Location: Socorro, New Mexico Bosque del Apache – unless you’re a birder, you’ve probably never heard of it. I don’t remember how we became aware of this National Wildlife Refuge located an hour and a half south of Albuquerque. The best time of the year to visit is from early November to mid-February, so it […]
In August of 2010, we headed to Holbox, Mexico to (hopefully) swim with whalesharks. Holbox, pronounced OL-bosh, is a small island off the coast of the North coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The island is about 40k (26 miles) long, 1.5 kilometres (under a mile) wide, and has no paved roads. Holbox is about a […]
For Christmas 2009, we traveled to Japan with two targets: snow monkeys and red crowned cranes. I’ll leave the birds for a separate post. We flew from Chicago to Tokyo on JAL, and got a screaming deal of first class tickets with points. It was Christmas day and the airport was deserted. We were the […]
In November of 2008, we traveled to Churchill, Canada hoping to see polar bears. We traveled with Frontiers North, and spent 5 days at their Tundra Buggy Lodge. Getting to Churchill from Chicago is pretty easy. We flew direct to Winnipeg, overnighted at the airport Sheraton, and then continued on the 1.5 hour charter flight […]
In July 2007 we visited the Alaska for one reason: bears. We wanted to go in 2006, but when we inquired in late February, they were already booked so we reserved a year and a half in advance. The six hour flight from Chicago to Anchorage did not provide a meal or snack, but the […]
In May 2007 we visited the Cinque Terre region of Italy. We flew into Genoa and took a local train about 2 hours down the coast. Cinque terre, which means “five lands”, is a bit off the usual tourist circuit. All trains don’t stop in all of the villages so you need to do a […]
We flew from Samburu to the Keekerok airstrip (via Nairobi, Kichwa Tembo, and Little Governors) where we were met by Timothy in a 7-seater Landcruiser. During the five minute drive to Keekerok, Timothy explained that the lodge is not fenced and it is very important to be on alert for animals and to not leave the grounds. […]
Getting There After a typical Serena breakfast (my favorite African meal of the day) we left Sweetwaters around 8:30. We passed through some villages – many shops selling hides & skins, butcheries prominently displaying their meat, mobile charging stations, and lots and lots of flower plantations. Mt Kenya loomed to our right the entire time, […]
Getting There The drive from Nairobi took about 4 hours and was on decent divided highway. We stopped at the equator for the obligatory photo op and swirling water demonstration (pretty much the same as we’d encountered in Quito, though hotter and more talk about Barak Obama). Sweetwaters Tented Camp Sweetwaters is part of the Ol […]
Zanzibar wound up on our itinerary because we had 3 nights to fill at the end of our trip due to frequent flyer mile flight scheduling. With such a short amount of time, we opted to stay in Stonetown figuring we’d minimizing driving time, hang by the pool, and wander around the town if we […]