It was 4AM. The kerosene lanterns used to illuminate our open-air room flickered to life, a subtle reminder to get moving. I crawled out from under the mosquito netting, shuffled down the hall to the communal bathrooms and fifteen minutes later was tromping down a dark jungle trail in mud boots and a headlamp to board a boat.
Groggy and grumpy, I wished I’d stayed in bed as the motorized canoe puttered upriver in damp obscurity to deliver us to the sandy islet that would serve as our birding blind. The sky was still ink black as we settled in to wait. Perched upon folding canvas campstools we clutched cameras and tin cups of tea in anticipation of the morning’s Big Event –the world’s largest macaw claylick.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
I admit it. Reptiles creep me out. I find them as cute and cuddly as Hannibal Lecter. But there I was, face to scaly face, happily snapping photo after photo of iguanas: self-appointed paparazzi of the Galapagos Islands.
Mother Nature can do that to me. One day I’m going about my rich yet ordinary life–work, hang out with Hank, read, nap, eat, walk, meet up with friends, eat again, read some more. The next, I’m stalking lizards like a star struck groupie at the Oscars.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Any place that can tempt me to keep it a secret must be extraordinary— and Nicaragua is just that, as I discovered over three visits in three years. Beautiful, welcoming and resilient, the country of six million people, roughly the size of New York State, hosted 931,904 foreign tourists in 2009. It’s no longer absurd to speak of it as a destination where delighted tourists will find market stalls stocked with bright hammocks, or go boating on Lake Nicaragua, or surf Pacific waves.
© Ellen Barone.
While Nicaragua may not have the infrastructure and services comparable to its better-known and more trampled neighbor, Costa Rica – it offers some of the greatest natural gems in all of Central America: the largest area of primary-growth rain forest north of the Amazon, mist-shrouded cloud forests, and steamy jungles, more than 600 species of birds, as well as jaguars, sloths, monkeys, toucans, manatees, crocodiles, and the world’s only freshwater sharks.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".