Monterrey, Mountains, and Unexpected Mexico

For those of you following along, I mentioned how our tickets to Monterrey had been canceled twice, and it was becoming increasingly unclear whether the universe really did not want us visiting this part of Mexico or whether Viva Aerobus was only pretending to offer flights there. Well, we finally […]

In the Saddle: Conquering Cerro de la Silla

Its image is everywhere — on labels of tostadas and tortillas, wall murals, and even in the logo of the local baseball team. It’s the symbol of the city. The most recognizable landmark.  It is as iconic as Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf or Cape Town’s Table Mountain. Cerro de la […]

São Paulo: Hate At First Sight

“Skip São Paulo. It’s just a concrete jungle. Nothing to see there,” was the advice I received while planning a trip to Brazil. Nonsense. We are big city people. We love architecture, museums, and restaurants. Big cities have this never-ending energy and are always full of activities and things to […]

Bad Things

We arrived in Taipei on December 13th and left on the 18th to explore Alishan. On December 19th, 2025, a 27-year-old man threw smoke grenades and stabbed people in a Taipei metro station, killing three people and injuring eleven others. He then killed himself by jumping from a building. This […]

Taiwan: Shaking in Our Boots

It was an evening of our last day in Kaohsiung, and we were visiting the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas.  Temples in Taiwan usually have dragons painted by one set of doors to indicate that those doors are used to enter the temple, and tigers by another set of doors, which […]

Top 20 Things to Do in Mexico City

By Victor / March 2, 2023

As we wrote before, Mexico City is one of our favorite cities.  We’ve been there half a dozen times, and every visit we discover something new and fun.  Here are our 20 reasons why you should visit.  1. Explore Zocalo and Centro Historico The city’s main square is the most […]

More Money, More Problems

By Julia / February 16, 2023

Please start with the previous post, “Money, Money, Money,” where we ask money questions about Cuba, and then continue here, where we answer them.   As we were settling into a colectivo (a shared taxi), one of the fellow tourists started rummaging through his backpack.  Unable to find what he […]

Money, Money, Money

By Julia / February 9, 2023

The biggest headache in planning the Cuba trip wasn’t the itinerary, flights, or visa.  It was money.  Due to the official embargo, Cuban banks do not recognize U.S.-issued debit and credit cards.  So, paying with credit cards and withdrawing cash through ATMs is absolutely not possible for anyone using American […]

How to Sneak into Cuba

By Julia / January 26, 2023

There were two types of reactions to my last post about visiting Cuba and bringing gifts of hygiene supplies and medicine: “Did you really have to bring soap and pills with you? I thought Cuba had everything by now…” Or “Wait… You went to Cuba? Is that legal? How did […]

More Souvenirs: Part II

By Victor / January 19, 2023

Last month, we wrote about some unique souvenirs that we brought back from our travels.  Today is Part 2 of that post. African masks, Egypt In our collection, we have eight African masks, which is a lot, considering we haven’t really visited Africa yet.  The only nominal African country we’ve […]

An Honest Conversation in Havana

By Julia / January 12, 2023

There is a conversation that happens in every country we visit.  The locals earnestly ask, we honestly answer, the locals are thrilled, and by the end of it, everyone is happy.  But this one time, it went off script. “How do you like Cuba?” the taxi driver asked, flashing us […]

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