Live An Adventure Podcast

Philippines: An Island for Every Taste In every family, there’s always an odd one out—and in the clan of Asia-Pacific nations, that member would be the Philippines. This nation of 7,107 islands (about 2,000 inhabited) began as a loose grouping of Indo-Malay tribes, which endured nearly 400 years of Spanish rule, then 48 years as a U.S. territory. Today the Philippines is a mix of tribal pride, Catholic fervor, American pop-culture savvy, and tropical affability. Most visitors don’t linger in the muggy, traffic-clogged capital, Manila, but you should explore at least one of the Spanish churches in the old, walled center of Intramuros and stroll around Manila Bay at sunset. Then head to some of the thousands of beaches, from the pink sands of Great Santa Cruz Island to the black sands of Albay. Divers off Palawan, Apo, and Siargao islands delight in hundreds of coral and fish species. On the southern isle of Mindanao, more than 1,300 land species—including the endang...

Ode to summer Summer, red violin,  clear cloud,  the hum  of a summer or cicadas  announce your arrival.  The heavens  arch  to a smoothness,  lucent  as an eye,  and below your gaze,  summer, you are  an infinite sky-fish,  shameless messenger  of praise,  lazy,  sleepy-eyed one,  little bee belly,  mischievous  sun,  terrible paternal sun,  sweaty as a toiling ox,  and the scorchiing sun  in one's head  is like a  sudden blow,  sun of thirst  crossing the sand,  summer,  desert sea.  The sulfur  miner  drips  yellow sweat,  the aviator  maps,  ray by ray,  the celestial sun,  darkened  sweat  slips  down a forehead  into the eyes;  at Lota,  the miner  scrubs  ...

Spring Equinox.   An equinox happens each year at two specific moments in time (rather than two whole days), when the centre of the  Sun  can be observed to be vertically above the  Earth 's  Equator , occurring around March 20/21 and September 22/23 each year, the first days of spring and fall depending on which hemisphere you are in. World Poetry Day  is on  March 21 , and was declared by  UNESCO   (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999. The purpose of the day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of  poetry  throughout the world and, as the UNESCO session declaring the day says, to "give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements. The  International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination  is observed annually on  21 March . On that day, in  1960 , police  opened fire ...