Author Darlene Nastansky
Combining my love for the outdoors and medicine, I have practiced Orthopedics as a Physician Assistant for 11 years.
In 2009, I left to pursue my dream of travel and adventure.
I packed up everything and left for a 12 month jaunt around the world, with time to volunteer in third world medicine, publish articles, climb peaks and rent motor-scooters.
My experience continues to open more avenues, I find myself speaking at fundraisers, packing for a return voyage to Ethiopia for a specific medical cause, freelancing ....
The flood gates of my dreams have opened!
No one would have guessed 23 years ago, as a teen parent, I would have pulled myself from the throes of poverty into the dreams of a lifetime.
As a young girl nurtured beneath the Arizona sunshine, I found my way to the Northwest where climbing, mountain biking, back country skiing and trail running were never far away.
My newest quests include sultry twilight passages, unfamiliar utterances, chaos, foreign soils and trading medical knowledge with the third world.
Please feel free to contact me at info@elephantcloud.net
One month ago, I purchased a world map. Not an engrossing wall mural waiting to be tortured with pins, but rather a timid foldout with Europe and Africa placed centrally, Asia to the east leaving the Americas far left. Whimsical, hand-drawn watercolor pictographs of mountain ranges, cites and countrysides are surrounded by ocean hues of […]
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June 3rd, 2008 by Darlene Nastansky · No Comments · Asia, Nepal
May 2008, we left for Everest in a cramped jet built for 15, including the crew, and endured a harrowing 35 minutes to Lukla Airport. Built on an incline, the 900ft mountain slope runway decelerates the plane to a screeching halt and within an hour, it is reloaded, circling around for takeoff. The nose lowers […]
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May 7th, 2008 by Darlene Nastansky · No Comments · Asia, India
Sunrise on the the River Ganges, a romantic wooden boat ride with bamboo oars awaits at the dockless Ghats, 325 now vacant palaces built by kings with narrows stairs descending to the river. Never mind the occasional dead body or cow floating by, as this is the pilgrimage taken by most Hindus. Ceremonial crematoriums line […]
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May 5th, 2008 by Darlene Nastansky · No Comments · Asia, India
Leaving Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, in attempt to catch an overnight sleeper train to Varanasi led us on a wild time chase with our Harri Krishna taxi driver. Thinking 12km = 20min we had no worries, until the smell of rain engulfed our senses. The beckoning lightening storm closed the skies just as […]
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Ten hours flying west with the ever rising sun, my body fooled into thinking there was no need for sleep. Layover in Tokyo, my first footing onto the Asian continent. Lingering through the airport, kiosks filled with tentacled squid cellophaned for quick take out, boxes of green tea mochi, cafe sushi and crazy electronic bubble […]
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