2026 Egypt
On the way back home from a work trip to Ethiopia and Rwanda, I hopped off at Egypt.
2026 Rwanda - Gorillas @ Volcanoes National Park
Ever since I went to Gombe Stream in Tanzania to see where Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees, I have always wanted to visit Mountain Gorillas in the wild.
And since I had a chance to “VISIT RWANDA” for work, I decided to go for it. It was an amazing experience.
This was the group of apes that fellow primatologist, Dian Fossey, was studying until she was killed by poachers.
2026 Andalusia, Spain
I met up with Tricia in Madrid on the way home from a work trip in Zambia and Kenya. From there, we took the high-speed trains to Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada, and then drove to Ronda before heading back by train from Cordoba.
I have always been curious to see the mix of Arab and Spanish cultures in the Andalusia region, and the harmonious-but-often-otherwise mingling of Islamic, Christian and Jewish traditions.
2025 Tokyo, Japan
On the way home from Cambodia, I stopped in Tokyo to visit a friend. With the exception of a day trip to Mount Fuji, I did not venture beyond the city centre. There is well enough to see there!
2025 Cambodia
I had the opportunity to facilitate a workshop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which was preceded by a project visit to the Prey Vang region. After the workshop, I added on a weekend in Siam Reap to visit Angkhor Wat.
2025 Chiang Mai, Thailand
I attended a Monitoring and Evaluation conference here for a week, so I didn’t get to see much beyond Chiang Mai. Just enough to know that I would love to return to Thailand another time if I can.
2025 Nepal
Because I was attending a conference in Thailand, I asked my colleagues if there were any partners whom I could visit during the same trip. In the end, I met up with partners in Kathmandu and took a trip to Biratnagar to visit an agriculture and livelihoods project there. Alas, because I was visiting in the rainy season, the only mountains that I saw were through the window of a plane at a great distance, but my colleague assured me that was Mount Everest.
2025 London
I broke up the long journey home from Kenya be stopping in London, UK to see some friends.
2025 Kenya
I had a great week in Kenya visit the city of Meru and the Tharaka-Nithi region, where we interviewed farmers practicing conservation agriculture and conducted research on soil fertility and biodiversity on their farms.
2024 Uganda & Ethiopia
In November 2024, I travelled to Uganda and Ethiopia for my work.
2024 Rome - Croatia - Venice
In which we work from Rome, cross Croatia, and view Venice.
2024 New York City
We visited New York and Brooklyn in August 2024.
Still the greatest city in the world.
2023 Portugal
My partner had a conference in Porto, so we built a 12-day trip around that to see a bit more of Portugal.
2023 Cozumel, Mexico
I have always gone on “trips” more than “vacations”.
Trips are more like “adventures” in which you throw yourself into a new location and culture, expend huge amounts of energy trying to figure things out, but save a lot of money and feel like you saw the “real” place that you were visiting. Trips are full of uncertainty and novelty, and require making constant decisions and continuous planning. They are best taken in places where it is cooler, rugged and remote.
“Vacations” are the direct opposite: you go to a new location that is heavily curated for you by an established tourist-industrial complex. You pre-arrange everything and basically show up and everything happens without your involvement. There are few decisions or surprises, but you can actually relax physically and mentally.
After dragging my son around on trips to cold, coastal locations with forest and no WIFI, he informed me that he wanted to go to a beach. “Oh, like in Newfoundland? They have lots of beaches”.
”NO! A real beach with warm water and heat.”
And so….. March break saw us going to Cozumel and booking an all-inclusive hotel. My biggest decision was what (watered-down) drink to order next.
It was stressful, but I coped. My son, more importantly, thrived.
p.s. I also took advantage of Cozumel’s excellent diving opportunities. Below are some pictures that I clipped from video footage.
2023 Washington DC
A weekend in Washington DC — mostly to see the Capitol and all of the museums on the Mall.
2022 Chicago
I had a chance to attend the Labor Notes conference in Chicago in June 2023. My daughter joined me for a few days afterwards to see the city.
It’s a great place for a few days of site seeing. And yes, do take the Architecture Boat Tour. It’s the best way to see the many amazing sky scrapers.
2022 NYC & Brooklyn
We took a quick trip down to NYC for Easter Weekend. Still one of my favourite cities in the world.
2020 - 2021 Ottawa
Sometimes you get to go to cool, exotic places and take interesting pictures.
Other times, for example in the middle of a Global Pandemic, you’ve got no choice but to stay put and find the beauty around you.
Fortunately, Ottawa offers lots of great scenes within 10 km of my house. Here are a few from the past while.
2019 BC & Alberta
We travelled to Haida Gwai and Canmore / Banff Alberta.
2019 Norway
Isaac and I went with his football team to take part in the Norway Cup, one of the largest youth soccer tournaments in the world. We also got to see a bit of Oslo, which was cool.
