Patrick Symmes is the author of The Boys from Dolores and Chasing Che.
Patrick Symmes
How to Make Friends with Strangers
Travel is one long introduction to the broadest of humanity. We aren’t perfect, but most members of our species are worth knowing. Here are some simple rules for meeting the neighbors.
The 8 Tools Our Travel Writer Never Leaves Home Without
How to stay alive in a war zone—with the help of paper guidebooks, earplugs, and decoy wallets.
A Year After the Quake, Nepal Is Still a Mess
Help came right away. And then it stopped. A year after the earthquake that turned Nepal to rubble, the government has accomplished little. Patrick Symmes reports on the business-as-usual corruption...
The Golden Age of Havana Is Now
With Airbnb and Yelp already operating in Cuba's capital, will hordes of American tourists sipping McDaiquiris ruin the very authenticity that draws us to the rebel island nation?
The PTSD River Cure
PTSD survivor Chad Brown put down a suicide weapon and picked up a fly-fishing rod. The Navy stevedore turned gear designer now wants kids and vets to heal each other on the Oregon waters that saved...
Syria, as the World Closed In
Today, Syria is known more for creating international unrest than its sweet shops and minarets. Journalist Patrick Symmes explored the cultural heritage of Damascus before the outside world...
The Real Rebels of Timbuktu
Tuareg nomads have stormed out of the desert again, threatening a return to culture war in the Sahara’s legendary lost city. Patrick Symmes on the rebel alliance, and the fire next time.
A Wild Country Grows in South Sudan
The new country of South Sudan is blessed with oil, water, and a safari bonanza: one of the largest, most stunning animal migrations on earth. But without roads, laws, or infrastructure, can Africa’s...
The Beautiful Game
Argentina's soccer fans may be the sports' most impassioned. So much so that the rowdiest among them have formed gangs that intimidate players and coaches, control stadium concessions, and murder...
Who Pinched My Ride?
When thieves stoles his beloved commuter bike on a busy street in broad daylight, Patrick Symmes snapped—and set out on a cross-country plunge into the heart of America's bike-crime underbelly. What...
Sand Storm
With demonstrations sweeping Yemen, Patrick Symmes landed in the country for a long-planned excursion. The tourists were there, all right, but so were the riot police and pistol-flashing National...
Meet The Neighbors
What doesn't South America offer in the way of big adventure? Here are the 10 best ways to drop in on our amigos down south.
Cuba Libre
Why hordes of Yankee travelers are exactly what the island needs.
Off the Deep End
By the time George W. Bush created the Marianas Trench Marine National monument, he had shocked his detractors and quadrupled the size of the planet's fully protected waters. But if a preserve is...
The Beautiful and the Dammed
ALLAH WAS INVOKED THAT DAY, after a wood-fired breakfast in an 18-degree dawn. The earth was cloaked anew; hoarfrost made the grass crunch under my boots. Wind ripped away the plume of Daniel Gonz...
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