Category: Collections

Photo of Dr. Jane Goodall by: JJ W.Famed primatologist, Jane Goodall, joins thousands of other participants at this year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.ONE OF THE LARGEST political conferences of the year, the UN Climate Change Conference draws various experts, political figures, media members, and other participants to discuss climate change and international efforts to combat it.

Photo by feuillluFeature photo by meanest indianLooking to branch out from la vie Parisienne? Here is a list of my favorite places to take a French vacation sans the Eiffel Tower.1. The Loire ValleyKings, queens, and the bourgeoisie alike spent generations snatching up real estate in this prime, perfect-for-building-castles location.

When the principal attraction of a trip is looking at other people’s lives, there’s a fine line between human interest and human zoo.WHILE MUCH OF Africa is best known for its stunning wildlife and superlative National Parks, Ethiopia’s main travel draws are scenic natural beauty and fascinating people.

Charles de Gaulle Airport / Photo by kulp. Feature photo by xiaming.Traveling can be fun, but not when you’re passing through these airports.PASSING THROUGH an area of sleep deprived, jet lagged and irate people is never pleasant, especially if you feel the same way yourself. While some airports are spending millions to improve the passenger experience, it’s clear that some airports are falling well behind.

On September 27, 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 32, a “first-in-the-world” bill that implemented regulations to make a serious impact in reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions. One particular measure on the November ballot is threatening to suspend AB 32 – Proposition 23.

It’s not just convenience in an airport, 9/11 changed our relationships to place and other people.THOSE OF US BORN BEFORE 1990 or so know that travel didn’t always feel like it does now. It’s not as evident with ground transportation, but if you fly from any major airport in the US, or anytime you fly internationally, it’s as if everything has become charged.

When Jason Wire lived in Spain, he went to a bullfight.Hear from a friend that there’s a bullfight this Saturday. It’s like 12 euros or something. “Do you want to go?” Sure you do, but say, “Remind me on Friday.” It’s better not to commit, just yet.On the day of the corridas, pass by the few protesters on the paseo sitting cross-legged beside posters of mutilated bulls.

WHEN RUSH HOUR HITS in Dakar, it’s best to avoid any horses. After some strained acceleration, we made our move past the rickety cart and its whip wielding chauffeur as we pulled off the highway and into the lot. I heard the battered yellow taxi rattle when I stepped out of it and he stood before me – the 160-foot bronze warrior of the African Renaissance.

Regular contributor Jeff Bartlett reflects on four years worth of adventures in Patagonia before deciding to take its spirit home.PATAGONIA IS MY FETISH. I’ve spent my savings, risked relationships, and quit jobs to venture south. Hell, I was riding my bike between El Calafate and El Chalten just three weeks before my wedding.

A holy mark or normal callus? Baxter Jackson uncovers the mystery of the third eye of Islam.MY DAD WAS THE FIRST in the family to see it.Fresh off a hitch on an Egyptian oilrig, he had a house full of friends and family to entertain with tales from abroad.Much to the delight of his guests (but to my horror) his story about the third eye of Islam culminated with his finger tapping against the middle of my forehead, as he asked pointedly, “How’d you get that mark right there, Mohammed?

An interview with director Barry Ptolemy on his intimate portrait of futurist Ray Kurzweil and the coming Singularity.IN THE FUTURE, humans will live forever. This is the promise of the coming Singularity, as predicted by futurist Ray Kurzweil. The charismatic and prolific inventor has dedicated his life to accelerating intelligence.

IT IS A KNOWN FACT that most lone, stray dogs will peel off in the opposite direction when you crouch down to pick up a fist-sized rock. It is also true that crouching down to pick up a fist-sized rock on the sidewalk in Santiago is not convincing (as there are none) and furthermore, rollerblading makes crouching down and picking up something (even something imaginary) more difficult than you would think.

The outdoor hot springs at the HaciendaDesert Hot Springs, California is famous for being a “positive energy vortex.” But does it really live up to the spiritual hype?WHEN THE OPPORTUNITY arose for me to visit Hacienda Hot Springs in Desert Hot Springs, California, the first thing I did was check it out online.

I once had a university professor who I will describe as “mentally diverse.”She was my favorite professor, although you never knew when the light was on, off, or just catastrophically-flickering as in Poltergeist.Full of prophecies which would make a Buddha cry, she managed to turn my reality upside down like milk in a butter-making jar, shaking me from solid form, into a frothing mixture of wild ideas, random plans of action, and, well, “mental diversity.

Images from Jimmy Chin and other National Geographic photographers documenting the extreme climbing culture evolving in Yosemite National Park.IN YOSEMITE, a new generation of superclimbers are scaling routes ropeless, tightrope walking thousands of feet above waterfalls, living in “portaledges” 1,500 feet above the valley, and BASE jumping back down once they’re done.

Rachel Ward recounts being 16, a high school cheerleader, and how life in a rural Guatemalan village changed her forever.I read a “Jonah and the Whale” storybook in poorly pronounced Spanish as two girls in dirty school uniforms squeezed on my lap.Another child, barefoot and wearing a wraparound morga skirt and a floral-embroidered huipil blouse, braided my hair.

Robert Hirschfield talks to a yak herder in Brooklyn, finding once again how New York is a city where “worlds collapse into one another without touching.”NYIMA DOKDA POURS ME his butter tea. Too salty for me. But it has the taste of mystery. Until now, I’d only tasted butter tea in books about Tibet.

Syedea Jones is sixteen years old and a senior at Oakland Technical High School in Oakland, CA. She was one of 3 students who received the Matador Travel Scholarship and traveled to Nicaragua this summer with a non-profit organization called Global Glimpse.PRIOR TO LEAVING I had mixed emotions. I had a phobia of being on planes and of heights in general so it was not just the fact that I was traveling outside of the country by myself, for the first time.

Five Matador readers will win tickets to see Andrew McCarthy host the Project Explorer Thailand launch party this October.When I was asked if I’d be interested in serving on the Board of Directors of Project Explorer, I knew a bit about the organization — we’d profiled it on Matador last year — but I didn’t really know what it meant to serve on the board of a non-profit.

White American criminal picks up heavy weapons and rampages through Sudan in the name of justice.THIS WOULD PROBABLY be a disturbing enough movie without adding the caveat that the entire story is meant to be absolutely true. In the sense that any large-budget action flick can ever be.Sam Childers, the protagonist of the film Machinegun Preacher, was a former drug dealer who grew up in Pennsylvania, before ultimately leaving his evil ways to help rebuild huts destroyed by war in Southern Sudan.