Columns

When we return from an adventure, we count on photographs to tell the story and convey the excitement and the feeling of the place we’ve been. But often we end up with “George in front of the Eiffel Tower,” “George beside the Blue Danube,” “George riding on a camel,” “George staring into the camera”. . . . You can just hear your audience yawn.

Get yourself in the picture. Have George take some, and, if you are in a group, ask other members to push the shutter for you. Ask a stranger? Often other travelers are happy to oblige — and won’t run off with your camera (choose carefully)....

by Julie Skurdenis

Mention Panama and most people think Panama Canal. There is no doubt that the 50-mile-long canal, completed in 1914, that cuts across Panama from the Atlantic to the Pacific is one of the most spectacular feats of modern engineering. It would be a mistake for any visitor to Panama to miss at least a partial transit of the Canal or, failing that, a visit to Miraflores Locks to see the locks up close and in operation.

But Panama offers so much more besides: for a start, tropical rainforests for wildlife and birds, beaches and islands for relaxing, and...

Fifteen hundred years ago, Kairouan was only a desert crossroads, a caravan stop in the sands of what is now Tunisia in North Africa. But this quickly changed. In fewer than 100 years following the death of Muhammad in A.D. 632, caravans from Saudi Arabia had spread his word of Islam from India to the Atlantic Ocean.

Okba Ben Nafi is credited with converting Kairouan to Islam and founding its Great Mosque in 670. Shortly thereafter, Kairouan became the religious center and capital of Tunisia. It remained the capital until 1057, when the city was plundered by the seminomadic...