People fascinate me. How they look. How they talk. How they smell (well, not all people smell “fascinating”). But people are definitely one of the major things that I observe and analyze while traveling. Interacting with the local people & discovering…
In Part 1 of this 2-part series, I detailed my stereotypes of Cuba that turned out to be false. Although they were far fewer, I definitely had some stereotypes of Cuba that turned out to be true during my travels there. Stereotype:…
“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley For an American preparing for a trip to Cuba, there were no shortage of scenarios that ran through my head. How would traveling through a communist,…
I consistently get questions, warnings, & advice from all sorts of people about my safety while traveling. At first I thought that this was just a temporary thing. I thought that after I uploaded a certain amount of Facebook pictures showing…
![Obstacles When Learning Spanish: Part 2 [PODCAST]](https://www.wheresthegringo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/thank_you_note_for_every_language-670x300.jpg "Obstacles When Learning Spanish: Part 2 [PODCAST]")
What are some common obstacles when learning Spanish? Learning Spanish is hard! The challenge to learn another language is a huge commitment, and more than likely you will want to give up at some point. This is the 2nd part of…
When you think of Costa Rica, you think of the beach. Sure you’ve got the rain forest, the volcanoes, the monkeys, & the rivers, but most people go to Costa Rica to get some serious beach bumming in. In fact,…
Couchsurfing.org is one of the greatest internet inventions ever for traveling, but unfortunately over the years some people have done their best to turn it into another sleazy “hook-up” network, and use the website to get play. Before I go further…
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” – Abraham Lincoln Most every traveler has a story from their early days of traveling (maybe the first trip), that they are…
I recently spent almost a month in Rio de Janeiro this past summer during the World Cup, and after doing so I want to publicly declare that this is the best city in the world. There’s a lot of places I haven’t been,…
Mexico City, Ciudad de México, México DF, or as the locals simply call it DF (Distrito Federal). Mexico City is a modern-day megalopolis, with over 20 million inhabitants, and seems to scare everyone else away. The city gets a bad rep for being dirty, noisy…