Blogs

Personally, I prefer staying in small boutique hotels. Large chain hotels have their function, though I rather like when the receptionist remembers my name and is personable enough to care how I am and how my stay is going. I like waiters who remember I favor water without ice and that my mid-afternoon coffee is an absolute must … with a healthy shot of warm milk, if you please. I am deeply grateful to attentive staff who think up and suggest new things to do or places to visit, without being as

by Shannon Farley

Costa Rica’s 2012 “Christmas Bird Count” at Veragua Rainforest Research & Adventure near Limón scored great success.

A historic number of 417 different bird species, and 12,665 individual birds, were identified in a 24-hour period – the highest number registered in Central America for the annual bird count. Beginning at 12:00 a.m. on December 5 and finishing at midnight the same day, 67 ornithologists, naturalist guides, university students and bird enthusiasts covered 19 routes

By Shannon Farley

They live in the sea, are on the World Wildlife Fund’s “Endangered Species List”, and frequent the waters around Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast Tortuguero National Park. Their lives, though on similar paths, are a bit conflicted.

I’m talking about sea turtles and manatees. One draws crowds of up to 50,000 tourists each year; the other lives a hidden life and was thought until recently to be extinct.

Tortuguero is one of Costa Rica’s most popular ecotourism destinations – a microcosm

By Roy Heale

Located about 1400 kms south of Buenos Aires in Patagonia, the Valdez Peninsula is an astonishing sanctuary of wild life, unique in the world. It is protected by a group of National and Provincial Parks know as the Reservations of Punta Norte, Caleta Valdés, Punta Delgada, Punta Pirámides and the Isla de los Pájaros (The Birds Island). It is home to an important breeding population of the endangered southern right whale as well as the southern elephant seals and southe

By Shannon Farley

Tortuguero is like the imaginary jungle coast in Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” It is a wild place.

You can just imagine what was going through Christopher Columbus’ mind when he anchored off the palm-fringed beach in 1502 … “I have come to the end of the earth,” he must have mused.

The Tortuguero coast along Costa Rica’s northern Caribbean region is a 22-mile-long, desolate, volcanic black sand beach littered with driftwood and tree logs tossed up on shore from wil

By Shannon Farley

Take a deep breath. Now imagine your lung capacity reduced by one-fifth. Find it a bit harder to breathe? What if that lessens?

Now take your focus out to a global view, and you have a clear picture of what is happening in the Amazon Rainforest. The Amazon is the largest contiguous tropical forest in the world, and releases 20% of the world’s life-giving oxygen. Today in 2012, due to mostly slash-and-burn deforestation, nearly one-fifth of the Amazon’s forest has been cleared (Am

After having been closed in mid-June, the Dhikala Safari Zone will again open for tourist form 15^th of November as scheduled every year. It is the most famous tourist zone among all the four tourist zones of Corbett Park. One can perform jeep safaris and canter safaris here but having jeep safari here one needs to have a night-stay permit and canter safari can be done staying outside the core area of national park.

The biggest tourist attraction in the area is Dhikala Forest Lodge. The forest lod

The area along Alabama’s gulf coast is unique with great beaches and wildlife refuges. More than 370 species of birds have been identified on the refuge during migratory seasons. The largest are usually ospreys and several species of herons. At the other extreme, seven species of hummingbirds have been identified. Mammals such as red fox, coyotes, and armadillos are also present. “Bon Secour” loosely translated means “Safe Harbor.” The area is diverse making it a great habitat for birds, the end

Vacation getaways that are both appealing and off-the-grid are an endangered species to begin with. But even in this rarefied company, the San Blas Archipelago, stretching across the lower half of Panama Caribbean coast, is in a class by itself. Eighty-percent uninhabited, these more than 350 islands, reachable by puddle-jumper flights from Panama City, are as pristine a paradise as you'll find anywhere in the world these days, with occasional lodges, inns, and villages of thatched huts.

What m

A CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA , TRAVEL GUIDE.

It is not much of a city – but the ocean has the more to offer. With water so blue that photos seem artificial afterwards, Cairns in northeast Queensland, Australia, attracts divers from all over the world to experience the most magnificent maritime environment nature has to offer.

Swordfishing and a gold rush built Cairns, looking much as an American small-sized city, but that era is long gone. 50 kilometers from the city’s seafront promenade, the Great Barr

Take a slow hike up Mt Kenya to enjoy the scenery and adventure

Mt. Kenya, Kenya’s highest mountain and Africa’s second highest mountain after Mt. Kilimanjaro, it is estimated to be about 2.5 million years old. Its awe inspiring spectacle that dominates the central highlands of Kenya and is located 180 KM north of Nairobi within the Mt. Kenya National Park. 

Mt. Kenya National Park is a World Heritage site and an international biosphere reserve.

It’s difficult to see wild animals located at the l

As with most of our family weekend trips, we were up well before the sun. The aroma of coffee filled the back of the house as I went to the kitchen to begin making sandwiches for the day. It was a broad menu to choose from, Nutella or peanut butter. Chips and snacks were put in a plastic bag and drinks were piled into a medium cooler. Everyone was looking forward to going somewhere new and the kids were looking forward to learning how to navigate using a map and compass.

For the most part, th

Kapchorwa, found in Eastern Uganda at the base of Mt. Elgon, is not endowed with that many nationally recognized natural or historical attractions. But the whole place called Kapchorwa district is a natural attraction in itself. It has splendour of steep slopes and natural escarpments, from forested mountains, which are tempting for a mountain climb, to numerous falls from rivers flowing out of mountains, to the sites that make you feel like you have the whole world under your feet, Kapchorwa

It has been a long-standing rule that when traveling through Kansas, it is best to do so at night because there is a common thought that there is nothing to see, but I believe I can prove that notion wrong. We had three days, two kids, and a small budget to drive out to one of Kansas’s geographic wonders and back again, finding new places along the way to explore.

The seven-hour drive from Kansas City was always too much to tackle so I had put Monument Rocks and Castle Rock on the back burner f

A primer for those traveling/volunteering/possibly relocating to El Salvador,Guatemala and the rest of Central america for the first time.

http://www.Viajero.com/

features photo gallery and travel tour information of every country in Latin Americaand a good section on El Salvador, in Spanish, English and French,click on El Salvador section http://www.viajero.com.sv/

Another good resource online is the Alfa Travel Guide (English, Spanish, Swedish) based in El Salvador for all Central Americaclick on

It’s big business, this ecotourism.

It drives entire economies of countries like Kenya, Botswana, Belize, South Africa, Laos, and especially here in Costa Rica.

Ecotourism is top of the list as to why millions of travelers from around the world come to Costa Rica’s tropical paradise each year to see its wondrous landscapes and exuberant biodiversity. Tourism is the number one industry in the country, and with good reason. Though a tiny Central American nation, Costa Rica is a “wonderland”of volcan

Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge is the house of thousands of emerald basilisks, giant bear ants, jaguars, caimans, ocelots, green iguanas, river turtles, monkeys, pumas, bats and prehistoric fishes such as the Tropical Gar. This wildlife refuge is also the abode of rare birds like the northern jacanas, ibises, jabiru storks, anhingas, cormorants and roseate spoonbills. Set near the Nicaraguan border in a remote area, reaching this refuge is not an easy task for you to do on your own, an organized to

Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia's corner of beautiful Borneo, is the capital of Sabah State and the gateway to visiting Sabah and Borneo. Known as KK, it is the largest city on Borneo and the sixth largest in Malaysia.  It is accessible from many places in Asia.

1. Orangs: One of the great attractions of Borneo is the orangutans and while they are difficult to see in the wild there are two places where it is easy to see the playful Orangs.  The easiest is at a rehabilitation center on the property of the

My God, it wasn't just your run-of-the-mill gorgeous outdoor destination, it was a freaking, sparsely populated island in the Galapagos! "How could you people walk away from the sky and ensconce yourselves in walls. For chrissakes, come outside and sleep!"

Those were the thoughts that passed through my mind as I dragged my mattress off the rustic, yet sturdy, hand-cut, wooden bed frame and dragged it across the floor of the cutest little cabin I'd ever been in, and slammed it down outside on th