Let’s talk about safety and travel. A lot of people have opinions on where is and isn’t safe to visit. When I decided to visit Colombia back in October I was treated to everything from wide eyed states to earnest warnings about kidnapping and drugs. I was confident in my …

What do you think of when you hear Brazil? Sparkling, sandy beaches and giant rock formations might come to mind, or an image of the giant Christ statue towering over the city of Rio de Janeiro. Maybe you think of women (and men) in tiny swimsuits and the grandiose costumes …

It’s easy to see that the best way to explore a place is if you know the language and communicate with people there. However, language learning can be a tricky task, especially for those who have never learned one before. When living in Brazil, I had one month to learn …

When I began planning my solo adventure around Northeast Brazil, everyone I knew expressed their concerns of me, a non-Brazilian, petite female, traveling alone in one of the most dangerous areas of the country. Despite being known for its drug-related violence and corruption, the Brazilian Nordeste is one of the …

Classes were wrapping up on a Friday morning in mid-September, and my Brazilian Portuguese teacher casually mentioned we wouldn’t be having class the following Thursday or Friday. Before I could bat an eyelash, I found myself perusing plane tickets, buying one from Rio to Santiago, Chile and frantically packing my …

One beautiful, sunny afternoon in Rio, I was listening to my professor drone on and on about something I didn’t understand and looking out the window when a brilliant idea popped into my head: What if I decided to jump on a bus to another city for the weekend? As …

Imagine sun tanned beach-goers sipping on cool coconuts, striking rock formations, and dazzling spectacles of music and dance… All of these things exist in one incredible city – Rio de Janeiro. There’s a reason they call it the Marvelous City! Of course, you’ve probably seen tons of photos of Rio …

Cartagena has been growing steadily as a popular destination within Colombia, a country that has been struggling to overcome its bad reputation for some time. Cartagena proper is a rough, bustling, dirty, screeching mess of a city but a weekend in the Centro Historico district or neighboring Getsemani will leave …

I find that as a 20-something traveler with limited paid time off I try to make the most of every vacation. That comes with maximizing vacation days and minimizing travel mishaps– though travel problems seem to stalk me like a 6th grade crush. There was the time I booked a …

It’s that time of year. Crowds, weird mall Santas, and gingerbread.  Gingerbread houses are interesting things, aren’t they?  On one hand, they can be beautiful, and yet on the other hand they can seem incredibly germy.  The person making the house obviously manhandles the hell out of each piece, and …