Posts from ‘December, 2009’

For me, one of the perks of blogging is having an excuse to read books about Mexico and other Latin American countries. While it’s always helpful to find out more information on the topic, I draw a considerable amount of inspiration from the authors. Below is a list of books that I have written about [...]

It wakes me up in the morning, it plays my favorite music and radio shows, and keeps me connected to the Internet. My iPhone is like a body part. The thought of not having it with me makes me break out in a cold sweat. Go to Mexico without it? No way! As unthinkable as [...]

“Drive in Mexico? Isn’t that incredibly dangerous?” Not according to a travel writer who did it and spoke with several other Americans who drove throughout the country and experienced few problems. The writer, Peter Ferry, starts off his story in the Chicago Tribune by noting that it would be impossible to get auto insurance in [...]

One of the topics I’ve written about over the past year is the growing influence of the Latin American community within the U.S. There are about 45 million people of Hispanic origin in the country, and that number is expected to grow considerably over the coming years. This influx of Latin Americans into the U.S. [...]

Back in September, Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelled “you lie” during President Obama’s State of the Union Address. The incident left many people–especially Democrats–wondering if such behavior was another sign of the lack of basic civility in public discourse. While the outburst was somewhat disturbing, legislators in the U.S. still seem pretty mellow [...]

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a blog carnival in which I shared my three best travel secrets. Meanwhile, a similar joint effort was going on among a group of expat bloggers in Chile. But instead of sharing travel secrets, they each listed “Ways to Alienate a Chilean.” Margaret Snook, who writes the [...]

Orbitz, Kayak, Travelocity—it seems like there are more resources than ever for travelers to plan trips for themselves. There are even free  browser tools that allow you to save and organize your travel research. Social media tools like Twitter and Trip Advisor make it easy to get beyond the propaganda contained in travel brochures or [...]

Lanzarote—the setting for part of the new Pedro Almodovar movie, “Broken Embraces”—is expected to play a leading role in many tourists’ travel plans next year. For Travelojos readers, the island is more than just a pretty place—it shares close ties with Latin America. By Nick Ball One of the Spanish-owned Canary Islands located just off [...]

In two posts last month, I discussed how USA Today published a review of the new guide book Frommer’s Honduras, which failed to mention anything about the country’s recent coup. It was only a short moment after I sent a “tweet” about the first post before USA Today’s travel editor Chris Gray Faust began to [...]

It’s 7 am in Nicaragua and the single mother next store has commenced playing the rock ballads that serve as her life’s soundtrack. The vocalized yearnings of Bryan Adams and Bonnie Tyler reverberate through the walls. Her neighbor reaches his breaking point after hearing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” for the umpteenth time. That is [...]