One of my favorite pass-times when visiting Vancouver, is to walk along the exterior wall of Stanley Park right before sunset. It's a gorgeous walk with the water's edge to one side, and one of the world's largest rain forests in a city's interior to your other side. As you make your way along the path, you'll often find interesting pieces of art people have left the mark with: graffiti, soap stone carvings, paintings for sale, and in the case pictured above, rock towers which have been permanently installed using metal rods. 

It's a beautiful way to end your day. I'd highly suggest it to anyone with a spare evening in the city of Vancouver.

North Shore in Oahu is typically depicted as having some of the BIGGEST, most dangerous, thundering waves in the world. There are some areas in North shore however which have reefs creating natural break walls which keep the waves at bay. Turtle Bay (known locally as Kawela Bay) is a beach area located on Oahu's northeastern tip, past Haleiwa and near Kahuku. This area is one of the island's best areas to snorkel. I was fortunate enough to have even caught a glimpse of a honu, a Hawaiian green turtle, gliding about inside this little cove. 

Vancouver is quite possibly the most geographically rich cities in all of Canada. Nestled in it's iconic coastal mountains, the city is lush with green trees year-round. Pictured here, is English Bay, one of the many beautiful beaches the city has to offer, and a personal favorite hang out of my own. If you stroll further along the beach, just past that series of condos, you'll find yourself entering Stanley Park which is filled with the famous Red Cedar trees of the Western coast of North America. This park is over 1000 acres, making it 10% bigger than New York's Central Park. 

Easily accessible by transit or by foot, the beaches and parks of Vancouver are a quintessential part of any visit to Vancouver! Enjoy!

While Actun Tunichil Muknal (most commonly known as ATM) is by far the most popular and well known cave near San Ignacio, Crystal Cave offers some uniquely beautiful attributes that are not necessarily found in ATM. A short bus ride away with your guide & a moderate hike into the jungle brings you to Crystal Cave, which may not have quite as many artifacts scattered throughout, but those that are found in the cave are more preserved & the abundance of stalactites and stalagmites are overwhelming! For those interested in a unique experience, "off the beaten path", I would highly encourage you to go spelunking (cave diving) in Crystal Cave, in western Belize.

This was captured randomly while cruising down the main street in Caye Caulker one evening, when I casually looked down one of the cross streets and saw this at the end of it! One of those moments which really lets you appreciate where you are :)

For such a small country, both geographically, and population wise, it is SO jam-packed full of goodies, it's "unBelizable"!

Belize had never really been on my radar, but then I fell into some air tickets at a price I couldn't refuse: Free-ninety-free! Just one of those prices you can't exactly say no to. So not a few months later, and I was off on my way to Central America for the first time. Now of course, this isn't your typical Central American getaway, in the sense that it's the only English speaking country in the region, completely surrounded between all Spanish speaking countries. This was fine by me, as even my Spanglish is below par.

A little known fact for many of the international visitors who come through the mountainous town in Banff National Park, is that the wildlife found meandering through many of their parks are in fact just that - Wild!

It was the summer of 1997. I was temporarily living in the town of Banff at the time, though had only recently just arrived. It was going to just be a stop in my hitch hiking journey across Canada, but I almost instantly fell in love with the raw beauty this town seems to emanate. I picked up some work at 'Bumper's Beef House' on the edge of town, and quickly made friends with another man who had grown up in a neighbouring city to my own home town. We often went on hikes together, though this one day in particular, we decided to just lounge in the Bow Valley park.

Elk were amongst the most common wildlife one could observe passing through the town, though most other wild animals such as black bears, marmots, grizzly bears, and beavers are much more commonly found away from the presence of humans, scattered around the National Park. Because of the abundance of Elk in the town, however, many visitors assume that they are more domesticated than the other animals. This is NOT true. Though they have developed a tolerance for humans, they come to the park due to the higher presence of areas to graze, such as golf courses, parks and peoples yards.

On this beautiful summer day, while lounging in the park, we had brought with us some snacks and blankets to sit upon. We had chosen a part of the park slightly off the more beaten trails of the tourists wandering along the riverside, and away from the nearby streets and parking lots. It was as tranquil as it could get. Casually throughout the day, however, we made notice to the numbers of tourists that seemed to be getting closer and closer to the Elk who were sharing the park with us that day. There was one pair in particular which stood out amongst the crowd. It was a mother Elk and her young calf. At one point we even observed a situation which had involved them going to sleep, curled up together, and a group of rowdy tourists came over to take pictures. Now I would have thought that the sight of them sleeping under a tree, with the river gently flowing behind them would make the most ideal scene for an award winning photograph... they seemed to think otherwise. The group tried gathering in front of them and started clapping their hands to wake the majestic beasts, to get a picture of them awake with the group instead!

As you could imagine, by this point the mother was getting a little anxious, and when the baby stirred awake she pushed him along to get away from the disruptive humans. Of course, the most tranquil area in the park happened to be where my friend and I had set up camp. The young calf started grazing in a very slow and awkward path towards us. As it gradually got closer, the mother finally became interested in our presence. The mother cautiously moved over...