Daily Archives: April 24, 2013

4 posts

The Solitude and Pain of an Early Morning Run for a Non-Runner

800px-Harlem_MeerMy alarm goes off at 5 AM, but lately I’m already awake to dismiss it. I’m not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, but I love solitude and on the streets of New York, if you want to run mostly alone, you have rise before the sun.

I sleep in two stubby, curly pigtails so I can just slip on a headband, my uniform of cropped microfiber pants, one of my beloved and now-discontinued Duck sports bras, t-shirt, fleece, and ugly but sublime-feeling New Balances. I keep a mug of cold coffee by my bed that I down like medicine, before grabbing my phone, Metrocard and head out the door. Continue reading

An Epic Journey to the Darien Gap, the End of the Road

IMG_3830The Darien Gap, a roadless swath of jungle, separates Panama from Colombia, North America from South America. Panama does not want the two countries and continents connected because of leftist rebels in Colombia, cocaine trafficking, human smuggling, and foot-and-mouth disease.

This month, I took a 2,500 kilometer bus trip from Guatemala to the Darien Gap. Yaviza, population 6,000, marks the southern terminus of the Pan-American Highway and the beginning of the Gap. No matter where you live in North America– Toronto, DC, Dallas, Atlanta, LA– if you kept driving south, you would end up in Yaviza. Continue reading