Traveling in Ecuador Again by Tim Ghazzawi: Last year, I spent at least 576 hours teaching to computer screens. September through March. 80 minutes per class. 3 classes a day. 4 days a week. 576 total hours. All from my dining room table. The outside world wasn’t much fun either. […]
Journeys to and from Medellín, Colombia by Diego Santos: Last year I traveled to Colombia. To get there I took a plane to Cartagena and from there another plane to Medellín. Usually I carry important things with me on the plane but the airline I was flying with didn’t allow […]
Wildlife Exploration in the Bolivian Pampas by Sarah Bronson: Millie and I first met when we were au pairs in Igualada, a small town outside of Barcelona, Spain. We became instant friends and would often spend the weekends dancing until the sun came up and then laying on the beach […]
A Journey on the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu by Theo Markopouliotis: “The first two days will be the hardest,” Virgilio said. Virgilio, our guide, had been leading this trek for more than a decade, helping newlyweds, families, and friends fulfill their lifelong dreams of hiking to Machu Picchu, often […]
A Journey to the End of the World by Tim Ghazzawi: I’d asked a simple question about the best way to get to my hostel from the airport. I’m arriving late, I’d said, sometime after 10, and am worried about navigating a new city in the dark. My hostel responded […]
Traditions and Superstitions in La Paz, Bolivia by Tim Ghazzawi Hermione. Sabrina. Glinda. Broom-Hilda. The trio from Hocus Pocus. Residents of Salem. There are a lot of witches out there. I happened to meet one while in Bolivia, though I didn’t learn her name. She was too shy to reveal […]
A Hike through the Colca Canyon by Tim Ghazzawi: From behind the curtain of my dormitory bunk bed, I sat noiseless and still, debating whether to pretend to be asleep or help the poor girl out. It was almost midnight and I was to leave for a hike early the […]
Thoughts on Lima, Peru by Tim Ghazzawi: It’s not really about sea lions. We’ll get to those later. I took this picture in the Ballestas Islands, 150 miles south of Lima, where my story actually takes place. I’d left Peru’s capital city two nights prior and felt a surprising sense […]
The Art of Fernando Botero by Tim Ghazzawi: Gabriel García Márquez is Colombia’s most acclaimed artist. The Nobel Prize-winning author has had his writing translated into over 30 languages and, despite his death 5 years ago, maintains an immense readership around the world. I recently bought myself a copy of […]
A Weekend in Punta Gallinas by Tim Ghazzawi: The northernmost point of South America is called Punta Gallinas, which, when translated, means “Chickens Point”. As the story goes, the place earned its name after a ship carrying livestock crashed there and scattered the surviving chickens across the land. I’m not […]
A Game of Tejo in Salento, Colombia by Tim Ghazzawi: In Spanish, the word tejo means many things. In Colombia, the word tejo loosely translates to: “a game in which you throw metal discs at triangular paper pouches filled with gunpowder and arranged in a circle atop a board of […]
Life After an Earthquake in Canoa, Ecuador by Tim Ghazzawi: In 2016 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck northwest Ecuador. Over 600 people died, thousands more were injured, and the tiny surf town of Canoa, near the epicenter of the quake, went into recovery mode. The government dispatched police officers and […]
A Reviving Return to Cuenca, Ecuador by Tim Ghazzawi: When we’re young we’re told not to get into cars with strangers. Traveling through South America, though, makes heeding that advice difficult, given the number of cars and vans and buses one must hail to get from place to place. They’re […]
My First Week in Ecuador by Tim Ghazzawi: When my Uber driver Jorge accepted me as his passenger that morning, he blew out a sigh. 50 minutes, his phone read. Across the city in morning traffic. He spoke Spanish in a way I did not recognize, faster and more strung […]
Color in Sedona, Arizona and Patagonia, Chile by Tim Ghazzawi: Despite the fact that the most notable rock formations in Sedona are named after rather everyday things (bell, coffee pot, court house, and steamboat to name a few), its setting is anything but ordinary. Nor is it easily defined. Sedona […]