by cristinemp@comcast.net | Mar 20, 2016 | Musings, South America, Travel
Shantytowns and Squatters They abandon mountains or fields for an uncharted journey into a city that doesn’t want them. In post cards, they are the picturesque peasant farmer who gives character to the landscape; in the cities, they are the forgotten, left on...
by cristinemp@comcast.net | Feb 23, 2016 | Asia, Musings, Travel
The Silk Road The ancient Silk Road connected China to the Mediterranean via mostly camel caravan. It was yesteryear’s internet and eBay, all rolled into one. Just as there was no one Great Wall, there was also no single Silk Road, but rather a series of routes over...
by cristinemp@comcast.net | Feb 23, 2016 | Asia
Back Tracking a Moment to Where I’ve Been and Setting the Stage for the West Let me take just a moment to give you some sense of where I am and where I have been. Let’s draw a mental map juxtaposing the U.S. and China. China and the U.S. are similar in continental...
by cristinemp@comcast.net | Feb 23, 2016 | South America
Latin American cities in general are patterned after traditional Spanish layouts, anchored by a primary central plaza linked to a series of smaller outlying plazas, all of which form the hub of residential and commercial life. The layout is about community and...
by cristinemp@comcast.net | Feb 23, 2016 | Musings, South America, Travel
One gasps upon flying into this city in a bowl. Lying at a sobering 11,942 feet in elevation (3,640 m), La Paz and its two million people are stuffed tightly into a canyon amidst the jagged Bolivian Andes. It is a city seemingly painted onto the valley floor,...
