The Ghost Town That Wasn’t

We were in San Miguel de Allende, enjoying all the classic traits of a pretty Mexican town  – a gorgeous church dominating the skyline on the main plaza, colonial architecture with carved wooden doors and wrought-iron balconies, winding cobblestone streets, and quaint local markets where indigenous women sold traditional crafts. […]

From Tulum Trauma to San Miguel Magic

Our flight to Monterrey got cancelled again.  The first time, a year ago, we rebooked it for Mexico City, but this time airfare to León was cheap enough to make us consider going there… again. We had already taken the same flight a few years earlier and spent three wonderful […]

Mexican Chicago

Back in 2003, when I’d just arrived in Chicago, my first apartment was in Hermosa on the city’s northwest side. One evening, when I was in the back porch relaxing after a day of work, the street was suddenly filled with the sound of the revving engines. Motorcycles and cars […]

Go For Gözleme

The previous post about fish, bread, and never giving up on food dreams reminded me of something that happened two years ago, during a road trip from Izmir to Antalya in Türkiye. We left our Airbnb early in the morning, eager to start a long day of sightseeing, and skipped […]

Searching for Fish and Bread in Istanbul

Two years ago, when we did a road trip through southwest Türkiye, I kept looking for balık ekmek.  If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry.  Neither did I.  But Victor kept mentioning how he and his parents enjoyed a delicious balık ekmek in a restaurant by the Bosphorus […]

Volcano Day: Down We Go

By Julia / February 6, 2025

The way it usually goes is like this: Victor plans the itinerary, and I book the transportation and accommodations.  One thing about Victor is that he is meticulous, detail-oriented, and thorough. He doesn’t make mistakes, he doesn’t forget small details, he doesn’t just leave off details from the itinerary for […]

Skipping Managua.  Part II. Leon

By Victor / January 30, 2025

One week after visiting Granada, we drove into its long-time rival-Leon. Like Granada, Leon is set in a breathtaking location.  Approaching the city from the north, we counted at least six volcanoes on the horizon, all part of the Cordillera de Maribios. As we got closer, it became obvious that […]

Skipping Managua.  Part I.  Granada

By Victor / January 23, 2025

One clear trend in our travels is that Central American capital cities don’t get much love from us. It’s just the way it is.  In Guatemala, upon arrival, we left the capital, Guatemala City, without ever seeing it.  In San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, we spent only half […]

A Whole New Life

By Julia / January 16, 2025

Start with Part I Here We were walking from Airbnb towards the livestock barns, and I noticed it wasn’t quite as dark as I thought it would be.  As we were driving up the mountain, my fear of encroaching darkness made me feel that it was much later in the […]

Nicaragua: A Road Less Traveled

By Julia / January 9, 2025

The dusk was setting quickly over Matagalpa, the little red and yellow coffee berries no longer visible on the branches of coffee trees lining the narrow, unpaved road steeply ascending into the mountain.  The light of our headlamps jaggedly bounced up and down, as our tiny, rented Toyota Yaris struggled […]

Girls, Girls, Girls.  Souvenirs: Part III

By Victor / December 12, 2024

Back by popular demand, here’s Part III of our souvenir inventory (Part I and Part II are here).  As we wrote before, we are very picky when it comes to souvenir shopping; yet, sometimes, we do bring souvenirs home.  Most of the time, it’s something related to the culture, religion, […]

Subscribe to receive our stories in your inbox

Loading