The Baths

Beaches in British Virgin Islands

The BVIs is a popular sailing destination, so most visitors arrive here by both bare-boat or crewed charter boats. Dive boats such as the Cuan Law also visits The Baths as part of their itinerary. The scenery here is amazing. House-size granite boulders pile the sandy white beach and spill off into turquoise blue water. There are is only one other place on earth like this, and that's in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The Baths is a great place for snorkeling, a picnic or nap in a hammock.

Birdwatching at the Napo Wildlife Center

Birdwatching in Ecuador

Napo Wildlife Center is located in the tropical rainforest of Ecuador's Amazon. The lodge sits on Añangu Lake inside Yasuní National Park, and is run by local Quechua Indians who make sure that visitors have an outstanding wildlife and cultural experience while causing as little impact to the environment as possible. The town of Coca is just a 30 minute flight from Quito over the Andes Mountains. In Coca we were greeted to board a speedboat to criss-cross the the Napo River for two hours. The last two miles is via traditional dug-out canoe through a tropical rainforest. There are no roads to the resort.

There are only 11 individual large cabanas, each is private with a king and twin size bed and has its own bathroom. The water is hot (although not drinkable) and the electricity is 110 24 hours. Meals are served in the dining room three times a day and drinks are available at the bar. The food was very good.

In the morning we were up at 4:30 a.m. for a 5:30 canoe departure to head back to the Napo River to arrive at the clay lick by 7:00 a.m.

Saladero de Loros clay lick is visited daily by hundreds of birds. Mealy Parrots, Yellow-crowned Parrots, Orange-winged Parrots, Blue-headed Parrots, Dusky-headed Parakeets, and White-eyed and Cobalt-winged parakeets have been seen here. Clay licks play an important part in the biology of these birds. Both parrots and macaws survive by eating nuts from local trees. Some trees have developed defenses by having evolved a toxin that is in the nut to protect the fruit from being eaten before it is ripe. Animals that eat the nuts from this fruit will become sick. Certain minerals in the clay are able to neutralize the toxins in these nuts, so parrots and macaws seek out deposits of this very special clay. Once this mineral is identified, birds will come from many miles around to eat the clay. The noise of this was amazing. The birds stayed for about 40 minutes before they disappeared in a flock.

The next clay lick we visited was Saladero de Pericos located a little deeper in the rainforest. This area would become active at around 11:00 a.m. and attracted other species of birds including the Cobalt-winged Parakeet, Scarlet Macaw, Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlet, Red-and-green Macaw, and Orange-cheeked Parrot.

On the way back we stopped by the village to learn about some local history and traditions and see a local artist and Shaman Dominic who performed a ritual to cleans several of the people in our group. We then enjoyed a traditional lunch served to us by the local villagers.

Across the lake deep within the Terra Firme Forest the lodge has constructed a canopy tower which rises 12 stories to the top of a huge Cebia tree to a wooden viewing platform. From here you can see many miles to the surrounding rainforest. Colorful tanagers, Macaws, Spider Monkeys, Howler Monkeys and Tucans can be viewed from the platform. There are many trails and creeks around in the area, but plenty of life can be seen from the canopy tower right at the lodge. The last night of our stay we discovered how many Black Caymans there were in the lake. There were red eyes peering at us from all around.

Our guide Andres, who was from Colombia, helped to make the trip very informative and enjoyable. By the end of the trip I knew I would be back.

Socorro Island

Islands in Mexico

Socorro Island is one of four islands in the Revillagigedos Archipelago, more commonly called the Socorro Islands. The island is about 10 miles by 9 miles in size and is home to the Mexican Naval Station since 1957. Since the customs officials are located here all visitors to this area will have the opportunity to see this island. Its a favorite with scuba divers because the the numerous large animal encounters experienced here. The dive site "Aquarium" is popular for active fish life. Pelagics and dolphins at commonly seen at sites like Cabo Pearce and O'Neil Rock. It can only be reached by boat. Scuba divers visit this area from November through May. This is done by way of Cabo San Lucas aboard the luxury live-aboard Solmar V.

Exploring the Namena Barrier Reef

Snorkelling in Fiji

Fiji advertises itself as being the soft coral capital of the world and this area truly lives up to that claim. I visited Namena Reef while aboard the Nai'a. I found this to be one of the best places in Fiji to dive. There were large schools of fish and beautiful soft coral filled with small anthias. I took some of the best Fiji underwater photos in my collection at this reef. Highly recommended!

Diving and snorkeling the Somosomo Strait

Diving in Fiji

I heard great things about diving in this area but maybe a bit too much hype about how great "the Great White Wall" was. Much of the hard coral has ended up in piles of rubble due to coral bleaching. There was some soft coral but most of it was small and scattered. The rapidly shifting tides created a lot of waiting around for the right time to dive. Some areas were pretty, but for the most part I thought it was over rated. I much preferred the diving around Namena Island and in the Vatu i Ra pass. There was much more healthy coral there and more fish than you could see through. Somosomo is definitely worth a visit, but I wouldn't recommend spending an entire vacation here.