Elizabeth Willoughby is a Canadian freelance writer and photographer based near Munich since 2004. Her current regular gigs include WorldGuide, where she is the author of its adventure travel page called Tales from the Road; Look to the Stars, where she is the international correspondent writing pieces on charitable acts by celebrities; and Munich University's insightLMU, where she is a regular contributor to the magazine's interesting people and academics pages. Previously, she lived in Sao Paulo where she wrote two regular columns for Brazil's only bilingual newspaper, Sunday News. The columns were called Going Places, on South American travel, and Letters Home, a tongue-in-cheek look at culture-clash. Ms. Willoughby resides in the foothills of Germany's Alps.
Published Articles
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Three Days in the Souks
Arriving at my riad mid-afternoon, my knock sounds frail against the B&B's heavy, cedar door. A man in camouflage pants, scruffy shirt and baseball cap leads a ragged donkey and cart up the alley. I move closer to the door to give way. Listening for sounds of movement on the other side of the mass of wood… |  |
Kashmir's Paradise, Redefined
I buy a ticket to Kashmir where there is a lull in the conflicts, a houseboat on Dal Lake and “Paradise on Earth.” There is a reason so many say they love India, and I'm going to find out why.
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Chasing Dracula through Romania
I am a fan of adventure. I am not a fan of crowds – tourist crowds in particular. But where to go for some article fodder while avoiding throngs of tourists? I wrack my brain. Suddenly the answer comes to me – it's so obvious: I should chase down Dracula in Romania. |  |
Scuba Diving in the Red Sea
The port in early morning is all hustle and bustle as crews are loading up the ships. Dollies and wagons carry crates and equipment down the dock past a long row of vessels' sterns. Dive tanks are tossed from man to man and slipped into slots ready for the first dive, or clanged into piles on decks for the subsequent ones. |  |
Getting Spoiled in Namibia's Unspoiled Wilderness
Someone has just radioed us the whereabouts of a pride of lions and we're hot on its trail in the Oganva Reserve in northern Namibia. Although it's a sunny afternoon, the rainy season began last month – the vegetation is green and the dirt trails that we follow are bumpy and puddled. |
Luang Prabang Outside The Tourist Radar
This is not a typical morning for me, mostly because it's 5:30 a.m. and I am not snoozing, but also because I am kneeling on a sidewalk with my head bowed respectfully, holding a pot of sticky rice, waiting for a procession of monks. ...
Tweeting Through Costa Rica the Old-Fashioned Way
As I approach the entrance to Monteverde's biological reserve in the Puntarenas Province of Costa Rica, my guide, Eric, points out a viper snoozing in the crook of a tree above my head. I look up, but can't make it out. He slides a tripod off his shoulder, lines up the sight in his telescope, and there appears a long, lime green snake drooping and looping off one side of a branch and the other, fast asleep - or at least not visibly moving in its apparent highly-relaxed state. Maybe it's as pleased as I am that the June shower has cleared, for now...
The Amazon - A Whirlwind For The Senses
Gliding along in a hollowed-out log, the paddles, nearly silent, impel the craft through the porridge of marshy weeds and murky water. The hot sun beats down with exhausting force. Heavy air carries aromatic scents of various trees and a trace of decaying foliage in this surreal atmosphere. The canoe manoeuvres through the Amazon treetops from where spiders drop, hitching a ride to their next port. Below, the obstinate jungle floor, buried under meters of water, attempts to re-grow itself on the water surface, providing a textured flattop for miniature frogs to rest upon. Grasshoppers urgently snap across it like raindrops pelting wet leaves, while dragonflies and butterflies relax, weightlessly, on paddlers' backs.
Belize - Small in Size, Big in Beauty
We're about 10 minutes off the shores of San Pedro when our little six-metre boat is tied off to a big round buoy and my diving guide plops himself into the waters. I'm next. I sit backwards on the edge of the cockpit, put one hand over my mask and the other over my regulator, and fall backwards overboard. According to diving protocol, I give the ok sign to the skipper, even though skippers are never looking, then deflate my vest to begin submerging. I locate my guide a few metres off, but movement below catches my attention. There's a gathering of sharks swimming around under my flippers and I am descending into the middle of their party.
Burmese Days on the Road to Mandalay
No longer the British colony referred to in George Orwell's novel, Burmese Days, or Rudyard Kipling's poem, Mandalay, the Burmese have yet to free themselves from the ties that bind them, but they seem ready.
Rich, Regal Rio - Wandering Through the 19th Century
It is the mid-1800s, and the harbour of Rio de Janeiro is bustling and humming with activity. The coffee boom has revitalized the Brazilian economy giving Rio's port a new importance and financing the modernization of the colonial city. Travellers are coming and going, sailing the now regular passenger ships to London and Paris. They rush to and fro the ferry service to Niteroi across the bay. They slog through the muddy harbour streets below the overpasses that run from the Emperor's palace to the convent to the royal chapel keeping the monarch family's shoes clean and dry, but soon the streets will be paved. A telegraph system and gas streetlights have already been installed. Houses, convents, churches and public buildings, a sewage system and the first railway station are all under construction. Business is booming, immigration is rampant, prosperity rises each day with the sun, the city is thriving.
Three Days in the Souks
The bustle and confusion of Moroccan bazaars can be overwhelming to the senses at first. But one does not come to Morocco for clarity. Becoming engulfed in Fez's medina is key to the wonder and experience.
Deep, Dark, Delicious - Flavours of Africa in Salvador, Bahia
In the dank heat the drumming starts, beating life into the dark night air. The ceremony begins...
Three alabes (drummers) in brilliant red shirts and stark white pants are perched at the head of the room and belt out a rhythm on their tall, conga-style drums. They're calling the orixas (gods). In front of the alabes stands the babalorixa, the priest who leads the night. He begins chanting. He is answered by a chorus of women.
Barefoot ladies in bulging hooped skirts float in -- their long colourful necklaces swaying against white lace blouses, keeping time with graceful, swinging hips; their hair bundled in white turbans against black skin. Repeating the lines of the priest, and in step with the sonorous beat of the sacred drums, they weave into a growing circle in front of the babalorixa, dancing counter clockwise around a tall centerpiece of axes...
Kashmir's Paradise, Redefined
After two weeks in pollution-choked New Delhi and its surrounds, I'm still determined to discover some of the beauty India has to offer. There is a reason so many say they love India, and I'm going to find out why. I should have gone south like they did.
Scuba Diving In The Red Sea
Leaving the chaos of Cairo's airport for the tranquillity of Sharm el Sheikh's is rewarding, but leaving Sharm's artificial oasis for possibly the best diving in the world - in the Red Sea - is the big payoff...
Namibia's Unspoiled Wilderness
Someone has just radioed us the whereabouts of a pride of lions and we're hot on its trail in the Oganva Reserve in northern Namibia. Although it's a sunny afternoon, the rainy season began last month -- the vegetation is green and the dirt trails that we follow are bumpy and puddled. Our guide warns me about the possibility of getting stuck, but I say, "I came for the lions!" and we bounce and lurch on...
Paul Newman Inspired African Version Of Hole In The Wall Camps
Paul Newman would be very pleased with the development of Children In The Wilderness (CITW) camps - not only because it was his idea behind them, but because they are changing the lives of some of southern Africa's most vulnerable children.
Ilha Grande - Beyond the Beaches
A chance glance into the nighttime sea and my flashlight lands upon a white disk rushing through the water towards me, glowing and growing ever larger, and finally revealing its head and legs. Within moments the sea turtle passes just overhead with nary a glimpse at the audience, and the illumination is gone.
1930's Rail Travel Through Africa for the Leisured Elite
If you're thinking Orient Express, forget it. Think bigger, better and slower. Rovos Rail boasts the most luxurious trains in the world: The Pride of Africa.
Chasing Draculas
History, culture, evil spirits and the living dead, Romania has it all if you know where to look.
Santana de Parnaiba - The Conspiracy Lives
It's approaching midnight -- a restlessness begins to permeate the town. The quiet commotion stirs villagers to steal out of their homes in the middle of the night and head for the historical centre. Laden with sacks, buckets and blueprints, each conspirator heads to a designated area to execute his portion of the plan. By sunrise, the coalition is in full swing...
River Cruising in the Mekong Delta
Southeast Asia was influenced first by China and India, then by French colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, then by literally decades of war. With its doors reopened to tourism, what is Indochina like now?
Flying into Siem Reap, Cambodia, the vista from my window is of vast stretches of land at various stages of submersion. The paddy fields that aren't under water appear as a quilt of shallow, square pools. It's December; the waters are still receding. I'm on my way to the Jayavarman, the ship that will take me by river from whence I just departed by air: Saigon.
The Birdman Cult of Rapa Nui
Climb freestyle down a cliff, swim through shark infested waters, survive attacks from competitors and get the egg - that's the Birdman competition that took place on Easter Island for nearly 200 years. But why?
Rapa Nui, A Pacific Ocean Island of Mystery
Easter Island is the most isolated island on earth and famous for its giant stone heads, yet surprisingly little is known about the culture that created them. Island artefacts reveal much, but conceal even more.
Atacama, A Desert of Surprises
Flying from Santiago, Chile to the Atacama Desert in the north, the dry, brown mountains seem endless. Eventually, I spy a trail of dust chasing a truck barrelling across the emptiness, and then green seeps into the landscape as the plane approaches Calama, the isolated mining town where we will land.
My destination is San Pedro, a 75-minute drive southeast of the airport. The scenery does not improve en route -- stony shades of brown alternate between flat and hilly until I arrive at the "oasis" town. Here there are trees that appear thirstier than I am. One-story homes are boxed in behind cracked and crumbling adobe walls.
Wine Festivals Near Toronto
September in Ontario means Toronto's film festival, but it's also the start of a festival season that revolves around the harvest, when early autumn landscapes showcase the art of vintners, chefs and musicians.
Toronto, Hollywood North
TIFF is one of the most significant film festivals in the world. It draws thousands of visitors, big name celebrities and up and coming producers and directors who all have one thing in common: a love of film.
Snorkeling Rio da Prata
With snorkels and masks adjusted, face-to-face encounters with colourful fish under a brilliant sky-blue backdrop begin. Swimmers stare at fish. Fish stare at swimmers. Like surfacing whales, gusts of wet air blasts through the snorkels as we investigate the underwater terrain and drift down stream with the current, our wetsuits keeping us warm and effortlessly bouyant.
Michael Moore on Troubles in America
Thouhts & Visions: During the Toronto premiere of his hard-hitting movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore had much to say on the subject, and on things he hopes will change in America.
Day Trips From Curitiba
Curitiba, Brazil is billed as a user-friendly and sustainable city, but its location also makes it a great base from which to make day excursions. Revisit colonial era train routes through the mountains, retrace indigenous trails to the sea, or go back even further to the scapes carved by wind and water millions of years ago.
Kashmir's Paradise, Redefined
After two weeks in pollution-choked New Delhi, I'm still determined to discover some of the beauty India has to offer. There is a reason so many say they love India, and I'm going to find out why. I should have gone south, like they did.
Cave Exploring in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest
It's amazing how many thoughts can race through one's mind at times of intense anxiety -- such as when sliding uncontrollably down the smooth, wet rock in a grotto while other cave explorers sit like bowling pins only metres beyond. (...Brazil's south-eastern Atlantic Rainforest offers some of the best opportunities for cave exploration in the country.)
Brazilian Carnival, But Not the One You're Thinking Of
Only 35 kilometres from Sao Paulo, on the eve of Carnival each year in one of Brazil's most ancient cities, thousands of residents wait in anxious anticipation for Grito da Noite (Scream Night) to begin.
Boomtowns of the Brazilian Gold Rush Era
In 18th-century Brazil, the prospect of rushing to Minas Gerais to eke out a living searching for gold or diamonds was a risky venture. It was a time when guns settled disputes, crime was rife and prostitution, gambling and drunken brawls were the source of entertainment. Heavily-taxed gold finds goaded discontented miners against the crown; hundreds of thousands of black slaves came into the country and died in the mines -- the gold rush brought heartbreak and misery to untold fortune seekers. Yet, it also brought great wealth to the handful of settlements it established. It gave Brazil heroes, artisans and architecture, financed the British Industrial Revolution and fuelled Rio de Janeiro's economy... Famous for its gemstones, the state of Minas Gerais (General Mines) has a distinctly different personality than other regions of Brazil. Try this scenic road trip through the colonial era.
The Galapagos - Island Paradise or No Man's Land?
"Nothing could be less inviting than first appearance. ...the whole black lava, completely covered by small leafless brushwood and stunted trees, show little signs of life. ...The country was comparable to what one might imagine the cultivated parts of the Infernal regions to be."
I admit Charles Darwin's dismal description of the Galapagos Islands in 1835 -- like hell itself -- is not travel brochure material. "First appearance" at Baltra Island's airport surround, at least in October, is as barren as Darwin described. However, at higher altitudes the rising, moist air provides enough dampness for a more lush vegetation...
Itu - Brazil's Own Rome
Itu, a few kilometres south of Sao Paulo city, was just a humble outpost until history grabbed it and led it through a rip-roaring adventure on to prosperity and culture. Today, its history largely forgotten, Itu's popularity has been relegated to its prized golf course. At the footsteps of the greens and fairways, however, here's what the golfers are missing...
Day Trips from Tiberias in Northern Israel
Ancient sea ports and Jesus' ministry, Israel has much to offer besides its famous southern elements of Jerusalem, desert and dead waters. I've arrived in Tiberias and am following my guide around, struggling to recall the bible stories I heard as a child. Some come more easily than others. Here in the surrounds of the Sea of Galilee, Jerusalem seems very far away from these rolling hills, pastures and colourful, blooming vegetation. Around the Sea of Galilee, I visit the same locations that Jesus visited during his short ministry leading up to his fateful episode, and his biography keeps getting clearer...
Petra - The Rock and So Much More
Petra, one of the seven wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remains uniquely fascinating after thousands of years. Visiting it today, however, is easier than it was a few millennia ago. Or is it?
Jerusalem - City of Fervour
One of the oldest cities on earth, violence has plagued much of its existence. Jerusalem and the names of its landmarks were familiar to my ears through years of news reports on war, terror bombings and clashes between Jews and Arabs. Even so, I really knew nothing about it, so in preparation for my visit I poured through historical literature. It was worse than I'd imagined: a battle-scarred place of religious extremism, thousands of years of violent conflict, an eternal turmoil over possession up to present day. Aldous Huxley called it, "the great slaughterhouse of the religions". After reading the Testaments, my husband had me write my own before I left.
Foz do Iguacu - The Great Waters
As my jeep bounces and lurches along the rutted, potholed track, the ominous rumblings of distant thunder grow increasingly louder, its source masked by the surrounding dense jungle. At the end of the road, a brief clearing. Steamy, subtropical air is slightly cooler and carries the scent of mossy dampness. (...This exceptionally beautiful waterfall horseshoe in South America is shared by Brazil and Argentina. Named "The Great Waters" by the local Tupi Guarani Indians, these falls are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.)
Buzios - From Fishing Village to Famous Beach Resort
Back in the 1600s, fishermen of Armacao dos Buzios, a quaint little village 170 km north of Rio de Janeiro, were whale hunting specialists. They built houses along a narrow strip of beach, now called Praia da Armacao, that provided secure anchorage for their fishing vessels. From there they caught the whales that would provide the oil to light the town and discarded the waste from the giants on Ossos (Bones), the neighbouring beach. It remained a fairly simple village until three centuries later when Brigitte Bardot "discovered" it while vacationing with her Brazilian boyfriend in the '60s.
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