Category Archives:Africa

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Zambia – Helicopter flights over Falls – Photo by Wilderness Safaris

A 45-minute drive from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, the quaint fishing village of Toubab Dialao is one of the West African country’s most loved off-beat destinations and for good reason.

Some rights reserved by robin.elaine

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Most of the time, living in Yorkshire is rather pleasant. Quiet, homey, down-to-earth, lots of sheep. Nice place to raise kids. But despite the small-town charm of northern England, much of me still yearns for the faster hustle of the city–and luckily for me, London is a mere three hours away. I get enough English culture at home. When I go to London, it’s to experience the world; if you can’t find it there, you simply aren’t looking hard enough. And on our last trip to London, priority number one was getting a type of cuisine we hadn’t had in a very, very long time: Ethiopian food. Addis, conveniently located near King’s Cross Station, delivered…and then some.

Main course. Photo by deannanmc.

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In one of my past lives, I was a music blog editor. This is not a music review, but just a confession that I learned more about music from my travels to Treasure Beach, Jamaica than in the hundreds of hours of listening to new indie rock albums in Brooklyn. Think of Jamaican music and think of Bob Marley, and for good reason, of course. Though in Treasure Beach I think I got a taste of that “One love,” feeling he sings about.

Looking towards Great Bay - Photo by Jamie Bright

It’s always tough to arrive somewhere in the dark. After flying into Montego Bay around 6 p.m. (customs was CRAZY – We got the tip to avoid flying into Jamaica on Saturday, it’s when many of the resorts all-inclusive patrons arrive) we hopped in a friend’s car and drove for three hours to Treasure Beach.  The sun was setting as we began, so I only got a quick glimpse of  the skinny strips of pavement between potholes as we exited Mo’Bay center.  I love these kind of death-defying rides, truthfully – and since I couldn’t see much, I dared close my eyes and luxuriated in the smell of cookfires and the sounds of cicadas as we whizzed by.

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What do Buenos Aires, Houston, Bilbao, Kent, England, the Ivory Coast, Toronto and Berlin (and more!) have in common? In these cities, the locals, known as Greeters, welcome tourists and escort them through their home city, for free.  These volunteers aim to show a tourist the parts of the city that truly play a role in their everyday lives. What a way to discover a new place.

The recipe for success: locals welcome tourists and show them their city. Photo: Melbourne Greeter Service

This program is a very unique offer of companionship and a way to see a new city off the beaten path.  In 1992, the first “welcome visitor” program like this emerged in New York, and has the idea to conquer the whole world.  Meanwhile, in 23 cities Greeters are now welcoming tourists.  I spoke with Zoya Shurygina from Moscow, Anne Chabot from Marseilles and Anne Macvean from Melbourne, each currently volunteering as Greeters in their city.

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Been thinking of moving abroad? Cara Silva and her partner Casey Cobell had dreams of Africa together.  The land called to them, and they knew they had to make it happen.  Here’s there story of what brought them to Rwanda, and how they made the dream turn into a reality – it’s really large leap of faith!  Another inspiring story full of tips on how to make your desire to live abroad come to fruition.

Cara Silva and husband Casey Cobell

Why Rwanda? Tell us about taking off for Africa.

If I am honest with myself, I have been drawn to Africa since I was a child.  I wish I could pinpoint what it was, or when it was, but I just can’t seem to do it.    There are some images that I do remember inspiring me when I was young: watching the graceful African animals run along the plains on National Geographic, seeing the images of African children with distended tummies during the severe drought in Ethiopia in the 1980s, the large media hype around Bono’s One Campaign splashed everywhere in the U.S., and reading about how the AIDS epidemic has plagued the continent far beyond anywhere else on this earth.  Something about all of this, and probably much more, put a longing in my heart…but that is not where it ended.

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