Globe Corner Blogs

The Belize Cayes--photo by Nastia

The low season in Central America, which takes place during the fall months, means unpredictable weather with a chance of hurricanes. This is supposed to keep the tourist flow to a minimum. I put my trust in the guidebooks that promised a quiet time on the Caribbean coast and hoped for sunshine when I booked accommodations near the small island town of San Pedro, Belize.

Luckily, the Moon Spotlight Belize Cayes was right regarding the weather, and we ended up having the most amazing time. The skies were clear, the water was stunningly blue, and iguanas showed themselves quite often. It rained once, and it was a welcome relief after both my mother and I had gotten very sunburned – me from snorkeling, and my mother from sitting on the boat and worrying that a shark would get me while I was snorkeling. Continue Reading »

A cane toad nestled in the sand. A freshly hatched, emerald and turquoise moth moving away from its empty cocoon. Then, the intent face of a swimming monkey. A flashy arrangement of Macaws on a wall of a sandy shore. A sloth in its seemingly infinite crawl toward water. These are a few of the images that make up Amazonia, a book of photography compiled over five years by Sam Abell and Torben Ulrik Nissen for Oakwood Foundation.

The Amazon is a fascinating region not only because it is unique, but also because it is a remote, dangerous, and hard to reach place. Few people have witnessed its inner life precisely because of the challenges that a journey there presents. When we think about the Amazon, we imagine nothing less than a dramatic, larger-than-life place teeming with endangered species, but we rarely see the real picture. Knowing this, the authors of Amazonia stuck to a strict dogma of not using any kind of digital manipulation in the production of the images. Continue Reading »

Shark through cage floor - photo by Meghan

It was just one shark at first, then three, then five.  When the day was out, we had seen 11 great whites ranging from 7-16 feet in length, their dorsal and tail fins sticking out of the water like the slate-gray triangles you see in movies. The boat picked up speed and the captain tossed a seal-shaped piece of tire-rubber attached to a rope off of the back of the boat.  A shark took it.  Then he threw out another one, and managed to reel it back it – the number of teeth marks imprinted in the thing was astounding.  After witnessing this act, I decided that it was now or never: I volunteered to be the first (and ultimately the only) one to venture off the boat and into the cage.

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Shark Sighting - photo by Meghan

It is impossible to be a diver in South Africa and not consider, or know someone who has considered (who in turn forces you to consider), cage diving with great white sharks.  I too considered it.

And there I was, all alone, my chicken friends at home in their warm little beds.  I woke up extra early, it seemed like it was barely dawn, and set out to risk my life. I signed up for a great white shark cage diving trip a half hour or so out of Cape Town, in Hermanus.  I was going to the famed Seal Rock – where hundreds of seals gather, making a rock full of steaks for great whites who have been seen here – and virtually no where else – jumping clear out of the water to snag one.  With sharks this crazy-eyed and hungry, it seemed like the worst place in the world to be dressed in a wetsuit  with a hood, thus looking the most like a seal that I have ever looked in my life.  So what – this was an adventure!

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Breathing under water - photo by Meghan

There is nothing more exciting than breathing underwater.  And by exciting, I mean the awe-inspiring, nervous excitement that land-lovers get when they see the local view from the top of a really high roller coaster.  Watching bubbles leave your regulator and run for the safety of the surface is neither comforting nor an affirmation that you are doing the right thing in exploring this other world… but they are ‘pretty.’  Whether you’re snorkeling or using scuba – the strange sensation of staying in an environment that should kill you is a cultural experience in and of itself.  And a country’s underwater residents can be as varied and can eat even stranger things than their counterpart’s topside.  For these reasons, I love scuba.

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Liberacion de Tortugas--photo by Lisa

While walking along the main drag in Puerto Escondido in Southern Mexico, I started to see notices in a lot of the hotel windows proclaiming “Ahora Liberación de tortugas 5:45″.  I am not a Spanish speaker, but after reading this my imagination started to run wild. I pictured poor little turtles being held against their will in shackles by evil tyrants. They are actually being “liberated” by an organization called Fundación Selva Negra that is dedicated to helping protect the survival of three types of turtles: Tortuga Golfina, Tortuga Laud, and Tortuga Prieta. Continue Reading »

Arctic Wings -edited by Stephen Brown

The Hidden Treasures Series takes flight in Volume IV. Whether an avid birder or just an appreciator of nature, these books on birds are sure to delight.

Arctic Wings is an astonishing photography book of every Arctic bird imaginable. The book is organized by type of bird, each section beginning with a short essay by an expert in that field. The essay is followed by pages and pages of amazing photos of the birds. But wait – that’s not even the best part: it comes with a CD of Arctic bird calls!

Egg and Nest, another photo book, stays true to its title. Unlike the in-the-wild photos of Arctic Wings, the pages of this book look like photos of an art installation. Delicate images that find the beauty in every egg and nest and astound the reader with their intimacy.

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Birdscapes -by Miyoko Chu

Past a certain age, pop-up books no longer seem like an appropriate style of book to have prominently displayed on the bookshelf or laying out on the coffee table. Most would probably choose a leather-bound world atlas or a lovely photography book of, say, Paris, over any pop-up book. After all, pop-up books are always for kids, right? Well, as you may have guessed, there are adult-friendly pop-up books too! And we have two of them: Birdscapes, A Pop-Up Celebration of Bird Songs in Stereo Sound and Modern Architecture Pop-Up.

These two books are carefully designed and crafted by “paper engineers” (yes, that is the proper title for pop-up artists) whose attention to detail proves that pop-ups can be truly complex and artistic.

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The Wisdom of Birds --by Tim Berkhead

These are a few of the books that I would like to read if I had the time. I know they are all about animals…but I like animals.

The Wisdom of Birds. Everybody knows that “the bird is the word!” This book looks really cool. Maybe I am just hoping that it will fulfill my dream of flying, I’m not sure. But it does talk about the myths and the history of an amazing creature. This book describes behaviors and songs, misconceptions of birds, and includes some gorgeous illustrations that make the book worth flipping through even if you don’t want to read it.

American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon. This is about an amazing animal that definitely deserves your attention. A vague memory I have from when I was small is being on a cross-country trip with my family and getting to see one of these fascinating animals.

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Jess Caught Fish! --photo by Jess

Up until about a month ago, I had never given much thought to the numerous fishing guides and fish photography books dispersed throughout our store. To be honest, fishing always seemed boring — a kind of waiting game that culminated in a slimy scaled creature with a hook through its mouth, a flapping tail, and an odor that was, well, fishy. But, like with so many other things in life, my preconceived notions were dramatically changed when I had the opportunity to actually go fishing for brook trout in Vermont.

I do have to admit that my first fishing excursion was undoubtedly “fishing-lite,” and any serious fisher, or fan of The Deadliest Catch for that matter, will find my account laughable. Nevertheless, the nerve-wracking yet exhilarating feeling of the first little bite at the end of my rod grabbed and kept my attention. With my eyes fixed firmly on the stream and my thoughts on the fish resting just below its surface, I felt myself fishing.

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