Enter to win Sosauce’s “Decorate Our New Digs” postcard contest!

by Brenda Yun on


Sosauce, a self-proclaimed “travel geek blog,” is looking for the most unique, engaging, and breathtaking postcards that celebrate the saucy side of travel. If you have a favorite travel photo, turn it into a postcard and help them decorate their boring white walls and turn the office into a travel haven. The contest involves mailing a postcard that features your favorite photo. Sosauce will show it off – not only in the office – but all over the web too. Special prizes are waiting for the most unique, engaging, and breathtaking photos of people, architecture,and landscapes.

Anyone can enter! You can submit a postcard for any, or all, of the following categories:

  • People such as locals, workers, natives, portraits
  • Architecture such as historic buildings, monuments, museums
  • Landscapes such as scenery, mountains, nature, the outdoors

The winning prizes for each postcard category include all of this:

  • $50 gift certificate to a restaurant of YOUR CHOICE
  • $20 gift certificate to the Sosauce Store or a FREE Premium Account
  • Editorial bio-pic in the New Faces of Sosauce blog series
  • Online promotional campaign c/o Sosauce
  • YOU as the Featured Photographer of the Day on Sosauce

Each photo will be judged by the Sosauce team in New York City according to best combination of photo composition and creative sense of place. All you have to do is hop on over to Sosauce for to enter. The steps are a little involved, but you get a few cool freebies for going the extra mile.

Instructions after the break.

1. Join Sosauce if you haven’t already
2. Choose a photo from your Sosauce albums to submit for any, or all, of the postcard categories (people, architecture, landscapes)
3. Turn your travel photo into a postcard using the Sosauce Store (Be sure to read the Sosauce User Guide for additional help and instructions with this)
4. Have the Sosauce Store send your postcard to YOU first, then fill out the following on the back of your postcard:

  • Location the photo was taken (destination, city, country)
  • Date the photo was taken (guesstimates allowed)
  • Category you’re submitting for (people, archicture, landscapes)
  • An interesting fact about the photo (i.e. something that is unknown to most tourists regarding that destination)

5. Mail your completed postcard with your full name to the Sosauce office: 151 Lafayette St. Suite 4R New York, NY 10013
6. Enter up to 3 postcards, limit 1 per category.

After going through all that trouble, Sosauce will mail you some saucy stuff as a thank you for entering the contest:

  • 25 FREE hi-res photo prints from the Sosauce Store
  • A Sosauce bottle opener
  • A Sosauce Chili sticker

Photo of the Day (11.14.09)

by Jamie Rhein on


Nothing makes a more beautiful photo than rolling sand dunes at sunset. Having recently experienced the tranquil oasis of Huacachina in Peru, I now fully appreciate the dry, natural beauty of the world’s deserts.

This particular photo was taken in Tunisia but expert photographer kellinasf. The warm colors and grooved textures of the sand contrast so well with the cool blue sky. The grooved dune side in the left shadow also adds to the photo’s richness, don’t you think?

If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!

Photo of the Day (11.7.09)

by Brenda Yun on


I wanted to find a good shot of clouds for today’s photo, and I think this one reflects my mood perfectly. Clouds, to me, are good metaphors for life, and these clouds represent for me the beauty of life, the end of the day, and the dawning of a new day. When traveling through life, it’s important to note moments when the clouds part and you can see things (your life, your surroundings, etc.) more clearly.

This gorgeous photo was taken by Patrick Powers in Orange County (which is another, more personal reason I chose it). The colors may be slightly over-enhanced, but the fiery effect of the photo is quite good, don’t you think?

If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!

The Spice Isle: What the Grenada guidebooks might not tell you

by Alison Brick on

Grenada is so off the radar for a lot of Americans that it leaves a lot to be learned about the country. (For one, how it’s pronounced. Answer: “Gren-ay-da.”)

But here are some of the more practical tidbits that I learned while in the island country that might also serve you well on your visit:

Keep your swimsuits to the beach. An indecent exposure law forbids it elsewhere. Cover up, even if it’s just a little bit.

Don’t wear camouflage. It’s illegal to wear it in any color or format.

Ask before taking that photo of someone. It’s good tact in any situation (although goodbye to spontaneity), but I especially felt the need to in Grenada. In fact, a few people called me on it when I didn’t. My instinct was to snap photos left and right at the market, but I intentionally stopped to talk about and buy produce first.

US money. Yes, you can use it and businesses accept it.

Go SCUBA diving. Grenada has the most wreck dives (sunken boats) in the Caribbean.

%Gallery-77695%Drive on the left. (Also means walking on the left-hand side). But first, you have to get a local driving permit from the traffic department at the Central Police Station on the Carenage. Present your driver’s license and pay a fee of EC$30.

No need to rush the spice-buying. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to buy spice and all of the variations of spice products — for cheap, too. Consider buying it from the shopkeeper that you’ve just enjoyed a great conversation with.

Say yes to insect repellent. Mosquito bites ended up being the majority of my souvenirs.

Keep some cash on hand for your departure tax. The airport doesn’t accept credit cards for the payment. You can use either American or Eastern Caribbean cash. Adults: EC$50 (US$20). Children ages 2-12: EC$25 (US$10).

Stick to one elevation at a time. Grenada is blessed with wonders from the depths of the ocean to the heights of a 2,000-foot-high mountain. But it’s such a distance that you’ll want to avoid going SCUBA diving and seeing Grand Etang in the same day — you’re sure to get decompression sickness (the bends).

Wait to buy chocolate until later. No doubt you’ll want to bring chocolate home (Grenada Chocolate Company makes an especially good kind — plus it’s organic and made small-batch). But if you’re like me you don’t have a refrigerator in your hotel room, the chocolate is sure to melt, so pick it up at the end.

Hydrate. It’s easy to forget that you need to drink more than usual because of the weather — even when you don’t feel thirsty.

Do as the locals do. Go to the beach on Sunday for an authentic Grenadian experience — you’ll find local families lounging on the beach, and kids starting up soccer games.

Keep an ear to the local slang. For one, “bon je” (jai/jay) is used as an exclamation of awe. That said, understanding the local patois can be as difficult as learning any new language.

Alison Brick traveled through Grenada on a trip sponsored by the Grenada Board of Tourism. That said, she could write about anything that struck her fancy. (And it just so happens that these are the things that struck her fancy.) You can read more from her The Spice Isle: Grenada series here.

Photo of the Day (10.31.09)

by Brenda Yun on

Believe it or not, our Photo of the Day was taken in Kentucky — at Mammoth Caves, to be exact. As Gadling photographer Peter Rivera explains, “A blast of arctic air flows up from the blackness. you go down concrete steps, lower and lower until the sunny August trees are left behind…” Peter aptly named this photo “descending into the abyss,” and for those of you intrepid travelers who are venturing into the cool Halloween evening, I hope you come back from the abyss safely!

If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!