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Meet up with a Global Greeter
This is an ideal way for solo travelers to get acclimated to a new city, and make a new friend while you are at it. Global Greeters is an international network of volunteers who love their home towns so much, they want to show it off and will meet you for a free walking tour. They have been around for more than 25 years, get rave reviews, and operate in many major Latin American cities. You can learn about it at www. globalgreeternetwork. info and then be connected to local chapters, which usually have their own sites.
Traveler tip
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For book-loving people watchers in Buenos Aires
Do not miss El Ateneo( Av. Santa Fe 1860, 1123 CABA) in Buenos Aires. It is a 100-year-old theater that has been turned into a bookstore. The stage has been transformed into a café so you can sit there, eat a pastry and drink coffee while watching others browse for books around you. The café prices are very reasonable.
—Barbara Lagrotteria, 16-time traveler, Quincy MA
RECOMMENDED
Reading
The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto“ Che” Guevara( Memoir)
The Tango Singer by Tomás Eloy Martínez( Fiction, Argentina)
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin( Travel Narrative, Argentina)
Gabriela, Clove, and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado( Fiction, Brazil)
The House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune, or Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende( Fiction, Chile)
Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile by Sara Wheeler( Travel Narrative, Chile)
Monkeys Are Made Of Chocolate: Exotic and Unseen Costa Rica by Jack Ewing( Essays, Costa Rica)
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner( Natural History, Galápagos)
The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough( History, Panama)
Lost City of the Incas by Hiram Bingham( Nonfiction, Peru)
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Bring a travel towel to Costa Rica
Most hotels will give you a towel, but they are not always allowed on beaches or off the hotel grounds. A microfiber towel will come in handy if you are out hiking and have the chance to duck under a waterfall, or if there’ s an unexpected rain shower. Plus, they’ re quick-drying and light.
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