Eyes of the West Indies
West Indies | Updated May 02, 2008
I am on a boat, tied to a dock in a bay on the tiny island of Great Guana Cay in the Northern Bahamas. Troy Albury is untying lines and points out a Caribbean reef squid taking shelter under the dock...These animals, hued in purple and electric orange, can be difficult to spot during the day – their bodies are brilliant but translucent.
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Field Desk for Travel Websites
MICRO UPDATE | About | Updated February 6, 2008
Where have all the independent travel websites gone? They're still out there, and in fact, they're better than ever. They are just harder to find. I have not updated this section of the website since 2006, but will endeavor to keep my readers abreast of the very best travel websites out there. I am also taking submissions.
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What Creatures will Roam Glen Canyon?
Great Basin | Updated March 1, 2008
When I stop at a gas station to stretch my legs under a blue sky, I notice some homes, wooden fences and a few trees. I ask the blonde teenage attendant what town I am. Her expression and reply made the question feel somehow forbidden. “Hilsdale,” she mutters, looking away.
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Moleskine Notes from Monkey River
Micro update | Isthmus | December 06, 2007
I decided to add my Moleskine notes from a 2002 trip to Belize. Since I have visited southern Belize, a fight has broken out between the local community in the Placencia area, where we spent much of our time, and mega-developers. The story resonates with those who have protested the Baker's Bay Club megadevelopment in Guana Cay.
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The Chapman Swifts & the Man from Galveston
Micro update | Pacific Northwest | November 14, 2007
Every autumn in Portland, Oregon, hundreds of people flock in the evening to the Chapman Elementary School, a beautiful small campus in a quaint neighborhood. They come with their floor mats and their wine and their picnic dinners, all to stare at the school's big chimney.
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Sierra Club Responds to Southern Boating
Rise Up Sweet Island | November 1, 2007
"...The Sierra Club has been following the Baker’s Bay Club development since 2005. The developer asserts this development will set high environmental standards for developments in the Bahamas. This worthy goal, however, is contradicted by the sheer scale of the development planned for Guana Cay. The core issues are whether a mega development of this size is environmentally and culturally appropriate for this slender, lightly populated island; and whether the rights of the affected communities to participate in the land use review and approval processes related to this development were respected..."
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Moleskine Notes from the dominican republic
West Indies | September 16, 2007
Sketches, ideas and photographs from a drive across the Dominican Republic. Each time I travel, I make it a habit to not only keep a journal, but to use it as a travel itinerary and a personal guidebook. I usually start writing and illustrating my moleskine journals months before I travel.
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Ocean's Empty
Rise Up Sweet island | June 26, 2007
The inside story on how Discovery Land Company is using donations, Hollywood press, schmoozing and more to change Bahamian public opinion about their controversial golf megadevelopment.
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Foraging Nehalem Valley
Pacific northwest | June 3, 2007 | Part IV of the oRegon Testament
Glowing Mushrooms, deer-meat, stone and a Portland underworld creating a world based on old ways. Part IV of the Oregon Testament gets me closer to my goal of seeing Oregon's native history through my own eyes.
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Umpqua Dunes Genesis
Pacific Northwest | November 2, 2006 | Part III of the oRegon Testament
My camping stove just blew up, and it’s spraying fire all over the campsite. I’ve hauled Jane back down to the Central Oregon Coast…And I’m supposed to be cooking her a Native Oregon meal. Filled with setbacks and delays, I make a few key finds on the coast of Oregon.
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The Owyhee Puzzle & the Alvord Desert
Great Basin | July 16, 2006 | Part i & II of the oRegon Testament
After a year in Oregon, I take out to the most remote region in the state with my brother. After discovering a small Native American site, we set out to try to figure out the Owyhee's Puzzle. In the Alvord Desert of Southern Oregon, we explore islands at the edge of the playa, and discuss how I might learn about our discovery.
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The Howling Coast
Isthmus | February 20, 2006
Notes from the tropical dry forest of Pacific Southwest Nicaragua, and the true meaning of the ecolodge at Morgan's Rock Ecolodge & Hacienda. After seeing all the scams tour operators, hotels and countries pull off to make their venues appear green, I traveled to one of the world's greatest examples of genuine sustainable development.
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Tales and History from the Channel Islands
Micro Update | Desert Southwest | April
Islands off the coast of Los Angeles harbour windblown zoology.
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"Not bound to swear allegiance to any master, Wherever the wind takes me I travel as a visitor." - Horace text, photographs, illustrations and web design ©2008 Erik Gauger desert southwest \| West Indies\| Pacific Northwest \| Iberian Peninsula \| Great Plains \| Desert Mexico Sierra Range \| Isthmus \| Great Basin \| Northern Seas \| Atlantic Seaboard \| About