1. Ever heard of Maaenboodhoo? Me neither. It’s in the Maldives, which I am sure you’ve heard of which is an archipelagic that’s southwest of Sri Lanka (more south than west). What was amazing to me was this photo of the capital city of Malé and they have appeared to use every square inch of…

1. I took a break last week to take a trip to Washington. I got to see my brother, his wife, and my new niece. I had proposed in the summer that my brother and I do a “runcation” which was a way for me to go run in the mountains and go see my…

1. Ever heard of Nachi Taisha? Me neither. It’s a Shinto temple that’s part of a UNESCO heritage site in the Kii Mountain Range of Japan. I’ll totally admit that the Shinto religion or belief system is something I know nothing about, but based on this idea of “Kami” it sounds reasonable: The term kami…

1. Ever heard of Cantabria? Me neither. It is a historical autonomous community in Spain and belongs to “Green Spain”, as it sits between the Bay of Biscay, the Basque province of Biscay, the principality of Asturias, and the Cantabrian Sea. That all sounds like a fairy tale description. Photo by Mathew MacQuarrie on Unsplash…

1. Ever heard of Torres del Paine? I would bet that I’ve already posted this, but I’m not willing to search today. Regardless, Torres del Paine National Park is in Chile and part of the Chilean Patagonia. Photo by Olga Stalska on Unsplash 2. Only one thing today, so technically it is a “links” with…

1. Ever heard of Mayotte Island? Me neither. Apparently it is a territorial collectivity of France, which is a lot of word salad to say that it was colonized by France back in the day and it’s off the east coast of Africa, east of Mozambique and north of Madagascar. Regardless, 84% of the population…

1. Ever heard of Hamnøy? Me neither. It’s a really small island in Norway and its  in probably in a Volkswagen commercial. There’s nothing really on the Wikipedia page about it, but it is just really pretty. Photo by Mischa Bachmann on Unsplash 2. This is a map of where Indigenous nations lived. I find…

1. Ever heard of Maligne Lake? Me neither. It’s a lake in the Jasper National Park out there in Alberta, Canada. Maligne Lake is fed by the Maligne River and the river is named that way for the French word for “malignant” or wicked. The name was used by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet (1801–1873) to…

1. Ever heard of Kaiserstuhl? Me neither. It’s a range of hills in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg in southwest Germany, the name referring to King Otto III from 994, and literally means “King’s Chair” Photo by Claudio Testa on Unsplash 2. Via Open Culture, the world’s oldest cookbook, which was published in 1643 in Japan,…

1. Ever heard of Guatape? Me neither. Guatape is a town in Columbia and can be popular with tourists. There’s also this big rock there, la piedra, and it is 200 meters above the groudn and just sticks out of the ground. Photo by Luisa Forero on Unsplash 2. Are you kidding me. A glass…