Tag: Nature
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Thank You, Camiguin
I’m walking along a rocky shore with Sir Boyet, gazing at the boulders painted gold by the late afternoon sun. A pair of high school teens in festival costume pretend they don’t notice and try to pass us by on their way to the covered basketball court for their dress rehearsal. Sir Boyet asks them…
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Final Stop: Antelope Canyon
The decision is near-unanimous: we’re going to the Antelope Canyon. After two weeks driving around much of western U.S.A., the option is easy to just sit back and relax until our flight back home. That we’re in L.A. and in a neighborhood in Long Beach, where time seems to slow down makes taking it easy…
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California Tripping: Sequoia National Park
It has been three days since the bus tour. At this time we have based ourselves in Lathrop, where Tita Fenny’s sister (Tita Liz) and brother-in-law (Tito Danny) lives. It has been a fun three days. But all things being transient, we now have to bid farewell to go to L.A., where Lola Vangie has…
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California Tripping: Yosemite National Park
“You should ask for her Facebook account now,” Joseph tells me as the bus hisses and slows down at our first stop in the Yosemite National Park nearly 200 miles east of San Francisco. It has been around four hours since we left the City by the Bay at dawn and the bus is set…
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2643 Miles: Grand Canyon West
We are greeted with the bad news. We can’t ride the helicopter because unusually strong winds are blowing across the southwestern desert and are preventing flights from taking off into the Grand Canyon West. Instead, we will just have to content ourselves with seeing the portion of the canyon from the Skywalk, a U-shaped cantilever…
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1801 Miles: Yellowstone National Park
It’s four in the afternoon and I’m in the middle of a large forest clearing, shivering to the bone. I’m with dozens of visitors looking at Old Faithful geyser – calm as of this moment – inside Yellowstone Park, the world’s first national park and one of the largest in the U.S. The sky is…
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741 Miles: Arches National Park
Utah – that famed state of red rocks jutting out of great expanses of sand being grilled under a scorching sun that hangs above a cloudless blue sky. This is the land Archaic peoples have called home for millennia, before Puebloan, Fremont and Ute people took over as they scourged for food. Here, water, extreme…
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Cruising the Alaska Panhandle
It feels very much like any morning in a hotel. I get out of my bed, wash my face, and prepare to go to the breakfast buffet. As I close our room’s door, an Indonesian housecleaner walks by. “Good morning!” he greets. Stuffing the door card in my pocket, I greet him back. But as…
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Vancouver: B.C. Days
I’m walking along a sidewalk on a clear morning with Tita Marie. It’s a bit early in the morning so except for a few early risers, the streets are still on the verge of coming to life. A tattoo-covered girl is about to open her inking parlor. “Welcome to Vancouver,” she greets us. “You know, you picked…
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Mt. Pinatubo Trek: A Firsthand Experience with a Local Guide
“And now we walk,” Wilson says, jumping from the back of the 4×4 truck where he is seated. Our vehicle is on a wide clearing, parked with other 4x4s. The passengers of the other vehicles are slowly getting down as well. It’s a beautiful morning and the early rays of the sun have arrived. Occasional…
The Tourist Gaze 