Travel Tips
It’s time to say farewell to 2020; and for many of us, we’re happy to do it—perhaps more so than for any other year we’ve ever experienced. For those smitten with wanderlust, 2020 was definitely the “year of lost travels” and missed opportunities for connecting with other people and cultures around the globe.
Travel Tips
Undoubtedly, the upcoming holidays are going to look a lot different this year. The coronavirus will keep us at home, and any sort of gathering will be mostly virtual. By now, we should be old hands at it. For most of 2020, we’ve kept to ourselves and our localities.
Travel Tales
On a windy, cold, late October afternoon, I walked the streets of the little, sub-Arctic town of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, alone. I had just arrived there by plane, and I had a bit of time before the official activities on my Natural Habitat Adventures polar bear tour were set to begin.
Nature & Wildlife
With the presidential election coming up next week, I can’t help but think about the future of our world—mostly the next four years—and what it will look like. There are so many things that I would change, as I’m sure you would, too. So, what would my priorities be if I ruled the world?
Travel Tales
The human body was designed to walk. In fact, humans walk better than any other species on Earth. And very few things in our lives boost health, instill creativity and relieve stress more than taking a stroll. We also have an innate human need to communicate with each other by talking.
Canada & the North
The first time I heard the expression “Eskimo roll,” I was standing on the deck of the M/V Sea Spirit, a small, polar-adapted, expedition ship that was my home for two weeks as I traveled around the southern coastline of Greenland, from Tasilaq on the west to Illuissat on the east.
Conservation
By Karl Egloff, WWF The Pantanal has fascinated me since I first learned about it in a documentary ten years ago. It is a world of contrasts with dramatically different wet and dry seasons, and a land of many uses spanning three countries. Home to the elusive jaguar, other varieties of wildlife, spectacular landscapes, and Brazil’s rich cowboy or “pantaneiro” heritage, the Pantanal is quickly becoming part of every wildlife traveler’s bucket list.
Europe
Shelter-in-place orders. Mask-wearing edicts. Quarantine guidelines. Social-distancing rules. Flatten-the-curve requirements. Temperature-taking regulations. Public-health travel restrictions. In-person, back-to-school mandates. The coronavirus pandemic, with all the unwanted stressors it’s brought into your life, can sometimes make you feel like you want to scream, right? I feel your pain. So, apparently, does Iceland.
Travel Tips
I traveled to Bryce Canyon National Park for the first time in 2007. Because I have a fear of “edges,” this park was challenging for me.
Conservation
Almost every aspect of life has changed dramatically since the coronavirus pandemic began months ago. Today, we are still social distancing from family and friends; learning via remote, online platforms; and attending conferences, music performances and other public events virtually. It isn’t what we wanted, and it certainly hasn’t been fun.
Travel Tales
The world that I look out upon from the window in my home office, here in Wisconsin, is pretty quiet right now. In other times, the interstate just beyond the woods that surrounds my house would be busy with fast-moving cars and semitrucks. But presently, only occasionally does the sound of any traffic reach me.
Nature & Wildlife
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” This observation from American novelist Jhumpa Lahiri could not be more apropos as passionate travelers like us remain housebound for an extended time. But think of it as a gift—like a long stretch of snow days from school.
