Posts by Rick Juliusson
Media Cleanse
Someone told me Trump was shot last week. It bubbled briefly through my bliss then floated away again, unperturbed, unexamined, unrelated to my reality. I’m on day 10 of an unplanned media cleanse. Just imagine: no emails, no New York Times daily digest and Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American”, no facebook, no netflix.…
Read MoreMexican Food Market
The photos I shared from the flower market for Mother’s Day only told half the story – the other side had a bounty of fresh, local, mostly-healthy foods, many of which I actually recognized. I haven’t yet found my writing mojo since landing back in Minnesota, but please enjoy another visual walk through this Mexican…
Read MoreBeach Bummed in Bacalar
I’m bored. Lying under a palm tree beside the famous 7-coloured lagoon in Bacalar, Mexico, a few hours inland from Cancun. Sucking on the fresh slice of pineapple garnishing my virgin mojito, waiters in crisp white shirts conjuring fresh shrimp ceviche and fish tempura. Clear water just cool enough to be refreshing on this 90…
Read MoreMothers Day in a Mexican Flower Market
Mothers Day used to mean a walk down to Fleugers Nursery to buy a few pretty potted plants. But nothing in that annual ritual compares to a visit to Mercado Jamaica – the flower market in Mexico City that never sleeps (or at least, never closes). Now that I’ve finished my 3-part Cuba series (see…
Read MoreTwo Weeks in Havana
“Our time in Cuba was one of my favorites in all our years of travel,” declared my extremely well-traveled wife. The culture shock and sober analysis I shared in my last two posts were real, but the overwhelming experience of two weeks in Havana was WOW! Colonial Architecture Every day we jumped in a “collectivo”…
Read MoreWhat Went Wrong in Cuba?
Disclaimer: Anything I might proclaim here about Cuba is incomplete, naive, and based on a dangerous combination of ignorance and idealism. I spent two short weeks in Cuba, only in a few neighbourhoods of Havana. My sources are a university graduate whom we paid twice to spend a few hours with us to answer our…
Read MoreCuba Culture Shock
I thought I was immune to culture shock. I have visited 41 countries (meaning I’ve slept, ate and talked to people there, not just a layover). I’ve been deported and refused entry from more countries than my mom knows. I’m 57 years wise as of last week. So my trepidation and disorientation upon arriving in…
Read MoreEveryone is Special; No-one is Extraordinary
No-one can make you feel special like the Monteverde Friends Meeting. After 6 long years away, just walking into the beautiful timberframe meeting house elicits joyful smiles and “So glad you’re back!” waves from long-lost Friends. More surprised delight as more people trickle in. The enthusiastic but appropriately-muted murmurs of “Welcome” after we stand up…
Read MoreSweet Home, Monteverde
I think the first hug was from Rita. On that dry-season-dusty-green, oh-so-familiar corner at the base of the hill the boys and I climbed every day to school, outside La Colina Lodge where Greg and Amber used to host Hamburger Night, right by the favorite fencepost where the green-and-blue mot-mot would greet us every morning,…
Read MoreLa Fortuna, Costa Rica
Our overly-affectionate friends from Minnesota treated us to an overnight at La Fortuna at the base of Arenal volcano. The drive there through the rural, mountainous interior of Costa Rica was already worth the price of admission – an easy (3.5 hour, 70-mile, you do the math) drive from Monteverde – rent a 4×4! Our…
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