The vultures arrived before the wrestlers did. In Bwiam, a dusty town in southern Gambia that most travelers see only through a windshield, an annual wrestling festival slowly takes shape beneath the heat: women cooking under a shea tree, children and vendors gathering around a circle scratched into the sand, drums waiting to begin. And…
Some symbols refuse to stay in the past. Fifty years after Franco’s death—and after a dictatorship that ended with political prisoners still being executed—Spain is once again arguing over monuments, memory and the meaning of symbols inherited from authoritarianism. But this is not only a Spanish story. From Europe to the United States and beyond,…
Not everyone who travels is a traveller. And perhaps it is becoming harder to be one. In the latest issue of the Ateneo de Cáceres magazine, I write about mass tourism and something much older: what it actually means to travel. From Marbella to Ibn Battuta, from Portugal to Mali, from consuming places to allowing…
On a rock face beneath the castle in Monfragüe National Park in Spain, thousands of years of human communication seem compressed into a few metres of quartzite: prehistoric figures painted in ochre, then symbols, then an Iron Age inscription meant to be read. It looks like a journey forward, from image to language, from memory…
Some places demand to be seen. Others persuade you to stop looking quite so hard. Sal, in Cabo Verde, was the latter: volcanic, salt-scoured and spare, an island of tradewinds, long horizons and enough light to make ambition seem faintly ridiculous. My short piece “No Stress” appears in the Autumn 2026 issue of Travel Africa,…
There are landscapes we carry inside us long after we leave them, places we assume will always be there waiting for us. The Okanagan Valley is one of those places for me. Last summer, I brought my daughters back there. Then the highway closed, the smoke descended, and a familiar landscape suddenly became something else.…
When people say Spain needs to “go back,” there’s an obvious question that rarely gets asked: back to where, exactly? Pick a year. Go back far enough and the nostalgia starts to look rather different. Married women needed their husbands’ permission to sign contracts, manage property or conduct business. Legal independence, privacy and freedoms we…
Before I properly met the river that gives The Gambia its name, I met a kola nut. It was bitter, faintly medicinal and almost comically unpleasant — but it also turned out to be a small doorway into the country itself. From the market stalls of Soma, the journey moved east: across a river strangely…
Alberta has always had a taste for epic stories about itself: the frontier, the oil patch, the independent Westerner standing against a distant and meddlesome East. But lately, those old myths have begun to sound less like history than political scripture. In “Homer on the Range: From Sophocles to Danielle Smith,” I look at Alberta’s…
There was a time when people spent the rest of their lives hiding the fact that they had been Nazis. Now, increasingly, the far right doesn’t bother hiding at all. “Remember When?” looks at what happened to that old social taboo — and at something today’s extremists may not have considered: the internet remembers. Every…
In 2021, Lytton, British Columbia, reached 49.6°C — hotter than Las Vegas — and then burned almost entirely to the ground. Five years later, smoke from Canada’s increasingly ferocious wildfire seasons was drifting south across the border, fouling American cities and threatening the World Cup. The response from Washington? Blame Canada — and threaten to…
“I refer to the facts.” That was the response of Archbishop Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, when challenged about the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse. It’s a powerful phrase—but it invites an obvious question: Which facts? That question is the starting point for my latest article, published in the Spanish newspaper…
I’ve spent much of the past few days watching the online reaction to Mariano Rajoy’s remarks about the French national football team. Most of the debate has centred on whether his comments were racist or if indeed racism is a problem in Spain. That seems to me to be only part of the story. What…
Travel stories often begin with a destination. This one begins with a return. My latest feature for the South China Morning Post explores Sal, the best-known island in Cabo Verde. While most visitors come for its beaches, warm Atlantic waters and year-round sunshine, I found a more compelling story unfolding just beneath the surface. Across…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca grew out of two events that, taken separately, might seem unconnected. The first was the debate in the European Parliament over proposals that would make it easier to deport asylum seekers to third countries with which they have no meaningful connection. The second was much closer to home: the decision…
My travel essay on the island of Sal, in Cape Verde, has just been published by Nueva Tribuna, making it my second travel piece to appear in a national Spanish publication. The story has an interesting backstory. I wrote it after visiting Sal, an island shaped by salt, arrivals, departures, and centuries of movement across…
A tiger, a pope, Bad Bunny, migration, hell, the Spanish left, and the curious tendency of otherwise intelligent people to mistake agreement on one issue for agreement on everything else. My latest essay, A Tiger in a White Cassock, was published yesterday in CounterPunch and has now also appeared in Spanish translation in Nueva Tribuna.…
A few weeks ago, I found myself following yet another local controversy in Cáceres, the small Spanish city where I live. At the centre of it was the Cruz de los Caídos (“Cross of the Fallen”), a Franco-era monument that has become the latest battleground in Spain’s never-ending wars over history, memory, religion, and identity.…
Every language reveals something about the people who speak it. As an English speaker who has spent years living in Spain, one of the things that continues to fascinate me is not simply the vocabulary of Spanish, but what that vocabulary suggests about the culture that produced it. Languages do not merely describe reality; they…
This week, Nueva Tribuna published my latest article, Fans Above Us: The Politics of “We Survived.“ An English translation appears below. For non-Spanish readers, some context may help. The article was prompted by comments from a Madrid government minister who suggested that extreme heat in classrooms could be a source of ‘inspiration’ and reminded everyone…
What do a dowser in rural America and a conference on “remigration” in Porto have in common? At first glance, not much. One spends his weekends walking fields with a metal rod searching for underground water. The other gathers politicians, activists and ideologues to discuss race, identity and the future of Europe. The connection, I…
A salt lake inside the crater of an extinct volcano is not where most people expect to find a lesson in history, identity, and cultural resilience. Yet on the island of Sal, Cabo Verde, floating in mineral-rich brine while voices echoed from the crater walls, it became impossible to ignore how landscapes absorb human stories…
Marx, Castro, Lenin and the Pope are at the racetrack. The communists are studying the odds; the Pope is down in the paddock asking after the horse that nobody wants. As the new Pope prepares for a visit to Spain, an odd political spectacle is taking shape. The same far-right forces that eagerly borrow from…
Spain is currently gripped by yet another political corruption scandal, and as always the debate has quickly moved beyond individual wrongdoing to broader claims about the moral bankruptcy of the left itself. That reaction prompted me to write Judas Lights. The piece argues that there is a crucial difference between a corrupt politician and a…
Northlands Park was never a glamorous place. It was cigarette smoke caught in prairie heat, dust ground into shoes, racing forms folded in tired hands, and generations of men trying to read meaning into odds, instinct, and luck. In many ways, it was less about horses than about belief itself, the deeply human desire to…
The thing outsiders (and some insiders) often misunderstand about Spain is that Francoism did not end the way Nazism ended. There was no Nuremberg. No national reckoning. No purge of institutions. Franco died peacefully in bed in 1975, and much of the state simply rolled forward carrying his fingerprints into democracy. Judges remained judges. Powerful…
Vultures circling above a dusty football pitch. A traditional wrestling festival in rural Gambia. A man who seemed to drift through the edges of the crowd unnoticed — until he stepped into the circle and became something else entirely. My latest travel feature, published in Spanish by Nueva Tribuna, explores transformation, belonging and the strange…
Cáceres undergoes a curious transformation every spring. For one weekend, the medieval city fills with African percussion, NGO stalls, craft beer, dreadlocks and the language of global citizenship as WOMAD, the travelling world music festival founded by Peter Gabriel, arrives in town. Officially, it is a celebration of multicultural openness and artistic exchange. In reality,…
There are few things stranger than watching former colonial powers attempt to market conquest as a feel-good cultural product in the twenty-first century. This month, a taxpayer-funded delegation led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso and accompanied by 80s pop-zero, Nacho Cano travelled to Mexico to stage an event titled Celebración por la Evangelización y el Mestizaje…
It began, quite simply, with reading Joseph Roth. But as I kept reading, and watching the news here in Spain fill with talk of “national priority,” something shifted. The distance between then and now began to feel thinner than it should. The phrase has been circulating in recent months, attached to new political agreements in…
At the beginning of my book Stories Left in Stone: Trails and Tales in Cáceres, Spain, my friend Carlos Blay takes me deep into the Cueva de Maltravieso. There, in the dark, is the oldest known expressions of art in Europe (it was in the world until a recent discovery in Asia): a handprint on…
A new long-form essay published in El Salto Diario Extremadura traces an unlikely line from the Pentagon to a roundabout in Cáceres. Beginning with the spectacle of religion in contemporary American politics — where faith, media, and military power increasingly blur — the piece follows a broader transformation: Christianity repurposed as political identity, its symbols…
There’s a particular kind of pride that comes from arriving late to something and still acting as if you’ve nailed the timing. You missed the drinks, the good conversation, and whatever fleeting moment of relevance the whole thing once had—but at least you showed up with confidence. And really, isn’t that what matters? Extremadura, in…
Every Holy Week, Spain performs one of its most intricate cultural balancing acts. The processions move through ancient streets with choreographed solemnity. Drums echo against stone walls. Candles burn. Brotherhoods trace routes that predate the modern state itself. For many, it is heritage. For others, devotion. For nearly everyone in Spain, it is—at the very…
…that’s the childish logic at the heart of a great deal of very adult violence. In this piece, I examine how quickly geopolitical conflict gets reframed as a moral—or even theological—contest, and how easily people who would reject certain ideas at home find ways to defend them abroad. What interests me is not just the…
I’ve got a new piece up on CounterPunch that dives into the increasingly bizarre civil war unfolding on the far right since the war in Iran. When your entire worldview is built on layered hatreds, sooner or later they start colliding. What we’re watching now isn’t strategy—it’s a movement arguing with itself about which enemy…
For years, Spain had one of the best healthcare systems in the world. Not perfect—but fast, universal, and remarkably effective. You got sick, you were treated. No drama. No billing calculations. No quiet fear about what it might cost you. Getting sick wasn’t a death sentence. And the data backed it up. Spain sits near…
There’s a certain kind of art that appears whenever politics gets too involved in culture. It’s grand, symbolic, completely certain of itself — and often, unintentionally, a bit absurd. You see it in Stalinist skylines, Soviet statues, gold-plated presidential monuments. Different countries, same instinct: culture not as something messy and alive, but something to simplify,…
How do you understand a country that seems to contain at least two entirely different worlds? In my latest Camino a Ítaca column in the Spanish newspaper HOY, I explore a paradox I witnessed while thinking about modern Iran. In Tehran, a one-hour drive can feel like a journey across centuries — from affluent northern…
It’s a strange moment in the imperial timeline. A 79-year-old property developer with the diplomatic instincts of a casino bouncer—threatened to cut off all trade with Spain because Spain declined to let American bases on its soil be used in an illegal bombing campaign against Iran. This is apparently how alliances work now. You provide…
On Homer’s return, the right’s suicide pact, and the peculiar madness of men who invite their own devourers There is something deeply reassuring about the fact that, in 2026, we have decided—collectively, enthusiastically—that what this moment really needs is more Homer. Film studios are adapting The Odyssey. Theatre directors are reinventing Penelope. Musicals are turning…
If you don’t follow Spanish regional politics, the name María Guardiola may not mean much to you. She is the current president of Extremadura, one of Spain’s poorest regions — a place rich in history, agriculture, and chronic underinvestment. But her recent political trajectory offers something far more universal than local intrigue: a near-textbook case…
Europe is once again debating freedom — by regulating what women wear. Yes, the burka and niqab emerged from deeply patriarchal tribal traditions. That much is obvious. But here’s the awkward question: does banning them liberate women, or does it simply replace one authority with another? Years ago, I taught in Sana’a. My classroom was…
This morning’s piece came from a feeling I couldn’t quite shake: a strange, low-grade nostalgia, not for some golden age, but for a time when certain ideas, however persistent, at least had the decency to keep their voices down. The article looks at how that quiet embarrassment seems to have evaporated, replaced by something far…
It begins with a simple observation: across Spain—and much of Europe—the streets, plazas, and churches are named after immigrants, or at least migrant ideas, from the Middle East who arrived two thousand years ago and helped shape what is now called “Christian civilization.” Yet in today’s political climate, migrants from many of the same regions…
For fifteen minutes during the Super Bowl halftime show, Spanish took center stage in one of the biggest cultural spectacles on the planet. Across Spain, many viewers felt a surge of pride. But for parts of the nationalist and far-right political sphere, the moment also exposed an uncomfortable contradiction: celebrating the global success of the…
Where are the anthems of repression? If reactionary movements claim cultural dominance, mass followings, and moral certainty, one might reasonably expect a soundtrack to match. Where are the rousing MAGA and far-right hymns that people will still be singing in fifty years? Where are the unforgettable choruses celebrating racial division, exclusion, or the romance of…
I just published two versions of the same essay: one in Spanish, from Europe, and one in English, for Canadian and anglophone readers. They’re siblings rather than twins—similar in structure, different in inflection, each shaped by its imagined audience. The piece reflects on Canada, on Mark Carney’s Davos speech, and on that peculiar comfort of…
My brother was named after a cowboy. That detail says a lot about my father, his generation, and the way America once looked from the outside: big, confident, morally certain, the man in the white hat who did ugly things for noble reasons. My dad loved Shane (Raices Profundas), and I grew up with that…
Some wars last years, flatten countries, and leave entire generations trying to remember what normal life used to feel like. And then there was the Whiskey War. Yes — a real territorial dispute between Canada and Denmark, carried out for decades with flags, polite notes, and strategically placed bottles of whisky and schnapps left on…
Sometimes a city isn’t a skyline or a list of monuments. Sometimes it’s a story that refuses to stay still, slipping through tidy definitions and glossy brochures. I was recently invited—somehow, improbably—to write for the Ateneo de Cáceres, as part of their reflections on what culture means in the context of Cáceres’ bid for European…
You know that glass cabinet in your grandmother’s living room that nobody was allowed to touch — the one full of “very important” things that were, in fact, spectacularly useless? Cáceres is about to build one. Only this one costs €18 million. A gleaming new museum. A cathedral of vitrines.Stuff from everywhere — except here.…
A Bible Made to Measure Every writer has had that moment when reality starts behaving like a badly edited novel. The characters contradict themselves, the plot swerves without warning, and someone in the audience is clearly reading a completely different book from everyone else. My latest article was born from that feeling. We tend to…
I’ve just published a new opinion piece in El Cuaderno Digital titled “Elegir al verdugo: manual extremeño de autodestrucción electoral” (Choosing the Executioner: an Extremaduran Manual of Electoral Self-Destruction). The article is not about a single party or a single election. It’s about a recurring political gesture: the moment when frustration, abandonment, and long-term neglect…
Gin fumes in the hotel foyer. Shotguns of hair lacquer. Sideburns sharp enough to draw blood. On one side, tweed-and-testosterone conservatives sloshing G&Ts like it’s the Siege of Granada. On the other, flamenco devotees with ozone-destroying bouffants and eyes fixed on an imaginary stage. And wedged between them all: the exam candidates—browner, nervous, clutching documents…
My latest article—and my debut in the Spanish publication El Salto—has just gone live. 🎉 The piece focuses on Torrejón, a town whose healthcare “situation” is so dramatic it could be mistaken for satire… if it weren’t also happening across the entire Spanish public health system. But wait—before anyone abroad feels too smug—this isn’t just…
Why nostalgia for ’the good old days’ can be dangerous — and what’s really behind the revival circus Spain seems to be caught in a weird collective daydream lately — a growing number of young people claiming: “Under Franco, we lived better.” In my latest piece for the Camino de Ítaca column, I dig into…
Here’s the blink-and-you-miss-it summary: my latest Camino a Ítaca column dives into the Groucho-grade absurdity of political morality in Extremadura — a tale of ironclad vows that dissolved in record time, the machinery of hypocrisy grinding everything to paste, and the saints of this land who may be scarred but are no longer innocent. Read…
What if a dream of the sea could spark a rebellion? From the high Andes to the heart of Alberta’s oil country, The Great Landlocked Rebellion uncovers how nostalgia, geography, and fossil-fuel politics collide in a surreal story of imagined horizons and real-world resentment. Curious how a ghostly mariner becomes symbolic of modern political fever…
My travel-essay, “Everywhere and Nowhere: Following Ibn Battuta Across Marbella”, has been selected as a finalist by Intrepid Times in their “A Book Led Me There” competition. Intrepid Times In this piece I venture beyond Marbella’s glittering façade of sun-saturated luxury—Ferraris, gold chains, shopping sprees—and into the old town’s labyrinth of alleys where the echoes…
🎃 Trick, treat… and tradition with a twist 🎃 What if your Halloween bucket of candy held more than sweets—what if it carried a message about identity, culture, and the absurdity of purity? In my latest column for SUR in English (“The Purity Panic: Notes from the Museum of Imaginary Nations”), I peer into the…
(English below) Hay eventos que se venden como “fiestas de la cultura”, pero huelen más a cóctel de poder y subvención.En Cáceres montaron una bienal con 650.000 € de dinero público, pantallas gigantes, discursos sobre “la libertad” y, sí, Vargas Llosa elevado a santo laico del neoliberalismo. Lo que faltaba era público.Y verdad. Mi nuevo…
There are days and nights when the world feels like a badly written sketch — part tragedy, part meme, with the laugh track slightly out of sync. “Because when the world is this stupid, only something imaginary stands a chance.“ And then, out of nowhere, a unicorn shows up. Not the corporate one from Silicon…
Banksy, Justice, and the Violence of Silence The piece begins with a striking image: a Banksy mural that appeared overnight on London’s High Court — a furious depiction of justice turned executioner, of law reduced to raw violence. Within hours, authorities erased it. But their attempt at “cleaning” only deepened the message. The ghost image…
A Secret Key: Returning to Jasper National Park When I began “On Borrowed Roads: Rediscovering Jasper,” I thought I was writing about distance — about what it means to return to Jasper National Park after so long away. I imagined readers who didn’t know the Canadian Rockies or the sound of the Athabasca River breaking…
They Call It a Pause. We Know It’s a Ban. In my latest rabble.ca column, “The lists we keep, and the ones that keep us”, I unpack why Danielle Steele’s so-called “pause button” isn’t a timeout — it’s a warning sign. What’s being sold as “reflection” is, in truth, a move to ban books, stifle…
We were crawling toward the Zimbabwean frontier—jet-lagged, half delirious, in a beat-up car straining under Africa’s heat. From the cassette deck floated the voice of Oliver Mtukudzi: joyous, sorrowful, unmistakably Zimbabwean. That music—lyrics I didn’t understand—spoke louder than passports or polite greetings. It wove us through checkpoint inspections, softened a policeman’s suspicion, and whispered stories…
The Art of Erasure — and What It Reveals In my latest Camino a Ítaca column for HOY, I begin with a haunting image: a Banksy mural that appeared one night on the façade of London’s High Court — a furious vision of justice turned executioner, of law stripped of its ceremony and reduced to…
Madrid huele a grasa recalentada. En la parrilla del poder chisporrotea Ayuso, sirviendo su “libertad” en combo con cinismo y ruido mediático. El PP madrileño ha convertido la política en fast food ideológico: rápida, barata, adictiva… y tóxica. En Nueva Tribuna disecciono ese menú donde la demagogia se disfraza de modernidad y la desigualdad se…
Las palabras no son inocentes. Una fosa no es lo mismo que una tumba. Cada giro del lenguaje abre heridas, entierra memorias o las desentierra. En «La fosa de las palabras» desarmo el disfraz de neutralidad y muestro cómo la política se esconde —o se revela— en cada metáfora. 👉 Léelo aquí: La fosa de…
Vivimos tiempos en los que las palabras pesan… pero a menudo se quedan en el aire. Discursos grandilocuentes, frases de manual y declaraciones que parecen diseñadas para acumular likes más que para transformar la realidad. Nos hemos acostumbrado a un ecosistema donde el gesto vale más que el compromiso, y donde lo simbólico termina sustituyendo…
Brendan Boyle took the time to read my book and was curious about it and we chatted about all things Extremadura on his podcast, La Comunidad. If you’re curious about the book or why it’s so damn hard to get out here, have a listen. Exploring under-explored Extremadura by Brendan Boyle With Troy Nahumko, author…
Do you ever wonder how fairy tales survive—or crumble—when they’re dressed in uniform? In my latest Camino a Ítaca column for HOY, I explore exactly that: how the stories we inherit transform when they’re repackaged by institutions, power, or conformity. I reflect on the tension between imagination and order, and trace how even the most…
We love to tell ourselves that history bends toward justice. But what happens when those who claim to defend tradition, order, and “the way things are” keep showing up on the wrong side of every struggle for human dignity? From slavery to segregation, from suffragettes to climate justice, from colonial wars to today’s atrocities —…
Premier Danielle Smith wants to protect Alberta’s children from the horrors of Judy Blume, Alice Munro, and a stray queer kiss in a YA novel. But there’s one book she’ll never ban: the Bible. The irony? Crack it open and you’ll find stories drenched in blood, lust, betrayal, mutilation, and pimped-out daughters — the kind…
What if a single word could bury truth, silence history, or even rewrite memory? In my latest piece for SUR in English, I uncover how the Spanish political class is quietly weaponizing words — turning metaphors into tools of power and denial. From “fosas” (mass graves) to “concord” laws, the fight over language isn’t just…
The Republic of the Self-Inflicted Wound Canada’s politics has always loved its myths. But now? They’re stitched out of cowboy hats, polyester suits, and old-school Calvinism. That’s the story I dig into in my new CounterPunch article on Cowboy Calvinism. What is “Cowboy Calvinism”? It’s the gospel of grievance dressed in rodeo drag — a…
Curious about how literature, identity, and cultural myths intersect in the most unexpected places? My most recent stop on the Camino a Ítaca takes readers into the heart of Alberta’s book-ban culture—and reflects on the broader implications for societies everywhere, including Spain. Click over to read the English version over on SUR in English or…
La palabra woke se ha convertido en un campo de batalla cultural cargado de historia, poder y manipulación política. En mi último artículo en Ctxt exploro cómo este término, nacido de la lucha contra el racismo, ha sido distorsionado y utilizado por la extrema derecha.
In a world that often shouts about what sets us apart, there’s something quietly radical about embracing what brings us together. In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a counterdance against the demagogues threatening to deport an imaginary eight million immigrants. From the rhythms of Castile’s town squares and narrow streets to the rare shared silences of…
They’ve turned “woke” into a punchline — something to mock, dismiss, or roll your eyes at. Why? Because it’s easier to discredit the word than reckon with what it actually means. “Woke” was never about arguing over coffee orders or policing T-shirt colors. It wasn’t about trends, lifestyle choices, or the internet’s latest moral panic.…
On Benches, Boulevards, and the Beauty of Belonging One of the things I’ve always admired about life in Spain is how public public space truly is. A square is not something to pass through—it’s something to dwell in. A bench belongs to whoever needs a rest. A park, a pool, a plaza: these are…
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” — Mark Twain Samuel Clemens, the master of irony, wrote this during his “Grand Tour” around the Mediterranean in the late 1800s. It’s a truism that doesn’t always stick — not everyone becomes wiser through travel. But even for the most seasoned travelers, the road can still…
God help us. The war drums are beating again. Somewhere between the tortilla and the gazpacho, the far-right guardians of Spanishness are having a collective nosebleed — purity tests for everything from ham to human beings. I couldn’t sit idly by and watch the madness. No, I strapped on my battered typewriter and unleashed a…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at how mediocrity seems to rise to power here in Spain. This of course happens everywhere, but here in Spain there seems to be a particular subset of people whose sole ability is to play the system and reach the top without having any other discernible skills.…
In my latest piece for Boston Review, I examine how Spain’s far-right party, Vox, is actively working to rehabilitate the legacy of Francisco Franco. By revisiting the brutal events of the 1936 Badajoz massacre, the article explores how historical atrocities are being reframed to serve contemporary political agendas. This manipulation of memory reflects a broader…
The Camino a Ítaca is in no way linear, it circles and loops and starts all over again. As spring turns Cáceres into the allergy sufferers nightmare, another event takes places, one that has been going on for more than thirty years. It’s quasi-religious in the way that in some sectors it can’t be questioned for…
In this new essay I follow Herodotus—the world’s first fact-checker—into the twenty-first-century war over memory. Beginning with his insistence on weighing every side of a story , I trace how today’s strongmen —from Xi’s 2024 Patriotic Education Law to Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” order —use the same ancient playbook: rewrite the…
In my latest piece over at rabble.ca, I explore how Canada’s evolving relationship with the U.S. reflects much more than just political tension—it’s about identity, values, and what it means to forge a path forward in an increasingly polarized world. I take a hard look at the historical dynamics between our two countries and ask…
Nostalgia, memory, love: all powerful emotions. And what can trigger them? In this case, Pop Rocks exploding in a sensory sugar rush. In Spanish they call them Peta Zetas but it’s a story that could easily be told in German, Russian, Romanian, Albanian or Cambodian. It’s a story that will be told again in Argentina…
En un mundo saturado de noticias fugaces, pocas veces nos detenemos a escuchar los lamentos que provienen de las ruinas olvidadas. Acabo de traducir, para El Cuaderno Digital, un texto que apareció originalmente en Counterpunch sobre la catástrofe en Yemen — y aún hoy ese país arde bajo el silencio del resto del mundo. El…
Over twenty years ago, I lived in Yemen. Decades later, I found myself receiving WhatsApp messages from friends and former students in Sana’a—as bombs rained down around them. Real-time updates from people I cared about, living through hell. That experience will never leave me. What I didn’t expect was to see that same war discussed…
“For a moment, it felt like we had won. The bad guys were relics. Fascism was a lesson Spanish schools didn’t teach, and liberal democracy was what all the cool countries were wearing.” The Camino a Ítaca climbs the Statue of Liberty this week for a look around to see what is left of something…
Ages rise and rot, and this one smells like cheap cologne, pancake make-up and cold, hard cruelty. The Age of Reason left town long ago, probably hitchhiking with Elvis, and in its place slithers the Age of Mean—petty, ugly, and proud of it. Welcome to the golden era of the selfish, the crass, the smug…
I’ve been called a lot of things in my life. My surname alone has had people thinking that I’m from a lost tribe to an island in Japan. In this week’s Camino a Ítica, the way my name can cause consternation among some. Life on the peninsula is no longer so monochrome, or monotheistic. Click…
JD Vance comes to Europe Poor Chicken Little, after everyone ignored the little guy for so long, saying he was exaggerating, that what the fascists were saying was only electioneering, peanuts for the gallery, not to be take seriously… And then came Vance to Europe to let everyone know that they are playing for keeps.…
Castillo de Montánchez Longform read published in the February issue of Perceptive Travel Magazine. (click over) A family trip to a curious festival where the blessed are not the meek, but in fact their modes of transport. “The sweep before us was more than 180 degrees. The savannah, some 1300 feet below, rolled off into…
With just days before the freely elected orange Himler assumes the most powerful office on earth to disassemble the world order from inside, the Camino a Ítaca takes a look back at how eight decades of anti-Nazi propaganda on the silver screen have proven to be no match for the masses of disinformation fed to…
In an age when American culture seems to permeate and even obliterate traditions around the world, it’s refreshing to local traditions hold strong against the ceaseless tide. Here in Spain they have incorportated Santa Claus and the mass consumerism of America into their Christmas season, but the main event is still the Three Kings Day…
Sierra Fría – Valencia de Alcántara © Fátima Gibello Chapter 5 begins… “As you leave the tiny village of Las Huertas de Cansa, a jagged grey shark fin rises out of a patchwork of changing green. The bluff cuts across the horizon like a megalithic dorsal fin of craggy granite, making the way seem impassable until…
This ain’t John Brim’s seminal Ice Cream Man and perhaps little more of David Lee Roth’s take on it. In this week’s Camino a Ítaca Christmas and what it means for the oldest city in the world. Will it turn into a Turkish colony? Will the Israelis make a huge land grab or simply annex it?…
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Nathan James Thomas from Intrepid Times for a wide-ranging podcast interview where we dive into the heart of travel writing—and the heart of Extremadura. From the winding medieval streets of Cáceres to the winding paths of the writing life, we cover it all, of course, my…
War on Christmas concentration camp It’s the big loooong weekend here in Spain, the equivalent of their Thanksgiving travelwise, and even though the season started a long time ago, it seems like Christmas is in the air. Company parties are out in full force and the streets are filled with holiday shoppers (if you’re looking…
I first got to know Rolf Potts in the dark depths of the pandemic when he hosted a series of interviews with people around the world discussing their experiences through the COVID-19 lockdowns. He has a wonderful collection of author profiles on his site and I’m proud to be a part of them. Click over…
Bond villains, war criminals, mud volcanoes and ununderstandable Scottish accents in this weeks Camino a Ítaca. It’s the second year in a row that the United Conference Conference Climate Change conference (COP29) has been held in a fossil fuel dependant state and the watered down results are sadly foreseeable. We think we have so…
I was lucky enough to have a nice chat with my old bandmate, drummer Grant Stoval on the Arts and Culture supplement on his Alberta Morning program on CKUA the other day. Have a listen to a walk though my new book Stories Left in Stone, Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain published by…
I’ve been writing for the Spanish newspaper HOY for almost 15 years now, but my pieces have always been in, surprise surprise, Spanish. It took a tragedy in Valencia and a chance look at a tranlated piece by my colleague J.R Alonso de la Torre to put the pieces together. Today, I try out my…
In today’s Camino a Ítaca memories of a parachute flapping up and down above the bar as I easily peeled the labels off sodden beer bottles in the Florida damp heat. The end of the world was on its way and it was too late to get out. The Green Parrot seemed as good…
Stories Left in Stone, Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain This weekend the regional and local press both published interviews with me (in Spanish) about my new book, Stories Left in Stone, Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain, published by the University of Alberta Press. The first interview in Avuelapluma is a very indepth…
Give us this day our daily bread, but just make sure it’s Portuguese. A stale item makes a return this week in the Camino a Ítacain the latest additions to a series of articlesI have written on bread.A recent headline read that bread consumption has fallen 70% (!) in the region over the past 20…
In the first of the #StonesDeepDive series, an indepth look into Chapter 16, Stone Cartoons from Stories Left in Stone, Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain published by the University of Alberta Press. This part of the adventure takes place in Monfragüe National Park and the Sistine Chapel of prehistoric rock art in the region.…
Celestial interventions in this week’s Camino a Ítaca. And Virgins? Did I forget to mention Virgins? Click over to read the originally published piece in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) For the past few weeks the local papers in Cáceres have taken on a distinctly retro…
My new book Stories Left in Stone, Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain with the University of Alberta Press is now available at fine bookstores everywhere. If not, don’t be shy to ask them to stock it. ‘A fresh and engaging outsider perspective on life in Spain.’ -Kirkus Reviews
This week’s Camino a Ítaca asks whatever happened to good ‘ol fashioned miracles? It seems that the dead no longer walk and the seas no longer part. But hell, that doesn’t stop people from asking. All this and more is explored in my soon-to-be-published book. Stories Left in Stone. Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain.…
An unforeseen health scare and stay in the hospital in today’s Camino a Ítaca. Public healthcare systems around the world are under attack and without extreme vigilence, many countries could soon wind up like the United States. All’s it takes is a vote in the right direction. Click over to read originally published version in…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look into whether they have found a way to pierce the shield of lies and fabrications. Have they found the kryptonite to fight the far right cordyseps? Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en…
Revisionism at its worst in today’s Camino a Ítaca. Thinly veiled genocidal thoughts from those that would happily liquidate those that think differently. The American right takes a scary turn as they praise one of the most bloody dictatorships of the 20th century here in Spain. Click over to read the originally published version in…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca we divert our gaze away from Spain to across the Atlantic to matters that will have global implications. The irony of it all supercedes anything writers can produce. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca asks if such a thing exists as fascist children’s literature. A few trolls came out their lairs and found me on this piece. Their comments are hallucinatory, if a bit frightening. Click over to read the originally published piece in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below.…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at how narrative and storytelling can influence the way people think and even make them overlook facts. Click over to read the originally published piece in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) If you heard the phrase ‘Having been said and…
It’s summer fiesta season here in Spain and in today’s Camino a Ítaca we look one of the most widely extended fiestas takes place, the Fiesta of Futility, the ‘oposiciones’. Click over to read the originally published piece in Spanish in the HOY the originally published piece in Spanish in the HOY or read the…
In this week’s Camino a ÍtacaCamino a Ítaca a look at how a hard, rightwing shift in UK politics robbed me of a democratic right. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) It was a proto neofascist that took away…
In this week’s Camino a ÍtacaCamino a Ítaca a look at the recent Fascist Fest in Madrid, where the Spanish capital was momentarily converted into Neofascism ground zero. Click over to read the original version in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) The only pictures that were…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, a look at a piece of Spain that is in flux. Not-so-slight shifts in social contexts, yet some adherence to the norm. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) Personally, I miss the…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, a rebranding of the global icon, the dragon slayer, with an eye on a population that desperately needs someone’s help, anyone’s help. Even a mythical knight. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo)…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca leaps of faith, both physically and metaphorically. Anthropology in action as people create their own faith. Click over to read the original version in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) The bonfire was lit in a way that seemed entirely fitting…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at an endemic wrong. An ongoing robbery from the people that now looks like it’s only going to get worse. Click over to read the original article in Spanish published in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) I’ve always had an…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at the agricultural protests that have been taking place across Spain and indeed Europe. Swayed by the siren song of the ultra right, farmers just may be delivering themselves into the hands of the very people who support the neoliberal policies that make their lives difficult. Click…
A surprising Pop Star twist in this week’s Camino a Ítaca. Taylor Swift now rules the world. I’m only wondering if her message will settle among everyone. Click over to read the originally published article in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) There are few things that…
The growth of forgetfulness, or willingly not remembering, in this week’s Camino a Ìtaca. Revisionism on the right of some of the past’s worst atrocities and what they may lead to. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) What…
@Jorge Armestar Think Venetian masks and then turn it into a B-rate horror film and you’ve got the fiercely independent Carnival in Montanchez, Extremadura, Spain. Writing for the Calgary Herald, click over for the deep dive into the fun.
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca that time I stumbled into a war in Yemen. The Houthis are now playing into the hands of the Iranians and making their population suffer even more. Click over to read the original version in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo)…
The long Christmas season here in Spain is finally over and this week’s Camino a Ítaca looks at stories and myth, the differences between them and who believes what. Click over to read the original artcile in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) Some Africans say that…
The newest results of the international PISA test in the Camino a Ítaca this week. Once again, excuses are made but the root cause is once again avoided. Click over to read the original article published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) The programmed ritual self-flagellation…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at the mad men (and women) who hope and pray for the end of the world. Religious zealots who pine for the apocalypse and who actively try to bring it about through genocide. Click over and read the originally published piece in Spanish in el HOY or…
In this week’s Camino a Ìtaca I use a word that I never thought I would in the newspaper. Click over to read the originally published piece in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo). I often wonder just how many times Maria Guardiola plays that crucial time…
‘Tis the season on the Camino a Ìtaca or at least the streets are starting to look like it and it comes earlier every year. Click over on the Christmas lights to read the original piece in Spanish published in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) Once upon a…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, the space-time continum is once again altered. The cruel act happens this weekend in Europe and I believe the next in North America. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) It’s that time…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at how blind the far right is to the meaning of their own words. Click over to read the original piece published in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) I never thought I would see something like this happen. It…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look back at the summit of Culture Ministers from the EU that was held here in Caceres this week. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in El HOY or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) The scene in the square looked…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca I take a look at how extreme religious belief can warp the way believers perceive events like climate change. Click over to read the originally published piece in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) We’ve been spared. The summer of horrors…
After a brief summer hiatus, the Camino a Ítaca is back with a goodbye. Today there are storm warnings and the temperatures have dropped. Click over to the adíos in El HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) It was starting to get late. The waitresses had begun stacking up the…
We recently had a Canadian visitor here in Spain, but this one wasn’t welcome. Smoke from the huge wildfires there had drifted across the Atlantic and changed the color of our sky. This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks at recent developments in Extremadura where the far right will enter into a coalition with the PP…
School’s out on the Camino a Ítaca this week. Today a look at what education might look like if the PP forms a coalition government with the neofrancoists here in Extremadura and then at the national level. Click over to read the original in Spanish published in el HOY or read the English version below.…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at the new policial map here in Extremadura and the negotiations that are taking place between the parties on the right. Click over to read the original piece published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) It was one…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca falls on Election Silence day, the blackout period when parties can no longer campaign before tomorrow’s elections here in Spain. Autonomous communities and towns are up for grabs on Sunday and a particular sign on the street caused me to think. Click over to read the original version published in…
It’s election season here in Spain, with most of the country’s autonomous regions, cities and town up for grabs. The region newspaper I contribute to asked me for my view on the upcoming elections. Rather than examine the promises that are never kept, I looked at the hegemony of the party system here in Spain…
In this week’s Camino de Ítaca a different look at the upcoming regional and municipal elections here in Spain. A long term emmigrant’s perspective on voting here in Extremadura. Click over to read the original article publishhed in el HOY in Spanish or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) Democracy exists somewhat…
Welcoming the Virgen In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at one of the more hermetic aspects of Spanish culture. It’s a facet that is impenetrable and somewhat incomprehensible for outsiders looking in to understand. Click over to read the original article published in el HOY in Spanish or read the English translation below.…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look at an unusual fashion statement, complete with fearsome canines in tow. A Spanish comedian once said that the Spanish would rather give up a kidney before admiting they are wrong and there just might be a bit of truth to this. Click over to read the original…
Creepy Ice Cream A precipitous ice cream stop in today’s Camino a Ítaca. In Spain, often calendar dates have more sway and are more important than what is actually happening out on the streets. Click over to read the originally published article in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en…
A Londoner and a Canadian were walking down the street when… Sounds like the beginning of a joke in this week’s Camino a Ítaca which looks at sidewalk blockades that often take place here on the streets of Extremadura. Click over to read the original published piece in Spanish in el HOY or read the…
Jurramacho carnival in Montanchez In this week’s Camino a Ítaca it’s carnival time in the mountaintop village of Montanchez here in Extremadura. Up among your hanging Jamóns it’s not your average parade though. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano…
Stoke the fear, Reap the rewards Deep in the pandemic, people vented their frustration and showed their support out their windows every evening at 8pm. Where is that support now. This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks at the dangerous slide towards privatizing a world class health system. Click over to read the original piece in…
Have mercy! Been waiting for the bus all day on the Camino a Ítaca. Things are going to get partisan ugly this election year here in Spain and a simple bus ride can tell the tale. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish at el HOY or read the English translation below.…
It’s cold out there on the Camino a Ítaca this week. The cover of a New Yorker issue sparked a refection on what has brought me so far from my origins. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) It’s…
Brioche cake In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, a cursory look at the Spanish government’s reaction to the ongoing inflation crisis that is sweeping across the world. Click over to read the original article in el HOY in Spanish or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo) It’s finally over. The marathon with seemingly no…
Bi Ali, Yemen In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a Christmas adventure on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula from several years back. Click over to read the original published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) Behind us, a blanket of blinding white sand drifted…
Sectarian Classrooms In this week’s Camino a Ítaca a look into some Spanish classrooms via the Levant and its sectarian divisions. Click over to read the original in Spanish published in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo) I had never seen such provocative lingerie in shop windows anywhere else in the…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca we travel to the British Iles to see what we can learn from recent events there. Click over to read the original Spanish version in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo) The island nation that gifted the world things like trains, the internet, parliamentary democracy…
LOL Law In today’s Camino a Ítaca we take a look at the new education law and the (not) changes that have been introduced. Click over to read the original in Spanish published in el HOY or read the English version below. (PDF abajo) It’s been just over a month now since that typically Spanish…
Zorba dancing the Sirtaki In this week’s Camino a Ítaca we take a look at the concerning trend to the right across the old continent. Click over to read the original in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo) Europe, land of traditional dances where ballet was born and from…
If you happen to have turned on the news this past week you might have been surprised to see that only one event seems to have happened across the entire globe. The Queen has left the building. In this week’s Camino a Ítaca I look at the succession from the perspective of a Canadian who…
Chavez and Griñán In this week’s Camino a Ítaca we look at the pardons that lie around the corner for two prominent Socialist executives who have been charged with serious financial crimes. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo) When you…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca I take a trip back to the tundra and where I’m from to look at Pope Francis’ Not-Really-Sorry tour of Canada. Click over to read the original in Spanish in el HOY or have a look at the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) I’m from the last big…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca I walk the streets of my neighborhood and envision what will become of these barrios when tourism takes over completely. Click over to read the original version in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo) My neighbor is my street’s living memory. She was…
It’s getting warm along the Camino a Ítaca. Successive heatwaves have already struck here in Spain and it’s not even July yet. Click over to read the originally published piece in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo en castellano) It’s well past the cuarenta de mayo (fortieth of May) and…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks at the rising cost of merely taking a breath. Click over to read the original Spanish version in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo) After living and working on four continents, my social media feeds can at times seem like a BBC world weather report.…
“Aren’t the ‘colonies’ curious my dear?” In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, a less jubliant Royal Jubilee. Click over to read the original piece in Spanish in el HOY or read the English version below. What do such diverse countries as Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Great Britain, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand,…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, a spider bite turns into a near mortal experience in a barbaric country. The populist No-Tax brigades are once again singing their siren songs from their particular hymn book. That one that sees public services disappear, while they enjoy their private plans. Click over to read the original Spanish version published…
The specter of something dark and frightening runs through this week’s Camino a Ítaca. Progressive politicians afraid of their own shadow look on with terror as real-life Bogeymen and women ride the wave of their indecisiveness and inaction. At least I learned a great new word out of it, sacamantecas. Click over to read the…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks back to my childhood and then turns to the deadly present. A look at War. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish in El Hoy or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) The first day of school was always an anxious time for…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca there is silence. A great silence that seems to have been purchased at an extreme and dangerous cost. If the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes, he must be told…even if he is from your political party. And if they are guilty of crimes…let them pay. Click over to read…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca explores how woke went from being a genuine movement for peoples to recuperate their dignity to some catch all phrase of every pet concern out there. Time to reset the word and bring it back to its original specs. Click over to read the original piece in Spanish in El…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, travel returns. But it’s a return like no other…a dystopian world of conflicting messages that alarm and confuse the traveler, mostly for no reason. Click over to read the original in el HOY in Spanish or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) It always catches me…
En el HOY El pulso de la provincia de Cáceres fluye por un gran valle de treinta kilómetros de largo y seis de ancho en el Parque Nacional de Monfragüe. Esta Reserva de la Biosfera combina tres elementos vitales que hacen de cada visita una nueva experiencia de aprendizaje.La ultima de mi serie de…
The Main Square during the evening concerts In this week’s Camino a Ítaca I take a look back at the legacy of the WOMAD festival in Caceres from a different perspective. Click over and read the original in Spanish or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) Winston Churchill once said that history…
Experiencias diferentes esperan al viajero en las laderas opuestas de la vertiente sur de la sierra de Gredos. La Vera y el Valle del Jerte atesoran esencia propia para brindársela a quienes buscan aprender y experimentar. La quinta de mi serie de seis partes sobre viajes por la provincia de Cáceres publicada por el HOY.…
En el HOY Slow travel: El arte de viajar sin prisa y disfrutar del momento. Un recorrido para todas las edades, bañándose en los bosques que rodean el camino desde Baños de Montemayor en el Valle de Ambroz hasta Trasierra y Tierras de Granadilla. La cuarta de mi serie de seis partes sobre viajes…
En el HOY El río y todo lo que corre con él. El Tajo, sus afluentes y el arte prehistórico que lo salpica. La tercera de mi serie de seis partes sobre viajes por la provincia de Cáceres publicada por el HOY. The river and all that runs with it. The Tagus, its affluents and…
Recorrido por los pueblos de la Sierra de Gata, Las Hurdes y el Valle del Alagón. La segunda de mi serie de seis partes sobre viajes por la provincia de Cáceres publicada para el HOY. A trip through the Sierra de Gata, Las Hurdes and the Valle del Alagon in the second of my six-part…
Scared of the dark nuthin’! It’s regression therapy in this week’s Camino a Ítaca. An age-old fear has returned as our pockets are being openly picked. Click over to read the original article in Spanish or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) As a young boy on the vast stretches of the…
Las Puertas del Oeste en el Hoy Un viaje por el Campo Arañuelo y el Geoparque de las Villuercas mientras las aguas del Tajo están tan bajas (ehem, gracias Iberdrola). Mi primera doble página en un periódico español. El primero de una serie de seis artículos sobre viajes por la provincia de Cáceres. A journey…
It’s the Halloween special here on the Camino a Ítaca. My latest looks at the false rage at a harmless ‘tradition’. Click over to read the original in Spanish or have a look at the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo). Sacrilege comes in many forms, though I’m not sure that putting pineapple on…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca draws parallels between religious bigotry in two distinct places. The faith trap is lethal to inquiry and thought and is throw about with alarming regularity. Click over to the original article published in Spanish in el HOY, or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) The world recently…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca travels back to the 1970’s and some of the parrallels we see happening today. Populist, right wing sociopaths are marching once great nations into the abyss of a #me-me, all for me world. Click over to the original piece published in el HOY or read the English version below. (PDF…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca reminds me that after so many years, Spain can still be a mystery to me. September is in full swing and education is on many people’s radars and it is definitely on mine. Combine that with the ongoing pandemia and then throw in a few negationists and you have a…
Back to this? As our children head back to school, this week’s Camino a Ítaca looks back to the future and the eduaction that awaits them. What will this academic year year? Click over to read the original in Spain in el HOY or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) The long…
Lapiz Luzuli The terrible tragedy unfolding in slow motion in Afghanistan reminded me of gems on sale in the open air markets of Yemen. In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, I look back at the Afghan stones that were so valuable and the near hysteria of right-wing conservatives, desperate to declare their deity somehow more…
It’s hot…well, it’s always hot in Spain during the summer but this week has been particularly hot. This week’s Camino a Ítaca circles the globe and looks at why some have such a problem with the axiom of Climate Change. Click over to read the original article in Spanish in el Hoy or read the…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks back to when I first started traveling. Remember those Yellow Fever passorts they used to give out? I imagine they still do? Looking back and looking forward. You can click over and read the original article in Spanish en el Hoy, or read the English version below. (PDF en…
Saparmurat Niyazov, a.k.a Turkmenbashy This week’s Camino a Ítaca brings us to the vast steppes of Central Asia and then back again in search of the more ridiculous flights of fancy imposed upon us all by our Dear Leaders. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in the regional newspaper, el Hoy…
Lady of Elche statue In this week’s Camino a Ítaca we walk back to the fifth book of the Jewish torah, back to deuteronomy. Well, if not exactly back to this religious text, back to something equally atavistic: Oposiciones. The medieval method they use here in Spain to choose their public school teachers (and other public…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca I’m reminded of the perseverance of some of my brave, female students in Yemen. If they could, I can. Click over to read the original in Spanish or the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo). Standing in front of a new class is always somewhat nerve-wracking, especially if…
Crossing the Tagus River enroute to Plasencia by bus. This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks back on a recent event where I was … stranded, 80kms from home because there were no connections. Click over and read the original in Spanish or read the English version below. Eighty kilometres really isn’t far, but after six-thirty…
Chimeras of Communism or Liberty In this week’s Camino a Ítaca, I reflect back on my time in Baku while traveling along the false dichotomies that are leading populist right wing parties to power across the world. Click over to read the original Spanish version or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo)…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks back to a time when I realized that all that glitters is definitely not gold. Despite the face it puts on regarding individual rights, when they come up against entities too big to fail, we know who the winner will be. Click over to read the original in Spanish or…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca I look back at a surreal experience in deepest Arkansas and how some feel the past so strongly that they actually feel a living part of it. Click over to the original in Spanish or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo) The poor woman had obviously…
Is he one of ‘ours’? This week’s Camino a Ítaca takes me back on tour. Back to the days when I literally lived on the road and then zooms to the present and questions just how the regional government sees its citizen. Are you one of ‘ours’ or not? You can click over and read…
In this week’s Camino a Ítaca we return to the trail of education and the challenges the kids face here in Extremadura, Spain. A place where ‘no pain, no gain’ is the way forward in learning. You can click over and read the original published in Spanish or read the English version below. (PDF en…
The bins are burning in Barcelona again (remind me to get into the replacement business there) for, what on the surface has been sold as a freedom of speech issue. And while freedom of speech does play a significant role in the case of a rapper sent to prison, his right to an opinion is…
Empty streets with closed bars, Caceres, Spain The Camino a Ítaca has been circling for weeks now, waiting for the city’s plague status to be lifted. Cities and towns across the region, shut off from each other in order to try and stop the spread. One of the measures that has been taken is a…
For close to 10 years I crisscrossed the land, playing the Blues in just about any place that would have us. I came to know our American brothers quite well and love them dearly. This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks back and hopefully is wrong about the way forward. You can click over and read…
This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks at my passionate desire to be able to get back on the camino to Ítaca, or anywhere else for that matter. A desire to get back to some semblance of normalcy, to be able to move about and travel without fear and not dread the virus. Give me that…
Bir Ali, Yemen Different places, different times, different Christmases. This week’s Camino a Ítaca goes back to the beaches along the coast of Yemen in search of the Three Wisest of Men. Click over to the original piece in Spanish or read the English version below. Tambien se puede ver el original en castellano abajo…
Conservatism’s new defender, Isabel Ayuso As 2020 limps to its end I see swarms of bats surrounding the frog symposiums that are advising the worm conventicle in the great corner of mud. The end may be near, but end well it won’t. This week’s Camino a Ítaca looks at the fall of the Great Cheeto…
Crucifixes in classrooms Next stop on the Camino a Ítaca is a look at how you can indeed have your cake and eat it too…as long as you ‘believe’. You can read the English below or click over to the original in Spanish. You can also find the Spanish version in PDF format at the…
The deserts of Nevada This week’s Camino a Ítaca stretches back 20 years and rides the highways that line the deserts of Nevada. Wondering what went wrong and why few things will genuninely change. Read the English version below or click over to the original in Spanish in el Hoy. Tambien se puede ver el…
Christ the king, Swiebodzin, Poland This week’s Camino a Ítaca reflects on giant Buddha’s and takes us to a frozen, muddy field in western Poland to see a Marvel-inspired Jesus. Read the original Spanish piece here or the English below. Tambien se puede ver el original en castellano abajo en PDF. I first caught a glimpse of…
The Camino a Ítaca loops back to an article I wrote years ago retelling a story my father-in-law once told me about the bread that was meant to keep them going. This fuses with stories of immigrants who have settled in this land of emigrants and the bread that binds it all together. Click over…
Koranic Learning An academic detour on this week’s Camino a Ítaca and a look at Spain’s uncertain Back-to-school week. With COVID contagion rates soaring above the WHO recommended levels, it’s more than likely only a matter of time before classes move online. If the recommended distance wasn’t enough to kill cooperative learning, online classes will…
This stop on the Camino a Ítaca takes us back to the swamps of Northern Florida, aquiring new skill sets and seeing the world through very different eyes. Read the original English below or click over to the published version in Spanish. Tambien se puede ver el original en castellano abajo en PDF. I’ve always hated…
I was interviewed recently for a summer piece the regional paper focusing on foreigners living in Extremadura. For reasons of space, they had to cut out a lot of my replies. This could have led to some misunderstandings…but judging from the comment section, some people read and understand what they want to…no matter what you say. …
This week’s stroll along the Camino a Ítaca circles back to Azerbaijan and beyond. Memories of images of Strong Men, Royalty and Dictators crying out to be loved and admired. Read the English version below or click over to the published version in Spanish. Even though it was against my better judgement, I just…
Next stop on the Camino a Ítaca, a look back more than fifteen years to a taxi ride across Crater in Aden, Yemen and a curious perspective on colonialism. Click over here for the published Spanish version or read the English version below. From the outside it looked like most of the taxis that you…
Stability or … much needed change. The next stop on the Camino a Ítaca…civil servants and premature death. Read the original Spanish version here or the English below. The frayed, red and white plastic tape spun around in the wind, cordoning off the area like a crime scene. Large blocks of faded plastic lay like…
COVID has created our own Siberias. My next installement on the Camino de Ítaca travels from Vladivostok all the way to Extremadura. Click over to the original Spanish version or the English one below. We were somewhere around Chita on the blurry edges of Mongolia and China when the vodka really started flowing. I remember,…
Strange sounds heard on the Camino a Ithaca, my next installment on the journey. Click over to the original here or the English version below.
I drink to keep from worrying and I smile to keep from crying In another stop along along the Camino a Ítaca op-ed trail, outsiders. The ‘other’ that so many fear for some many reasons. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish or the piece’s beginnings in English below.
My next stop along the Camino a Ítaca op-ed blesses the storytellers and their less than satisfactory translation into Spanish as narradores de historias, though I do have to say I rather like the ring of bienaventurados. Click over here for the original.
My next installement in my op-ed column, Camino a Ítaca in el HOY. What it’s like to approach a new country from afar.
I began my new op-ed column, ‘Camino a Ítaca‘ today with a piece about the plight of kids under the COVID-19 lockdown here in Spain. Click over to the original here. A real-life Jiminy Cricket tale that began its life in the English version below.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online (in Spanish) as well.
With the arrival of the plague, things have become clearer. An opinion piece on the current state of education during the current state of emergency in el HOY. The extended English here and the published Spanish version below, or click on the link.
Pandemic dispatches from travelers around the world on Rolf Potts’ Deviate podcast. Sharing a look out my window under the coronavirus lockdown in provincial Spain at minute 35.00. Another step in #coronatravel and #windowtravel. Thanks Rolf for inviting me to participate!
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online (in Spanish) as well.
Starting a new course this week in Caceres and Merida with the Centro de Profesores y Recursos. Should be interesting. http://cprmerida.juntaextremadura.net/67-noticias/3026-lista-de-admitidos-al-curso-speaking-in-colour
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online (in Spanish) as well.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online (in Spanish) as well.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online (in Spanish) as well.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online (in Spanish) as well.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online (in Spanish) as well.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online (in Spanish) as well.
“Heading west again as you pass through Valencia de Alcántara, leaving the last remaining Spanish villages behind, a jagged dorsal fin rises out of the surrounding green patches that cluster around courses of water that feed into the river. Like some sort of prehistoric Border Wall, this granite fence signals that the border is near…”
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online as well.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online as well.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online as well. We had just crossed the street when my youngest daughter looked up at me and said, “Daddy, why is the whole city…
Harnessing the Visual Zeitgeist and Stories Beyond the Images In Madrid today.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I have a soft spot for the Spanish postal system. Back at the turn of the millennium my mother and I decided to walk the Camino Santiago…in January. By…
Revisiting one of my favorite cities in Spain. A trip though Granada for Matador Network where the Alhambra isn’t the only stop. Almost 10 years now since another piece I wrote for them about the same city through a much different lense.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. What color is an idea? It might sound like a strange question but in today’s hyper-polarized world, one that needs to be asked. Are ideas blue? Do they suddenly…
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I’m starting to hear voices. Not the scary ones that tell you to do naughty things nor those deep and ominous tones informing you that you’ve become the…
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Walking up the hill from my house and towards the Plaza del Socorro, the smell first hits me. It’s not unpleasant but certainly misplaced. An odor that…
Daily Garden Gnome left by my neighbors Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I must have missed the email. Or perhaps the message came via SMS, like the ones Donald can now send out…
Writing for the Matador Network on my memories of Canadian Thanksgiving and what it meant then and what it means now.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. While it seems that summer doesn’t quite want to let go, it’s that time of year again. The time of year when the croaking of storks, ringing…
The regional newpaper HOY has been hosting a series of articles on the state of the University of Extremadura. I was asked to contribute and rather than offer an in-depth academic analysis, I opted to tell my story and experience of working there. First the English version: It came as a complete shock to me.…
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. After having lived here for more than a decade, I still catch myself looking up in wonder as the last rays of the setting sun hit the Torre…
A place close to my heart, just north of here where the scorched summer earth becomes green once again. Cool water runs off the sierra and where the wines are meant to enjoyed, not examined. Writing in Roads and Kingdoms about a toast to an old friend.
video Jorge Rey Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I’ve been fortunate enough to play at some of the most famous festivals around the world. From Vancouver to New York, I have seen the…
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. One of the first questions I ask my students when I start a new course is often one of the most difficult for them to answer. And…
A new teaching adventure this week, braving the new online, virtual world. I was invited to participate in some online training with Macmillan in Madrid which was beamed to the world. The first session, Bing, Bang, Boom, Boing and Baa: onomatopoeia and the importance of sounds in the YL classroom, was a fun look at bringing…
…seen from the train to Madrid. Stories behind the Images #nonotfar . . . . . . . . . #dehesaextremeña #dehesa #seenfromthetrain #travelspain #traveling #onthetracks #encina #springtime #sogreen #visitextremadura #travelextremadura #igers_extremadura #campoarañuelo @extremadura_tur @renfe A post shared by Troy Nahumko (@troynahumko) on Apr 16, 2018 at 9:46am PDT
Through the jungle before sunrise with hopes of catching the falls in all their glory. Stories behind the Images. Click on the link in the description for the tale. #nonotfar . . . . . . . . #saltoangel #canaima #angelfall #angelfalls #worldstallest #worldshighest #unesco #worldheritagesite #canaimanationalpark #visitvenezuela #mistandclouds #clouds #analogphotography #gransabana #travelwriting #onceinalifetime Una…
Tokaleya Tonga: Mosi-oa-Tunya The Smoke that Thunders Watching the Zambezi fall Stories behind the images #nonotfar Link in description . . . . . . . . . #worldslargest #worldsbiggest #waterfall #waterfalls #smokethatthunders #thegroundshakes #zambezi #visitzimbabwe #zimtravel #zimbabwe #travelzimbabwe #africa #rainbow #mistrainbow #igerszimbabwe #igers_waterfalls #igers_rainbows #cataratas Una publicación compartida por Troy Nahumko (@troynahumko) el Mar…
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Just as the bartender put down our cañas, my companion somewhat skeptically asked, “But how is it possible that you, a Canadian, are complaining about the cold…
Watching storks come in for a landing here in Caceres feels a bit like rubbernecking. These large birds swoop out of the Mediterranean blue only to slam on their air brakes in an awkward battle against inertia. This emergency manoeuvre turns what was pure gliding elegance into an ungainly attempt to hit their mark, especially…
Something a bit out of my ordinary. Should be fun, can’t think of a better way to celebrate the day. For an after the fact recap, click over here.
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. One of the first things that drew me to Spain back in the nineties was a feeling that people generally minded their own business. Sure,…
McDonald’s may be ubiquitous But diversity is hard to beat down Today’s menu: Cooked Shrimp Snails Frog’s Legs Pig’s Feet Pork Jowl Fried Fish Stories behind the images #nonofar http://nonotfar.blogspot.com . . . . . . . . #tapasbar #tapas #cocinaespañola #andnowforsomethingcompletelydifferent #mykindaplace #spanishgastronomy #spanishfood #detodalavida #extremadura #badajoz #frogslegs #deeptravel #thatgreenhurtsmyeyes #foodlover #eattheworld #foodie #nothingfancy…
State Road 24 in North Florida. We bought bait, beer and breakfast biscuits, alligator meat was sold by the pound and they had homemade jams. This is ‘the south’. I had flown into JAX the night before from Madrid. Jetlagged and groggy, the morning’s fishing came early. Southeast out of Gainesville down southern highways in…
The scene of the crime I had narrowly avoided massacring a dozen newly hatched chicks in a box, whose chirping had accompanied us up from Qax. Stumbling backwards as the rusted-out Soviet-era bus corkscrewed us deeper into the Caucasus, I instead tumbled into the lap of heavily mustached Georgian-speaking shepherd. He didn’t smile… Writing in…
Open a job search for ESL job openings around the world at any time of the year and a sunny southern corner of Europe is bound to tally the most hits. A place where, if you subscribe to RP pronunciation patterns, the rain falls mainly on the plain. A place I have called home off…
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. The rain here in Caceres always reminds me of the words of fellow Mercedes Calles Premio de Periodismo winner, Juan Manuel de Prada, when he…
Remember when the National Parks weren’t overflowing with motor homes dragging trailers and there wasn’t a 6-inch-thick book of rules and regulations to read through before registering for a campsite? Tucked away smack in the middle of the province of British Columbia lies a provincial park that will take your nostalgia away. 540,000 acres of…
Last month I was asked by one of the editors of IATEFL’s TDSIG newsletter to contribute to their Teacher Development Stories series and I came up with the following. They say you never miss the water till the well runs dry and as is often the case, they were right. For years, the institute where…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Sunday afternoon in the Calle Moret in this everlasting climate-change-denyer’s indian summer. At first glance everything looks the same. Graffiti splatters the shuttered shop windows…
Caucasus welcoming party. Waiting for tea. Stories behind the images. Writing about a search for honey and ending up with vodka in #roadsandkingdoms because it’s always #5oclocksomewhere More pictures in the link. http://nonotfar.blogspot.com.es/2018/01/raising-different-glass-in-roads-and.html?m=1 . . . . . . . #azerbaijan #caucasus #caucasusmountains #welcomingparty #vodka #vodkatasting #vodkatales #honey #nonotfar #oldmen #streetscape #streetscene #tea #drinkingchai #chai…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I’m not really a betting man. I can clearly remember when my great grandfather used to get dressed up take me on his weekly trip to his place…
One of the hottest places I have ever been…ever seen a thermometer hit 50°C/122°F? #nonotfar Stories behind the images. nonotfar.blogspot.com . . . . . . #muscat #oman #mosque #mosquesofworld #mosques #corniche #extremetemps #middleeast #arabianpeninsula #islamicarchitecture #islamicart #islam #azul #traveltales #travelstories #travelwriting #instaoman #visitoman #omantravel Una publicación compartida por Troy Nahumko (@troynahumko) el Ene 17,…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. As I watched my kids search for a free space in the kiddie pool so that they could practice their newly acquired skills the other day at the Ciudad Deportiva outdoor…
Late night food truck blues in Baixa. #portugal #burger #sagres #beer #burgerlove #latenighteats #cerveja #afterthegig #egghamburger #coldbeer #foodtruck #nonotfar Una publicación compartida por Troy Nahumko (@troynahumko) el Dic 24, 2017 at 2:42 PST
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. After the last class before the summer break the other day, a group of students and I went across the street to the bar to celebrate what was…
Sandwiched between two immense deserts, Yadz has been a welcoming oasis for a long time, no really, a LONG time. Whether UNESCO is right in claiming it is one of the oldest continually inhabited places on the planet or not, the cool shade thrown by the shapely adobe walls and the refreshing breezes trapped by…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Four years ago yesterday, while the rest of Caceres was celebrating San Jorge (Saint George), I sat in the maternity ward of the local hospital awaiting the arrival…
You cringe, close your eyes, gasp, and think of the worst. That truck can’t cross that bridge, it’s 2000 years old! But wait, it’s not turning back and is indeed crossing. Two millennia later, goods are still crossing the 71-meter (231-foot) high bridge that spans the Tagus river, just shy of what is now the…
Don’t eat the brown acid… ‘Who are you?’ said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, ‘I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed…
Yesterday’s picnic in #valledeljerte enjoying the #cerezosenflor #cherryblossom #cácereswithkids #picnic #visitspain #total_extremadura #extremadura #turismospain #turismorural #extremadurafotos #lonelyplanet #lonelyplanetspain #nonotfar #lppostcardsnature #naturaleza_extremadura Una publicación compartida por Troy Nahumko (@troynahumko) el Abr 10, 2016 at 10:47 PDT
A walk beyond the mosques in Istanbul. http://nonotfar.blogspot.de/2010/07/walk-in-istanbul.html?m=1 #fatih #istanbul #turkey #travelstories #ig_istanbul #ig_turkey #thestraitstimes #nonotfar Una publicación compartida por Troy Nahumko (@troynahumko) el Dic 24, 2017 at 11:32 PST
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. The Queen paid a visit to Caceres the other day. Sorry, I should probably be more precise, I don’t mean the ex-journalist who is the darling of all…
Cascading waterfalls, lush carpets of green, cherry groves, mischievous otters and picture perfect swimming holes aren’t usually the first things that come to mind when you mention Extremadura, but that’s exactly what you’ll find up the Jerte Valley. From peaks as high as 2300 metres (7545 feet), centuries of gushing, spiralling water has carved out…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. As the token guiri (nordic foreigner), I’m often asked what I think about certain Spanish traditions. From Semana Santa to bullfighting to the seemingly foreign meaning of the…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. They surround us for the better part of our days, whether we are aware of them or not. We shelter behind them during the brief winter and then…
In search of traces of Ibn Battuta in #Malaysia. He crossed through the Strait enroute to China and we looked for a mosque from that time. http://nonotfar.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Ibn%20Battutah?m=1 . . . . . . . #malaytravel #malaysiatravel #malaysiatrulyasia #ibnbattuta #ibnbattutah #literarytravel #theworldsgreatesttraveller #nonotfar #islamicarchitecture #mosque #seasia #minarets #minaretsoftheworld #islam #muslims #greattravellers #kampungklingmosque #melacca #melaka #kampungkling Una…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I had always imagined that we had done something terribly wrong, something so unpardonable that we were now suffering the consequences of this unnamed act. Something must have…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. The other morning as I was walking my two daughters to school, we were surprised by something you don’t see every day, even if you do live in…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Long before moving to Caceres, I spent some time teaching and traveling around the ex-Soviet republics that straddle the Caucasus Mountains. Cowboy capitalism was rampant in the area…
Way back in 1350, Ibn Battutah noted that Ronda was one of “the strongest and best sited fortresses” in all Andalusia and even today attacking it would be a bad idea. Neatly tucked behind the Sierra de las Nieves, this rocky outcrop has been a favored place to hang your hat since long before the…
Sandwiched between two immense deserts, Yazd has been a welcoming oasis for a long time, no really, a LONG time. Whether UNESCO is right in claiming it is one of the oldest continually inhabited places on the planet or not, the cool shade thrown by the shapely adobe walls and the refreshing breezes trapped by the…
Inching along at a crawl, bumper to bumper and the only thing you feel is…peace, quiet, and the gentle lap of water on your pedal foot. After all, this is not your everyday crosstown traffic. Under the summer sun, skip the gridlock and get to Skaha Lake by floating down the four-mile waterway that cuts…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Like it or not, the first and last faces that visitors encounter when arriving someplace new are its taxi drivers. And while the vehicles they drive around the…
Malaga means grapes, and has for a long time. While the ancient Greeks were spreading philosophy and art throughout the Levant, they thankfully left behind the art of viniculture on the Costa del Sol. The pious Muslim traveler Ibn Battutah, who passed through in 1350, may have frowned on it, but even centuries of Muslim…
Damascus, Istanbul and…Cáceres. Wind up the narrow lanes of Europe’s third biggest intact medieval city and emerge from the labyrinth near the Plaza de las Veletas. Scan for the palace with the strange ceramic gargoyles and enter the museum. Breeze past Roman statues, Visigothic tablets, and prehistoric pig carvings that prove Spaniards have always had…
Gaze across the blue Mediterranean at Europe while feeling the vast African continent breathing down your neck, and then remember, you’re in Spain. Confused? You wouldn’t be the first. Hidden behind the southernmost of the two pillars Hercules dropped at the entrance to this civilization-cradling sea lies this tiny Spanish enclave you never learned about…
Alhama’s name says it all…that is of course if you speak Arabic. Just a mile or two upriver from this quiet town astride a vertigo-inspiring canyon, a hot spring has been soothing aches and pains for two millennia. The town’s name comes from the mineral-rich water bubbling out of the ground at a toasty 116.6…
Soft and sweaty in the deliciously warm early May sunshine…Gorgeous, round, curvy and even just a wee bit pungent. The Feria del Queso, a culinary beauty pageant takes place in the very town that Pizarro left off from on his way to conquer Peru. These creamy contestants sport names like Tortas del Casar and la…
Unlike the Star Wars version, this massive structure levitates out of a vast plain and even seems to dominate the mountains in the distance, like a bricked-out Mongol tent in the middle of Persia that even Luke Skywalker might have trouble with. Twenty-five meters of solid domed brick crown the immense Oljaytu Mausoleum, whose construction…
If you’re walking the ancient Via de la Plata on your way to Santiago, by now your blisters have hardened into calluses and you scoff at a mere 15-mile walk. You’ve sung in the Romans’ amphitheater, crossed their bridges, seen that cork actually does come from trees, and figured out that olives can’t be eaten straight…
Monkeys, Englishmen with Andalusian accents, duty-free shops, tea sets, English breakfasts, pints instead of cañas, sunburns in December, the curry you’ve been craving, and English bookshops… the Rock is something different for everyone. This Mediterranean protuberance has been a thorn in the Spanish conscience ever since the Berber commander Tariq Ibn Ziyad stepped ashore and…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Long before San (saint) Obama’s time and the recent thaws, I recall sitting at a café in one of the posher neighbourhoods of northern Tehran. Heavy snow still sat…
“Travel, set out and head for pastures new. Life tastes richer when you’ve road-worn feet. No water that stagnates is fit to drink for only that which flows is truly sweet.” – Imam Al-Shafi A pilgrimage to the tomb of the medieval world’s greatest traveller and chronicler, Ibn Battuta #nonotfar http://nonotfar.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Ibn%20Battutah?m=1 . . . .…
Sometime ago they built a tramline up here, hoping that it would bring tourists up from the beach… it didn’t work. The imposing castle tower, once clustered around for protection, long ago lost its luster to the inviting sea that shines in the distance. Back in 1350, Ibn Battutah spoke of a mighty mosque (whose…
In between travels, I spend my time looking at English through another lens, that of the learner. I’m currently the Director of Studies at the Instituto de Lenguas Modernas de la Universidad de Extremadura. Onestopenglish decided to do a profile on the centre and the Continuous Professional Development program that we run. Click over here…
Imagine the Caliph’s entire army hot on your tail and you with around a hundred guys on your side. Where would you want to hole up? The answer is here. High atop a mountain smack in the middle of one of Spain’s most productive wine regions lies the ruins of a castle where, back in…
Des(s)ert in Canada isn’t only Nanaimo bars and maple taffy at the cabane a sucre. Up here in the notoriously cold Great White North, the very tip of the long tongue of the Great Basin Desert sneakily licks up across the border from its birthplace down in the Sonoran Desert in Mexico. The town with…
Teaching isn’t a competition but it’s nice to have your ideas recognized sometimes. The picture drew me into the idea… It was worth it… Click over to Cambridge’s site to see.
One of my interests, other than traveling and music is teaching…and teaching English. Around this time of year (Christmas), teachers are often looking for something seasonable but perhaps without the mistletoe. Here I try to combine my three main interests. Macmillan International published one of ideas recently on their teaching site, Onestopenglish.
Mention Marbella and what automatically comes to mind are gaudy images of Saudi princes, building-sized yachts, Ferraris, and the sweet smell of… corruption. This is the poster child of the infamous concrete Spanish coast where, according to who you believe, more than 30,000 buildings lack the proper permits. Golf courses grow where it rarely rains,…
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I’ve lived through two referendums in my life. I may have been too young to fully realize what was happening during the first and it’s true that…
Just when you thought you were getting the hang of the way Spaniards lisp their Cs, they go and change the language on you. More discreet than their more famous Catalan, Basque, and Galician cousins, speakers of Mañego in this hidden green valley have been ‘falaing’ (falar=hablar=to speak) their curious mix of Spanish, Latin, Gallego,…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. It was long after the British were forced out of their toehold in Arabia and about a decade before the Saudi bombs began to rain down indiscriminately among…
Somewhere in this “bride of Andalusian cities,” one of the greatest travel-story meeting of minds took place. A rendezvous that seven years and a different continent later would give fruit to one of the best travel books ever written, Rihla (also know as A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. My wife and I spent some time living on the banks of the Mekong in a country that is known to most Spaniards as Roldan’s…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. (This time, markedly different endings.) “Usted obviamente no eres de aquí,” (You’re obviously not from around here) and while my linguistic pride may have been mortally injured, the…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I noticed the license plate as the local police slid the hoist under the car. Then when the tow truck roughly yanked the car to the right and…
Early spring and an entire valley looks to the sky and prays. However this isn’t one of the many religious festivals in Spain, but a delicate dance between the weather and the calendar. Snowcapped mountains descend into green terracing where two million trees await their cue from Mother Nature before exploding into one of nature’s…
I look back on the time that we lived in Vientiane, Laos very fondly and in fact often question why we ever left. The city was opening to the world back then and seemed to change daily and I’m sure that it would be unrecognizable now, but memory has a way of playing tricks on…
Aquarium diving, snorkeling 3 meters from the shore in la playa chica. A solo 3 metros de la orilla en Las Palmas. http://nonotfar.blogspot.com . . . . . . . #beach #snorkeling #snorkel #estoesgrancanaria #thisisgrancanaria #visitgc #grancanariahoy #grancanaria #lascanteras #playa #visitspain #ineedspain #playachica #canariasgrafias #canaryislands #subtropical #laspalmas #playaurbana #visitlaspalmas #bajoelmar #wishiwasthere Una publicación compartida por…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. As I write this, a constant hum drifts up to my fourth floor vigil from the busy Rua Mayor below. I’ve been to Salamanca many…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I grew up attending a French immersion school on the very English speaking prairies of western Canada. Every subject, except English, was given in French by first language…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. A few years ago, shortly before the outbreak of the neverending civil war, I found myself in northern Syria tracing the footsteps of the sixth…
For many this was the end of the line, a place at the end of Africa to get lost in purple hazes and naked lunches. But long before Burroughs and Hendrix added their hipness, a local boy took the Tangerine brand far beyond the Levant. A medieval gap-year wanderer who saw it as a beginning…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I write this from a cold damp grey dormitory city on the outskirts of Cologne, Germany. My wife, being as persuasive as wives tend to…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. It’s that time of year again. The time when coworkers loudly spill out of restaurants at all hours and then pour themselves into nightclubs only…
I’ve been shopping here in Spain for years, yet for some reason these have flown under my radar till I spotted them the other day. Don’t have the time to make a Spanish Omelette but can’t bring yourself to buy the shrink wrapped ready made ones? Here’s your solution! Pre-fried potatoes with onion, just add…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. One of the things I liked most about living in an ex-Soviet republic like Azerbaijan was the public art. It seemed that every square had…
Perched high above a patchwork of olive groves and cork forests, a holy mountain juts 758 meters (2486 feet) from the surrounding plain. It’s a sacred playground overlooking neighboring villages where naughty gods once used huge granite boulders as their croquet pieces, and left them scattered, forgetting to clean up after themselves. Over the centuries…
Remember when sea monsters were scary green dragon-like creatures that swallowed entire ships and saved the ravishing maiden for dessert? Times have changed. In this lake just about big enough to be a sea lives a legend that has morphed from its First Nation tale origins into a Disney-friendly smiling reptile that adorns everything from…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I grew up in my brother’s clothes, literally. I’m the youngest of two and inherited everything that survived his slips, spills and falls. One thing…
Around these parts the border is porous and exactly where Portuguese villages become Spanish is lost among the cork tree forests (and in today’s Europe so is the point). Sometimes the little white houses are fringed with blue sometimes yellow but walk through the immense walls and past the Visigothic church and into a bar and the confusion ends.…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Once upon a time, long before the giant Shanghai Bazaars arrived with their low-cost, low-quality plasticy imitation rags, legend has it that Cacereños would drive…
You’ve been waiting for your summer vacation all year, dreaming at your desk of scenes straight out of a feel-good 80s movie. The day finally comes and the deep blue of lake Okanagan stretches out over 80 miles before you. But wait…where are you going to throw down that newly bought beach towel? Seems the…
Let’s face it, summers are rather hot in Spain… but where can you escape the heat if sand, elbow-to-elbow towels and the built-up coasts don’t appeal? Go West! Trace the spine of the central mountain system as far and deep as you can get before you turn Portuguese and you’ll find the answer. In the…
The bullet holes you see in the sculptures at El Torno are real and recent. It has been more than 70 years since the guns of the civil war officially fell silent and more than 30 since Spain’s brutal dictator died peacefully in his sleep. Even after so many years, tensions here lie close to the…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I was sitting in a bar in the Calle Moret having a midday caña (little beer) when I heard the news. One of the older…
Riding the Metro in Madrid and you suddenly turn around. Is it a new horror movie that’s just been released?
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. It’s the time of year for cherries, little sailor suits, Playstations and travel agents with deals on trips to Euro Disney. I happened to be…
Fat Frog’s Legs For Sale It seems that there has been a seachange in finger food here recently. While frog’s legs have always been on the menu in this region, it’s generally something that was either common knowledge among locals or something that was tucked away in a lost corner of the menu. I’ve even…
Take a drive from the shores of the world’s biggest lake called a sea, through rice paddies that wouldn’t be out of place in Southeast Asia, and end up in a Central Asian village in mist covered mountains? It’s not teleportation, but the trip to Masouleh might be the closest thing. Up from the Caspian, a…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Thank goodness the powers that be have followed through with their promise to make us all more efficient and Nordic. No more of those useless…
The book and ensuing film might have brought the name Persepolis back into vogue, but this place was already rocking when Alexander the Great came a knockin’ then burnt it down in the ensuing bacchanal. Superlatives don’t do what remains justice and if ancient ruins are your thing, then this is your Mecca. History lessons come to…
Interviews can be difficult, add to that another language but José Carlos Macías made the experience easy. Thanks for the great time. Click over here for a listen.
Walking through the small, lonely mountaintop village of Trevejo, you’ll often find yourself alone with the sheep and goats that roam among the ancient stone houses. Perched atop the mountain, the Templar castle of Trevejo surveys the Sierra de Gata along the Portuguese border. Built on the ruins of an Arabic fortress, this 15th-century castle…
In Bosra at a crossroads in the desert just an hour and half south of Damascus, the Roman world intersects the Arabic in an ancient theater turned fortress. You can imagine watching a classical play while a battle rages beyond the massive walls that were built around the free-standing amphitheater. Every summer international concerts are…
Call it hookah, sheesha, round these parts qaylan, but this is the way to meet and greet in Isfahan (Esfahan). Just above the entrance to the bazaar, climb up the incredibly steep stairs to the Qeysaieh Tea Shop. From this open air teahouse enjoy some orange flavored tobacco and get a magnificent view of the…
Up here the mythically infamous Tehrani smog thins out just enough to get an idea of how massive this city really is. Clear cool water rushes out of the mountain backdrop, down culverts lined with enormous green trees that would seem unimaginable just a few miles south. In fact this is a place where myths…
The only thing bizarre about Kashan’s bazaar is that it isn’t overflowing with tourists. The adobe beauty of this covered market screams out for travelers, but in reality ends up calling the locals to do their daily business. Cooling mudbrick domes filter in shaped beams of light, illuminating everything from carpet wool to dates. Laid-back…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. No matter how long I live in Spain, there are words that I think I will never completely understand. When I say this, I…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I spent some time in Libya before the fall of the Ghadaffi regime. Among the many almost surreal aspects of the Green Republic, one of…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. It seems like the mighty New York Times can never quite get it right when writing about this country. Many paella-moons ago I remember a…
The Crusaders might have had a more difficult time getting here and the bus is surely faster than Freya Starke‘s donkey, but the windy trip into the ancient realm of the mythical Hashshashin is still a modern day adventure. Deep in the Alborz mountains an 11th-century sect hounded the invading Crusaders with fierce warriors stoned out of…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I’ve come to know a fair number of saints, both dead and alive, since I moved out here to one of the last stops before…
Rather than doing a ‘please stop raining’ dance, I’ve decided to look at old pictures and try to remember what summer once looked like. Where better to start than the Greek Isles? About a day’s sail out of Rhodes or maybe more, days melted into each other like ouzo, ice and water. Turkey was always…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Bright ideas for bright places One of the things that foreign friends visiting Spain for the first time never fail to comment on is their…
You’ve really gone off the beaten path when the GPS in your rental car shows you are literally off the map. You’re out here castle hopping your way north from Andalusia just as the Moors did a thousand years ago. A beautiful mountain range rises out of a carpet of vineyards. Set in the Sierra…
Arabic ouds, Senegalese drums, and Mongolian fiddles bounce off 10th-century walls and reverberate onto 15th-century churches but have no fear, this is no military invasion. Spanish grannies rub shoulders and trade dance steps to the bouncing beat with dreadlocked Dutchmen, while pierced locals teach newfound Polish friends that it’s not a sin to mix wine…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. It’s hard to tell which Americanisms will get adopted in foreign lands and I suppose it’s even more difficult to predict just how these foreign…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. My father-in-law, a wise and decent man from a small village in the northwestern corner of Extremadura called San Martin de Trevejo, tells a tale…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. One of my first memories of Spain is how time felt completely different here than it did anywhere else I had ever been. During my…
Your automatic gut reaction is to peep over your shoulder and think, ‘Okay, where are the cameras?’ But out here on these lush green hills rising up from the deep blue of Skaha Lake, the only CCTV eyes trained on you are those of the sleepy horse shading under the leafy cherry trees. During the…
The Sierra Morena wrinkles behind off into Andalusia while the patchwork plains of Badajoz merge with the sky in front. Depending on your perspective, this is either the beginning or end of Extremadura. The Romans would arrive at this crossroads (complete with amphitheater entertainment, good luck finding it open) while trying to catch a ride to…
What’s the difference between an A and an O? Cross the border at Oroville and see how a thin line can change more than just the spelling of a valley. North of the 49th parallel in the Okanagan lies a string of some of Canada’s premier tourist resort cities. Canadians migrate here every summer to enjoy…
The last Sunday in August sees Penticton pretty much shut down as even the geese flock to Lakeshore and Main Street to watch the thousands of competitors in this grueling event that turns everyday muscle into metal. The alchemy in question is in fact a punishing triathlon that includes a 3.8 km (2.4 mile )…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I remember watching with amazement, and not just a little discomfort, as the young men in pointy shoes leapt through the air over the huge…
Time ago I took a walk through the many castle ruins that scatter the hilltops of Extremadura, Spain. Where the pictures the paper chose to accompany the piece came from? Well…mine are of Caceres and the bull. I can’t say I know who the other people are? Click over to read the piece in the…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I tell my North American friends that I live inside a castle and I suppose that I’m not technically lying, though I suppose fortress would…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. For some, the holidays are a welcome time of routine. Of doing what you’ve always done and feeling a sense of security in knowing that…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I suppose that they had been slithering along the margins of my subconscious for some time but were recently brought into focus by a picture…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. It happened while we were overlooking one of the world’s unofficial wonders, sitting under a desperately thirsty acacia tree, swatting away flies and scratching at fleas. A temple…
Don’t try this at home kids! It’s fall…the leaves are beginning to fall and the mushroom hounds are on the loose. The word ‘mushroom’ in English seems to convey about as much excitement and meaning as the word ‘oil’. You have to compound it to extract its full flavour. Jumping over stone walls and getting…
In my downtime when I’m not writing, I play music…guitar to be precise. In fact, it was a guitar that led me to 48 states and Europe for the first time. The Sociedad Blues Canarias invited me down to the Canary Islands to make some music and on the island of Tenerife under the wing…
Came across a repost of something that I wrote for Trazzler on the website, Salon. It was a series of 10 travel bits on places in Spain that Ibn Battutah visited on his trip through Andalusia back in the 14th century. Nice surprise. See it here.
Uncomfortable truths in the Young Learner teaching game here in Spain and around the world. Contributing to Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto’s teaching webpage.
The Costa del Sol’s concrete boredome costing you a bit? Trazzler’s collected 10 trips following the great Ibn Battutah’s trips through the region. Shake off the fish and chip shops and dig a bit deeper here.
After a long break, blogging for El Pais once again. This time a 3 part series on the dismal future that lies ahead for learning in a climate where education is viewed as an expense rather than an investment. The 1st installment goes into the labarynth that teachers must go through in order to actually…
The earth unexpectedly (for most that is) shook the other day in south-eastern Spain, bringing tragedy to the people of the lovely town of Lorca. Corruption doesn’t only exist in far off lands that end in -stan. A look at what could happen if it’s allowed to grow, blogging in El Pais.
Yesterday I walked up the hill leading to my polling station under a clear blue sky, a color I would later realize that had foreshadowed the colour of the electoral results that have carpeted this country from corner to corner…a resoundly conservative azul. I’m the only foreigner in my voting area, or at least the…
The Shock Doctrine is oozing and has slimed Portugal…Are things so different over here right across the border? Blogging again in El Pais.
A successful Chinese Buddhist businesswoman who professes her devotion to a 15th century crucifixtion figure gives birth to a Nestorian satori in my first piece blogging for El Pais. Of course, all framed within the slightly morbid context of the celebration here on the decidedly european Iberian peninsula of a man’s death by torture so many years…
Middle of nowhere British Columbia, beware of bears…wolves…avalanches… …and teen burgers. Caution Picture #2 When did these appear?
Are children still constantly told to tie up their shoelaces? Or did that go out of fashion when ‘Pull up your pants!’ did? The latter warning used to seem more serious. That is of course until the current fashion craze (and that word has several meanings) consisting of offering the world to see that your…
The scent of incense, the boom of the drums and the rattle of the snares, pushy yet well dressed crowds, dolled up children trying to be pious, hooded penitents doing the same… It’s Easter once again here in Spain. Click over for a look from my window.
Having a little fun with bulls, blues and bars on national Spanish television.
Why does it seem that with every year, winter seems to get longer and longer? No matter how mild the year, as with this past winter here in Extremadura, the dark days of the ‘other’ equinox drag on longer than your 10th grade math teacher droning on about algebra. I even sometimes find myself wishing…
I look down and check the time on my Ghaddafi watch and remember walks through the old town in Tripoli, a world and a war away from the hell that it must be now. Click over to Trazzler trip in the old medina. A different time from now.
Helmcken falls, Wells Grey Provincial Park, B.C I’ve been working with the great people over at Trazzler again, this time trapsing through the beautiful Okanagan valley in southern British Colombia. 10 trips, 10 different things to do while you pinch yourself and wonder if you really are in the frozen Great White North. OK…a few…
“Travel, set out and head for pastures new. Life tastes richer when you’ve road-worn feet. No water that stagnates is fit to drink for only that which flows is truly sweet.” – imam Al-Shafi and travel I have…20 years ago I set out from a frozen, snowy place somewhere near the top of the world.…
After winning the III Premio de Periodismo Ciudad de Cáceres Fundación Mercedes Calles y Carlos Ballestero, here’s a short profile in El Periodico de Extremadura.
National Geographic’s photography contest 2010 Two places…same world…only just Pakistan and… Saskatchewan
Here’s a profile that was written up about me after winning the travel writing prize, the Premio de Periodismo Ciudad de Cáceres Fundación Mercedes Calles y Carlos Ballestero.
This plaque on the church is about the only evidence you’ll find of Battuta’s visit in the town of Coin. Think Marco Polo was the world’s greatest traveler? If you do, it’s because you haven’t read Ibn Battuta. For whatever reason, be they ethnocentric prejudices, islamophobia or the simple fact that Polo had better PR,…
Photographer: Feisal Omar/Reuters On it’s way to Shanghai, or have the Somalis developed a taste for shark fin soup too?
Seen inside the citadel/city built by the Templars, now haunt of cruise-goers stretching their legs and dining ashore.
A walk through the Albaycin in Granada A look at the new mosque that has been built A reflection on the concern it’s caused A way around conflict In both English and German in DW-WORLD’s Qantara magazine.
One of the internet sites that I have been writing for has been running some great contests as of late. Click over here to Writing Contests for more details…you never know, a new job or a few nights in a Fairmont hotel may await!
One of the strongest memories I have of Iran is standing outside a regular neighourhood mosque covered in the black mourning flags that are so typical there. Decades of negative imagery on T.V made my wife and I unsure about entering the courtyard. Finally we ventured in and ended up parting ways. Suddenly I heard…
I took a walk awhile ago with my Couchsurfing host, now friend, Oya. We started in the Istanbul of the guidebooks and ended up in the Istanbul of her childhood. A walk that took us from the tank tops of Eminonou to the hiijabs and niquabs in Fatih, with a short detour to see the…
More than 20 centuries ago, Aristotle wrote that ethics and therefore happiness lie somewhere in the middle of extremes…where that somewhere exactly is has been debated since his Nicomachean Ethics came out, but few people would dispute that, to a certain extent, some truth lies in his premise. The Iberian peninsula and Spain in particular…
The 20’s of May are almost finished and the 7pm sun is still hot enough to bake the dust that swirls up in the heat. The festivities have yet to begin and the police are still in the shade. The very recent whitewash would still be wet if the temperatures weren’t in the 30’s. The…
It’s brief, violent and colorful… Then it’s gone Still learning that you don’t have to go far to see something worth seeing.
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century A 1972 photo of a Georgian family picnicking near a medieval monastery, part of a series taken in this retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. We walked into eastern Georgia across a wooden bridge reinforced with rusty iron beams that boomed as huge tree trunks slammed into the pillars.…
Last night’s Minaret exhibit was not only a chance to share some photos that I’ve taken on my travels but an opportunity to retrieve and relive some dusty memories that had been lying forgotten in my 1.0 memory chip mind. During the evening, a few astute visitors were quick to notice an early Soviet-era statue…
Alminares Iluminando las minorías. Un viaje desde Granada a Malasia Fotografías de Troy Nahumko La Traviata. Inauguración: 15 de abril de 2010 a las 21.00 h Los minaretes, elegantes antenas espirituales hechas por los hombres, se elevan hacia los cielos para proclamar la fe musulmana a sus seguidores. Símbolos islámicos conscientemente creados para ser diferentes…
For some it’s Easter egg hunts, for others meditations on torture and resurrection, others still a time to be ‘seen’ showing their penitence in hooded processions…for me it means that the simple fact of walking to my house becomes an ordeal. Crowds clog the tiny arteries of the old town here in Caceres, while supposedly…
Ibn Battutah is known for traveling around most of the known world back in the 14th century, but perhaps the least well known part of his travels was his sojourn here in Spain. Even still, in his Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling, he paints one of…
Movie set art-deco buildings crumble under an equatorial sun. Here colors break rules at their fancy…yellow and purple get on well when splashed across a mud brick wall while an envious lime green neighbor looks on. Vegetation creeps at these high altitudes, the advancing green takes its time, nothing’s in a rush over 2500 meters.…
This winter has been rotten, plain rotten. Rain can be a godsend in countries susceptible to drought like Spain, but enough already! Though Spring certainly doesn’t seem to be springing with any kind of force, let’s hope that the storks bring some good weather with them.
Over the Christmas break we went off again, searching for more of Ibn Battutah’s tracks…this time from Morocco to Spain. The trip ended, like Battutah’s in that lovely city at the feet of the Sierra Nevada, Granada. Of the few cities that live up to their hype and more. Even without the Alhambra sitting on…
I’ve chased Ibn Battutah’s ghost through Yemen, Syria, Turkey, Libya, Spain and even Cambodia. Each country has provided fleeting glimpses of the medieval wanderer, from his lions in Aleppo to castles in Fuengirola. Have a read about a recent pilgrimage to this traveler’s tomb in Tangier in the Sydney Morning Herald.
I do have to say that the Irish are some of my favourite people in the world. Whether it be in New Jersey, Baku, Vientiane or even Cork, they always seem to cheer things up. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to the greenest of places, but an Irish newspaper, The Irish World, has just…
Years ago while living in the south-western corner of the Arabian peninsula, now unnameable, the sun shone almost everyday…almost. At times the clear blue sky would darken with sand blowing in from the vast deserts that ring the mountains and then for about 2 weeks a year irregular monsoons would blow through and flood the…
Every traveler has been there…jet-lagged and coming out of an airport or getting off an all-night train where the only wink you got was from the fellow across the aisle with the extremely dirty fingernails, stepping into a new country with no language or local currency and suddenly the mass descends on you. If not…
Cold seems to be relative. The way you experience it depends on…well depends on more than your jacket. A relative you know is coming to stay, but can’t seem to say no to. I bloody hate the cold. Could be an entire childhood faced with frozen hair on dark mornings that lasted forever and then…
The good people over at Trazzler have given me even more reason to practice what I preach and travel deeper rather than further. I’ve been assigned a 10 piece series, exploring my adopted homeland of Extremadura, Spain and her sister region across the now non-existent border with Portugal. First stop Alcantara! Second Caceres Moving on…
Aculturalized Definition: When the sight of mummified pigs legs hanging on the wall not only doesn’t make you do a double take, but makes your mouth water. Few self-respecting bars in Spain would be found without at least one…in fact it just may be a requirement in the licensing process, Jamón, or Spanish Ham. Sliced…
19.56, I made it! 2 Metro changes…dash through the palpable late August heat in Madrid, an anxious wait on a light rail platform only to find the next train is an express that doesn’t stop where I do. Add to that the criminal removal of beer from the vending machines on the platforms, 3 broken…
Wild Boar with Greens 2009 has been a year of Deep Travel, delving further into places rather than just skipping on to the next. With this in mind, a Saturday road trip turned into a visit to another country. Granted Portugal is just over 100kms from here, I don’t seem to visit the country that…
Travel, as far and wide as you can. But tread lightly. Writing in Verge Travel.
I usually get various reactions from editors when I send them submissions about traveling in Iran. They usually range from complete silence to cheeky replies regarding the sanity of those who travel in such places. So it was with great surprise that I got an email the other day from Trazzler asking me to write…
Paying homage to my adopted homeland once again, this time for Romar Traveler. Click over and take a walk through Extremadura with me.
Spain still suffers from stereotypes… Some tourists visit and feel terribly threatened when men occasionally whistle or shout “Guapa” in the street. Terribly offensive to some, but when you consider the fact that the rate of sexual violence here in Spain is remarkably lower than in their home countries, questions need to be asked. Seen…
The orchestra on many evenings as you stroll through the old town here.
Tell anyone that you’re traveling to the Middle East, and in particular Yemen and you will invariably get a similar response to the title of this post. It’s possible that you get a slight variant, like “You’re nuts!” or the more tactful, “But, isn’t it somewhat conflictive?” ranging to the brutal, “But they are terrorists!”…
Nor Top 8’s… And not even a Top 10. No advice on how to remember where you put your hotel key, nor inane tips on how to ‘bargain like a local.’ Just a writer, not a ‘travel’ writer, telling of his experience. It can’t be read while doing 3 other things and even demands a…
It seems like it is everywhere. Twitter feeds every minute and retweets every 2. This ‘revolution’ will be twitterized. The enormous country that links the Middle East with South Asia but is neither, is on everyone’s lips and in every flickr. The world has briefly stopped worrying about Nukes and is suddenly worried about its…
Blogging here, blogging there, does it really matter? Just posted a piece about a ramble through the lovely UNESCO town of Segovia in Spain over on the Matador Travel Network. A beautiful city that is worth more than a day trip from Madrid. Have a look if you’re so inclined, just a click away. *It…
Oleander, such a pretty plant with such a terrible reputation.
Photo Pete Turner Photography Woke up yesterday with a full inbox and a creeping sense of panic, suddenly I was being followed. Followed I mean, in the sense of Twitter. A post on the Matador Travel network listed me on their 20 interesting expats to follow piece and suddenly my inbox was more popular than…
I read a post the other day listing the 10 best places to swim around the world. Reading through them I realized that I hadn’t been to even one of them! Poor me, but then I thought, wait…I’ve swum in some lovely places. Let’s narrow them down to 3 in no particular order. Ginnie Springs,…
Rainy afternoons are good for something more than our garden. A view from my wife’s study, with the ‘Torre de Caleros’ (Almohad era tower) to the left over looking the valley.
Frau H. and Herr Z.: Manfred Beier took this photograph while on vacation at the Baltic Sea in August 1954: “Frau H (71 years old) and her cousin Z. sitting In front of the house at Hafenstrasse 39 (who worked as a carpenter aboard the ocean steamer “Imperator” in 1914) More photos of life in…
When the temperatures sit above 30 for most of the day, summer measures are in order. Contrary to what some would think, closing the doors and windows during the day actually keeps in the freshness that seeped in throughout the night. There is nothing better than the traditional blinds that let in just enough light…
The last installment of my 4 part series on teaching around the world has just come out in Verge’s summer edition. This one isn’t available online like the last, but you can find all the info here. This piece focuses on the ins and outs of teaching in Asia, often the first-timer’s first glimpse at…
You’ve really gone off the beaten path when the GPS in your rental car shows you are literally off the map. Castle hop north from Andalusia just as the Moors did a thousand years ago. Out here a beautiful range rises out of a carpet of vineyards. Set in the Sierra Grande de Hornachos, this…
Woke up this morning to a text message, “Want to go for a ride?” Looked out the window and while there were some clouds on the horizon, it was going to be a beautiful, sunny day. In just minutes from my Almohad refuge I can be rolling through olive groves and before you know it,…
The music has died down and faded away, the stage has been packed up, the tourists have gone home and the artists are playing somewhere else. WOMAD 2009 has come and gone, but something hasn’t left…and it’s here to stay for awhile…a LONG while. On Saturday night alone as people danced to the likes of…
I recently came across something that takes travel writing’s top ten tips to the extreme. The Independent published ‘100 things to do before you die‘ last year in memorandum of Dave Freeman, creator of the travel guide of the same name. I have to admit that I clicked through all 100 and found it funny…
May here in Caceres is curious…2 rather big events happen that couldn’t be more dissimilar. The first is the adoration of the local virgin which is carried down from its mountain refuge in late April and then is visited everyday by a certain sector of the population to see the what colour dress it is…
My Almohad refuge has been busy of late. Every year around this time the locals take their beloved virgin down from its mountain hideaway to great pagan-like fanfare. Tears are shed, songs are sung and flowers cut…but less wine that one would expect, gotta travel further south for that I suppose. She’s then placed on…
2000 years and still standing Segovia, Spain One of the travel magazines that I have been writing for Verge, is offering a free digital version of their magazine here. If you’re interested in traveling on a theme and making a difference, click over.
lovely flowers outside the academy where I work Invariably when people think of Spain they think of sunshine, beaches, warm weather, siestas, sangria… But the truth of the matter is that this country is extremely varied and with that variety comes extremely variable weather. The lush, green rain-fed coasts of Galicia have more in common…
…not to read post modern travel writing. – You already know how to pack and don’t need tips from someone who hasn’t even renewed their passport yet – Your tolerance for “how to” articles is limited to the instructions on a piece of IKEA furniture – See through the inherent racism in statements like ,”not…
Springtime in Extremadura and the festival season is in full swing. Right on the heels of Semana Santa celebrations and the parading of the local virgin comes the celebration of the city’s patron saint, San Jorge, better known to English speakers as Saint George. A curious mix of fire, tradition and what some might call…
There’s a saying in Spain that goes along the lines of, “When you move the Saints, the sky opens up.” Well holy week this year in Spain seems to have been like that all over the peninsula, except here in Extremadura. While the temperatures did plunge more than 10 degrees from the week before, only…
I’ve been writing a series of articles for the Canadian travel magazine, Verge. This series of articles are basically focused on teaching English around the world while traveling (or vice versa depending on how you look at it!) They’ve introduced a new aspect to their website where you can read some of their pieces online,…
Bus trips returning home sometimes seem like the longest on earth. 37 hour South American odysseys pass by in the blink of an eye when you compare them with a milk run that turns your 300km return home journey into a 5 hour trial. There is something anticlimactic about coming home, the route is familiar…
A view of a Platskart wagon While I’m a huge train fan, I am certainly no fan of the supposedly ‘national’ train company here in Spain, RENFE. I’ve always wondered why the prices for train travel here in Spain were so much more expensive than bus travel, but it was the Barcelona-Madrid High-Speed link that…
If you ask someone from Catalonia what they think of my adopted region of Spain, Extremadura, you might unfortunately get a derogatory remark likening the area to Africa. Worse yet, they wouldn’t be doing so in reference to the wide open spaces and conserved natural areas that are to be found out here…but that is…
If you’re familiar with the terrors that taxi travel can pose around the world. Click over to Go Nomad’s site and check out my latest piece on the perils of heading to the Azeri border in a shared taxi through Northern Iran.
A composite picture of the Bahamas and the Costa Brava Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters and Dorgie Productions/Getty Which destination would you choose? Seems like the Spanish tourist board thought the same and decided to use a picture taken in the Bahamas rather that one taken here in Spain in their latest campaign. The funny thing is…
A wintertime view of a cold and snowy Segovia. Makes we want to head straight for Las Cuevas del Duque and have a few glasses of wine with some Chorizo a la Hoya.
Crisis got you down? Dying to get to Madrid but can’t quite make the airfare? Well Google and the world famous Prado museum in Madrid have teamed up so that you can enjoy the museum from the comfort of your home. Literally stroke by stroke you can view some of the museum’s most famous pictures.…
Walking through the small, lonely mountaintop village of Trevejo, you’ll often find yourself alone with the sheep and goats that roam among the ancient stone houses. Perched atop the mountain, the Templar castle of Trevejo surveys the Sierra de Gata along the Portuguese border. Built on the ruins of an Arabic fortress, this 15th-century castle…
On my first encounter with Tehran, I didn’t even leave the airport. Though it seems like an odd place to transit, I had found a cheap flight from Baku to Dubai with a very long layover in Tehran. Customs was long, but so was the stopover. The second time was arriving from the north in…
How many times have you walked into your dorm room in a hostel and run into who I like to call, the Hostel Pros? You know who I mean. That person who has been staying there for weeks and has invaded every corner of the room with their stuff and immediately lets you know that…
In Bosra—a crossroads in the desert just an hour and half south of Damascus—the Roman world intersects the Arabic in an ancient theater turned fortress. You can imagine watching a classical play while a battle rages beyond the massive walls that were built around the free-standing amphitheater. Every summer international concerts are held in less…
As winter continues its grip here on supposedly sunny Spain, today’s Foto is meant to remind me of the joys of sitting outside drinking beer (you choose your beverage). This was taken while I lived in Vientiane, Laos, sometime in September when the Mekong was still very high. While living there, one of my almost…
To follow up on yesterday’s post on Spanish train travel, I thought I would link over to a good overview by the Man in Seat 61 who has written a short piece on how to ride the rails around Europe without losing too many of your Euros. All Aboard!
Rail seems to be all the rage lately on the progressive travel radar here in Europe, and rightly so…but be careful, Greenwash lurks under the carbon-light promises. Just over a week ago an article in the Guardian was gushing over the fact that Spain’s new high speed rail link between the countries 2 major cities…
Stumbled upon my name in one of the local papers the other day. It seems that one of their journalists heard about my article in the Toronto Star and gave me a little local publicity. Who knows, might lead to something?
After a beautiful drive up Vancouver Island through old-growth forests, you get to the little fishing village of Port McNeil. From here, whale-watching tours depart down the Johnstone Strait for some of the best killer whale viewing in the world. Early in the morning, you cut through the misty archipelago, searching for the resident pods…
Perhaps not surprisingly the most visited site in Spain in 2008 was…? I ran a little poll the other day and got a flood of hits, the answers were: The Prado Museum (Madrid) 1 (33%) The Sagrada Familia (Barcelona) 0 (0%) The Alhambra (Granada) 2 (66%) The Great Mosque (Cordoba) 0 (0%) The Cathedral in…
Continuing on with the thread from my last post, I thought that I’d post a photo of what may be the most beautiful mosque in Libya. The mosque of Murad Agha was built in what is called the Al-Andalus style with a square minaret, it is an easy day trip from Tripoli. Just find the…
If you somehow managed to jump through the right bureaucratic hoops to get in independently or if you stepped off one of the luxury cruise liners that now stop daily in Tripoli, you won’t be disappointed. A land where only the government can advertise and Gaddafi watches are the hot tourist item, the until-recently-forgotten Old…
After being being designated a sensitive Military Area and therefore off limits for many years, the true end of the Trans-Siberian is once again open to visitors. Contrary to what you might think, Vladivostok (a mere 9,289 kms away from Moscow) in the summer is actually quite nice. True, there is a train that runs…
Photo by Martin Gray These beautiful shots from the Guardian a while back. The following from the site. “Acclaimed photographer and anthropologist Martin Gray has spent the last 20 years on a pilgrimage photographing and exploring more than 1,000 sacred sites in 80 countries. What follows is a selection from his new book, Sacred Earth,…
This is why you have come so far. With the Caspian reaching out to the steppe of Central Asia in front of you, the warm winds of the Middle East swirling up from below, and the cool breezes from the Caucasus mountains sweeping down from the north—a mix of styles awaits you in the Old…
Pascal Parrot/Getty Images Marseille, France: Pink flamingos rest at the Vaccares pond As the cold sweeps south, Spain is seeing some of the coldest temperatures it has seen in 30 years. Temperatures dipped down to around -4 here in Caceres the other night and some say that it was even colder. I do hope the…
Keeping in mind the article I published at the beginning of the month in the Toronto Star, I thought I would continue highlighting some of the sites of my adopted city. A fine view of the Palacio de Moctezuma here in Caceres at sunset.
I was lucky enough to have traveled through Istanbul this summer on my way to Syria and absolutely loved the city! It is truly one of the ‘world’s cities’ that vibrates as soon as you step into its streets. To add to our luck we were hosted by 2 excellent Couchsurfers, some of the most…
photo from Wikipedia The Christmas season continues here in Spain. While other countries are packing up their Christmas trees, today is traditionally the big celebration for the niños here on the Iberian peninsula. The Feast of Epiphany (January 6th) is the day where the 3 wise men or the 3 kings of the orient, bring…
Ride the rails to the end of the line to a place that feels like a Japanese island invaded by Russians. For the Russians indeed are coming…to buy cars. Twice a week, thousands of cars are ferried across the sea of Japan over to Vladivostok from this sleepy port city to sate the growing eastern…
Photograph: Olaf Kraak/EPA I was browsing the Guardian’s usually stunning 24 hours in pictures section the other day and they had a ‘best of 2008‘ series (actually there are several) and they highlighted an amazing photographer named Uriel Sinai. Definitely not your average travel shots, but that’s the beauty of it.
I recently published a piece on my adopted hometown in the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star. If you are thinking about visiting Spain, click over to the article and make sure to include Caceres in your itinerary.
Before the millennium turned, when the Year 2000 virus was going to be the end as we knew it, I was hiking in Zimbabwe far enough away I had thought from the clutches of the Windows breakdown. I was simply wandering, looking for some petroglyphs that I had heard were in the area but had…
I’m going to try and start a new series on this blog where every Friday a new picture from around the world goes up. In honour of my recent publication on my adopted hometown here in Caceres, here’s my favourite tower. The torre de hierba…10th century Almohad construction that changes colours as the sun goes…
Part 2 in my four part teaching abroad series with Verge Travel Magazine is out and in the stands. This time we move on to some of the practicalities of teaching English in Europe to stretch your time abroad. However, the easy life doesn’t always come so easy, TEFL has its drawbacks. Check out the…
A new issue of the travel magazine Verge is out and I’ve got a few pieces in the current issue. Check out the sidebar on some of the Do’s and Don’ts when traveling in Laos and the first installment of a 4 part series on teaching English abroad. The first piece is aptly named, “Secret…
Troy Nahumko is an award-winning author based in Caceres, Spain. His recent work focuses on travels around the Mediterranean, from Tangiers to Istanbul. As a writer and photographer he has contributed to newspapers and media such as The Globe and Mail, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Toronto Star, The Irish World, The Straits Times, Khaleej…
You can find a piece of mine on my adopted hometown in June’s edition of The Inland Magazine here in Spain. If you click the above link you can download the magazine in PDF.
