Capturing the Moment

  Two American flamingos fluffed up and enter-twined, their version of fighting.    After traveling through the night on our expedition ship La Pinta, and crossing the equator twice, I woke to the dropping of the anchor in front of an beautiful island called Rabida Island in the central part of the Galapagos Archipelago. A beautiful red sand beach stretches along the coast here, and that provided our beach landing spot for our morning nature walk. It was a wet landing, so everyone sits and spins off the sides of the zodiac into the shallow water. As we did this a curious sea lion played nearby in the surf, and a few blue footed boobies cruised overhead.    After drying our feet and putting on our shoes, Dries, our guide, led us about fifty feet, behind the bushy dune, which revealed a shallow lagoon. Inside this brackish lagoon we were delighted to see bright pink flamingos. Dries said that they never know if the flamingos will be here, because they fly from isl...

  Dragon Hill in the background of another beautiful Galapagos Island landscape Today was a big day on our exploration of the Galapagos Archipelago. We crammed three different adventures into our day, with a hike and a snorkel on Rabida Island in the morning, and a hike to Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz Island in the afternoon. The landscapes were stunning, and the snorkel was super fun. I spent most of the time underwater, freediving with sea lions, big schools of fish, and an elusive nurse shark. And it all started off with a bang as our zodiacs took us in for a shore landing on the most beautiful red sand beach. Beautiful red sand beach Another shot of the red sand next to the green bushes. Beautiful cliff view from our Hike Not only did we get a scenic hike in on the lava rock coastline, but there was a pond full of pink flamingos just inland from the red sand beach. We spent a while just watching the flamingos feeding in the shallow water. I think a lot of the guests onboard were s...

 Amboseli National Park has always been one of my favorite parks in Kenya. It is a dry, arid savannah landscape, punctuated by intense green marshes. These marshes are fed by underground springs due to the snow melt of nearby Kilimanjaro volcano. These ever-present waters provide a lifeblood for an amazing amount of wildlife in the area. We found elephants up to their ears in the cool, marshy waters as well as buffalo, zebra, and all kinds of antelope. Herds of animals grazed on the grassy plains surrounding the marsh as they kept a wary eye out for lions.       As we entered the park we were greeted by five different herds of elephants emerging out of the forest. They ambled right by our vehicle on their way down to the water. We checked into our wilderness lodge, Amboseli Serena Lodge, which would be our home base for safaris for three days and two nights. A local Maasai warrior patroled the ground as security, but not with a gun for robbers or a knife for big...