Ojos de Aqua, a natural spring on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua, is said to have healing powers. The folks that I talked to who had bathed in the waters told me that they had never felt so invigorated and serene after having emerged from water. I wasn’t able to strip down and partake of the healing [...]

  This is the barge I rode to the Island of Ometepe in Nicaragua. I stood on the top deck for the duration of the one-hour ride on a beautiful blue-sky afternoon and was sorry when the trip ended, as it was so peaceful and serene. Ometepe is shaped by two volcanos, one that is active [...]

Traveling in and around rainforest villages is tricky after heavy rains. And now that it’s rainy season, there seems to be an adventure at every turn. This is one of many rivers I have traversed in the past three weeks, as the rains keep falling and rivers keep swelling. When buses and taxis can’t make [...]

 My room at Campanario faces the Pacific Ocean. I’m on the second floor, and my door leads out onto a large deck. The deck overlooks the most spectacular displays of beauty, especially as the sun sets over the horizon. The sky turns resplendent as dusk approaches, with colors varying from evening to evening. Sometimes the [...]

 Roads keep cutting through the rainforest, fragmenting the habitat and making it impossible for arboreal species like sloths, monkeys and silky anteaters to get from one side of the forest to the other. As their range is reduced, so too, are their populations, until one day, as they keep getting more and more squeezed from [...]

 Up until five years ago Boquete was a beautiful and quiet Panamanian coffee-producing mountain village that was studded with trees, streams, wildlife and other natural resources beyond what the eye could see, not to mention local Panamanian culture. But then North American and European retirees discovered the quaint hamlet and began arriving in countless droves. [...]

  It felt so good to be back at Campanario after spending a week in Panama. I had some highlights in Panama, as one always tends to have when traveling. But nothing in Panama can compare to the beauty and tranquility of Osa, where Campanario is nestled. This is the view that welcomed me after my [...]

 Look at all of these tourist brochures! The Panama Tourism Institute has announced that Panama will become the leader in Central American tourism by the year 2009. Translation: sand, sea and earth sacrificed for casinos, high-rise hotels, restaurants, bars, shopping malls and superhighways. I was shocked when I visited Panama in March to see cranes [...]

I’m still keeping up with the Kentucky coal issues and am grateful for the media activists and grassroots organizers that are keeping people informed.  LINK TV presents a sneak preview of BURNING THE FUTURE: COAL INAMERICA, a special television event exploring the explosive conflictbetween the coal industry and the residents of West Virginia. With theU.S. [...]

I see some interesting stuff traveling the dirt and gravel roads of Costa Rica, especially when I’m adventuring on foot or bicycle the way I do most of the time. On this particular day that I was tooling around on the pink rental bike you see here, I rode past an art gallery in the [...]