I'm watching the Celts / Lakers NBA Finals game and was surprised to see an ad for T-Mobile that featured a nomadic couchsurfer talking about how staying connected with T-Mobile's great network facilitates his vagabond lifestyle. 

Nice to see some publicity for Couchsurfing, which is one...

Kuwannai River, Daisetsuzan National Park, Hokkaido, Japan

It's been a while since I've gone to the mountains.  Back in Japan, just about every weekend I'd get above treeline.  I miss the mountains and the clarity of mind and body they bestow.

The following notes from the road are culled from...

Yo, a quick headsup - Sarah Stuteville's article "Why We Still Need To Write About African Poverty" is one of the best articles I've ever seen at BraveNewTraveler.  

Check out this quote:

"The other day, as I stood in a cloudburst on a muddy hill above the train tracks that cut through...

The new Traveler’s Toolkit for Mexico and Central America is not a typical guidebook.

Mostly, this is a good thing – the authors focus on practical advice and general information rather than specific listings of hotels and restaurants that will be out of date as soon as the guidebook reaches...

I love all the good energy that's pouring into Matador these days, but even though the new Matador Network should be your home for a daily travel fix, there are a couple of other quality travel websites out there.   

One of the most respected of those sites is Worldhum.com, and I'm stoked to announce...

Aqueous Solutions Technology Removes Chemicals From Drinking Water

by Tim Patterson

The presence of dangerous chemicals in drinking water is a serious health problem in many parts of the world, especially in countries like Thailand, where heavy use of toxic pesticides is commonplace and regulations...

Big, fat, wet snowflakes falling against a backdrop of new spring green.  Just 2 days ago it felt like July - a full day hanging out in a field, making paper mache Dr. Suess characters for my friend's annual Solstice party, drinking homebrew - I even got a sunburn.

Today snow.  I've got a...

A few days ago I did an interview with Kelley Whalen, a student in Scotland who is getting her masters degree in publishing studies.  Kelley and I talked about the future of travel guidebooks, and she kindly gave me permission to reprint our conversation here:

1) As a travel journalist, how do you...

My latest political essay on the U.S. financial crisis is now up at BNT.  I'd appreciate your thoughts, which can be left as comments on the original post.

"Will...

It’s 5:20 am here in Punta del Diablo, Uruguay.  I’m perched on a stool behind the reception desk at El Diablo Tranquilo hostel, listening to the Killers and waiting for the sun to rise.

In the past two weeks I’ve seen a lot of sunrises.  The hostel faces east, towards the ocean, and every...

I’m typing on the deck of a hostel in a little Uruguayan surf town called Punta del Diablo.

Travelers are chatting around me; the usual conversation about where they came from and where they’re going next. Down on the beach, surfers are catching the last waves of the day and men driving horse-drawn...

I can't deny that I'm a little burnt out with the writing and travel. I want to find my hogar en el mundo, and South America feels like the wrong place to look.

That said, I'm enjoying life in Buenos Aires. It's almost impossible not to. Every day is sunny, with light breezes and blue sky, temperature...

Part of the new editing positions I've taken on involve scouring the web for travelers who are posting guides and photos from dusty Internet cafes on the far side of the world.  

It was a great pleasure to discover the travel blog of Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll, a married couple who lived abroad...

Here's a story I wrote a few years back about my hometown.  It's still one of my favorites.  

.......

Town Highway 16

Craftsbury Common is a collection of white clapboard houses, a white clapboard church, a white clapboard school, a white clapboard post office, a white clapboard library, a white...

The Gods of Love have a twisted sense of humor. A total mess, I was about to meet the most beautiful woman in the world...

I've entered a contest - 25 bloggers, 25 stories - whichever story gets the most votes wins the author a trip to Martinique.  My story is called Running...

Today I almost booked a ticket home to the United States.  I tried.  If I could have, I would have.  

But I didn’t.  And maybe it’s for the best.  Now, three hours later in the cool of the evening, a month of the austral summer in Patagonia seems preferable to February in...

Remember Alvaro?  The intense Colombian cyclist from the story Sharing One Trout With 23 Argentine Hippies?

Well, Alvaro and I collaborated on a collection of travel wisdom published this morning at BNT.  I think it's a great piece with the potential to 'go viral' - ie for lots of people...

Get drunk. Get high.

Go wild and howl at the moon.

Leave the bar at daybreak with new friends and climb up a hill to smoke
a joint and watch the sunrise over the ocean. Open yourself to all the
passion and possibility in the world.

......

My latest post at BNT addresses the somewhat taboo subject...

The first time I drank the Argentine tea called “mate” was in Boulder, Colorado.  

Mate is simple to prepare.  You pour some herbs into a gourd, add hot water and drink the bitter brew through a metal straw.  

There was always a mate gourd in Jon’s kitchen.  Jon is a law student...

When I lived in Hokkaido, I became close friends with an American named Mark, from Illinois.  We did a lot of hiking - and partying - together, and Mark sometimes told me about his brothers, who are both serving in the military, one in Iraq, one in Afghanistan.  

Both have had very close...