The old woman's shoe
It's that time of year again. Burning Man has ended and masses of dusty, sparkle-eyed people have returned home. While nothing can replace the experience of being on the Playa in person, check out these images for a bit of the ethereal magic.
Read MoreBlack Rock City, Nevada is an otherworldly place — a destination physically accessible for just one week a year.
This temporary city of 68,000 is the site of Burning Man, and it holds more magic and wonder than many places on earth.
Read MoreDust storm and desert flowers in Black Rock City, Nevada
We need to be reminded that amazing places such as this can and do exist—communities where creativity, innovation and art come together to inspire humanity. This is Burning Man, 2014.
Read MoreSunrise in Black Rock City, NV
Every year an unlikely group of creative minds gather in the middle of a dry harsh lakebed in Black Rock Desert, Nevada to practice radical self-reliance and radical self-expression, among other things.
Read MorePoolside in Punta Cana
During the second half of our visit to Dominican Republic, we leave the nest of the festival and decide to check out the famously crystal clear beaches on the east coast. We've already seen Santo Domingo, where Columbus first set up camp in the New World, and some of the mountains and tropical forests in the north. So we rent a car and head towards Punta Cana, known for its "all-inclusives" (as in resorts).
Read MoreColorful Dominican house
We are driving north towards San Francisco de Macoris from the capital, Santo Domingo.
Little vignettes of this third world country blur through my mind as we speed along. I am groggy, blinking away sleep, but curious. I have never been here before.
Three little black kids pump water into big blue plastic jugs from a well, five small boys play baseball alongside the road on a dirt patch, a man rides a horse with rope reins, goats pick through garbage in the ditch, a cow rummages for food in a dumpster, four men sit at a card table playing dominos. Wooden carts selling coconuts, banana bunches, and white eggs dot the roadside. Garbage is scattered everywhere. These scenes register in my brain a few seconds delayed, we are driving so fast. It seems cliché, like something I've seen in National Geographic, but it's real and right before me.
Read MoreRafting down the Colorado
Hiking out of the Grand Canyon — 8 miles, 5,000 feet — felt like re-emerging from a quiet haven inside the earth to stand again atop the soil of civilization. Back up here it's a hot and crowded mess. Everything feels excessive. Everyone seems oblivious. The chaos is distinct after having been so deeply peaceful and disconnected. It feels like I’ve been gone for months, yet it's only been seven days.
We saw so much in those 90 miles rafting downstream.
Read MoreI had never been to Black Rock City, Nevada before. An other-worldly place, a destination location available to vacationers only but once a year.
It arises from the empty white alkaline desert, completely pulsing and alive day and night, and then returns back into itself after just seven days. There is so much magic and wonder here, in a place that doesn’t even physically exist the majority of the year.
Notoriously difficult to describe, some people say Burning Man is a glorious experiment and experience.
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