Writing
Below are several examples of my work for Mother Nature Network, the Miami Herald, Washington & Lee University and International Justice Mission.
Apopa: Community-led violence intervention at work
Two years ago, the municipality of Apopa ranked second for its homicide rates in El Salvador. Today, it has dropped to 31. While a host of factors and conditions have led to decreased levels of violence in “la ciudad magica,“ community-centered interventions are at the heart of a place-based strategy supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
How you can visit the Shire... In Guatemala
A lonely hilltop in Guatemala seems the unlikeliest of places for a hobbit hole, but on a chilly spring night, I found myself being hauled up a mountain in the back of a pickup truck looking for just that. Too steep for anything but a four-wheel drive vehicle, the hill crested to reveal a small group of buildings, people making merry, and a goat grazing in a flower bed. But what caught my eye was a round blue door, so perfect it could have been stolen from the Lord of the Rings set in New Zealand...
Visit the far past in the lost city of El Mirador
Inside La Muerta, a group of stone tombs abandoned some 1,500 years ago, I breathed in the dark tunnel's musty air, a place only intended for the dead. At our guide's direction, I crawled into another chamber, an ancient burial place for Maya nobility. At the back of the chamber I was excited to find a vampire bat, then beat a hasty retreat upon spotting an enormous cockroach on the wall below it.
Why I (we?) run
Muscles coiling and straining at the impact of running down a steep rocky road, I raced towards the valley floor. I heard someone breathing behind me and was surprised to see a woman twice my age and half my size churning down the hill, passing me in a blur of sweat and gravel. I had swept past her about six kilometers back and thought I had left her in the dust for good.
South Florida's Snake Dundee pursues pythons in the Everglades
Tall, tan and tough, Ruben Ramirez has the burly build one would expect of a man who routinely wrestles with the notorious invader of the Everglades: the Burmese python. As he walks along a trail through the marsh, he scans the underbrush with his headlamp, searching for the mottled pattern of an elusive master of disguise...
Shop owner's conviction shows Miami's link to global black market in rhino horn
The conviction of a Biscayne Boulevard shop owner was the latest crackdown by a federal task force targeting illegal trafficking in a substance that costs more per ounce than cocaine, or even gold.
The local food movement's 'wild-eyed Old Testament prophet'
A self proclaimed “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic," Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm is a small-scale agriculture celebrity. Based in Swoope, Virginia, his farm has become a nationally recognized model for sustainable agriculture and Salatin is the poster child for the local food movement.
Belinda's Story
Belinda - a girl, a migrant and indigenous - was sexually assaulted on the street when she was 10. Her family and her decision to report the crime to authorities and testify in court led to her assailant's conviction in a country where conviction rates in sexual assault cases are extremely low.
At Miami International Airport, federal inspectors struggle to stem the tide of illegal wildlife products
From shipments with bogus permits destined for zoos and circuses to commercial boxes of rare, protected creatures hidden in plain sight with similar-looking species, Pharo and his team encounter the whole spectrum of wildlife smuggling at MIA — ground zero for an illicit multibillion industry in the United States.
A new look in Little Santo Domingo: Miami's Allapattah area gets a facelift
Allapattah, one of Miami’s oldest neighborhoods, is getting a new look.
Niño hispano espera un transplante de corazón
Jaime sufre de miocardiopatía dilatada, una condición grave en la que el corazón afectado se debilita y no puede bombear la sangre de modo eficiente. Antes de que fuera estabilizado por el corazón artificial, su estado era tan peligroso que estuvo a punto de morir.
Acusan a venezolano a traficar con corales
Un traficante de animales marinos exóticos fue acusado el lunes en una corte federal de Miami por la exportación y venta ilegal de especies raras de corales.