a pictorial diary of experiences
Thirteen years ago today, Andy and I were married in the Bahamas. Our 12th year of marriage included a trip to Costa Rica, two months recovering from amoebic dysentery and C.diff, a kitchen remodel, and work tag-a-long trips to Sonoma and Munich. Here’s to thirteen more ...
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Raccoony cat lemurs. That’s how I would describe Coatis. Wikipedia notes that they are “also known as the Brazilian aardvark, Mexican tejón, hog-nosed coon, pizotes, crackoons and snookum bears.” Ok, I’ll call them crackoons and snookum bears We encountered large bands of coati the last time we were in Corcovado, and also in Argentina at Iguazu Falls. Solitary coatis...
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Ok, one more post of the Russia material. On my last day I was INSANELY bored. We’d included this extra day as a buffer for meetings, but didn’t end up needing it. My Russian colleagues were able to change to earlier flights, but it would have cost me over $2000 to change my flight (and I would have had to fly “Transaero Airlines” which I’d never heard of) so I was...
read moreI write this post from the comfort of my wi-fi enabled room at Mala Mala. I’m in no way addicted to connectivity (well, maybe I am), but it is nice not to have to loiter in the common area waiting for a file to upload. Our first trip to Mala Mala, back in 2009, had us hooked. Fresh off the plane, we spent the afternoon with mating lions. This is the type of place that you come if you want...
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The last part of our mobile camping safari brought us to Xigera Tented Camp, deep, DEEP in the Okavango Delta. The camp was the most basic of the ones we visited, but the wildlife, scenery, mokoros, and staff made this our favorite for sure. The punctual pachyderms that feasted on trees outside our dome tent each night more than made up for the evil long drop toilet. Read...
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A lot of the really amazing safari experiences happen in the evening, when it is too dark for decent photography. In digging through my files it turns out that I have some video from the encounter that I mentioned yesterday. My favorite part is when I gasp, “oh my goodness” as a lion passes mere feet from the vehicle and the ranger calmly says, “just keep still.”...
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Still shlogging through the thousands of pictures from 2009, I have now reached our mobile camping safari to Botswana. Yes – we went back to Southern Africa even though I was there for about six weeks in April/May. You see, we plan our vacations about a year in advance, so back then I had no idea that I would be selected for the Corporate Service Corps, much less assigned to South Africa....
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After SEVEN minutes of muffled yowling downstairs, Morgan FINALLY headed upstairs with his stuffed lemur toy in his mouth. I’m hoping to catch him moving his whale shark toy one of these...
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For Andy’s birthday we headed to Holbox, Mexico – a very tiny island about two hours North of Cancun. No cars, few Americans, and an unusually high population of whale sharks this time of year (and Italian restaurants, but I’ll save that for the trip report). Whale sharks can grow to be up to 40 feet long and have very wide mouths that they use to filter mostly algae and...
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When Morgan was little, he was obsessed with drinking water from the faucet. (Doesn’t sound too bad, but he drinks fast and then pukes). When I would wash my face at night he was so obsessive about it that the only way to stop him was to temporarily lock him in the shower enclosure. When I was done, I would retrieve him (by this time he was in the tub) and reward him with some good pets....
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