Silversand, the man from the steaming Central American Jungle, escaping the extreme humidity into the Great White North encounters Silverdunes
Silverdunes, a Northern women who left a piece of her heart, one day, in the coloured sand near Santa Fe, returning yearly to sweep the desert grounds.
Silverdunes, traveling and dwelling; life shared between a home on the mountain and a home on the road; between educational research and art creations, between geography of landscapes and landscaping; between medical geography and planning for disaster. Each and every one of these avenues adds diverse observations and interpretations to each of our adventures.
The study of the presence of hantavirus throughout history brought me to the Four Corners area. The study of recurrent symbols among rock art drove me cross North America numerous times. Today, the combination of both made me search for potential "disease events" throughout the numerous stories pecked/scratched or drawn/painted on stone.
Since earliest memories, Silversand had a passion for the outdoors; tent and snow cave camping in 30 below from the age of 14, at 16 canoeing and white watering from upper New York State to the St Lawrence River and exploring the rocky cliffs (for a good cliff diving perch) of Lake Champlain were de rigueur.
An obsession for geography and geology led to a career in mapping, using satellite remote sensing platforms. Working on research projects from Central American rainforest, to far-flung Philippines and northern Australian regions mapping gives one a sense of diversity in landscapes and people. Chasing down myths and legends on recces in the remotest parts of Central America & Mexico led to the discovery of several lost cities (built by relatively little-studied civilizations) and anomalous artifacts, that in turn were fodder for books and internationally-broadcast documentary films. Having been shot at through the windows of vehicles, and unlucky to have been caught in the middle of feuds and several coups d,etat in the remotest jungles and urban areas of Central America, where raging automatic weapons gunfire put a damper on explorations, I chose to focus my efforts in the peaceful and tranquil surrounds of North America.
From my first forays into Anza Borrego desert with backpack in the mid 90s, and criss-crossing the Mojave on fat-tire mountain bike, there was no turning back. I was hooked on the desert. Exploring the possibility of comfort, after all, we're not getting any younger; the concept of a compact, rugged camper with every possible amenity and custom communications devices sitting on a 4x4, the truck camper rig emerged as the logical chariot of choice...
