Poolside 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 MoreFar beyond lies Antarctica
On the southernmost tip of the south island sits Curio Bay, the closest I’ve ever been to Antarctica. Wind whips my face and hair and I feel I might blow over the cliff’s edge into the ocean. There seems to be nothing else around save wind, sea, and waves. I feel alone here in this whirlwind. Beyond lies that one and only great icy landscape. I can almost touch one of my dreams.
Read MoreDriving to Te Anau
First by car, then by plane, then by car, then by boat. It was night. Arriving at the dock felt like stepping into a scene from Lost’s Dharma Initiative, eerily lit, the sound of water lapping against the boat, some unknown location isolated in the rain forest.
Then by foot, bending and wriggling through the cave entrance, walking precariously on a metal bridge. Glacier water rushing beneath us, hungrily escaping the depths of this great earthen cave.
Read MoreDriving across the southernmost coast I realize that New Zealanders are clean orderly people and that there are not many of them (just 4M compared to 37M in the state of California alone). There is no trash strewn about, there are no garbage cans in public places (not even gas stations), and there are recycling bins, even in the most remote hard-to-get-to locations such as Milford Sound. This observation is shocking considering that a developed city like San Diego does not even have a recycling program.
Read MoreMilford Sound
When traveling to the other side of the world you lose a day, poof, just like that. In the land of kiwi birds, you must embrace oddities and opposites. For example, it is practically summertime back home in Los Angeles, but here in the southern hemisphere red autumn-colored leaves smell fresh and crispy, and a winter chill is threatening. Other curiosities I have found thus far: soap nuts (little bags of nut shells used to launder clothes), Farmville (the real place) and Teacupland. Also there is this: driving.
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.
Read MoreA collection of rare antique priest vestments
Everyone has a hobby – sports, horses, music. Today food is considered a hobby. Or if you’re a hipster maybe records, mustaches, or ironic T-shirts are your hobbies.
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