Travel stories, quotes and fun facts

Brazil grows a third of the world's coffee

Brazil has been the largest coffee producer for more than 150 years, mostly arabica from Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo.

Uruguay legalised beach camping culture

Uruguay's small population and long coast mean entire stretches of beach stay empty even in high summer.

The overnight bus with blankets

Reclining seats, a blanket, a film with no subtitles and a driver who took the mountain road at a speed we chose not to think about. We arrived rested.

Lagom

Lagom: not too little, not too much. Just the right amount, including in your backpack.

Paraguay has two official languages

Guarani is co-official with Spanish and is spoken by a majority of the population, unusual in the Americas.

Cuba's classic cars are necessity

A 1959 import ban froze Havana's fleet, so mechanics kept 1950s American cars running with improvised parts.

Volcano boarding

You climb a black cone for an hour carrying a plank and then sit on it and go down. Everyone lies about their speed at the bottom.

Jamaica gave the world reggae

Reggae developed in Kingston in the late 1960s and is recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage.

Sisu

Sisu: stubborn determination in the face of hardship, especially cold and dark.

Sloth traffic jam

The road was blocked for six minutes by a sloth in no hurry whatsoever. A park worker eventually carried it across and it looked mildly annoyed.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share one island

Hispaniola is one of very few Caribbean islands divided between two sovereign states.

Dominica is the nature island

Dominica has a boiling lake, 365 rivers by local count, and a 184-kilometre hiking trail down its spine.

Zip line nerves

The guide said don't brake, just glide. Halfway across a valley in cloud forest we understood why nobody talks on the way over.

Friluftsliv

Friluftsliv: open-air living, the belief that being outdoors is a fundamental part of being well.

Barbados has flying fish on its coins

The flying fish is a national symbol, and cou-cou with flying fish is the country's national dish.

Trinidad has a natural asphalt lake

Pitch Lake holds the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world and refills itself as it is dug out.

The canal from a small boat

Our boat shared a lock with a container ship the size of a street. The water rose nine metres in eight minutes and the crew above us waved down.

The Bahamas has swimming pigs

Feral pigs on Big Major Cay swim out to meet boats, a habit that turned into an unlikely tourist attraction.

Allemansratten

Allemansratten: the right to roam. In Sweden the countryside belongs to everyone who respects it.

Kuna molas

Every panel is hand stitched in reverse applique and takes weeks. The woman selling them explained the design was her grandmother's and then quoted a price that felt like theft on our side.

Puerto Rico glows in three bays

Puerto Rico has three bioluminescent bays, more than anywhere else, with Mosquito Bay the brightest recorded.

Saba has the shortest commercial runway

Saba's airstrip is around 400 metres with cliffs at both ends, flown only by small aircraft and specially certified pilots.

Cartagena heat

We walked the walls at three in the afternoon like idiots. At seven, the same walls were full of people, music and lemonade sellers, and we understood the schedule.

Greenland is part of the Americas

Geographically Greenland sits on the North American plate although politically it is tied to Denmark.