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Sarapiquí is one of my favorite places in Costa Rica.

Rust red-orange earth meets up with jade green water of the Sarapiqui River, next to fluorescent green grass and darker emerald-green, thick rainforest. Jewel-toned birds and butterflies swoop here and there, and this time of year, the cicadas bring a tumultuous cacophony to the sunshine. Colors seem more vibrant here. Maybe it’s the moisture in the sun-soaked air. Maybe it’s the abundance of nature.

Sarapiquí is considered one of the world’s m

What would you guess most determines how we choose a hotel? Price? Location? Recommendation by a friend or someone else?

In a connected social media world, it's surprising to discover that what our friends, and friends of friends recommend, say on Facebook or other sharing platforms, counts for only 6.8 % in determining what influences our hotel choices.
"Past experience" weighs in at 11.9%.

In truth, according to Hotelmarketing.com what actually influences a hotel choice is location.
For exa

I’m a huge animal lover, and I’ve been writing about vacation resorts for a few years now. These two facts might at first seem like a non-sequitur, but on my recent visit to Iberostar’s five-resort Playa Paraíso complex on Mexico’s Mayan Riviera below Cancun, they came delightedly together. 

Here not a day goes by where you won’t spot a charming critter with feathers, fins, or fur. Strolling from my room to dinner one evening at the Paraíso Maya, I came across a peacock calmly striding around t

Haiti tourism, it would appear, is once again on the march.  

Yes, thanks to its rough history, the Massachusetts-size country sharing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic has admittedly been a tough sell from a travel standpoint for many years. And yet... Haiti also has a surprising amount to offer. Its beaches and waters are pristine (in fact, many thousands of Royal Caribbean cruisers have experienced them, since its Western Caribbean itineraries include northern H

Nestled in the Andes mountain range, Salta is a city in the heart of the Lerma Valley, at 1,152 metres (3780 feet) above sea level in the north west part of Argentina. Along with its metropolitan area, it has a population of approximately 800,000 inhabitants, which makes it the second most populated city in the northwest of the country. Within Argentina, Salta is the city which has preserved its colonial architecture the best. Also known as Salta la Linda ("Salta the beautiful"), it has become

The fun-loving beach town of Jacó lights up as “beach party central” on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast. Just an hour from the San Jose metropolitan area on the Route 27 and Costanera Sur highways, Jacó is one of the country’s most developed beach towns.

Jacó spreads out in front of a low green mountain range along an azure horseshoe bay and features hotels, funky restaurants, souvenir and surf shops, bars, discos, casinos, and a wide beach. Just before Jacó is Playa Herradura, home to the ren

por Cristóbal Ramirez

Estrés en la ciudad, disgustos, malos rollos. ¿Una vuelta por el Caribe? Volamos a Panamá, donde los días se estiran como chicles y parecen tener más de 24 horas. Ciudad de Panamá, su capital, se divide en tres partes. Zona 1: Panamá la Vieja, fundada en 1519 y destruida y saqueada en 1671 por el pirata Henry Morgan. Sólo queda la torre de la iglesia y algunos muros. Zona 2: Casco Viejo de Panamá, fundado a finales del siglo XVII. El aire salino da en la cara mientras se

by Jack F. Stanley

You know many of our Presidents drank. Some were real boozers. I figured I would write a very short bit on the ones who were moderate to heavy drinkers.
I will only list deceased former presidents. Also we had several Presidents who drank in their youth and gave it up. They will not be listed here.

Although the Presidents that drank on average have lived longer, although the odds are changing as time goes on and people are drinking less than they once did.

I will list the ag

Call it some kind of fierce, intuitive desire to protect the Olde Continente (e's added here for effecte), aka Die Mutterlande, but I've often experienced a fierce fight-or-flight response when faced with the old travel-writing truism that "Seattle is America's most European city."

Fight generally wins, and I go immediately to sarcastic, Socratic responses.

(Why, because of the medieval walls, pocked and battered by time and war, surrounding the Pike Place Market?)

They tagged Seattle with this ros

A little over 300 years after it was scuttled and left to lie at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, the Quedagh Merchant was discovered in 2007 just off the coast of the Dominican Republic's Catalina Island, off the southeastern coast near La Romana. Four years later, this famous shipwreck was opened up to the diving public as an imaginative new attraction, the Museum of the Living Sea. The story of how it got there is a real life tale of Pirates of the Caribbean and one of which Captain Jack Sp

Radio Netherlands:  "There are more than 40 million widows in India - 10 percent of the country's female population. And for the majority of these women, life is what some have described as a "living sati", a reference to the now outlawed practice of widow burning."

Enter Nicki and Kria.

Blog Entry: Late January: BostontoBindis

"Thursday night Nicki and I sat in front of a group of about fifty widows and single women. They sang for us, covered our shoulders in white shawls, had us light a cand

When traveling around Costa Rica, there’s nothing better after a big day of hiking, rafting, zip lining or other adventuring, than slipping gently into steamy thermal springs so hot they make you tingle all over. Decadent, sultry, igneous water laps your tired muscles into spaghetti-like relaxation. Finer still to have a frosty tropical fruit drink in hand. Lay your head back, steam rising all around you, and the cares of the world melt away.

Costa Rica’s hot springs are a popular vacation attrac

You really can't get more family-run than Conway Family Wines...Chris and Ann Conway along with their 5 children Gareth (President), John, Sally, Tom (VP Business Development), Gillian (VP Communications) all share ownership in the winery producing a tasty trio of Deep Sea varietals. Being small scale and tight knit allows them to use sustainable agricultural and vineyard practices not only to produce great tasting grapes but to effectively preserve their historic Rancho Arroyo Grande property.

por Cristóbal Ramirez

Un aplauso para Bogotá: la capital colombiana lucha encarecidamente por derribar prejuicios y que no se le asocie a la guerrilla y la inseguridad. El turista, nada más poner el pie en la ciudad, se da cuenta de la alegría que trae hasta el interior los vientos del Caribe. Con una extensión de 385 kilómetros cuadrados, esta megaurbe resulta amable, irresistible, acogedora. Si no, fíjese en la siguiente imagen: los camareros, en lugar de preguntar “¿qué desea tomar?”, sorpr

One of my earliest travel memories, back in the early 1970s, Cozumel at that time was the Yucatan's biggest (hell, only) beach resort deal. Cancun was still but a glimmer in the eyes of Mexico's government tourism planners and the "Riviera Maya" was little more than miles of hot, buggy scrubland punctuated by a string of barefoot (not even electrified) villages with the seaside Maya site of Tulum stuck in there somewhere (suffice it to say, a whole lot more inaccessible in those days). 

My, oh

I'm one of those people who's got a thing for ancient ruins, especially in the Western Hemisphere - Aztec, Inca, Maya, Olmec, whatever; if it's pre-Columbian, bring it on. So when I was offered a chance by the resort chain Iberostar to pop back down to the Yucatan Peninsula's Mayan Riviera, including a visit to Tulum, I jumped at it.

After flying in from Miami the day the day before yesterday (just an hour and 20 minutes to CUN, aka Cancun); settling into the Maya Paraíso, one of the properties

El término ecoturismo ha sido objeto de muchas interpretaciones distintas. Abundan hoteles, propiedades y paquetes vacacionales que se jactan de ser amigables con el ambiente. En múltiples ocasiones, la palabra se refiere a la sumersión en un espacio natural. Los tonos verdes varían, pero en general cualquier viaje que involucre a la Madre Tierra puede llevar el prefijo «eco».

Sin embargo, para nuestros fines, el descanso ecológico genuino involucra el turismo verde y responsable. Esto es, la est

The name of Don Quixote is known around the world, even if the story behind the name is perhaps not so familiar. Written 400 years ago by Miguel de Cervantes, the novel describes the colorful adventures of Don Quixote of La Mancha, a retired country gentleman from the western La Mancha region of central Spain, who lives out a fantasy life based on the many romantic books he has spent his years reading. He battles imaginary enemies (famously including the windmills of La Mancha) and fights for t