It isn’t the North Pole, and it isn’t even the northernmost point that my feet touched land that week. But hiking at Stephen’s Garden in Svalbard is the highest we went: approximately 1500 feet. Leaving the ship anchored in her small cove in front of a glacier, our zodiacs zipped around the fjord entrance, depositing…
Category: travel essay
travel essay: on flying into scotland
The plane breaks through the clouds and suddenly the hills are ahead of me, green and barren at the same time. Fir trees dot some of the hills, others are as bare as a rock. Lochs wind lazily through the glens, adding to the mysterious nature of the country. Already I feel its pull, drawing…
travel essay: polar bears in arctic svalbard
I’m about to take my first sip of espresso when the announcement comes over the PA in Lucho’s smooth Ecuadorian accent: “ladies and gentlemen, the sharp eyes of our captain have spotted our first bear.” These aren’t just bears (though I suspect you could say that about most bears, if you’ve never seen one), they’re…
travel essay: a baby polar bear
They amble toward us, unconcerned with our presence. Every so often, the mama spreads her massive form out in all directions, shifting her enormous weight over the thin ice. The baby polar bear tumbles along behind her, his large paws belying his tiny size. As far as the eye can see, the surface is a…
travel essay: granito de oro
The early morning sun beat down on me as I stepped into the zodiac, my friend Shauna beside me and two guests across. Our Tico driver, Erick, pulled away from the fantail and we shot across the crystal clear Panamanian water to the tiny isle of Granito de Oro, a small part of the Coiba…