We had been on the road for hours before we got our first glimpse of the beautiful lighthouse by the sea. Our route had taken us southwest from the little red and white summerhouse on the shores of Lake Mälaren, past the medieval town of Arboga and the picturesque Göta Canal, between Sweden’s two largest lakes, Vänern and Vättern, and into Göteburg, Sweden’s second largest city. We ate an excellent lunch at the home of Maria’s friend, Ylva, while we sat and watched Göteburg’s picturesque waterfront from the top of a bluff. After lunch, Ylva joined us as our journey continued southward along Sweden’s west coast. Eventually, we turned off of the highway and followed a small country road between the rolling fields that lined the coast. We spotted the lighthouse a short time later and ... read more

It first hit me when I nestled down into my tiny window seat on LAN flight 072, bound for Lima - My time in the Amazon was over. I had conflicting emotions as the doors on the plane closed. I was definitely happy to be going home, but I was already missing the forest and all of the mysteries hidden beneath its canopy. The plane was filled to capacity with a mixture of foreign tourists and Peruvians. I was surrounded by a group of American high school students who were returning home from a week-long educational trip to Cusco and the Amazon. The students were completely self-absorbed in their odd, popularity games and their chaperones had their hands full trying to prevent an international incident - The class clown was sitting directly in front of me ... read more

By my fifth week living at Posada Amazonas I was ready for a break. The eight to ten hours I was spending on the trail every day, while immensely enjoyable, were taking their toll on my body. To make things worse, the lumpy, sagging mattress I had been sleeping on had resurrected an old pelvis injury, which I had earned in a fit of stupidity during a mountaineering trip in Yosemite many years before. I spent a few days resting in my bed, hoping to prevent a total flare up that would eventually spread to my lower back, rendering me useless to the project. After my second day in bed it became clear that I was not going to recover sleeping on the same moldy mattress that had caused the flare up in the first place, ... read more

It was one of my favorite places in the world - A land of primordial maritime forests filled with palms and twisted live oaks, their gnarled boughs draped in thick curtains of Spanish moss; a mysterious island surrounded by tranquil salt marshes and the raging Atlantic, and seemingly forgotten in time; a pristine home to wild horses, bobcats, turkeys, deer, feral pigs, and armadillos, with swamps filled with alligators and snakes; a beachcombers’ dream with miles and miles of empty, shell-strewn beaches, where the treasures of the deep abounded; paradise! A week-long backpacking trip on Cumberland Island was the most anticipated camping trip of the year for my scout troop and every spring through my teen years we all loaded into our old green bus and headed south to the southern-most barrier island on the Georgia ... read more

The blank desert scenery flew past my window as I headed north through Jordan. I knew that just beyond the flat, brown expanses along the road, the fabled crusader fortress of Shobak Castle, rose up in the distant hills, but, despite a strong urge to see it, that wasn’t where I was headed. After six days of wonderfully active exploring in the canyons and mountains of Petra, I was exhausted and I just wanted to rest, so I reluctantly decided to skip the remote, mountaintop citadel. Instead I was on an overcrowded bus bound for Amman, Jordan’s capital. My journey through the Middle East was down to its last week and I no longer had the luxury of an itinerary-less existence on the road. Amman was the end of the road for me, but there were ... read more