by Matthew Allison | Sep 13, 2017 | Australia & Pacific, Swimming with Marine Mammals/Creatures
September 2017: My wife and I flew to Tonga, the last country of the Pacific to be still ruled by a king for 6 days as part of a larger two-week trip that also included Samoa and New Zealand. Our main goal in Tonga was to swim with Humpback Whales, an activity which...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 23, 2012 | Africa, Swimming with Marine Mammals/Creatures
November 2012: As part of a larger middle east and east Africa trip, my friend Evan and I traveled to Djibouti for 4 days. Going to Djibouti was a back up plan because I was not able to get a visa to visit Socotra, Yemen. Aside from making jokes about the...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 31, 2009 | South America & Antarctica, Swimming with Marine Mammals/Creatures, Wildlife
March 2009/Day 1: I wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands, a remote archipelago of volcanic islands famed for their isolated unique wildlife that helped Darwin arrive at his theories of natural evolution. My goal was to experience the wildlife and the wildness of the...
by Matthew Allison | May 5, 2008 | Australia & Pacific, Swimming with Marine Mammals/Creatures
May 2008: After watching the Imax movie, ” The Living Sea,” which featured Palau’s idyllic and wild rock islands, a cluster of hundreds of small mushroom shaped jungle clad islands surrounded by heavenly turquoise green seas, I was sold on Palau. The...
by Matthew Allison | May 2, 2008 | Australia & Pacific, Swimming with Marine Mammals/Creatures, Tribes/Unique Cultures
May 2008: I was seeking an island in Oceania that still clung to its old way of life. In a world of globalization and rapid change, I have always felt that seeking out the world’s last traditional cultures was a race against time. This is especially true with...
by Matthew Allison | Feb 6, 2008 | Swimming with Marine Mammals/Creatures, Wildlife
February 2008: One of my quests in life is to swim with as many marine mammals as possible and the cute, rolley polley manatee was high on my list. To see manatees in the wild, there is no better place than Central Florida in winter, where manatees congregate in the...
