Among the Americas’ most celebrated colonial cities, competing openly with Chiapas’ San Cristobal de las Casas, Granada is an ideal base for exploring Nicaragua’s unique natural beauty. Kate Joynes-Burgess shares her discoveries.
Click here to download the Spanish original pdf.
Click here to download the text in English.
Santiago de Chile is working hard to change its reputation as one of the most contaminated cities in Latin America. Kate Joynes-Burgess discovers how the Chilean capital is becoming greener by the day.
The port of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico is finally developing a food scene. Kate Joynes-Burgess discovers three gastronomic offerings to satisfy the most demanding of palates.
I am taking this opportunity to voice a big “hear, hear” to Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, who praised Mexico’s unflinchingly meticulous response to the recent swine flu outbreak.
In an interview with the New York Times she said “the whole world should be saying, ‘Gracias, amigos,’ to the Mexicans for the tremendous sacrifice they have made…[which] may have stopped what otherwise would have been a serious pandemic”. Ms Garrett is author of “The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance ” (Penguin, 1995).
Difficult times lie ahead but let’s hope Mexico will ultimately reap rewards for its handling of the crisis in the form of renewed public confidence in its government that should, in turn, encourage tourists to come back.
Guatemalan authorities and diverse representatives of civil society signed a 101-point security pact on 15 April. I commented on the significance of these far-reaching reforms in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.
Today I’m off to Puebla in central Mexico to experience its gastronomic and cultural Baroque Festival (Festival Barroquisimo). More on that later.
It’s been a busy fortnight. On Good Friday (10 April) I was interviewed by Australia’s national ABC radio about my experiences of Mexico’s Easter (Semana Santa) celebrations. I’ll be uploading the media file once I have it.
A few days later Countryman Press commissioned me to write their first Great Destinations guidebook to Belize. I’m a big fan of the bijou Central American country so I can’t wait to get to know it in greater depth.
In addition, I’ve been capitalising on my political expertise to provide comment to China’s Xinhua News Agency on landmark security reforms in Guatemala. I’ll post the link as soon as it goes live.
Happy Friday!
Surveying the traffic
Watch my every move. See you there, tweeps!
Welcome to www.katejb.com. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my articles. Watch this space for my forthcoming blog.
See you back here soon,
Kate JB
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