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

The November 3rd Photo Project

by Adrienne Wilson on

Some folks might call Deia Schlosberg over at RoadJunky the nosey type – always poking and prodding where you shouldn’t, always placing the lens in the public’s face and you know where I’m going. Deia could be considered nosey to the extreme, but I wouldn’t say that. I’d say she’s a curious soul and now with your help and photos you can become part of a pretty awesome curious soul’s project. On November 3rd (a day that means nothing to mostly everybody and was chosen for no good reason) she asking that people from all over the world take at least 10 photos of what your day was like, what you see and experience. There must be one self-portrait and the photos don’t have to be great, which goes to say your self-portrait doesn’t have to be great or even close to good. The photos must all be a true representation of what your day was like and must all be taken on November 3, 2006. Captions should note the time and thoughts.

I don’t know where your pictures may possibly land, but I smell coffee brewing with some delicious pastry set out on the coffee table. Don’t you?

I’m game. Head over to RoadJunky for full details.

World’s 10 Most Polluted Places 2006

by Adrienne Wilson on

Make sure you include a respirator or some type of breathing mechanism on your packing list if heading to any of the destinations found on the Blacksmith Institute’s World’s Worst Polluted Places list. Keep in mind there will be no smelling of roses as you stroll the contaminated paths in Haina, Dominican Republic; Kabwe, Zambia; La Oroya, Peru; or Linfen, China. Instead, imagine whiffing the scents of sulfur dioxide, lead, Strontium-90, cobalt and Caesium-137.

On a very serious note the list is very disheartening and if you take an opportunity to read site descriptions in full it gets even worse. Numbers of the potentially affected population are included as well as types of pollutants (some longer than most), site description and cleanup activity. If you’re unable to connect with the dangers of what unusually high levels of any of the toxins noted can do — the pictures make it quite real. I mean, we’re talking some 3,500,000 people in Ranipet, India who could potentially be affected by disgusting, life-threatening toxins found in Tannery waste. This certainly won’t be the kind of information you find in tourism brochures or places your might ever consider for a holiday unless you’re into nuclear power plants, like Ukraine’s ever-so-popular Chernobyl. Chernobyl travel has most certainly been done before, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Then again, I’m just another sucker for fresh water and clean air.

via Gridskipper

LP Less Than Three

by Erik Olsen on

Aspiring filmmakers out there pay attention. Lonely Planet, the guidebook colossus, is offering a big time travel opportunity to folks who send in the best travel film that lasts, and here’s the gimmick, less than three minutes. That may seem like a short duration, unless you actually spent time watching some folks’ homemade travel video, (which believe me, I have), in which case you know that some folks are just not meant to be filmmakers (what is so hard about holding a camera steady?).

It seems like a pretty good deal. If you check out the FAQ, you can read that LP is offering a first prize of 10,000 Australian dollars (which comes out to, what? about $780? JK!) to help pay for your own Round-The-World economy flight, an STA travel voucher and the choice of either hanging with LPTV folks in Melbourne (LP’s home base) or taking the rest of the cash and heading out on your own “dream journey”. Hmmm….hanging with the LPTV folks would be fun, buuuuuttttt….so the hitch is you actually have to produce the film, make it under three minutes and, here’s the catch, make it interesting enough that people will actually WANT to watch it.

NY Times on Uruguay

by Adrienne Wilson on

It always brings me great pleasure to come across travel stories on Montevideo or the country of Uruguay as a whole. South America is a continent I have yet to set foot on, but I’ve always told myself that when I go, Uruguay would be the first stop. You could say I’ve always been attracted to the name mainly, but somewhere deep down inside I have this hunch that Montevideo has a lot to reveal. Reading this NY Times piece on the country certainly confirms many of my own preconceived notions, but a flight over would seal the deal.

In their piece they point potential visitors to the National History Museum to start. From the museum walk your way to the Palacio Taranco, a sprawling castle from 1910 with stone urns and Roman arches. Beyond all, the story goes to say that design geeks will be pleased to find that design is growing and growing. Wander the town and scope out the graffiti in Plaza Independencia or the odd building known as Palacio Salvo. I could tell you more, but if you’re as interested in visiting Uruguay as I am, you’ll probably want to do yourself the favor of reading it on your own. I didn’t even get to the half of it, plus NY Times also serves you the 411 on getting down there.

Airlines Showing More Thigh

by Erik Olsen on

30,000 feet above the fruited plain is not the place to catch the raciest new fare from Hollywood…unless you own your own plane, of course. Then you can watch and/or do whatever you want. But for the most part, airlines from American to Xanadu have shown movies onboard that can be viewed by everyone, keeping things mainly within what might be considered family fare. This is not absolute, of course. JetBlue’s 21 gazillion channels of DirectTV provide the opportunity to poke that annoying little armrest button long enough to find, say The Terminator gunning people down while you fly. But for the most part when it comes to the movies being shown aboard movies that were actually selected by the airline, they have been tame.

According to sister-site Cinematical, that may not be the case any longer. Some airlines, they say, are beginning to show more racy, mainstream fare like Brokeback Mountain and Transamerica with the idea that this will provide more choice, variety, and current releases to passengers. I for one think i’s a good if not great idea, so long as they don’t begging showing Debbie Does Dallas or something. The fact is, given the lousy crop of films out these days, the more variety the better so as to tolerate those six or so long hours in the air.