Central and South America

Most storms move. They roll through, dump their rain, and drift off by morning. One storm in Venezuela skipped that memo. It parks over the exact same patch of water almost every night, year after year, and lights up the sky like a strobe. Locals call it Catatumbo Lightning. NASA satellite data crowned it the…

Fewer than 300 Nazis ever stood trial at Nuremberg. Historians estimate that somewhere between 9,000 and 10,000 escaped Europe entirely, most of them settling into new lives across South America. That gap isn’t an accident of postwar chaos. It’s the result of a real, coordinated system, built and maintained by people who knew exactly who…

The researchers who found this city didn’t name it after themselves, or a nearby landmark, or anything ceremonial at all. They named it after the one thing that had kept it hidden for over a thousand years: there simply wasn’t a path there. In Yucatec Maya, that’s Minanbé. It’s about as literal a name as…

Thousands of dolls hang from the trees on a small island south of Mexico City. Some are whole. Many aren’t. Missing limbs, missing heads, faces worn down by decades of rain and sun, all strung up together in a landscape that looks less like a garden and more like a warning. You can only reach…

Mexico rarely disappoints. Whether you’re drawn by the promise of white-sand beaches, ancient ruins or some combination of the two, it’s a destination that delivers more than expected if you go in knowing what each region offers. 1. Choosing the right Mexican destination for your summer escape Mexico’s most popular holiday regions each have a…

There is a 36-foot concrete hand rising out of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It sits beside the Pan-American Highway, about 46 miles south of the nearest city. The sculpture is surrounded by nothing in every direction except flat red sand. Just an enormous left hand reaching upward from the ground, alone, in the…

Oaxaca is a city in southern Mexico, capital of the state of the same name. It is widely considered to produce the most complex, historically rooted, and genuinely extraordinary regional cuisine in the Americas. Not Mexico. The Americas. Rick Bayless has said it. Diana Kennedy spent decades documenting it. Anthony Bourdain went multiple times. The…

Patagonia has been sitting on my mental list for years in that specific way where you know it is eventually going to happen, you are just not sure when. And the more I research it, the more I realize how many first-timers make the same avoidable mistakes before they even get on the plane. So…

You have seen the photographs. The ones where the ground looks like sky. Someone stands in the middle of an infinite reflection and you cannot tell which way is up. You probably assumed they were heavily edited, or taken in some impossible five-minute window you would never manage to replicate. Here is the thing: they…

There is a place in Chilean Patagonia where the walls of a cave are made of solid marble. These walls were polished by 6,000 years of glacial water to a mirror finish. Consequently, they reflect the lake back at you in shades of turquoise and deep blue. Sometimes, you might see something close to violet…

Getting to experience the Day of the Dead in Mexico has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. As someone who’s spent years studying death rituals across cultures, I thought I understood the profound beauty of how different societies honor their dead. But understanding something intellectually and experiencing it with…

When most people think about resort activities in Puerto Vallarta, they picture poolside cocktails and beach volleyball. But the Marriott Puerto Vallarta offers something far more meaningful: the chance to help endangered sea turtles make their first journey to the ocean. And let me tell you, holding a baby sea turtle in your hands as…

Sometimes when we visit Puerto Vallarta, the gorgeous glimmer of the beaches can have us forgetting that we are in Jalisco. But the amazing taste of the food can quickly remind us that we are, in fact, in the soul of Mexico. While staying at the Marriott in Puerto Vallarta, Michael and I were lucky…

I had been to Puerto Vallarta before, but never under the lens of exploring the diversity of its culture, especially for something as personal and magical as the Day of the Dead. Like many travelers, my previous visits had been about beaches and the art on the malecón. While still eventful and charming, this experience…

If you’ve ever fallen down one of those archaeological rabbit holes, Costa Rica’s stone spheres are probably already on your list of favorite mysteries. And if they aren’t, they should be. They are easily one of the most quietly, profoundly baffling archaeological puzzles in the entire Americas. Scattered mostly through the Diquís Delta in the…

Peru attracts visitors from around the world, yet much of its cultural depth sits far beyond its most photographed sites. Ancient paths still link remote villages, sacred landscapes, and living traditions. These routes reveal how folklore, belief, and daily life remain closely connected across the country. Exploring Peru through its lesser-known trails offers a clearer…

For early humans, caves were homes, temples, tombs, and canvases. For modern travelers, they’re reminders that the Earth still hides things it hasn’t finished telling us. South America, with its tangled mountains and volcanic veins, is full of these stories. Caves there feel like you’ve stepped into another timeline. So, here are eight of the…

Among the natural treasures of Guanacaste lies La Leona Waterfall, one of the most authentic and adventurous experiences you can have in Costa Rica. Located in Curubandé, near Liberia Guanacaste, this waterfall combines hiking, caves, swimming in turquoise waters, and spectacular canyon landscapes. In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to plan your visit:…

This is the key to a successful trip. The Riviera Maya is a long stretch (approx. 130 km), and choosing the right mode of transport will define your experience. 1. Public Transportation (Colectivos and Buses) 2. Rental Car 3. Taxis 4. Organized Excursions and Tours (with Transportation Included) 5. Private Transfers 6. Water Transport (Ferries…

Most rivers trickle, rush, or flood. They don’t usually scald. They don’t bubble at the edges. And they definitely don’t kill animals on contact. But in a dense, largely uncharted pocket of the Peruvian Amazon, one river does exactly that. It’s called Shanay-Timpishka — a name that means “boiled with the heat of the sun”…

Perched at the crossroads of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana lies Mount Roraima. A vast tabletop mountain, its 400-meter cliffs shoot up in brutal verticals from dense tropical rainforest, its summit often lost in a veil of clouds. It’s no wonder early European explorers assumed the gods had put it there. Or that Arthur Conan Doyle,…

Planning a family vacation can be a high-stakes balancing act: you want the kids to have a blast,  excite the adults, and still leave room for relaxation. Europe, as it happens, has all those things plus plenty more to offer. Opulent and entertaining, this magnificent continent is bursting with culture, sparkling coastlines and amazing adventures. From fairytale…

Imagine an entire city, frozen in time beneath layers of volcanic ash. No, this isn’t Pompeii—it’s San Juan Parangaricutiro, a small town in Mexico. It met a fiery end when a volcano suddenly emerged from the earth in 1943. Unlike most ancient cities that take centuries to fade into history, this one was buried alive…

Imagine waking up to the sound of gentle waves and opening your eyes to see endless turquoise waters all around you. No noisy neighbors, no traffic, no crowded beaches—just peace, quiet, and your very own private island. Sounds like a dream, right? It’s the kind of thing you might expect from a celebrity’s Instagram feed,…

Okay, picture this: you’re gliding down a river so clear that you can see everything—like, every single pebble, every wavy plant, and tons of little fish swimming below you. That’s Rio Sucuri in Bonito, Brazil, and it’s one of the world’s clearest rivers. They named it after the Sucuri snake, but don’t worry; you’re not…