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Be Dazzled! Don’t Miss Quito’s Shimmering Golden Cathedral

Leave a Comment / Blogging, Sights to See, Solo Travel, South America, Travel / Pamelahawthorne

I’ve visited many beautiful cathedrals but this one one stands apart from the rest for its incredible beauty and mind-boggling excesses! Competition Between Orders During the 16th century, religious orders were busy building churches in Quito. Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and finally, Jesuits. Last in, the Jesuits were determined to build the MOST impressive church in […]

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Must See to Believe! The Luxurious Textile Art of Otavalo

Leave a Comment / Shopping, Solo Travel, South America, Travel / Pamelahawthorne

On a recent Saturday afternoon I visited market square in Otavalo, Ecuador, two hours from the larger city of Quito. Textile arts and fabric creation is integral to South American culture, especially in the Andean region. Here, indigenous vendors dress in traditional outfits in a comfortable, easy to navigate setting. Saturday is the biggest day

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The Incredible Kichwa: Indigenous People of the Amazon Jungle

1 Comment / Natural Wonders, Solo Travel, South America, Travel / Pamelahawthorne

At sunset, the jungle comes alive just as the day’s blistering heat is fading. It signals with sound and movement. Black-masked capuchin monkeys crash through the palm canopy, flying recklessly overhead. Insects thrum, click and buzz. Then the birdsong. Kiskadees, caciques and tanagers harmonize with yellow billed toucans. Our Kichwa guide is the only one

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Galapagos Paradise : Six Things to See on Isabela Island

Leave a Comment / Natural Wonders, Sights to See, Solo Travel, South America, Travel / Pamelahawthorne

Getting there is an odyssey of its own! A flight from Guayaquil to the Baltra Airport, water taxi to Santa Cruz Island, half an hour hike with backpacks to the speedboat dock, three hours on the waters to the small village of Puerto Villamil on Isabela. Largest of the Galapagos and considered the “gem” of

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Taste These Favorites: Delicious and Just Plain Weird Foods of Iceland

2 Comments / Blogging, Europe, Food and Wine, Solo Travel / Pamelahawthorne

Iceland’s gastronomy is inventive. A function of it’s extreme climate, Norse/Irish influences, rich natural resources and creative food culture. Until very recently, fishing was the primary industry, now second only to tourism. Sheep outnumber the Icelandic population. Not a single citrus fruit can be grown but root vegetables are abundant. Winters are long, dark and

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Not to Miss! One Woman’s Lifetime Collection of Iceland’s Gems

2 Comments / Blogging, Europe, Natural Wonders, Sights to See, Solo Travel, Travel / Pamelahawthorne

I wasn’t expecting “holy ground” when we stopped in the tiny town of Stöðvarfjörður (pop.184), tucked between Iceland’s eastern-most fjords and mountains. But that’s the way it felt. One woman’s collection of stones, cleaned and on display outside the home where she’d lived and raised four children. Where now ten years after her death, her

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Blue is the Color! Iceland’s Monumental Glaciers

Leave a Comment / Blogging, Europe, Natural Wonders, Sights to See, Solo Travel, Travel, Uncategorized, Videos / Pamelahawthorne

Filling the valley between the mountains with blue-white light. Vatnajökull Glacier in Iceland is the largest glacier in Europe, covering eight percent of Iceland’s landmass. This glacier looms in the distance. It appears to breathe, a living organism. I can imagine it shape-shifting under its own weight, a moving sea of many century’s old ice.

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Chasing Waterfalls in Iceland: My Three Most Beautiful Picks

Leave a Comment / Blogging, Natural Wonders, Sights to See, Solo Travel, Travel, Videos / Pamelahawthorne

The country has over three thousand NAMED waterfalls and countless unnamed. They thunder over rocky mega-crevasses left by million year old volcanic eruptions. Deafening. Hypnotic. Intimidating. These are Iceland’s “Foss” or falls which, along with their fjords and the glaciers, define the country’s landscape. Here are three of my favorites: Seljalandsfoss This 1.2-mile out-and-back trail

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The Amazing Story of the Remarkable “Herring Girls” of Siglufjörður

Leave a Comment / Blogging, Natural Wonders, Sights to See, Solo Travel, Travel / Pamelahawthorne

How do you like your herring? Brined, pickled, smoked? Me? I prefer mine brought to my table marinating in cream in some swanky, upper East Side restaurant. Today, these tasty little fish are processed and packed by machines, but up until fifty years ago, this arduous work was done by the hands of women…from young

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Iceland’s Once in a Lifetime Blue Lagoon Experience

Leave a Comment / Blogging, Europe, Sights to See, Solo Travel, Travel / Pamelahawthorne

Iceland’s thermal pools and hot springs are soul nourishing, skin rejuvenating and simply beautiful. There are many to explore in Iceland… Sky Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Myvatn Nature Baths. Start with Blue Lagoon. After landing at Keflavik Airport, hop on a shuttle straight into the heart of Reykjavík (there are a handful of shuttle companies that

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