It was my first visit to Montréal and I know now… it won’t be my last! I spent four days (way too short) criss-crossing the city on foot and what I found was a charming, laid-back city with a distinct European feel. Sure, downtown Montréal, with its towering skyscrapers and broad avenues, looks very much [...]

Chilling in Rio
I LOVE RIO! Who wouldn’t? It surely is one of the most spectacular cities in the world. Hemmed in between a huge bay, the Atlantic Ocean and a mountainous interior, Rio de Janeiro boasts some of the most famous attractions anywhere, such as the Christ the Redeemer statue atop the Corcovado mountain, the Sugar Loaf [...]

The wines of Nova Scotia
“Wines of Nova Scotia?!?!… There’s a wine industry in Nova Scotia?” Those were my exact words when I was told about Nova Scotia’s numerous wineries. I was very surprised. However, as I explored the province, there were many factors that made the idea of a wine industry in Nova Scotia less surprising. One factor blew [...]

How to make a caipirinha
Caipirinha! It’s Brazil’s national cocktail: a wicked mix of lime, sugar, cachaça (sugar cane liquor) and lots of ice. I remember my first trip to Brazil in 1998 when I went on a sailing trip near Rio de Janeiro. I was one of three foreigners on the boat and we had a blast, all thanks [...]

Velvet Moments: travel photo – Pisco Sour
It had been a long day. First a flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas, then a three-hour wait for the bus to Puerto Natales, the gateway to the Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. It must’ve taken me close to twelve hours to get to Puerto Natales. I arrived at the hotel, totally [...]

Where a million paths cross
New York City! Who could ever forget their very first time in this great city? I remember strolling down the streets in complete awe of the buildings and the incredible energy gushing through the city. On my first visit in 1992, I was determined to see all the famous landmarks that I’d gotten to know [...]

A Shangri-La in downtown Toronto
Definition Shangri-La: 1. An imaginary remote paradise on earth; utopia. 2. any place of complete bliss, delight and peace (source: online dictionary) The Shangri-La Hotel Toronto is nether imaginary nor remote. On the contrary, housed in a stunning skyscraper, it enjoys a grand location on University Avenue in downtown Toronto within a stone’s throw of [...]

The colours of Lunenburg
The town of Lunenburg is a gorgeous fishing town on Nova Scotia’s eastern seaboard, southwest of Halifax. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Lunenburg is one of the best surviving examples of planned British colonial settlements in North America, with immigrants from Germany, Switzerland and France making the settlement their home in the 18th [...]

A forest of glass and steel
It was one of the first things I asked when I arrived in Toronto: where is the name ‘Toronto’ derived from? A quick Google search – gee, why didn’t I think of that? – revealed that the name Toronto, a derivative of the word ‘tkaronto’, was first used by the Iroquois (a tribe that used [...]









