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The Selves and the Others
A few weeks ago, I picked up a book that had been sitting on my to-read stack for a couple of months. The book is part memoir, part travelogue, and it’s written by an author I had never read before. I was intrigued by the title and the content that it promised, and in that…
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Floating Homes
Three days before flying back to the US, I was shopping at a supermarket with my sister. As I was filling the cart with my favorite Macedonian goodies to take back with me to Tucson, I ran into a neighbor who worked at the supermarket. She was excited to see me, gave me a hug, and…
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A Country of Amigos
At one moment in time, I’m sitting at a restaurant with the view of Lake Atitlan and I’m enjoying a delicious seafood meal, occasionally chatting with the kind and energetic server. I have been here for over two hours, and he has not bothered me or nudged me to leave once (a sweet luxury I…
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Gutsy Women
I pull over in the driveway and park my car at the designated spot. The house from the outside looks just like the pictures on Airbnb – cute, quaint. A tall graceful lady with a soft smile and penetrating eyes welcomes me at the front door. I sense a pleasantly overwhelming smell of lavender that…
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Unstructured
With a built-up confidence of a local and a hyped-up observance of a visitor, I walk and walk and walk seemingly headed somewhere definite and planned. I take streets that sound interesting and appear to be unique or slightly different from the ones I have been taking the past three hours or so. I make…
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So, How’s America?
This week marked the sixth year since I moved to the United States. In these six years, I have been and seen a lot of things. I have been a student, a tourist, an employee. I have been a creator of a very fulfilling life for myself. I have met and built connections with incredible…
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Destruction and Renewal at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
On day some out of seven in Flagstaff, I decide to explore Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments. One of the many beauties of slow travel is the fact that the days melt into each other smoothly and without the looming pressure to __________ (insert any travel-related verb here) more. I am here with…
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I Owe It to the Canyon
To simply say that the past couple of months have been hard is to reduce a wide spectrum of emotions, events, and moments to a four letter word with a somewhat negative or concerning connotation. As I am writing this, I don’t hold onto that meaning. Nobody wants hard, but sometimes easy is not in…
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Confianza
It is shortly after noon when we leave our Airbnb, a bright and spacious house tucked at the end of a very quiet semi-paved street. Walking down the colorful streets still imbued with morning calm and slowness, we smile politely at the locals who gaze at us with curious eyes as we pass by the…
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A Place Between Stories
Travel has always been a part of my life. This, however, does not mean that I always traveled. In fact, I didn’t get to travel until my late high school years, but my vivid childish imagination took me places. When I was a kid, I frequently visualized the ocean and imagined how the breeze would…
Peaks and Plateaus 