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šŸŒŽ The weirdest country in the world (in a good way)

The winner of our Monterey giveaway is revealed, new transfer bonuses hit the market, and I teach you about a country with an interesting (and checkered) past.

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 3 seconds

šŸšØ Did you sign up for Rakuten a few months back for that dank $40 bonus? If so, this week is your last chance to make a purchase and get the bonus, FYI. If you need a refresher on the specifics, hereā€™s the newsletter where I told you about it.

Howdy, kids. Welcome back to Daily Drop, your friendly neighborhood newsletter.

I know what youā€™re really here for today, so letā€™s get to the goods:

  • šŸ The winner of our Monterey giveaway isā€¦

  • šŸ’³ New month, new transfer bonuses

  • šŸŒŽ Where in the world Wednesday: Paraguay

šŸ The winner of our Monterey giveaway isā€¦

Alright, folksā€¦ itā€™s the time youā€™ve all been waiting for.

The time to announce the official winner of our all-expenses-paid giveaway to beautiful Monterey, Californiaā€¦

Without further adoā€¦

The winner isā€¦

ā€¦

ā€¦ā€¦.

ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦..

Eric K! CONGRATS! You should have received an email from us by now with more details to claim your prize. Sorry to the rest of you Eric Kā€™s who didnā€™t win. šŸ˜­

I know some of you may be feeling disappointed.

BUT before you go unsubscribe from Daily Drop and throw your computer against a wall, I want to let you in on a little secretā€¦

Next week, weā€™ll be launchingā€¦ wait for itā€¦ another giveaway.

Want in on another secret? I think it might be our best one yet. Letā€™s just sayā€¦ the U.S. goes even further west than Californiaā€¦ šŸ˜‰ šŸ„ šŸŒŠ šŸ

So stick around, and you might find yourself winning an equally luxurious tripā€¦

šŸ’³ New month, new transfer bonuses

Another month underway usually means another round of transfer bonuses!

For now, these sweet deals are coming exclusively from [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.issuer.name ]], which means the other banks really need to up their gameā€¦

Seriously, if they want to win me over, they canā€™t keep coasting on these boring 1:1 transfer ratios. A girl likes to be wooed every now and then, ya know? šŸ’šŸ¼ā€ā™‚ļø

So hereā€™s a snapshot of what weā€™re working with:

  • 30% bonus to British Airways and Iberia Avios (max transfer of 999,000 points)

  • 25% bonus to Hilton Honors (max transfer of 3,000,000 points)

  • 15% bonus to Avianca LifeMiles (max transfer of 750,000 points)

Transferring your points to both BA and Iberia was also around last month, but you have until August 31st to keep taking advantage before itā€™s gone.

As a review, Avios are awesomeā€¦ and dare I say dope, rad, sick, etc.

I love ā€˜em because theyā€™re also the point currency of Qatar Airways and Aer Lingus, so you have the freedom to transfer Avios among these four amigos OR book on other OneWorld alliance partners.

And then we have Hilton. Despite its 1:2 transfer ratio, it isnā€™t the most superstar transfer partner of this bankā€”after all, itā€™s competing with other partners like ANA, Virgin Atlantic, and Etihad.

I personally donā€™t often transfer these points to Hilton for a couple of reasons:

  1. Hilton points are pretty easy to earn with their own credit cards

  2. Hilton points are usually worth a lot less than [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.issuer.name ]]ā€™s points

I would take advantage of this transfer bonus in one scenarioā€¦ to top off some Hilton points that I needed for an upcoming stay.

For example, if I needed a single night in Barcelona as part of a stopover, but I had just used up a ton of points and only had 5,000 left in my accountā€¦

I could transfer 10,000 points from my card and have them magically turn into 25,000 Hilton points to book this stay.

Now thatā€™s a deal I could get behind.

And lastly, we have our Colombian friend, Avianca, and its frequent flyer program, LifeMiles. Iā€™m guessing you know the least about this airline, but thereā€™s good reason to pay attention to it.

After Unitedā€™s devaluation, Aviancaā€™s LifeMiles has shown even more appealing redemption rates for Star Alliance partners.

For example, you could fly from the U.S. to London for just 20,000 LifeMiles, far fewer than programs like United or Air Canada.

Overall, itā€™s a frequent flyer program worth looking into, especially if it gives your points a 15% boost right now šŸ˜Ž

šŸŒŽ Where in the world Wednesday: Paraguay

As you know, I was in Paraguay last week - a country that is, to put it simply, super weird. But in a good way.

I learned a lot about the people and history while I was there, so I wanted to share some of that with you.

Paraguay is one of the smaller countries in South America. And when I say small, I mean both the geography and population sizeā€¦ and thereā€™s a reason why.

You see, back in 1864, Paraguayā€™s president decided to go to war against the neighboring countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, known as the ā€œTriple Allianceā€ back then.

If you want to know how that turned outā€¦ well, just look at this map, and you can probably guessā€¦ ā˜ ļø

As a result of this war, roughly 90% of Paraguayā€™s male population and 60% of the countryā€™s entire population were killed offā€¦

NINETY PERCENT!! Thatā€™s insaneā€¦

When all was said and done, only 28,000 Paraguayan men existed after the war. Yikesā€¦

Thankfully, all of these countries are best buds today. The former ā€œTriple Allianceā€ now represents some of Paraguayā€™s strongest diplomatic and economic partners. Bygones, I guess?

For Paraguayans who DO still have enemies, however, theyā€™re in luck too. In Paraguay, it is still legal to conduct a duel to settle disputes.

Iā€™m talkinā€™ classic pistol duels like when Onegin took down Lensky.

Or Aaron Burr taking down Hamilton, for those who didnā€™t get the previous reference.

Anyway, this still happens in Paraguay today. The only catch? Both participants must be blood donors.

You canā€™t make this stuff up, folksā€¦

One of the most unique aspects of Paraguay, however, is the people.

First, around 80% of the country's population identifies as Mestizo, or mixed European and Indigenous heritage.

Hereā€™s where things get weirdā€¦

Meet president (and dictator) JosĆ© Gaspar RodrĆ­guez de Francia y Velasco, a man known for his short and simple name. šŸ‘‡

Back in the early 19th century, this guy passed a law that prevented same-race marriage.

Read that againā€”same-race marriage was illegal.

You see, our friend JosĆ© thought that hard racial divides would lead to socio-economic disparity, a notion that wasā€¦ wellā€¦ ahead of its time, to say the least.

So he took that notion and went BALLS TO THE WALL to prevent it, basically ensuring that every person was mixed heritage and that racial lines wouldnā€™t divide society or * ahem* disrupt his dictatorship.

Unlike every other country in Latin America, Paraguay didnā€™t adopt the language of the colonizers (Spain) as its only official language.

In fact, the indigenous language of GuaranĆ­ (also the name of their currency) is equally, if not more, prominently spoken among Paraguayans, and remains an official language of the country, in addition to Spanish.

Even though most of the population identifies as mixed heritage, plenty of GuaranĆ­ populations throughout Paraguay and in neighboring countries keep the strong indigenous history and identity alive and well.

I donā€™t know a ton about GuaranĆ­ culture, but Iā€™ve heard itā€™s pretty darn cool.

Now I could tell you all kinds of other cool stuff about Paraguay, like how they have a large navy (despite being a landlocked country) or that the worldā€™s largest barbecue was held in the capital of AsunciĆ³n back in 2008, but weā€™re simply out of time, so youā€™ll have to go look those up for yourself. šŸ˜‰

One of my favorite things about travel is learning about places we never really hear about in our little bubbles at home.

Seeing a place in person, speaking to the locals, learning a bit of the language, trying the food, and seeing the modern-day reflections of this history are things you just canā€™t get from reading a newsletter (even if it is the worldā€™s best newsletter).

So now that youā€™re honing your travel-hacking skills, I hope you use them to go see some cool corners of the world for yourself. šŸŒŽ

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Thatā€™s gonna do it for today, folks! I donā€™t know about you, but Iā€™m super jealous of Eric for winning that giveaway todayā€¦

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Take care, and see you tomorrow morning,

Mike Dodge
Head Writer, Daily Drop

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