| Rand African Art |
| About Me - Photo Version These are a bunch of really old photos. I hope to update it soon. There are a LOT of photos on this page now since I have re-done it, but I wanted to share with others a little more personal view into my life through this page and I hope that you enjoy it! BELIZE |
| My first dive trip, Manta Resort in Glovers Reef Atoll in Belize what an amazing place! The scuba diving in Belize is amazing, especially in the outer atolls. Only 4% of the visitors to Belize each year make it out to Glovers Reef because it is very remote, but that is what makes it great. You can literally throw a rock from one side of the island to the other. Manta Resort was hit with a hurricane the year after this photo was taken and it was closed for a long time but is now open again. I took my Mom here on her first trip out of the country.Someday I'd like to make it back to this tiny little paradise! Below is my attempt to paste photos together of the resort. Click on the image to see full size version. |
| One of the interesting places at the resort was a little place on the edge of the reef that you could wade out to and the little island contained monuments that were created by past visitors to the resort. The monuments were made out of sea shells, driftwood and coral rock that the island was made out of. My mom and I went out and each made one. Below is the photo of mine. |
| The island contains a row of bungalows and then at the end is the family house. This is where I stayed when I went and the views are incredible off of the patio. |
| Out in the middle of the lagoon is the cantina. I think it was destroyed in the hurricane and has been re-built. |
| Placencia, Belize |
| Fond memories of Rum Point Inn - Placencia, Belize Placencia is on the Southern end of Belize, it is a very small village with a few resorts. Rum Point Inn did have a dive operation but I didn't dive down there. I enjoyed the hammocks and taking the sea kayak out into the calm protected waters off of the resort. You can take a boat up the Monkey River to take tours through the rain forest. It's a great relaxing out of the way place to go. |
| Placencia lays claim to the smallest road in the world, or something to that effect. The photo above shows the "road" going through the middle of the village, which is basically a sidewalk, but of course you have to get your photo taken on the famous road. |
| We came back to Denver to snow... |
| There aren't too many options for transportation here, you either take a taxi or the sea kayak from the resort to the village or take the bikes over the really bumpy roads |
| Costa Rica |
| Near the Pacuare river in Costa Rica (Pacuare River Lodge) The Pacuare River Lodge is an amazing place. The only access to it, that I know of, is by white water raft. I traveled to Costa Rica with 2 of my best friends. We rafted a half a day or so and arrived here and stayed for a couple of days. There is no electricity so everything is candle light and flash light. The river guides cook for you and the accommodations are nice. You can take hikes through the rain forest to visit some of the indigenous people who still live in the rain forest and live off of the land. You can also take canopy tours through the rain forest which was also pretty cool, especially since I'm not a big fan of heights. The photos above were taken the day before we left the resort. After we left, we rafted down river to the end of the rafting trip. Along the way we stopped to hike up to a waterfall and pool to go swimming in. I walked out of the rocks, lost my footing and slid about 30 feet down the rock and fell off of the side of the waterfall about 12-15 feet into a group of rocks. Lucky for me I was still wearing my rafting helmet and life vest or else I fear I would have probably died and wouldn't be sitting here writing this now! I managed to escape with a fractured bone in my hand, a big knot on my head and some bruised up ribs and a very sore sternum. It was hard to breathe after that and I was in a lot of pain for the rest of the rafting trip but I felt lucky to be alive and to be able to continue my adventures. |
| Photos of the Pacuare River Lodge. On the left is the area where you can relax and eat and drink and the right shows the cabanas. It's an amazing little place in the middle of nowhere. |
| Rafting the Pacuare River (before the accident) |
| Hiking in the rain forest |
| We hiked up to visit the small settlements of some of the indigenous people of Costa Rica in the rain forest. We brought food and supplies but only the dog was home. |
| The photos don't really show it much, but we were pretty high up. This was the end of the canopy rope line tour of the rain forest. At the end you stop at a platform where you jump into this big canvas like contraption. They wet it down and you jump and go flying out into a big opening in the trees about 50 or more feet up and then they lower you down. |
| After we left the Pacuare River area we headed to the Southwestern coast of Costa Rica to Bahia Drake to the La Paloma Lodge. At the time it was only accessible by plane but I think there is a road there now. The resort was amazing and it was a great place to spend the last half of my trip. I was still recovering from my fall, but I did manage to get one scuba diving trip in at Canyo Island. It probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done, but I didn't want to come to Costa Rica and not dive. The marine life wasn't that great here though, I did get to dive with a LOT of sharks though. Some day I would like to go back to Costa Rica and go diving in the Cocos Islands. |
| Every room at La Paloma had an open balcony with a hammock. Every morning I'd eat, then lay in the hammock, then go down to the beach, it was awesome. |
| Cozumel and Playa Del Carmen, Mexico A few years back I went to Mexico with a bunch of friends. I arrived about 4 days ahead of them so I could go diving in Cozumel on my own since we were all staying in Playa Del Carmen for the rest of the trip. The diving in Cozumel was amazing, I think I got at least 20 dives in while I was down there during the whole trip. The most amazing thing was seeing all of the turtles and also a huge school of tarpon that were all about 4 - 6 feet long and there were hundreds of them and we dove right down in the middle of them. I also made it to the Mayan ruins in Tulum and also to the Dolphin Discovery in Isla Mujeres. I have always been fascinated with dolphins, I wanted to be a dolphin trainer when I was little. This was my first experience to be in the water with them and be able to touch them. We dove with dolphins in Belize but this was a different experience. I thought it was going to be a little "touristy" but I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the dolphins. |
| Visiting the Mayan ruins in Tulum Mexico (above and below) |
| The house we rented on the left and the beautiful white sand beaches of Playa Del Carmen on the right |
| The hot rod in Cozumel Mexico |
| Isla Mujeres Mexico - Dolphin Discovery In the lagoon with the dolphins |
| Isla Mujeres Mexico - Dolphin Discovery |
| Island of Guadeloupe and Les Saintes Island in Guadeloupe French West Indies This was my first trip out of the US. I went with a friend to stay on his Dad's boat in the Caribbean and they happened to be docked in Guadeloupe in the French West Indies. I didn't take a lot of photos this trip but it was the trip that sparked my interest in getting my SCUBA certification. I did a little bit of snorkeling in Les Saintes Island and we did some hiking around a volcano on the main island of Guadeloupe. |
| Left - Standing my the mouth of the volcano on the island of Guadeloupe Right - the bay in Les Saintes Island off the coast of Guadeloupe |
| Yellowstone National Park and the Tetons Ever since my first trip to Yellowstone National Park many years ago I have been in love with it. It is such an amazing and strange geological wonder. I try to go back there at least every other year for a couple of days. I haven't been back since 2002 and below are some photos of that trip. |
| Mammoth hot springs |
| Grand Tetons in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming |
| Yellowstone Falls |
| One of my favorite areas in Yellowstone is the geyser park where Old Faithful and the Old Faithful Lodge are located. The Old Faithful Lodge is incredible and if you ever go to Yellowstone I highly recommend you try and stay at least one night there. |
| Photos of the famous Old Faithful geyser and a funny photo of my friend Eryk doing a headstand in front of the steam |
| More trip photos coming soon... |
| Miscellaneous photos I like to snowboard and we get out hiking and camping quite a bit living in Colorado. Below are just some random photos from various other things. |
| A not so great photo of my Bonsai It's a 36 year old Serissa "Thousand Star" |
| Rafting the Arkansas River in Colorado |
| The Colorado Rockies |
| The top of Whistler/Blackcomb Mountain, British Columbia Canada |
| My Mom the nun - it's her alter ego (and this one too) |
| My awesome Mom the clown. (she will love me for putting this on here) |
| My Mom isn't actually a clown or a nun, she did learn to juggle and would often dress up as a clown for various events in the town she lives in. The Nun is a Halloween character and she has shown up in her nun outfit at other events besides Halloween and it has been very funny. She actually teaches elementry school music in a small town in New Mexico and also teaches piano and guitar privately as well. |
| I took my Mom to Belize for her first trip out of the US |
| On top of one of the arches in Arches National Park in Moab Utah |
| Hiking outside of Steamboat Springs Colorado |
| A photo of a taxi in NY from a recent trip that I did a little editing on |
