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Mali: my almost nomad wife

In my capacity as a travel writer, I journeyed through much of Mali's Sahara Desert with the fabled Blue Men in the years before it was desecrated by Al-Qaida. For two thousand years, Tuareg nomads ...

Other people's luggage

A thought-provoking visit to the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

Imagine any Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their six-year-old daughter Suzie from Cairo, Illinois. They have just finished touring England on a bus. At Heathrow, they check in for their flight home. They give their ...

Bridging the gap in Haiti

Only three hours in Haiti, I'd seen forms of travel that spanned hundreds of years – a woman on a mule, a man on a horse, people walking, riding bicycles and on mopeds, brightly colored ...

Darkness and Light in Rwanda

A story of tragedy overcome.

I was the only one in the vehicle awake, excluding the driver. There were four of us. Two were snoring loudly, and I was trying to read my book and failing. Perhaps because of the ...

Vacation Evolutis

A (literal) getaway in Haiti.

The majority of non-business travel is for one special thing, “Vacation.” The word within the word vacation is "vacate" ("4. an act or an instance of vacating," Merriam-Webster), so by extension looking at it as ...

A Discovery: Prague's Josefov

Remainders of the Holocaust in one of Europe's iconic cities.

“Josefov.” The center of Jewish influence in Prague. A few other temples are scattered around the oldest part of the city, but Josefov is the vortex of Prague’s Jewish past. It was this name of ...

Death Valley – Why?

Transcendence found in the California desert.

Deep in the belly of Death Valley National Park, I pitched my tent up against sage bushes looking out at snowcapped mountains. Campers sat in their vehicles, some huddled in their tents, all dodging the ...

What's Wrong with Switzerland?

The problem with travel writing in Switzerland is that there are no problems. Every writer knows there has to be a little sand in his shoe, some gritty irritation to kick off a story either ...

The Magic of Salento

Adventure in Colombian coffee country.

There was more than just a luscious countryside of diversified vegetation and smooth, rolling hills, where a clean river ran steady and uninhibited over gardens of round stones. More than just untouched wax palm trees, ...

Riding with the King in Burkina Faso

I had been photographing for about two weeks in Africa when I heard about a king. Africa has many kings, and I've met more than a few, but had never before sought one out. Africa's ...