Category Archives: Travel Articles

Articles, stories and advice on travel.

Celebrating Endangered Species Day

May 17, 2013 Red Hunt 2 Comments

I feel a bit conflicted asking people to celebrate Endangered Species Day, which is today (May 17th).

Why is it important to celebrate such a day? Well, there is good news. We are re-introducing animals (and plants!) to their natural habitats and returning small pockets of the world back to how they used to be, the Black-footed Ferret in Grasslands National Park, Canada is one such species. We are also conserving some vast parts of the planet where animals can still live their entire lives without being disturbed by humans, or even, in some cases, without any human contact at all.

Pronghorn Antelopes – North America’s Fastest Land Animals. Habitat fragmentation may push them towards being endangered (Current IUCN status = Least Concern)

On the other side, re-introduction and saving species from extinction and endangerment shouldn’t be such a big issue. The main reason for most species being endangered is our own past actions. We’ve taken away their habitats, hunted them down to near extinction or poisoned their food supply and habitat to such extents that they can barely survive.

Those are not actions to celebrate and be happy about.

List’s of endangered species read like a celebrity awards show for animals. We’ve got tigers, lions and bears. Whales, dolphins and turtles. Monkeys, gorillas and chimps. Many of them are the coolest of the cool when it comes to animals we carry around in plush form as kids or desire to see on TV, in the Zoo or – if lucky – in the wild.

If you’re curious to see what species are endangered, view this World Wildlife Fund (WWF) list of species, by endangered status.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) produces a “Red List” of plant and animal species that are under threat, endangered, extinct or somewhere in between. Today there are 10,000+ species either critically endangered or endangered, and another 10,000+ listed as vulnerable. Discover more about the IUCN endangered species.

The Blue Whale is the largest animal on our planet. Equivalent to 22 Asian Elephants. Current status = endangered.

There are many species that are now classed as extinct in the wild. Meaning they only exist in places like private conservation areas, zoos or scientific facilities. I don’t deny that Zoo’s play an important role in the world we live in now, yet it is marginally better that many people will only ever have the pleasure of seeing some of the world’s most endangered animals in zoos or aquariums. As exciting as it may be to see an endangered Orangutan or Bengal Tiger in Zoo, it’s not where they belong. But, it does inspire youngsters to possibly get involved in conservation and help protect these species, and others, in the future.

Wildlife is one of the main reasons I travel and whether it be Africa, Asia or South America, and I’m always happy to support the efforts of National Park systems and conservation programs. Education is the key element that can lead to successful programs in getting species off of the endangered list. We’ll never be able to save every animal out there, as quite simply, we’ve taken over too much land on the planet for our personal use. But that doesn’t mean things have to get worse instead of better, right?

Marine Iguana — The marine iguana is only found in the Galapagos Islands. Current status = vulnerable.

Here are a few more species I’ve had the pleasure of photographing in the wild that are endangered or, on their way to becoming endangered. Hopefully your travels take you to places where conservation and appreciation of nature will let you see some of the world’s great creatures in their natural habitats.

Sri Lankan Elephant — The Sri Lankan elephant is one of many elephant species listed as endangered.

Wildlife Photo - Gentoo Penguin — Gentoo Penguins are currently listed as a near threatened species.

A Lioness in Ngorongoro Crater — The African Lion is listed as a vulnerable species

Travel Articles

Alpaca Tasting Challenge in Cusco

April 20, 2013 Red Hunt 10 Comments

Upon arrival in Cusco, Peru one of my missions was to get to the bottom of a mystery that has haunted me for many years – does Alpaca taste better than Llama?

Having had Llama many times in Bolivia, I wanted to try their somewhat smaller, and some say cuter, cousins. You may wonder what Alpaca tastes like. Well, it’s quite a mild flavour actually, not game-y like venison or even lamb can be. You’d be hard pressed to tell it isn’t beef steak in many cases, but if you get a good Alpaca meal there is a nice difference, it’s quite lean and a little sweet.

Now I’m no ‘foodie’ (I rarely use Instagram, but always use the beer app Untappd) and I am not prone to frequently taking pictures of my food. I did manage to get some not-totally horrible Alpaca pictures though.

My first Alpaca meal was at a place called Nuna Raymi in Cusco.

I elected for an Alpaca steak cooked with some traditional herbs and a sauce that had a bit of a kick to it. The actual item I got was called Alpaca en el Ukhupacha and to quote from the menu description it was “Alpaca sirloin marinated with pachamanca herbs accompanied with yellow and panca chil’s and mashed potatoes, topped with sautéed veggies on olive oil, pisco and paprika.”

After eating this tasty Alpaca I was sold on the idea that Alpaca tastes better than Llama, but to be sure, I decided to try to start a new challenge – I must eat Alpaca every day I am in Cusco. I couldn’t be left wondering if that tasty Alpaca meal was a fluke.

Most places around town had simple steak versions, which often looked good, but I was always on the look out for something a little different. I didn’t just want to eat Alpaca steak after Alpaca steak.

The next Alpaca meal worth mentioning is the one I had after a day of exploring Sacsahuaman, Tambopatchy and some other Incan sites near to Cusco. A few of us decided to check out LIMO, a place right on the main square. It was a nice spot, albeit a typically overpriced tourist spot when you consider what you get. This place is more known for seafood and ceviche and I wasn’t overly hungry this time so I opted for the Alpaca brochettes. These morsels of meat well presented and came with some tasty Peruvian potatoes, sauces and sides. While my Alpaca was good, I was more excited about having the Pisco Sour here, which was really superb.

The next Alpaca meal that makes it on to my Cusco Alpaca tasting challenge is probably the healthiest Alpaca meal I had. After eating potatoes, rice and starchy foods for so long in Peru, I needed to fuel up on something healthier. Yes, even though I’m a meat eater, I do sometimes have a craving for green things and vegetables. I headed to a place I knew that would have good beer and they also happened to have a delicious sounding Alpaca salad on the menu. It was exactly what I needed and their own craft beer helped make it another favourite Alpaca meal.

Alpaca Salad — An amazing Alpaca salad at Dragon’s Palate in Cuzco, Peru.

I managed to sample some other Alpaca meals outside of Cusco, Peru as well. Just to ensure that Cusco wasn’t some strange vortex for tasty Alpaca meat. It turns out that in Machu Picchu Pueblo you can also get some great Alpaca meals. But back to the tasting challenge! By the end of my time in Cusco, my final verdict was yes – Alpaca tastes slightly better than Llama.

But I’d happily eat either.

Wildlife and Nature

The Caves of Gunung Mulu

April 8, 2013 Red Hunt 15 Comments

The World Heritage Area of Gunung Mulu in Malaysian Borneo is a rich rain forest that is short in comfort – save for the Royal Mulu Resort – but big on creatures and caves.

The caves at Mulu National Park bring travellers from around the world, most notably for the famous bat exodus from Deer Cave.

When I was spending time in Mulu I had the pleasure of checking out Deer Dave, along with Langs, Clearwater and Cave of the Winds caves. Each one had it’s own appeal and unique characteristics. But first, my favourite…as with most people who visit, was Deer Cave.

Deer Cave

This is a massive cave that boasts the largest cave entrance in the world! The walk into the cave is along a mountainside pathway, and you sort of come around a corner to the cave entrance, not getting to appreciate it’s full size until you’re inside it, looking back out. Cavernous is an appropriate word for Deer Cave.

The trail here is fun to walk along and spot odd formations from the carved out limestone cave, which once had a powerful river running through it. Your walk will take you to some cool spots in the cave like the Garden of Eden Pools.

It is also home to millions of bats that live high up above in the interior ceiling of the cave. There are also a ton of ugly critter like beetles and spiders, but you don’t really see them unless you shine your light into the darkness away from the footpaths. There is a viewing platform area way back down below that provides a panoramic view of the limestone mountain and cave entrance. People gather there around dusk to watch the millions of bats fly out of the cave.

Staring into the light (this is at Cave of the Winds)

Langs Cave

A much smaller cave, Langs Cave has the most impressive entrance way. It’s like a huge mouth opened up and put this cave on display As with Deer Cave and any other caves you visit in Mulu, don’t forget to bring a headlamp / torch with you as it can get dark in some areas inside the cave.

Lots of stalactites and stalagmites are found in this cave, which isn’t far from the larger Deer Cave. As with all of the caves you’re allowed to explore, there is a smooth pathway of boardwalks, staircases and platforms built inside the cave to keep you from touching (destroying) the sometimes fragile environment.

Inside Langs Cave — Headlamp required – checking out Langs Cave

Cave of the Winds

Located in a different, further away part of the park, getting to Cave of the Winds and Clearwater Cave is a fun hike. It’s not very strenuous, and you might spot butterflies, squirrels and other creatures along the 3.8km trail. Alternatively, you can take a longboat from the park headquarters early in the morning…but I’d suggest taking the hike at your own pace.

Mulu Hiking Path — Hiking trail to Cave of the Winds

At Cave of the Winds, you experience just that – a cool, windy cave. But also there are skylights high above the cave floor, allowing light to pierce through in sort of artistic fashion. When you’re not staring up in this cave, being impressed by it’s size, there are huge columns of calcite around in an area known as the King’s Chamber. Pretty cool stuff when you realize just how long it takes to create these structures!

Clearwater Cave

With plenty of stalactites ‘dripping’ down from the edge of the mountain along the entrance of this cave, you can get some photos in better light here. I made the mistake of forgetting my tripod when exploring the caves, so almost all of my interior photos turned out blurry and unusable!

Clearwater Cave is your place to relax, after exploring it’s network of paths. There is a river here that goes on for more than 170km underneath these mountains winding through various caves! It exists the cave nearby and you can go for a picnic and swim here – something you’ll cherish after spending a few hours in the sweltering heat and humidity of Borneo!

Each cave at Mulu showcases different types of structures or features so it really is worth spending a whole day exploring them. If you have extra time you can delve even deeper into the caves by doing some adventure caving at Turtle Cave or Lagang Cave.

Travel Articles

Hanging out at Hideaway Island

March 29, 2013 Red Hunt 5 Comments

When I went to Vanuatu, I had one island that I really wanted to visit: Tanna Island.

Tanna is home to the world’s most accessible volcano and my time living in a little beach side hut there was perfectly relaxing. Only two things disturbed my peace on that island – the burning black volcanic sand and the sonic boom explosions of Yasur Volcano. To get there, you have to fly into the main island of Vanuatu, Efate.

Efate is where the international airport arrivals land. This island, along with Espiritu Santo are the two main island in this archipelago of 83 islands. Most visitors coming to a resort will hang out at either of these islands, and if you want to spend a bit of time around Efate Island and the capital Port Vila, there are plenty of hotels and resorts around. One of the most interesting ones is called Hideaway Island.

It’s on the outskirts of town, so you need to take a short taxi / truck ride to get there. The islanders are friendly, so finding someone to give you a ride, real taxi or not, is pretty easy. Then it’s a quick 10-minute ferry crossing to Hideaway Island and your own little piece of paradise.

Palm trees and beaches await, as does the beach bar and – most interestingly – the world’s first underwater post office!

View from Post office — View from above the Underwater Post Office at Hideaway Island

How cool is that?

I chose to stay at the Hideaway Island Resort & Sanctuary after my time on Tanna Island, because I was on a budget and they offer cheaper dorm type rooms in addition to their nice private bungalows. It proved to be a great choice as I was the only person in my 4-bed dorm room! I spent my time relaxing on the beach and snorkeling around the island, where you’ll see plenty of tropical fish.

Attempting to dive down to the underwater post office barrel is a heck of a challenge too. You can actually buy waterproof postcards to ‘mail’ yourself when they have a diver working down there to receive your postcards. Considering that back on Tanna Island there was a Volcano Post post office, I thought it was neat visiting these two odd post offices on my visit.

If you get hungry or thirsty, the food at Hideaway Island will do the job, but I decided to head into town. Between the ferry, walk and taxi it takes around 30 minutes to go back and forth. In town there are some fruit markets or plenty of tourist restaurants to choose from. I spent most of my meal time at the waterfront bar and restaurant at Anchor Inn as it is one of the better beer places in town, serving Vanuatu Tusker and Vanuatu Bitter beers.

The Ferry and Boat Dock at Hideaway Island

After heading back to Hideaway Island at night, there was always some kind of lively activity happening at the island bar. Whether it was live music or drinks specials, the people staying at the island resort were a fun bunch to hang out with. Definitely a fun place to stay if you’re looking for something a little different from your usual hotel stay.

If you do make it to Hideaway Island in Vanautu…just watch out for:

Beware of Falling Coconuts at Hideaway Island

Travel Marketing

Hey ‘Professional’ Travel Bloggers – Have you Apologized to Delta yet?

March 26, 2013 Red Hunt 32 Comments

Once again the travel blogging industry was whipped into a frenzy recently after an image appeared on the Delta Airlines Facebook page.

Friday morning, Delta Airlines posted an image of a funny, or scary, Llama in front of Machu Picchu as a way to promote their Atlanta to Lima flights. The post generated positive comments at first, but then about five hours after it was posted, the travel blogger who took the photo chimed in with the following comment.

Now that should have been the end of the story. They take their dialogue private, determine how their image arrived on that page, then move on and both live happily ever after. However it wasn’t, partially thanks to a tweet and Facebook post (since deleted / hidden) that the travel blogger sent out:

I watched the Delta post turn into a one-sided battleground as the day progressed. Every story has two-sides to it, right? so I waited for Delta Airlines to provide a response of their own before making any judgements, others were not so patient.

It seems that ‘expect me to contact you shortly’ really meant – ‘I am going to unleash the wrath of the travel blogger community on you and smear your name in the mud’. Within 13 minutes of their post, other travel bloggers chimed in, crying foul and telling Delta they should be ashamed for using this image without permission, some people even accusing Delta Airlines of stealing the image.

A few of my favourite Facebook and Twitter comments are below, one thing I found troubling was that nobody seemed to bother to do their own research into the situation, to see if there was any way whatsoever that Delta could have used the image legitimately. Many of these comments are Founding Members of the newly formed Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA), who are supposed to act professionally and maintain accuracy with their information.

Sadly, it’s moments like these that can easily have professional journalists snickering at the travel blogging industry, not to mention companies and tourist boards re-considering if working with travel bloggers is really worth the hassle.

The list of negative comments goes on and on (those last two crack me up, are Kate and Travelbllgr the same person?). Some of these people I don’t know and have never heard of, but others are well known in the online travel world, even respected by some. This is the part that saddens me most, especially the PTBA Founding Members, who are not upholding the code of ethics they are supposed to represent. Instead they’ve taken a lemming-like mentality that permeates our constant communication, instant gratification world.

Yes, the majority of the blame of course lies on the shoulders of Erica Kuschel over at Over Yonderlust, who failed to check into the issue before seeking vengeance. In reality it should have been a happy moment for Over Yonderlust and, if handled appropriately, may have resulted in them getting some extra exposure and credit from Delta. But, everyone else who came out with guns ‘a blazing has done their own part in giving potential industry partners the wrong signal.

If anyone took the time to think about the scenario, it should seem improbable that an organization like Delta would be so foolish to hijack or steal someone’s image. Maybe a bit of fact-checking was needed? Indeed, after some time, Delta provided the following response, stating that they had indeed purchased the image from Getty Images – check out the link yourself.

Funny enough though, even after this response, the bashing of Delta continued both on Facebook and Twitter.

Now, it is four days later, and Over Yonderlust hasn’t acknowledged any wrong-doing whatsoever. They did remove their two Facebook posts however. These are some of their last mentions of the issue:

Now, I’m no expert on Stock Photography, but if I sign an agreement with a company like Getty, who may license out my image to virtually any person or company out there, I would be pretty sure to do some due diligence before starting any kind of public bashing about someone using my photos. Some people are pissed off that Erica didn’t get any credit for the image, others are mad that she hasn’t been paid and many think she should have received both. Thankfully a few people saw it with a more level-headed approach:

It’s a troubling situation that almost every person who calls themselves a travel blogger is struggling to make money. This desperation is what, in my opinion, partially leads to these type of outbursts on social media and travel blog forums.

But, how often do you see a name credit on a stock photo? Almost never. How quickly do you get paid for stock photos? Not immediately. Take a look at the basic Getty producer agreement details. It clearly states that what they sell for you this month, will appear on your statement next month, and you’ll get paid in two months. I don’t know if this is the type of agreement Erica has with Getty, but I would hope she knows what her agreement terms are. Some other people share this same sentiment:

Knowing that the people at Over Yonderlust have had an agreement in place with Getty for some time, their initial statement that Delta was using their image without permission has no credibility. Then following up on comments later, stating that the issue as they haven’t been paid yet is, again, not an issue – they’ll get payment when the terms of their agreement warrants it. It’s quite inexcusable to have your images available for purchase through an agency, then bash the end-users who pay for them.

Above that, we’re not just dealing with a new member in the travel blogging industry either, this is someone that has a following, just like many of the people who posted comments in the Delta Facebook post. In fact, Over Yonderlust are also a Founding Members of the previously mentioned Professional Travel Bloggers Association.

A month or two ago I considered joining the new Professional Travel Bloggers Association as its premise seemed solid. Giving legitimacy to the travel blogging industry by promoting professionalism and strengthening relationships with the travel industry. Their code of ethics is an inspiring treat to read and asserts that their members will always: strive for accuracy (not in this case), be accountable (perhaps if they all apologize), respect intellectual property (a bit too aggressively?), act civil and dignified without personal attacks (is it ok to attack companies though?) and be professional.

Ooops, sorry Delta, I guess the PTBA didn’t think you’d mind if their Founding Members publicly bashed you. Do you still want to join the PTBA as an industry member? No hard feelings, right?

If I were Delta, I’d be left with a very sour taste in my mouth after this entire fiasco. Giving them credit, the travel blogger who started it all does seem genuinely concerned about the outcome. While they did ask other travel bloggers to ‘calm down’, I think the wording of these messages (and deleting their Facebook posts) lacks accountability on their part.

The damage has been done. Even so, I only count two people who have seemingly sent any type of apology to Delta for this debacle. I guess most others are happy to just carry on as if nothing happened.

I suspect few, if any others will apologize to Delta, and I’m apparently not the only one who thinks they deserve better. A few people out there agree that apologies are needed here. Kudos to a select few other travel bloggers out there too who kept a clear perspective and refrained from commenting until they had more information.

Perhaps the PTBA isn’t a total loss, but then what do you do with the members who acted against the entire foundation of the association? Do you ban them? Is this post an over-reaction to an over-reaction? Possibly. Does the PTBA release a public apology to Delta on behalf of their members who acted out of line? Or do they ignore the issue and pretend it never happened, sending a signal that it doesn’t really matter how their members (and Founding Members) act on their behalf, following their code of ethics is merely a suggestion.

I know I’ll be curiously watching how developments with the PTBA unfold in coming months as they have elections to create a Board of Directors. The results of such elections could heavily influence my opinion on whether or not the association can, and will, be able to achieve the goals it has outlined for itself.

Becoming a professional in any field isn’t something that should be taken lightly. You’re not just in it for yourself, you’re in it for the betterment of the entire industry. What you do affects others both positively and negatively. It goes far beyond putting another badge on your blog or a promotional line in your media kit when you’re pitching for a free press trip. So come on now guys and girls, it’s time for you all to swallow some of your pride and own up and apologize to Delta and your fellow travel bloggers.

As for Delta, you have to give them credit for being calm and concerned about the situation once it was brought to their attention. While they could have possibly reacted faster, they took the right path, something that the non-lemming posters on Facebook appreciated.

If you got ensnared in this debacle, feel free to drop me a line here and chat about your thoughts on how these types of actions and reactions impact the effectiveness of an organization like the PTBA. To anyone mentioned in this post who has since apologized for or retracted their comments, good on you!

Red Hunt Travel