Like author Johanna Angermeyer, writer Margret Wittmer spent decades learning the intricacies and challenges of learning to live in the Galapagos islands. Unlike Angermeyer, though, Wittmer’s infrastructure was non-existent to the point that she and her small family had to create everything from scratch. As detailed in Floreana: A Woman’s Pilgrimage to the Galapagos (2013, […]
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WoWasis Galapagos book review: The best Marine Life guidebook on the Galápagos that we’ve seen
If you’re like us here at WoWasis, you’ll go scuba diving or snorkeling in the Galapágos Islands, then come back to your hotel wondering what you saw. Then you’ll go looking in several of the tourist shops looking for a good marine life guidebook. But you won’t find one. Instead, you’ll find plastic fish charts […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Killing Pablo Escobar: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw’
It’s been more two decades since Pablo Escobar’s reign of terror over the nation of Colombia ended, but travelers still encounter vestiges of the carnage. In Bogotá’s Museo Histórico Policia, for example, a whole section is dedicated to the hunt for and death of Escobar. You’ll see a roof tile stained with his blood, his […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis Galapagos book review: Johanna Angermeyer’s ‘My Father’s Island’
When we here at WoWasis toured the Galápagos Islands recently, we were frankly surprised at the relative modernity of the town or Puerto Ayora on Isla Santa Cruz. The island is replete with electricity, air conditioning, internet, and flush toilets (like the rest of Ecuador, though, used toilet paper is placed in a basket and […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis museum and book review: Quito Ecuador’s Pre-Columbian Casa Del Alabado
Ecuador’s capital of Quito boasts a number of interesting things to see, but we here at WoWasis found none more fascinating than the fascinating pre-Columbian museum, Casa Del Alabado. The guide book is something you’ll probably want to have, but more on that later. The strength of the museum is in its ceramics collection of […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bachelor in Bangkok: Khun Lee’s Top Ten Rules for keeping a Thai bargirl as your girlfriend
WoWasis correspondent Khun Lee’s Top Ten Rules for keeping a Thai bargirl as your girlfriend: I have written often in this column about the different aspects of going with both pay-for-play gals and regular gals. Certainly there are arguments for the merits of both, and many guys enjoy a playboy’s life in Thailand pursuing both […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Drug Trade’ by Alfred W. McCoy
The first edition of Alfred McCoy’s The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Drug Trade was written in 1972 and was updated in 1991 and 2013. It has an amazing longevity, and has been cited numerous times in other works. As a plethora of researchers have discovered, the book, although nearly 50 years old […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis thrills over wall murals in the Getsemani neighborhood of Cartagena, Colombia
Getsemani is a picturesque neighborhood of colonial buildings and houses just across the Bahia De Los Animas from Cartagena’s old city. The colors of colonial Cartagena are legendary, and are showcased in the astounding number of beautiful wall murals in Getsemani. To see many of them, you’ll want to get off the main streets and […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis tours Bogota’s Museo Del Oro, the Gold Museum of Colombia
Bogota, Colombia is a city of 14 million people, and frankly, doesn’t have much going for it, in terms of the international traveler. It’s tough to get around during rush hour (try to find a taxi), so you really do need to head back to your hotel around 3 pm. Some of the downtown areas […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis travel product review: the indestructible Travelon Luggage Tag
Why review something as mundane as a luggage tag? Because good ones are so hard to find, that’s why. Here at WoWasis, we’ve burned through dozens of luggage tags in our lifetime, and we got so sick of replacing them that we thought of designing our own. Travelon has designed a great one, though, and […]
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