Category Archives: South America

How big was it

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Growing up in and around New York City I have always been fascinated by the process of urbanization. So the animation (below) by Ollie Bye intrigued me. The examination of the growth of the world’s largest cities from 3000 BCE … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Asia, Europe, Film, History, Maps, Middle East, South America, USA | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Coffee Stories

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Regular visitors to Travel Between The Pages know that I am passionate about both travel and coffee. So, I fell bigtime for the wonderful blog project called Coffee Receipt Stories. Four years ago, Japan-based Odding Wang was sitting in a cafe, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Asia, Middle East, Restaurants, South America, Tourism, Travel Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Best Tourism Villages

Posted on January 29, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

The United Nations has gotten some well deserved bad press lately for egregious behavior by some UN agencies, but there remain many UN organizations doing good work. Best Tourism Villages from UN Tourism is an agency that promotes villages around … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art, Asia, Europe, South America, Tourism | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

For the love of literacy

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Martin Murillo operates a book cart mobile library in the city of Cartagena in Colombia. He used to be a street vendor, selling water and soft drinks, but nowadays the cart serves as a mobile library : La Carreta Literaria. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Film, Libraries, South America | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Thank a pirate for guacamole

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Born in England in 1651, William Dampier embarked on a life of piracy in 1679 in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche after a number of unsuccessful early jobs. He changed his fortunes by joining the rapidly growing field of high seas … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Europe, History, Maps, Restaurants, South America, Tourism, Travel Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Life in Mesoamerica

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

I have been fortunate enough to visit some amazing archeological sites in Mexico, but know very little about life in pre-Colonial Mesoamerica. A recently released digital version of an early Spanish codex from 16th century Mexico offers a window into … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Books, Europe, History, Libraries, Museums, South America | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Final Caturday of the Year

Posted on November 4, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

 

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It’s all Greek to me

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

I have to admit that I geeked-out on this fascinating website devoted entirely to global writing systems. During my life I’ve actually learned four writing systems, but in my old age I’m only fluent in one of them. World Writing … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Asia, Europe, History, South America | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Día de Muertos

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Here in the Americas we are in the midst of a two-fer holiday season. We can take a short break from the horrors of real life and celebrate the festive spookiness of Halloween and the Day of the Dead (Día … Continue reading →

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Microfiction

Posted on June 11, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

“A Continuity of Parks” by Julio Cortázar translated by Paul Blackburn He had begun to read the novel a few days before. He had put it down because of some urgent business conferences, opened it again on his way back … Continue reading →

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