To say that you’ve seen the world before seeing India is like saying you know yourself before taking a good long look at your naked body in the mirror.
Evening Puja (Prayers) in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Click Fullscreen (4 arrows) and move around the panoramic image.
Author’s Note: As we begin to write about our last visit to India in greater depth, I’m reminded of my first trip there — also my first trip abroad that I took solo in 1997. Those were the days of traveler’s checks, thick stapled wads of Indian rupees, and exorbitantly priced, poor quality phone calls booked from telephone wallahs on the street. The ATM machines, internet cafes and easy-to-purchase mobile phone SIM cards of today’s India seemed only a pipe dream back then.
This is the first of a multi-part series chronicling the bizarre experiences and lessons – about India, travel and me – that first visit imparted. No other trip since has affected me in quite the same way. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: India, Perspectives, Travel by: Daniel Noll
31 Comments | 31 August 2009
As we travel, it’s common for locals the world over to ask us where we are from. In Asia, the response “The United States” was usually sufficient. In Europe, they didn’t ask; they assumed.
Not so in Central America. People were curious to know the states and often the towns and cities where we grew up, where we have lived. After sharing our details, it wasn’t uncommon to hear: “I had a cousin who lived there”, “Oh, I lived [nearby] for 15 years” or “My brother lives there.”
Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Central America, Perspectives by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
15 Comments | 28 August 2009
I’ve been out of the dating game for exactly 12 years, so maybe I’m not the best person to write about how to snag a man. However, during our recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, I observed the behaviors of various birds and something struck me: their mating habits reminded me of those dating advice columns I used to read in Cosmo.
If memory serves, it’s a cruel dating world out there. For those of you still in the game, take comfort that the animal kingdom knows no more forgiveness than our human one.
Were Charles Darwin to lead a voyage into the realm of dating advice, perhaps this is where he’d take us: Continue Reading »
- 8 Days in the Galapagos Islands: A Photo Tour
- Dating Advice from Galapagos Birds (or, When Charles Darwin Meets Cosmo)
Filed Under: Ecuador, Humor, South America, Travel, Videos by: Audrey Scott
21 Comments | 24 August 2009
We usually share photos to better relate our experiences and provide a more personal look at a country and its culture. Here we do the same, but we add a cautionary tale. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Central America, Nicaragua, Perspectives, Photography, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
17 Comments | 21 August 2009
Filed Under: Ecuador, Photography, South America, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
15 Comments | 12 August 2009
The first person to utter “shit happens” must have been a traveler.
As I emptied myself from both ends for the better part of 36 hours in the hills of northern Ecuador recently (a bad batch of cevichochos, I suspect), I was reminded that we owe our readers an accounting of how we usually manage to stay healthy while we travel. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Travel by: Daniel Noll
67 Comments | 4 August 2009
What does a family-run small business launched or expanded with the help of a microloan look like? We offer a couple of answers…in three dimensions.
Maybe you’ve seen our photo essays from microfinance programs in Guatemala and India. Now we share a three-dimensional inside look – via 360 degree panoramic photography – at two small family-run businesses in Guatemala. Continue Reading »
- The Face of Microfinance in Guatemala
- Microfinance Panoramas from Guatemala
- Microfinance Diaries: Seeing is Believing in West Bengal
- Machu Picchu? Not Yet. A Slideshow of the Other Peru
Filed Under: Central America, Guatemala, Panorama, Perspectives, Photography by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
2 Comments | 1 August 2009
