Hogar de Ancianos On my third day as a Cross Cultural Solutions volunteer in Costa Rica, my assigned site is closed for a holiday. Margeth, the CCS program intern, suggests I accompany Rosa, another volunteer, to El Hogar de Ancianos since I expressed an interest in seniors. Hogar is the last home for about sixty […]
The Family Five Four stories of Botswana are from two recent trips. At the invitation of my niece and her husband, who were finishing a longer trip, I joined them and others of my family on a budget safari. The need for flexibility and patience reminded me of my travels when I was Annies age. […]
!Xigera Lodge, the last stop for my birding tour, is located in the center of the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. It is the only lodge in an expanse of wetlands rich with birdlife. Openbill Stork At the airstrip, an odd vehicle built for viewing wildlife awaited my group of five and our guide, Terry. […]
The Gravel Making Scene Several women and teens squatted at the edge of the precarious road and bashed stones from a slide into gravel-sized bits. A toddler who hovered near one of the sari-clad women pounded his own rock with a stick. The musical clink clink clinking drew us to where more laborers crouched on […]
Southern Cassowary The male Southern Cassowary stands six feet tall, from his three toes armed with sharp claws to the top of his horny helmet, worth noting if he is protecting his chicks. Yes, he is the parent who shepherds those brown-striped, downy bundles of joy through the tropical forest. He is so aggressive during […]
Orange-Bellied Parrots Janet de Morgan Our tiny plane flew down the south coast of Tasmania to Maleleuka; next stop Antarctica. Deny King, mined tin there for years and his daily journal is now an important resource to ornithologists. He kept track of the annual population of the Orange-Bellied Parrots and called attention to their diminishing […]
Golden BowerbirdJanet de Morgan Near the end of our trip, rain pelted the roof of our B&B so the next day we prepared for its return. On a rural road near Cairns, Del, our local guide and driver, pulled our bus off and parked in a place where there were no signs or anything to […]
Ancient Tractor In the last ten years, the increase of tourism in the Antarctic has increased awareness of how precious the area is. Many of the abandoned man-made structures have been removed, and others have been declared historical sites. One of our guides cynically suggested the historical designation was an easy way to avoid the […]
In the Falkland Islands, we encountered our first penguins, a colony of Rock Hoppers. The name is self-explanatory, except that most of the other penguins we saw were also able to hop up and over rocks with energy and skill. The Rock Hoppers are two feet high, and can hop up a rock face about […]
Ancient Tractor What I will remember is the isolation. I won’t see the ship or the people I traveled with, but the pristine land, pure water, hanging ice cliffs, abundant wildlife and the floating icebergs, astonishingly beautiful while reeking with danger. We only touched a tiny area in our time there. It’s like sailing around […]
Postcard to MyselfBradley Stahl photo Icebergs are almost as unique as penguins but far more dangerous. When we neared the first point of land on the Antarctic Peninsula, the ship’s watertight doors were closed for safety. One of them was right next to my cabin on Deck 1. When it was closed, I had a […]
Homestead We joined the ship in the Falkland Islands, where whalers and explorers took on their last supplies before the jump across Drake Passage to Antarctica. After the islands lost their usefulness as a provisioning stop, the tough inhabitants grew sheep for wool. When the wool market went down, Britain heavily subsidized the tiny population […]
Crossing Drake Passage from the Falklands was so smooth we arrived earlier than planned and had an extra day for explorations. Knowing I get queasy in rough seas, I chose a cabin on the lowest deck, in the center of the ship, where the motion would be the quietest though on the first crossing I […]
Livingstone Island Hike The pictures I’d seen of tours of Antarctica always showed people in bright red jackets and we were told the ship would provide us with one. I expected the weather would be so harsh, no jacket I had would be good enough. Images of men with icicles dripping off their beards caused […]