Revillagigedo: Over 20 Years’ Worth of Memories
It was around 4 years ago the last time I was in the Revillagigedo archipelago, which comprises of 4 islands: Clarion, Roca Partida, Socorro and San Benedicto.…
The Great Wall Between Two Countries (Part Two)
REACHING OUR DESTINATION
We arrive in the middle of the night in Ulaanbaatar, where more than half of the population of Mongolia live. It’s a very modern city and the most polluted capital in the world according to studies. Using coal for energy and heating in a valley on a high plateau might have helped them get to the top of the list. It’s not a pretty place.
The Great Whites of Guadalupe, Mexico
It was the year 2007 when Mike Lever, the owner of Nautilus Explorer made the first shark cage to be tested. I was the one tasked to be the first one to try it out.
They said it was designed by a naval architect. Perfect!
I took a look at it and said, “Wait…” Then I went and picked up my BCD and regulator. I didn’t trust the damn thing.
Top 3 Reasons Why I Have Chosen Ferox as My First Malpelo Liveaboard Charter
People have been asking me how they can dive in Malpelo or do a liveaboard charter now that Yemaya, which I considered to be the safest dive vessel at the time, is no longer operating. I couldn’t recommend anyone else.
Last month I had the opportunity to check out the operation of the new liveaboard Ferox. I fell in love with the boat very quickly!
A Rich Man Living a Simple Life
My wife and I went for a short exploration trip in our Toyota Tacoma, the vehicle that I finally managed to buy after the worst car I have ever owned, a Ford Explorer (or “The Ford Exploder,” as we used to call it.) To keep life simple, we didn’t come up with a particular plan. We just drove and let the road lead us to our destination.
R – E – S – P – E – C – T
This afternoon I went to the beach with my wife to gather some logs that got washed up ashore from some distant storm. While I was chopping the bark off one of the two stumps that I found in the arroyo (dry riverbed), a man called out to me from the beachfront property across from where I was minding my own business. He told me in no uncertain terms that I was in his yard. According to him, I was trespassing. I politely informed him that I was in the arroyo and on the beach. Both were public property.
We All Could Use a Bit of Perspective
Adventure always seems to follow me around. It shows up in different forms — a broken toe, a burglar breaking in, an uzi pointed at me, a capsized kayak, a prison cell, an underwater connection, a lifetime friendship. Things happen to me all the time, I wish for a normal life sometimes. But who’s to say what’s ‘normal’?
Mother and Baby’s Day Out
This is what you get when you understand and respect the whales: a mother and her calf for one hour, on their terms.
The Full Half of the Glass
For every yin, there is a yang. One moment passive, the next minute aggressive. There is a time to strike, and a time to stand down. To seek new thrills, or just to stand still.
I am normally a glass-half-empty kind of guy, but my rantings and ravings need to be balanced by some semblance of positivity, lest the universe go out of whack.
So here’s looking at the glass half-full:
License to Kill
Update, 24 September 2022: I thought I was done with Malpelo after this tragic accident happened, but in 2018 I met Tony, the owner of Ferox, when he was just starting trips to Malpelo. Tony sailed this 11-mm-hull ice breaker from Sweden to Colombia when he bought it. I found all safety equipment, including firefighting gear to fire suppressants, when I did my personal tour of the boat. Ferox and Tony made it possible for me to go back to Malpelo.
Learn about my trips on Ferox here: Malpelo Liveaboard Diving
Lost divers in Malpelo.
You have the right to kill… as long as you are in the arms of the Colombian authorities.
After a very windy and bumpy sea crossing from Puerto Mutis, Panama, we arrived in Malpelo, Colombia.
As usual, we tied up on the mooring at Altar de Virginia, a dive site on the northeast side of Malpelo that provides shelter from the wind (when it blows in the right direction). Weather had calmed down and conditions looked good, just a bit murky in the water.
As it was bumpy on the way in, we had decided to postpone setting up the dive gear and I had yet to give a briefing on how to dive Malpelo. (For those of you who don’t know Malpelo, it is a serious dive destination—the briefing needs to be clear and the divers, attentive.) Just when I was on my way to gather our guests for the briefing, a guest asked me, “Who is that in the water?” Our skiff was also out there, so at first I thought it was Juan, my colleague, checking the dive site and the visibility. It was not Juan. It was Peter Morse, a lost diver from the Colombian dive boat Maria Patricia. Lost since around 4:30 pm the day before, and it was about 7:30 am when we spotted him…