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

Panama Canal Timelapse

by Erik Olsen on

One of the more interesting history books I’ve read in the last few years is A Path Between The Seas : The Creation of the Panama Canal by David McCullough. The book, while at times a rather dense historical document, reveals the incredible hardships endured by workers (made many times more difficult by diseases like malaria) and the immense engineering challenge it took to build the canal. It was also one of the great events of the turn o the century that signaled the emergence of the United States as a global power. I got a chance to see the canal years ago when I was traveling through Latin America, and thought it was amazing. But I never actually got to ride through the canal.

Well, in a way, I can now say I did. This video over at YouTube is a very well done time lapse of a trip through the entire canal. You get to see not just how the locks work, but how the canal looks through some of its broader stretches. The video itself is kind of a historical document, especially since the Panamanians are making big changes to the canal. It’s a neat — and quick — little ride that you too can take right here.

Strange Statues

by Erik Olsen on

There is a statue in Central Park from Alice and Wonderland that is delightfully odd. It features the well-known assortment of characters from the Lewis Carroll book, but the face on the Mad Hatter is, well, mad. I sometimes walk by a find myself looking into his bronze eyes and a creepy feeling crawls up my spine. But the Mad Hatter statue is nothing compared to the pictures that this site features of delightfully odd pictures of statues from around the world. The page just goes on and on and on, but I can pretty much guarantee you will keep on scrolling because each page down offers new silliness. The one I posted here is one of my favorites.

Karl Bushby’s Goliath Expedition

by Erik Olsen on

There are epic trips and then there are…well, there is Karl Bushby’s Goliath Expedition. Bushby, an ex-paratrooper is in the midst of undertaking one of those trips that truly flabbergast. He’s trying to walk around the entire globe. The self-declared stats he has on his site say it all:

12 years
36,000 miles
4 continents
25 countries
6 deserts
7 mountain ranges

But I guess those numbers don’t truly reflect the magnitude of this journey .And this being the 21st century ,you can go to Busby’s site and follow his journey in text, video, audio and photos. According to the site, Bushby, if he succeeds, will become the first person to complete an unbroken round the world walk.

The site says that Bushy is readying himself for the next leg of his journey, and he should be heading out from Russia sometime, well, I’m not sure when. He has apparently been having problems in obtaining the special permits required for the Chukotka region of Siberia. Here is the route is has taken and plans to take. Coming up from Tierra del Fuego way way up then over the Bering Sea and then all the way across Russia through Europe. The BBC has covered some of the story, and I’m surprised I haven’t seen more of it on US media. But maybe that will happen soon.

The Amazing Race All-Stars: 1798 Miles and Lots of Bad Accents

by Willy Volk on

I love watching The Amazing Race. While I don’t care much for the teammate squabbling, I love seeing so many remote parts of the world, many of which are non-traditional staples of American TV viewing.

This season, the series’ 11th, boasts the so-called All-Stars. Featuring some teams you may have rooted for in the past — and some teams you may not have rooted for — this season will, no doubt, be filled with deceit, treachery, lying and sleaziness — especially since Rob and Amber are back.

Beginning with an impossibly long ride to the airport in Miami, the teams head for Quito, Ecuador…

… where they rush to Pim’s Restaurant. After receiving staggered departure times for the next day’s trip to Hacienda Yanahurco, an ecological reserve in Cotopaxi National Park, the teams have to choose between Wrangle It (give a beauty treatment to a horse) or Recover It (find a needle in a haystack). Ultimately, sneaky, snake-y Rob and Amber score a first place finish while formerly dating couple John Vito and Jill get the boot.

Of course, it’s easy for me, as an armchair racer, to critique the racers’ performance from the comfort of my sofa. However, I did come up with some things that the racers probably should have avoided — and that you might want to avoid on upcoming trips:

  1. Do not speak to locals with English infused with accents that you believe the locals speak with. They will not understand you better. Charla and Mirna are notorious violators of this travel no-no. Just speak slowly and clearly.
  2. In the airport, many of the racers accost the ticket agents, demanding the earliest-arriving flights. Generally speaking, I don’t think this is the best method for getting the seats you want. Be polite. Ask nicely. Be calm. Freaking out never made an airline seat appear.
  3. While I understand that time is critical, asking foreign cabbies to speed and/or break the local laws is probably a bad idea — and doesn’t make the rest of us travelers more appreciated.

In summary, the racers experienced 2 countries, 1 nearly dislocated shoulder, and 1798 miles of stale airline air.

Driving Orientation Map

by Willy Volk on

Heading to another country? Going to be doing some driving? Then you might want to check out Strange Maps’ strange map of driving orientation. Plotted by whether a country engages in left-handed or right-handed driving, the map looks vaguely like a map of the former British Empire.

In addition to the excellent map is an equally excellent history of driving orientation, explaining why humans started driving on the left side of the road (think: right-handedness and swordplay), and why France helped promulgate right-handed driving (think: they didn’t just become ornery).

In short, both the map and the words are worth checking out. So check them out.