Some 500 years ago when the Portuguese began settling Pico island in the Azores, nobles, merchants and farmers found rocky, inhospitable terrain that nonetheless was rich in the typical nutrients found wherever one finds volcanoes.  Olive and wheat production was initially a failure, so this shifted to growing timber, vines, and fruit trees.  If you’re […]

On a recent research trip to Panama, a local described it to me as the 1000 island country, something I hadn’t previously imagined. Nicaragua is the land of volcanoes, Guatemala the land of the Maya…  I’d been used to thinking of Panama primarily as the jungle-rich country surrounding the canal. But islands? Running down its […]

Sifnos is the island next-door for me. Serifos is “my” island – I started going there a good 25 years ago, and from the moment I set foot on it, I knew I’d be back and start spending my summers there. I still do. It’s mountainous, wild and unpolished; beaches are virgin, and the occasional […]

There is a cluster of islands, right off the coast of Naples, that look like pebbles scattered in the sea by the hand of a giant. Some are big, some tiny, some just deserted rocks: Capri, Ischia, Procida, Li Galli (also called Le Sirenuse), Vivara, and many more… As myth has it, this is the […]

In the midst of lockdown in the summer of 2020 there wasn’t a whole lot of trip related email flying around, but one rather hot afternoon in July the following missive landed in my inbox which I found intriguing: “To find the Azores, look on Google Maps on Portugal, turn towards the Atlantic Ocean, and […]

Ok, who hasn’t said to themselves at least once in the last couple of months, “Get me the hell out of here”? I think we’re all hankering for some new found freedom right about now and just the idea of going anywhere that isn’t a supermarket or a pharmacy has me breathless with excitement. For […]