Travel is like an intensified version of normal life. We take ourselves out of our comfort zone to situations where the ups are higher and the downs take us deeper than we have ever been. This is why we often return from travelling feeling like a new person: so much more experienced, wiser and even enlightened. After a year or so travelling through South America, I’d been confronted by many lows (and many more highs, thankfully). One thing that irritated me was how long things took. I’m pretty chilled out and enjoy taking my time, but on Latin American time things can be excruciatingly slow. The border crossing from Colombia to Panama is one example of this. The whole process of travelling by boat from port towns to port towns took days. I understand that authorities in this Darien Gap region are wise to watch their ports for drug smugglers, but anyone who has spoken to locals knows that the authorities are aware of the traffickers and allow certain offenders to slip through the cracks. On arriving to Panama, at the tiny village of Puerto Obaldia, the immigration officer sitting inside his sweltering hot cement block informed us […] Read More
I spent a week living in a hotel in the middle of the pulsing heart of Granada – The Market. I would wake up each day at 5:30am (the heat was insane even at that hour), walk out the door and grab some fruit, veges and fresh tortillas for breakfast, each time returning home with almost the same amount of money. It stinks and its probably a bit dangerous at night, but I definitely recommend staying in the middle of a Central American market if you get the chance. You’ll feel like you are getting to know the real people and the real country, and it’s much easier to photograph at golden hour when you only have to step out the front door. I bought cheese from these two all the time. It was delicious. Read More
