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Smithsonian Lists

The Smithsonian Life List

From Iguazu Falls to the Outer Hebrides: 43 places to see this lifetime

Top EvoTourism Destinations

The best places to see the wonders of evolution

Editors' Picks

What to Eat—or Not—in Peru

The roving ceviche carts and meat grills are colorful pieces of street scenery, but eating a creamy cherimoya or a sweet and starchy lucuma could be the truest taste of Peru

The Devastating Costs of the Amazon Gold Rush

Spurred by rising global demand for the metal, miners are destroying invaluable rainforest in Peru's Amazon basin

The Jaguar Freeway

A bold plan for wildlife corridors that connect populations from Mexico to Argentina could mean the big cat's salvation

Biking Ecuador’s Spectacular Avenue of the Volcanoes

Home to a string of high peaks, including 20,564-foot Chimborazo, the area offers some of the finest cycling, hiking and adventuring country anywhere
March 03, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Page 1 of 2

Hunting for Gold in the Amazonian Jungle

The author joins two American fortune-seekers on a gold-panning outing at the confluence of the Negro and Paute rivers
February 28, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

What to Eat—or Not—in Peru

The roving ceviche carts and meat grills are colorful pieces of street scenery, but eating a creamy cherimoya or a sweet and starchy lucuma could be the truest taste of Peru
January 17, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Faces From Afar: One American’s Endeavor to Kick Ecuador’s Vegetable Oil Habit

Coconut oil is healthy. It smells and tastes like sweet tropical butter. Yet almost nobody in Ecuador uses it
March 12, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Coffee Here, and Coffee There: How Different People Serve the World’s Favorite Hot Drink

Coffee is black and bitter—but global travelers find a surprisingly wide range of forms of the world's favorite hot beverage
March 15, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

San Pedro Apostol church in Peru

The Sistine Chapel of the Andes

Just miles from Peru’s Incan ruins lie artifacts from another era—beautiful Baroque churches that married Spanish design with indigenous culture
January 12, 2012 | By Rebecca Dalzell

Cold, Hungry and Happy in the High Andes

Just 40 bucks in cash, a warm sleeping bag and plenty of wine carry the author through his final days in Ecuador, in the remote high country outside of Quito
March 08, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

What Makes These Avocados Different From All Others?

The spectrum of the fruit here is almost as varied as the people who grow them, and for avo advocates, Ecuador is a excellent place to go tasting
February 26, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

What Makes the Trout in Ecuador Look Like Salmon?

Aiming to catch a few trout for dinner, the author decides to try his luck at one of the region's many "sport fishing" sites
February 12, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Vilcabamba: Paradise Going Bad?

Life in this legendary town in Ecuador's Valley of Longevity may be too good—and too long—to be true
February 20, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

When Cane Juice Meets Yeast: Brewing in Ecuador

The sugarcane trail takes the author across the Andes, into home liquor distilleries and from juice shack to juice shack as he pursues fermented sugarcane wine
February 14, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Bike, Bark, Bite, Blood: The Perils of Cycling in Rabies Country

An unfortunate run in with a mutt in Ecuador turned into a trip to the doctor's to be treated for rabies, a surprisingly fatal disease
February 07, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Strange Ball in a Strange Place: Watching the Super Bowl in Ecuador

America's Biggest Game brings excitement, curiosity and some boredom to Ecuador
February 04, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Faces From Afar: Two Canadian Travelers Bring Love, Goodwill and Water Filters to the Needy

Give a man a glass of water, and you may quench his thirst. But teach him to build a water filter, as Rod and Ingrid McCarroll are doing, and he'll have clean water for life
February 01, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

A Football Team With No One to Play Against

Listen closely around the public parks of Quito, Ecuador, and you just might hear that familiar sound: "Hut hut hike!"
February 06, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Much Ado About Nothing at the Equator

Just north of Quito stands a grand and glowing tribute to one of Ecuador’s proudest features: the Equator. The problem is, it was built in the wrong place
January 30, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Ecuador, Land of Malaria, Iguanas, Mangoes and Mountains

The author leaves Peru behind and crosses into Ecuador, where he encounters his first sign of a mosquito
January 23, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

Braving the Pan-American Highway of Death

Along the roadway in Peru, hand-built memorials to accident victims occur almost as regularly as the kilometer markers themselves
January 15, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

No Place Compares to the Unrelenting Lifelessness of Peru’s Sechura Desert

From the lush, tropical mountains, we descended into a landscape of flailing-armed cacti, spiny succulents like giant artichokes and sand dunes as high as mountains
January 10, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

From the Slums of Lima to the Peaks of the Andes

After unpacking and assembling his bicycle at the airport terminal, the author heads north on the Pan-American Highway toward the mountain town of Canta
January 07, 2013 | By Alastair Bland

A Look Into Brazil’s Makeover of Rio’s Slums

The Brazilian government’s bold efforts to clean up the city’s notoriously dangerous favelas is giving hope to people who live there
January 2013 | By Joshua Hammer

John Hatch

The Romneys’ Mexican History

Mitt Romney’s father was born in a small Mormon enclave where family members still live, surrounded by rugged beauty and violent drug cartels
May 2012 | By Héctor Tobar

Volcanoes: The Top Hotspots of the World

Volcanic landscapes draw countless tourists to rumbling mountains, rivers of lava and boiling geysers. Here are a few of the hottest destinations
October 19, 2012 | By Alastair Bland

Sao Paulo Traffic Jams Extend 112 Miles, On Average

With so much time spent in cars, it’s inevitable that life events like meeting your future spouse occur there, too
September 25, 2012 | By Mary Beth Griggs

The Equinox: See It for Yourself This Weekend

There are many great spots around the globe to observe the celestial phenomena, from Machu Picchu to the Yorkshire moors
September 21, 2012 | By Alastair Bland

1 2 Next »

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