Editor’s Letter

Covering Buddy Mays

As an inveterate reader of bylines and photo credits, I had been an admirer of Buddy Mays’s work for a number of years before I met him in 1992. I was on assignment for Audubonmagazine aboard a small cruise ship hopscotching down the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, visiting beautiful rainforests teaming with wildlife, including birdlife whose collective plumage was an endless pallet for nature’s art.

Buddy and I had an immediate connection, which began a 30-year friendship and collaborations along the way, including overseas assignments from Venezuela to the Czech Republic. In the mid-‘90s, we collaborated on a Berlitz Guide to Costa Rica, documenting what we saw, finishing each other’s sentences in Spanish as we researched in-country. (Fortunately, many Costa Ricans, especially those in the travel industry, are bilingual, so there were not too many furrowed eyebrows during verbal exchanges with the locals.)

When the concept for Natural Traveler Magazinesprang fully formed from my head in late 2018, Buddy, of course, was on my Alist call list. Fourteen issues later, his work has found its way into all of them. Over the years, I have known many journalists who write and photograph, but Buddy is among the tiny few I consider masters of both disciplines.

Buddy’s cover story on the ancient city of Raqmu is just one example of his expansive work, his writing taking you to a place you’re not likely to ever visit; his photographs making you wish you could go.

My memory of that initial meeting includes his responding that he had been an admirer of my work as well, but that may be just my using my rewrite abilities to create some level of parity with Buddy’s work, an impossible challenge for anyone.

You can find examples of all Buddy’s contributions to Natural Traveler Magazine by visiting our issuu.com site: https://issuu.com/search?q=%22Natural%20 Traveler%20Magazine%22. Visit his website at: https://buddy-mays.pixels.com/ -- Tony Tedeschi