Teresa Bergen

Nobody sleeps in on a Hurtigruten cruise to the Galapagos. By 7 a.m., my fellow passengers were on deck, binoculars trained on the sky. Sure, I love to see pelicans, albatross and hawks too, but my heart is with iguanas. If you’re a fellow herpetophile, there no better place to indulge your lizard-loving ways than a trip to the Galapagos.

Green design & innovation for a better world

In March, Greater Victoria on Canada’s Vancouver Island became the first urban destination in Canada or the U.S. to earn the Biosphere Certification. This certification, awarded by the Responsible Tourism Institute (RTI), is only given to destinations that demonstrate extreme commitment to principles of cultural diversity, environmental sustainability, equity and social responsibility.

Just a few hundred miles up the road from my home in Portland, Oregon, the city of Vancouver, British Columbia is an excellent place for vegans. I hadn’t visited since before the pandemic. So on a recent trip, I went to check out both new developments and mainstays of the Vancouver vegan dining scene. Here are a few places to try if you have the chance to visit what many folks claim is North America’s best city.

It’s a remarkably blue British Columbia day, t-shirt weather in early May, as I paddle through coastal islands. Our little group of five people in three kayaks is pondering petroglyphs, guessing at the meaning of the red drawings.

Misfits Market is trying to end the cycle of food waste by saving “ugly” food from the trash heap. As its website succinctly puts it, “We take in the high-quality food that grocery stores would rather let go to waste. Then, we find everything a good home. Your home.”

As I sit in my window seat on the ice-class vessel Ultramarine, surrounded by Arctic mountains and sheets of ice, I’m struck by the uselessness of humans in the ecosystem. What is our purpose? None at all. I feel detached, as if I’m a voyeur who has landed here from another planet. It’s an incredible experience to visit the Arctic on a Quark Expeditions cruise and I’m so grateful to have gone there. At the same time, a human could come away feeling pretty darn insignificant. And getting our egos…

It’s a hot and beautiful summer day at the bottom of the Grand Canyon as I stand in line for a sandwich. Our rafting guides have set up an amazing spread of fixings. There’s even vegan cheese for me. All that’s missing are plates and napkins. After washing our hands with river water and soap in a foot-pumped bucket sink, we put our bread on one hand and try to layer on all the sandwich ingredients with the other. Scooping out avocado is especially difficult one-handed. It’s clumsy, but admirable…

Green design & innovation for a better world

Our group is sitting in a circle at a 15th century Inca site. We’re each holding three coca leaves glued together with llama fat and concentrating on protection, prosperity and a balanced life. A young shaman named Lucas is alternately praying in Quechua and explaining things to us in Spanish, both translated by our guide Wilfredo Huillca. The shaman adds quinoa, corn, confetti and other symbolic items to Pachamama, the Andean earth mother. Fortunately, modern rituals substitute animal cookies..…