I’ve viewed the world and recorded my life’s travels in 35mm rectangles my entire adult life, from a boatman’s view of the Hoosier National Forest in my 20s to the same waterborne perspective of the Amazon Rainforest in my 70s.
So any “retrospective” of my life’s work — as I’ve described the purpose of StevenHiggs.com — will feature a heavy dose of photographs and words from my travels, beginning with my most recent, which in two years took me from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea to the Upper Amazon River.
Here are some previews from each.
The first two chapters for what I call my Retirement Travel Trifecta actually began a half century ago, when I journeyed through Colombia with a Barranquillero named Hilario Martinez in search of handicrafts to export and sell in the states.
Our product lines included hand-woven cotton wall hangings from the crafts town of San Jacinto, high-fashion leather bags from the Andean foothill city of Bucaramanga, and Amazon Indian baskets that we purchased in Bogotá.
After six trips in three years, my activities attracted attention from DEA and Colombian agents, who informally and formally interrogated my wife and I in the Bogotá and Miami airports, including two trips for frisking and questioning in back rooms.
I wasn’t smuggling, but Colombian corruption in the 70s was legendary. I wasn’t taking any chances and shelved the importing business in 1976, never having reached a goal of exploring and photographing the Amazon River.
I lost touch with the Marttinez family until spring 2024, when daughter Luz found me on Facebook. She and her two sisters live in Europe. The eldest Estela lives in Villach, Austria, and Luz and younger sister Patricia live in Yecla, Spain.
The last time I saw them they were 18, 14, and 13. In October 2023, I flew to Klagenfurt, Austria, for a three-week visit, split between the two countries, with side excursions through Italy and Slovenia.
Estella is an English professor in Villach and husband Thomas is an engineer and master photographer. With them, I explored Slovenian castle country and the Italian coastline on the Adriatic, from Trieste to Venice.
Cameras in hand, Thomas and I also journeyed through the Austrian and Italian Alps and Slovenia’s Soca River Valley, an Alpine area known for its natural beauty, centuries-old historic charm, outdoor expeditions, and river that glows emerald green year round.
During my time in Spain, Luz, Patricia, and I traveled the coastline, from Barcelona to Alicante, with an inland adventure to the Spanish National Monument at Monte Arabí outside of Yecla.
Patricia and I spent a weekend in Valencia, which since 2020 has twice been named the Healthiest City in the World, the World Design Capital, and the world’s best city for expatriates.
On the way home from Europe, I decided to return to Colombia to see their mother Teresa and brother Marcos and to finally fulfill that dream of photographing the Amazon Rainforest I had harbored since 1976.
In June 2024, my family and I flew to Colombia to see Teresa and explore the Amazon Rainforest from an ecolodge in the Ticuna Indian village San Martin on Colombia’s Amacayacú River.
I plan to complete the third leg of my Retirement Travel Trifecta with my family on an adventure to the Lapland region of the Arctic Circle in Finland, Sweden, and Norway in 2026.
