It has been one of those years in which, if I didn't have any photographs, I might not remember what all happened. It is never easy to choose the best pictures of any year but choosing the best pictures of…
In Havana I joined a group of carpenters, plumbers and electricians for a game of dominoes. Actually, I just watched. There was no way I could compete with these guys. We shared around a bottle of rum. The men were…
When I was twenty-three years old I purposely became homeless for two weeks. I wanted to challenge my privilege as a college-educated white man. I wanted to challenge beliefs I held about homelessness and people-in-need in general. I was also…
A little more than 10 years ago the Valle Vidal Protection Act was signed into law by then-President Bush. The act permanently protected the Valle Vidal unit of the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico from oil and gas…
It was a Dark and Stormy Night Actually, it was a dark and foggy night. You could see across the dirt road to the abandoned mine but you couldn't see up to the top of the road and across to…
A trip to Miami offers the chance to take in some fantastic attractions and the only problem you are likely to face in the city is narrowing down the choice to which you should visit. With this in mind, some…
I’ll get it out of the way up front. The Boquete Garden Inn is probably THE BEST little inn I’ve stayed at, ever. Understand, of course, that I am a fanatic for birds, gardens and flowers. So walking through the…
Editor’s Note: Brutal rule by an oligarchy is never as far off as we might think. It is something that has happened far too often throughout history and it is a danger the supposedly democratized “Western world” is dangerously close…
I was rather heartbroken when I left my kids at the train station on a drizzly morning in Vasa, Finland at the end of March. They were flying home to New Mexico. I was flying south to Toulouse, France. 2011…
I visited the Söderfjärden on a warm, rainy August morning. The ten kilometers of road south from Vasa were perfectly clear except for two fearless foxes moving from one stand of Red Pine to the other. I had spent the previous several days in Finland's…
If Tokyo impresses visitors with its futuristic look, Kyoto is actually the historical and cultural centre of Japan. Surrounded on three sides by wooded hills and mountains, bisected by the Kamo River, the city occupies an exceptional site. With its…
The Valle Vidal is a lush mountain basin located in the heart of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in northern New Mexico. Donated to the American People in 1982, the Valle Vidal is managed by the Carson National Forest primarily…