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Hiking to heaven: a hut trip above aspen and vail
When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body. –Emerson Utterly unlike camping and walking in the woods, your first backcountry hike and hut experience is an initiation into the soul of the high mountains. There’s the thrilling sensation of your heart pounding…
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The insanity of learning to surf at my age – on the north shore of oahu
I can remember exactly the first time I felt I had to surf….against all expectations, as I am uncomfortable in the ocean when my feet don’t touch a sandy bottom. Surf movies were projected onto the walls of the hip restaurant where we celebrated my daughter’s birthday. Watching surf movies is like seeing poetry come…
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National geographic radio: hear the inside story about rapa nui – easter island
My interview with Boyd Matson, National Geographic Radio, XM Radio, NPR is streamed on the National Geographic Website and is available on itunes. The question I’m asked the most is: Where is Easter Island? In the middle of nowhere, no really, it’s roughly equal distance from Tahiti and Peru and Chile, at 29′ South latitude.…
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Shorter flights from peru to easter island
How remote is it? Close enough for a several day “add-on” to a trip to Peru Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui (pronounced Rapa New-ee) is known as one of the most remote inhabited island in the world, and a five-star world heritage site. New direct LAN flights from Peru just made the trip easier…
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Where in the world is easter island? a speck in the pacific ocean
The coast of Chile and Peru is 2,400 miles and a 5-6 hour flight away and just about as far from Tahiti in the other direction. The nearest inhabited island is Pitcairn, 1,200 miles to the west(of HMS Bounty and Mutiny fame). Native Eastern Islanders, or Rapa Nuians, called their home the Navel of the…
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Perfect days in patagonia
I’m on the edge of beyond in Northern Patagonia, where the wind howls down the plunging valleys and ricochets between the imposing mountains, forests, rivers, and endless, barren steppes. Traveling through Patagonia is no small undertaking. Today I flew two hours south from Patagonia to an area renowned for its fly-fishing and remoteness. I have trouble pronouncing the main town’s…
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Touchdown in chaotic, exotic nepal
No one taking a daytime flight into Nepal should miss the jaw-dropping sight of the Himalayas along the northern horizon. In the Bangkok Airport my daughter and I requested window seats on the right side of the plane in hopes of seeing the massive peaks. TIP: Arrive at the airport early to snag a window…