Off-road Surf Trip in Nicaragua

November 5, 2014

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Location: Nicaragua

“We’ll cruise on the main road till there,” said Chris, tracing the route along the clearly marked Pan-American Highway, the main artery through Central America, “and turn off right about here to head for the coast,” his index finger sliding west along a vague, snaking line that looked more like an errant pencil mark than a clearly delineated Nicaraguan motorway. According to the surf bible, the road was a rutted dirt track, impassable during the wet season but doable during the dry months. Despite a few ominous storm clouds on the horizon, it was…

November 5, 2012

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Chaos and Calm Collide Across the Sands in Morocco

Location: Marrakesh, Morocco

Published: The Orlando Sentinel

Samir, my host at food stall No. 125 in Djemma al Fna square, one of Africa’s most eclectic massings of humanity, is a tooth-challenged teenager who claims to have lovers in every corner of the world. “Brazil, Holland, Argentina, Japan,” he brags, adjusting the tiny white chef’s hat atop his head and shooting a knowing wink at my male companion. “I know a nurse in Paris,” he continues. “She’s coming back with papers to get me out of here.” Samir’s not too picky. “I don’t care if she’s fat, ugly, crazy,” he says. “One…

November 5, 2012

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Turtle Turf: In Tortuguero, Costa Rica

Location: Costa Rica

Published: The Orlando Sentinel

Giant raphia palms, sprouting like inverted broomsticks along the edge of the canal, are sweeping past me in a blur of tropical green. I am on my way to Tortuguero, a tiny village on the northwest coast of Costa Rica that is one of the most important nesting sites in the world for the green sea turtle. The small boat in which I’m traveling, however, is not moving at a turtle’s pace. Just when I’m about to give my Dutch companion, Hilde, a helpless but-how-will-we-ever-see-anything-at-this-speed? look, Willis cuts the engine. All eyes turn…

November 5, 2012

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Cambodian Monks Show Path to Enlightenment Isn’t Far

Location: Cambodia

Published: The Orlando Sentinel

Are serenity and grace inborn, or might I be able to acquire just an ounce of the ethereal tranquillity of a Buddhist monk? This is what I found myself wondering on my first morning in Phnom Penh — Cambodia’s throbbing capital, where the dust and squalor, incessant honking, suicidal pedestrian crossings and wafting river stench can make you feel anything but serene and graceful.

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November 5, 2012

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A Traditional Wedding in Fes

Location: Fes, Morocco

Published: The Orlando Sentinel

Light pierces star-shaped holes in the ancient building’s domed ceiling, shooting shafts of sunlight into the shadowy depths where women of all shapes and ages sit on the cement floor, bathing themselves languidly with buckets of steaming water. An invitation to a Fez wedding prompts my first visit to the hammam, the traditional Moroccan baths. Along with a mosque, communal bakery, public fountain and Koranic school, the hammam is one of the five cornerstone elements of every neighborhood in the medina. It’s also one of the main places Moroccan women go to socialize…

November 5, 2012

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The Secret of Atlantic Beach

Location: Atlantic Beach, Florida, USA

Published: The Orlando Sentinel

The dunes loom higher than I remember, the sea oats seem a bit thicker, and the willowy grass shimmies like a giant magic carpet in the stiff sea breeze. A surfer rolls up on a skateboard, holding his surfboard steadily atop his head with one hand. He eyes the breakers, which are rolling in quite uniformly as far as my untrained eyes can discern, then ditches the skateboard and takes off in a spirited sprint toward the sea. Before I follow, my eyes are drawn downward to a covering of wildflowers that…