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...

Culture / South America

Groundhog Day, South American style

Most Americans spent February 2nd watching for the shadow of a cute, but probably overhyped, rodent. At the same time, half a world away, thousands of Uruguayos flocked to the beach in an annual ritual called “lemanjá”. The cornerstone of this fascinating bit of culture is the casting of negative...

South America

From Europe to Latin America in one border crossing

Leaving Buenos Aires and crossing Rio de la Plata (“the big flat river”), one arrives in Uruguay. The Uruguayo — Americans would say Uruguayan but the locals here call themselves Uruguayos — capital of Montevideo is a safe and lovely city. Montevideo might just be about the nicest and safest...

Laid-back / Modes of Transport / South America

Incredibly wide border crossing

Rio de la Plata, the river separating Argentina from Uruguay, is so wide that it takes two hours to cross by ferry. That’s not even to get you down river to Montevideo. The ferry simply crosses from Buenos Aires to Colonia, the closest major city in Uruguay. From there, it’s...