Get out your gourd. Yerba Mate is the South American tea that deserves all its praise Words by Matt Dursum If you’ve traveled to South America, you’ve likely seen people of all ages walking around with gourds or egg-shaped ceramic cups with a straw and a large thermos of water. This is the omnipresent mate culture of South America, a tea drinking practice that puts other tea-obsessed places like England and Japan to shame. Yerba…
Photography by Samantha Demangate Words by Matt Dursum Ciudad del Este, one of the world’s largest tax free markets and one crazy place to drive through. Just a short trip over the International Friendship Bridge between Paraguay and Brazil, it is the second largest city in Paraguay. Along with the nearby Itaipu dam, the largest hydroelectric dam on earth, and the sprawling commercial center, the city produces over half of Paraguay’s GDP. Before the Itaipu…
Words and photos by Matt Dursum Over a glass of fresh pressed sugar cane juice, my girlfriend and I went over our time in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil with our Airbnb host, driver, and all-around great guy, Thiago Kim. Born in Argentina, Kim has since lived for several years on the Brazilian side of the falls and on top of running several Airbnbs, he runs a tourism company. For a week, we relied on Kim’s…