California is not in a drought.

The sign on the wall said “California is in a drought” and I was tempted to the most benevolent vandalism ever. (Unless you count this, which you should.) Because while I agree with… Continue reading

Love in/ing Istanbul

Seeing a US fast food chain in Istanbul is like running into a crass, boorish American tourist in the Hagia Sophia; not far from my hotel there’s a Burger King talking on its… Continue reading

Would you go to Europe with me?

My previous experience with tour guides was to turn and run the other way, snug and smug in my snobbish superiority as a solo traveler. No spoon feeding for moi! No comfy tour… Continue reading

Brothers gone Turkish

Apparently my brother and I used to fight like cats and dogs, squids and whales, birds and bullet trains, though I barely remember any of that. But we’re in a good patch lately,… Continue reading

Globalization on my head, from Cuba to Cambodia

Can you think of a better movie for the barbershop TVs than Edward Scissorhands? I couldn’t, but then again, in the heat of Santiago de Cuba, and with the gummybear feeling in my… Continue reading

It’s not all bad for Maritza

I am supremely grateful for the privilege to write a few things for Altruvistas, the ethical travel company that facilitated my first Cuba and Venezuela trips, but sakes alive, that one from Peru… Continue reading

Equanimity on the equinox, Cuba behind and ahead

I seem to have fallen out of Nature. When they built my apartment a hundred years ago, they didn’t bother with niceties like insulation, and my toes remember cold winter days when they… Continue reading

The good, bad, and ugly of what I’ve learned in 500 posts

  “In June of 2008 it suddenly bothered me that most of my food was better traveled than I was. So I bought a one-way ticket to Europe.” That’s how I started my… Continue reading

Loving you for who you are, on FeelGood Friday

I was all set to tell you about the gains against female genital mutilation (didn’t see that one coming, did you?) but paused (which sounds so much loftier than ‘procrastinated’) on my way… Continue reading

May gods bless the benevolent imposters

(I didn’t intend to ever post this, but I gotta leave for the airport in 23 minutes and I’m only 70% through this burrito, so here ya go!)   May gods bless the… Continue reading