A hundred and eight miles from the city of Puebla in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, mystical Cuetzalan is dotted with waterfalls, springs and natural pools set in tropical forest. Most guidebooks describe …
June 6, 2013
Travel off the Beaten Path
The "Magic Town" of Cuetzalan
The Mad Greek
What am I doing out here in the middle of the desert? The lights of Las Vegas are a distant memory, faded away into the early morning, and now about a hundred miles into the …
Karnataka's untouched paradise
On the west coast of India, the state of Karnataka has a spectacular 300-kilometer-long rocky coastline dotted with pristine white sand beaches. The most popular are Murudeshwar, Kumta, Malpe, Gokarna and Maravanthe. Along Karnataka’s coast, …
May 30, 2013
Mali: my almost nomad wife
In my capacity as a travel writer, I journeyed through much of Mali's Sahara Desert with the fabled Blue Men in the years before it was desecrated by Al-Qaida. For two thousand years, Tuareg nomads …
May 16, 2013
Skeletons in the armoire: Paris catacombs
The air was cool and exuded a musty, almost earthy odor. The passageway with squat ceilings no more than six feet high was lit by small dim lights, each bright enough to see only a …
May 13, 2013
Secrets of Ghent
Most of us in the U.S. remember the name “Ghent” from the Treaty of Ghent that finally ended the War of 1812 with the British. At the time, communication was slow, and Gen. Andrew Jackson …
May 7, 2013
Isla Mujeres
Isla Mujeres, once home to occasional pirates and Mexican fishing families, has become a popular off-the-beaten-path destination for tourists and divers as well as an expat art colony. Many tourists visit the island as a …
May 2, 2013
Chill out in Rarotonga
Sitting halfway between Tahiti and Fiji, the Cook Islands are yet to be discovered by most Americans. The vast majority of visitors who do come here are Australians and New Zealanders (for whom it’s a …
April 26, 2013
El Paso from six feet under
I’ve never considered visiting graveyards a “must-see” travel experience, but I’ll have to admit that lately I am finding a wealth of history and a deep sense of place that develops necessarily when jaunting graveyard …
April 25, 2013
Magic lives in Kanas
Magic lives in a remote corner of China. In the northwestern corner of the country, where a bony finger of land divides the land from Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia, the traveler will find myth, legend …
April 23, 2013
Outside Central London
Central London has so much to offer, most travelers never make it beyond the innermost neighborhoods. Seeing the main sights – like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London – can easily fill …
April 22, 2013