Author Archives: kurczy

Perhaps the best-known ridge hike in the East is the Presidential Traverse, a 20- to 22-mile jaunt above treeline across the White Mountains. Summiting the tallest five peaks in the northeast, plus two or three more 4000-footers, the total elevation … Continue reading →

Something about the humidity and water-filled flatness of the Amazon helps transform the sky into a thick pastel painting, full of colors and milky hues. Below are photos of Amazon sunsets over the cities of Manaus and Rio Branco, on the Amazon River, … Continue reading →

I thought I loved acai after living in Rio, where every corner shop sells tall plastic cups overflowing with the deep purple sweet icy slush made from the juice of acai fruit (harvested from a variety of palm tree). It turns your … Continue reading →

It was a fun party. Perhaps the best I’ll ever go to. Me and hundred Brazilians were crammed inside a stuffy room of a triple-decker riverboat that was motoring slowly down the Amazon River. Everyone wore knock-off versions of the … Continue reading →

I’ll never see a bigger tree. This one is somewhere around 750 years old, and it sits inside Brazil’s Tapajós National Park in the state of Pará, about three miles inland from where the Rio Tapajós (the second-largest tributary of the Amazon River) cuts a nine-mile-wide trench through … Continue reading →

As the World Cup kicks off tomorrow, security is kicking into high gear in Brazil’s 12 host cities. The country is spending $850 million to provide 24-hour security for the 32 national teams, fly drones over the stadiums, monitor airspace with … Continue reading →

Manaus, capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, has a unique cuisine influenced by its location on the Amazon River in the heart of the Amazon jungle. The city has colossal fresh water fish, mouth-numbing plants, communal street tables with … Continue reading →

As the moon rose over the Rio Negro, I stood god-like upon the water in the middle of the river. God-like! I may have nearly died a very human death to get there on the back of a motorcycle taxi, but still. … Continue reading →

“Have you seen the Amazon rainforest?” my mother asked. It was a fair question. But even after living two weeks in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, which is 98 percent Amazon rainforest, I still couldn’t answer “yes.” In … Continue reading →

Three degrees south of the equator and 900 miles up the Amazon River, in a run-down Brazilian port city stands one of the greatest opera houses in the world, built in 1896 and the inspiration for Werner Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo. Who knew? Certainly not I, … Continue reading →

LANTERN HILL is said to offer the best outdoor climbing in eastern Connecticut and western Rhode Island. I’ve hiked up the 500-foot hill many times to see and show off the beautiful view of Connecticut’s hills rolling down to Long … Continue reading →

STOP means Go, right? Ummm, right? I got myself into quite a situation while winter hiking this month in the Northern Presidentials of New Hampshire, in part because I have a hard time knowing when to stop. Acting as something of a … Continue reading →

I dislike New Years Eve like I dislike Valentine’s Day. It’s contrived, sappy, pressured. It’s lonely and crowded at the same depressing time. After plenty of boozy New Years Eves in crowded cities and towns, this one was going to … Continue reading →

I gave myself a mountain for my 31st birthday. And not any hill. At 5,344 feet, Mt. Marcy is the tallest peak in both New York State and the Adirondack Mountains. It’s just south of Lake Placid, where huge ski jumps testify to the … Continue reading →

My first climb up the iconic 800-foot-high western face of Pão de Açúcar took a bit over five hours, via the routes Italianos (rated 5.10) and Secundo (rated 5.9). My second time up the same routes was nearly an hour faster. I can understand how … Continue reading →