Nosy Be is an island off the northwest coast of Madagascar Island, the fourth largest island in the world. There are two major industries on Nosy Be: Ylang-Ylang plantations and tourism. Ylang-ylang is a flower valued for its essential oils that provide a key ingredient in production of perfumes and
According to Skilled Adventurer, trekking is a “long arduous journey, typically on foot” that can test your ability and sanity. Hiking, on the other hand, is walking a long distance, usually on trails or roads. Neither involve safari vehicles that deposit visitors at the end of the road and fade
If you want to see the elusive tiger, Ranthambore National Park and Tiger Reserve is a good place to look. Deer are the primary source of food for tigers, and at Ranthambore there are plenty of deer to choose from. The spotted Axis deer are called cheetah in Hindi because
Borneo is the third largest island in the world, following Greenland and New Guinea, and belongs to three countries Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia. Sandakan, located in the state of Sabah in Malaysia, is home to a variety of wildlife, and I visited some of them on my recent travels. Just
The second stop on my recent wildlife safari was Cebu Province in the Central Visayan region of the Philippines. From the air, the approach to Mactan Island reveals a sizable city and busy harbor. The name Mactan evolved from Mangatang, meaning pirate. Once upon a time, islanders preyed on passing
The most magical location of my wildlife safari was the Maasai Mara National Reserve, a savanna wilderness in southwest Kenya that borders on the Serengeti in Tanzania. The site in the Great Rift Valley features grassy plains and rolling hills crossed by the Mara and Talek Rivers. The famous migration
Just before the world turned upside down, I returned from an incredible adventure that took me to wildlife sanctuaries at different sites around the world. The first stop was Japan where I was able to visit the surprisingly famous Snow Monkeys and enjoy an early viewing of cherry blossoms. The
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. A day to drink green beer, catch a leprechaun, and cheer the Emerald Isle and it’s legends. So, of course, this blog has something to do with St. Patrick, but it has more to do with snakes. In the Christian tradition, it’s fair to say
When I was in high school during the last century, students studied Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in 10th grade. Besides grappling with impossible language and syntax, we encountered the soothsayer’s warning in Act 1, Scene 2. Caesar and his advisors make their way through a crowd on a festival day, perhaps
Fifty years ago, with some notable exceptions like Eleanor Roosevelt, women were invisible in history. White males led corporate America while secretaries took notes and made coffee. And marriage was the goal of most college educated middle class young women. Though many issues remain unsolved, Women’s History Month is an
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