Author: Karen LeBlanc

Crafting a Unique Cultural Journey Through Ecuador

I’m 9,350 feet above sea level, surrounded by the Andes Mountains, and in a country at the center of the world, on the equator.  Ecuador spans approximately 109,000 square miles, roughly the size of Nevada. The small country with an outsized contribution to astronomy, cartography, and evolutionary science, ranks as one of the world’s top […]

Exploring Egypt During Ramadan

In the predawn hours of my first morning in Aswan, Egypt, I woke up to the chants of a call to prayer reverberating from mosque minarets. It’s Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of observance, and the melodic cadence of these Arabic words resonated daily, beckoning the faithful to nearby mosques for the 5 am prayer. […]

Christmas Crafts from the Village of Lauscha

The age-old art of handmade, glass-blown, and paper mache Christmas ornaments lives on in the village of Lauscha, in Germany’s ancient Thuringian Forest. One of my favorite Christmas memories as a child was unspooling the tissue paper-wrapped silvered Christmas ornaments compartmentalized in cardboard boxes. The entire sensory experience still stirs my soul, starting with the […]