Globe Corner Blogs

Ecuador --photo by Meghan

I recently traveled to Ecuador with a friend…and went without a plan.  We decided against one of the more traditional Ecuadorian travel destinations, with saddened hearts, but happy wallets – the Galapagos was just not a budget travel destination.  We decided instead to do an Amazon trek followed by some coastal R&R.  I think I had a more lively time this way. (And I certainly encountered more bugs.)

Fleeing the jungle and heading toward the coast with pre-primed sunburns and enough mosquito bites to look like smallpox victims, we arrived in Manta to the smell of fish factories, and the greeting of a statue in the town’s center – a large tuna and tuna can on a stick like a massive kebab.  A large-ish town filled with swimming pools, fish markets and discotheques, we unfortunately didn’t stay long enough to experience more of Manta’s flavor than that.

Panama hats --photo by Meghan

Early one morning we took our cab driver, Hugo, a short, jovial man, and his yellow mini-SUV taxi shopping in Montichristi.  It is a quaint, white washed and cobblestoned town with a gorgeous cathedral set among hills and has a collective chip on its shoulder. The streets are lined with vendors so unwilling to budge on prices that they would rather see you go across the street than pay them $1 less.  Hammocks, wooden figurines, necklaces, more hammocks and the infamous Montichristi “Panama” hat are all for sale from every Montichristi tiendas. But then again, maybe it has a right to be grumpy.

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Moon's Patagonia Handbook --by Wayne Bernhardson

A great event is coming soon…REALLY soon. Say, tomorrow, October 16th (Thursday) at 6pm. Wayne Bernhardson, author of the Moon Guides to Argentina and Chile and the Moon’s Buenos Aires Handbook and Patagonia Handbook, is coming to speak for us at the First Parish Church in Harvard Square. (And rumor has it there’s a drawing for a prize!)

Bernhardson is definitely the man to listen to and shoot questions at if you are at all interested in the Southern Cone area of South America. On top of writing all these guide books, he also maintains a highly informative blog (Southern Cone Travel) about the area.

The talk will focus on the current conditions in Patagonia and about travel in it. But as the author spends half his year traveling in southern South America, he will be able to field questions during the Q&A from the whole region. …But the drawing?!

Okay, so then there is this drawing. Every person who comes to one of Bernhardson’s talks can be entered into a drawing for a free plane ticket to Santiago or Buenos Aires. The free drawing tickets from Bernhardson’s talks around the North America are put all together and chosen from in early November – Really? A free plane ticket? I’d put my name in that hat!

So come join the GCB and Wayne Bernhardson tomorrow, October 16th at 6pm in the First Parish Church (3 Church Street) in Harvard Square. Refreshments will follow the talk at The Globe Corner Bookstore.