Master Navigators of Polynesia

"Wind, waves, clouds, stars, moon, birds,. fish, and the water itself-these are the fundamental elements of the Polynesian world."

"If you can read the ocean, if you can see the island in your mind, you will never get lost."
-Master Navigator Mau Pilang

"Enshrouded by the night, the canoe itself became the needle of a compass that was the sky."
-Wade Davis

Mali Magic

"Mali may be poor, but we are rich in culture.

And this is what brings us happiness."

-Ali Farka Toure

Wade Davis

From "The Wayfinders"

"every culture is by definition a vital branch of our family tree,
a repository of knowledge and experience, and, if given the opportunity,
a source of inspiration and promise for the future."

"the social world in which we live does not exist in some absolute sense, but rather is
simply one model of reality, the consequence of one set of intellectual and spiritual choices
our particular cultural lineage made, however successfully, many generations ago."

"the full measure of a culture embraces both the actions of a people and the quality
of their aspirations, the nature of the metaphors that propel their lives."

Travel

"The act of discovery is not merely the basis of travel,
but is also the quintessential revolutionary act.
Every long journey overturns the established order of one's own life,
and all revolutionaries must begin by transforming themselves."
-Patrick Symmes,
"Chasing Che"