I was hankering for an awesome Empanada de Viento this afternoon so I decided to walk the 45 minutes from where I’m staying to Parque La Floresta and my favourite chefs in all of Quito. Seriously, all the food from these food carts is incredible! An Empanada de Viento is a heavenly mixture of fried…
An on-the-ground account of Día de los Difuntos in Otavalo, showing timing, crowds, logistics, food traditions, and real visitor experience.
The Centre for Comtemporary Art is in located one of the most incredible and historically significant buildings in Quito. I’d walked past it a lot while I was living in the Historic Centre during my first month in Quito and had always wanted to see inside the building. So I finally got my act together to…
Trawling the Quito Cultura website last week (as I do every Sunday) I came across the following advertisement for Leyendas Nocturnas (Night Legends) at the El Tejar Convent in downtown Quito. From the description, it seemed as if it might follow the same formula as the awesome night tour I did at the Santiago General…
One of the best recommendations I can make is that if you are visiting a country for a while, join the expat Facebook group(s) associated with that country. I have been a member of Discover Chile for several years now, and when I knew I was coming to Ecuador for an extended stay I joined…
Anyone who read my post about visiting the Puppet Workshop in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, knows that I’m completely enamored with puppetry of any kind. It really doesn’t matter if it is just a sock puppet (I’ve made a few of those for bemused people) – I love the artistry and suspension of belief that necessarily accompanies…
I arrived in Quito on the Independence Day holiday – commemorating Ecuador’s departure from Greater Colombia on August 10, 1830. As part of the festivities around this, and also as part of the “Summer of Arts” in the city, several of the most important buildings in the Historical Centre of Quito were lit up in the…
I wasn’t greeted with the best weather I’ve had in South Greenland today, but decided to head out to do the Qassiarsuk – Qorlortup Itinnera – Tasiusaq – Qassiarsuk loop hike (yellow, followed by upper red in the below). I had to pass all the way through Qassiarsuk to reach the start of the hike, and that included…
“Don’t walk on the grass!” This is the first thing you are told when you arrive in Igaliku, and it is an anathema to an Australian who loves walking on grass. Of course, there is a valid reason for this directive – Igaliku is a sheep farming town and the grass is fodder for the…
One of the key considerations when heading to Iran is the strictly enforced dress code in place there. By law (not just for religious reasons), men must wear long pants, women must wear long pants/skirts/dresses that cover the ankles, long sleeves (at least ¾ length) and a headscarf that covers their hair. In addition, if a…