I’ve been fortunate enough to have some amazing travel adventures, especially in the last few years. I never thought that I would travel to the Amazon jungle, but in 2003, my husband and I joined a trip to a lodge in the Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo preserve in Peru. Then for New Year’s in 2008, my daughter and I returned to the lodge. Here’s a few pictorial highlights:

We saw many kinds of animals including a variety of monkeys, tamarins, sloths, colorful poison-dart frogs (and the frog in the shower), pink river dolphins, lizards, caymans, a river otter, all kinds of bugs (my favorite is the pink-toed tarantula - it really does have pink toes), and birds of all kinds, including the Hoatzin bird (the young birds have claws on their wing tips so that can climb up trees). I knew that I would enjoy the jungle and its animal residents, but I also had a wonderful time visiting the people who live in villages along the river. The people work very hard to survive in the harsh jungle environment, but they were a warm, generous people who always wore a smile.

In 2005, we took a different trip with the college to the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago off the coast of Ecuador. Because there are no natural predators in the islands, the animals are not afraid of humans.

I’ve seen some wonderful places in my own country as well, and I hope to visit others in the future.