As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end.

The desert was bad, but nothing could compare with the horrors of a tropical rain forest.

Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.

Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.

Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.

The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation.

The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture.