70 years ago today, on January 27, 1945, Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. It is estimated 200,000 survivors were freed, a dismal number in comparison to the 1.1. million people who were murdered here. Of all the places I've visited, none has
Today, January 26, is Australia Day, the official national day of Australia which commemorates the 1788 anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships in what is now the state of New South Wales. While my personal travel
In my day to day life living and working in the Costa Rican rainforest, I get a lot of interesting visitors. Some have eight legs, most crawl, and nearly all creep me out. Last week in our office we had one
From the outskirts of Tres Rios, a city at roughly 4,400 feet in Costa Rica’s Central Valley, we drive to the west, winding up, up, up enroute to the summit of Irazú Volcano. We wind past small pueblos. Restaurants, bus stops
The rainforest can be a lonely place. In the wake of a lonely spell yesterday I hiked down to the river near the base where I live and work to dip my feet in the water, read a book and soak
The bright sun of the Costa Rican morning peeps through the curtains of my room at Hotel DoceLunas, spreading warm rays across the floor and beckoning me to leave bed and head outside, where the jungle awaits. The dense foliage overhead
Since moving to Costa Rica, I've had many opportunities to step outside my comfort zone and try some fun new activities in the outdoors. I've been ziplining, surfing and even took a ten day hike through the rainforest of Costa
Costa Rica is famous for its wide offering of daring adventure activities. When it comes to rafting, Costa Rica is a world-class destination, ranking on the top ten whitewater rafting destinations lists for both Frommer’s and O.A.R.S. The rivers in the
Flying to Iceland from Paris is a highly disorienting experience, especially if done at night. I left Paris at 11 p.m. only to arrive in Reykjavik at 12 a.m., 2 a.m. Paris time, 7 p.m. New York time if you judge
"New Year's Eve is over-hyped anyway," I tell myself throughout the day on December 31 as the work day passes and no grand plans emerge from the patched-together woodwork of my relatively new and solitary life in Costa Rica. I've been living