Are We Too Old to Be Climbing Volcanoes?

The weight of my backpack at 5:00 AM was brutal: 9 liters of water, 1 sleeping bag, and sundry other camping bits and bobs. And I was one of the lucky ones. Dan carried all that plus an old school (read: heavy) four-person tent.

Even at this hour, it was steamy. Under the weight of my pack, I was glazed in sweat before we reached the crossroads for the chicken bus to the trail head. I looked around at the young, energetic faces – mostly in their early 20s – and wondered, “Am I too old to be doing this?

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An Ode to Barber Shops Around the World

Ah, the local barber. A ritual, a comfort of home.

Not so for me. Every haircut is a new adventure: a different country, a new language and yet another man with scissors (or God forbid, clippers) who has his own ideas about style.

During a recent ear-lowering interlude in Leon, Nicaragua, it struck me that barber shops are less about haircuts and more about history and culture.

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Livingston: The Other Side of Guatemala

Descendants of shipwrecked slaves from Nigeria; Jerry Garcia's rumored Caribbean seaside bungalow hideout; warrior dances (see video below) and turtle shell drums; echoes of an accented pigeon pidgin English that smacks of Jamaica; and a remarkable coconut seafood soup called tapado.

This is Livingston, home of the Garifuna. This is the other side of Guatemala.

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The Only Gringos in Gracias

Honduras Football Fans - Gracias
Cheering on Honduras for the World Cup qualifier.

“Hola, Gringos!” a little Honduran girl calls out to us from the garden of the coffee plantation-cum-guest house on the edge of Gracias, Honduras where we awoke Saturday morning.

“Hola, ninos!” we offer in response.

Giggles all around. Little do we know what a prescient greeting it is.

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Capturing Humanity: 10 Tips for Great Street and Market Photos

Child Welfare and Photography

Do you pay for your photographs? Do you ask permission? Have you had any problems taking photographs of people on the street?

We field these sorts of questions often. Several readers also recently requested that we write a post about how we take our people portraits in street and market settings.

In response, we share ten tips for taking engaging photos of the humanity that colors our planet.

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What to Do in Singapore? Eat!

Singapore, an unexpected stop on our Southeast Asian itinerary thanks to a cheap flight from there to India. Our culinary expectations for this small city-state were low, particularly in the wake of our street food experiences in Thailand and Malaysia. Yet in the three days before our flight to India, it seemed like all we did was eat.

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