James Fernandez sat in a wheelchair in his sunny living room in Clearwater wearing the nylon shorts, flat brimmed cap and New Balances of a hiker, plus some effortlessly cool beard scruff.
The Palm Harbor Middle School science teacher who’d charmed students and their parents with his enthusiasm was surrounded by the ephemera of his world travels. There were shells, prints of snakes and birds, a stack of National Geographic magazines and a seed-pod rattle. Above that, a woven llama tapestry purchased during his fateful trip to Peru.
“It was beautiful,” he said recently…