Travel Articles: Wildlife

Alaska's animals will be the stars of the show during your visit! Several species of bears and moose dominate the landscape, while seals and seabirds inhabit the coastlines. Whale watching is a major attraction, and you may even get a lucky glimpse of playful sea otters. Prepare yourself for a WILD experience!

Today we took a break from coffee to explore the natural and cultural side of the coffee region. We met up with Alvaro in the town of Filandia, where we jumped into the back of an old Willy’s Jeep and set off through town. The paved road quickly turned to a smaller rugged road and then truly a little jeep trail. We bounced along for about 10 …

Just wanted to share this colored pencil piece I did on black paper!

A friendly Galapagos Sea Lion

I drew this little guy that I saw on Suarez Point, Espanola island.

This was done on tinted paper with Prismacolor pencils.

Hope you enjoy it! For other artwork not Galapagos-related, check out my blog, Collidescopes!

I drew this Nasca Booby from Suarez Point, Espanola. The males will choose a pebble or shell to present to the females as a gift...apparently this one wanted to be prepared.

Prismacolor pencil on tinted paper

Hope you like it!

We woke up to another beautiful day in Costa Rica. I can't believe the luck we had with the weather.

We put on our bathing suits, applied as much sunscreen as possible and headed out to go Ocean Kayaking! We picked up a mother/daughter duo from Tennessee along the way and made it to the beach in Quepos to begin our tour. Our guide gave is …

June 2, 2015 -- Today I saw a bear. A brown bear. Big brown bear.

Ranger Jenny, who we’d dropped off at the Bartlett Bay ranger station that morning, would have been so excited.

Our little group was doing a meadow hike in Fern Harbor. Mostly, we were looking at flowers.

“What is that?” I said, pointing to a brown spot moving …

Galapagos began to show off immediately. As we were coming in for a landing, we spotted two yellow-orange land iguanas off the runway.

Darwin finches and lava lizards dodged in and out between groups of travelers.

We could smell the warm, moist air of the ocean. We were greeted by our guide, waited for our group then transferred to a bus, …

Buenos Dias, San Jose! Greeting our first morning in Costa Rica.

Wake up call on the Pacuare!

After an initial night in San Jose, due to a late flight arrival, we started our journey with a bang! We got up EARLY that first morning in Costa Rica to begin our rafting adventure on the Pacuare River.

The Pacuare is one of the top FIVE commercial …

Today during our Arctic adventure, we explore a glacier in the Sondrestrom Fjord via zodiac. The glacier is an impressive wall of ice. Kittiwakes fly around the nearby bird cliffs and the ice reflects brilliant blues and crystal clear prisms. This afternoon we stop for an unscheduled hike to a lake. A waterfall cascades beside our path as the 3 …

Today we arrived in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and the start of our mother-daughter Arctic cruise. At nearly 70 degrees, we quickly stripped out of our layers and enjoyed the surprisingly warm temperatures and bright sunshine. The coastline is beautiful with colorful buildings dotting the hillside.

We transferred to the port and boarded zodiacs to …

Thanks to the last minute adjustments that had to be made to our itinerary to accommodate ice conditions, we end up with a free morning to head inland to the Greenland ice cap before boarding the plane home. This is the second largest ice sheet in the world and covers over 80% of the Greenland surface. More than 99% of the freshwater ice in the …

Today we're at the bird cliffs where hundreds of Murres and Kittiwakes nest in the clifftops. The ice we are standing on will be open ocean in another couple of months. For now, ~ a half mile of frozen sea separates the cliffs from the open ocean and there is a constant cacophony of squawking overhead as the birds travel between their nests and …

We're sitting at the floe edge hoping to catch a glimpse of the pods of narwhal that generally travel along the edge in the upcoming weeks. We're here a bit early in the season so even though we hear reports of narwhal sightings frequently, we haven't seen any whales yet. While we wait, we see flocks of Eider Ducks, Kittiwakes, and Murres. A seal …

Today we are traveling across the frozen ocean on komatiks, wooden sledges pulled by snowmobiles, to our Arctic base camp. The ride is bumpy, like traveling in a zodiac across choppy waves. We cross a couple of natural cracks in the ice, 1-4 foot gaps where the frozen ice has split apart to reveal the ocean water beneath. The first crack is a bit …

I'm on my way to northern Baffin Island, specifically Pond Inlet, a small community in northern Nunavut where sightings of narwhal and polar bear are commonplace. I'll be camping out on the sea ice for 5 nights during my Arctic adventure in comfortable safari tents and 24 hours of daylight. Our camp is located 45 miles from Pond Inlet near the …

Turtle monitoring begins!

The camp buzzed with energy. The turtle monitoring was a much anticipated highlight of our Baja camping adventure and the Conway family was anxious to get up-close with the region's black sea turtles. This monitoring program is part of Grupo Tortuguero's community and sea turtle conservation project -- the information …

The Conway family is packed and ready and headed to Baja! Nine-months of anticipation has finally come to an end and I now fully appreciate the insight I had to plan early to address those items that weren't on my original packing-list: new passports, cancelled & re-scheduled flights, pre-excused school absence letters and snorkeling lessons. I …

December 3, 2011

We arrived at Macquarie Island about 7am. The sea was calm and the weather was foggy with light mist. We were met by park rangers from the ANARE station for a walk around the Isthmus. The Isthmus was teaming with wildlife including huge male elephant seals, king penguins and rock hoppers. We spent about 2.5 hours on the Isthmus …