In Case You Missed It….

Welcome to the latest IN CASE YOU MISSED IT post!  Links to the lastest articles I’ve published are just below.

Blogging has taken a back seat for most of this year given a rash of awesome writing and photography assignments and other groovy goings-on. In May, for example, I went from a photography shoot in the Chihuahuan Desert of southeastern New Mexico (see a few samples at the bottom) to working in Cuba with Espiritu Travel, a New Hampshire-based company leading small group people-to-people tours throughout Cuba.

A week ago I taught a one day Nature Writing workshop in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument with a fantastic group of New Mexico writers. I run these workshops through Taos, New Mexico-based SOMOS. The next workshop will be a full weekend at the end of September or start of October. TBD. If you’re interested in joining us, let me know via email or sign up for email updates from SOMOS on their website. I’ll also be teaching a 6 week travel writing workshop via SOMOS in January and February 2016.

In all of this good stuff I’ve been frustrated by my inability to secure funds to continue my work covering the European wilderness movement. Two years have passed since I was last in Europe covering these intrepid conservationists. Two years and nearly a dozen failed attempts to secure a grant to continue that work. I strongly believe that the work of the European Wilderness Society is fascinating  and important and it is a story that is not being told by anyone as far as I can tell. At least not in the English-speaking media and I want to bring that story to light and to track it over it time. A reasonable budget for this project is around $5000.00/year which is peanuts to be honest. So what I’m thinking is that later this summer or in the fall I will start a Patreon campaign to seek funds for this reporting work. If any of you have any advice on running a Patreon campaign, please let me know.

Finally, my blog landed on the list of Best Concious Travel Blogs of 2016….presumably for screeds such as this and this. Or maybe this.  Oooo. That one was a doozy.  I don’t put much faith into these kinds of awards, they fly around the intertubes almost as fast as corgi memes and Hillary Clinton conspiracy theories. But hey. What the heck. Its nice.  Anyway. On to a list of recent articles in other publications that may interest you.

Recent Articles

Three Perfect Days in Trinidad, Cuba, Vrai Magazine

It was mid-May and I sat with Yonelkis in a cool, compact bar of stained mahogany benches slurping a cold Bucanero and getting a handle on the origins of Yonelkis’ name. Outside a horse pulling a cart loaded with plumbing supplies passed down the street. The plumber called out to the driver of a blue 1950-something Ford.

Just as Yonelkis got to the point…….

THE INSPIRING RESOURCEFULNESS OF DAILY LIFE IN CUBA, MATADOR

Cubans simply do not have access to most of the daily items the majority of the Western world takes for granted. They’ve had to improvise. They’ve had to adapt. In the 40-some countries I’ve visited over the years I have never met a more resourceful group of people. It is a creativity borne of forced frugality and the opposite of our throwaway culture in the West. It is fascinating and inspiring and grossly unjust.

The Big Business of Europe’s Migration Crisis, SAPIENS

After three months in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, Famara (who requested his last name not be used) left for the Gourougou mountain forest of northern Morocco. Wearing nothing more than shorts, a blue jean jacket, and flip-flops, the diminutive Senegalese man joined a makeshift camp comprised of dozens of West Africans hiding in the mountains between the town of Nador and Spain’s North African city of Melilla. Stays at the camp were temporary. Those with opportunities to move on did so while new migrants making their way north arrived daily. Many in the camp were injured, and all were hungry. None were prepared for life in the woods.

Mesa Verde’s Surprising Story, BBC Travel

Most visitors peek into the towering masonry ruins of Mesa Verde National Park and imagine a society on the edge. Not Ernie Atencio. The 60-year-old Colorado native and anthropologist spent several of his formative years working in the park’s backcountry and most of his life exploring the Four Corners region of the American southwest, arguably the richest archaeological area in North America.

Wild and Free. Protected Public Lands Vital to EcoTourism in New Mexico, Discover Taos (pp122-124)

On the rocky trail that traces Columbine Creek into the Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Area northeast of Taos a train of sure-footed llamas carry tents, sleeping bags, food and tarps. Easy-going and gentle the llamas are the poster child for low-impact ecotourism in the mountains and mesas and canyons of northern New Mexico.

“They are perfect for this,” says Stuart Wilde the owner of Wild Earth Llama Adventures. “These are mountains animals. They are sure-footed and agile.”  The llamas padded, two-toed feet cause minimal trail erosion and their droppings are hard to distinguish from those of elk, Wilde explains.

Find my full list of publications here.

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