Hail Mary at Taoist Temple

“You enter on the right through the dragon door and exit on the left through the tiger door. And you never enter or exit through the middle door. That door is for gods.” We sat on a bench in front of a brightly colored Taoist temple with a rooftop looking […]

Taiwan: The First 24 Hours

The first 24 hours in Asia are crucial. This isn’t an easy 4-hour flight to Mexico City, where we get out of the airplane and hit the ground running, only occasionally stopping to marvel that just a few hours ago we were at home. It doesn’t have a mere 6-8 […]

When the Night Falls: Night Markets in Taiwan

A few days before our trip, I was talking to someone who had previously visited Taiwan and their only piece of advice was straightforward and without mincing words: “Do not eat street food there.” This was completely unexpected. If they’d said, “Don’t go there under any circumstances,” that would have […]

Back to Asia: Discovering Taiwan

The last time we were in Southeast Asia was in 2019, which now seems like a lifetime ago. Our first trip to that region was Thailand in 2013, followed by India in 2014, Japan in 2016, China in 2017, Cambodia in 2018, and finally Vietnam in 2019.  On our first […]

France Flashback: Châteaux of the Loire Valley

If you’ve ever skimmed our blog, you already know our usual pattern: go to a country, spend two weeks there, enjoy the hell out of it, swear we’ll return, and then never set foot there again. It happens every single time, no matter how earnestly we insist that this time […]

Two Volcanoes and Too Many Surprises: Exploring Ometepe

By Julia / April 24, 2025

I am going to start this post without multiple paragraphs praising the incomparable beauty of Ometepe (unless you are comparing it with much more expensive and overly touristy Bali) and without a single mention of just how unprepared we were to traverse Ometepe on scooters, as neither of us possessed […]

Getting Around Ometepe

By Julia / April 17, 2025

If I had to explain in one word why we absolutely plan on visiting Nicaragua again, that word would be “Ometepe”.  The first time I saw it in our itinerary, I thought it sounded spiritual and mysterious, with a note of an ancient ceremony, and a hint of volcanic eruptions.  […]

The Coffee Robbery of the Century

By Victor / March 27, 2025

If you order a cup of Nicaraguan coffee at home, chances are that the beans used in preparing your drink will be from one of the fincas near Jinotega or Matagalpa.  After all, this is a premier region for renowned and much-sought shade-grown Nicaraguan coffee.  We were lucky enough to […]

The Shadowy Business of Nicaraguan Coffee

By Victor / March 20, 2025

At breakfast, we planned to ask Edgar, if he could give us a tour of his El Soccorro finca or recommend any other coffee tours in the area.  But it turned out, we didn’t even have to ask.  Edgar was super enthusiastic and excited about these two travelers who wanted […]

Coffee: In Love and War

By Victor / March 13, 2025

Several years ago, a coffee shop near my work had seasonal Nicaraguan coffee beans for sale. Coffee bags with big letters NICARAGUA featured an image of a man in a blue shirt holding a basket of ripe coffee cherries. The name of the coffee was “Don Zeledon”, and the coffee […]

Somoto Canyon: The River Runs Through It

By Julia / March 5, 2025

Start with Part I here In the last post, I left off just as we reached the bottom of the Somoto Canyon and, incidentally, the Nicaraguan border with Honduras.  As it turns out, the Rio Coco River, which runs through Somoto Canyon, divides Honduras and Nicaragua along most of its […]

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