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Month: February 2015

Being Vegetarian in Colombia

Being Vegetarian in Colombia

Like everywhere else in South America, vegetarianism isn’t particular popular in Colombia and most traditional fare involves some kind of meat or fish. However, with a little shopping around, you can find vegetarian friendly Colombian food. And of course, in the bigger cities of Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena there are also a range of international options. Here’s what we ate: Colombian food1. Arepas: An ubiquitous lunchtime snack or side dish in Colombia, arepas are a type flatbread, made with a pre-cooked cornflour….

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Photo Friday: Viewing the moon

Photo Friday: Viewing the moon

Looking through our photos from our South American trip, I found these amazing pictures that we took of the moon!  Even more amazingly, they were taken on an iPhone!  While we were in Nazca in Peru, we went to the Maria Reiche planetarium at the Nazca Lines Hotel. Maria Reiche was a German researcher who dedicated her life to research on the Nazca Lines and was successful in raising their profile and ensuring the protection of the Nazca desert.The planetarium offers nightly shows about…

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Where we stayed – Colombia

Where we stayed – Colombia

Bogotá: We’d advise booking ahead for hostels in Bogotá. We booked through hostelworld 4 days in advance and really struggled to find vacancies in those places we’d been recommended or which had the best online reviews. We ended up in the Explora Hostel in the Candelaria area of the city, where we didn’t have the best of stays. When we arrived they’d lost our booking and the woman on reception really struggled to know what to do to resolve the…

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Visiting the Panama Canal

Visiting the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal first opened over 100 years ago in 1914. Since then more than a million vessels have passed through. The canal links the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, allowing ships to avoid the lengthy Cape Horn route around the southern tip of South America.  There are three sets of locks in the canal – two at the Pacific Ocean end of the canal and one at the Atlantic end. Visiting the Miraflores Locks The Miraflores Locks, which have two…

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Being vegetarian in Brazil

Being vegetarian in Brazil

Like the Argentinians, the Brazilians do like their meat, meaning that for our just over two weeks in the country, we found that Brazil was not a particularly vegetarian friendly place. As in Argentina, we found that ‘by weight’ self- service restaurants, where you are charged by the kilo for the amount of food you put on your plate, are a good option (particularly if you like beans and rice!). In Rio and Sao Paulo, as you might expect, there…

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