Harriet Marsden

The Independent •

Welcome to Fusterlandia, the Cuban design project that transformed a community

A stone’s throw from downtown Havana and its grand dilapidation is the unassuming village of Jaimanitas – and an architectural dreamscape. Inspired by his time in Europe and public architecture projects like Gaudi’s Park Güell, celebrated Cuban artist Jose Rodriguez Fuster went back to his fisherman roots and to the impoverished costal town to begin a transformative project. In 1975, he converted his own home into an art museum by adorning it with mosaic tiles. “I started building my dream,” h
The Independent •

I joined a sex toy festival in Belgium to raise money and awareness

As I waded through the mud, swinging my spade like a medieval axe, I grew increasingly desperate to find a vibrator. And no, this isn’t a tale of rural sexual repression. This was the annual sex toy hunt in Wépion, Belgium. In a little village just outside of Namur, the capital of Wallonia, I found myself knee deep in a crowded, muddy field, digging for dildos at the highlight of the “Chasse aux Sextoys” festival.

Mindfulness on the Tube: How to benefit from a London commute

Rush hour in the city. The stress, the overcrowding, the discomfort, the mutual apathy - travelling to and from work is a double daily torture shared by millions in London. And Londoners love nothing more than to kvetch about their commute. But what if we looked at journey as potential time for improvement? What if we focussed on the benefits, and turned commuting into a time of positivity in our lives? They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results. So let’s try something new.
Pink Pangea: The Community of Women who Love to Travel •

Safety in Colombia: How to Avoid Drugs, Gangs and Harassment

Colombia is a bit of a dichotomy: on the one hand, most of what our parents’ generation have ever read about Colombia involves the violent civil war during the 60s and 70s, the increasingly bloody drug trade in the 80s and 90s, and the huge spate of kidnappings. One the other hand, most young people with no memory of these blood-stained decades only know Colombia as the latest major tourist destination, particularly for young travellers in Latin America.
Bolivian Express •

Ho ho ho? The Bolivian pirate video and music industry

Let’s say you’re in Bolivia for the first time, and you hear a band you like, or fancy renting a DVD for the night. You soon notice the near-complete absence of original material in the country - no large record shops to speak of and just one or two video clubs with an impoverished catalogue. And well, the reliably unreliable internet connection - incidentally, one of the slowest in the continent - means that downloading is out of the question.
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