Eco Gallivant – Soft adventure and eco-voluntourism

Well. Isn’t this a surprise! I haven’t written a post in FOREVER!

Because…. I have been very busy. The result of all this busyness is a new business: Eco Gallivant.

It is a culmination of:

• A near drowning
• Swim lessons
• Learning to scuba dive
• Volunteering in Quintana Roo and the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve – collecting data for Coral Watch
• Becoming a rescue diver
• Volunteering in Indonesia doing reef restoration
• Becoming a partner in a non-profit – Sea Communities, in Indonesia
• Traveling to Indonesia three times in the last year to dive and work.

 

 

And thus:

Creating Eco Gallivant with my friend Kathleen – soft adventure treks for women of all ages. We will be volunteering in the host community with reef restoration while learning the culture, craft, food, art, and teaching some English on the side.

So please jump over to our website, and please pass the link on to any women who you think might be interested! I would be so appreciative.

And don’t worry guys. Once we have this down pat, we will extend invitations to men as well!

Thanks for the visit!!

Blue Oblivion – And Where Are the Sharks?

We may spend the majority of our lives with feet planted on Terra Firma, but that, in reality, is not the planet we live on. We live on Oceana; about 71% of our planet’s surface is water covered, and most of it is briny.

And in the sea, under the surface, you can be oblivious to any turmoil above. It is calm, ethereal, other worldly. Why all this talk of water? I was in Bali this past spring. I came to dive, to relax, to spend time with friends, and to look for sharks. When I arrived at the Sea Communities compound in Les Village, I began my query. I asked Garri, my friend and host who had been living and diving in Les for a year, if he had seen any sharks. His response was a succinct no, never. I asked Fandy, the dive instructor visiting from Java. No, he hadn’t seen sharks on the northern coast of Bali in some time. I asked Gombal and Pak Eka, fishermen from Les Village. They said I had a good chance of seeing some dolphins in the sea just north of the village….

Coral Reef Restoration in Les Village, Bali, Indonesia

My first youtube video! Please forgive any choppiness…. The next one will be better. This was so much fun!!

Desa Les (Les Village), Bali, Indonesia and Sea Communities

Video clips were shot in April of 2014. Heading back for more photography in a month. Can’t wait!

Turtle Power!

 

 

No, no! Not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles……  Green Turtles!

Bali Deliciousness – Bumbu, the base of all good things.

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The Bali Sea

When leaving home for a distant place became less about brawn, women finally had the opportunity to venture out on their own. No longer were we stuck at home, waiting for our men to return and tell us stories about lands far away and people so different it was difficult to imagine what their lives were like.

Now, even a lone woman traveler is not unusual, though we still have certain limitations that men don’t have. Care does have to be taken with our personal, physical safety; certain places and situations avoided. But overall, thankfully, it is a big wide world open to us.

J. Kottler, in Travel That Can Change Your Life, stated: “… travel is an altered state of consciousness… transporting you not only to another place, but another dimension…”

Before My Rebirth

The Liquid Sparkled
Edmund Dulac
from The Little Mermaid

The thin grass strings of the ghost net were wrapped securely around my right wrist. As soon as I realized what had happened, I began to struggle. That only pulled the net tighter. The lines had been woven strong to entrap the mahi mahi. The knife had dropped from my belt when I swam down to grab the immense oyster lying on the sand. The huge mollusk was under the net that I hadn’t noticed in my eagerness. It was the size of both of my hands spread out, and I could picture the pearl in the middle, as big as my thumb. In the center of that luminous pearl, a tiny grain of sand. This, my last pearl, had quickened my karma.

My knife lay next to a magnificent, lavender sponge.  Too far, I couldn’t even reach it with my foot. The needlefish nosing around it was of no danger to me now. I settled gently next to a huge fan coral that waved gracefully in the current.  A few small blue tang paused next to me.  Blue body, yellow fins, dark faces peering inquisitively. The school grew larger and encircled me. My wake.

Letting the last of the air out of my lungs, I watched the small silvery bubbles’ rushing and jostling ascent to the surface and the sun that wavered far above.  When I inhaled again, the water felt familiar in my lungs. I was back in my mother’s womb: part of the sea, the coral, and the tangs dancing around me. I found their dance and embraced it.