South America

Travel through South America by country:

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

Travel through South America by popular city:

Bogota, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro

Travel through South America by popular things to do:

Adventures in the Amazon, Falkland Islands, Iguazu Falls, Tierra del Fuego

Where has all the sugar gone?

by Iva Skoch on

Have you noticed that it is virtually impossible to buy chewing gum WITH sugar anywhere in the world anymore? Panama, Italy, Czech Republic, Switzerland…they all sell gum with aspartame or saccharin. Even in Mauritius, one of the world’s top sugar cane growers, I noticed they used artificial sweetener in their gum. Sad, to say the least.

It used to be that sugar-free gum was a US specialty because Americans were obsessed with fitness (like the two extra calories make a difference) and their teeth. Not anymore.

Nowadays, it is virtually impossible to get a piece of gum without aspartame/NutraSweet anywhere in the world. Not because it is so much better for you, but it is so much cheaper to produce. This really blows for me because aspartame gives me an instant headache. Not fun, especially when you travel.

Chatting with the biologist about water bottles (yesterday) brought us to the topic of sugar as well. He feels much more strongly about the use of artificial sugar than drinking water with leeching chemicals. He said:

“If you really want to worry about your health, don’t use anything that has artificial sweetener in it which includes all diet drinks and foods as well as most over the counter medicines. Sugar has been part of man’s existence for thousands of years and until we got modern was never a problem unless we used too much (as we do in the U.S.). I am very afraid of aspartame (NutraSweet) and the neurological damage it does since it is in millions of products used daily. “

Photo of the Day (12/10/07)

by Iva Skoch on

This almost looks like some sort of toy town. Town built by Lego! It kind of reminds me of a few Scandinavian towns (and that’s not just because Lego is from Denmark.)

I couldn’t be further from the real place, though. Tlkativ took this photo of the colorful buildings in Curacao in October of this year. I like it because it makes you realize how much of the Caribbean is in its details: canoe on a remote beach, kids playing in a muddy river, men sitting outside on a stoop smoking… If you do a panoramic shot of the buildings, it no longer has that classic, if not cliche, Caribbean feel.

***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr site and post it.***

NY Times: 53 places to go in 2008

by Iva Skoch on

Yesterday’s NY Times travel section depicted the 53 “it” destinations of 2008.

Laos made number 1, as the new Vietnam and Cambodia of Indochina. The photo, by Tanja Geis for the NY Times, is of stupas on the grounds of Pha That Luang in Vientiane, Laos.

My home town, Prague, made number 14, apparently because Prague is still the new Prague. Other than that, I have only been to about one third of these. So many places, so little time!

Here is the top 10:

  1. Laos
  2. Lisbon
  3. Tunisia
  4. Mauritius
  5. Mid-Beach Miami
  6. South Beach, Miami
  7. Maldives
  8. Death Valley
  9. Courchevel, France
  10. Libya

The complete list is here.

%Gallery-7453%

Sights Unseen

by Kara Sirmans on

Don’t you just love when you seem to have hit the zeitgeist moment for a trip? We had been planning a trip that would take us through Rio when U.S. News & World Report ran its cover story on Sacred Places in the World with the Christ the Redeemer statue on the cover. Brazil trades as heavily (arguably, more so) on this iconic statue that literally lords over Rio’s beachfront as it does on ‘The Girl from Ipanema.’ Named as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the sheer scale of the 125-feet tall Christ statue is a siren call to travelers who want to add a major landmark to their ‘been there, done that’ lists.

But Rio had its own plans on the day we arrived. We landed in the morning to a bright haze at Antonio Carlos Jobim Airport. Not serious cover but the clouds stuck like dryer lint to the surrounding mountains, most notably Corcovado, the one the statue rests on. We figured we could see it the next day before we left, but no such luck. While the sun broke through and turned Copacabana Beach into a sizzling white strip, a cove-curve away, Ipanema Beach remained covered, including the mountains above it.
This isn’t my first run-in with a legendary landmark going shy. A highlight of a cross-country drive in 2001, was to be my first visit to the Grand Canyon. We arrived the week before Christmas and as we drove the last miles up to the South Rim it started to snow. And snow. And snow. We reached El Tovar lodge on the canyon edge, in blizzard mode. Standing against the rock wall at the very canyon edge, I looked out to see … white. Not canyons shrouded in white, not valleys covered in snow. Just … white. We joked that the Canyon had stayed home on account of snow but it was with disappointment that we left without seeing it.

I couldn’t help but think of that day as our taxi careened through the Brazilian traffic, back to the airport for the next leg of our trip. We could see Corcovado, even the suggestion of a straight line like a statue’s base. I waited five more years before I finally saw the Grand Canyon and really, it was worth the second trip. What about you? Have you ever been thwarted — thanks to the weather or fate? — from seeing a landmark in your travels?

Travels with Cancer

by Iva Skoch on

It has been a weird year for me. I was diagnosed with stage III. cancer last year and finished chemo early this summer. I have thrown up more this year than anyone can imagine. I still don’t have much feeling in my feet and hands because of the nerve damage caused by chemo. I lost a lot of my hair but not all of it. And I blogged about traveling throughout the whole thing.

People always ask me how cancer changed me. I don’t really have a Lance Armstrong answer for that. That is the disappointing thing. It didn’t change me. I had no major revelations about life, didn’t become devoutly religious. Nothing new. I realized that I am already living the life I want to be living. I just want it more.

I still traveled as much as I could. Partly to get away from life and partly to get more into it. A lot of people told me to take it easy, but I figured that life without traveling is not life worth living. If premature death is a possibility, I might as well live the life I want to live. I spent the first six months of the year at home in Prague and the rest split between New York, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, DC, Wisconsin, Chicago, a week in Crete, week in London, few days in Rome, weekend in Brussels, week in Switzerland, week in Athens, week in Costa Rica and a week in Panama. I am probably forgetting something, but who cares.

I love to travel. (Obviously.) Now more than ever, though, I love to travel “well.” I don’t travel just to check places off my list or to “have an experience.” I can really live in the moment now, how cool is that? I used to be afraid to fly, but cancer took care of that irrational phobia. Clearly, you are never really in control of your life, so why not have a little fun with it.

(Photo taken in February 07 in Switzerland, two weeks after round 4 of chemo. I was really tired and cold and had to quit skiing after just one run, but the fresh air felt really, really good.)