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Bosnia & Herzegovina
the Bosnian War and WW1
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Vancouver Island & Telegraph Cove
∴Mountain Ranges & Sunshine∴ There’s something about the way the light shines on Vancouver Island. Even the weeds on the side of the road are beautiful. The green that hits you when you step off of the ferry is unreal. The island is roughly the size of Honshu, the main island of Japan—pretty big for a place that I had never really thought about before. It sits like a finger gently brushing the shoreline of Western Canada pointing north to Alaska. Driving through I realized just how sparsely populated and secluded the northern part really is. ∴Forests out of Imaginary Places∴ It’s quite remarkable how the bright moss carpets…
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My favorite Places Around Banff
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It’s Complicated in Fes, Morocco
Imagine going somewhere so different that it would be difficult to explain what you learned when you got back home. That type of complication and pleasant type of bewilderment is exactly what followed me home from Fes. I’d been blabbing about going to Morocco for a while. You can read all about my love for tagines & olives, checking out farming communities, learning about hijabs and family traditions here on my trek to the Blue City. If you’ve done any reading on this location, you know about the tanneries, and the world famous labyrinth of the medina. But what really goes on in the middle of town? Here are my unexpected…
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Authenticity in Costa Rica
This is where this story began; it was hard not to miss the burning forest outside of Liberia. When the Spanish claimed “Costa Rica” they named it after the RICH land they saw. Mixed research indicates that in the 1940’s 75% of Costa Rica was forested. Suprise As of today 20,000 acres of land is deforested annually. Now, while I can’t speak first hand about the authenticity of statistics, I can speak about what I saw while there. I had these HUGE expectations of Costa Rica . . . cue the dreams of . . . forging a river crossing in a Land Rover, maybe getting stuck in the mud a time or two,…
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Chefchaouen, Morocco
Making an unexpected friend on the way to the Blue City of Northern Africa.
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My Road Trip Through Japan
Honshu, the main island of Japan, is the place where the land shakes. It’s the cold wet you feel on your skin as you drive through a mountain cloud. It’s the vast expanse of the volcanic plateau stretching into gold and beige haze that seems to stretch into eternity. The past is what I felt when I circled Honshu looking for the ghosts of samurais and the red lantern paths of certainty. I haven’t mentioned that this was a road trip. It all began when we picked up a car in Tokyo. I snicker when I say it was a Toyota. (Little did I know…
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Japan: Photographing Wild Snow Monkeys, My Favorite Thing I’ve Ever Done
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Japan: Photographing Wild Snow Monkeys, My Favorite Thing I’ve Ever Done
I first heard about the adorable Japanese Snow Macaques on the likes of a PBS nature documentary called “Hot Springs for Snow Monkeys in Hell’s Valley”. I didn’t care how, or when, but I knew that I had to see them. Period. The type of against-all odds statistics that usually rear their ugly heads in these scenarios were (of course) present. Jigokudani Monkey Park we soon learned was far afield; quite far in fact, for two bobbling Americans to sandwich between two weekend flights to and from Tokyo. The car was right hand drive, and streets sides were also reverse. In fact, I spent most of my time as co-pilot making sure…
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My Road Trip Through Japan
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Bogota, Colombia : The Most Interesting Things I Learned (Part 1)
This is the face that your friends and family might make when you tell them that you are visiting Colombia. And then you might get questions like: “Are you sure?”, “Will you be safe?” This is what made me realize how out of touch with current events and reality we are truly capable of. We can be so closed minded, and not even be aware that we’re that way. The truth of the matter is, you’ll never visit anywhere enriching with that type of attitude. So I’m here to give a little dose of perspective. Colombia is one of the up and coming hot spots for tourism today. They’ve really turned their image…
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Scratching the Surface in Oaxaca City
In our modern urban lives we search for the latest cuisine hot-spots across American & European cities. On Friday nights we settle in to the hippest cantinas for tapas and music. It’s exhausting to keep up with the latest trends as the new continuously turns over. What happens when trendy is incredibly Old- World, relatively unknown, & authentic? Most travelers search for an unspoiled culture. Oaxaca City isn’t a place that tries to be trendy . . . it just is. The sun beats down on the farming fields surrounding Oaxaca City. A cool breeze floats through the cobblestone streets down from the Sierra Madre. The city seems to exhibit perfect placement; it’s no wonder…
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Cultural Foraging in Zipolite, Mexico
Zipolite– it feels like it’s at the end of the earth. Zipolite (pronounced Zip-oh-lee-ta) took a creative combination of four flights to get to. I had no idea what rural Mexico might actually be like and felt truely delighted to discover something new for myself. After 3 flights we landed in Huatulco and rented a car (yes you can do that there!) We drove through the scrub jungle for what felt like decades. Despite my past learnings about how poor and unsafe are two completely different aspects, I’m ashamed to say that I was suspicious of everyone and everything. I was suspicious of the trash that lined both sides of the road, suspicious…
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Seal Pups, Anxiety Dogs For Cheetahs, Border Patrol Agents, and Sunsets in San Diego
This is a hard post because everything about SoCal is SoStereotypical. It’s hard to find a story in a place that’s so frequently filled the pages of history– a place where EVERYONE has been. Scouts honor– I promise to STEER CLEAR of the typical blah blah blah in this post.Here’s my storyteller’s attempt at throwing something original out into the world: Abandoned Seal Pups at La Jolla Beach When you see a seal pup–it hurts– because it’s so cute. I found a story at La Jolla Beach while leaning over a a wall-like structure . . . elbow to elbow with a volunteer scientist from the Seal Conservancy. [If you know anything…
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Thai Town: Ditching the L.A. Tourist Scene
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An Earth Shaking Experience in Mexico City
After a long year, full of my happiest times to date, and my most earth shaking times I have decided to shake off the dust on my publishing roots and get back to the grindstone. I was searching for some divine inspiration when an unlikely candidate encouraged me to continue my writing. So—today—I continue sharing my thoughts, despite my insecurities, despite my total insignificance in history, and lastly (and most significantly) despite my total disappointment with the human condition because of the hatred, ignorance, and wars that I see daily. So while I have not published in quite some time, I have still had adventures in these many weeks. Adventures are…
