When I came to Vancouver several years ago, no one told me I was moving to earthquake country.  The city is vulnerable to the same type of  megaquake that devastated Japan in March 2011, killing more than 20,000 people.  Experts estimate that there’s a one in four chance of a cataclysmic quake hitting Vancouver within the next 50 years.  But because the city has never suffered from a major temblor, almost no one is prepared.  I investigated exactly how a quake might impact the city for Vancouver Magazine.

The Big One

By Remy Scalza for Vancouver Magazine

For someone whose business is disaster, Anne Ward is uncommonly charming. Today, Ward, an older woman who lives in Kitsilano but is originally from Saskatoon, is wearing two-inch silver heels, a shimmering gold shawl, and jade earrings with a matching amulet that looks vaguely Mayan. “I figure you got to look good while you can,” she says with a slight prairie twang. “It’ll come soon enough.”

Ward is president and CEO of Krasicki and Ward, an emergency preparedness supply store in City Square Mall at 12th and Cambie, right next to a beauty salon and below a Fitness World. The “it” she’s referring to is the big one, a major earthquake. In her store, you can buy earthquake survival kits, big bricks of high-calorie rations, crowbars and hatchets, solar-charged flashlights, emergency toilets in a bag called Wag Bags, and most anything else needed for the apocalypse. “You can try calling 911, if the phone lines are operational,” she says, raising a knowing eyebrow. “But you know what? You might not be their highest priority.”

Click here to read the full story in PDF version.

Bodrum used to be an isolated fishing village and penal colony on Turkey’s remote Aegean Coast.  But for the last decade or so it’s been the go-to destination for wealthy Istanbulus, not to mention whole colonies of British and Russian travelers looking for sun, sand and kebaps. Still, its appeal is pretty timeless – azure water, fresh seafood, rows of olive trees stretching along dry hills.  I visited recently and reported back on a unique art-themed hotel for The New York Times’ In Transit blog.

In Bodrum, Turkey, a Hotel for Art and Artists

By Remy Scalza for The New York Times In Transit Blog

This spring, guests at Casa Dell’Arte will have access to a white sand beach, Balinese and deep-tissue massage and workshops with the Pakistani experimental video artist and provocateur Basir Mahmood.

Opened in 2007 by Turkey’s first family of modern art, the Buyukkusoglus, Casa Dell’Arte (casadellartegallery.com) is a 12-suite hotel outside the Aegean beach town of Bodrum that doubles as one of the country’s most important contemporary art galleries.  Hung in hallways and guest rooms inside the airy manor home are hundreds of Turkish masterpieces collectively valued at more than $4 million, including seminal works by Fikret Moualla, regarded as Turkey’s van Gogh.

Click here to read the rest on The New York Times website.

The Calgary Stampede – which takes place every July in the Canadian prairies – is among the most storied events in rodeo: a 10-day competition with millions in prize money up for grabs and a history stretching back more than a century.  It’s also a huge party, which transforms the otherwise mild-mannered city of Calgary, Alberta, into a giant, debauched hoedown.  I checked out the Stampede – and its unique version of cowboy culture – for Canadian Geographic Travel magazine.

Meet Me at the Rodeo

Story and photography by Remy Scalza for Canadian Geographic Travel

The men’s dressing room below the grandstand at the Calgary Stampede feels a little like a hospital waiting room, but not as clean. It’s a Thursday afternoon in July, toward the end of the 10-day rodeo competition, and cowboys wrapped in elastic bandages and ice packs are splayed out on a set of couches, grinding mud into the fabric and trading stories. Strewn across the carpet is a mess of well scuffed boots, spurs and chaps, frayed reins, blue jeans in various states of disrepair: the telltale detritus of a rodeo.

On one couch, Tyler Thomson, in a bright purple button-up shirt with Wrangler written across the back, is running through his hit-list for me: “Plenty of bumps, bruises, stitches, a broken thumb. But my knees, I guess you could say, have been my Kryptonite.” Thomson, 31 years old and from one of the most storied families of Calgary rodeo, has blue eyes, a million-dollar smile and one Canadian Professional Rodeo Association championship under his belt. “I think I’ve torn every ligament out of my right knee,” he says, “and I tore the ACL out of my left knee. Kept me out a year and a half. But nothing too serious, knock on wood.” In an hour or so, for the third day in a row, Thomson will mount a nearly one-tonne bull and try to stay on for eight seconds.

Click here to read the complete story in PDF version.

I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember.  But I’ve only been taking photographs seriously since I took a class with Pulitzer-Prize winner Pat Davidson at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007.  My photographs have come a long way since then.  They still have a long way to go.  But I was honored when Canadian Geographic featured a collection of my best travel photographs in this month’s edition of its Field Reports, a monthly column that profiles Canadian photographers.

Field Reports

Interview with Remy Scalza

Remy Scalza’s first experience abroad was in his third year of university, when he spent a semester in Australia. After that, the Vancouverite couldn’t get enough of traveling. He spent nearly a decade in South America and Spain, teaching English as a Second Language and getting to know various cultures. He lists the Atlantic coast of Brazil and Cappadocia — a region in central Turkey where the Grand Canyon-type landscape captivates many a photographer — among his most memorable experiences.

Q What inspired you to pursue this career?

A There’s enormous satisfaction in capturing a beautiful image. Part of what appeals to me is that it’s a completely different side of the brain you’re using. In fact, sometimes on the spur of the moment, it’s hard to switch back and forth between thinking as a writer and thinking as a photographer. The writer side is hyper-rational, thinking out every detail. Photography has more intuitive elements. It’s more immediate and emotional . . . .

Check out the rest of the interview and a photo gallery on the Canadian Geographic site.

In most of my stories, I try to keep the “I” to a minimum – better to let the places I visit take center stage than go on about myself.  But I had to make an exception with this story.  Last year I was married in Jamaica, on a beautiful stretch of Negril’s seven-mile beach.  Turns out there’s a huge market for destination wedding stories.  I couldn’t resist.

Wedded Bliss in Jamaica

Remy Scalza, Postmedia News

In terms of spiciness, the Scotch bonnet pepper is about 30 times as hot as your average jalapeno – which probably explains why I’m sweating.

The jerk sauce at Best in the West Jerk Chicken Bar, a thatch-roofed shack alongside the main drag in Negril, Jamaica, is pretty much all Scotch bonnet peppers. I reach for a Red Stripe to douse the flames and pull my chair closer to the bar. Outside, sheets of tropical rain are falling, turning the dirt parking lot into a big mud puddle. “‘Bout time,” the bartender says, cracking open a beer for himself. “We need a break from de heat.” He’s right. It’s been 29 Celsius all week in Negril: gloriously hot and cloudless. There is, however, one problem with the rain. I’m getting married in 90 minutes on the beach. Just then, the wind picks up. Big drops whip sideways into the little jerk shack and sizzle when they hit the grill.

Couples choose to have a destination wedding for lots of reasons. It’s a chance to spend a whole holiday with family and friends, instead of just a hectic few hours. Guest lists tend to be smaller and costs lower. You get a vacation out of it. But paramount among the reasons we decided to tie the knot on the beach was the stress factor, or lack thereof. There’s an unwritten law that wedding anxiety is inversely proportional to distance from home and availability of umbrella drinks. This was important for us. My wife, Stephanie, was born without the Bridezilla gene. Aisle runners and wedding favours and matching boutonnieres don’t keep her up at night. And I’d be lying if I said I knew what a boutonniere was before this all started. So an island wedding seemed to make sense. It’s hard to sweat the small stuff when you’re sipping a banana daiquiri, feet in the sand, a few thousand miles removed from real life.

Of course, when it comes to the quintessential stress-free getaway, there’s still no place quite like Jamaica.

Click here to read the rest on The Province website.