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 [...]

By Stephen Bugno Circle the coastline of Korea’s Jeju island long enough and eventually you are likely to come across women decked out in diving gear popping up to the surface now and again. These are the haenyeo—the world-famous women divers of Jeju, keeping alive a centuries-old tradition while maintaining the economic viability of their [...]

By Stephen Bugno What to Eat When You’re Visiting Spain and Where to Find It Food is definitely one of the highlights of Spain and the regional diversity only makes criss-crossing the country a real culinary pleasure. There are certain specialties that you shouldn’t miss while visiting. From the dry, distinctively Spanish region of Andalucía [...]

Read Part I: On the Water in Guinea Part II By Jett Thomason We have been following the other boats. There is an art to seeing the schools of fish playing just below the water and on each boat men are standing tall, not even realizing their legs roll of the boat. There is an [...]

By Jett Thomason Part I I’ve been living in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, for six weeks now. Conakry is a city built on a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic and it has long outgrown the French planning for the town. Two million people have been living poor and densely packed for fifty years in the limited [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann As my taxi weaves its way through the streets of Cajamarca, Peru, things look different than they did my last visit.  Perhaps it’s because last April, I was a tourist from Lima.  This time I’m here to look at apartments.  I will be moving to Cajamarca in a month. The taxi [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann Have I ever told you how much I love the Jorge Chavez International airport?  Well, I love it so much that I try to arrive early.  If check in goes smoothly I have time to sit outside the security gate to watch Peruvians say goodbye to each other.  Entire families go [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann It’s 8am and I am in my best mood, sipping coffee, sitting alone in the open-air lobby of the main lodge writing in my journal.  For almost a month now, I have gone to sleep and dreamed of spending my days walking through tangles of vines, trees taller than my apartment [...]

By Jett Thomason Lamu Travel Lamu was to be the crown jewel of my East African coastal journey. I had read about the town and the imminent construction of a new port. After Mombasa, which is already at capacity, Lamu is the only natural spot for a harbor in Kenya. The construction of a port [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann My senses are heightened in the rainforest. Despite being legally blind in my right eye, I can see more clearly than ever before….maybe there’s just more to see.  Something as simple as sunlight illuminating a water droplet on a leaf is a vivid representation of the complexity of nature.  I look [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann About a month ago I was bored in my apartment for 10 minutes.  Charlie was at the mine, it was eight o’clock at night and none of my movies looked enticing.  I hate the mention of the words bored, boredom, boring and agree with Harvey Danger when he sings “if you’re [...]