“A day without compliments… Girl! That’s a bad day for a Cuban girl!” Brayan bangs a hand on the table, laughing contagiously. “But, you know, that’s how it is here.  When I dress, I do it for the ladies,” – it shows, lithe body and dark skin shown to best effect – “and they do [...]

Right now, my collection of photography equipment totals one item:  my Canon Digital point-and-shoot IXUS 95IS, 10 megapixels, 3X zoom.  Not exactly the stuff National Geographic prizewinners are made of. It’s served me well over the years, survived quite a few bumps and scrapes, and will continue to be my first choice for boozy nights [...]

I’ve written in the past about how I love long, uncomfortable bus journeys, and I do. The problem is, I’m not really a traveller any more – I have a business to run, deadlines for articles, pets to take care of. I have responsibilities. Time has suddenly become something important to me. And so I [...]

We woke up one morning to find Brendan curled in the fetal position underneath the dining table. His jeans were torn and muddy, the window open. Like a homing pigeon he’d found his way back to the house, in an unfamiliar suburb of Prishtina, after a cross-country slog across Kosovo’s open fields in which he’d [...]

The Lonely Planet blogsherpa program brings together the cream of the travel blogging crop to provide their unique perspectives on their particular corners of the world, and to paint a portrait of world travel that is dynamic, fresh and original. A delightfully surprising side effect was the formation of a creative, supportive and driven network [...]

It may be the most stressful part of travelling – especially these days, when along with the traditional threesome of passport, cash and cards, most people are toting along a digital camera, flashy phone, laptop, portable DVD player, GPS, video camera and who knows what else.  I’m fairly confident the contents of my backpack cost [...]

Last time I was in Lima I was a broken, battered shell of my former self after a breakneck dash through Guatemala, Panama and Colombia with Sara. We were disgustingly lazy; took in several lovely restaurants and bars, had some great parties and took a few walks about Miraflores and downtown. I left Lima having [...]

After the 31 hour odyssey to arrive in Montañita, Ecuador, I was not really in the mood to stumble into a town in full-on party mode at 10 pm.  It had definite shades of Khaosan Road in Bangkok, crossed with the islands of course, tourist-filled, full of bars, restaurants, and dreadlocked Argentinians selling jewellery, sarongs, [...]

Given that I’m a travel addict and do quite a lot of it, I’m hideously bad at actually planning my trips. Not a great decision maker, me – I tend to make route decisions on a whim. Marseille because I had a sudden hankering for bouillabaisse, Livingston based on the unconfirmed rumour of a Garifuna [...]

I have managed to venture outside of Cuzco in the past few days (gasp!) for a day trip to Pisac with a couple of guys from the hostel. Sat on the local bus out there for an hour and a half, enjoying some of the most amazing mountain scenery I’ve ever seen. Reminded me a [...]