Destination: South America
What Does 66 Cents Buy You in Peru?
by Eva Holland | 10.23.09 | 12:19 PM ET
Over at Uncornered Market, Daniel and Audrey are contemplating value and relativity—by rounding up several 66-cent purchases.
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Yahoo! BuzzInterview With Nicholas Kristof: Traveling and Tweeting Under ‘Half the Sky’
by David Frey | 10.21.09 | 10:53 AM ET
Photo by Fred R. Conrad David Frey asks the author about his dream vacation, Twitter, travel to hellholes and the trip that changed his life
Video You Must See: Biking Bolivia’s ‘Death Road’
by Eva Holland | 10.07.09 | 5:06 PM ET
Bolivia’s notorious Death Road from La Paz to Coroico has become popular with mountain bikers and other adventurous travelers since being named “the world’s most dangerous road” by the Inter American Development Bank back in the mid-90s. Here’s a taste.
0:24—First good look at the drop-off
0:54—Sneaking past a truck
1:20—Biking through waterfalls
Did Airport Security Ruin Chicago’s Olympic Bid?
by Eva Holland | 10.05.09 | 11:32 AM ET
Michelle Higgins ponders the impact of U.S. border control policies on Chicago’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Games. For my part, I suppose that could have been a factor—remember the visitor shortfall in Beijing after China tightened its visa restrictions—but beyond any specific considerations, I’m just not sure about the assumption that 2016 was Chicago’s to lose. After all, the United States has already hosted the Olympics eight times, while Rio’s winning bid will mean the first Games ever on South American soil. It’s about time, isn’t it?
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Changes’ by Seu Jorge
by Jim Benning | 10.02.09 | 3:13 PM ET
Gangs and the New Yorker in Rio’s Favelas
by Michael Yessis | 09.28.09 | 10:50 AM ET
Jon Lee Anderson’s story Gangland from the latest issue of the New Yorker isn’t online, but the magazine did post a stunning audio slideshow with photos by Joao Pina.
We posted Rob Verger’s slideshow about tourism in Rio’s favelas last June.
The Rise of America as Culinary Destination
by Michael Yessis | 09.23.09 | 9:55 AM ET
Just a few decades ago, America was a culinary wasteland. Now, it’s foodie central. Why? Jerry Weinberger points to, among other things, the Great Woman theory of history:
The first wedding gift my wife and I received, in 1965, was a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child (with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle). It still sits on a shelf in our kitchen, bound now by tape, with almost every page earmarked and blotched. Published in 1961, Child’s book brought the techniques of French haute cuisine to the American kitchen, teaching us how to soak and sauté sweetbreads, how to make soufflé au Grand Marnier, how to cut up a duck—all within the limits of the American supermarket of the period. But it was Child’s later TV show, Boston PBS’s The French Chef, that really changed things. It was unintimidating French cooking: the chef was a goofy-talking giant who dumped in the butter and occasionally spilled things and whacked stuff with mallets and sometimes burned the sauce.
But Julia taught us how to master French cooking, not American. American food had to be invented before it could be mastered. And the inventor was another Great Woman, this one on the opposite coast. In 1971, Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. This was the great transformative event in American culinary history. Chez Panisse grew out of Waters’s experience not with the butter and fat of Parisian haute cuisine, but with the foods of Mediterranean Provence (based on olive oil, the fresh fruits of the earth and sea, and the general habit of going to the market with a string bag every day). The principle of Chez Panisse was that food—both animal and vegetable—should be absolutely fresh, and that meant absolutely local. So it’s not quite right to say that Waters had to invent American food; what she did was rediscover and then elaborate on pre-canned, pre-supermarket, pre-tomatoes-all-year-round regional American food.
Flags of the World—Made From Food
by Michael Yessis | 09.16.09 | 2:34 PM ET
These ads for the Sydney International Food Festival are stunning. Right now, this one is my favorite:
(Via Coudal)
Turn Up the Tunes, Break Out Your Phrasebooks
by Elyse Franko | 09.09.09 | 8:44 AM ET
Elyse Franko wonders: Is the United States at the beginning of a linguistic musical revolution?
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Borges y Paraguay’ by Bajofondo
by Jim Benning | 09.04.09 | 2:57 PM ET
The Alpaca Weavers of Ccaccaccollo
by Lola Akinmade | 07.30.09 | 2:01 PM ET
Lola Akinmade chronicles a Peruvian village's traditional craft
See the full photo slideshow »
South Carolina Governor’s Mystery Vacation: Is He a Tango Addict?*
by Jim Benning | 06.24.09 | 1:07 PM ET
Nobody seemed to know where South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was for days. His wife said she didn’t know but wasn’t worried. His staff said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. The police got involved.
Well, today the governor emerged at the Atlanta airport saying work had been stressful and he had gone to Buenos Aires because he needed a vacation and “wanted to do something exotic.” He said he spent the week driving the Argentine coastline.
Some don’t buy his story. Speculation about what he was really doing is rampant. Talking Points Memo has put together a handy timeline of events surrounding the mystery trip.
Anyone have any good theories?
Call me crazy, but I’m going to suggest the governor did indeed go to Argentina—because he has a tango addiction. I have no evidence for this. I just like the idea of it and think it would make for a good HBO movie.
Come clean, governor. Is it tango? If it is, it’s OK with us.
*Update 11:37 a.m. PT: Well, I was close. The governor gave a press conference clearing up the mystery. It was a tango of a different sort.
*Update 4:34 p.m. PT: Gawker commenter flossy has the line of the day on the mixed messages earlier about the governor’s whereabouts: “In all fairness to his aides, “I’m getting some Argentinian tail” sounds a lot like “I’m hiking the Appalachian trail” when you’re on a fuzzy satelite phone connection. Who hasn’t had that kind of innocent misunderstanding?”
Paying for Passport Stamps
by Eva Holland | 06.19.09 | 1:50 PM ET
Over at Jaunted, blogger JetSetCD has opened up a conversation on those oh-so-tempting, oh-so-corny souvenir passport stamps.
You know, the ones from places like Checkpoint Charlie, Machu Picchu and so on. And then, beyond the stamps from major tourist sites, there are the just-so-I-can-say-I-was-here countries—Liechtenstein, San Marino and the like—that charge for their entry stamps, too. So, Jaunted asks, are novelty passport stamps worth their price? Or are they just as bad as “buying those horrific gift spoons”?
I have to admit, I’ve never actually been faced with the question before. But I love my passport stamps, and I can’t see putting a set of fake East/West Berlin markers into the mix. On the other hand, though it would irk me to pay, I’d probably want proof that I crossed Liechtenstein’s borders. What about you?
The Critics: ‘Fordlandia’
by Alicia Imbody | 06.18.09 | 2:08 PM ET
Greg Grandin’s new book, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, analyzes the surprising history behind the brilliant car mogul’s disastrous attempts to transplant the American way of life into a remote Amazonian village. Ford is credited as the father of America’s consumer culture, but his utopian plans to capitalize on new sources of rubber resulted in one of the greatest failures of his distinguished career. The critics are chiming in on the man behind the story and the modern day implications of exporting Americanism.
Ten Inspirational Women Travelers
by Julia Ross | 06.18.09 | 10:13 AM ET
Julia Ross celebrates women who have blazed their own trails