I’ve just spent the last two weeks exploring El Salvador, and I’m annoyed because I didn’t have enough time to even see a fraction of the country. In fact, I overstayed by an entire week too, and my Central America trip planning went right out of the chicken bus...
It’s been a long and bumpy ride from Mexico to Guatemala, the second country on my tour around Central America. From the mountains and guerilla strongholds of Chiapas State, I headed down south to the volcanic surroundings of Lake Atitlan, one of the most supreme...
When I enter the house of Sergio Castro in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, a young child is having his burns treated in the large, open-air courtyard by a man in a tattered, checked shirt and jeans, who has a white bandana wrapped over his head. The...
Ahh, Mexico. The promised land of tacos, cold corona and endlessly colourful towns and cities. I’ve been exploring southern Mexico for the past few weeks, enjoying the diversity, the colonial Spanish architecture and the indigenous traditions and history, and before I...
“When I first arrived in Donsol, the only way to get around was by Carabou!” Elmer Quizon, a whale shark interaction officer exclaimed with a laugh when I asked him if this small town on the southern coast of Luzon was benefiting from tourism. “Now, thanks to the...
Jomar is just 22 years old. He works full time at a resort guiding tours around the Caramoan Islands – his home in the Philippines – and anything else he’s asked to do by the hotel. He’s the eldest of 6 children, and he helps to support his siblings...
On the rocky southern shore of Issyk Kul Lake, when I was travelling through Kyrgyzstan, I met with members of the Salburuun Federation, a group of locals who are attempting to preserve their unique nomadic culture in the face of modernity. Otherwise known as the...
Found in southern Luzon, the largest of the over 7000 islands in the Philippines, Legazpi is the capital of the province of Albay and the centre of the wider Bicol Region. It’s a city that stands in the shadow of Mount Mayon, the most active volcano in the...
I was in the front room of a traditional Dungan house in the small village of Yrdyk, just outside of the city of Karakol in Kyrgyzstan. Mamieva Hamida, a woman of Dungan descent, was showing me how to pull noodles from a huge ball of translucent starch on the table....
I’ve travelled to the Philippines more than to any other country in the last few years, and despite all the positivity, the beautiful islands and diversity of the culture, I always hear fellow travellers saying time and time again that the Philippines food and...
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