How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
Author: Franklin Foer
Who knew you could learn so much about globalization, economics and politics from soccer? Great read.
Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Author: Julia Cameron
One possible path to re-discovering the creativity you never knew you had.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New Edition
Author: Jared Diamond
An admirable crack at explaining why the world is the way it is by way of an anthropological macro-history. This book probably comes up the most in conversation as we travel.
The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back
Author: Bill Shore
Inspiring profiles of social entrepreneurs and projects we all can learn from and hopefully replicate to give back to community.
Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation
Author: John Carlin
Although the storyline is built around the South African rugby team and the 1995 World Cup, this book is more about Nelson Mandela and how he was able to unite a divided country. Inspiring.
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown
Author: Paul Theroux
The author re-visits Africa and re-assesses the place he once knew... and judges it once and for all. Well written, poignant observations of the thumbprints left by career politicians, aid workers, and everyday people.
Outliers: The Story of Success
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
A look at the internal and external factors of how extraordinary people got to be, well, extraordinary. One of those books that challenges assumptions and makes you think differently.
Shantaram: A Novel
Author: Gregory David Roberts
Administering first aid in a Bombay slum, selling fake passports and running guns to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Technically a novel, but closely linked to the Author's own experiences. Fantastic read.
The folds of Bolivia’s beauty – and its contradictions and struggles — defy a story line.
– Our thoughts in Bolivia, First Impressions
Bolivia may defy a story line, but it sure does beg a visit.
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Filed Under: Bolivia, South America, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
4 Comments | 17 February 2010
I need to fill up the tank completely. Finding gasoline in Chapare can be unreliable. It’s one of the ingredients in cocaine production – and that gets first priority.
– Alvarro, our client and guide in Cochabamba, Bolivia explains why it’s necessary to gas up in the city before heading into the jungle.
Paraguay customs. We had just crossed the 200 mile desert frontier with Bolivia. Border agents dressed in knit shirts, their shoulders adorned in crossed Paraguayan and U.S. flags, scanned our bus’s contents –- all of it piled before us. As we waited for a drug-sniffing Labrador retriever to finish pacing and pawing suspect bags, we figured it was time to bring the cocaine story to its finish.
And just as we thought this, the guard approached, “Miss, place your bags up here. We’d like to take a look.” Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Bolivia, Paraguay, Perspectives, South America by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
9 Comments | 2 December 2009
In case you haven’t already heard, I was recently interviewed by Pauline Frommer for The Travel Show, a weekly radio program she co-hosts with her father, Arthur Frommer. We chatted about one of our recent articles – Fawlty Tours – and some of the pitfalls one encounters when booking local tours.
The entire interview experience was terrific.
But there’s more to this story than just a successful radio interview. There’s the behind the scenes in Bolivia to comply with a simple request: a landline phone number at 4:45 PM on Thursday. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Bolivia, South America, Travel by: Audrey Scott
9 Comments | 6 November 2009
Sometimes life’s complexities get in the way of a poetic narrative. Bolivia is proof of this.
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Filed Under: Bolivia, Perspectives, South America, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
15 Comments | 4 November 2009
