Step Out of Your Comfort Zone and See the World
Why Travel?
Why do I love to travel? Why do I travel to see unique wildlife? Well, because I would not be whole without it. I enjoy seeing new things and meeting people that are different from me. Traveling reduces prejudice and expands your mind. To read up more about what led me to my traveling obsession go here.
My first advice when planning your trip is to think “What makes me happy?”. For some people, it is laying on a beach doing nothing but reading a good book for a week. For others, it is hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro. For me, I travel to see wildlife and experience different cultures. Figure out what makes you happy and plan your trip around that (along with your budget of course).
My Website
I decided to start this website to track my adventures and be able to share them easily with friends and family. I also wanted to share my adventures with you in the hopes you will become inspired to travel to a place you had never thought of before. Perhaps this site will give you that extra nudge you had been looking for? For me, I want to travel to see unique wildlife. What is your goal?
Keep reading below if you also share an interest in traveling to see unique wildlife. Maybe you will get some ideas that will inspire you.
Travel Ideas Focused on Wildlife and Culture
Africa
If you have an interest in big mammals, I highly recommend a trip to Africa. In 2018, I traveled to Kenya and Tanzania. These countries are the home of The Great Migration. You know that photo or video you see of Wildebeest jumping across a big river? Kenya and Tanzania is where you will see these unusual looking beasts along with leopards, lions, buffalo, elephants, giraffes, and cheetahs. In 2022, I traveled to Namibia and Botswana and was able to see the endangered wild dogs.
Galapagos Islands
My bucket list item has been to visit the Galapagos Islands. I did this in 2019. No where else will you see such unique wildlife and such diversity. If you like penguins but don’t like being cold, you can see and swim with the Galapagos Penguin (the only penguin found north of the equator). You can also swim with sea lions, sea turtles, and white tipped reef sharks. Not only are the underwater animals amazing but the terrestrial ones as well. You cannot visit the Galapagos Islands without seeing the Galapagos Tortoise or one of the many Darwin’s finches (made famous by Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution). Galapagos Islands even have iguanas that swim in the ocean and birds with blue feet!
Peru
My Galapagos Islands trip was paired with Peru, specifically the Sacred Valley. This portion of the trip was focused around visiting ancient Incan ruins. It was amazing to see these structures and try and imagine how the Incans could have lifted such heavy rocks over uneven terrain. This portion of the trip revolved around culture and learning about ancient peoples. We visiting several Incan ruins (including Machu Picchu) and toured the historic city of Cusco.
Costa Rica
My wildlife focused travel adventures started in Costa Rica. My husband and myself first went there for our honeymoon in 2009. Costa Rica is a beautiful country with incredible diversity of plants and animals. There are so many things to experience there from volcanos to beaches to mountains to rainforests. The great thing about Costa Rica is that it is very tourist friendly. They really have it together when it comes to catering to tourists and in my experience they are one of the friendliest people on this planet. I remember on our first trip we were being driven from one hotel to the next and the driver asked if we had seen a tarantula. Of course we had not, so he stopped the car and found one hiding in a hole next to the road. That is the kind of hospitality you get in Costa Rica. I highly recommend this as a first trip outside the U.S.
Panama
After visiting Costa Rica, I decided to visit another Central American country, Panama. Panama has just as much diversity (if not more) but without the large number of tourists. Don’t get me wrong, Panama is still touristy, just not nearly to the extent that Costa Rica is. Big bonus: their currency is the U.S. dollar. I did find that not everyone speaks English so I recommend getting a translation book or app. Must sees in Panama include visiting the Panama Canal, the historic city of Casco Viejo, spending some time on the beach, and a visit to a rainforest. There are also volcanoes and mountains as well.
U.S.A
The Pandemic hit hard in 2020 and while we managed to travel to Panama and return right before things shut down, overseas travel was shut down for the rest of the year. This meant postponing our 2nd Africa trip and opting to road trip across the USA instead. We had an amazing 2-week road trip in October with our two dogs across Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Upcoming Travel to See Unique Wildlife
Next year I have one trip planned so far which is a trip to the Bayou of Louisiana and the gulf coast of Mississippi. Stay tuned for more information about my upcoming trips. Please comment at the bottom if you have any questions.
Plan Your Vacation Early
You need to plan your vacation early and April is a good time to start! People are booking their accommodations much earlier, even as much as a year in advance. With COVID on the decline, everyone wants to travel and that means more of a demand on hotels, private rentals such as VRBO’s, and national…
Vacation in Mexico
Hello and happy National Vacation Day (6 days late)! Apparently I’m still on vacation in Mexico as I couldn’t get this written in time. I just got back from a week long stay at TRS Yucatan all-inclusive resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico booked through Funjet Vacations. Through Funjet, I was able to book hotel, flight,…
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