I have taken numerous trips to foreign countries over the years. Approximately 90% of the time, I have traveled solo (without any excess baggage) that’s the way I prefer it to be.

There are advantages and disadvantages of traveling solo – the obvious disadvantage is that it can get awfully lonely at times; as a result you’re forced to find ways to entertain yourself and occupy the time. Eating breakfast and dinner all alone is probably the worst, but in time you get used to it. Let’s face it, most people travel with at least one other person (a friend or a love interest); solo travelers are definitely a minority. In my humble opinion, the fear of loneliness is probably the #1 reason, why most people do not travel alone. Besides the companionship factor, sharing certain travel expenses – taxis, ground transportation and dinners - is another advantage of traveling with a friend. If I travel with a friend however, I make it point to get separate rooms. I value my privacy and I don’t mind paying extra money for a single supplement.

However traveling solo has many advantages. The biggest is FREEDOM - you’re free to do what you want, when you want. Sometimes when you’re traveling with a friend, you find yourself always making too many compromises; also some friends can be too demanding and you can end up becoming a babysitter if they are uncomfortable being alone. Call this the excess baggage factor! In addition, traveling on the road with somebody for an extended period of time is fraught with pitfalls - you know the expression, travel brings out the worst in us. I have heard of many friendships and relationships disintegrating during a long vacation.

Another advantage of traveling alone is that you’ll meet a lot more people - both fellow travelers and locals. From my experience, traveling solo forces me to be more outgoing and gregarious than I am at home. When people are on vacation, they tend to be more sociable and receptive to meeting other people as well. Travelers love to share their travel stories and talk about themselves with fellow travelers. Take a man away from his home environment and he’s less territorial - that is the nature of the beast.

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Circa February 1980 I had just spent two weeks in Mexico - this was just the first leg of my travel adventure. From Mexico, I flew to JAMAICA in the Caribbean where I would stay for an additional 6 weeks. I know what you’re thinking – that I went to Jamaica to smoke copious amounts of ganja, grow some dreadlocks and listen to reggae 24/7? Totally untrue as I abhorred marijuana and dreadlocks was a phase I went through during my hippie years at UC Berkeley, however I admit to becoming a real reggae enthusiast after seeing the cult movie “The Harder They Come” in 1974. Professionally speaking, my plan was to become familiar with Jamaica so I could effectively market it as a travel destination.

My travel plans hit a minor bump in the road when Mexicana Airlines notified me that they were discontinuing their direct flight from Mexico City to Kingston. As a result, the airlines rerouted me through Miami. Upon getting off the plane in Kingston Airport, I was immediately greeted by the humid tropical heat that Kingston is famous for. Stepping into a waiting taxi, I could hear the strains of Toots and the Maytals famous song “Funky Kingston” in my head as my taxi driver took me to the Mayfair Hotel located in the hills of New Kingston.

During my 6 weeks in Jamaica, I visited the major tourist resorts on the North Coast - Montego Bay, Negril, Ocho Rios and Port Antonio - and also explored the rugged Cockpit Country, staying mostly in small (cheap) guesthouses and in the homes of Jamaican families. I guess you could say that I really sewed my wild oats as a traveler - I had some good times (and some bad times) as I traveled around the island, but overall it was a very rewarding trip.

It was on the final leg of my itinerary that I had one of my most memorable experiences. I had just returned to Kingston - at my guesthouse, I met a young dreadlocks who did some work for the famous reggae superstar, Bob Marley. I had met Mr. Marley for the first time in San Francisco circa 1975, when Bob Marley and the Wailers were on their inaugural concert tour in America. When the bloke told me that Bob Marley was scheduled to arrive the next day in Jamaica from Zimbabwe (Africa), I asked him to hook me up with Bob. So here I was in the backyard of Bob Marley’s rambling estate on Old Hope Road; he had just arrived that morning and was kicking a soccer ball with his buddies. Bob, acknowledging my presence, says to me in a very thick patois “Welcum to mi yard, Rasta. Jah Rastafari, Haile Selassie I!”

Fast forward to the next day - I was at the Kingston airport, getting ready to board my return flight to the USA when I happened to see poster advertising Reggae Sunsplash, Jamaica’s International Music Festival. Little did I know at the time, but Reggae Sunsplash would play a pivotal role in my career as a travel agent (and as a traveler).

I had my taste of travel on a 3-week adventure to Mexico in January 1974. Back at home, I found myself drifting into a career in travel – not only did I become a travel agent/entrepreneur, I had become a traveler. However another six years elapsed before I commenced my 2nd adventure – it was in February 1980 that I flew to La Paz, the capital of Mexico’s Baja California. From there, I took the bus to Cabo San Lucas, the new ‘chic’ beach resort located at the very tip of the Baja Peninsula. As Cabo was in “its infancy” as a beach resort, there were only a handful of hotels in the resort area. From Cabo, I took the car ferry overnight to Puerto Vallarta. Upon arriving at the ferry terminal in PV the following morning, I caught the bus to my next destination – San Blas, a relatively small obscure beach town that had become a favorite port-of-call with birdwatchers.

Although San Blas was located only 100 miles up the coast from Puerto Vallarta, the journey would take a good 5 hours or so because there was no coastal road at the time. As a result, the route went inland into the mountains thru Tepic, the capital city of Nayarit , where I had to overnight before completing the journey the next day. The ride on the local bus from Tepic to San Blas (a good 40 miles) was a most scenic drive – descending from the mountains to the coast on a very winding switchback road, we passed by lush coconut and banana plantations.

I have some wonderful memories of my first visit to historic San Blas, a sleepy hole-in-the wall surrounded by mangroves and some very lush tropical vegetation. Back in the late 17th century, San Blas used to be an important Spanish stronghold and port city – located on a hill overlooking town are the crumbling ruins of a large Spanish military fort. Except for the jejenes (sea gnats) - which come out en mass sometime before dusk - San Blas was my concept of paradise. The pace was slow, the ambiance special and the tropical setting just heavenly. While I was there, I befriended the head immigration officer in San Blas who took me on a memorable birding expedition in the mountains some distance away from town. As a bonus, my stay coincided with the celebration of the annual Carnival. Next the journey continues to JAMAICA.

If you have ever walked through a tropical rainforest - whether it be in Costa Rica, the Amazon, Southeast Asia or Africa - I’m sure you have come across the Giant. I know what you’re thinking - no, it is not a tropical version of the Bigfoot but the Giant I am referring to is one of the largest and most spectacular trees in the rainforest - the Kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra).

Native to Tropical America, the kapok can reach a height of over 200 feet. Also known as Ceiba among the indigenous people of the Americas, the kapok is considered to be sacred and is often associated with the supernatural. To the Mayans in particular, the kapok was considered to be a very holy tree and has a special place in their mythology. The kapok has many medicinal uses among native people and it is harvested for a variety of purposes – fertilizer, fuel, down filling for mattresses and pillows etc.

One of the highlights of my trip to Peru was encountering a giant kapok tree in the Amazon basin. I took a group photograph of members in my small tour group against this giant to show how enormously wide the buttressed root system is

Speaking of butterflies…while perusing the internet yesterday, I came across this interesting news story how biologists are trying to save one of the largest butterflies in the Western hemisphere from extinction.

ScienceDaily (2007-08-15) — The Homerus swallowtail is the Western Hemisphere’s largest butterfly, but researchers say its numbers are so small that conservation and captive breeding efforts are needed to save the insect, found only in two parts of Jamaica. Full story …..

The story hits home as I have been a frequent visitor to JAMAICA over the years. While I have traveled into the mountains - Blue Mountains and the Cockpit Country - where this rare butterfly currently lives, unfortunately I have never encountered one of these beauties. In my opinion, the establishment of a national park or biological refuge in the Cockpit region as well as private butterfly gardens in Jamaica will go a long way towards ensuring the survival of this swallowtail species

The Owl (Caligo memnon) at 6 inches wide is the largest butterfly in Costa Rica. While not considered as glamorous as the blue morpho or some of the other brilliantly colored species in Costa Rica, I think the Owl holds his own in the butterfly beauty sweepstakes. The upperside of the wings (when the wings are open) are two shades of brown – a creamy mocha with dark chocolate fringes. The hindwing underside pattern (when the wings are folded) reveals a large eyespot in the middle of the wing which superficially resembles the eye or face of an Owl, hence the butterfly’s name. There are various theories on the function of the large eyespot. One of the most popular is that the eye pattern confuses or scares away potential predators - mostly small birds or small lizards. I have observed this butterfly in two locales – La Paz Waterfall Garden in Costa Rica and Mindo Butterfly Garden in Ecuador.

Situated at the entrance of Costa Rica’s La Paz Waterfall Gardens is the world’s largest butterfly. This butterfly is gigantic – because it is stationary all day long, you can come at any time and get a real good photograph of the creature. See picture on the left. Actually if you haven’t guess it by now, this isn’t a real live butterfly but a very unique iron sculpture.

Walking into the enclosed butterfly observatory, you will be greeted by many colorful and exotic butterflies flitting about. According to their website, there are over 20 species of butterflies in cultivation here. Located in the central highlands of Costa Rica, I visited this relatively new eco-attraction a couple of years ago and I was quite impressed. I highly recommend La Paz as a must see for nature lovers and for butterfly enthusiasts who’d like to brush up on their tropical butterfly identification skills.

La Paz Waterfall Garden is one of the featured attractions on many of our tours to Costa Rica

I have chased many a butterfly in Costa Rica - as there are over 1200 species of butterflies in Costa Rica, it will take a lot of chasing to sight all of them. In my quest, I have trudged through many locales including humid rainforests and cloudforests in addition to visiting such butterfly friendly venues as La Paz Waterfall Garden and various butterfly gardens scattered around the country. Trying to photograph these beautiful insects is kind of tricky – the best time for a butterfly safari is in the early morning hours before the sun has risen to its peak. During these early hours, the butterflies are warming up and relatively sluggish, hence easier to photograph

Calypso Island Tours offers a special tour to Costa Rica for butterfly and nature enthusiasts – the tour features excursions to the most important butterfly gardens as well as taking you to four distinctly different locales – from the lowland rainforests and jungles of the Northern lowlands to the cloud forests of the rugged central highlands.

I was having breakfast at Girasol Bistro when I noticed a very interesting poster on the wall (see picture). There are a fair number of environmentalists, both Mexicans and Expat gringos, in this small community of ‘Paraiso Secreto’. Earthwatch and other environmental organizations routinely conduct classes and organize field trips to the nearby mangrove swamps for oversea college students and volunteers. There is definitely a concerted effort to protect the environment, wildlife and natural beauty of the area, an area that is currently being threatened by greedy developers. A little further down the coast, there is a beach where olive ridley turtles come to nest. Traditionally, some of the locals believe that eating turtle eggs is a natural aphrodisiac and will give a man extra virility and staying power (Hey, guys just get some Viagra).

The poster addresses the issue of men poaching turtle eggs. Translating into English, It says - Are you a real man? Do not eat turtle eggs. Turtle eggs are not aphrodisiacs. RIGHT ON!

I bet everybody who is familiar with tropical plants and flowers will easily be able to identify this plant of the week. Of course, it is the Bougainvillea, a genus of flowering plants native to tropical South America. Of all the tropical flowers that I have seen, by far the most common is the bougainvillea. I have seen it throughout tropical Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia as it a very popular ornamental plant. The bougainvillea also thrives in warmer climates throughout the United States - I have even seen this plant in some gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. The paper flower (Bougainvillea glabra) is by far the most popular ornamental species of the Bougainvillea genus; the bracts that surround the small white flower come in many different colors and they look very much like paper, hence the common name ‘the paper flower”. In my travels, I have come across a number of hotels that are named after this popular tropical flower including my favorite hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica , the Bougainvillea Hotel and there is a hotel in Barbados, aptly named the Bougainvillea Beach Resort.