Life in pandemic-imposed social isolation was starting to get me down. No one is traveling, I’m out of work, and the dog is overdue for a haircut. Then it dawned on me that I have an old domain that I haven’t used in a long time that I could fire up for a rebooted version of a travel blog – cooking foods from the places I love.

I’ve got more than 30 countries across all inhabited continents under my belt, and I’ve taken cooking classes in at least 6 of them. I’ve got piles of cookbooks that I’ve brought home from my travels. And I’m shut in right now with no place to go and desire to eat tasty things while I can still get access to great ingredients.

Welcome to my new creative project, Cooking in Quarantine!

I cleaned the pet cage tonight. I carefully dumped out her soiled litter, soaked the plastic base in the bathtub. Wiped down the metal bars with vinegar and baking soda to control the fruit fly problem that was driving her nuts (and me). Continue reading →

Fortuna favet fortibus. It’s Latin for fortune favors the bold / the brave. The Latin words grace my ancestral coat of arms. A variation on the Latin lists it as Fortunaa juvat audaces.

I like to think that it helps guide me when decisions are tough. I would like to think of myself as bold and brave, embracing the things that terrify me the most in life, challenging them head on.

I rode my bike to work today. This is no amazing feat by any stretch of the imagination. Thousands of people just like me do this every day, this simple exercise. And yet it requires a response on my part, because for me, it is out of the ordinary. Continue reading →

WordPress featured my post on Scuba Diving in the Galapagos on their landing page, Freshly Pressed today. I wasn’t expecting that, and I certainly wasn’t expecting the overwhelming response.

Thank you to all the new subscribers, and thanks to everyone for their comments! I am really flattered.

Did you know that the total number of hits to this blog grew by half today alone? I cannot even wrap my head around those figures.

Inspired by all the new readers who paid me a visit, I updated my woefully out of date About page.

Hi new readers! I hope that you stick around!

~hoboshutterbug

Please visit http://hoboshutterbug.com from now on. I’ve made it to the 21st century of blogging.

I will write a long post when I get home and I have more reliable internet access. I didn’t bring my laptop with me to Ecuador, and right now I’m shellshocked to be off the ship and back on land after eight days on board the Galaven II.

But your parents were right. Pack sunscreen. Pack a lot of freaking sunscreen.