Change Is Good

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Wow, what a spell. So much has happened in the past year (can I use this as an excuse for not updating this blog in so long?!). So many world events intersecting with our own. Change can be good, though, and after the pandemic helped usher out my 15-year full-time stint at Virtuoso in June 2020, I’m happy to report that I’m still covering sustainable travel for its flagship magazine, Virtuoso Life. The best part: Keeping in touch and conversing with some of the industry’s most forward-thinking leaders in sustainability, each of them working hard to change the world for good. Here, a few of my favorite conversations from the past six months.

Forward Thinking
Nine industry leaders on the benefits of responsible travel – and their hopes for the future.
Highlight: “If we can maintain the need to travel with purpose and remain humble in seeing travel as a privilege, a bright future will be waiting.”
– Ashish Sanghrajka, president, Big Five Tours & Expeditions 

By Design
Sustainability and style mix beautifully in Fiji.
Highlight: “Respect for architectural traditions helps ensure that ancient techniques are at the forefront of sustainability in Fiji.”
– Lu Nijdam, general manager, Laucala Island

Hope Takes Wing
Discussing Mexico’s annual monarch butterfly migration with Court Whelan, director of sustainability for Natural Habitat Adventures.
Highlight: “Butterfly tourism is important because families have steadily encroached onto monarch habitat out of necessity, having to create new farmland for additional food and income. Without ecotourism, I fear these forests would be lost, and with them, the migration.”

Sustainable Travel Spotlight
My deep dive with Maya Santangelo, a marine biologist and undersea specialist with Lindblad Expeditions – and a passionate spokeswoman for all things saltwater.
Highlight: “When we have the ability and privilege to make positive choices, what reason do we have to choose otherwise?”

The Way Life Should Be

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“The Way Life Should Be” – Kennebunkport’s Hidden Pond resort, I discovered during two recent stays, epitomizes the state motto of Maine. Though no simple task, I was able to narrow my favorite things about the property into a short-list for “Five Things We Love,” published on the Virtuoso Life blog. For my longer piece on Hidden Pond, family travel, and summer vacations in K’Port, check out “Prime Time.”

Staying Power

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Long live Bali’s cultural traditions, which endure with the help of forward-thinking hotels like The Ritz-Carlton, Bali and Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve. Learn more about how these and similar resorts are helping preserve the island’s heritage amid a rising wave of tourism in “Staying Power,” a story I wrote for the August 2018 issue of Virtuoso Traveler. Looking for a quicker read? Check out my Bali photo essay on the Virtuoso Life blog.

Cover Girl

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A few of my favorite things, all in one spot: Stays at Hidden Pond resort in Kennebunkport, summers on the Maine coast, traveling with family – in this case, my oldest daughter/cover girl – and the April issue of Virtuoso Traveler. For anyone who’s ever lamented how quickly childhood passes, or suddenly realized how imperative it is to travel with our kids when they’re still young, “Prime Time” – my story about our visit to KPort last July (and the first in a trilogy of features based on family vacations) – will hopefully hit home.

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Game On

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If you’re looking to get wild, a South African safari is one great place to start. Read more about the country’s wildlife and national parks – including successful efforts to preserve its cheetah populations (thanks to the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative and the Endan-
gered Wildlife Trust) – in “Game On,” an article I wrote for the December issue of Virtuoso Traveler.

Before setting out for the bush, also check out “Cape Town Calling” – my most-recent post on The Virtuoso Life blog – for a few must-do urban adventures in South Africa’s “Mother City.”

And, for a look at my complete South Africa (safari + Cape Town) photo gallery, see my 5/1/17 post, Scenes Of South Africa.

A Perfect Day in Portsmouth

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Long live Portsmouth, New Hampshire – the third-oldest city in the U.S. and, incidentally, one of my favorite places on the planet. As a New Hampshire native who’s lived in Seattle for two decades, I still feel Portsmouth’s tidal pull, which brings me back every year to reacquaint myself with its lobster rolls, beloved tugboats, and brick-paved lanes that always seem to reveal some fresh find. For a few locally favored stops to explore on your visit, read “A Perfect Day in Portsmouth,” my quick guide to the city that I recently penned for The Virtuoso Life blog.

(*story excerpt included in post)

Bogotá’s Street Appeal

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In Colombia’s buzzing capital, urban art is booming. Thanks to Bogotá’s tolerant laws and businesses that often commission works, accomplished artists have converged on the city, transforming its calles into bold open-air galleries that lend insight into the country’s aesthetic and soul. Glimpse a few of the city’s modern masterpieces in “Paint the Town,” a story I wrote and photographed for the June 2017 issue of Virtuoso Traveler. And for more on the city’s urban art culture, visit The Virtuoso Life blog to read my interview with Crisp, a prominent Bogotá-based street artist – and one of the scene’s unofficial ambassadors – whose work often calls attention to political injustices and the beauty of nature.

For more on Colombia, see my 4/2/17 post, Love In Cartagena, and my 2/8/17 post, Colombia On The Cusp.

(*story excerpts included in post)

True North

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Paul North is an Undersea Specialist with Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic who spends six months a year in cold climates from the Arctic to Antarctica, delving into frigid seas while capturing stunning photos and videos to share with guests during onboard presentations. I had the pleasure to meet North last April on an expedition cruise to Washington State’s San Juan Islands (see my 4/29/16 post, Sucia Island Slow-Down), and recently caught up with him for an interview. Our discussion, published in a Dream Job installment on The Virtuoso Life blog, ranged from the sanity of working in subfreezing conditions to everyday steps we can take to save our seas.

(*story excerpt included in post)

Love in Cartagena

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My travel dream come true – following Gabriel García Márquez’s footsteps in Cartagena, Colombia. Great thanks to Big Five Tours & Expeditions for making it happen. Much gratitude, too, to my guide, Will Salazar Oviedo, for sharing my obsession with Gabo’s words and for completely getting why standing below Fermina Daza’s balcony made me smile. For anyone else hoping to explore the Nobel Prize-winning author’s literary landscape in Cartagena, “Real Magic,” a piece I photographed and penned for the April 2017 issue of Virtuoso Traveler, maps out a walking tour with stops at eight key locations significant to his life and works.

For more on Colombia, see my 2/8/17 post, Colombia On The Cusp.

Colombia on the Cusp

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For decades sidestepped by most American travelers, Colombia is now a country on the cusp. Following years of violence, it is now “a beacon of stability in Latin America that’s peacefully shedding the nightmares of its past for a greater future,” says Big Five Tours & Expeditions’ president Ashish Sanghrajka. I recently had the good fortune to explore the capital of Bogotá and Cartagena’s sixteenth-century Old City with Sanghrajka and Big Five just as the Colombian government adopted an accord that ended a 52-year conflict with the country’s rebel forces. When you go: Expect your fears to be allayed and to quickly fall in love with Colombia’s people, culture, and natural splendor. But first: Check out a few of my favorite finds in Bogotá and Cartagena in “If You Go to Colombia, You’ll Long to Go Back,” written for The Virtuoso Life blog, along with my new Colombia photo gallery.

(*story excerpts included in post)

Deerfield, NH: Sound Sleep

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One of my favorite things about traveling home to New Hampshire in spring and summer: slipping into sleep by open windows at my parents’ house to the sounds of the surrounding forest: sudden, baritone calls of barred owls (“Who, who, who cooks for you?”), wild cackling of coyotes, and (accompanied below by my two-year old daughter: “Froggie, Dada?”), choruses of crickets, tree-, and peeper-frogs.

UNH Graduation: Hats Off

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So proud of my nephew, Stew, for all of his accomplishments (physics major, 4.0, class marshal, CERN internship, etc.) as he graduates today from the University of New Hampshire. So grateful, too, for the opportunity to return to my alma mater precisely 20 years to the month after donning my own cap and gown here. Highly recommended, particularly for anyone at mid-life and/or mid-career: Returning to your place of study and attending its graduation ceremony decades after your own. It occurs to me today that there is no better place to reflect on the roads we’ve traveled since, and to contemplate (ideally, with the same enthusiasm I witnessed this morning) those we hope to travel in the future. Immense thanks to the graduate who crafted the above cap, relaying a message that feels as significant and timely for me at age 42 as it did when I was 22. And godspeed to my nephew as he heads out on his own roads. May every one lead you to the place you want to be.

Sucia Island Slow-Down

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Scenes from today’s adventures on and along Sucia Island, a 564-acre protected marine park in Washington State’s San Juan archipelago: great blue herons meditating on moody morning skies; spring meadows flaring with patches of camas, lupine, and Indian paintbrush; juvenile bald eagles learning to fly; harbor seals slipping suddenly above the water’s surface to spy passing kayakers; gargantuan sea lions hauled out on shoreline rocks, slumbering in the afternoon sun; one of Lindblad Expeditions’ talented naturalist-guides extolling the virtues of bullwhip kelp (it’s edible, can serve as an instrument, is used by otters to wrap and protect their young); and orcas breaching, again and again, as my wife and I watched from the bow of the National Geographic Sea Bird in silence, immensely grateful for the opportunity to slow down, take a much-needed time-out from the haste of our daily lives, and see again.

Close to Home

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True, today’s home pages can be as ephemeral as cherry blossoms (yes, spring, finally, is showing its first signs here in Seattle). But I’m happy that Zegrahm Expeditions gave this sally lightfoot crab (from my Galápagos gallery) the spotlight for a recent spell on its new website. Also glad that they were able to resurrect this pic for their Instagram feed and Facebook cover photo in February. Many thanks, Zegrahm.

Instagram: Sharing the Love

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Deep gratitude to two of my friends, Andrew A. (@universal_panic) and Mackenzie S. (@pineandcrave), for showing me the light and motivating me to get on Instagram. Yes, I admit it, I eschewed this particular social medium for too long (“devalues photos” … “even more time on our phones” … “nothing’s left to the imagination”), but where I once was blind, I now can see. Or, better: Where else can I see (in a matter of minutes and scrolls) everything from classic, perfectly crafted photos from road trips in the U.S. Southwest (@matthewehrmann) to inspiring pictures posted by an organization that’s working to invest in the dreams and businesses of coffee farmers in Rwanda (@kulaproject)?

And yes, there’s also the personal reach, and the gratification that comes from having your images shared and seen by so many that might otherwise never have seen them. Not only by one’s “followers,” but through permitted reposts and repurposing of photographs, including two of my own travel shots shown here: blue footed boobies in the Galápagos (above), posted by Lindblad Expeditions on its website and the Scat Jazz Lounge (below), posted by the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau on FortWorth.com.

World Class

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Lessons that come from travel can be as critical for kids as any learned in a classroom setting. I’ve witnessed this firsthand, from beach combing the Maine coast with my young daughters to exploring the Galápagos Islands with my nephew, but also, more recently, while penning a series of articles pertaining to Virtuoso’s Journey to Global Citizenship theme.

Whether it’s an ecology lesson in the Mexican Riviera or a hands-on cooking class in Morocco, it’s clear that educational-themed travels can provide a powerful, positive influence in a child’s life. Read more in “Higher Education,” (August 2015 Virtuoso Traveler) and “Food for Thought” (October 2015 Virtuoso Traveler), or in my “Global Good” post below.

An Act of Faith

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“Faith,” said Saint Augustine, “is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” National Geographic’s current Your Shot assignment, Faith, has me thinking a lot about the subject, Saint Augustine’s words, and this photo, taken at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

After traversing the Old City’s Via Dolorosa (the path Christ is believed to have walked to his crucifixion), a pilgrim stands for a moment to behold the spot where her savior is said to have been laid to rest. What is she seeing, what is she believing at this moment, presumably one of the more powerful of her life? What is her reward? That this pilgrim is partially shrouded in shadow feels appropriate: Beyond any religion, faith, I believe, is personal, its power and presence lies ultimately in the individual experience.

Photographers: NG’s Your Shot assignment ends October 3. Post your pics and see all other submissions (9,529 and counting) here, and view a few more of my faith-inspired photos, from Jerusalem’s Old City to the Andean cloud forest, at my new Faith gallery.

Maine Event: Barefoot on the Marginal Way

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Summer bliss along the 1.25-mile Marginal Way footpath in Ogunquit, Maine, where my beautiful daughter flips off her shoes and meets her reflection in the sand.

Other path highlights: the views afforded from 39 seaside benches, each dedicated to those who walked this way in times past; a classic New England lighthouse (yes, I’m a New England nerd, but check out this live lighthouse webcam); and the lobster rolls at M.C. Perkins Cove, founded by Top Chef Masters and James Beard “Best Chefs of the Northeast” winners Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier.

Global Good

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Philanthropic travel has the power to keep on giving – both for the “giver” and the “receiver” in the equation. I was recently reminded of this lesson while researching young travelers who effected positive change in the communities they visited, and who, in turn, changed and grew themselves as a result of their experiences. Read more about their efforts, and find a sampling of worthy voluntourism opportunities for travelers of any age, in my article, “Lasting Change,” written for the June 2015 issue of Virtuoso Traveler.

Utah: Men of a Certain Age

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A few key components of this week’s quasi midlife crisis road trip:

1. Good friends (Elder John and Old Man Kelly).

2. Minimal packing and little to no planning.

3. A surreal arrival at our starting point (in this case, Salt Lake City Int’l, where hundreds of LDS members had gathered to welcome back returning missionaries).

4. Waiting more than 30 minutes to eat Mexican food at a decent but decidedly overhyped SLC restaurant.

5. Graying manes blowing in the wind from a 435 horsepower Ford Mustang convertible (careful for sunburned balding spots).

6. Listening, unabashedly, to horribly antiquated music like the Grateful Dead and Jane’s Addiction while realizing that college occurred in a previous century.

7. A place of pilgrimage (in this case, Arches National Park) that provides plenty of silence and space to push pause, look around as far as you can see, and feel deeply alive.

8. Seeing the sunset in said place of pilgrimage with said good friends and a bottle of Laphroaig.

9. Exhausting all supplies of tiger balm the morning after a 28-mile mountain bike ride, collectively cursing the aging process, and then gaining immediate consensus to see Moab’s Fisher Towers from the car – rather than hike out to them as originally discussed – while driving the Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway.

10. Veering off the highway en route to SLC and stumbling upon Mom’s Café in Salina (a classic roadside diner lauded everywhere, it turns out, from Sunset to National Geographic), and capping off the trip with a slice of sour cream and blueberry pie that, all by itself, was worth traveling to Utah for.

Adults-Only Oahu

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Sleeping late (i.e., past 6:00 AM), sipping cocktails in silence while watching the sun set over the Pacific, swimming (yes, actually swimming) beneath waterfalls, drinking coffee unfettered from breakdowns, and strolling through botanical gardens without surprise bathroom breaks….

How nice is it to be exploring Oahu’s North Shore sans kids (sorry, daughters!) with my wife by my side (our first vacation together in nearly four years)? So nice. Here, some of our favorite moments so far…

Thailand: Wildest Dreams

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Wildest_Dreams_Joel_Centano

Nightly symphonies of cicadas, picnics by thirteenth-century Lanna ruins, jaunts to Myanmar, hours exploring the Hall of Opium, dinners in the jungle accompanied by two-ton elephants – I had the fortune to experience it all during a recent stay at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort. Though elephant-based tourism is a contested and hugely complex issue – and, sadly, so often done wrong (read: good for profits, bad for animals) – Anantara provides one sound prescription for caring for Thailand’s captive pachyderms while also employing their mahout partners and working to preserve wild populations. Learn more about the camp and its efforts in my article, “Wildest Dreams,” written for December Virtuoso Traveler magazine.

The Humans

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More than anything, it is the people we encounter and share time with that shape our lives, our travels, and our selves. From safaris in Kenya’s Shompole region to temples in South Korea to sacred moments in my own home, the photos that I’ve taken of people have always proven to be the most challenging, but also the most meaningful and memorable for me. Recently I compiled a few of my favorites; to view the complete gallery, visit The Humans.

Colorado Calling

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It’s mid-October, which means that Colorado’s aspens must be fully in bloom. It also means that it’s been one full year since my last visit to the state – a visit that marked a much-needed return after a 16-year voluntary exile (see Time Travel: This One’s Personal) and that followed an invitation I received to stay at Gateway Canyons Resort, playground to Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks (see Gateway Canyons: A Curious Place). Though articles, like life, happen when they’re supposed to, I’m happy to have at long last published my story on the stay, written for the October issue of Virtuoso Traveler.

The iPhone Five (III)

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I’m going vertical for round three. For additional context, to read more about the smartphone revolution, and to see my first installment of this series, visit The iPhone Five (11/24/13). Round two (3/21/14) can be viewed at The iPhone Five (II).

From top: Fog-shrouded evergreen (Sunset Hill, Seattle, WA), The Siam hotel (Bangkok, Thailand), Ballard Centennial Bell Tower (Marvin’s Garden, Seattle, WA), old truck (Ballard, Seattle, WA), Anya devouring watermelon (our backyard, Seattle, WA).

June Bloom!

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Once again I’m reminded that traveling to the other side of the globe isn’t always required when it comes to witnessing life at its most sublime. Today I give great thanks to my wife, Adrienne (nice work!), for the best Father’s Day gift a dad could ever ask for – a healthy, happy, beyond words beautiful baby girl. Wishing the warmest of welcomes to our second daughter, June Anita Centano! Here’s to you, your life, and your own journey, June. May you always arrive at good places and forever see the world with new eyes.

Bangkok: Blessed and Buddha-ful

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The best travels teach us something, and today my lesson is this: It’s an absolute shame that I scheduled only a single day in Bangkok to conclude my week in Thailand. “Bangkok is no longer a bookend destination,” asserts Jason Friedman, GM of The Siam hotel where I’m staying, as I concede my misstep and hear his suggestions for exploring the surrounding Old Town. “It is the destination.”

So true, I’m quickly finding. Today, all before dinner, I’ve stepped into The Siam’s professional ring for an authentic Muay Thai lesson; wandered secret (read: tourist free, aside from me) alleys, temples, and street food markets in the historic Dusit district; and streamed up and down the Chao Phraya river in the hotel’s water shuttle en route to Bangkok’s night flower market and Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.

At roughly 150 feet long and 50 feet high, Wat Pho’s immense, gold plated statue portrays the passing of the Buddha into nirvana, or his release from suffering and the cycle of rebirth. The state sounds perfectly blissful, I confess, but not before I have the chance to return to this city – something I now hope to do as many times as I can.

For more photos of the Reclining Buddha, Bangkok’s Old Town, and my stay in the Golden Triangle, visit my Thailand gallery.

120 Minutes in Myanmar

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If achieving longstanding goals is truly good for the soul, then today I’m pleased to have realized two: 1) visiting Myanmar, and 2) arriving in a country by walking across its border – rather than simply “parachuting” in via its airport (see numerous criticisms in the Paul Theroux canon).

Thanks to a guided tour provided by the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort in northern Thailand, I had the fortune – all in a single day – to visit thirteenth-century ruins in the surrounding town of Chiang Saen, take a long-tail boat ride along the Mekong for a stop on the Laos island of Don Sao, and cross a bridge spanning the Ruak River from Mae Sai on the Thai border to Tachileik for an exceptional – albeit brief – two-hour glimpse of eastern Myanmar.

So much bustle, chaos, and dust stirred from tuk-tuks and motorbikes in both border towns eventually led to some stillness and peace at Phra Jow La Keng (shown above), a 90-year-old Buddhist temple that doubles as an orphanage. I’ve posted a few more photos of the chaos and peace I experienced today – mostly as a reminder that I need to return for a more thorough stay – in my Myanmar gallery.

The iPhone Five (II)

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Time for round two. To view my first segment of this series (and read more about the smartphone revolution), see my 11/24/13 post, The iPhone Five.

From top: Vintage ride (Gateway Canyons Auto Museum, Gateway, CO), mushroom (Green Lake, Seattle, WA), boat (Fishermen’s Terminal, Seattle), fountain (Sundance Square, Fort Worth, TX), Anya with hot chocolate (San Juan Island, WA).

Life Lessons in Photography

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Break rules. Experiment with water. And fire. Seek out different perspectives. Rise before dawn. Arrive early, stay late. Go behind the scenes. People aren’t hopeless, even in their darkest moments. Humanize a concept (for example, coffee or coal). We all underestimate how much we have inside us. Slowing down will open doors that were not open before. Spend time with people. Get to know them. Celebrate their lives. Tell their stories and remember to give something back. Go beyond the superficial. Embrace what scares you. Don’t be afraid to step forward when there’s something you want….

I’ll be forever indebted to photojournalists Melissa Farlow and Ami Vitale for the sagacity they shared while hosting yesterday’s National Geographic seminar on Storytelling Photography. Held at the Seattle Public Library, the seminar shed light on topics that ranged from developing compelling story angles to sharpening technical skills to demonstrating compassion and sensitivity within the cultures we photograph.

Over the course of the seven-hour seminar, what resounded most consistently, however, was the wisdom that both photographers have clearly garnered throughout their careers. As each demonstrated through her words and images, the lessons that photography provides and the lessons we most need to learn in life very often coalesce – and it is precisely within this confluence that we find the most beautiful photographs.

See each photographer’s life work at olsonfarlow.com and amivitale.com. More on National Geographic’s Photography Seminars can be found here.

The iPhone Five

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“Today, with the explosion of camera apps on our smartphones, we’re all photographers,” says writer James Estrin, “and pretty good ones at that, since the quality of smartphone images now rivals that of digital cameras.” Truth be told, I was a reluctant convert, but Estrin’s recent article, “The Visual Village,” has helped show me just how significant a role smartphone cameras have played in expanding and reshaping the world, my own little sphere included.

In his article, which appeared in National Geographic’s October 2013 Photo Issue, Estrin adds: “There’s something powerful and exciting about the society-wide experiment the digital age has thrust upon us. [Smartphone cameras and social media] make it easier to tell our own stories–and they empower others to do the same. Many members of the media get stuck on the same narratives … and in the process miss out on the less dramatic images of daily life that can be as revealing.”

Embellished by smartphone photos taken from people around the globe, Estrin’s article also illustrates the many pros that this “democratization of photography” has spawned. True, the digital age has yielded a surfeit of selfies and images of people’s dinner plates that we could probably live without. But it’s also revealed stunning scenes of both beauty and brutality (in some cases even helping to bring down despotic regimes) that, in years past, would have gone unseen by the world at large.

While my conversion isn’t complete – I don’t intend to abandon my beloved Nikon DSLR and lenses anytime soon – Estrin’s insights also exemplify what I’ve most loved about my smartphone ever since my generous neighbors, the Nobles, took pity on me (I was too long trapped in the past with an antiquated flip phone) and gave me their extra iPhone: the ease it affords to capture and instantly disseminate what impresses me in my own diurnal routines.

“The Visual Village” also inspired me to share some of these shots, five at a time, in a recurring post, beginning now. Long live the smartphone revolution.

From top: Koi (Swansons Nursery, Seattle, WA), Japanese maple (Seattle Japanese Garden), octopus suckers (Seattle Aquarium), brushes (Fishermen’s Terminal, Seattle), Anya in awe (Carkeek Park, Seattle).

Ecuador: Much (More) Ado About the Mainland

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Congratulations, Quito! Ecuador’s tourism board recently announced that its capital is an official finalist in the Swiss-based New 7 Wonders Cities contest. The current list of finalists comprises 28 cities (including Chicago, Seoul, Beirut, and Barcelona) winnowed from an initial pool of more than 300. Voters from around the world will select the winning seven wonders, which will be unveiled on December 7, 2014. You can vote for your seven favorites at new7wonders.com/en/cities.

No doubt, the news was well received in a country that’s currently calling to visitors and developing its tourism infrastructure with such vigor (read: new eco-lodges, boutique hotels, international airport, and deluxe train journeys, to name a few).

I had the pleasure to see this progress firsthand while exploring much of continental Ecuador – from Quito to the cloud forest to the coast – last November after an initial trip there afforded only a quick overnight in Guayaquil en route to the Galápagos Islands. What I found: a diversity of indigenous cultures, brilliant biodiversity, a revitalized culinary scene, and passionate ambassadors (everyone from newly repatriated chefs to ardent environmentalists) all eager to show off and share the virtues of their country. Read more in my story “Much Ado About the Mainland,” published recently in the November/December issue of Virtuoso Life.

Time Travel (This One’s Personal)

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So much can happen in the span of 16 years. Take my own life, for example: In the summer of 1997, I was only 23 years old, living in the small mountain town of Durango in southwestern Colorado. Largely without direction, recently graduated from college, and reeling from a break up, I woke up one morning, loaded my black lab-golden retriever mix, Mable, and the few possessions I had into my beat-up Subaru wagon, and just drove off. Away. I had no idea where I was going or where my life might lead.

Sixteen years and some months later, an assignment in Gateway (200 miles northwest of Durango) afforded me an opportunity to return, seeking long overdue perspective on my past and present vis-à-vis this town. Thomas Wolfe famously wrote that “You can’t go home again,” but I lean toward Bob Dylan’s take on the subject in his song, “Mississippi”: “You can always come back, but you can’t come back all the way.” Paul Theroux, though, perhaps said it best. Regarding those places we revisit, Theroux writes in Dark Star Safari, “You go away for a long time and return a different person – you never come all the way back.”

So true. Today as I tour Durango, so much has changed. The natural food co-op where I worked for a spell seems tired somehow, so much less vital than I recall. The ranch where I baled hay has grown considerably, its roadside placard now trumpeting the grass-fed, “locavore,” farm-to-fork phenomenon that was so quietly in style here even before the national trend. The house where I once lived, that sheltered so many young people coming and going, momentarily marooned between college and the next stages of their lives, is still surrounded by towering pines and scrub jays, but is now a family’s home by the looks of its basketball hoop and kids’ bikes laid across the lawn. The nearby saloon where my housemates and I passed winter nights is now abandoned and in decay, so reminiscent of the burned down bar in Richard Hugo’s “Death of the Kapowsin Tavern,” a poem I remember reading regularly back then.

Still, for me of course, what’s changed most significantly is myself. Like Hugo, “I can’t ridge” any of the past or its remains “back again from char” – which is a good thing. Walking streets I once walked, contemplating scenes previously so meaningful to me, and viewing Durango at dusk from its highest vantage point, it occurs to me again how life itself is synonymous with change, and just how many great things have graced my own life (friends, family, career, and home) since I was last here.

This time as I leave Durango, headed north on I-550 along severely steep mountain passes toward Silverton, Ouray, and ultimately, Grand Junction and my return flight to Seattle, there’s no need to look back. Lava-bright aspens light the mountainsides along roads with no guardrails and drop-offs so sudden that the only option is to look ahead, and, just for a moment as I pause for a roadside photo, at my phone for a perfectly timed message from my wife: “Drive safely,” she writes, “I can’t wait for you to be home.”

On the Road Again: Gateway to Durango, Colorado

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My god it feels good to be streaming solo across the American Southwest again (it has been years), surrounded only by space and time. Physicists have yet to explain where either phenomenon comes from, a mystery which is of course understandable to those of us with families and fulltime jobs. But today I was able to find both (along with a healthy dose of silence) while traveling the vast and vacant roads of Western Colorado.

Today there was no music, no computer monitors, no meetings, no text messages to distract my thoughts as the scenery passed from mountains clad in autumnal oak brush to red-rock canyons covered in sage to recently tilled farmland boasting religious slogans of the purported saved.

Such landscapes (and especially the exquisite late afternoon sunlight near Cortez) called for breaking out my wide-angle lens (Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8), and, something I fear I’m able to do even less often these days: stopping, momentarily stepping away from things, and seeing.

Gateway Canyons: A Curious Place

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There’s very little to the town of Gateway, Colorado: a diner (shut down, it seems, for some time), a post office (is it open?), a general store (still under construction). Blink on the drive through – about an hour from Grand Junction along the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway – and and you’re sure to miss it. All the better, I say. Retired, reticent settings such as this so often store the best secrets, and in the case of Gateway, can quickly lead to revelation.

Just a few paces past “town” lies Gateway Canyons Resort, the brainchild of Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks. Over the past weekend I’ve had the opportunity to explore the resort and sample some of its draws, including soaring over 300-million-year-old red-rock formations in a helicopter, driving a convertible Bentley down quiet canyon roads, and riding horseback through valleys ablaze in brush oak and scented with sage.

It’s an eclectic and, truth be told, privileged playground for sure. And although a few of the activities feel as extravagant and over-the-top as the Discovery Channel’s lineup (see “Amish Mafia” or “Moonshiners”), what strikes me most is the number, and quality, of people I’ve met here (staff and guests alike), who, thanks to Hendricks’ vision, have found a place to pursue their passions. Take, for instance, the restoration specialist who maintains Hendricks’ impressive collection of vehicles at the on-site auto museum, the retired marine who leads guests on heli-tours (including a couple on their 64th anniversary over a mining camp they inhabited during the first years of their marriage), the horse whisperer who’s able to match even the most trepid rider with the right steed, and the brothers who I watched sail their small aircraft (again and again) past the Palisade (see bottom photo) before flying off to their next adventure.

There’s certainly no chance of being bored here (did I mention that guests can also learn to drive pro-Baja trucks on the resort’s off-road racetrack?). But what I’ve most appreciated about this place after, and even despite, all its activities, is the seclusion it has provided simply to sit, slow down, and watch the Palisade behind my casita soak up the setting sun and then slowly assimilate into the starry night. It’s during these shows that I most understand why Hendricks selected this spot as “the place” for his playground, and why his general manager so readily confided to me (twice, no less) that he never wanted to leave.

Sacred Space: Japan’s Miyajima Island

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Moment of Zen on Miyajima Island

It’s been five years since my visit to Miyajima, but after dusting off this image for the VIP department of August Virtuoso Traveler, I was reminded of how powerful a place this is. Located in the Seto Inland Sea, Miyajima (or “shrine island”) specializes in spirituality, abounding in both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, all made more beautiful in autumn when the island blazes with brilliant maples.

Wading in the water on its long heron’s legs, Miyajima’s towering O-torri gate welcomes both living pilgrims and the spirits of the deceased. On the shoreline, seemingly floating on the sea, lies Itsukushima Shrine, a massive Shinto complex dating back to the sixth century. At Daisho-in Temple (shown here), visitors spin prayer wheels, light candles, then slip off to some other world during an intense meditation session where monks beat drums and chant sutras in Sanskrit. You can visit this realm more readily via my photo gallery.

The above VIP page was designed by my close friend and colleague, Jay Carskadden, an artist of many talents (among them: painting, web and graphic design, and metalsmithing – incidentally, she also designed this website and the engagement ring that I gave to my wife, Adrienne, on this same trip). Jay works tirelessly to help produce Virtuoso Traveler every other month, and has posted a collection of additional VIP pages on her own website. See these and some of her other design work at jaycarskadden.com. Her paintings and jewelry can be viewed at jaymetalsmith.com.

Go Girl: Help Send a Child to School

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UPDATE | June 13, 2013: Thanks to Huru’s 5th Anniversary International Children’s Day Challenge, 350 school girls in Kenya received Huru Kits — much needed gifts that will help them stay in school. Donations to the organization can be made at any time of the year via Huru’s How to Help page.

Freedom (“huru” in Swahili) is a difficult word to define, but to girls living in the Mukuru slum near Nairobi, Kenya, it translates in part to the ability to stay in school. Imagine, though, needing to miss classes every month simply due to a lack of feminine hygiene supplies.

To help solve this problem – and ultimately empower tens of thousands of school age girls – Micato Safaris helped form Huru International. This week, to celebrate Huru’s 5th anniversary and also honor International Children’s Day, Micato is matching the first 1,000 Huru Kit donations made between June 1 and June 7. Kits cost only $25 and include eight reusable sanitary pads and educational materials with HIV/AIDS prevention information.

Since 2008, Huru International has impacted over 300,000 lives:
• 80,000+ girls have received Huru Kits
• 200,000+ family members have received HIV prevention information
• 20,000+ boys have attended HIV prevention education sessions

I had the privilege to travel with Micato Safaris in November 2010. Though photographing the “big five” and touring Masai villages was riveting, the most indelible moment of my trip remains a visit to Micato’s Harambee Centre. Headquarters to Huru, the multi-purpose facility also provides education, clean water, and medical services to residents of Mukuru. What’s more, for every safari that it sells, Micato pays all school fees for a child in need.

To learn more about Huru and to donate a Huru Kit to a girl in Africa, visit Huru International’s help page.

Ecuador: Change Is in the Air

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Paddling along the Chone River estuary near Ecuador’s northern coast, my local guide, Carlos, captains our canoe toward the seemingly impenetrable thickets of mangrove that comprise Isla Corazon. In time, however, a tiny portal reveals itself, and we slip instantly from open estuary to a narrow canal that wends its way through swampy, sylvan cloisters.

We glide by elegant, great white egrets and beneath thuggish turkey vultures conspiring in the canopy. Yellow warblers take sudden flight, flickering their reflections against the milky grey waters like lightning. Motionless crabs stare out from mangrove branches like shy shut-ins. All the while, ubiquitous mangroves surround, multiplying, it seems, even as we pass. New shoots breach the water’s surface, and fresh legs stretch from established trees to expand the forest’s ever increasing empire.

It wasn’t always like this. Less than two decades ago, corporate shrimp farms destroyed approximately half of the mangrove’s territory here. In 1996, though, bolstered by government efforts to conserve the country’s wild lands, local citizens organized and banished the shrimp farmers. Since then, says Carlos, the mangrove swamps have resurrected.

The significance? Each mangrove leaf creates six seconds of oxygen. Fallen leaves also provide food for shrimp, oysters, and fish, which in turn feed Carlos’ family and community of Puerto Portovelo. The resurgent swamps – and the bird species they harbor – also attract tourists and thus revenue. It’s clear that to local citizens like Carlos, the mangroves are not just their lungs, but their livelihood and life.

In time, the canal delivers us to an outlet on the estuary erupting with avian activity. Both the sky above and mangroves bordering the bay brim with frigate birds, and each one, it seems, has something to say. Everywhere there is swarming, aerial dancing, and a controlled chaos of wings and chatter.

¿Cuántos? I ask Carlos, who seems to have anticipated my question. The current colony of frigates is some 25,000 strong, he says, up from around 500 in the year 2000 – proof positive that not only is change possible, it can also be prolific.

Read my full story, “Much Ado About the Mainland,” in the November 2013 issue of Virtuoso Life magazine. Also: Check out my gallery of photos from Mashpi to Quito to the coast.

Ecuador: Sky High in the Center of the World

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UPDATE | May 1, 2013: For more on Mashpi Lodge, check out my review, “Ahead in the Clouds,” written for the May issue of Virtuoso Life magazine.

My head’s in the clouds, I confess, but once again it occurs to me how good life can be. True: Such an outlook comes easy, perched in the canopy of the Andean cloud forest and surrounded by a symphony of birdsong. Nevertheless: Shouldn’t travel be transcendent? Does it not have the power to transform?

Two hundred feet above the jungle floor, I’m seated in the “sky bike” at Mashpi Lodge, a new eco-resort situated in the wilds of Ecuador some 100 miles northwest of Quito. The start of my nine-day trip designed by the Ministry of Tourism to showcase the country’s mainland, my stay at Mashpi has reminded me of the metamorphosis that travel can bring.

Some 80 percent of the lodge’s employees, for example, come from local communities. Built with sustainable materials, Mashpi also resides on land previously owned by a logging company, and its formation has led to the protection of more than 40,000 acres of forest. Under the guidance of resident biologist, Carlos Morochz, the region’s flora and fauna are now being preserved. Already Carlos and his colleagues have identified new species of frogs and discovered a number of heretofore-unknown leks, or mating grounds, for manakin, cock-of-the-rock, and umbrella birds.

Of course, such efforts are the boon of travelers, too. Here in this eco-playground I’ve had the good fortune to immerse myself in revitalizing waterfalls; take night hikes through the jungle; linger in the lodge’s butterfly and hummingbird gardens; and indulge in an alfresco chocolate degustation with chef David Barriga as toucans flitted by in the background. All this and now an aerial bicycle ride that places everything – the lodge, the land, and this verdant, vibrant life that surrounds – in perfect perspective.

Jerusalem: Hitting the Western Wall

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“Does God exist in the heart of the devil?” Clad in somber black attire and embellished by a long, white, waterfall of a beard, the rabbi and author Gutman Locks stood before Jerusalem’s Western Wall and patiently awaited my reply. Behind him, orthodox Jews bobbed, chanted, wept, and pressed written prayers inside crevices of the wall as the setting sun lit its stones in a warm, golden glow.

“Yes,” I answered, thinking it mattered little that my response was mostly theoretical, or that our definitions of “god” and “devil” most likely wouldn’t match. I hadn’t traveled 7,000 miles from Seattle to Jerusalem to debate or dismiss anyone’s beliefs, but to witness the devout pursuing and communing with their own versions of the divine. As I arrived at the Wall, surrounded by scores of the faithful and greeted by the rabbi’s question, I knew I’d found what I was seeking.

“You’re a smart man,” Gutman told me after I’d given my reply. “God is infinite and everywhere at all times.” Later in our discussion, after I’d confessed to being a travel writer, he added: “You should tell your readers to search out the things that they can best learn from each place they are visiting. The specialty of this place, Jerusalem, is God. That’s what we know best.” (See Gutman’s side of the story – and a picture of me taking a picture of him – at the rabbi’s blog, Mystical Paths.)

While I don’t believe any human being can fully comprehend – or any one place encompass – what “god” may or may not be, it is experiences like this that keep me traveling to the world’s “holy lands.” From Fátima in Portugal to Miyajima Island in Japan, those places where the sacred is celebrated most ardently, whether peacefully or in conflict, reveal much about our species and an existence we all struggle to understand.

Jerusalem’s Old City is no exception. With its Western Wall (a remnant of Herod’s grand temple and one of the holiest sites in Judaism), Dome of the Rock (the place where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven), and Via Dolorosa (the path that Christians believe Christ followed to his crucifixion and ultimate resurrection), the pursuit of the divine is on full display here. If my words have failed to do this place justice, I’m hoping my photos might help.