Building Sustainable, Local, Equitable, Economies
Transportation = Eating in Nuestra America
Water and food. When I think of the hierarchy of human needs, these two come to mind. Traveling in Latin America since November has got me thinking about how transportation makes those two essentials possible. If you want to destroy a community, targeting its transportation is a good way to start. Today, February 23, 2026, Mexican drug cartels are attacking the country's transportation system to avenge the death of their leader. As one Michoacan resident told Al Jazeera: "They have co-opted the leaders who manage transport, and at any moment they can block the...
Seeing Peru through Prisms, in the Winter of ’26
It is our duty not to ignore our national reality, but we also have a duty not to ignore the global reality. José Mariátegui In Lima, the temperature in January is a delightful mid-70s—yet I felt woozy by midday, and drenched in sweat. It rarely rains, yet clouds do not stay in the sky. They creep in like sea creatures. Sometimes they blanket, and the cityscape disappears. Most times, they slither through a neighborhood, hiding one slice of the massive metropolis, revealing others. In Cusco, the weather was perfect, cozy in a sweatshirt in the morning and evening, rising to...
16 things to do in and around Medellin, Colombia
We spent seven weeks in the state of Antioquia, Colombia, primarily in Medellin, with shorter visits to Pereira and Retiro. "That is long enough to become a paisano," one man said, kindly. Of course it is not, but it is long enough to repeat one's steps and see the same people on the same corner. It is long enough to become a regular customer of the woman who sells avocados from her cart and the man who sells mangoes and plantains. And that is the first thing I recommend you do, even if your time is short: 1. Support a local vendor. 2. Almuerzo Find a comfortable cafe that serves a...
Beauties and Beasts: A Month in the United States, 2025.
After two years of global travel, we now know how beautiful the world is. As bicycle travelers, we knew the land we call the United States is as stunning as the rest. We forgot just how lovely the US Northland is in the fall. I do not remember a year when red and gold Massachusetts beech and sweet gum, Minnesota sugar maple and poplar, Washington State ginkgo biloba, reflected so brillantly on Sudbury River, Wellfleet Bay, Bde Maka Ska, Puget Sound, Minnehaha Creek, and the Mississippi River. What a treat to witness them holding their leaves beyond their season, resisting the march...
Surprises in Belgrade, Serbia
Our plane from Rome to Belgrade, Serbia,, was three hours late. The Serbian government had shut down its airport to rehearse for its upcoming military parade. Despite the ominous delay, I enjoyed the flight. It was a cloudless day. We saw the contours of both Italian coasts and the Croatian islands. Over Bosnia and Herzegovina, we were low enough to see tiny ancient bridges over rivers! The plains of Serbia looked as flat as central Iowa, but without the grids and monotone. In fact, from the air, Serbian farms looked more like an Iowan crazy quilt of green, yellow, brown, and purple...
Local Global Switzerland.
When we were in Sarajevo, a politician said he wanted Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH ) to be like Switzerland. I thought that was ambitious. In our global Capitalist system, Switzerland is where world leaders solve a "problem" like Bosnia. But he was not referring to international politics. He wanted BiH to adopt the Swiss Canton (state) system, so that Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks could live autonomously, but linked as a confederacy. Switzerland, like BiH, is composed of diverse ethnic groups. German, French, Italian, and Romansh-speaking people live in four different sections of the country,...
Latvia: Enchantment and the Weight of History
Whenever the pine recalls the olden days, a few tears still push their way through the pine’s bark in the shape of the drops of resin Latvian folktale ....The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living". Karl Marx, Latvia: familiar and strange We understand new places by comparing them to where we've been. Latvia reminded me of the US upper Midwest: a feeling, as I passed through forests and fields on the bus and visited small towns on the banks of waterways. I looked at museum photos of log-filled streams next to sawmills, and saw...
Empty and Fill: Seven Days in Chengdu, China
My partner David turned 67 while standing in the wrong immigration and customs line in Chengdu. What we knew about Chengdu, China, would not fill a teacup. We came here because it was unknown to us, and we wanted a place in southwestern China that would be a good stopover on our way back west. This would be the last stop in Asia, after Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Japan. Coming to China from Japan, and returning through Istanbul, Turkey, I was reminded how much our comparative minds influence how we view places. Turkey looked dirty compared to China. China seemed more anarchic compared to...
The Sound of Silence: Jeju Island, South Korea
White waves, green water, and black volcanic rock, stirred by high wind. The view was wild, but inside the Jeju coffee shop, all was calm. A Korean ballad played softly. I was alone. My partner in this Aging on the Run venture was grocery shopping, leaving me here so I could write.I wanted to capture the contradictions I saw in a land where English was less helpful than anywhere else I had been. I had mastered thank you, hello, sorry, and I love you. along with useless phrases from Korean dramas: Really? It's a deal! You can do it!. Coming from months in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and...
Sri Lanka: Hard and Hopeful Land.
I come from Minnesota. USA, a region of the world where February is so cold, artists create shanties on frozen lakes, and people flock to see their creations. They build ice castles and call it a carnival. People drive trucks onto ponds, dress in five layers, drill holes in the ice, put down a line, and wait. Where I come from, fishing is a solitary pursuit. In Sri Lanka, individuals also go solo, sitting on stilts at dawn and twilight, but fishing is also a communal effort—many people stretch out into the water holding two long ropes to pull in a net—beach seining. Sri Lanka’s...