Pasayten wilderness, Washington State
[West Coast, USA] Solo backpacking delivers huge rewards. I spent a week alone in this remote area. I’m quickly reminded again of what carrying a 50 pound pack is all about. I think of the enormous strength and endurance of athletes, of just what the human body can do. I consider the crushing physical hardships […]
A street on the island of Myconos, Greece
Greece The third father/daughter trip to Greece departed on the second day of the Gulf War II, 2003. The week before, I was at a meeting with eight people who all had kids. I said, “Would you go to Greece next week with a 12 year old?” “No way!” was the collective response. I got […]
Southern Luzon and Taal Volcano
[Philippines] It’s about two in the morning, and we’re standing on a busy street corner in Quezon City, a part of Manila. We’ve been brought here by outreach workers from a small organization working to help teenage prostitutes create alternatives to lives that seem to us to be completely miserable. It’s sweltering even at this […]
The world that will remain in my imagination
[Africa] I was reading a magazine story about people who come here to climb the pinnacles seen in the distance. I went right downstairs and I did an image search on “Cameroon” and this was the first picture that came up. Wow. It represents all the places I’ve never been, and will never get to […]
Tent and kayak in Lake Powell
[Lake Powell] I put my fully loaded kayak in a skiff that I rented from Antelope Point Marina in Page, Arizona. A guy John drove me 52 miles north into Utah to Oak Canyon and dropped me off. It was hot, windy, and the sun was blasting, and I sat on a spit of sandstone […]
Isabel and Meri
[Peru] I was in Peru hiking and spent the first day in Lima walking around. An attractive, shabbily dressed woman approached me who proposed being my guide for a city tour. She had a portfolio of pictures of her with other tourists and her name was Isabel. As we talked another woman came up and […]
Family
[Italy] I write this and it’s almost 2006. I had some sense in the mid 1990s that there would be an evolution in my travel interests, and that I would arrive at a point in which my family would be ready to travel. I always imagined that I would see more of Europe with my […]
Lower Marisandi river
[Nepal] Sometime in the early 1980’s, a friend showed me his slides of Nepal. I was mesmerized. Over the next few years, I kept thinking about Nepal, and in 1987 I went with my girlfriend Juli (she later became my wife) on a trek around Annapurna. Twenty one amazing days had me deciding to devote […]
The guy in the leather coat turns to me
[Hungary] The guy introduced himself. He said, “Call me Uncle.” I said “why,” and he responded “Well, you can’t call me comrade, because I was never a member of the communist party. And you can’t call me mister, because I wear such pants as these,” and he tweaked at his ancient, blue, polyester slacks.
Taking a break in La Paz
[Bolivia] La Paz is wild and an utterly striking place. The plane lands at 12,500 feet, and the bus from the airport descends 1,500 feet into a canyon, at the base of which sits La Paz. For 36 hours I lay in bed in my little hotel, sick as a dog from the altitude. The […]