Capturing the Moment

  One of my favorite views from my explorations of Guayaquil. This is the view as you enter Parque Seminario, with the Metropolitan Cathedral behind it. Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest port city, is often referred to as the 'gateway to the Galapagos.' In fact, it is for that reason that I am here. But that is tomorrow. Today, David and I spent the day exploring the back streets, and main streets of Guayaquil. It is a city rich in history, architecture, and parks, mixed with a thriving pulse of the 3 million people that live here. After 12,000 steps, and covering a good portion of the waterfront and historic district of Guayaquil, I feel like I got a good taste of what the city has to offer. One of my favorite sights was the Parque Seminario, aka Iguana Park. The beautiful Metropolitan Cathedral towers behind the iguana-filled park. Fig trees gave a natural frame to the entrance gate to the park. It was such a zone of calm, compared to the hectic marketplaces along the streets ...

Bus Safari through Denali  After taking the scenic train up to Denali from Anchorage, Heidi and I were ready to get deeper into the wilds of the park and check out some of the animals and hiking opportunities. It is an unusual set-up in Denali. There is just one road that winds through the park and you are not allowed to drive yourself. You have to get on either a tan tour bus, or a green jump-on jump-off safari bus. If you get a green bus you can have it drop you off wherever you want and set off on a hike. The freedom to go anywhere definitely embodies the Alaskan spirit, but makes you think twice when you are hiking through bear country.  On day 1 we took the green bus as far as we could. Wendy, our driver, was great about giving narration along the way as well as stopping and pointing out wildlife. We were looking for the Big 5; Moose, Caribou, Bear, Wolf, and Dall Sheep. We got pretty lucky and saw four out of the five. The wolf was the elusive one but we knew th...

  After a few weeks of beautiful weather and exciting wildlife encounters its hard to pick out one highlight to write about in my quick time at port. But looking through my recent pictures a clear choice became obvious, glaciers. On each of our trips we spend a day at a tidewater glacier. These are glaciers that flow down the mountain and enter the sea at their face.    Sometimes just getting to the glacier can be the real adventure. Long, narrow, steep fjords showing the glaciers advancement in the past can be clogged with floating ice. Some of these icebergs can be larger than our ship, while others are in their last few days before melting to oblivion. Others show off the intensely pressurized ice inside the glacier in an almost otherworldly blue color.   But if we can make it to the glacier face, the true vastness of the glacier can be known. These glaciers snake their way high up into the snow fields where they are born as a single tiny snowflake. And...

Relics of the Sugar Era Waimea Falls I have been training and researching to run different tours around the island of Oahu. Yesterday I went for a ride along on the Waimea Falls round the island tour with one of the other guides. It can be great fun playing the tourist for a bit. The planned stops on this trip include the Waialua Sugar Mill, Waimea Falls, Bonzai Pipeline, Fumi's Shrimp Shack for lunch, and the Macadamia Nut Farm outlet. Botanical Gardens inside the lush Waimea Valley   This tour seems like its right up my ally. It has a little taste of everything. Hawaii-made sugar and chocolate, a lush valley walk complete with waterfall, one of the most famous waves in the world, one of the settings for the filming of Jurassic Park, macadamia nut cracking, and of course lunch included! And I can feel good about eating shrimp since I can trace where they come from...about 30ft behind the shrimp shack in aquaculture ponds. I learned some new things along the way and...