Mompox, Colombia   When traveling in a strange land with only a hazily defined sense of purpose to guide you, you find yourself pointed towards destinations based on some fairly whimsical pretexts.   The one which inspired me to make a long, harsh journey over unpaved roads perched in the

If you have ever been towed in the city, there is a distinct moment where you truly wish the aspects of government that regulate transit in our fair town be summarily destroyed by a plague, a tempest of fire, or sent to meet another equally cataclysmic and terrible fate. FOUR

Because, sometimes, stupid decisions and warped logic are the essence of thriftiness: 1) Go commando. Is giving up underwear going to save you on laundry bills? No. But if you have a dangerous shopping habit, here’s one way to get rid of it: “Ooo look at those jeans… maybe I should

Whoa, this looks scary as shit! It’s a humongous haunted house at SF’s old mint. There’s 25 different chambers and two different mazes. They are billing it like this: Mentally brace yourself for the most terrifying, near-death, run for your life, live-interactive “live the horror movie experience” through one of

                Cartagena’s Plaza de Trinidad   For the last three years I´ve been scraping tips into a pile large enough to finance  a relatively thorough exploration of the lower half of The Americas.  For the purpose of this article, I’m primarily intersted in

My neighborhood is broke-ass to a tee. Around here, we live for Free-Detergent-Tuesdays and $2 pizza. Walk down Knickerbocker with twenty one-dollar bills, and you can find a different 99c store to spend each one of them. But if you think austerity measures mean no grand displays of frivolous, transitory fun, then

Image Courtesy of Frankie Smith You can get pretty much anywhere in the United States for far less than you expect if you are willing to sacrifice time, convenience, and comfort. And even though this method of getting around can lead to some itineraries that suck on paper, you’ll always