Swim and hike more than a mile into a cave in a rainforest with a fast-flowing stream pouring out of it to search for Mayan sacrificial victims? … Sure. Let’s go!

While I’ve certainly enjoyed whitewater kayaking down many rivers and even surf kayaking, here I want to cover a relaxing but still exciting means to truly get away from civilization via flatwater kayaking (ignoring tidal currents here). My wife and I have gone on multiday trips that have been among the highpoints of my life. The image shown on the blurb page is from our solo paddle in Secret Lake, a marine lake in one of the rock islands of Palau.

Czechia has lots of interesting World Heritage Sites, the hilly country is not in the least over-touristed, and the people are friendly. Bohemia especially is beautiful, interesting, and relaxing. But don’t limit yourself to Český Krumlov, although I have chosen to use an overview of that beautiful town as the picture on this blog page.

Lions often suffer from human contact. Here, I want to emphasize an unusual population of lions – those who hang out in trees.

Most animals have to go to a waterhole periodically to drink. Predators know that, so they find waterholes good for dining as well as drinking.

Every year in Africa and Asia, tourists, some of whom are even in vehicles, are killed by elephants. Tourists are a small percentage of the ~500 victims of elephants killed each year though. As a grim pastime, you can even see some of the episodes on YouTube, etc. However, elephants are losing the war with humans, as the native elephant populations decline in most countries; a careful scientific study in Africa found the population to decrease 30% in the short period from 2007 to 2014. I’ve been privileged to see many elephants because I started many years ago, and I’ve traveled extensively. I cannot say it was a privilege to be charged by them, however.

The first question posed in the blog title was asked by nearly all colleagues, friends and family, soon followed by the second question, when I mentioned my wife and I traveling to Gabon. Our 2008 visit to the African equatorial country of Gabon was inspired by the Megatransect of Mike Fay initiated in 1999, sometimes with photographer Nick Nichols, to hike nearly 2000 miles across the Congo Basin to the Atlantic Ocean traveling entirely through areas that have no humans. Gabon has a low population, and most people living there are on the coast. A few years later, Fay with Nichols’ help persuaded President Bongo of Gabon to establish 13 national parks. National Geographic subsequently published three articles about the Megatransect that stimulated me to figure out a way to see part of it myself, especially Languoé Bai where I took the picture above. There was minimal infrastructure to go to some of these places, but it was still possible by staying in research facilities (especially those of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Nature Conservancy), being picked up by plane in a clearing in the jungle, taking motorboats on small rivers, and having rough paths cleared with a chainsaw for our 4WD to pass.

Madagascar comprises a natural world unlike any other. In this blog I’ll emphasize animals (fosa, lemurs, chameleons, birds), but the plants (baobabs, pachypodia), the landscape (tsingy) and the Malagasy culture of the people living there are often notably unique as well. And scuba diving in places is quite good too. The five weeks my wife and I were there were well-spent due to much effort I made researching the things I wanted to see and places to visit. Of course, I include some pictures here (including the picture of the pair of golden-diademed sifacas shown on this blurb page), but Madagascar is so picturesque, I have many more pictures in the Photography section of my website; many are in the section on animals, but there are pictures in other sections as well.

Although Japan had to adapt to the western world following its forced opening to the outside world when U.S. Commodore Perry’s fleet sailed into the bay at Tokyo (then called Edo) in 1853, it has retained quintessential cultural features that outsiders are often permitted to experience. Onsen (traditional Japanese hot springs), ryokan (traditional Japanese inns), as well as visiting and even lodging in gassho-zukuri (thatch-roofed wooden buildings in the Shiragawa-go region) are some of these cultural touchstones.

“Swim and hike more than a mile into a cave in a rainforest with a fast-flowing stream pouring out of it to search for Mayan sacrificial victims? … Sure. Let’s go!” That’s a repeat of what I wrote for the Blog Page for my Overview, as it pertains to The Cave of the Crystal Maiden, whose entrance is shown on that Blog Page. The calcited skeletons of the "Crystal Maiden" and several others, all Mayan sacrificial victims from more than 1000 years ago, are in a sacred cave, Actun Tunichil Muknal, in a jungle in Belize. The skeletons and other remains can be reached in about an hour by swimming through a pool in the stream emanating from the entrance of the cave and moving upstream by swimming, wading, climbing over boulders and squeezing through tunnels and stacked boulders until the cave becomes enlarged and walking is possible.

Each of the eight times I have seen the Palio there were downed horses and riders, usually in the first tight turn of the three-lap race around the piazza (Il Campo). The picture shown above is one I took the first time I saw the race in 1987. Il Palio is not a horse race like any other you know about. A good horse and skilled rider are not enough to win.

Dwellings in more remote parts of Amazonia, such as those here in Atuncaño, Peru, are simple but functional. The one in the background was my home for a short while. Getting off the map (not just the grid), enables us to learn not only about our neighbors here on Earth, but also gives us insight into the life of our ancestors who stood at the cusp between a hunter-gatherer culture and a farming culture.

This is a picture of Victoria Falls from above (1988).

Baksheesh and other forms of government officials extorting money from travelers is considered here, along with a couple other sobering experiences.

This sadhu I met in Quilon on the Kerala coast of India knows that this life is ephemeral and my “bad experiences” are indeed trivial.

Nearly deserted Machu Pichu with the peak Huayna Pichu in late afternoon. (I later hiked alone in the dark down the mountain to Aguas Calientes, where I spent the night as the only discernible guest in the Alburgue Juvenil.)