7-Day Nature Photo Challenge ~ Day 5

On March 18, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge8 Comments

We were nominated by fellow blogger, ProjectRelish, for a seven-day photo challenge, so we will be posting one of our nature pictures every day for the next seven days.

For day 5, we decided to turn our attention towards the beach and Cabo San Lucas. Since it is snowing here in Colorado today, the images are even more enticing to us; we wish were sitting on the beach sipping a Mai Tai. We decided to use a sunset picture, but we had a hard time choosing. We’ve included a couple of other pictures that we considered as well. What do you think, did we make the right choice?

Rules: Post one nature photo and nominate someone else for seven consecutive days.

Nominating Polianthus, whose site has wonderful photography and stories of gardening and food.

Here are a couple of the other images that we considered:

Seeking Adventure

On February 8, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Mexico17 Comments

We’re not exactly thrill seekers, but we do like to push our limits at times and do things that take us out of our comfort zone. One of the nice things about resort destinations these days is that they provide all sorts of opportunities for those that would like to do something a little more adventurous. Whether you are into diving, snorkeling, paddle-boarding, swimming with dolphins, sharks, turtles, there is something for everyone. When we were in Puerto Vallarta, we decided to give zip lining a try and we weren’t disappointed.

The stairs leading up to the first platform

Our Youngest Daughter About to Take the Plunge

At the time that we travelled to Puerto Vallarta, the swine flu was at its peak in Mexico City and there was a lot of concern about travelling to Mexico. Despite the fact that there were no cases of the swine flu in Jalisco, the state where Puerto Vallarta resides, the airline that we had originally booked our flight on had cancelled. Fortunately we were able to get onto a different airline, but the net result was that while we were in Puerto Vallarta, we practically had everything to ourselves. So, when we booked our zip line tour with Canopy Tours, we ended up with pretty much a private tour.

It was quite an amazing time flying through the jungle over huge canyons. It is also the setting of the Predator movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. We all have a bit of a fear of heights, so this wasn’t an easy task for us to leap off the platform and soar through the air with rocks and boulders hundreds of feet below us. The guides continued to encourage us to be more bold with every attempt, at first going with us and then convincing us to let our hands go from the trolley and hang upside down as we flew backwards with only the harness to keep us from falling. They offered to adjust our harnesses so that we could go face down, “Superman” style, but we chose not to take our chances with not being able to hold onto anything at all.

At the end of the tour, feet a little shaky as we got back onto terra firma, we had a shot of tequila and waited for them to give us the DVD with the film that they had taken of us (don’t worry, we didn’t include that in the post). From there we went to feed the monkeys that were in a large caged preserve. Clearly the monkeys were quite used to the tourists as they climbed all over us, even sitting in our hands and taking the food. Although it isn’t like seeing them in the wild, it was still a lot of fun to interact with the monkeys and have them be so friendly.

Even though our experience was a little unique since it was just the three of us, our guides, and a couple of their girlfriends, it is definitely something that you should consider doing if you get the opportunity. Perhaps it was partially because the guides had their girlfriends with them and they wanted to show off that they pushed our boundaries as much as they did, but at the end of the day, we were grateful for the experience. We would have never imagined ourselves flying upside through the jungle canopy, but now we couldn’t imagine ourselves having not being so daring.

Pictures from the Sky

On January 18, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Travel Tips6 Comments

Obviously, anyone who travels great distances frequently spends a fair amount of time in airplanes. At some point, we started taking pictures out of the airplane windows with varied results. It is clearly a great way to capture images that can’t be captured while on the ground or even at the top of a large skyscraper (although those can come pretty darn close). We only wish they’d clean the windows a little better so that we could get some better shots, although all of the pictures that we’ve taken have just been with our iPhones.

Needless to say, ninety-nine percent of time spent sitting in an airplane is dull beyond belief. Except for an occasional meal or beverage service to break up the monotony, it is time spent working, reading, blogging, but mostly fighting off boredom. Even when the flights offer television, for some reason that isn’t even entertaining. To make things worse, we can never seem to really sleep when we’re on a plane. We lean over and put our heads on each other’s shoulders, hold hands, close our eyes, but sleep seems to evade us. We’ve tried the neck pillows and other things as well, but I guess until we get to the point where we can fly business class and actually recline, we’ll have to muddle our way through with little sleep.

We didn’t always take pictures from the plane, it seems to be a relatively new phenomenon for us. It isn’t entirely due to blogging, we started taking pictures from the air prior to that, but we have definitely become more cognizant of it since we started photo cataloging our journeys. We wish that we’d taken pictures of the sun setting over the frozen waters around Iceland many years ago. We now find ourselves taking pictures in different ways and of different things. As we travel this year, what will be our first full year of documenting our travels as they happen, we’ll see what other changes occur to the way that we travel. Hopefully we’ll see some of you as we make our way to different parts of the world!