A salt lake inside the crater of an extinct volcano is not where most people expect to find a lesson in history, identity, and cultural resilience. Yet on the island of Sal, Cabo Verde, floating in mineral-rich brine while voices echoed from the crater walls, it became impossible to ignore how landscapes absorb human stories…
A place close to my heart, just north of here where the scorched summer earth becomes green once again. Cool water runs off the sierra and where the wines are meant to enjoyed, not examined. Writing in Roads and Kingdoms about a toast to an old friend.
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. It happened while we were overlooking one of the world’s unofficial wonders, sitting under a desperately thirsty acacia tree, swatting away flies and scratching at fleas. A temple…
Helmcken falls, Wells Grey Provincial Park, B.C I’ve been working with the great people over at Trazzler again, this time trapsing through the beautiful Okanagan valley in southern British Colombia. 10 trips, 10 different things to do while you pinch yourself and wonder if you really are in the frozen Great White North. OK…a few…
Nor Top 8’s… And not even a Top 10. No advice on how to remember where you put your hotel key, nor inane tips on how to ‘bargain like a local.’ Just a writer, not a ‘travel’ writer, telling of his experience. It can’t be read while doing 3 other things and even demands a…
Perhaps not surprisingly the most visited site in Spain in 2008 was…? I ran a little poll the other day and got a flood of hits, the answers were: The Prado Museum (Madrid) 1 (33%) The Sagrada Familia (Barcelona) 0 (0%) The Alhambra (Granada) 2 (66%) The Great Mosque (Cordoba) 0 (0%) The Cathedral in…
Photo by Martin Gray These beautiful shots from the Guardian a while back. The following from the site. “Acclaimed photographer and anthropologist Martin Gray has spent the last 20 years on a pilgrimage photographing and exploring more than 1,000 sacred sites in 80 countries. What follows is a selection from his new book, Sacred Earth,…
Ride the rails to the end of the line to a place that feels like a Japanese island invaded by Russians. For the Russians indeed are coming…to buy cars. Twice a week, thousands of cars are ferried across the sea of Japan over to Vladivostok from this sleepy port city to sate the growing eastern…
Photograph: Olaf Kraak/EPA I was browsing the Guardian’s usually stunning 24 hours in pictures section the other day and they had a ‘best of 2008‘ series (actually there are several) and they highlighted an amazing photographer named Uriel Sinai. Definitely not your average travel shots, but that’s the beauty of it.
I recently published a piece on my adopted hometown in the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star. If you are thinking about visiting Spain, click over to the article and make sure to include Caceres in your itinerary.