It all started with the August 2013 issue of National Geographic. Page 99. Secrets of the Maya Otherworld, by photographer Paul Nicklen. It blew my mind. Dark underwater caves, crystal-clear water, and beams of sunlight that looked like lightsabers from Star Wars. I’d never seen anything like it. Seven months later, I was standing at […]

Isla Espiritu Santo is a magical Mexican island in the beautiful Sea of Cortez, by Mexico’s Baja California, best accessed from the attractive beach town of La Paz  – itself nothing like the “tourist corridor” found further south in Baja, way more Mexicano in feel…) and worth visiting in its own right. The Sea of […]

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 […]

I’ve just returned from an archipelago off the coast of Panama where a massive, privately-funded conservation endeavour is now being shared with the outside world via a top-tier hospitality project. And I can’t say enough good things about it. Genuine hospitality can be the perfect vehicle for the expression and transmission of culture. However, resort […]