In lieu of my own eco-cultural adventures...

Due to a number of factors, my own travels have been quite limited over the past few years. However, I have a few friends that have been documenting their own eco-cultural adventures and I would like to offer links to their blogs. It's amazing all the adventure that is just waiting to be had out there!

In 2007, I went to San Rafael, CA to present my undergraduate research on the implications of tourism development on Honduran communities. At this conference I met an inspiring UCLA student named Japhy Dhungana who's research was about Sherpa culture. He is Nepalese, and after his graduation, he decided to ride his bicycle from LA to Tierra Del Fuego - the southern tip of South America. He chronicled his adventures here: http://jeffdhungana.blogspot.com/

Photo lovingly snatched from Japhy's website...

During my time in Honduras, I traveled with a lovely and ultra-cool woman named Libby Rice. Libby was always ready to fearlessly immerse herself in the situation! She has an insatiable curiosity and so decided to travel around Central and South America for as long as she could. Her adventures are chronicled in her blog: http://travelswithlibby.blogspot.com/

Libby with two sweeties in Tornabe, on the Caribbean coast of Honduras

I met a whole bunch of really great people in the Green MBA at Dominican University of California. Breen and Devon are a couple of super chill folks who are always welcoming and supportive of their friends. After graduation from the Green MBA, they decided to take a trip around Southeast Asia with an eye toward sustainable development. Their adventures are chronicled here: http://breen-devon-asiatrip.blogspot.com/

Ryan Milani and Jonah Nisenson are also good friends I met in the Green MBA. Both of them decided to head south and record their observations, insights, and adventures in blog form. They traveled together for a spell as well as separately and its interesting to see their different perspectives on their shared experiences. Whenever possible, Jonah and Ryan would barter their business and technology expertise in exchange for food and shelter. 

Ryan is now returning to the states while Jonah remains in Central America. Ryan's blog can be found here: http://rmilani3000.tumblr.com/

Jonah and I share a similar disposition and often found ourselves working closely together. As it turns out, he is obtaining his advanced diving certifications at one of my favorite places in Honduras, Utila. His blog can be found here: http://magicaltriphome.tumblr.com/

The folks I have talked about here are amazing people and are incredibly inspiring to me! Well, that should be enough reading material... for a little while at least. I think these blogs, and the adventures inside them, are a testament to the fact that the world is huge and there is so much to see and do... let us not sit still.