One of the silliest aspects of Kanye West’s rude interruption of of Taylor Swift’s VMA honors for best female video was that Beyonce wasn’t even nominated for the award Swift received. To make matters worse, Beyonce ended up winning the best video category. Let’s hope everyone behaves themselves at the 10th annual Latin Grammy Awards [...]
Posts from ‘September, 2009’
Why I’m Betting on Brazil for the 2016 Olympics
On Friday, the International Olympic Committee will decide the location of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The front runners are Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. Having an Olympics in a South American country in long overdue. Brazil is set to host soccer’s 2014 World Cup. But it was the sole country to bid on [...]
Four iPhone Apps for Mexico City
Going to Mexico City? There’s an app. for that. The number of Mexico-centric iPhone apps seems to have proliferated since I last checked into this in the late spring. Here are four that specifically relate to Mexico City: Mexico City Maps Offline. Allows to users to view maps of Mexico City offline without internet connection. [...]
Breaking Bread and Rules of Etiquette in Mexico
After touring a park with views of a giant canyon in Guadalajara, Mexico, it was time to find something to eat. Outside the park were several small cafes that catered to the students of the nearby university. We picked our cafe and sat at a table. Especially hungry, I asked our waitress for two beef [...]
My Virtual Trip to Mexico
After I had dinner with my family and my kids went to bed tonight, I visited Chichen Itza, Mexico. During the short time I was there, I scaled the steps leading up to a steep pyramid in almost no time. I walked around a bit and then headed off to Ruta Maya, where I ended [...]
Despite Woes, Mexico Dominates Travel Survey
Mexico claimed four of the top 10 international travel destinations in Travel Leaders’ 2009 Travel Trends Survey. The survey lists the top 10 international destinations for the remainder of 2009 based on actual bookings. Travel Leaders asked U.S. travel agents to name up to five top destinations they were already booking. The top 10 international [...]
Brazil’s Disappearing Rainforest Is World’s Problem
Much of the world’s focus will be on climate change this week as Barack Obama and other world leaders discuss the issue at a United Nation’s summit on Tuesday, then later in the week at the G-20 economic conference in Pittsburgh. The talks this week will set the stage for multi-national global climate treaty negotiations [...]
My Latin American Reading List
I read books for pleasure on a fairly consistent basis. My taste generally runs toward nonfiction. Since starting Travelojos in late December, I’ve read several books that involve some aspect of Latin America. One exception was this summer when I read Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. But even there, I was pleasantly surprised [...]
Tale of British Explorer Sheds New Light on Amazon
Before I read David Grann’s The Lost City of Z, I would have told you that the piranha was scariest fish in the Amazon. But Grann describes an even more fearsome fish–the candiru. It’s one of the few creatures in the world that can survive on a diet of blood. It feeds itself by burrowing [...]
Happy Independence Day Latin America
September 16th is a special day for me. Besides being my birthday, it’s Mexico’s Independence Day. Yesterday, September 15th, marks the independence of: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Each one of these Central American country’s broke free from Spain on the same day in 1821. Chile’s Independence Day is Sept. 18th, while [...]
