Portugal Rising: A road trip through the Alentejo “When you plant something, you must learn to wait,” lamented Antonio Moreira, of Queztal Winery in the rural Alentejo region of Portugal. While Moreira was referring to the grapes, the same could be said of the entire region and its relationship with a new wave of slower …
A new wave of gentrification is occurring in deteriorating urban areas around the world utilizing art. Leading the effort is a new type of urban art, called street art. A group of ingenious urban developers has utilized a unique plan to gentrify neighborhoods. Using local artists painting large colorful murals on the walls of deteriorating …
If you want to see a mountain gorilla there is only one place in the world, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest or the Virunga Mountains in Uganda and Rwanda. Unfortunately, people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to deforest their habitat for charcoal, along with those killed by hunters by the last count it …
Transformational Travel Transformational travel is more than just a feeling or a moment. It is more than that flush of happiness and wonder that comes from a special experience and connection. Transformational travel is intentionally traveling to stretch, learn and grow into new ways of being and engaging with and understanding the world. There is …
We grew up with Jack Hanna from the Columbus zoo, showing up on Johnny Carson and other shows with a menagerie of wild animals. Little did I know that he had another project going on outside of Columbus called The Wilds. A 500 acre plot that was once a coal mine that was transformed into …
When we first told people we were going to Colombia we got a lot of strange looks and some people came right out and said “are you crazy, it’s dangerous in Colombia”. But I had done my homework and what was once a country that was run by the drug cartels and recently rocked by …
“If you bring a little soul to the encounter, maybe you’ll see something you didn’t look for, maybe you’ll open your heart a little, and see things that you didn’t imagine.” Larry Harvey In 1986 Larry Harvey and Jerry James started the first Burning Man on Baker Beach in San Francisco. Over three decades the …
Not only cool but downright cold. Staying at the Ice Hotel has always a bucket list item for me. The idea of building a hotel that just lasts for a few months before it melts has always intrigued me. Last year as we arrived in the tiny village of Jukkasjärvi you get a real surreal …
The knock on my tent, it’s pitch black and I don’t want to roll out of my warm cocoon. I grab my headlight and breathe in the crisp cold African air. My headlight shines down I can see my breath like a steam kettle boiling over, only there nothing warm here. I slip on my …
A good bit of our South African journey has revolved around townships. Starting with a tour of Tanga, one of the larger townships in Cape Town and the location of strife and violence between 1992 and 1996 after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, there was a lot of tribal black on black violence that …
We started working with a group of sophomores and juniors from four Guilford County High Schools in February. Teaching them leadership skills and preparing them for our African adventure. Part of that journey led us through the swamps of Pinehurst and onto a 36 hour flight that took them halfway around the world. We are …
My last day in Iquitos and my friend William floated the idea of going to see a fortune teller. Like always I love diving into the culture and particularly something that might shed some light on my future. So William, Anita (William’s wife) and I headed towards the seer. We entered what look like a …
We stepped out of the motokar right in front of the steel door with a giant padlock on it. Beside it stood a guard with really big gun. Alex, my translator, stepped up to the guard talked for a few minutes, a call over the radio and the key came out. All cell phones, cameras …
I stepped into the metal box that Rita and her six children call home, the baby was screaming because he is covered with scabs from Chicken Pox. The room is sweltering, no air con or fans here. Again the shelves are bare, the kids are in rags. Maria’s shirt looked like it belonged on a …
As the plane landed in my jungle home away from home the familiar images flashed beneath the plane. A lush green canopy that looks like a dark green Berber carpet that stretched as far as the eye can see, rusted tin roofs with satellite dishes pointing at the sky on the shacks below. A sense …
It seems like Lou and I can never get off on one of our world tours without a bit of excitement. We knew when we glanced at the flight display in Raleigh Durham and every flight had a red Delayed beside it that we might be in trouble. We had a three hour layover in …
Before the Globetrotter trip I had no idea what a “cenote” was, but once you experience the crystal clear, refreshingly cold, and unusually deep pools of water that cover the Yucatan you will never forget the famous cenotes. A cenote is a natural pool which is carved over 100’s of years in limestone terrain, formed …
Flamingos have always had this magical quality for me, the beautiful pink, tall slender bodies that can stand on a straw like leg, the funny curved beak, the bird that inspired a beautiful dance found in Latin American countries. It wasn’t until we made it Celestun Mexico that we had chance for a close encounter …
5 Little Mayan Girls, (who are fearful of white people) 5 Little Mayan Boys (who are also fearful of white people) 10 American High School students (who are trying to change the world) 1 Small Mayan Village 1 Soccer ball 1 Frisbee 3 Childs games. Mix the Mayan girls with the American girls in a …
Twenty two amazing high school students and another Globetrotter adventure is on. We have spent the last six months working on leadership skills, learning about Mayan people and getting scuba certified, even though three of the students had to learn how to swim first. We struck out early meeting our team at 4am in Raleigh …