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Iaki Vallejo credits the loud stereos that blasted salsa tunes in her hometown of Cali for inspiring her to take steps toward a musical career. Her love of local rhythms and musical styles has taken her from Colombia to around the world. She lived in Italy for more than…
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A woman stands on a busy street in Bogota with a pole in her hand. “Minutos, minutos!”she calls. She leans the pole against the side of her hip. Metal chains are attached to five, six, seven mobile phones. My friend and I stop by the…
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It’s not every day that you stroll down the road and get the opportunity to meet a pack of Llamas. It’s even less likely if you find yourself far from the Andes in Colombia or Peru, but rather in the hills surrounding the north of…
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Image: MiVida Wellness If you’ve visited anywhere in Latin America, then no doubt you would have swayed and toe-tapped to the rhythms of the clave or shaken your hips to the inviting sounds of the timbao and felt the weight of your feel float away…
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It was while watching the telly one night a few weeks ago that I heard some ominous news. The first was that parts of Brisbane should expect temperatures to reach up to 40 degrees Celsius over the weekend, and the second, probably more annoying than…
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Photo credit: Must Do Brisbane “Is that a bullet hole?” I ask, looking at one of the windows as we sit in a restaurant waiting for dinner. I use the term restaurant lightly, though. It’s a poorly-maintained hall space that appears to be furnished with…
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Eggs benny is on the menu for breakfast and the waitress with the soft voice and Italian accent comes over to place the meal in front of me, along with a hot chocolate with two marshmallows on the side. “Enjoy,” she says with a hurried…
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“The next time we come stand up paddle boarding, we’re going to have to make more of an effort to look sexy,” I called out to my boyfriend, wearing a life jacket, an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts I’d just bought from a…
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I was born in Victoria but it seems I’ve seen a lot more of the world than my own backyard. So, during a recent visit to the southern state I decided to make like a tourist in my own country and travel Australia like I…
Continue readingThe rain is coming down hard and the woman behind the counter at the Visitor Information Centre in Canungra is worried about our eagerness to walk the 10.6km Box Forest track through Lamington Park in this weather. “You make sure you’re careful,” she says. “Have…
Continue readingAbout seven months ago I found myself on a plane back to Australia from Bogota, Colombia. I wasn’t ready to come back, actually I didn’t want to come back, but unfortunately (and fortunately) my lack of a permanent visa meant I had to pack up…
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Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unlikely of places, doesn’t it? It can come from a story we’ve read, a poem, a surprisingly funny joke, a friend, a long walk, an early night in bed with a cup of tea and a book or…
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