What We Loved This Week: ‘Tango,’ Cabrillo and ‘Encounters at the End of the World’

Travel Blog • World Hum • 10.03.08 | 4:23 PM ET

World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.

Michael Yessis
I spent Wednesday night at Washington D.C.‘s RFK stadium watching Mexico City’s Cruz Azul beat DC United in a CONCACAF Champions League match. A steady rain and second-team squads reduced the crowd to die hards, but the distilled experience of international soccer—chants! drums! capes!—made for a memorable night.

Jim Benning
I loved wacky historical re-creations, specifically, Sunday’s re-created landing of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in San Diego more than 450 years ago. I was one of a few hundred people there, sampling Portuguese beans and gawking at the period costumes. The history of exploration comes alive—sort of. I snapped this pic:

Frank Bures
I loved the new Werner Herzog film, Encounters at the End of the World. One of the people interviewed says Antarctica is filled with full-time travelers and part-time workers.

David Farley
On Tuesday evening, I stopped by New York City’s newest (and only) travel bookstore, Idlewild Books to see Stephanie Elizondo Griest talk about her engaging new book, “Mexican Enough.” A Stephanie event always makes for an entertaining evening, as she doesn’t necessarily read from her latest work, but she performs from it. This time she’s got costume changes and even a fictional monologue.

Eva Holland
At the risk of sounding shallow and materialistic (or at the least, fascinated by shallow and materialistic people), I’ll admit that this week I loved Gossip Girl. Not just one episode, either: a full-on, three-day season one DVD marathon. Setting aside the juicy plot twists, beautiful young people and witty one-liners, what I love best about Gossip Girl is the way it shows off New York City. It’s one of the only NYC-based shows that actually films there in its entirety, and—from the front steps of the Met to Grand Central Station or the streets of DUMBO—it makes the most of its setting. If you haven’t yet met the Upper East Side’s finest high school juniors, here’s an intro.

Terry Ward
Citroen’s new advertising campaign in Europe. As a former copywriter and longtime Francophile—and, more recently, Germanophile—I got a kick out of the French carmaker’s latest tagline:

Valerie Conners
Camille Cusumano’s Tango: An Argentine Love Story. The memoir highlights the author’s months-long stay in Buenos Aires, where she went to explore her near obsession with tango. Though I honestly don’t find the book to be extremely well-written, the details of tango’s history and techniques coupled with the portrait of the milonga culture throughout the city is fascinating.

Joanna Kakissis
As a writer, I’ve often stuck too close to my own craft for inspiration instead of throwing myself, however awkwardly, into other forms of storytelling. That’s why I signed up for a couple of photography classes at the University of Colorado. The instructor and students are very dynamic, which is very energizing, of course. But I’ve also enjoyed seeing how photojournalism and documentary photography have evolved in the shrinking-planet multimedia age. I’m floored. Here’s an example: award-winning photographer Douglas Menuez’s exploration of tequila culture in Mexico’s Jalisco state. It’s a beautifully visceral narrative that brings you right to Jalisco.

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