For years we have turned to Chinese traditional medicine for a range of treatments because we have been impressed by the merits of a holistic approach to health. The Chinese medical history is anchored on concepts of energy flow through…
Discovering Cabo de Gata ~ Andalucia’s largest coastal protected natural reserve in Southern Spain
Spain has been experiencing a major financial crisis, ever since 2009. A boom in construction, that has now gone bust, was fueled by an expectation of continued investment by Northern Europeans ~ Germans and Brits primarily, who flock annually to…
Boutique hotel in the historic center of Sevilla, Spain.
We frequently get asked to give specific recommendations about small and unique boutique hotels along our travels. While we mostly orchestrate our travels around home exchange (with our house in Granada, Nicaragua), we succumb to occasional infusions of boutique hotel…
Green Global Trek “TOP 5” for Seville, Spain.
We arrive in Seville by bus from Portugal in just a few hours. We have two sequential home exchanges, giving us almost a month in this Southern Spanish city. We have been here once before many years ago, but only…
Istanbul, Turkey ~ of mesmerizing mosques and beckoning baklava
The Ottoman Empire… Constantinople… Turkish coffee … kilim carpets….How little we know in fact about Turkey, both modern and throughout history! And yet, the very name Istanbul evokes romantic notions of the Orient… For this reason we have always been…
Pushkar, India: sacred lake ~ site of religious festivities
Hindu theology is extra-ordinarily complex, with literally hundreds of gods and demi-gods. However, at the very start, there were just three: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In this trinity, Brahma is the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer. In…
The colors of Verkala, India
India, oh India… What a special place you hold in our memories and fantasies of exotic travel! When Peta was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to confront death, in 2005, I (Ben) seized on the mind-focusing event to ask…
Reflection on our journey ~ metaphorically and mechanically. Chiang Mai, Thailand
Locals ask the question “Where are you from?”, which is fairly easy to answer…. (South Africa, France, Chicago, Nicaragua) compared with the question travelers ask us, which is “Where do you live?” The answer is not so easy. We no…