At the Obraje Fish Farm in Otavalo, Ecuador, one can dine on the trout they catch, prepared with local flare by the Obraje staff at an incredibly affordable price.

Take a guided tour of a lively boulevard in Adícora, Venezuela, during a vacation period, where the party is just getting started.

Raquel tells us about Spain's most traditional and unique annual festivals.

José Peñafiel, a member of the brotherhood in Tobarra, Spain, a municipality in the Albacete province, explains to us about some of its famous Holy Week observances.

Singing in Nasa Yuwe, their native language, is one way in which Colombia's indigenous Nasa population strives to preserve and make more visible their language, culture and customs.

Join Eduardo and Luicana on their boat again as they tell you about the zona paqueta they are rowing by in the Río de la Plata. This posh area is where some of the children they teach live. Is it the right side of the tracks, or the right bank of the river?

Beautiful Panama has been promoted to tourists with the slogan “Se queda en tí” (“It stays with you”). Panamanian waters are great for surfing, for fishing and for floating around and chatting. Let’s meet Cholito, one of the locals, who will show us around in his boat!

La Vela is a small town in the state of Falcón, on the northwest coast of Venezuela, where every December 28th Los Locos [“The Crazy Ones”] arrive wearing colorful and elaborated costumes. The whole town becomes a party, with businesses closing and people dancing in the streets. It’s a tradition that could be in any magical realism novel and that desperately struggles to not fall into oblivion.

It’s quite possible that El Día de Los Locos, as celebrated in La Vela de Coro, has its roots as far back as the Roman Empire, which celebrated Saturnalia at the same time of year. Both festivals, historically, involve turning the social order on its head, with slaves dressing like their masters.

Deep in the heart of Old San Juan you can hear live salsa music playing most any night at the Nuyorican Cafe. We stepped into the alley for a breather and had a little chat with two lovely salseras to get an insider view of what brings them back to the dance floor night after night.

Most English speakers have at some time in their lives heard Donovan sing “The Hurdy Gurdy Man,” but how many knew what such a man did? The woman in this video talks about a musical family that used to play the sinfonía, and indeed this is the Spanish name for the hand-crank organ known as a “hurdy gurdy.”

Vela, a word often used for “candle,” or “sail,” can also mean “wakefulness,” as in “vigilance.” It’s related to the verb velar, “to stand watch.” The name of the port city of La Vela de Coro refers not to the “sails” of merchant ships (as many assume) but rather to this town’s role as a “lookout” point for marauding pirates. One-eyed peg-legs are now less common, but the carnivalesque annual festival of Los Locos continues on.

A fishing village like Adícora can be a place of work and industry for locals, but also one of rest and relaxation for travelers. Chober comes from a fishing family and knows the trade, but he recognizes the growing importance of tourism. His generation realizes that the survival of both ways of life necessitates better care of the environment and increased ecological awareness.

Noruego means “Norwegian,” hence a princesa noruega is a “Norwegian princess.” One arrived in Burgos, Spain on Christmas Eve, in the year 1257. She was to wed Prince Felipe, brother of King Alfonso X of Castile. Marry they did, but Cristina de Noruega fell ill and died at only twenty eight years old.