Journeys into nature: The Tropics
(Photo © John Geary)
"There's a cowboy in the jungle, and he looks so out of place ..."
- Jimmy Buffet, American singer/songwriter
My first real venture into ecotourism or adventure travel, (or whatever label you wish to use to describe trips into wilderness areas) took place in a canoe, in Algonquin Provincial Park. It did not seem like an "adventure" then - we just liked to camp and experience the outdoors. When I went to university, the opportunity (and the money necessary for such trips) grew small. Upon graduation, I moved out west and my second summer in Alberta saw me donning a cowboy hat for a three-day horse packing trip in the central Canadian Rockies, west of Nordegg.
Four years and three more Rocky Mountain trips later, I found myself hungering for new horizons, new environments to explore. A fortuitous visit to an ecotour operator in Vancouver eventually resulted in a trip to Belize, Central America.
While I still travel in Canada, since that first trip, I've been hooked on international adventure travel, with a particular craving for jungle settings. In other words, this "cowboy" will occasionally trade in his hat, boots and blue jeans for pith helmet, mosquito netting and sandals. (I won't give up my paddle, though - every trip has to involve some kind of paddling segment, whether it involves canoeing, kayaking or whitewater rafting!)
This section of my two-part website deals with my excursions into our planet's rapidly vanishin tropical areas: the coast and inland rainforests of Belize, the jungles, plains and rivers of Africa, and hopefully, someday, the Amazon jungles of South America, (actually, I've been there, just haven't added it to this site, yet) the mountains and deserts of India ... and more ...
There is something about the jungle that pulls me into its web, especially its nights ... Jungle nights always seem to cast a spell that prevents me from sleeping, as I love listening to all its night sounds. If the sounds alone don’t completely mesmerize me, the brilliant canopy of stars - different from stars in the northern hemisphere, and so much brighter away from any artificial light - add their hypnotic power, captivating me and driving away thoughts of sleep.
Join me now, as I head into the tropics ...
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Exploring the Reefs and Jungles of Belize
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North America (back to Journeys home page) |