What's in a glindarayepix?

And yes, you can get anywhere from here...

The happy wanderers

The name glindarayepix is the professional moniker for Ben & Glinda Shipley from our stint in the commercial photography business. In the course of taking more than ten thousand photographs all over the world, we found ourselves landing in one fascinating adventure after another. This led to our stretch as travel columnists for Herald Publications of Los Angeles. The stories from those adventures bear retelling—says we—so here we are, doing just that.

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What’s Our Story?

Street concert in Paris

Ben still recalls the first plane trip he took without parents, in a noisy, propeller-driven Allegheny Airlines DC-8 from Pittsburgh to Columbus. At age six and even sitting in the Captain’s lap, he could barely see ahead for the infinity of the clouds.

We both recall scraping together bus fare in the 1970s to catch the Greyhound from one forgotten American town to another—through the Northeast for Ben and the old South for Glinda. We learned everything we needed to know about the country on those interminable nights, trading stories, snacks, and cigarettes with friendly, tired strangers.

Lobster fra Diavolo in Boston’s North End

Today, circumstances have changed, but we still think of the people we meet along the world’s byways as the main event in our wandering circus. On every trip, we try to include at least one ferry, train, metro, and bus, the more crowded and rickety the better. And for every resplendent five-star hotel, there’s always a handful of sleepy innkeepers we awaken in the middle of the night.

Of course, we love to drive—and some of our most exciting (and occasionally foolish) adventures have involved losing our way along the hidden paths of the planet, both paved and unpaved. But the priority has always been to keep changing up the approach until we find the pulse of the individual community we’re visiting.

Sacred rocks vs profane plastic in Milano

And that’s what we bring you here—not a list of monuments, museums, hotels, and restaurants—although there will be some of that—but an approach, a way of looking for the people, culture, and history that originally breathed life into all those piles of stones. Then, it will be up to you to create your own adventure and your own great stories.

So let’s get started, shall we?

Water crisis down on the Baja California

Elephant Island, Mumbai—Raise your hand if you love glindarayepix!