With the Olympic Games well under way and the first medals snapped up, the worlds eyes are on Rio de Janeiro. But despite the hustle and bustle around the venues and inside the athletes village, living in Rio follows its own pace and its a fairly relaxed one.The city is, by far, Brazils gay hub: apart from welcoming over one million visitors flocking to the city each year, Christ the Redeemer also casts a watchful eye over the citys own, home-grown community. After all, 14.3% of Rios citizens identify as part of the LGBTI community.
At a population of 12.3 million people in the metropolitan area, that accounts for about 1.7 million people and those who arent LGBTI themselves are often described as open minded and extending a warm welcome to people from every walk of life.
Brazils second-biggest city may not have a clearly defined gay quarter, but ask around and people will generally point you in the same direction: towards the Rua Farme de Amoedo, in the affluent South Zone neighbourhood, or bairro, of Ipanema.
By Stephanie Gerdes – Full Story at Gay Star News
Image from Wikipedia, by Gabriel Heusl]]>
Next to a photography exhibition of transsexuals, Ruben Forace touches up his black eyeliner with one hand as he holds a balloon with the rainbow flag in the other. “My identity is ambiguous. I’m not trans because I didn’t get a gender-reassignment surgery and I don’t consider myself as a normal gay guy. My partners are heterosexuals and I don’t like going out with gay men,” he says.
Forace, who works as a tourist guide and has identified as a female cross-dresser for the past 10 years, says his identity is fluid. “During the day, I’m a man and I wear clothes for men. At night, when I go out dancing, I am a girl.” Forace goes by Tati at night.
Forace is one of hundreds of people participating in Buenos Aires’ LGBTIQ festival, a week-long series of events to celebrate sexual diversity. Organized by Argentina’s Tourism Ministry, the festival features drag queens shows, queer tango classes, sports activities, photography exhibitions, and business networking opportunities. For a week, the city’s pedestrian road signs changed to two men and two women.
Filled with diverse Andean culture, Quito has become a top travel destination. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to the Old Town and all it has to offer: Colonial plazas, museums, monasteries, convents, and churches, including the gold-covered Iglesia de la Compania and the citys largest and oldest church, Monasterio de San Francisco. The central plaza, Plaza de la Independencia, is also located here, next to the Presidential Palace.
Rich in culinary options, Quitos famous dishes include ceviche (a dish typical to coastal Latina America that is made from fresh raw fish cured in citrus juices, such as lemon or lime, and seasoned with herbs); loco de papa (a creamy potato soup); and seco de chivo (a Quito specialty of goat meat battered in beer and served with citrus sauce from a fruit called naranjilla). During a recent trip, I had the chance to dine in Old Town, La Mariscal, and outside of the city in the Cotopaxi National Park.
CAFE PLAZA GRANDE
The Hotel Plaza Grande, located in Old Town near the Plaza de la Independencia, is a five-star luxury boutique hotel in a restored 1930s Spanish-colonial mansion that is home to Cafe Plaza Grande. Enjoy your meal here among traditional colonial Ecuadorian ambiance provided by the wood-paneled space and botanical prints. If you love posting photos of your meal, they provide Wi-Fi for all your Instagram-ing needs. No outdoor seating, but through their large windows, you get a nice view of the plaza.
Salta is surrounded by mountains on all sides?–?it’s a beautiful city in a unique location.
There are about 1.2 million people living in the province, and about 700,000 living in the city of Salta.
I spoke with Sebastian Simon who works for the local tourism office. He’s a young, gay guy. In his view Salta is quite a conservative place, but that increasing tourism is changing local attitudes and increasing the confidence and visibility of the LGBTI community in Salta.
Maam Salta: Museum of High Altitude Archaeology
The empire of the Incas included the Salta region and the territories of what is now north-western Argentina. Mount Llullaillaco in the province of Salta was the setting of one of the most important ceremonies of the Incas?–?the Capacocha?–?in which offerings were made to the gods.
So once again I am back in, my home town, gay Buenos Aires – Argentina. These chronicles, as a matter of fact, are the result of my last two trips, with a very small time lapse in between. The main reasons of my trips were, ( first trip ) surprise and celebrate my mother for her Birthday and ( second trip ) connecting from New York to Rio de Janeiro, were I will be during August, attending the RIO 2016 Summer Olympics, as the official travel agent for NBCUniversal’s VIP Guests and Executives. Let’s begin and hope you enjoy my insider tips of my city , chronicles of my recent visits to Buenos Aires.
I departed as usual, non-stop from JFK New York ( where I have been living for the last 10 years ) to Buenos Aires, onboard American Airlines Business Class. A 10-hour flight door-to-door.
Jujuy is one of the main destinations in the north of Argentina – a two-hour flight from Buenos Aires (from the domestic airport near the centre of town).
Jujuy (which is not pronounced as you might expect it to be – the name comes from the local language that pre-dates Spanish), is dominated by the Quebrada de Humahuaca (or Humahuaca gorge) which the Rio Grande (big river) has steadily been wearing away over the millennia.
Formed by volcanic activity, the ancient surrounding mountains are filled with minerals, giving them deep, rich colours – red, orange, green, white, and purple. It’s a dramatic, arid landscape – immersed in an endless blue sky, the only vegetation seems to be the slow-growing cacti.
My visit to this region was in late July dry season for northwest Argentina. This is the high season for domestic tourism, but it’s probably when the area is at its starkest. I’d love to return when the cacti are in flower, bringing a different type of colour to the mountainsides.
Peru has been on my mind lately – a friend of mine asked me to join her on a trip to Peru in September, and had I not already committed to another trip, I would’ve jumped at the chance of joining her. My last trip to Peru ended abruptly, and I have been itching to return ever since I left Cuzco two and a half years ago. After finishing the 5-day Salkantay trek through the Andes to get to Machu Picchu, I’ve been keen on doing some other multi-day treks in Peru: the Cordillera Blanca mountain range around Huarez in the north of the country is supposed to be stunning, and I have no doubt that I’ll love Colca Canyon near Arequipa in the south.
And then there is the mystical oasis town of Huacachina in the midst of mighty sand dunes, the Islas Ballestas which are a wildlife lover’s dream, but I’d also love to return to Cuzco to see more of the Inca ruins around there (Machu Picchu is just one of many more) and to delve more in the city’s amazing food scene, and then there’s Lima, where people also rave about the fantastic restaurant scene and trendy neighborhoods like San Isidro, Barranco or Miraflores.
Peru’s breathtakingly beautiful and diverse landscapes have gotten a lot of praise from travel publications and travelers for a long time now, but it is Peruvian food whose popularity has increased notably over the past few years – which is why I am excited to share the giveaway below, for a culinary trip to Peru (click here to enter if you can’t wait).
It seems like every major city around the globe has at least one Peruvian restaurant these day, and Britain’s Guardian newspaper even ran an article a while back about how Peruvian food has captured food lovers’ hearts in England, quoting gourmet chef Alain Ducasse: ‘Peru will become one of the leading actors on the global culinary scene.’
I spent 9 weeks in Colombia, longer than I’ve spent anywhere else in the past couple of years (except for New York), and I would have even stayed longer, had Mexico not called my name. Looking back, I can’t believe I almost canceled my trip – I would have missed so many amazing experiences.
In short, I loved my time in Colombia. It was one of the best trips I’ve taken, and while I was concerned about safety as a solo female traveler in Colombia prior to my trip, I never felt unsafe or in danger. I’ve been to places where I traveled feeling somewhat uneasy, but Colombia was not one of them.
Instead, I found beautiful beaches here, gorgeous Spanish-colonial towns, a vibrant nightlife in Bogota and Medellin, some of the best fruit I’ve ever eaten, a spiritual awakening in the Amazon, the ruins of an ancient city in the Sierra Nevada mountains, great new friends and memories that will stay with me forever.
After my visit to the coffee region, I finally made it to Medellin, a highly anticipated stop on my tour of Colombia, and I was lucky enough to know some locals who introduced me to the city’s nightlife (and kindly hosted me!).
Not all of my plans to explore the city work out, however: the walking tour I was keen on taking was fully booked and the alternative I’d found didn’t happen (or I was at the wrong meeting point?), and every attempt to take Medellin’s famous cable car up into the mountains was rained out by afternoon downpours.
What I did succeed to do though was visiting most of Fernando Botero’s bronze sculptures which are scattered around the city, with over 20 of them on Parque de Las Esculturas, right in front of the excellent Museum of Antioquia (which also features a lot of Botero’s art). The sculptures and the museum were both huge highlights in Medellin for me, because I adore the art of Colombia’s most popular painter and sculptor and had been looking forward to seeing his art in Medellin for years (really, years!).
This week, I finally visited Colombia’s coffee region, which I had been anticipating since arriving in Colombia a couple of months ago. However, I must admit that I couldn’t enjoy the zona cafeteria as much as I had hoped for… which was partly because I was still battling my sickness (to which a stomach parasite was added) and partly because the weather didn’t fully collaborate.
I spent most of my time in the little town of Salento, known to be the heart of Colombia’s coffee region. The town itself, where almost all houses have colorful balconies or brightly painted wooden doors, was a fabulous place to base myself, with a number of cozy coffee shops to while away during the daily downpours, delicious restaurants to eat my way through, and enough artisan shops to make sure my backpack is now fuller than before!
For most people, the main attraction is not Salento itself though, but its surrounding: the lush green mountains, and the dozens of coffee plantations that make this region famous. And then there’s the region’s showstopper: the Valle De Cocora, a valley filled with giant wax palms which are unique to this area. These wax palms are the tallest palm trees in the world and can grow up to nearly 200 feet (60 meters) tall – it’s quite a sight to see these giants towering high above you while walking through the valley.