Game On

If you’re looking to get wild, a South African safari is one great place to start. Read more about the country’s wildlife and national parks – including successful efforts to preserve its cheetah populations (thanks to the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative and the Endan-
gered Wildlife Trust
) – in “Game On,” an article I wrote for the December issue of Virtuoso Traveler.

Before setting out for the bush, also check out “Cape Town Calling” – my most-recent post on The Virtuoso Life blog – for a few must-do urban adventures in South Africa’s “Mother City.”

And, for a look at my complete South Africa (safari + Cape Town) photo gallery, see my 5/1/17 post, Scenes Of South Africa.

True North

Paul North is an Undersea Specialist with Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic who spends six months a year in cold climates from the Arctic to Antarctica, delving into frigid seas while capturing stunning photos and videos to share with guests during onboard presentations. I had the pleasure to meet North last April on an expedition cruise to Washington State’s San Juan Islands (see my 4/29/16 post, Sucia Island Slow-Down), and recently caught up with him for an interview. Our discussion, published in a Dream Job installment on The Virtuoso Life blog, ranged from the sanity of working in subfreezing conditions to everyday steps we can take to save our seas.

(*story excerpt included in post)

Colombia on the Cusp

For decades sidestepped by most American travelers, Colombia is now a country on the cusp. Following years of violence, it is now “a beacon of stability in Latin America that’s peacefully shedding the nightmares of its past for a greater future,” says Big Five Tours & Expeditions’ president Ashish Sanghrajka. I recently had the good fortune to explore the capital of Bogotá and Cartagena’s sixteenth-century Old City with Sanghrajka and Big Five just as the Colombian government adopted an accord that ended a 52-year conflict with the country’s rebel forces. When you go: Expect your fears to be allayed and to quickly fall in love with Colombia’s people, culture, and natural splendor. But first: Check out a few of my favorite finds in Bogotá and Cartagena in “If You Go to Colombia, You’ll Long to Go Back,” written for The Virtuoso Life blog, along with my new Colombia photo gallery.

(*story excerpts included in post)

Sucia Island Slow-Down

Scenes from today’s adventures on and along Sucia Island, a 564-acre protected marine park in Washington State’s San Juan archipelago: great blue herons meditating on moody morning skies; spring meadows flaring with patches of camas, lupine, and Indian paintbrush; juvenile bald eagles learning to fly; harbor seals slipping suddenly above the water’s surface to spy passing kayakers; gargantuan sea lions hauled out on shoreline rocks, slumbering in the afternoon sun; one of Lindblad Expeditions’ talented naturalist-guides extolling the virtues of bullwhip kelp (it’s edible, can serve as an instrument, is used by otters to wrap and protect their young); and orcas breaching, again and again, as my wife and I watched from the bow of the National Geographic Sea Bird in silence, immensely grateful for the opportunity to slow down, take a much-needed time-out from the haste of our daily lives, and see again.

Global Good

Philanthropic travel has the power to keep on giving – both for the “giver” and the “receiver” in the equation. I was recently reminded of this lesson while researching young travelers who effected positive change in the communities they visited, and who, in turn, changed and grew themselves as a result of their experiences. Read more about their efforts, and find a sampling of worthy voluntourism opportunities for travelers of any age, in my article, “Lasting Change,” written for the June 2015 issue of Virtuoso Traveler.

Utah: Men of a Certain Age

A few key components of this week’s quasi midlife crisis road trip:

1. Good friends (Elder John and Old Man Kelly).

2. Minimal packing and little to no planning.

3. A surreal arrival at our starting point (in this case, Salt Lake City Int’l, where hundreds of LDS members had gathered to welcome back returning missionaries).

4. Waiting more than 30 minutes to eat Mexican food at a decent but decidedly overhyped SLC restaurant.

5. Graying manes blowing in the wind from a 435 horsepower Ford Mustang convertible (careful for sunburned balding spots).

6. Listening, unabashedly, to horribly antiquated music like the Grateful Dead and Jane’s Addiction while realizing that college occurred in a previous century.

7. A place of pilgrimage (in this case, Arches National Park) that provides plenty of silence and space to push pause, look around as far as you can see, and feel deeply alive.

8. Seeing the sunset in said place of pilgrimage with said good friends and a bottle of Laphroaig.

9. Exhausting all supplies of tiger balm the morning after a 28-mile mountain bike ride, collectively cursing the aging process, and then gaining immediate consensus to see Moab’s Fisher Towers from the car – rather than hike out to them as originally discussed – while driving the Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway.

10. Veering off the highway en route to SLC and stumbling upon Mom’s Café in Salina (a classic roadside diner lauded everywhere, it turns out, from Sunset to National Geographic), and capping off the trip with a slice of sour cream and blueberry pie that, all by itself, was worth traveling to Utah for.

Thailand: Wildest Dreams

Wildest_Dreams_Joel_Centano

Nightly symphonies of cicadas, picnics by thirteenth-century Lanna ruins, jaunts to Myanmar, hours exploring the Hall of Opium, dinners in the jungle accompanied by two-ton elephants – I had the fortune to experience it all during a recent stay at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort. Though elephant-based tourism is a contested and hugely complex issue – and, sadly, so often done wrong (read: good for profits, bad for animals) – Anantara provides one sound prescription for caring for Thailand’s captive pachyderms while also employing their mahout partners and working to preserve wild populations. Learn more about the camp and its efforts in my article, “Wildest Dreams,” written for December Virtuoso Traveler magazine.

Ecuador: Much (More) Ado About the Mainland

Congratulations, Quito! Ecuador’s tourism board recently announced that its capital is an official finalist in the Swiss-based New 7 Wonders Cities contest. The current list of finalists comprises 28 cities (including Chicago, Seoul, Beirut, and Barcelona) winnowed from an initial pool of more than 300. Voters from around the world will select the winning seven wonders, which will be unveiled on December 7, 2014. You can vote for your seven favorites at new7wonders.com/en/cities.

No doubt, the news was well received in a country that’s currently calling to visitors and developing its tourism infrastructure with such vigor (read: new eco-lodges, boutique hotels, international airport, and deluxe train journeys, to name a few).

I had the pleasure to see this progress firsthand while exploring much of continental Ecuador – from Quito to the cloud forest to the coast – last November after an initial trip there afforded only a quick overnight in Guayaquil en route to the Galápagos Islands. What I found: a diversity of indigenous cultures, brilliant biodiversity, a revitalized culinary scene, and passionate ambassadors (everyone from newly repatriated chefs to ardent environmentalists) all eager to show off and share the virtues of their country. Read more in my story “Much Ado About the Mainland,” published recently in the November/December issue of Virtuoso Life.

Gateway Canyons: A Curious Place

There’s very little to the town of Gateway, Colorado: a diner (shut down, it seems, for some time), a post office (is it open?), a general store (still under construction). Blink on the drive through – about an hour from Grand Junction along the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway – and and you’re sure to miss it. All the better, I say. Retired, reticent settings such as this so often store the best secrets, and in the case of Gateway, can quickly lead to revelation.

Just a few paces past “town” lies Gateway Canyons Resort, the brainchild of Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks. Over the past weekend I’ve had the opportunity to explore the resort and sample some of its draws, including soaring over 300-million-year-old red-rock formations in a helicopter, driving a convertible Bentley down quiet canyon roads, and riding horseback through valleys ablaze in brush oak and scented with sage.

It’s an eclectic and, truth be told, privileged playground for sure. And although a few of the activities feel as extravagant and over-the-top as the Discovery Channel’s lineup (see “Amish Mafia” or “Moonshiners”), what strikes me most is the number, and quality, of people I’ve met here (staff and guests alike), who, thanks to Hendricks’ vision, have found a place to pursue their passions. Take, for instance, the restoration specialist who maintains Hendricks’ impressive collection of vehicles at the on-site auto museum, the retired marine who leads guests on heli-tours (including a couple on their 64th anniversary over a mining camp they inhabited during the first years of their marriage), the horse whisperer who’s able to match even the most trepid rider with the right steed, and the brothers who I watched sail their small aircraft (again and again) past the Palisade (see bottom photo) before flying off to their next adventure.

There’s certainly no chance of being bored here (did I mention that guests can also learn to drive pro-Baja trucks on the resort’s off-road racetrack?). But what I’ve most appreciated about this place after, and even despite, all its activities, is the seclusion it has provided simply to sit, slow down, and watch the Palisade behind my casita soak up the setting sun and then slowly assimilate into the starry night. It’s during these shows that I most understand why Hendricks selected this spot as “the place” for his playground, and why his general manager so readily confided to me (twice, no less) that he never wanted to leave.

Ecuador: Change Is in the Air

Paddling along the Chone River estuary near Ecuador’s northern coast, my local guide, Carlos, captains our canoe toward the seemingly impenetrable thickets of mangrove that comprise Isla Corazon. In time, however, a tiny portal reveals itself, and we slip instantly from open estuary to a narrow canal that wends its way through swampy, sylvan cloisters.

We glide by elegant, great white egrets and beneath thuggish turkey vultures conspiring in the canopy. Yellow warblers take sudden flight, flickering their reflections against the milky grey waters like lightning. Motionless crabs stare out from mangrove branches like shy shut-ins. All the while, ubiquitous mangroves surround, multiplying, it seems, even as we pass. New shoots breach the water’s surface, and fresh legs stretch from established trees to expand the forest’s ever increasing empire.

It wasn’t always like this. Less than two decades ago, corporate shrimp farms destroyed approximately half of the mangrove’s territory here. In 1996, though, bolstered by government efforts to conserve the country’s wild lands, local citizens organized and banished the shrimp farmers. Since then, says Carlos, the mangrove swamps have resurrected.

The significance? Each mangrove leaf creates six seconds of oxygen. Fallen leaves also provide food for shrimp, oysters, and fish, which in turn feed Carlos’ family and community of Puerto Portovelo. The resurgent swamps – and the bird species they harbor – also attract tourists and thus revenue. It’s clear that to local citizens like Carlos, the mangroves are not just their lungs, but their livelihood and life.

In time, the canal delivers us to an outlet on the estuary erupting with avian activity. Both the sky above and mangroves bordering the bay brim with frigate birds, and each one, it seems, has something to say. Everywhere there is swarming, aerial dancing, and a controlled chaos of wings and chatter.

¿Cuántos? I ask Carlos, who seems to have anticipated my question. The current colony of frigates is some 25,000 strong, he says, up from around 500 in the year 2000 – proof positive that not only is change possible, it can also be prolific.

Read my full story, “Much Ado About the Mainland,” in the November 2013 issue of Virtuoso Life magazine. Also: Check out my gallery of photos from Mashpi to Quito to the coast.

Ecuador: Sky High in the Center of the World

UPDATE | May 1, 2013: For more on Mashpi Lodge, check out my review, “Ahead in the Clouds,” written for the May issue of Virtuoso Life magazine.

My head’s in the clouds, I confess, but once again it occurs to me how good life can be. True: Such an outlook comes easy, perched in the canopy of the Andean cloud forest and surrounded by a symphony of birdsong. Nevertheless: Shouldn’t travel be transcendent? Does it not have the power to transform?

Two hundred feet above the jungle floor, I’m seated in the “sky bike” at Mashpi Lodge, a new eco-resort situated in the wilds of Ecuador some 100 miles northwest of Quito. The start of my nine-day trip designed by the Ministry of Tourism to showcase the country’s mainland, my stay at Mashpi has reminded me of the metamorphosis that travel can bring.

Some 80 percent of the lodge’s employees, for example, come from local communities. Built with sustainable materials, Mashpi also resides on land previously owned by a logging company, and its formation has led to the protection of more than 40,000 acres of forest. Under the guidance of resident biologist, Carlos Morochz, the region’s flora and fauna are now being preserved. Already Carlos and his colleagues have identified new species of frogs and discovered a number of heretofore-unknown leks, or mating grounds, for manakin, cock-of-the-rock, and umbrella birds.

Of course, such efforts are the boon of travelers, too. Here in this eco-playground I’ve had the good fortune to immerse myself in revitalizing waterfalls; take night hikes through the jungle; linger in the lodge’s butterfly and hummingbird gardens; and indulge in an alfresco chocolate degustation with chef David Barriga as toucans flitted by in the background. All this and now an aerial bicycle ride that places everything – the lodge, the land, and this verdant, vibrant life that surrounds – in perfect perspective.