GoMad Nomad Travel

The shops are all closed up. There’s hardly any foot traffic or cars on the streets. Red lanterns hung around the city add to the atmosphere. But the most noticeable way to tell it’s the Eve of Chinese New Year is by the excessive and near constant explosions of firecrackers. Children light them off. So [...]

The day we named the school   One day last June, I went for a jog with my new friend Shannon.  She had moved to Cajamarca as part of a Fulbright grant to teach English at the university.  While she loved her life in Peru, she missed working with school-aged children and was looking for [...]

Some of the kids that live on my street during one of our English lessons. By Danielle L. Krautmann Home is where your heart is. It seems simple enough, doesn’t it? There’s no place like home.  But when you live a nomadic lifestyle, traveling to a new place every year or two, it can be [...]

The following is a guest post by Juno Kim of RunawayJuno.com This is New Zealand: one of the world’s most well-known scenic places and one of the most adored countries on earth. However, New Zealand is not all about astonishing landscapes or adrenaline-rushing bungee jumping. It’s about the intimate feel of the place that warms [...]

By Isabel Eva Bohrer When traveling to Ireland, many of us assume that people speak English. Which they do. But especially when it comes to food, the Irish language has left its traces and English-speaking visitors often find themselves in need of a little deciphering when it comes to the menu. Here are ten typical [...]

By Stephen Bugno San Blas used to be important. It was a crucial port when trade between Spain and the Philippines was in its heyday. Then Acapulco took over and San Blas became a backwater. But that’s why it’s a fantastic, little, chilled-out beach town today. Set 90 minutes down a narrow two-lane road bounded [...]

[The following is a sponsored post] Anyone planning a trip to London any time soon will be faced with a dilemma on how best to travel around in the English capital. There are plenty of options – go on the London Underground, catch a bus, hire a bicycle, jump on a boat, hail a taxi [...]

[The following is a sponsored post.] I’m sure everyone has their own tips but from my own travelling experiences, I’ve developed this list of key ingredients to a better holiday. They’re not applicable to every holiday, but I use them more as a checklist to make sure I’ve got all my bases covered and to [...]

By Stephen Bugno I am definitely not a mall person. You might even be able to classify me as a mall hater. Here are five reasons I didn’t fight malls when I visited Singapore. 5) A National Obsession To understand Singapore without eating at or entering a mall is like trying to understand Ireland without [...]

(continued from: To Be a Gringa: Part One) The Ex-Pat Community of Cajamarca, Peru   Amy and her husband Eric arrived to Cajamarca on a sunny Thursday morning.  A driver picked them up from the airport and drove them and their two dogs to their furnished home.  After a quick nap, they went and met [...]

By Stephen Bugno So it’s 1440 and you are King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty. You are a well-respected ruler and a champion for the common person. But you have a little problem. Your population is undereducated and you want to communicate with them.   “My people cannot write characters even though they have hands, [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann A local celebrity How did  it get to be this late?  I’m lying on Violeta’s bed in her one-room home in Baños del Inca.  Actually, it’s not just her bed, she shares this queen-sized mattress which sits on cinder blocks with her husband and 11-year-old daughter, Alejandra.  It’s four o’clock in [...]

By Stephen Bugno Mokpo is a city in the far southwest of the Korean peninsula that most people told me to avoid. They looked puzzled when I told them I was stopping there. There’s nothing to see in Mokpo. It’s only a place to transit. Not worth staying there for any amount of time. That [...]

By Paige Green When it comes to cheap holidays and scoring budget basement prices on flights, a recent article in the Economist highlighted some of the best times to purchase cheap flights. According to Scott McCartney, the best time to purchase flights was mid week about 8 weeks before departure. How airline pricing works We’ve [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann “Six months ago, I was living in Seattle with roommates, working as an occupational therapist for a home health company. Now, I am a housewife in Lima, Peru.” Can you believe that in January I celebrated my one-year anniversary of living in Peru?  This country and I have had a turbulent [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann The problem began when I was living in Denver, CO and a squirrel got caught in my window well.  Brandy watched patiently as I spent three hours using different methods (a bucket, a broom, an umbrella, a shovel) to try to set the frightened creature free.  My final attempt was with [...]

By Jett Thomason A few years back I got the chance to visit the Black Sea coast several miles from the Turkish border in a town called Batumi. Batumi has been a major port since the Russians won the land from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. This was the first port to begin shipping out [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann One month ago, I moved to Baños del Inca, a very small town only 6 km from the “city” of Cajamarca.  My first two weeks were filled with holidays: an amazing Christmas visit with my family and a strange illness that rendered me useless for about ten days.  Finally, I feel [...]