When my ferry arrived in La Paz, Mexico a couple of weeks ago, I had only an hour or so to check out the town before boarding the bus that would take me across Baja California to Todos Santos. I walked along the Malecon and snapped a few photos; it seemed like a nice enough little town but I wasn’t turning cartwheels over it. Fortunately, during my stay at Rancho Pescadero I met Danny the bartender, born and raised in La Paz, who convinced me to spend a few days there. Danny was so right.

Although La Paz enjoys modest tourism, it is not overrun with tourists and expats. The downtown streets are filled with locals doing their daily shopping, attending church, chatting in the town square. People are extremely friendly and everyone seems to be smiling; I even found a fantastic, extremely affordable Mexican restaurant in La Paz. But the real beauty of La Paz starts where the land meets the sea.

Exquisite Corralito Beach on Espiritu Santu Island

Water so pure it looks otherworldly

Gorgeous Balandra Bay is a picture perfect swath of powdery white sand beach backed by purple and ochre cliffs, with water so excruciatingly turquoise it is hard to believe the color is real. Beyond Balandra is Espiritu Santo Island, a nature preserve with dozens of pristine deserted beaches, coral reefs teeming with tropical fish, and sea lions that are so friendly they will swim right up to your snorkel mask. The Sea of Cortez off the coast of La Paz is also one of the few places in the world where snorkelers and divers can swim beside enormous but gentle whale sharks as they scoop up plankton and krill with their giant mouths.

Giant whale shark comes up right beside the boat

I visited this water wonderland with Carey Dive Center, an excellent tour/dive operation that has designed a day trip that combines all of these activities and more. Words are simply not sufficient to describe the stunning scenery and wildlife in and around Balandra Bay and Espiritu Santo Island, so I put together the following brief video.

I’ve much enjoyed my time in Baja California, but it’s time to head back across the Sea of Cortes to Barrancas del Cobre – Mexico’s Copper Canyon – a remote area in the state of Chihuahua that encompasses the deepest canyon in North America. Copper Canyon is home to the reclusive Tarahumara Indians chronicled in the book, “Born to Run,” and I hope to spend time with Tarahumara during my visit. Tomorrow evening I board the ferry back across the Sea of Cortez, this time to Topolobampo, and bus through Los Mochis to El Fuerte, where I’ll spend a few days before boarding the famous El Chepe train through the canyon.

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I’ve seen manatees. I’ve come nose to nose with them through the window of an underwater observatory. I must admit to being just the tiniest bit obsessed with manatees at this point. So of course, the only logical next step was to swim with the manatees.

Although manatees have been known to range as far west as Texas and as far north as Virginia in the warmer summer months, most live in the coastal waters of Florida and nearby states. However in colder months, they retreat to the rivers and springs because they cannot tolerate water temperatures lower than 68 degrees. Florida springs are favorite wintering grounds for manatees because the water temperature is 72 degrees year-round, and since Florida’s Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge supports the largest concentration of these gentle giants, the town of Crystal River was my destination.

Captain Wayne White aboard his ponton boat in Kings Bay

I arranged for a half-day boat trip with Wayne White, a semi-retired captain and professional photographer who still takes the occasional visitor in search of manatees. Captain White had everything I needed: goggles, snorkel, fins, wetsuit – even spf 50 sunblock. The only thing I had to bring was a swimsuit and $55. After watching a mandatory video about the laws that have been enacted to protect manatees (thou shalt not, at any time, intentionally or negligently, annoy, molest, harass or disturb any manatee), I boarded Captain White’s pontoon boat from a dock behind the Kings Bay Inn. Read the rest of this entry »

Having thoroughly explored the historic architecture in Dunnellon’s Historic Boomtown District, I turned my attention to natural attractions during my second day in this north central Florida town. As home to Rainbow Springs, Florida’s fourth largest natural spring which disgorges 416 million gallons of water each day, and the meeting place for the Withlacoochee and Rainbow Rivers, Dunnellon easily lives up to its claim of being the “Treasure of Florida’s Nature Coast.”  The local rivers are so famous for their large mouth bass that the State officially calls Dunnellon the bass capitol of the world, and fishermen also pull sunfish, bream, longnose gar, shad, and crappie from these waters as well. For those who prefer saltwater fishing, the Gulf of Mexico is only a short distance away by car, or by boat via the Withlacoochee.

This cascade in Rainbow Springs State Park is the highest man-made waterfall in Florida

Not being a fisherman, I decided to investigate Rainbow Springs State Park, the site of the headwaters of the Rainbow River just ten miles north of town. This spring became popular in the late 1880′s when hard rock phosphate was discovered in the area and by the 1930′s it had been developed as a tourist attraction. Sea walls, a lodge, a gift shop, and a reptile exhibit were built and tailings from the nearby phosphate mining operation were used to construct miles of nature trails, scenic gardens, and three waterfalls, one of which is still Florida’s highest man-made waterfall. In the 1960′s, Sperry and Hutchinson Corporation (S & H Green Stamps) purchased the spring and turned it into a popular theme park, dredging the river in order to offer glass-bottomed boat rides, riverboat rides, a log raft ride, and submarine boat tours. S & H also added a zoo, a monorail with leaf-shaped gondolas, and an on-site rodeo.

The theme park’s heyday was short lived, however. In the early 1970′s, Interstate 75 was built 30 miles east of Dunnellon, diverting traffic from U.S. Rt. 41 and forcing closure of the park. Thankfully, the U.S. Department of the Interior stepped in, designating Rainbow River as a National Historic Landmark. Determined not to let this natural treasure wither, in 1984 volunteers began clearing the overgrown lands, restoring the pathways, and with the help of the Village of Rainbow Springs Garden Club, planting azaleas, magnolias, and a variety of other native plants. Constant lobbying on the part of the volunteer organizations finally convinced the State of Florida to purchase the original area that was the Rainbow Springs Attraction in 1990. The park was opened to the public on weekends in 1993 and on a full time basis two years later. Read the rest of this entry »

Position: The Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia Location: Hamilton Island Employer: Tourism Queensland Compensation: A salary package of AUD $150,000 for a six-month contract (that’s $96,950.34 in U.S. dollars) Responsibilities: Through weekly blog posts, a photo journal, and a video gallery, tell the world what’s taking place on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The schedule could include sampling a new luxury spa treatment at qualia on Hamilton Island, trying out new snorkeling gear on Heron Island, or bushwalking on Hinchinbrook Island. Not to mention mandatory daily walks on the stunning, white sand beaches.

Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Photo courtesy of Tourism Queensland.

The position, which is being touted as “The Best Job In The World,” has been advertised in newspapers around the globe and on the following video, which Queensland Tourism posted to YouTube:

Within hours of the appearance of the video, the agency’s website crashed when thousands of curious web surfers clicked through to see if the job was for real. Read the rest of this entry »

“Miss, you come in, I give you free drink.”

“Hello, where you stay? Come sit, try free drink.”

With every step I take along the road in this sleepy village someone tries to lure me into a conversation. So far they have all been sitting under open-air, thatch-top pavilions that serve as restaurants. I just shake my head no and keep walking. I am in search of an Internet Cafe. There is a third guy now, standing on the dirt shoulder of the road.

“Good morning – how are you?” he asks. “I am fine,” I reply. The Balinese are so polite that you want to respond in kind, even when they are in-your-face aggressively trying to sell you something. It is a trap they use very effectively. “Where are you staying?” he asks, in perfect English. I motion to the end of the road, “Down there somewhere,” I say. “I want to be your friend,” he continues. “My name is Delta. You want to go sit on the beach and talk?” He flashes a brilliant smile at me. Delta is about 5’8″ tall with jet-black, curly shoulder length hair and stunningly white, perfectly straight teeth. He is cute and he knows it. He can’t be more than 30 years old, although Read the rest of this entry »