I write for Harper’s, Outside, and Condé Nast Traveler, and also publish in Newsweek, GQ, Wired, Mother Jones, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and the Telegraph in London.

I am the author of two books. “The Boys from Dolores” (2007), is about what happened to Fidel Castro’s own schoolmates during the Cuban Revolution. It was named one of the “Ten Best” of the year by the New York Times. “Chasing Che,” published in 2000, was about riding my motorcycle across South America. The Independent called it “a classic of modern travel writing.”

I specialize in Cuba, but also write widely on insurgencies, global environmental problems, travel, and the geopolitics that underlie them. I have reported everywhere from Patagonia to Phnom Penh, and Cape Town to Kazakhstan. See my “We Hate You” Blog for updates on where I’ve been.

In Afghanistan: Photo Seamus Murphy

recent work • RAFTING IN CHILE now out in Condé Nast Traveler • THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, in Outside, is about my voyage 240 miles out of Haiti in a 21-foot open boat (September,  http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200909/haiti-immigrant-smuggling-1.html ). • THE FILTHY, FECUND SECRET OF EMILIA-ROMAGNA, in Condé Nast Traveler, is about how I taught the Italians to cook (September). • In BEST AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITING 2009, Editor Simon Winchester calls my article on Burma "surely one of the most important magazine essays of all time.” • BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2009 includes my piece on Cuban environmentalism •