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…
Words and photos by Matt Dursum For one year, my girlfriend and I have been successfully living in Latin America. We started part one of this journey into butchering our way through Spanish fluency and getting our careers as newbie journalists off the ground in Mexico. Part two started in Chile. We have since moved slowly through the continent’s southern stretches of coastline, forest, and mountains. Out of all the delectable food we’ve eaten along…
Words and Photos by Matt Dursum There’s a rain soaked glare on the streets of Montevideo as a Candombe troupe dances past us. We join in, mirroring the steps of a casual batucada salsa. We are happy to be a part of this. Normally I don’t join in parades with dancing people but, tonight, I felt extra jovial from drinking two pints of local craft beer and scarfing down patacón sandwiches—Venezuelan beef sandwiches with fried…
Photography by Samantha Demangate In this article, I’d like to spew some anger. I’m taking this opportunity to belittle gas and electric grills and how MOST people do BBQ in the United States by introducing the art form of the parrilla. Now, I know people are busy. And yes, of course, eating red meat is horrible for the planet and we should all get used to sautéing insects by now. But, if we’re going to…
Photography by Samantha Demangate When you think of lavishness and wealth, Uruguay hardly comes to mind. It’s a small, unpretentious, and nature oriented country where being flashy is far from respected by society. Yet, even though it’s one of the most humble places on the continent, the city of Punta del Este has become South America’s riviera. Every year, millions of people pour onto its sandy beaches and into its hotels and casinos, hoping to…