Joel Balsam

Come for the surf, stay for the fish tacos.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Sayulita—a surf town 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast—is some kind of secret. Maybe 15 or 20 years ago, but in the last five years? Not so much. But I’m also not going to tell you it’s not paradise—and that’s not just because they shot a season of Bachelor in Paradise here. Along with huge palm trees, vibrant flowers, and fresh fruit aplenty—all staples of any place one might l...

I wrote the Northern Morocco and Mediterranean Coast chapter of this popular Lonely Planet guidebook.

Spent nearly three months research and writing the Armenia chapter of this Lonely Planet guidebook.

In ovens across Oaxaca, bakers are raising the dead.

A longform feature about a man saving the world's largest viper and the potential in their venom to save human lives, rather than take them.

Innu First Nations, environmental activists and regional politicians hope
to use the Quebec river’s status to protect it from pollution and dams. This multimedia feature, front page story and video was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists.

What do you think of when you think of a cowboy? A gun-slinging John Wayne type? As my first story for The Guardian shows, there's a whole other group of cowboys that are left out of the mainstream narrative.

Shina Novalinga and her mother Caroline are reviving Inuit throat singing by sharing with a new generation on TikTok.

Concern about contaminated air causes tension in a small town at the heart of Canada’s push to be a leader in a green economy. Read the climate feature for the Globe & Mail

A medley of efforts, and one abbey’s monks, may bring back the forgotten fruit.

Bryce and Misty Murph’Ariens live off-grid with two kids, 41 animals and no regular income. Life was a fairy tale until they became locked in a legal battle with the township. Now, they could lose it all. Read the as-told-to feature on Toronto Life.

I spent the beginning of 2019 living in the Mexico City's Colonia Roma, and wrote a guide & story about the neighborhood for Travel + Leisure.

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