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(Dana)  As advertised, the Balinese are lovely, smiling people who welcomed us warmly to their island.  Some thoughts from our 12 days: * Rice fields still dominate the landscape and still represent a major part of the economy and food.  Growing rice remains a very labor-intensive process as terraced rice paddies do not easily support […]

Bali is only a few miles away from its much larger neighbor to the West, Java, separated by the easily traversed 2.3km Bali Strait. Bali is a really nice place and the Javanese discovered this early. No surprise, then, that the vast majority of today’s Balinese are actually transplanted people from Java whose forebearers crossed […]

(Alex and Emma) Today all six of us are wearing new sarongs and sashes for a traditional Balinese wedding. We had asked our driver, Wayan, to bring us to places not too many tourists have been, and he offered to bring us with him to a wedding in his village. The ceremony this morning is […]

(Alex) Two of the main icons of Australia are the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. At the same time, we had a pretty amazing experience of both. As the night sky starts to turn pink, we make our way to the base of the bridge. Stretching 503 meters and up to 143 […]

(Reis) In the Daintree rainforest we are staying at a place called the Botanical Ark. It’s called that because, the hosts, Alan and Suzi Carle (with their friend Philippe), are taking seedlings from rainforests all over the world and then planting them in one spot to make a rainforest. Their primary message is about conservation […]

(Andrew) When driving around in Tasmania we stopped at a random place called “Nature World.” We got out and investigated, it was basically a zoo filled with Tasmanian and Australian native animals. We figured out that Tasmanian Devil feeding time was at 12:30, clock check, it was 11:30, so we had an hour to look […]

To spice up the annual Martin Luther King Day assembly at their school, the kids were asked to provide a brief video talking about what they had learned about diversity and difference and how the trip has effected their perspectives so far.  The boys were invited to participate as well.  What follows was shot in […]

(Emma) All the fish swam around us like bees in a hive. All the colors of the coral pop out at us like balloons in the sky. We swim around in the 84F water. The warmth comes over me like a blanket on an icy day. All my senses get filled with the joy of […]

(Reis) First of all, the ice in Antarctica is amazing. So densely packed together. The Kapitan Khlebnikov (our ship) just eats away at it, slicing a clear path for itself, and rejecting all ice that come in its way. White clouds of ice getting shoved away from the hull. Penguins staring up at awe at […]

(Dana) 30-day trip around Antarctica. The crowning mid-point of our 6explorer adventure. But from Day 1, the unpredictability and challenges of Antarctic exploration become apparent. In our first 7 days, we cannot board our ship in Stanley; we cannot make our first zodiac landing due to wind; we cannot land on wildly remote Peter I […]