Puerto Rico

listening to the Chirp of the Coqui frog after a heavy rainfall in the El Junque rain forest  ...

diving into the shallow lagoon of La Parguera, and watching the bioluminescence shimmer in the spray of the boat motor and my delighted splashes, by moonlight. 

 

The first time I discovered the phenomenon of bioluminescence I was 17, I had jumped off the back of the sail boat into a protected bay off the Coast of Marmaris, Turkey, and I couldn't believe such a marvel could exist.  I saw it again, in the Galapagos Islands, night diving with the sea lions and nurse sharks.

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Kiawah Island, South Carolina,  watching the newborn green baby sea turtles emerge from their nests and head toward the waterline, chased and apprehended by big lizards and hunting seabirds

Fiji - Suva to Taveuni Island

 

Swimming freestyle alone in the Channel between the Nigel Edward family resort and Laucala Island, owned by Malcom Forbes, and being shadowed by a giant manta ray, so large I didn't know they existed, and being frightened to become this unknown (at the time)   gentle plankton eating  sea creature's meal. 

 

Diving vertical walls of beautiful purple and yellow gorgonians and sea fans.

Sangalakki beach in Borneo

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Sangalakki Island, Borneo - meeting my first school of giant manta rays

Palau - Koror and Rock Islands, Jellyfish Lake

 

Flying in by tiny seaplane.  Dense reefs filled with color and marine life. 

 

Spending 2 hours - using up the last ounces of oxygen in my dive tank suspended underwater with the jellies. 

Kingdom of Tonga

 

Tongatapu lagoon, Vavau lobster tacos, and meeting Tui Malila, the iconic radiated Madagascar sea turtle given to the Royal family by Captain James Cook in Nuku'alofa.

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Tu'i Malila  - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu%27i_Malila)

Guilin China

Navigating the misty, extraordinary Li River, seeing the karst formations. 

Almost losing an eye to a nighttime fishing cormorant. 

Seeing Buddhist monks use the high speed internet in Yangshuo during a torrential downpour when the rest of the town's power supply had gone out.

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Longsheng Terraces,

Losing our path and traversing the terraces by lantern, among some of the most extensive agricultural terraces on earth. 

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France:  Paris.

Finding favorite styles and media, of art - ceramics and oils and pastels, in the museums.  Musee D'Orsay, Champs Elysees.  Learning about L'artisan Parfumeur, the perfumist to French Royalty, near the Rodin Museum and bringing home my first 400 year old line of perfumes.  Walking through the Louvre til my feet ached.

 

Dancing in the French discos til 5 am

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Tokyo - Rappongi

Tokyo discos all night long til the sun came up. 

 

Having my mother and sister arrive into Tokyo, hopping onto a 10 pm bus, summitting Mt. Fuji on my birthday, cold and wet, not knowing enough about alpinism that we needed to have protection for the chill associated with altitude, or the rain.  Seeing octogenarians make the climb. 

 

And, seeing the pilgrimage climbs at Ishizuchi mountain.

​Mt. Rainier, Washington State. 

Making it past the Cleaver and sumitting Mount Rainier, picking through the sharp, jagged suncups, then dancing - hopping up and down excitedly at the shoulder hut on the way down, having never done anything as physically demanding as that in my life, and discovering that I could will myself to complete the climb and the trek down. 

Sleeping 20 hours, and waking up feeling parts that I didn't know I could sense, from fatigue.

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Lake Ohrid, Macedonia - crossing Central Europe's oldest and deepest lake

Chilean Lake District

 

Seeing the unusual tourmaline color due to mineral content of the runoff

Berlin, near the Helmut Newton photography museum. 

Going to a goth laser light and punk rock music show in Berlin, with my 70+ year old mother,  after seeing the Helmut Newton collection.

 

Discovering the Epic of Gilgamesh had a flood myth and seeing the Gates of Ishtar in the Berlin Museum

Carcassonne, France

Foundation dating to about 3500BC

The smell of the lavender fields, and discovering the campaign during the Albigensian Crusaders, to exterminate the Cathars, a rival, heterodox religious sect with varying interpretations of the Christian narrative.

Dordogne Forest, France (Monkey’s Forest)

 

Sampling a myriad of cheeses, mushrooms and mustards - artisanal gourmet delights, in the Forest manor houses and cave cellars of the French forests.

Chenonceau Castle, France Galloping a beautiful tall dapple grey horse through the bridle paths around the Castle, and mounting up in the Castle stables