How To Visit La Mitad Del Mundo (Don’t) And Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve

Hiking Through El Cajas, Ecuador’s Southern National Treasure

Visiting The Poor Man’s Galapagos In The Lowest Of Seasons

I approached the birds cautiously, but they paid me little mind. One faced the ocean, the other a patch of scrubby dry brush — both, for the moment, disinterested in each other and the world around them. They seemed more like a…

The Good The Bad And The Terrible When Riding The Bus In Ecuador’s Andean Highlands

I recently had the pleasure and the pain of taking a series of bus rides to and from Riobamba, a city dead center in Ecuador and in the Andes as well. It’s well situated for a trip down…

Let Me Tell You About This Piece Of Pie I Ate

It was Good Friday and most of Ecuador was on vacation, so we woke up early by our standards and drove north to Lago Cuicocha, a crater lake in the shadow of a dormant volcano. Both the volcano and the nearby town are named Cotacachi.

Following In The Footsteps of John Muir Around Mt. Rainier

Discomfort Food At Parque De Las Tripas

Parque de las Tripas is a shoddy “park” a few blocks from where I’m staying, a misshapen plaza of sorts with sad, trodden grass and broken sidewalks. During the day, during the week, it’s nothing more than a traffic-congested roundabout, surrounded by poorly…

Into The Woods: For A Few Days, In North Carolina

“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”

— John Muir

Always Check Your Gear Before You Go Hiking: A Case Study On Volcan Pichincha

I felt the breeze under my right foot when I took a step, which was weird, because I was wearing a pair of sturdy, thick and not-inexpensive boots, courtesy of my dad. But when I looked down and…

Notes From A Shaken City

The first one hit around 3 a.m., and it jarred me awake, though not quite. It took me a moment, or maybe it was a minute, or maybe it took me no time at all, I’m not sure, to realize that the room was shaking and that I should get up.