Living Desert

In a seemingly dead place, barren of any signs of life, only by reading the “Bushman’s newspaper” - tracks in the sand, he found them all and then showed to us on an outstretched hand.

I’ve learned to appreciate a good guide. One who seems more like a magician when he practices his craft - conjuring unearthly views or rare animals only by asking me to close my eyes for twenty seconds, or... [Read more]

Cheetah Chaterbox

If you ever scratched behind a cat’s ear and heard it purr, you know how hypnotizing and sweet this faint tractor-like sound is. Now keeping that in mind, try to imagine what a purring cheetah sounds like.

Namibian farmers’ rights are far better protected then Namibia’s cheetahs. Many are killed when a farmer’s physical and/or financial well-being is claimed to be at stake. On the bright side,... [Read more]

Great White Diving

A rough boat ride from South Africa’s town of Kleinbaai brought me into stormy open sea next to a small island with a fur seal colony. Crammed into a steel cage like sardines in a can with a few other brave souls, I submerged to see great white sharks.

To my surprise, I wasn’t scared when the first shark showed up. There was no “TA-NA-NA-NA, TA-NA-NA-NA” playing in my head, nor was there... [Read more]

My Last Day in South America

On my last day in South America, I wake up to the calm sound of rain falling atop the metal roof.  Two days before I was tanning on a cushioned lounge chair along the water of Mancora Beach, Peru my mind dizzied, almost drunk, on sun and relaxation. But now I am in Quito, Ecuador on a rainy morning and my mind is dizzying from the prospect of leaving this great continent.

As the rain taps, I work to fall back asleep,... [Read more]

Go Walkabout Africa

The first one to discourage me from going to Africa was Korney Chukovsky. His quirky Soviet whimsy warned little children, by way of a nursery rhyme, about its mean sharks, gorillas, and crocs whose main objective was to beat and bite them. Only Barmaley, a fat, bloodthirsty bandit was worse, and he too was roaming the treacherous continent, ready to catch, fry, and eat any stray toddlers.

Fear is a simple and efficient... [Read more]

I’m in Africa!

Flat-top mountains, red with rocky Mohawks. Hills with boulder rims just below round bold tops that remind me of Catholic monks’ heads. Blond grass on burnt-sienna fields rich with iron. Brilliant blue skies with pinches of stark-white clouds. I am in Africa.

You’d think a twenty seven-hour flight, with a layover in Abu Dhabi, would suck me dry of excitement, but no. Falling asleep was made extremely... [Read more]

The Happiest Place on Earth

Parking was $12. Admission for my daughter and I $130. I suppose this would be a good beginning to a story about avoiding Disneyland, but it’s not.

We showed up with a backpack full of food, sunscreen, and more cash. A locker to put all this stuff costs another $10. My kid and I planned to stay from 8AM to 10PM — past her bedtime. We ended up staying a little longer. It would be easy to take a shot claiming... [Read more]

Trujillo, A Welcome Change of Plans

The plan was to leave Lima early and spend the better part of the week soaking up sun on the sandy beaches of Mancora. The rumor is Mancora is a warm surfer´s paradise, and after spending most of the past five weeks in freezing temperatures I felt that I deserved a little sun.

But as it goes with the best plans, when I got to the bus station I found that I had missed the 3PM bus to Mancora (18 hours) by fifteen... [Read more]

Week 5: The Best Week Ever pt.4

Thursday- I find myself in an honest to goodness desert oasis. Huacachina is a tiny village that surrounds an even tinier lagoon in the middle of grand desert dunes. I sit at the edge of the lagoon under a palm tree and watch Peruvian children sled down the sands and bounce around in the mud colored water. The travel books call this destination one of the gringo stops, but it seems Peruvians and foreigners alike come to... [Read more]

Getting Down and Dirty

Pockets full of dynamite and coca leaves, looking like a construction worker who is about to rob a train, in a hard hat and a bandana over my face, I went down the dark narrow shaft.

The silver mines of Bolivia’s Potosi, the highest large town in the world (over 4,000m), were claustrophobic and dusty. They swerved on and on, disappearing in the dark. Fixed to the ceilings were rubber tubes carrying ... [Read more]

Week 5: The Best Week Ever pt.3

Wednesday- After a long day of waiting in a dust bowl city and being fed nothing but crap from Nazca´s best salesmen, on an empty stomach, I finally fasten my seat belt in a four man plane. The pilot starts the propellers and informs myself and the other two passengers that we will see the mysterious figures at the tip of his wing. As we roll down the runway I begin to wonder what possessed me to do such a thing, but... [Read more]

Strangers in the Night

On a lonely Bolivian intersection, the streets as wide and empty as an abandoned landing strip, we collided like two freight trains in the night. Midnight, and nobody here knew each other. Two dozen people in total, no one even thought of stopping when the groups combined and began mixing like magical ingredients in a witch’s cauldron. We kept walking, I hoped I was not the only one who didn’t know were we were... [Read more]

Week 5: The Best Week Ever pt.2

Tuesday - I eat my last Cuzco meal in the markets of San Pedro. The nourishing lentils and rice warms my belly and remind me of home, Peruvian comfort food. I stroll along cobble stone streets one last time to take it all in, stopping in the Plaza de Armas to watch a street mine take a break to sit close and chat with his girl. I make a lazy sketch of the Cathedral that is surrounded by blue sky and the brown hills. On... [Read more]

See Salt Sea

Imagine a flat solid sea that reflects the mountains that frame it. Islands in that sea stand small but tall, with thousand year-old cacti raising their bristly arms towards the sky. Waves would wash over the island banks if only the ripples were not already frozen in crystallized patterns of white and bronze.

Driving from... [Read more]

Week 5: The Best Week Ever pt.1

Monday - Sitting on top of a pile of carefully placed stones creating the edge of a terrace for ancient crops, my feet dangling over the edge of a gorge, my eyes keen on the sky that is continually brightening in a misty dawn. It´s about 6AM Monday morning in the ruins of Machu Picchu and the clouds are wrapping around the peaks of the Andes and creeping over Incan structures. I think I must be close to heaven because... [Read more]

Olympics Stabbing in Beijing

Several years ago, I took a trip the Davao City in the Philippines. By all accounts, I should not have gone. Davao and Mindanao was considered to be an unsafe place — according to the State Department of the U.S. I think a journalist had been murdered and there was some terrorist activity going on. Whether it was a good or bad decision, I went anyway. I had decided that the likelihood of something diabolical happening... [Read more]

204 Nations, the Olympics

I have been watching the parade of nations for the opening of these 2008 Olympic games held in Beijing, China. I enjoy the colorful costumes and the realization that Myanmar sent a team, so did North Korea, Vanuatu, Iraq, Afghanistan, and dozens of other countries where politics, finances and facilities make sportsmanship hard to come by. Some nations sent teams, with as few as one member and without any chance of winning... [Read more]

Road Trip Travel Enters the Space Age

When I was a child my family relocated cross-country to California via the Mother Road, historic Route 66. Even at that tender age, I enjoyed the trip in a station-wagon piled high with our possessions, ‘Grapes of Wrath’ style. It was on that drive that the road-tripper bug infected me.

Years later the country was facing its first gas crisis and the price had reached 75 cents a gallon. With school behind me... [Read more]

A Ride at Cuzcoland

Upon arriving in Cuzco, Peru I was immediately astounded by the beautiful Colonial architecture (built on top of Incan structures), grand churches, quaint cobble stoned roads, and quiet plazas decorated with trees and fountains. I was quickly put at ease by the countless restaurants serving anything from Italian to Thai (and of course quintessential Peruvian cuisine) to the rows of the travel agents that can surely help... [Read more]

Down the Death Road

“Sarit!” my husband turned to me all excited, “Wanna go up to 4700m in a van and then ride a bicycle downhill 64km on the most dangerous road in the world?”

“Ahem… No! Do I look like I have a death wish?” It was an honest response. I haven’t been on a bike since the fifth grade! I thought this was the end of it, but when we got to La Paz in Bolivia there wasn’t... [Read more]

A Poem for the Sacred Lake

Lake Titicaca was known to the Incas as a sacred lake. Over the last few days, I have been able to visit islands on both the Bolivian and Peruvian sides, and walking the stoney paths, looking out to the ruins, marveling over the breathtaking views, it is easy to find the sanctity of the place. This lake inspires a holiness with the land, and even now at a computer in Puno, I continue to feel the affects of the ancient... [Read more]

Bolivia, Is It Worth It?

Friday afternoon in La Paz, I found the restaurant section of an open air market and took a seat at one of the 10 stands serving relatively the same food for about $3. I ordered a plate of chicken and rice from two women standing behind a counter no more than four feet long.

While I ate the delicious food they served me, I enjoyed a nice session of people watching, the women cleaning pots from the lunch rush, children... [Read more]

Los Angeles Earthquake!

Looks like Los Angeles just had a 5.6 earthquake, interesting considering there was ALSO a 2.1 earlier today in New Jersey and a big one in the