Casting off I arrived in Ireland with two sweaters, both borrowed, and one pair of pants. My 15-liter daypack, clean but worn, was a relic from the last time I’d seen Seán, when we were both trailing around Latin America and met in a hostel dorm in Cali, Colombia. I didn’t need sweaters then. I haven’t needed sweaters since, really,...
My hands are clasped around a fired clay bowl, still warm, though I’ve finished the soft humita (corn stew) and tender ternera estofada (braised veal) it contained. The air is heavy with the rich scent of heat, and I can identify each spice—cinnamon, cumin, sweet paprika, pepper, salt, chili flakes, thyme—because I measured them into what we’re eating. I inhale...
Creamy scrambled eggs topped with freshly grated pepper. Thick slices of homemade bread toasted and dripping in butter. A rasher of bacon sizzling on the stove. Oranges nestled all around the kitchen in an assortment of cornflower-blue crockery. That is what I expected from breakfast on the farm. What I got instead was an helter-skelter spattering of carbohydrates heaped uninvitingly...
The six of us arrived at Tayrona National Park groggy and simultaneously over- and under-prepared. Ally’s backpack contained two and a half liters of water and three packages of lunchmeat (necessary), but also a bag of rice he’d forgotten to take out that added a kilo of weight (less than necessary); Sean was carrying a single plastic grocery bag full...
Almost exactly six months ago, I left my winter coat behind on one of the uncomfortable grey boarding-area chairs in Newark International Airport and boarded a plane to Santiago. Since then, I’ve been to six different countries, spending about a month in each, exactly as I planned to do. I knew it’d be good for me and I knew I’d...
This is the first post I’ve ever penned from inside a hospital. I’m currently in a private hospital in Cusco called Oxygen Medical Network Clinic. Last night, I came here in an ambulance—the drama of it all!—and was deposited first into a wheelchair, then into an elevator, and then into room 401, where I woke up this morning, having successfully...
I spent a few maddening, beautiful, indulgent days in Mendoza, and I’m going to tell you about them, but first, an abstract: Our characters in this edition include possibly the most irritating American the South American continent has ever seen, the dearly beloved Anne (first featured in our Puerto Natales comedy of errors), a trio of brothers committed to creating...
Pucón is to Chile as Colorado is to America (she says, never having been to Colorado)—a veritable mecca of geographical phenomena converging in one place to create incredible beauty and an eco-loving adrenaline junkie’s paradise. Volcanos, mountains, forests, rivers, lakes: Pucón has it all (and all within only 500 square miles—1/20 the size of Colorado!). Even before it was valued...