There are over seven-million Americans living in foreign lands. My wife, Estée, and I are two of these expats. We moved to south-central Ecuador, but not near any headhunters or active volcanoes. We don’t think we are loco, but we might be wrong about that. Most of our friends in the U.S. think we are loco. We might need medical help. We moved for the climate and the adventure. We got both a great climate and some incredible and funny adventures. This book describes those adventures as we ...

TWO PLANE TICKETS, NO PLAN, ONE DREAM Happier Than A Billionaire shares one couple's celebration of risking it all for the dream of living a happier life. In this humorous and witty account, Nadine Pisani shares what it is like to follow her dream of quitting her job and starting a new life under the sunny skies of Costa Rica. Along the way, she finds reliable utilities are not that reliable, quirky neighbors are unavoidable, and tackling red tape takes the ...

Remember when you were a kid and you got your first bicycle? After a few weeks of mastering the dynamics of balancing, steering, and pedaling, all at the same time hopefully, your father released his protective, steadying grip on the seat and you went wobbling off on your own. It was probably your very first taste of independence and freedom and you knew you liked that feeling very much. Few things in life have ever compared to that first solo ride.Almost 40 years after my first so...

**This important and timely book from a Pulitzer Prize finalist follows the brutal journey a group of men take to cross the Mexican border."The single most compelling, lucid, and lyrical contemporary account of the absurdity of U.S. border policy" —The Atlantic**In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto U...

Some years ago, the author of these columns was sitting in a Zen monastery in California, blissfully meditating, when someone slipped a folded note, underneath his cushion. The note had the word Help, and no other information, except for an email address. When he wrote to the email address, to inquire as to what Help, exactly, was needed, he received only the response, Thank you. Two days later he received a second email advising him that someone of importance had greatly enjoyed reading t...

From prizewinning journalist and Brazilian native Juliana Barbassa comes a deeply reported and beautifully written account of the seductive and chaotic city of Rio de Janeiro as it struggles with poverty and corruption on the brink of the 2016 Olympic Games.Juliana Barbassa moved a great deal throughout her life, but Rio was always home. After twenty-one years abroad, she returned to find her native city—once ravaged by inflation, drug wars, corrupt leaders, and dy...

In this exciting adventure mixed with amazing scientific study, a young, exuberant explorer and geoscientist journeys deep into the Amazon—where rivers boil and legends come to life.When Andrés Ruzo was just a small boy in Peru, his grandfather told him the story of a mysterious legend: There is a river, deep in the Amazon, which boils as if a fire burns below it. Twelve years later, Ruzo—now a geoscientist—hears his aunt mention that she herself had visited this s...

We each came to a moment of brokenness;what we found there was God.And he was enough.It was the subject of headlines around the world: Three Mexican fishermen in a small open boat without any supplies, drifting for more than nine months and 5,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean. Through blistering sun and threatening storms, they battle starvation, dehydration, hopelessness, and death. Their ...

Tim Cahill reports on the road trip to end all road trips: a journey that took him from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in a record-breaking twenty three and a half days.

The country of Colombia, emerging from the fog of its violent past, has been shedding its reputation as a dangerous place. For travel, it is still a little on the edge, with many of the countrys sites as yet undiscovered by tourists. In this travelogue, author Alexandra Rosen shares her experiences journeying to Colombiaa place filled with superlatives and unquestionable charm.With her longtime travel partner, Donald Cooney, Rosen provides a lively account of their adventures explo...

Patricia Woodard had always wanted to live and work in a foreign country, but the dream seemed to be elusive. Then in the summer of 1975 while she was teaching summer school in her hometown of Whiteville, North Carolina, she received a telegram offering her a teaching position in Bogot, Colombia. Excited and stunned to finally be realizing her dream, she accepted the offer and set off for a year high on a plateau in the Andes Mountains. Several years later, she returned to Colombia, this t...

This is an engaging memoir of one woman’s solo backpacking travels through areas of the world most would not tackle, in her mid-life, she searched fifteen years for courage by confronting fear.Sally DeMasi stepped from her comfort zone to expand new horizons and face her personal fears. Leaving a lucrative career behind, turning her back on millions in stock options, she chose a backpack over a rolling suitcase.Staying in hostels, traveling as locals do by bus, dolmuses, an...