Food

Guatemala - Trekking in the Highlands to Lake Atitlán

This trek combined mountainous agrarian culture and the occasional rumble of volcanic eruptions, with safari style camping and great meals. The Guatemalan Highlands is a place where you can find women dressed in vibrant traditional clothing, churches blasting music on weeknights, and people cultivating impossibly steep terrain, while lava shoots skyward in the background.

Finger Lakes Day Trips - Hiking Canyons, Petting Goats, and Stunning Waterfalls

This area is dotted with craggy lakes, deep gorges, cascading waterfalls, and lush greenery, peppered with small towns and wineries. I lived in this area for over a decade and did lots of exploring. The Finger Lakes in Central/Western New York has so many places to check out that it is hard to pick just a few, but these are my picks for where I would take friends from out of town for a memorable trip:

Nepal - Food - Nepali food on the trail and in the city

Unlike nearly every other country we have visited, Nepali food is not something we see often in restaurants. Other than reading about some common dishes, we had very little idea of what the flavors would actually be like or what to expect. This was fun because it was completely uncharted territory, but unlike trying a new restaurant we didn’t necessarily have the option of just not eating on the trek if we didn’t like it. Our worries were completely unfounded, as we loved the food.

Nepal - Exploring the Real Kathmandu Beyond Thamel

Kathmandu has vibrant culture and countless beautiful temples, but brittle infrastructure and hazy air. It is a hard place to describe since it is so multi-faceted. Each neighborhood had a personality and specialty of its own. The city was hit hard by the 2015 earthquake and parts of the city are still struggling to rebuild, while others have luxury accommodations.