Explorers Journal

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The Glorious Primitive Crane Fly

(Patagonia’s Untold Stories)   Scraping sand grains and pebbles for nutrients, it has wandered the river bed for ten months.  After hiding from predators under submerged rocks it is time to leave the safety of the river behind. Among ...

Artist in Kyrgyzstan Using Coffee to Express Kyrgyz Identity

Coffee is a powerful force in human history – it unites people, transcends cultures, and kindles the imagination. A cup of coffee is a cup of inspiration. For centuries, coffee has been used as a tool to invigorate the mind and ...

The Rare Primitive Crane Fly and the Inelegancies to Find It

(Patagonia’s Untold Stories) While packrafting the southeastern edge of the Northern Patagonia Ice Field along Chile’s largest river, the Baker, in search of primitive crane flies, Anand Varma and I came across an exciting find. In a fragmented ...

Kyrgyzstan: 85 Years of Memories

Although history is often talked about as something as objective as mathematics, it, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. That historic events happened is perhaps the only thing semi-consistent across cultures; but how these events were ...

Cliffhanger! Risking Life and Limb for Fluffy Seabirds

 Supposedly I didn’t show any fear during my first abseil, down a 70-meter seacliff south of Dunedin, New Zealand. Thank you, poker face. But in truth, it was amazement more than fear that I felt while hanging vertiginously over ...

Where the Glaciers Vanish

Where the Glaciers Vanish (Patagonia’s Untold Stories) Halfway buried in the sand lays the forgotten skull of a whale. Its flesh has been removed by the gentle erosion sustained by the pulsating sea. Its white form contrasts the dark ...

Donde los Glaciares Desaparecen

(Relatos inéditos de la Patagonia) Parcialmente enterrado en la arena reposa el olvidado cráneo de una ballena adulta. Sus tejidos han sido lentamente erosionados por el incesante vaivén de las olas. La blanca escultura ósea contrasta con ...

A Battle of Dinosaurs: Crocs vs. Birds

The rains ended months ago, starving the Msicadzi of its flow and surrendering it to dust. It wouldn’t be much longer before the river was gone. For now, all that was left was a pool, a hundred feet long ...

Understanding Identity and Kyrgyz Cultural Values Through Food

In Kyrgyzstan, food culture offers insight into Kyrgyz cultural values which impact the way identity and religious identity are perceived. (Photo: Toby A. Cox) Food is not just something we eat to enjoy and to give us nourishment; it is ...

Through the Mountain Pass

I’m sitting in a shared taxi en route to Talas, the region to the west of Bishkek. The sun is descending and night is falling. The inside of the taxi is dark – the only light coming from the small ...

Residual Fragments of Past Lives

Stacked image of live Psychodidae pupa. (R. Isaí Madriz) Residual Fragments of Past Lives (Patagonia’s Untold Stories) Decaying fragments hang from the cavity’s roof as streaks of viscous dark red liquid meander down its sides. The peculiar scent ...