For me, maps are little gold mines of information. I love to pour over them imagining what the place is like, or letting them remind me of my favorite parts of a trip to a specific area. As we spent our 9 months in the Spanish Speaking world the one souvenir we kept from every location was the local maps. I'm sure that in years to come these will be great for kickstarting our memories.

Historical Maps of Latin American Locations

For a trip back through time and space, consider historical maps. 2 years ago I purchased a map of all of South America that was drawn in the late 1800s which was surprisingly accurate. The University of Chicago has released high resolution scans of many major locations throughout Latin America from different periods in time. I've been particularly enjoying looking for the maps of places I have visited recently.

Buenos Aires in 1912 didn't even have an Avenida 9 de Julio! It was, however, much more developed than my own home of Denver.

The map of Cuzco in 1900 has a label for "Cerro Sacsahuaman", but no mention of its archeological significance. Another map of Cuzco from 1877 uses red highlighting to show different kinds of walls spread throughout the city, but still fails to show any special markers for "Mont Sacsaihuaman."

If you're feeling stuck in your life and want to take a brief trip to another place and time, consider reviewing a map or two.