cultural travel (87)

 

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The Maasai (also spelled Masai) are is a unique and popular tribe due to their distinctive, long preserved culture. Despite education, civilization and western cultural influences, the Maasai people have clung to their traditional way of life, making them a symbol of Kenyan culture as well as important in that of Tanzania.

 

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Making a fire.



Maasai's distinctive culture, dress style and strategic territory along the game parks of Kenya and Tanzania have made them one of

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by Miguel Martínez Rabanal


Chile is a very special country, full of very special sights and experiences. But the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui is not only special, but dramatically unique in all the world. What makes it worth the time (a five-hour flight from Santiago), effort, and expense to make your way out to this wee chunk of rock in the middle of the southeastern Pacific Ocean –  one of the world’s most remoted inhabited islands? 

Named Isla de Pascua because it was found by Europeans (th

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Sharing a birthday, July 11, with the national day of this landlocked, mostly Buddhist country wedged between China and Siberia (a bit smaller than Alaska and with a population around 3 million) has helped drive a longtime fascination. In the early Middle Ages essentially a world power thanks to the westward conquests of Genghis Khan, in the 1990s Mongolia made a transition to multi-party democracy after 70 years of Communist and Soviet domination (one of the remnants of which is that its lan

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Few cultural forms are more associated with the Dominican Republic than merengue music and the brisk, shuffling, hip-wagging dance that goes with it (no one’s exactly sure where the name comes from – sweet, frothy beaten egg whites or the “mareng” or “méringue” music of neighboring Haiti).  Going back more than 150 years, like tango in Argentina it once scandalized the prim and proper because of its ribald lyrics and sexy moves. Well, that’s sure as heck a thing of the past – see

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San Telmo, Buenos Aires' Historic Heart

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by Asli Pelit


The oldest neighborhood in Argentina‘s capital, San Telmo is a barrio founded in the 16th century, where history – romantic cobblestone streets, colonial buildings, cafés, churches, and its tango culture — happily coexists with today’s fashionista edge and Montmartre-like buzz. It became a bastion of the upper class in the 1800s, declined after the cholera epidemic of 1871, and has been reviving since the country’s economic crisis in 2002, luring (mostly European) investors and b

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by Nelly Huang



Croatia
, a land of more than a thousand islands splattered off the beautiful Adriatic Sea coastline in the Balkans of Eastern Europe, is chock-full of intriguing history, Mediterranean cuisine and Slavic cultural heritage. And on a recent visit to its Dalmatian coast, I decided to delve deeper into its less explored side of the country, and so I ditched the crowds on the beach, left the tourist trail behind me, and headed deep into the world of music.

Journey int

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12237988284?profile=RESIZE_930xSilvio Tanaka

 

Not too many people know much about (or have even heard of) the tiny, 10-island West African country of Cape Verdeon Boavista island). But even though relatively few actually understood her song lyrics, plenty in Europe, Africa, and the rest of the world certainly knew and loved its most famous native daughter, a soulful singer whom we lost a year ago today at age 70.

Like one of my favorite U.S. jazz icons, Alberta Hunter, Cesária Évora started her career young and at one po

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