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 […]

Day Lilies, Yuli Noodles, and the Mountain Mist

Of the four days in the East, we spent three days driving up and down the coastal highway.  These days were filled with stopping at ocean viewpoints, exploring the shoreline’s rugged geoparks, and learning about local indigenous culture. But as we navigated through this narrow stretch of land, sandwiched between […]

The Wild, Wild East: Taiwan’s Enigmatic East Coast

Like Alishan, we considered cutting the East Coast out of our itinerary entirely. The region was remote, and it was a logistical puzzle to plan.  Also, it was the only place in Taiwan where we needed to rent a car and potentially drive through what looked on the map like […]

Food.  Taiwan.  Must I Say More?

I wanted to write about the top 10 dishes we ate in Taiwan and quickly realized that the list was way longer than 10 and each dish deserved its own blog post, and this would quickly spiral into Two Cats Backpack Eats Taiwanese Food for Entirety of the Foreseeable Future […]

Kamikaze Tourism: Surviving Nicaraguan El Classico

By Victor / May 15, 2025

Fútbol or baseball? That was our dilemma. Although Esteli was only an overnight stop on our itinerary to break up a long journey from Granada to Somoto Canyon, we had a few hours to kill in the evening, and the town hosted not one but two professional sporting events. So, […]

From Mud to Magic: A Day in Nicaragua’s Pueblos Blancos

By Julia / May 10, 2025

On day four of our Nicaraguan adventure, we were visiting Pueblos Blancos (White Towns), picturesque white villages outside of the town of Masaya known for their unique artisan traditions, with each village specializing in a particular craft or activity. Our first early morning stop was in Diriomo, otherwise known as […]

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 […]

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