The stone that fit exactly
Our guide slid a bank card at a joint in the Inca wall and it would not enter. He did this for tourists twenty times a day, and it still made everyone go quiet.
Author not specified in the imported source
Cusco, Peru · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Night dive with manta rays
We knelt on the sand with torches pointed up. Plankton gathered in the light and the mantas came to eat, rolling over us, close enough to feel the water move.
Author not specified in the imported source
Kona, Hawaii · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Volcano road closed
The road ended in black rock that had not been there two years before. A sign asked us not to take any lava home, which is apparently both disrespectful and unlucky.
Author not specified in the imported source
Big Island, Hawaii · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Snow on the Icefields Parkway
It snowed in June. We pulled into a viewpoint, three other cars did the same, and six strangers stood in a line watching a glacier disappear behind cloud without saying anything.
Author not specified in the imported source
Alberta, Canada · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Bear bell arithmetic
We were told to make noise. After two hours of singing badly we stopped, and thirty seconds later a black bear crossed the trail ahead. We resumed singing immediately.
Author not specified in the imported source
British Columbia, Canada · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The tide at Fundy
We walked on the sea floor in the morning and kayaked over the same spot after lunch. Sixteen metres of water arrived while we ate.
Author not specified in the imported source
Bay of Fundy, Canada · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Poutine at two in the morning
Minus twenty outside and a queue out the door. The man in front of us explained that the cheese must squeak, and that anything else is not poutine but a tragedy.
Author not specified in the imported source
Montreal, Canada · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Northern lights over the highway
The driver pulled over without warning and turned off the headlights. Green went across the whole sky in about four seconds and then rearranged itself for an hour.
Author not specified in the imported source
Yukon, Canada · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The ferry through the fjords
The state ferry takes three days and you sleep in a tent taped to the deck. It costs less than a flight and you see four hundred kilometres of coastline nobody photographs.
Author not specified in the imported source
Alaska, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Grand Canyon at the wrong rim
We drove to the North Rim by accident, found eleven cars in the car park instead of a thousand, and had a viewpoint to ourselves for forty minutes.
Author not specified in the imported source
Arizona, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Descending is harder
Everyone warns you that going down is easy. On the way back up, in the last mile, a ranger handed out salt tablets and said the same sentence to every single person.
Author not specified in the imported source
Grand Canyon, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Diner coffee refill
The waitress topped up the cup four times without being asked and called everyone honey. The pie was better than any restaurant we ate at that month.
Author not specified in the imported source
Nevada, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
A town of eleven people
The sign said population 11. The bar was open, the man behind it was also the postmaster, and he knew exactly where we were headed before we said it.
Author not specified in the imported source
Nevada, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Route 66 remains
Half the towns on the old road are closed and half are museums about being closed. One motel owner has been repainting the same neon sign for thirty years.
Author not specified in the imported source
Arizona, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Yosemite in the dark
We hiked out under a full moon without torches because the granite reflected enough light. A ranger told us afterwards that this was either wonderful or irresponsible.
Author not specified in the imported source
California, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Fog rolling into the bay
It came over the hill like water going down a drain in reverse. Ten minutes later the bridge was gone and it was ten degrees colder.
Author not specified in the imported source
San Francisco, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Getting off at the wrong stop
We got out at 125th instead of 116th and ended up eating the best food of the trip while waiting for the next train, which we deliberately missed twice.
Author not specified in the imported source
New York, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Bluegrass on a porch
Four people, four instruments, no sheet music and no audience except us and a dog. It went on for two hours and nobody announced a single song title.
Author not specified in the imported source
Appalachia, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Second line
A brass band came down the street on a Sunday afternoon and the crowd behind it grew from twelve to two hundred in four blocks. We never found out what it was for.
Author not specified in the imported source
New Orleans, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Hurricane season lesson
The hotel put tape on the windows and everyone stocked up on ice. It missed us by ninety kilometres and the next morning the beach was covered in shells nobody had ever seen.
Author not specified in the imported source
Florida, USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The border crossing at midnight
Two hours in a queue of stationary cars with men selling churros between the lanes. By the time we crossed, we had eaten dinner without leaving the vehicle.
Author not specified in the imported source
Mexico and USA · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Day of the dead, not Halloween
The cemeteries were full of families with candles, food and folding chairs, staying all night. A woman explained, kindly, that this was a reunion and not a haunting.
Author not specified in the imported source
Oaxaca, Mexico · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Mole takes three days
Thirty ingredients, three days, and an argument with a neighbour about whether the chocolate goes in early or late. We were asked to judge and refused sensibly.
Author not specified in the imported source
Oaxaca, Mexico · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Swimming in a cenote
The water was so clear that the boat above looked like it was floating in air. Fifteen metres down, tree roots came through the rock looking for it.
Author not specified in the imported source
Yucatan, Mexico · The Americas
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.