IE Blog

When I was young, family travel was a simple endeavor. Three generations of family, crisscrossing the eastern US and periodically venturing farther north. As minor travelers, my parents were not even required to show photo ID for us, much less spend months applying for passports and acquiring notarized permission letters from other custodial parents. Travel has always held a special place in my soul, and working with International Expeditions has afforded me an opportunity to share my wanderlust with my own child. For us, travel isn’t just vacation. In the words of my nine-year-old “travel is living.” After recognizing his obvious genius, I asked Conor for his best advice for other kids who want to travel. Please note: all answers given while trapped on the airplane en-route from Costa Rica to Alabama.

What three tips would you give to other kids your age who want to travel?

• Eat The Food: At least TRY new foods, even if you think you won’t like it. I was really surprised at how good the food was. I didn’t try anything too crazy — no grubs or anything like that — but fruits are a safe bet when trying new things. There are likely to be some weird juices, but in Latin America those strange juices are delicious!
  
• Don’t Be Afraid: If you worry that things are too dangerous or scary to try, then you’ll really miss out. Besides, you have parents to research how safe activities are! What if I had decided to not zip-line through the rainforest? Or had gotten out of the ocean once I got pounded by a few waves? That’s the most fun I’ve had in my life!
  
• Don’t Complain: My mom likes to stay in ecolodges where we don’t have TV or the internet. For some kids my age that would seem awful, but you don’t even miss shows or videos games when you travel. Go hiking in the forest! Go outside! Go swimming! Who cares about the internet when you’re at an incredible surfing beach?

What was the craziest thing you did during your Costa Rica tour?

Well, I showered naked in the outdoor shower at our bungalow in Tamarindo. It was kind of fun being outside with nothing but trees, birds and monkeys around. You won’t publish that will you? (Editor’s note: never trust mom!)

What is your least favorite thing about travel?

The plane ride and airports! It is hard enough waiting to get to someplace great — or then waiting to get home — but then you have to spend forever in Customs.

Where do you want to travel next?

I want to go everywhere, but maybe Switzerland to try snowboarding or Australia to spot kangaroos and poisonous snakes.

Why do you think it is important for children to travel?

You learn so much when you go to another country and start asking questions. It is the difference between living life and sitting in a classroom. When traveling, I get to find out what boys my age do in different countries, see exotic animals, learn about volcanoes and the environment, and even got to speak to one of the locals in Spanish! Maybe it was just “dónde están los baños,” but I was able to stop being shy and ask the question — AND follow the directions to get to the restroom, of course. 

What are your best tips for making travel enriching for your entire family? Let us know in the comments below.

Categories:

• Costa Rica
• Nature Travel
• Travel Tips

Comments:

• emily's blog
• ShareThis

ShareThis

You might also like:

Machu Picchu: Designed for the Birds

The Mekong River Provides Respite and Livelihood

Local-Favorite Restaurants in Guayaquil

The white-faced capuchin is a medium sized primate with a white or sometimes yellowish head neck and lower shoulders and a black body and tail. Occasionally, the face may be bright yellow, reddish or any other color depending on the color of the flowers and pollen that the monkey may have been feeding on. 

White-faced capuchins exhibit a lot of dexterity in climbing and jumping but also in opening zippers, Velcro fasteners, etc., and in some areas, such as Costa Rica’s Manuel Antonio National Park, any day pack, cameras, sun glasses and countless other items are vulnerable to being stolen by this species of monkey. While leading IE’s Costa Rica tours, I’ve watched capuchins open many bags, grab whatever is most vulnerable and scamper up the nearest tree to inspect their bounty!

White-faced monkeys have a very long prehensile tail which aids them in reaching fruits and birds nest that may otherwise be out of reach for an animal weighing up to eight pounds. On a trip to Manuel Antonio, many years ago, I observed a female white-faced capuchin with a youngster capture can kill a blunt-headed tree snake (Imantoides). The snake must not have been a delicacy as the monkey tasted it then presented it to her well grown baby. The youngster also did not appear to enjoy the taste and over the next 10 minutes about eight other members of the troop came over to inspect and taste the snake. All members of the troop showed the same, almost disgust, taste of the snake and eventually the dead snake was left dangling from a branch over the trail. 

Whenever these monkeys are near, there is usually much noise as the troop stays in communication with members. Little is left “uninspected” as the troop moves through the forest. Feeding on insects, flowers, pollen, fruits, small reptiles, bird’s eggs and nestlings allows for this species to live in a wide variety of habitats. I have observed them often in mangrove swamps, thorn forest habitats of Guanacaste, in the Talamanca Mountains of Monteverde and the Caribbean lowlands of Tortuguero. They are equally comfortable foraging on the ground as they are in the canopy and in Mangrove areas I have observed white-faced capuchins feeding on fiddler crabs where they stand on the exposed roots of mangroves and reach down to pluck unsuspecting crabs from the mud. No matter where white-faced are found they are a delight to observe and a patient observer may be treated to antics far beyond ones scope of imagination!
 

Naturalist Greg Greer is a favorite among IE travelers, and has gained a reputation for his friendliness and good humor, along with his incomparable knowledge of natural history, photos and articles have been widely published in books and magazines, including Georgia Outdoor News, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Alabama Outdoor News, Riversedge and Southern Wildlife.

Categories:

• Costa Rica
• Naturalist Greg Greer
• Wildlife

Comments:

• 's blog
• ShareThis

ShareThis

You might also like:

Don't Forget About TSA's "Secure Flight" Requirements

World's Largest Flowers Can Be Found In Borneo

Local-Favorite Restaurants in Guayaquil

Having grandchildren and watching the movie Finding Nemo more times than I have counted, always brings to mind the numerous animated sea turtles riding the Gulf Stream, at a tremendous rate of speed.  In watching this, I can’t help but think of the tremendous distances that some species of sea turtles travel in the course of a year — even more astounding the distance traveled over their life time. 

For example, a number of leatherback sea turtles that have been fitted with satellite transmitters while laying eggs on the beach at Tortuguero, Costa Rica. This is on the Caribbean coast near the border with Nicaragua. Amazingly, some of these turtles have been tracked across the width of the Caribbean, where they catch the Gulf Stream and proceed North with the warm water flow. Once a turtle has reached New Foundland, it continues with the Gulf Stream, crossing the North Atlantic and reaching the European coast near Scotland or Ireland. The turtle continues its migration southward, eventually reaching Portugal, where the turtle then does something absolutely incredible — crossing the Atlantic at its widest point!

The leatherback turtle eventually returns into the Caribbean Sea where it once again mates, and may lay as many as seven clutches of eggs in a nesting season.  A turtle may lay on a beach in Trinidad, then up to lay a clutch or two in Panama and finally its last clutches of the nesting season once again on the beach in Tortuguero.  Leatherback sea turtles, the largest of turtles and debatably the largest reptile in the world, are indeed world travelers, and one that IE’s Costa Rica tour guests can see nesting in Tortuguero, as well as beaches on the North Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

I’ll never forget my first observation of a massive female leatherback as she was just leaving the ocean beginning her crawl up the beach at Tortuguero. This was probably 20 years ago, but the memories are just as vivid today as they were that night so long ago. The turtle looked like a small car coming out of the water. She was a large female, almost maximum size for her species. About six feet in carapace (shell) length and her front flippers had a span of almost eight feet. She was enormous! As a few International Expeditions guests and I sat in the sand watching this huge turtle, she gradually crawled up to the edge of the very low dune line and began digging her body pit. These turtles dig a large hole that allows the entire turtle to lay below the surface of the sand.  She then began digging the nest hole using only her hind flippers, digging a flask shaped hole. Due to the length of her hind flippers, the nest hole eventually becomes quite deep. She then began depositing eggs. We used a red light to observe the process, and at first just a few eggs at a time would be deposited. Then the egss began to come in large clusters as she got into a rhythm of laying and then relaxing briefly before the next cluster of eggs were deposited. 

Once egg deposition was completely, the females sea turtle filled in the hole, then filled in the body pit and did a number of gyrations over the sand. When she was finally finished, it was difficult to tell where her eggs had been deposited. The band on this turtle indicated that she had laid eggs only a couple of weeks earlier in Panama and this would most likely be her last clutch for this year.  (This info was provided on the spot, via computer and satellite link that a Caribbean Conservation Corp (CCC) turtle researcher had in his back pack).  After laying, the turtle returned to the very dark ocean and would once again be off on her Atlantic migration, entering cold water up north and off of the coast of Northwestern Europe, down to Portugal and then all the way back across the Atlantic. 

Amazingly, these massive turtles feed almost entirely on jellyfish, thus they are able to cross mid-ocean as they can eat along the way.  Leatherbacks are also very deep diving turtles with dive depths of 1,200 meters being recorded. Their leathery shell allows for compression as water pressure is quite severe during these incredibly deep dives. Even their skull is quite unusual as it is made up of many small pieces, and between the pieces of the skull is material that allows for the skull to compress and expand. Also of interest in regards to this species is the leatherback’s ability to maintain a body temperature well above ambient sea water temperatures. At times as much as 18° C above ambient. This is accomplished with a unique vascular system as well as a nonvascular carapace.

So, the question is:  are all reptiles cold blooded or poikiliothermic? Not the leatherback! These turtles truly are marvels of the reptilian world and they can be observed nesting on both coasts of Costa Rica. Typically from February through July on the Caribbean coast and October to March on the Pacific coast. 

 
Naturalist Greg Greer is a favorite among IE travelers, and has gained a reputation for his friendliness and good humor, along with his incomparable knowledge of natural history, photos and articles have been widely published in books and magazines, including Georgia Outdoor News, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Alabama Outdoor News, Riversedge and Southern Wildlife.
 

Categories:

• Costa Rica
• Naturalist Greg Greer
• Wildlife

Comments:

• 's blog
• ShareThis

ShareThis

You might also like:

Photo of the Day: Cuba's Soroa Orchid Garden

21 new sites on UNESCO World Heritage List

Animals of Africa: Agama Lizards Brighten Up Tanzania During Mating Season

It is Endangered Species Day and we’re turning our focus to some of the critically engendered wildlife that you may spot on International Expeditions’ nature-focused journeys. We hope that by seeing wildlife in its precious habitat, you’ll be inspired to protect and improve the world we share.

On IE’s new Northern Peru tour, guests search for the critically endangered white-winged guan during naturalist-guided excursions at Chaparri Nature Reserve. How rare is the white-winged guan? The bird is endemic to a small region in northwestern Peru, in the equatorial dry forests of the western slope of the Andes.  In fact, until it was rediscovered in 1977, scientists thought that the white-winged guan had been extinct for more than a century.

Hunting and habitat loss are the major threats to the species; however, there are intense captive-breeding and conservations campaigns aimed at preserving the white-winged guan.
 

Categories:

• Eco Travel
• Natural History News
• Peru
• Wildlife

Comments:

• emily's blog
• ShareThis

ShareThis

You might also like:

Getting Spicy in Costa Rica With Salsa Lizano

A Note from our President

My "Amazon Moment"