The town of Villa de Leyva is perhaps a kilometer square, but it features one of the largest cobblestone plazas in all of South America. Around the square and in the grid of streets, many…
Colombia is a land of plenty, one of the most biodiverse in the world, awash with rivers, filled with fertile lowland and highland areas - in an overall area about 50% larger than Texas and…
Bogota has a vibrant street art culture. It began decades ago as expressions of rebellion by the young along with distaste for civil war politics, the political corruption that impoverished many, and the pernicious drug…
The stars peeked out from behind the soft clouds, just a few of the brightest overcoming the lights of the city. The wind was soft and refreshing in a perfect temperature for sitting on the…
Kosovo is newly emerging as a country, the latest from the former Yugoslavia to be independent - barely so with the ongoing help of NATO and the US since the 1990s. There’s a lot of…
Mountains are in the name of the country, as Crna Gora, or black mountain, from the Venetian title, monte negro. They dominate the landscape, from the very edge of the sea to the innumerable limestone…
In our post about Albanian history (click here to read), we noted all the cross-currents of culture affecting the country – from its Illyrian origins, through Greek and Roman control, the influence of Byzantine and…
So many people we meet, interested in going to Albania, are both curious and somewhat fearful about it. They imagine a third world country or extreme deprivation or some such horror because of Albania’s 40…
Albania’s history can read like a tale out of Tolkien’s Ring trilogy. It starts before the 4th century BC with the sophisticated tribes loosely known as the Illyrians. The land since then has been at…
During our first five days in Slovenia, we time traveled through 50 Million years - from the karst caves still being shaped by their rivers, to a Neanderthal era musical instrument, to the remains of…