Adventure Travel
Conquering Devil’s Tower
I was taught how to trad climb by a guy who said it was like learning how to drive stick: once you start, you’ll never go back to automatic. He taught me in Red River Gorge, a climber-famous area in Kentucky, on a 5.7 grade climb called Octopus Tag. All of it — the friction […]
Go To Guate: Climb Acate
Examining my sleeping bag as I unravel it, I am relieved to see it is a proper sub-minus piece of kit. Not that I’m some sort of born-again Edmund Hillary-type, but you never know with these “adventure tour” outfits — some of them may as well send you off with a handkerchief and a glass egg cup for all […]
Catching My Breath On Mount Si
I could feel the sweat beading at my temples, threatening to drip into my eye and deliver the dreaded “sunblock burn.” But before I had a chance to wipe the sweat away, it slid down into the groove beneath my jaw line, then traversed my collarbone before disappearing into the depths of my sports bra. […]
A Journey Back In Time In Sri Lanka
I did exactly what you aren’t supposed to do: I looked down. For average non-acrophobes, it probably wouldn’t have meant much, but for those of us with a healthy fear of impending death (including a related fear of snakes, spiders and Abba), the idea the narrow metal staircase leading me to the apex of Sigiriya, the 6-story-high […]
How To Pack A Wet Tent: A Trek Through Torres Del Paine, Chile
The mountain itself seemed to be hurling millions of tiny frozen pellets from every direction, some even rising up from the ground, all apparently aimed directly at our eyeballs. It was impossible to tell the depth of the snow, as it blasted across some rocks leaving them bare, and piled improbably high where larger rocks […]
Here’s What It’s Like To Climb Sigiriya, Sri Lanka’s Ancient City In The Sky
Two things tend to come to mind when you’re visiting Sigiriya, Sri Lanka’s somewhat newly discovered ancient city in the sky. First, it’s usually something along the lines of, “This is the coolest experience ever.” Second, it’s also usually something along the lines of, “I hope these stairs hold, because if not, then I’m a […]
My Four-Day Trip To Peru To Try Ayahuasca
The sun was setting over the horizon, which meant the mosquitoes were getting ready for dinner. It was time to get inside. I was way out in the sticks, in a small jungle compound sitting next to a tributary of the river Amazon about a two hour’s boat ride from Iquitos, the nearest town and […]
Zanzibar On The Mind
The men sit and they wait, casually oblivious to my watchful gaze. I am standing on a small stretch of beach that straddles Zanzibar’s main Town, Stone Town, and the narrow ribbon of Indian Ocean, which separates the island from the African mainland. Fifteen traditional dhow boats wait expectantly at the water’s edge, tiny waves […]
Why I Brought My Baby to Egypt
Shortly after 3 a.m., I was asleep on an overnight train from Cairo — until I wasn’t. Until my 10-month-old son started thrashing in my arms and convulsing. Until my husband stumbled down from the top bunk to help, until he flipped on the light in the tiny compartment, until he crashed against the bottom […]
Embracing The Unexpected In Thunder God’s Forest
It was a bleak afternoon in July as we sped out of Reykjavik, our destination a wilderness area in South Iceland called Thorsmörk, or “Thunder God’s Forest.” Rain pelted the bus’s windows, further obscuring our view of the fog-shrouded countryside. The yellow headlights of oncoming traffic whizzed by in a blur. Sweating under too many […]