Is this the best feijoada in Rio?

06:01 AM, January 22, 2013 |
Eating out - Rio
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There are a few other things which find themselves onto a to-do-list for a visit to Rio.

1) Christ the Redeemer

2) The cable car up to Sugarloaf

3) Sunning  yourself on Ipanema

4) Eating your body weight in meat at one of the churrascarias the city is famed for.

5) Drinking a few caipirinhas

6) Tasting feijoada. It appears as a heady concoction of meat. And beans. With slices of sunshine-orange. Those seem to be the key ingredients, and you can’t really cap off a visit to Rio without sampling some of it.

The sticky thing is that the first three things on that list are largely weather dependant. Yet when you find yourself in the …

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15 Things Not to Do while Travelling

09:57 PM, January 19, 2013 |
Travel, Travel essentials
15 Things Not to Do while Travelling

UPDATED FROM THE ORIGINAL 11

1) Go anywhere, anywhere near Heathrow Airport when it snows

London is not Stockholm, Moscow, Berlin or Toronto. It cannot cope with snow. It runs around after its tail, flurrying and freaking for a few moments when the sky threatens white; and then it stops.

Quiet, silent meditation is fine. Except if you’re one of the world’s busiest airports. We thought we’d been canny booking our flight out of Heathrow on the 18th of December. The past few snows have been closer to Christmas. What we didn’t count on was January snow. It’s a two hour transfer from The Sacred Valley to Cusco. It’s an hour and a …

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Date Tart

01:30 AM, January 17, 2013 |
baking, feeding a crowd, french, In the kitchen
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I’ve been thinking a bit about simplifying. It might have been prompted by the fact that there are four tops and two pairs of shoes in my suitcase that I haven’t worn once on this five week jaunt (hola from Peru).  And don’t even get me started on all the earrings I haven’t bothered to untangle or the scarves that are nestled down in the corner,  now protecting jars of dulce de leche.

I should have followed my old rules; pack jeans, a couple of dresses, three pairs of shoes (one pair of ballet flats that can be dressed up, one pair of sportier ones and flip flops). But I didn’t. …

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