The Alaska Highway: Day 2: Fort Nelson to Whitehorse

by Richard Quinn | May 9, 2023 | Alaska Highway, Canadian Road Trips, Mountains, Road Trips, Travel

Click Maps and Photos for an expanded view. The sun was up and pouring through my window at 4:30 AM, so I arose early and rolled out of Fort Nelson at 6:00. The plan was to drive at least as far as Watson Lake, 319 miles and about 7 hours away, but clear over on the...

The Alaska Highway: Day 1: Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson

by Richard Quinn | May 9, 2023 | Alaska Highway, Canadian Road Trips, Road Trips, Travel

When I arrived in Dawson Creek, I was dog tired from driving. I’d pushed it almost 500 miles that day, all the way from a tiny town called 100 Mile House, where I’d stayed in a cheap motel after crossing the border north of Seattle. According to my...

The Alaska Highway: Prelude: The Road to Dawson Creek

by Richard Quinn | May 9, 2023 | Alaska Highway, Mountains, National Parks, Road Trips, Travel

For anyone living in the United States, a drive to Alaska on the Alaska Highway is the ultimate road trip, the longest point-to-point journey you can undertake without leaving North America. A lot of people talk about making that drive, but there are relatively few...

Tulum: The City that Greets the Dawn

by Richard Quinn | Apr 17, 2023 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

Tulum is not all that large, as Mayan cities go, but its spectacular location, right on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, makes it one of the best known, and definitely one of the most picturesque. This was a late post-classic Maya site that was at it’s...

The Mayan City of Edzná, First House of the Itzás

by Richard Quinn | Mar 26, 2023 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

Edzná (Edz-nah, pronounced just like it’s spelled) is one of the best kept secrets in the Yucatan. The average tourist has never heard of this particular Mayan ruin, so you would think, based on its lack of notoriety, that there’s nothing special about it. In reality,...

Uxmal: Architectural Perfection in the Land of the Maya

by Richard Quinn | Mar 9, 2023 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

Uxmal, (pronounced, oosh-mahl), is the most aesthetically spectacular of all the Mayan cities. The beautiful setting, the quality of the architecture, the state of preservation, the wonderful plazas replete with flowering trees. This place has it all, and it’s not...

An Overabundance of Bowlers: A Brief History of the Headgear on the High Plateau

by Richard Quinn | Jan 25, 2023 | South America, Travel

Original photographs by CARL DUISBERG The Bolivian altiplano is a land above the clouds, a high plateau situated between the eastern and western cordilleras of the Bolivian Andes, with an average altitude well in excess of 12,000 feet. There is less oxygen in the...

Chinchero: The Place Where Rainbows are Born

by Richard Quinn | Jan 18, 2023 | Historic Photos, Travel

VILLAGE OF CHINCHERO, PERU, AS IT APPEARED IN 1971 original photographs by CARL DUISBERG  In the time of the Inca, when the city of Cusco was the capital of a mighty empire, the village we now call Chinchero was known as the birthplace of the rainbow, in honor of the...

Children of the Altiplano

by Richard Quinn | Jan 13, 2023 | Historic Photos, Travel

HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANDEAN VILLAGERS BY CARL DUISBERG  In 1971, my good friend Carl Duisberg traveled through the remote villages of Peru and Bolivia, capturing candid portraits of the people and their daily lives, still essentially untouched by the modern world....

Puno Day Festival: A Centuries-Old Tradition on the Shores of Lake Titicaca

by Richard Quinn | Jan 11, 2023 | Historic Photos, Travel

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARL DUISBERG The Peruvian city of Puno is known for its colorful festivals celebrating the history and traditions of the Quechua people, the proud descendants of the Inca. One of the most famous of these is known as Puno Day, the culmination...