Traveler’s Journal

It should come as no surprise that I visited the International Museum of Toilets primarily as a joke. While there was part of me that thought the visit might be instructive in a “development of civilizations” kind of way, mostly I just thought it would be hilarious.

I found reference to the museum in the New Delhi… full story HERE »

Guatemala attracts a multitude of tourists each year, drawn by its rich culture and traditions, varied landscapes and tropical flora and fauna. Few visitors, however, realise that its Pacific coastline is an important nesting site for the vulnerable olive ridley sea turtle, (Lepidocheyls olivacea) and for a small number of the last remaining critically endangered leatherbacks… full story HERE »

On the beautiful Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala, lies the small and “alternative” community of San Marcos. Home to an indigenous Mayan population, aging hippies and organic smelling backpackers alike, this lakeside idyl offers an experience unlike many others. Having spent brief periods of time there in the past, the most note-worthy of which being the… full story HERE »

Our newest writer, Hannah Wallace Bowman, left her home in London a little over a year ago. In that time she’s gotten wildly drunk with friends, traveled around Central America, fallen in (and out) of love, worked at Camino Seguro / Safe Passage in Guatemala City and spent months participating in the recovery efforts after… full story HERE »

The road to Media Luna is twelve kilometers of thick banana trees heavy with green fruit on one side and wide leafy palms on the other. It is a graded road past Entre Rios on your way to Honduras in the northeastern part of Guatemala where United Fruit once owned much of the land, building… full story HERE »

If one bears in mind the amount of marijuana I had smoked, my actions might seem slightly less retarded. Or not. Remove the influence of mind-altering substances and we probably wouldn’t have been hitchhiking through a civil war zone in the first place. Nor would we have decided to illegally enter… full story HERE »

This story is only very loosely connected to the holiday season. It takes place in the middle of the summer, and there’s only one phrase in the piece that tangentially connects subject to theme. There’s neither eggnog nor mulled wine, and the only pines in sight were standing dead by the millions in the beetle-killed… full story HERE »

I graduated from Syracuse University in 1988. The following year a bunch of us made our way back to visit, and get very drunk with, friends who were still tangled in those ivied halls. I don’t recall much of the weekend which was sort of the plan. But I recall Sunday afternoon clearly.

There were seven… full story HERE »

In September of 1995 one of my heroes, the Civil Rights attorney, William Kunstler, died. Over the course of 50 year career Kunstler had defended, amongst others, Lenny Bruce, H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, the American Indian Movement, Abby Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and the rest of the Chicago 7, as well as “The Blind Sheik,”… full story HERE »

“Report at the earliest possible convenience,” says the Embassy website. I should have taken that word, ‘convenience’ a little more seriously. One week and four days after the most gruesome (and rewarding) experience of my life, I’m going to report the birth of my American son, Oliver Sol, to the United States Embassy in Guatemala… full story HERE »