Let me take a moment to describe how our safari worked. There were 14 people in our safari group, which required two land cruisers (so we had 2 drivers). Karen Cleveland lives in Seattle, but operates the safari company (she also attended the safari). One of the drivers (Geoffrey) is her brother-in-law and the other is a friend/business associate named Komora. Karen owns the land…
I awoke on the first day of the safari (12/6/2024) feeling sick as a dog and I had no idea how I’d manage to drive in a vehicle all day – I actually contemplated skipping the safari altogether. Fortunately, my body naturally (and violently) expelled most of my intestinal contents and with the help of Imodium, I felt well enough to risk the ride. I…
We arrived in Nairobi around 6am on 12/5/2024 and we had the whole day to kill before our safari started the next day. We were tired (I am unable to sleep on airplanes, and I only got a short nap the night before), but our room at the Hilton Garden Inn was not available until 3pm. So we dropped our bags off at the hotel…
This is a random list of things that I either learned in Madagascar or things that I already knew, but were reinforced. Life is hard and the Malagasy are survivors Madagascar is a poor country with very little social safety net and everybody works very hard to survive. For example: If hard work always translated to success, Madagascar would be way more successful than the…
Madagascar has very unique flora and fauna. My main goal in Madagascar was to have lemurs jump on me, whereas Amie’s goal was got see a giraffe necked weevil (a small weevil with a very long neck). Our local guide said that they were rare. On 12/4/2024 as we were checking out of our cabin at the Vakona Forest Lodge, a porter showed us another…
Madagascar is the only place on earth where lemurs live naturally. While you can find many lemurs in zoos, some types of lemurs cannot survive in captivity. Also, it is way more fun to see the lemurs live their best lives in their natural habitat. Day 2 in Madagascar (12/03/2024) was all about seeing lemurs. After a fantastic breakfast at the lodge, we met Charlie…
12/2/2024 was our first full day in Madagascar. We arrived late last night after a long flight with a short layover in Paris. My first impression while landing was that I did not see very many lights and figured that it must have been due to cloud cover, but that was not the case – it turns out that Antananarivo has frequent power outages. After…
My wife was raised with the belief that travel was primarily for visiting family, and as a result we’ve done very little recreational travel. In 2022 our close friends invited us to their wedding in India and we decided that life was too short not to (we also knew that this was the perfect excuse for us to make such a trip). It was our…
I know that this review is super timely and relevant given that the show ended over 11 years ago and most of the world has probably already watched the entire series twice. My wife and I tried to watch it a few times, but by the 3rd episode it was so dark that my wife couldn’t watch anymore. So this has always been a show…
The United States has no formal religion and is not a “Christian Nation,” (with the constitution specifying that the government cannot force a specific religion), but clearly Christianity is the religion with the most political power. Despite Christianity having the most power, many Christians feel that they are being persecuted. Clearly there are many Christians that are persecuted in the Middle East and in other…
