America Diaries

03-2005. Venezuela’s international reputation is all around the political style of President Hugo Chavez and the occasional international beauty winner. At least that’s what I had always heard before my visit in 2005.       However, there’s so much…

11-2003 Bright lights, big cities. USA is the birthplace of LA, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, New York and Miami, each a brimming metropolis whose name alone conjures a million different notions of culture, cuisine and entertainment. I managed to go…

02-2007 Trinidad and Tobago are just 11 km off the coast of Venezuela, surprisingly though there is very little sign of the South American culture. Instead the country’s culture is much closer to the British African and to the East…

12-2006 The small island of the Caribbean called St. Lucia was my destination at the end of 2006. This island was largely influenced by both the English and the French during their struggle to get control of the New World.…

01-2007 St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a multi-island nation, well known to the wintering yachters but off the beaten track for all the other visitors. The island of St. Vincent itself has no infrastructure for independent travellers and its…

11-2004 Peru. Imagine scenery on the epic scale of an Indiana Jones or Lara Croft movies: forgotten temples, cobwebbed ancient tombs, buried treasures beyond all reckoning, wild rivers that rage, pumas prowling in the night and shaman rituals. It’s not…

03-2004 Unfettered by tourist crowds, Panama’s natural gifts shine. In fact, Panama’s highlights are still very much off-the-beaten-path destinations, though it’s likely that this will change in the years to come. We went there after the recommendation of a Greek…

03-2002 / 02-2003 Admiring a 1300-year-old Maya palace at Palenque as howler monkeys growl in the sweaty emerald jungle around you. This is Mexico. Sliding from a palm-fringed sandy beach into the warm, turquoise waves of the Pacific. This, too,…

03-2007 Despite its location, almost smack in the centre of the Caribbean Sea, the island of Jamaica doesn’t blend in easily with the rest of the Caribbean archipelago. It boasts the same addictive sun rays, sugary sands and pampered resort…

12-2003 Honduras is the second largest Central American country. I visited it as part of my Central American tour. My friend Kostis had joined me in Costa Rica and after a quick pass from Nicaragua, we took an almost off…

12/20011 It’s probably the poorest country of the world and surely the most politically tolerated in the Americas. It’s the half of the island of Hispaniola and the first black republic in the world to have declared its independence. All…

01-2004 The heart of the Mayan world, Guatemala, is a beautiful land. The modern rhythm of life is penetrating this outpost of the Mayan culture and as a result is offering some advantages and drawbacks alike. The distinction between the…

02-2005 Grenada is the smallest independent country in the Western Hemisphere. During my trip to the Eastern Caribbean, I paid a visit to this small island that I knew nothing about, except for the invasion of the US Army in…

03-2004 The name El Salvador evokes memories from the chaotic civil war fought from 1980 until 1992.But the war has been over a few years now and this small country  is doing its best to distance itself from its past.…

01-2005 Ecuador is the smallest of the Andean countries and in many ways it’s the easiest and most pleasant country to travel in. After spending New Year’s in the north of Peru, I decided to go to this small country…

11/2001 The island of Espanola is divided in two pieces nowadays. Back in the colonial times it was controlled by the Spaniards as it was their first settlement in the New World. It was the first place Christopher Columbus discovered…

11-2006 Dominica is the Nature Island of the Caribbean, a non-tourist destination for divers, hikers and naturalists that offers spectacular scenery both above and below the water. This was my destination for the last month of 2006. In general Dominica’s…

12/2001 Cuba is the revolutionary soul of South America, the second home of El Che, as Cubans call Ernesto Guevara. I couldn’t leave this destination for later because Che has been my hero since my childhood, so there I was…

11/2003   Costa Rica is sometimes called the Switzerland of Central America because of its comfortable lifestyle, peaceful democracy and overwhelming natural beauty. The country’s wildlife rangesfrom howler monkeys to toucans that are populous and relatively easy to spot. The…

02-2005 Colombia has been the forgotten part of the popular Latin America’s trail. It’s looked upon as a country to get through quickly rather than as a place to visit. As a result there are only a few popular tourist…