It is a typically rainy night in Havana. Taka and I linger near the doorway, out of the rain, of Hotel Sevilla – one of those grand, colonial buildings that Cuba is known for – as Lori, a smartly-dressed young Cuban woman, asks the doormen to direct us to the dining room. Her friends willContinue reading “Searching for Havana: An Ice Cream Parlor, A Dive Bar, and Streets That Stink of Onions”
Category Archives: Americas
Who Decides Where You Travel?
I walk into a beautiful café. The furnishings are contemporary and comfortable. I am served my café Americano with a glass of filtered water, gratis. What a lovely place, I think, as I look through my pictures while seated in a rocking chair. A couple is dropped off in a horse-drawn carriage that they haveContinue reading “Who Decides Where You Travel?”
It’s Just Livin’ in Leon
A motorcycle passes me by as I walk to my accommodations. The woman on the back passenger seat daintily holds a cake with one hand, like a server carrying a tray of drinks. Earlier, in my taxi to the center of town, we maneuver through the outskirts. Bicycle taxies roam the streets, juice vendors squeezeContinue reading “It’s Just Livin’ in Leon”
We Were Promised Lava
It is sometime around midnight and I’m on a volcano. There are 40 of us, some with headlamps, others without. The light of the full moon seems sufficient, save the millions of stones and rocks that we trip over going up. Most of the hike, however, it doesn’t feel like we’re going up at all.Continue reading “We Were Promised Lava”
Traveling Easy in Santa Ana, El Salvador
The guy sitting next to me on the bus to Lake Coatepeque sounds like he’s got a bowl of soup in his mouth. Each time he says something I shrug and tell him I don’t understand, but he keeps going anyway. A man standing in the aisle says something in intelligible Spanish that I understand.Continue reading “Traveling Easy in Santa Ana, El Salvador”
Acatenango: The Third Highest Peak in Central America
We have doubts and we haven’t even stopped for lunch—the halfway point. Our packs are heavy, with 5 liters of water, clothes, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tents, cooking supplies. The first hour of the hike up Acatenango Volcano was straight up. It isn’t much better now. We stop for lunch at our halfway point andContinue reading “Acatenango: The Third Highest Peak in Central America”
Alex J. Parton 