South America is a continent known for its vibrant cultures, ecological diversity, and dramatic natural landscapes, including the Amazon Rainforest and Andes Mountains. With deep Indigenous history and strong artistic and cultural traditions, South America offers a rich blend of environments and perspectives. Explore stories, geography, culture, and history connected to South America.
San Miguel is one of several sixteenth century Spanish cities established in what’s called the Colonial Crescent in the Central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano mexicano) a few hundred miles northwest of Mexico City. San Miguel carries the reputation of Travel+Leisure Magazine’s 2021 designation as the Best City in the World. That
El Peñol, a 656-foot granite rock, juts out of the earth. No ordinary rock, El Peñol, a Colombian National Monument, attracts thousands of people daily, many who climb the 708 steps for spectacular views of the region. On its top, vendors sell handicrafts, trinkets, and tee-shirts. One pays for the
Originally a farming town, Guatapé’s future changed forever with the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the 1970s that catapulted the town’s importance as the chief electric production center in the country. The dam created an endless network of interconnecting lakes, with hotels, exclusive homes, marinas and other recreational facilities.
I crane my neck to catch an opening through bobbing heads peering over the railing. I’m on a broad concrete ramp that snakes up the steep hillside community of San Javier, an impoverished jumble of brick houses known locally as Comuna 13, located in the west side of Medellín, Colombia’s
I stand at the northwest corner of cobblestoned Plaza Mayor, central square of magical Villa de Leyva, Colombia, population 17,000 inhabitants. Plaza Mayor measures a third of an acre. It’s empty, except for a small sixteenth century mudejar-style fountain in its center. Also, as if to elevate its noble purpose,
Our first morning in Colombia. We arrived in Bogotá yesterday late afternoon, and we’re ready to explore this capital city with our guide Tomás Vargas. Eleven-and-a- half million metropolitan residents fill an eastern Andean plateau at an 8600-foot elevation, and oxygen-sparce air challenges breathing for us sea level dwellers. Our
I get up early and leave the casa particular (a Cuban version of Air B&B) in Santiago de Cuba on the island’s east end to sit in the Parque Cespedes to write in my journal. The bright sun already begins to heat up the humid mid-summer air. In a short