The Balsamo Coast of El Salvador isn’t heaven – but if you surf, it may be the nearest thing here on earth. Plus it’s a whole lot easier to get in. A four-hour flight from …
September 6, 2011
Travel Editor Picks
Balsamo Coast, El Salvador
Another Hong Kong Afternoon
A Chinese Gollum squatting on a concrete stool Savors a secondhand cigarette butt And searches the sacred text of his racing form For a path to redemption. In a nearby meat shop, a bloody-shirted man …
September 1, 2011
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello was the end of the line. I needed to get off. I looked around for an exit – a string of fluorescent light cut the darkness and exposed my cover. I didn’t see any …
September 1, 2011
Isle of Eigg, Scotland
For a month-long visit to Scotland, I decided to hunker down in just one spot – on the remote and rarely visited Isle of Eigg. At twelve square miles and with a community of just …
August 25, 2011
Swimming with Dolphins in Kona, Hawaii
I’m a frequent visitor to Hawaii – usually at least twice a year, and Kona on the Big Island has always been a favorite spot of mine. On a recent trip, and as I do …
August 23, 2011
Panama in the Buff
Today, wedged between the old and the new, the natural and the modern, Panama is a country of both paradox and transition. With a biodiversity exceeding its more famous neighbor to the northwest – Costa …
June 9, 2011
(Mis)Adventures in Colombia and Peru
After finishing my second year of law school in San Diego, I decided that I needed a little adventure in my life. I planned my classes so that all my finals were done by December …
May 31, 2011
Sendai, Japan: The Day the Earth Shook
March 11 was a cold, slow-moving Friday afternoon at our home in Sendai. As a freelance writer and translator, I was making a transition, familiar on such idle afternoons. Having finished a bit of urgent …
April 7, 2011
Paraty, Brazil
Paraty (pada-chee), a town on the southeast coast of Rio state, is like a top-shelf drink — from the aged, distilled waterfront of Brazil’s colonial history, to the calm, primal ecological beauty of the coastal …
March 26, 2011
Learning From a Clown in Montevideo
It’s 10 o’clock at night in the Ciudad Vieja neighborhood of Montevideo, Uruguay. Three of us are gathered around a bench on the city’s main walking street, Peatonal Sarandí, but no one is wandering past …
March 15, 2011
La Paz, Bolivia: At the Top of the World
In the fast-moving modern times of the travel business, how does one decide between, say, the Bahamas or Singapore? One brochure boasts luxury in Honolulu and another calls you to Paris. One hotel has a …
March 6, 2011