Byliner Recommends

• Sailing from Haiti to Miami

  by Patrick Symmes + Follow

  Outside | September 2009

  When you're crossing to Florida the hard way–across 800 miles of water, with six people and no motor, in a 21-foot handmade open boat–it's a long, long way from Haiti to Miami.

• The Kingdom of the Lotus

  by Patrick Symmes + Follow

  Outside | October 2007

  A not-always-mythic journey to Shambhala, over sky-high mountains and across vicious deserts, requiring boldness of heart, purity of vision, the recitation of 99 million mantras, and $45 worth of Snickers bars, party balloons, Diamox, and dehydrated soup.

• Blood Wood

  by Patrick Symmes + Follow

  Outside | October 2002

  Remember the rainforest? Fourteen years after the martyrdom of Brazilian activist Chico Mendes, environmentalists are once again being murdered, while illegal logging pushes deeper into the world's last great tropical jungle. In this investigative report, Patrick Symmes follows the money, the mahogany, and the mafias—and goes underground to join a brave new eco-crusader with a price on his head.