At the middle of the Earth

Quito, Ecuador -- This city lies along the volcanic spine of Ecuador at about 9,000 feet. At the moment it is a caldron of political activi...

Galapagos sharks

Cindy and I saw these white-tip reef sharks on a trip to the Galapagos Islands this month. We felt no need to jump in and join them. There...

Good Friday, Butch Cassidy and dangerous work

On Good Friday, I went to the main square in front of the cathedral to see the procession of the casket of Jesus. A military honor guard ac...

Geoglyphs in Chile

Chile is an odd place, a desert that lies on a coastline. Away from the coast, it looks like Mars -- dry, reddish soil unrelieved by any sig...

Training the trainers at La Razon

This is my favorite souvenir of my six months here in Bolivia. I spent a week with these folks, the editors at La Razon newspaper in La Paz...

A trusted voice of news in Bolivia

Father Jose Gramunt, to the right, is a Jesuit priest and highly respected newspaper columnist here in Bolivia. He appears in the major dail...

A culture of bribes

Yesterday El Deber ran this picture of the head of the local Immigration office being hauled off to jail in a big bribery scandal. He is cha...