AS DEPUTY EDITOR of The New York Times Magazine, Part II, Kent Black traverses the canyons of Manhattan, but for us he rafted the Tuichi River in Bolivia and went fly-fishing with his buddies in Baja. "When I was down in Bolivia, I met with a shaman and asked him if I would ever get married, and he said that I would, but that it had to be immediately. So I turned around and proposed to a complete stranger. Since then, this woman and I have rendezvoused twice in Miami." Kent also writes for Smithsonian and Interview.

LOS ANGELES-BASED Sean Dungan journeyed to the Yukon to photograph three remote lodges and found that the northern summer sun complemented his soft, intuitive style. "I loved it up there, because the sun circles low around the horizon, never really setting. The diffuse light is amazing." Sean also shoots for Rolling Stone, Fortune, and Entertainment Weekly.

VETERAN SCUBA DIVER Karen Karbo of Portland, Oregon, loved diving in the warm waters of Los Roques, Venezuela. "People say diving in the Northwest is great, but if I have to put on a drysuit, forget it. Los Roques was a dream—78-degree water and Venezuelan deckhands." Her latest novel is Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me (Spring 2000, Bloomsbury).

FORMER SOUTH AFRICA RESIDENT Ted Botha, now living in New York City, distilled a lifetime of experience in the bush into a month-by-month calendar of Africa's best game-viewing opportunities. He especially loves the less famous African animals. "The Big Five don't interest me as much, but a company I know in the Kalahari takes people to see the Small Five: pygmy falcon, rock lizard, suricate (a type of mongoose), catfish, and armored cricket." Ted also writes for Condé Nast Traveler, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Islands.

RAISED ON OAHU but settled in Montana, Mike Harrelson surfed Mexico's Pacific coast and shredded British Colombia's Selkirk Mountains. His disparate passions make for an odd training regimen: "The only way to keep my arms in shape for a surfing trip is to train with my board at the local pool. But I have to deal with lots of dumb comments, like 'Aren't you a bit far from the ocean, dude?' Mike writes for Snowboard Life, Couloir, Backcountry, and Powder.

A FORMER OUTSIDE editor and a founder of Bike magazine, Rob Story rode his Litespeed around Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula. He also just completed a book on mountain biking (due out in March 2001) for Outside magazine's Adventure Travel Guides, a new series from Outside Books. Rob lives in Telluride, Colorado, and also writes for Powder and Rolling Stone.