Took a class in the ART OF TRAVEL at University of Colorado recently. Not how to travel. The philosophy of travel–why we go; what we report, etc. etc. We talked about explorations, pilgrimages and tourism. In every case, unless someone recorded the adventure, it was lost to history. For example, we learned Lief Ericsson wasn’t the first Viking to arrive in America. According to the Vinland Sagas, he found evidence of earlier Viking...

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My son and I are walking through Chinatown in Los Angeles when I spot baskets of a fruit I’ve never seen. I ask the vendor what it’s called. He answers in something that sounds like Chinese, but might have been Malay. He beckons for me to follow him. In the back of the store, next to the dried fish, he whacks the fruit open and offers me one of the large teardrop pods. It’s sweet, custardlike in texture, maybe slightly slimy...

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There are wild horses on Easter Island (Rapa Nui), one of the most isolated places in the world. They wander amongst the Moais and gallop the beaches. Wow, I think, there has to be a story behind that. So I check. There are wild horses in Hawaii, Fiji, American Samoa, Indonesia and just about everywhere else. The Kathaiwari breed, with their distinctly pointed ears, came from wild horses in Kathiawar, India. With the exception of...

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