The Museo Soumaya’s architecture alone makes it worth a visit, even if art museums aren’t your thing. The windowless, metallic six-story building looks a bit like a surrealist hourglass covered in thousands of gleaming silver tiles. It’s impossible to ignore. It’s the centerpiece of Nuevo Polanco, a very modern, very wealthy section of Mexico City that’s still growing. The museum … Read More
Mexico City – Day Two
If you collected many of my favorite things, folk art, outrageous color, quirky objects, and wonderful craftsmanship, and out them into a museum, you’d have the Museo de Arte Popular. It’s one of my favorite museums in Mexico City, and I have several. Though relatively small, I can spend many happy hours there. On this visit, there were two special … Read More
Mexico City – Day 1
There’s something exhilarating about flying into Mexico City. As the plane descended yesterday, the city seemed to stretch forever, a vast carpet of buildings spilling toward the mountains. Mexico City is enormous, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, but from the air what struck me that unlike New York, relatively few skyscrapers puncture the skyline. Instead, enormous … Read More
100+ words — Sulawesi, Indonesia – People
In 1992, I took a three-month sabbatical and spent most of it wandering through Indonesia. With more than 17,000 islands to choose from, narrowing an itinerary wasn’t easy. But of all the places I visited, the one that captivated me most was Sulawesi. My destination was Toraja, high in the mountains, remote enough that simply getting there felt like an … Read More
100+ words — Vintage Bangkok, Thailand
I first visited Bangkok in 1990, and it immediately became one of my favorite cities. I’ve returned many times since, watching it reinvent itself. Much has changed since that first visit. There was no mass transit, traffic was legendary, and a tuk-tuk ride that ended up on a major highway left me gasping from exhaust fumes, eyes watering and wondering … Read More
100+ words — Vintage Ecuador
These faces have stayed with me for more than forty years. They came from a market high in Ecuador’s Andes. I shot them in 1984 when I was traveling through the country with rolls of slide film and only a few words of Spanish. The original slides have faded badly over the decades, taking on the reddish cast common to … Read More
100+ words — 150 Photos Later…
In a few weeks I’ll be back in one of my favorite countries, Mexico. First stop: Mexico City. Then it’s off to a spa in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains. With only three days in the city, I’m already deciding how to spend every precious hour. One stop isn’t negotiable: the Museum of Popular Art. Last year I could … Read More
Charlottesville, VA, and Monticello
The manager of the Villa Diner came over to my table and, in a conspiratorial whisper, said, “Today’s your lucky day. Someone has paid for your breakfast.” I looked at him incredulously. “What?” “It’s been happening a lot today. People have been paying other people’s bills.” When I asked if I could thank my benefactor, he told me the person … Read More
Richmond, VA – Day 6
Another conference day with loads of useful advice to travel content creators, probably deadly for everyone else. So, I’ll spare you the conference details and launch into the fun stuff. Last night one of the optional events was an open house at Crossroads Art Center, complete with food and wine. I didn’t know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. … Read More
Richmond, VA – Day 4
Today was the start of the Tbex conference, the reason I came to Richmond. Tbex is a gathering of travel content creators, bloggers, vloggers (video bloggers), podcasters, writers and such. I’ve been to four of these events and always learn a lot and enjoy myself. Unless you’re dying to hear about SEO versus GEO or the finer points of short-form … Read More