve been so focused on the Euro and the Pound,” he writes, “that most of [us] have failed to notice that the currencies of Canada and Mexico have plunged in value.” After rising to par last year, the Canadian dollar has dropped back to $1.25 per 1 US dollar, while in Mexico a single American dollar will now net you 14 pesos. The lesson here for American travelers? Head North. Or South. Either way, as Frommer says, “you now enjoy a bonanza.”
English Everywhere
by Eric Lucas | 01.12.09 | 8:55 AM ET
REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom It's the universal, global, one-size-fits-all language. Eric Lucas says it's not enough.
Morning Links: Mexico City’s War on Gum, South Pole Trek and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.09.09 | 9:15 AM ET
- Deep-fried bacon and butter powered three Canadians in the fastest-ever trek to the South Pole.
- Mexico City has had it with all the gum.
- Another amusing story about how it is no longer 1967 in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury—except the parts of Haight-Ashbury that recall 1967.
- Interesting piece on 2008’s “cartography boom” and the way maps are changing the way we organize and look at the world.
- Can you get better travel deals by deleting your cookies? A case study.
- This Just In asks what the economic downturn means for coverage in high-end travel magazines.
- Travel book publishers are having problems in this financial climate, too. (Via Eoin Purcell)
- Fewer people live in Montpelier, Vermont (7,495) than any other U.S. capital, yet it supports four independent bookstores. Go Montpelier.
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Nation Branding for your iPod? Canada Votes for a National Playlist.
by Eva Holland | 01.07.09 | 11:52 AM ET
Call it change you can listen to: CBC Radio is hoping to get some made-in-Canada music onto incoming President Obama’s iPod.
The Canadian broadcaster is accepting nominations for a “definitive Canadian playlist”—dubbed “49 Songs from North of the 49th Parallel”—to be unveiled on Obama’s inauguration day. “One of the best ways to know Canada is through the depth and breadth of our artistic expression,” said a CBC representative. “We’re excited about the new president, and we want him to be excited about us.”
So how do you go about compiling a definitive national playlist? CBC producers will whittle the suggestions from the public down to a manageable 100 most-nominated songs, and then online voting will cut the shortlist down to the final 49.
Sure, the project seems a tad goofy—realistically, Obama will have bigger things to worry about on Jan. 20 than whether he prefers Stompin’ Tom Connors or Gordon Lightfoot—but it got me thinking about music and national identity.
The Road Less Eaten
by David Farley | 01.06.09 | 2:52 PM ET
America’s relationship with food from around the world has traveled a long way in the last few decades. Case in point: Weight Watchers “Worldwide Favorites” recipe cards from 1974. Say what you will about globalization, at least we no longer have to endure these fish “tacos” (their quotes), an anything-goes orgy of tomatoes and cheese, or ashen-gray Fish Balls or Fluffy Mackerel Pudding.
I’ve never been to Polynesia, but something tells me the combination of ingredients in the Polynesian Snack—fruit, buttermilk and sprouts—would make an islander eat sand before laying hands on anything from this recipe book. We’ve come along way, baby.
Tonight: New Season of ‘Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations’
by World Hum | 01.05.09 | 4:53 PM ET
The new season kicks off tonight at 10 ET on the Travel Channel as Bourdain heads south of the border to Mexico with Carlos, head chef of Les Halles in New York City.
Morning Links: Idlewild Books, Disaster Tourism and More
by Michael Yessis | 12.18.08 | 9:44 AM ET
- The latest clerk in New York Magazine’s “Ask a Shop Clerk” series: David Del Vecchio, owner of New York City’s Idlewild Books. He says mystery novels are underrated as travel books.
- Mexico City looks to go green.
- Here’s The Year in Google Maps.
- The New York Public Library adds some great old New York photos to its Flickr stream.
- Ian Stevenson creates a video showing the waves of immigration to the United States from 1820 until last year.
- Tim Leffel stresses the importance of being spontaneous while traveling.
- In the wake of Hurricane Ike, Galveston, Texas is the latest place to confront disaster tourism.
- Awesome Tapes from Africa show off awesome cassette tapes from Africa. This recommended track from “The Best of Sagbohan Danialou” is brightening my morning.
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Just How Skillful Are Kidnappers in Mexico?
by Jim Benning | 12.17.08 | 4:39 PM ET
They reportedly kidnapped an anti-kidnapping expert from the United States who was in northern Mexico conducting security seminars. “I do a lot of security consulting, and the last thing I think of is being a victim in the process,” a fellow expert told the New York Times. “Talk about turning the tables.” Kidnappings in Mexico are at an all-time high this year.
Eight Best Cities for Street Food
by Terry Ward | 12.15.08 | 12:16 AM ET
iStockphoto Terry Ward lifts the lid on a few of the world's tastiest places to eat the people's cuisine
In Chiapas, a ‘Commune With a Conservation Bent’
by Joanna Kakissis | 12.04.08 | 10:17 AM ET
Founded 28 years ago by the Chinantecho ethnic group, Reforma Agraria operates in one of Mexico’s threatened biospheres. The New York Times’ Matt Gross, who spent a rainy day at the Las Guacamayas eco-resort there in October, recounts his “pleasant if sweaty stroll” in the “small, protected rain forest” in his latest Frugal Traveler blog post.
‘My Life is ‘The Terminal 2’
by Valerie Conners | 11.24.08 | 2:34 PM ET
So says Hiroshi Nohara, a Japanese citizen who “for reasons he cannot explain,” has been calling Mexico City’s international airport home for the past three months.
Honoring the Tamale Calls of Mexico City
by Jim Benning | 11.24.08 | 10:28 AM ET
It’s not quite a call to prayer. It’s more like a call to chow down. The Los Angeles Times pays homage to the sounds of the city’s neighborhood food vendors with this fine little video. Writes Ken Ellingwood: “You hear it from a block away: an amplified, singsong call with an uncanny power to slice through the urban din. The tone is cheap and tinny—as kitschy as a sound can be. And it’s my favorite in Mexico City.”