by Tamara Jacobi, Eco-Adventurer
I’m once again surrounded by all things green, blue and natural—I’ve returned to the Mexican pacific coastline that I love to re-open my jungle lodge for the season. However, for the first couple of days, I was overcome by a feeling of empty restlessness. This was a new sensation that I couldn’t quite identify. Why was I reacting this way? Then it hit me…

by Dina Mishev
Culinary tourism is exploding. But who wants to spend their entire vacation eating? Certainly not me. But neither do I want my vacation to be a boot camp. Well, it turns out The New York Times’ 2009 Culinary Destination of the Year, Marrakech, in the shadow of the High Atlas Mountains, is the perfect middling ground…

by Dina Mishev
Of course I wanted an awesome souvenir. Morocco was a brand-spanking-new-for-me country. Since it’s full of awesome stuff like indigenous pottery, spices, metalwork, and leather goods, it’s not surprising I came home with my most unique souvenir yet from a trip abroad. Unfortunately, just because it’s my most unique souvenir ever doesn’t mean it’s my best souvenir ever…

by Tamara Jacobi, Eco-Adventurer
The air is heavy and filled with an anxious, waiting, energy. I am captivated as I imagine the scene before me as an angry Poseidon, the Greek God of the ocean, emerging from the depths of the sea. Dusk turns to night, and lightning bolts hauntingly illuminate the steep jungle ridges that drop to the ocean…

by Shannon Mullen, Journalist & Outdoor Girl
I have no idea why I spent the better part of two decades terrified to swim in deep or dark water; I practically grew up on sailboats, always within reach of a lake or the ocean; there are pictures of me as a little girl, happily floating in deep, sometimes dark, open water; but at some point since then, for some reason, I got scared…

by Tamara Jacobi, Eco-Adventurer
As I take in the scene from my eco-bungalow home, my mind begins to play out for me what this day will bring. I’m uncertain of the date, of the day of the week, or really even of the month, but I do know that I have a kayaking tour that will be the primary job of the day. I listen to the ocean swell about 200 ft below; judging from the gentle crashing I know it’s going to be a perfect day for a paddle…

by Mayachela (Maya) Garcia, CSCS
The morning of March 13, 2009 was like a scene out of an Elizabeth Gilbert novel — all the right ingredients for a perfect departure: no traffic on the Bay Bridge, printed boarding passes, and my son reaching out for mama’s big hug at curbside drop-off. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but wonder (and worry) if I would be the only girl attending an intensive WKC International Kettlebell Sport Camp in Greece…

by Tamara Jacobi, Eco-Adventurer
I look up at the towering papaya trees surrounding our dipping pool. Newly planted last year, these trees had peered up at me timidly, searching for guidance. I breathe in deeply, inhaling the scent of their flowers, as though to draw inspiration as I return to commence another year of running my family’s eco-lodge on the pacific coastline…

by Sarahlee Lawrence
Inquisitive, reticulated giraffes walked gracefully up to us while our horses grazed. Some days we slipped through a herd of sixty or more, towering like a cathedral. I rode where the only trails are elephant trails, the sky is so vast it seemed to wrap around me, and the Southern Cross and Big Dipper sat in the same sky. Horses carried me through the still wild bush of the Laikipia District in Kenya…

by Shannon Mullen, Journalist & Outdoor Girl
In climbing, you learn mostly through failure,” my instructor said with a grin, “but success is that much sweeter.” I’d just fallen off the rock wall for the fifth time at an indoor climbing gym in Lander, Wyoming. The small ranching town in the Rocky Mountains is famous in this sport for its proximity to breathtaking, steep-walled canyons, towering boulders left by the glaciers that carved them, and the scores of talented athletes who come in droves to scale both…