Author: Jeffrey Kontur

Dining / Off-the-beaten-path / Off-the-cuff / South America / Vegetarian/Vegan / Wandering

Unexpected discovery: two vegetarian Peruvian restaurants

I went out wandering around Trujillo today and stumbled upon a vegan restaurant just 3-4 blocks from where I’m staying. Then I found a vegetarian restaurant just 3-4 more blocks beyond that. After several hours of exploring and taking photos, I started to feel hungry so I made my way...

Culture / Guided Tours / South America

All-natural shampoo

While touring the ancient Nasca aqueducts and spiral wells, my guide Arturo also shared a great deal about the history, geology and botany of the region. During our own exploration, we happened upon a tree whose fresh leaves were “ground up” and the sap rubbed on the skin as a...

Culture / History / Off-the-beaten-path / South America

Other archaeological relics of the Nasca culture

Aside from their world-famous geoliths in the desert, the Nasca people did leave a few other legacies behind. They built a few small pyramids, some burial mounds, stone living structures, and a complex aqueduct system. It is this aqueduct system that is perhaps most impressive. In the 1980s, a powerful...

Active / Activities / Bucket List / Culture / History / South America

Ancient Aliens: Nasca Lines in Perú

Most everyone is familiar with them, even if you didn’t know what they were called or know much about them. The Lineas de Nasca are a bunch of lines and shapes out in the high deserts of southern Perú. If you were walking on the ground and came across one...

Art / Off-the-beaten-path / South America / Wandering

Street Art: The graffiti of Montevideo

It seems that graffiti is everywhere you go in the world. I developed a whole new appreciation for “street art” after taking the Bogota Graffiti Tour in 2015. During this three-hour walking tour around Bogota, Colombia a graffiti artist pointed out the many different styles of street art. He noted...

Logistics / Sedate / South America

Grocery shopping in Third World countries

SPOILER ALERT!! If you have the stereotypical vision in mind of Third World markets as seen in Hollywood movies, with 3-day old dead chickens hanging by their feet in the front window, you might end up disappointed. In all the Third World countries I have been to, you can of...

Laid-back / South America

On the beach in January: the Montevideo waterfront

Walking along the waterfront in January, it is 80°F but feels considerably warmer. Even though Montevideo has a fantastic swimming beach right in the city, it is a workday so the beach is not the least bit crowded. In fact, it’s all but vacant by North American standards. Technically speaking,...

Art / Culture / South America

Carnival doesn’t just happen in Rio

One of the three or four things that seems inextricably tied to outsiders’ perceptions of Rio de Janiero, Brazil is carnival. The reverse is also true; mention carnival and one automatically thinks of Rio. Well, I recently found out that carnival happens in many places throughout South America. Especially in...