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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: North America
Mount Revelstoke National Park offers a rare alpine escape where winding roads lead to breathtaking heights without the gruelling climb. From wildflower meadows to bear country wisdom, our journey reveals both the park's stunning beauty and essential lessons for safe mountain exploration.
Around 1,900 meters above sea level, the noise of everyday life slips away, replaced by crisp alpine air and sweeping mountain views. At the summit of Mount Revelstoke, reached via the Meadows in the Sky Parkway, I stood surrounded by dense stands of evergreen trees stretching into the horizon. The landscape was dotted with hardy wildflowers and alpine shrubs, and the only sounds came from the breeze moving through the trees and the distant cry of a Clark's nutcracker. It was a place that invited you to stop, take it all in, and just be still.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: West Africa
Touba offered a peaceful contrast to the rhythm of city life, with its deep sense of faith and community woven into everyday moments. Visiting the city allowed me to experience a side of Senegal that felt both grounded and welcoming.
Some places aren’t just destinations—they’re revelations. Touba, Senegal, was one of those places for me. From the moment I stepped into this sacred city, I felt something shift. Maybe it was the way the call to prayer echoed through the streets, or how strangers smiled at me like I was already part of their story. Touba is more than a city—it’s a living expression of faith, community, and tradition. What I found here went far beyond what any guidebook could prepare me for.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Northern Africa
Cairo greeted me with the same intensity I remembered—alive with history, movement, and meaning. Returning after 24 years, I stepped back into a city that shaped my youth and found it as captivating and multilayered as ever.
Cairo is a living museum—a sprawling metropolis where millennia-old monuments stand alongside modern high-rises, where the call to prayer echoes over honking traffic, and where every corner tells a story. My first encounter with this mesmerizing city was in 1993, when I spent a summer working at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) as a university student. That experience left an indelible mark, and though it took me 24 years to return, stepping back into Cairo’s vibrant streets felt like reconnecting with an old friend.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Travel & Places
Julia Cosgrove is the award-winning Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at AFAR Media, based in San Francisco, which publishes the influential travel magazine AFAR and website. Born in New York and raised in Berkeley, she now lives in Oakland, California – where she's been sheltering in place since the pandemic.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Middle East
Ever since moving to Saudi Arabia, I've wanted to visit the enigmatic flower men living in the southern provinces of the country and extending into Yemen. They're the descendants of ancient Tihama and Asir tribes dating back two millennia who are known for wearing colourful and distinctive flower garlands on their heads. They also sport an ornate traditional curved dagger, called the jambiya, over a colourful and multi-patterned wrap-around male skirt known as a futa.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: South America
One of the things I most looked forward to when visiting Brazil's northern city of Manaus, known as the Gateway to the Amazon Rainforest, was the opportunity to visit some of the aboriginal people living in the Amazon. The opportunity came when we sailed along the Rio Negro river towards a riverside village inhabited by the Tuyuca (Tuyaka) people. They also call themselves Dojkapuara or Utapinõmakãphõná. Their population is concentrated in Brazil and Colombia. Tuyuca is spoken by 500 to 1,000 people in these two South American countries.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Travel & Places
It’s hard to believe that I’ve already crossed the eight-year mark on my third overseas work experience here in Saudi Arabia. Life as an expat offers many fantastic opportunities on various fronts, but it also comes with some challenges.
I recently spoke to a fellow Canadian expat and colleague, Michelle Ponto, for a podcast episode covering a wide range of topics from how to embark on an overseas work adventure, adjusting to life in a new country, and overcoming the stigma of travelling alone.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: South America
Experiencing the Rio De Janeiro Carnaval has been a big item on my bucket list for a long time. I had the opportunity to make this dream a reality in 2020. The world-famous extravaganza is considered the biggest carnival in the world — bringing around 2 million people per day on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Carnaval begins on the Friday preceding Lent and ends on Ash Wednesday. But the Winner's Parade takes place on the Saturday after the carnival ends.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Southern Africa
Cape Town, colloquially known as South Africa's Mother City, is the country's legislative capital and the main city of the Western Cape province. I first visited Cape Town in 2010, just after the FIFA World Cup. I still have the emblematic vuvuzela plastic monotone horn, which became part of the world's lexicon during the World Cup that year.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Southern Africa
I had planned a two-night stop-over in Johannesburg, South Africa, before Amaria and I headed on to our self-drive adventure in Namibia. It was our second time in Johannesburg. We had already experienced driving to Soweto, sampled the vibrant life there, as well as visited Pretoria the last time; so the idea this time was to explore more of Johannesburg itself.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Southern Africa
The Republic of Namibia is situated in the south-western part of the African continent. Positioned along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, it’s bordered by the Republic of South Africa to the south, by both Angola and Zambia to the north, and Botswana to the east.
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Meres J. Weche
Expat and digital maven with a passion for telling stories in words & images. Lived & worked in four continents.
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