Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Rituals and Traditions

The intent stare of an unknown dog strikes dread in the experienced cycle tourist. Most healthy-looking animals, no matter how mean, probably do not have rabies, but if bitten one must receive treatment.

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

An onlooker witnesses the annular solar eclipse as the sun sets on May 20, 2012.

Photo of the Week: Eclipsed Sunset

Photo contest contestant Colleen Pinski captured an onlooker witnessing the annular solar eclipse as the sun sets on May 20, 2012

Footballer in the making? This young Ecuadorian seems drawn to the oblong shape and peculiar design of a football on a soccer field in the city of Cuenca.

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!”

None

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

America’s Biggest Game brings excitement, curiosity and some boredom to Ecuador

Making guacamole

How Did Avocados Become the Official Super Bowl Food?

Did you know this off-season penchant for guacamole is an industry creation?

None

Things to Do in Quito While Nursing Achilles Tendonitis

With its clean public parks, brewpubs, museums and tapas bars, Quito is a fine place to spend a week recovering from an injury

This sign just north of Tumbes is a clear sign, if the mangroves aren’t, that one is entering the muggy, and in some ways dangerous, tropics.

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

None

What to Eat—or Not—in Peru

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

Accompanied by a mat of long brown hair, these broken bones on the side of the highway most likely belonged to a woman.

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

None

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

From tropical mountains, we descended into a landscape of flailing-armed cacti, spiny succulents like giant artichokes and sand dunes as high as mountains

None

Photo of the Week: Theyyam Temple Performance

Photo contest contestant Joshi Daniel captured this shot in Kannur, Kerala, India

None

Photo of the Week: Adelie Penguins Take the Plunge

Photo contest contestant Lois Summers captured these penguins mid-dive off the Antarctic Peninsula

None

Travel Photo of the Week: Guardian of Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

Photo contest contestant Jarrod Castaing of Sydney, Australia snapped this shot among the ruins of this ancient temple complex

None

Photo of the Week: Girl Meets Whale

Photo contest contestant Andrey Antov captured his daughter sharing a moment with a beluga whale

None

Photo of the Week: A Quick Nap, Myanmar

A beautiful image by photo contest contestant Kyaw Zaw Lay captures a sleepy young monk

None

Photo of the Week: Star Trails Over Coronado Heights

This beautiful long exposure by photo contest contestant Mike Beauchamp captures the night sky as it circles around Polaris, the North Star

None

Photo of the Week: A Tiger of a Festival!

Photographer Indranil Sengupta snapped this photo at a Puli Kali procession during the annual Onam festival in Kerala, India

None

The Best Places to See and Celebrate the Winter Solstice

Many temples and monuments were intentionally built to face, frame or otherwise “welcome” the rising winter solstice sun

Larissa and Michael Milne, shown here in their hometown of Philadelphia, sold nearly all their belongings in 2011 and embarked on a tour of the world. Along the way they visited the frightening but fascinating country of North Korea. Also shown in this photo is the Milnes’ travel companion, “Little Rocky,” a six-inch figurine of one of Philadelphia’s most famous native sons.

A Frightening and Fascinating Journey Through North Korea

When a Philadelphia couple took a world tour in 2011, they quickly struck upon the idea of visiting one of the world’s most mysterious places

None

The Legend of the Christmas Stocking

What’s behind the holiday tradition of hanging hosiery on the fireplace?

Page 28 of 37