And so now you are aging out without having done much other than visit ruins. Cool. Exciting. I have seen my share of ruins, nothing about any of them compares to something like The Trek to The Base of the Towers in Torres Del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Or, enjoying a Scotch on the Perito Moreno Glacier after a morning of glacier hiking.
I have not encountered a black mamba, you have me there. I have encountered numerous rattle snakes, one on the DeSchuettes River hanging in a tree next to us when we swung into the bank to cast flies At trout. Several on the Appalachian trail as well among other places. The coolest snake I have ever encountered was a Fer-De-Lance during a night hike in Costa Rica while exploring the rain forest looking for exotic poisonous glowing frogs. It was a pretty bad *** night. Our guide told us just to walk by the snake like we belonged there. Fairly terrifying.
I have encountered plenty of elephants and just about every other animal in Africa except a rhino, still on the list. I have sat in a safari vehicle next to a pride of lions at night while they chilled during a hunt, maybe three feet away, maybe four. I have spent the night in a canvas tent with lions prowling all around and witnessed giraffes fighting up close. We have followed night time hippo trails to watch them eat when it’s cool and their skin can be exposed.
We travel at all times of year. Last year we did 18 days in New Zealand ( north and South Island ) in March and enjoyed some remote trips, wineries as well as a helicopter ride landing on a glacier, fly fishing and time in Queenstown and Auckland. We don’t typically go to places that can be accessed by packs of kids and their parents on our trips to seek out some solitude and unique experiences. We do take small tour adventure oriented trips with outfits like Uncruise ( swam with Sea Lions in the sea of Cortez among other things on one trip , sea kayaked for a week in Alaska with thousands of sea otters on another. We have encountered bears, moose, never a mountain lion but have encountered Big horn sheep. Sitting on a veranda seeing an elephant on the beach is hardly exciting, been there, done that. Snorkel Drifting for a couple of hours in a current in the Galapagos losing count of all the varieties of fish and sea life you can see is, on the other hand, exhilarating.
This was fun. You gave me an opportunity to look at the stack of books we have created and remember some of the more exciting places we have roamed, explored, trekked, fished, and experienced. I have seen a lot of ruins all over the world, fun to see but hardly thrilling. Next year Angkor Wat is on the list as we are currently planning to go to Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Other trips in the works include Atacama Desert, Easter Island and Machu Picchu, the Dolomites from the Italian side, Victoria Falls with Zambia and South Africa safari touring thrown in the mix. Another place we expect to get to in the next couple of years is a small ship Arctic expedition cruise out of Norway. Lots of places to still see and experience Like crossing paths with
@laKavosiey-st lion in Los Angeles in October.
Fer-de-Lance. Also a frog.
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