Destination: South America
Venezuela: Travelers ‘Want to See for Themselves What’s Really Going On’
by Jim Benning | 03.27.06 | 11:42 PM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzA Cultural Shift in Macho Chile?
by Jim Benning | 03.09.06 | 1:48 PM ET
Just how macho and socially conservative is Chile? According to the Los Angeles Times, “It was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to legalize divorce, little more than a year ago. Abortion remains illegal.” And according some, rates of domestic violence are high. But Chile’s culture appears to be changing. On Saturday, Michelle Bachelet officially takes office as Chile’s first female head of state. Some citizens, including hopeful women, see Bachelet’s election as a sign that the nation is slowly becoming more democratic, post-Pinochet, and more open to women taking a prominent role in all walks of life, from business to government. The Los Angeles Times’ Reed Johnson, who has been filing terrific culture-related stories from throughout Latin America, reported on the phenomenon in yesterday’s paper.
Rio de Janeiro: The Little Slum Inn
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 1:12 PM ET
Talk about slumming. That’s exactly the experience operators of The Little Slum Inn are selling to travelers in Rio. The five-room hostel is located in the midst of one of the city’s impoverished favelas—prime real estate, apparently, if you’re a backpacker with an urge to experience one of Rio’s grittier neighborhoods. According to a Reuters report, “adventurous tourists, mainly from Germany, France and the United States,” are staying at the hostel in Pereira da Silva. “This place isn’t for wimps,” the inn’s co-owner told Reuters. “If you are uptight, you can go stay at the Copacabana Palace.” A bed goes for $15 a night, doubles go for $35.
Darién National Park
by Ben Keene | 03.03.06 | 12:46 PM ET
Air Marshal Fatally Shoots Man on Miami Jetway
by Michael Yessis | 12.07.05 | 5:04 PM ET
A federal air marshal today shot and killed a man who said he had a bomb in his carry-on luggage at Miami International Airport. According to a CNN report, the man, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, and a U.S. citizen, was reboarding an American Airlines flight after a stopover between Medellin, Colombia and Orlando. “The killing marks the first time a federal air marshal has fired a weapon at an individual since the program was bolstered after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,” CNN reports.
British Cyclist Completes Four-Year, ‘Round-the-World Trip
by Jim Benning | 11.30.05 | 12:35 PM ET
You have to admire Alastair Humphreys’ determination. He left England in 2001, explaining that he was “trundling along towards getting a job” and “just wanted to do something a bit more difficult and challenging.” So off he went on a ‘round-the-world trip by bicycle. He wanted to quit many times as he struggled with loneliness. But the 28-year-old endured, and earlier this month, having passed through Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa, he was in Paris and finally pedaling toward home, where he planned to write a book about the journey.
Rio Takes Aim at Sexy Postcards
by Michael Yessis | 11.29.05 | 10:51 AM ET
The law that state Gov. Roshina Garotinho signed last week bans bikini-clad women in photo montages or outside of natural beach settings on postcards. The goal of the law is to reduce sex tourism and exploitation in Brazil’s tourist hot spot. Luiz Alberto, who runs a newsstand near Copacabana beach, told AP reporter Peter Muello that postcards of Sugar Loaf mountain and Christ the Redeemer are much bigger sellers. “These cards were mostly for gringos,” he said. “This ban is just silly.”
On the Road to Chapel Hill, Off the Road Through Chile
by Michael Yessis | 11.27.05 | 11:12 PM ET
The Sunday travel sections feature a couple of fun road trip stories. In the Washington Post, Ben Brazil chronicles a drive through three music-obsessed college towns in the Southeastern U.S.: Athens, Georgia; Charlottesville, Virginia; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Visit Afghanistan: “Urban Attacks Are Infrequent”
by Jim Benning | 11.02.05 | 1:12 PM ET
That’s but one of Robert Young Pelton’s “once dangerous, now safe (sort of)” travel recommendations for 2006. Pelton’s picks, published in National Geographic Adventure, also include Colombia (“Yes, I did get kidnapped in Colombia”) and Sabah, which he calls, curiously, “Borneo for grown-ups.” Ever cautious, Pelton suggests avoiding central Iraq, delicately noting that “People are hunting you.”
Brazil. It’s Totally Devoted to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Favorite Body Part
by Michael Yessis | 09.13.05 | 4:13 AM ET
Midway through yesterday’s Los Angeles Times story about tabloid publisher American Media’s efforts to suppress Playboy’s “Carnival in Rio” travelogue video hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger—it shows the Gov “grabbing a scantily clad woman and making other sexually suggestive gestures”—comes this passage:
Calvin Trillin in Ecuador
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.05 | 4:16 AM ET
The September 5 issue of The New Yorker is billed as the food issue, but a couple of the stories would fit nicely into one of the magazine’s travel issues. My favorite piece is Calvin Trillin’s Speaking of Soup, which chronicles his visit to Cuenca, Ecuador to study Spanish and eat fanesca—“an exceedingly thick and hearty soup, heavy on the beans.” World Hum contributor Newley Purnell, who lived in Cuenca for a year, calls Trillin’s story “funny and poignant,” but he’s got a few quibbles.
“Kiss and Tango” on “The World”
by Jim Benning | 08.22.05 | 11:06 PM ET
We recently mentioned the new travel memoir “Kiss and Tango: Looking for Love in Buenos Aires.” Today, the public radio show “The World” featured a segment on the book and its author, Marina Palmer. The report features some fine tango playing in the background. (Scroll down the page to find the segment.)
Sex, Drugs and Fish Salad
by Frank Bures | 08.14.05 | 11:29 PM ET
Paul Theroux's new novel, "Blinding Light," features a travel-writing protagonist with a remarkable resemblance to the master himself. The result, writes Frank Bures, is unlike so many of his other literary efforts. It is, perhaps ironically, a good airplane book.
The Critics: “Kiss & Tango”
by Jim Benning | 07.25.05 | 2:59 PM ET
In Sunday’s Los Angeles Times Book Review, Susan Salter Reynolds reviews a new travel memoir, “Kiss & Tango: Looking for Love in Buenos Aires,” by Marina Palmer. The book chronicles the author’s move from New York to Buenos Aires, where she takes up tango dancing, studying the moves by day and hitting the tango clubs by night, hoping to become a professional dancer. Salter Reynolds likes the book. “Palmer’s effervescence is so contagious that a reader feels she has actually lived the life (hangovers and all),” she writes (scroll down one item on the page). “Armchair tango. Now that’s escape.”
I’m Saving Money for My First Long Trip. Where is a Good Place for First-Time Vagabonders to Go?
by Rolf Potts | 06.29.05 | 3:36 PM ET
Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel