Happy New YEAR and 20 Years of Expeditions!

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Well, a new year is here, and I am so grateful. Grateful to be alive and healthy, grateful that my loved ones are alive and healthy… and grateful for a new year full of possibilities and promise. 

This will be an exciting year, and I can't wait to kick it off and get out into the world again. 

I took a nice and much-needed break from travel and social media and just off-gassed from a long and fantastic season. 2022 was a tough and wonderful year.

On my personal journey, it was a challenging year, but on our professional one, it was an outstanding year with a lot of wildlife and beautiful moments out in the world; from orcas in Baja to mountain gorillas in Uganda, it was wild and unique and beautiful and just, Damn, Damn, Damn. 

We did so much traveling. The year was so taxing, and I did not keep up with my writing and posting toward the end. Unfortunately, it seems I have a track record of doing that. I start strong, but towards the end of the season, I end up just exhausted and not writing or editing videos as I should be. 

I apologize for that, and I will keep my postings much more regularly for you guys.

Anyway, onto 2023 and a new and magical year… It is here, and I am fired up for a new season of trips, especially since this is our 20th anniversary. Yes, sir, (or Ma’am), it has been 20 years of running trips, and I am completely blown away by that. 

Never in my wildest dreams would I have seen this in my future and what I would be doing with my life; organizing wildlife adventures and bringing people with me to experience these amazing animals. It is crazy.

Our first expedition, May 2003, for sand tiger sharks off North Carolina.

The reality is I could have never done this without you all. Thank you so much for allowing us to introduce you to these wild places and for trusting me with your time and lives. I am forever grateful to you all.

Jaguar

Jaguar hunting off the Northern Pantanal. Wildlife photography expeditions with Eli Martinez.

Above are a few group photos from past expeditions. Click the button to see a gallery of images from our years of adventures.

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If I wanted to create a highlight reel of all the years we have been organizing trips, it would be a nightmare to figure out how to tell the story. There are so many memories and moments that we have experienced... Where would I start? 

All of it really feels like a dream. 

Of course, it wasn't a perfect 20 years, I did have some hard times in there, but the beauty and the magic definitely shined way brighter than those dark moments. But hey, that is life. Life will constantly challenge you, which is ok. Life is often so messed up that you might as well go right to the crazy. 

And crazy it has been.

With a lot of magic, and beauty mixed in there, with very special souls - of course, I am referring to the humans and the animals we have shared these adventures with. It has all been imperfectly perfect. The funny thing is I now realize that perfection comes in little moments, but I will take them all… All 20 years' worth of them.

It has been amazing, and thankfully it is not over. We are just getting started. 2023 is going to be another epic year, and I can't wait to get back out there with you all, sharing the stories and images from these places with you. 

So again thank you for sharing this journey with me, and reading our blogs and watching our videos, and just being a part of our crazy world. I will end this New Years' Blog here… wishing you all a Happy New Year! May it be filled with love, adventures, and magic.  

…with lots of love from the SDM Crew. 

The 2022 Travel Season is About to Begin!

January 26, 2022 - The month is freaking gone! Damn, where does the time go?

So this week, I got fired up to write, I wrote a blog earlier this week, but decided to write another one. I do love writing.

I also was going to cut a new video blog, for the second part of our 2021 anaconda diving trip. Check out the first one if you have not seen it.

However, I was inspired to share a video from last season’s Baja shark trip. So I will be cutting together a short vlog from our 2021 mako and blue shark trip instead - which will be out on Friday or Saturday (hopefully Friday). - NOTE; I apologize, I was not able to cut a video these past two days… got tied up prepping to leave to Mexico. But planning to get some great stuff this season for you guys.

Our first trip for the 2022 season is for makos and blue sharks off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

short fin mako shark

blue shark

Historically, I have run this trip as a three-day expedition; however, I am running this years trip as a five-day. I am pleased about this because it gives us more time to see if we can encounter more wildlife, and right now, Cabo is on fire; whales, orcas, mobulas, and lots of sharks.

It is just alive and going off, and I am very excited about seeing what we might find out there. 

Last year we had a really good trip, with surprise visitors on our final day out there.

SPERM WHALES!

We were chumming for sharks when we saw a lot of blows in the distance. Once we figured out what they were, we ditched the chum and took off after them. We ended up spending the rest of our day swimming with a family of sperm whales.

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An extremely close encounter with a massive sperm whale. Image by Roberta Manchino

Unfortunately, the visibility was not the best, the water was green and murky. The encounters were a bit intimidating because you could not see the whales until they were less than 20 feet away from you.

Even though the vis sucked, it was epic… we had sperm whales! At the end of the day we were all exhausted, our nerves were shot, but so very happy.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the trip, and the unknown, and the magic, and the fun with our guests… and of course the sharks. Plus, Cabo is always a fun town to hang out in after a day in and on the water.

After our mako trip, we leave Cabo and head North to San Carlos to Magdalena Bay for the annual grey whale migration. Mag Bay is one of my favorite places in the world to visit. The wildlife here is all-time great.

San Carlos is a sleepy little fishing town, with really nothing going on most of the year. Tourists flock here during grey whale season, and that was it. When the whales left, the locals would revert to fishing, and the town would go quiet again.

Of course, when tourists started visiting Mag Bay for the marlin migration, in the wintertime, the town exploded with tourism again. But there is twice as many people there for marlin season, then the grey whale season. The amount of people wanting to swim with the marlin is something that still surprises the locals. 

Anyway, the area was initially made famous for its friendly grey whales. The greys migrate here to breed, socialize, and pup, then they head off to where ever it is that they go for the rest of the year.

The whales here are so much fun, they will swim up to the boats, ask for face rubs, and they will do it over and over again. It is such a fantastic feeling having a wild animal like this come up to you and want you to give them a rub. 

The experience is truly magical; there is nothing like it in the world. This expedition is possibly one of the most underrated trips that we offer. Because people just do not understand how EPIC an encounter like this truly is. 

Anyway, I will be posting a lot while I am in Cabo, and it will slow down when I am in San Carlos because the wifi sucks. But that is ok and part of the experience. Sometimes it is nice to unplug for a bit and just get lost in nature. Mag Bay is one hell of a great place to do that too. 

Oh yeah, while I am there, I will set up my camera traps again. A couple of years ago, I brought a camera trap out there to try and find a good spot for coyotes. We found a great site, not only for coyotes but also for bobcats. So I will set the cameras up again and see if the cat action is still good.

I am addicted to those amazing looking wild cats.

If it is, then I will bring a more sophisticated camera trap set up in the wintertime when I return to try and capture high res stills of these Baja wild cats. (more on that project later)

Bobcat scent marking in front of our camera trap. We managed to record three different cats at this spot.

Well, that is my update for today, I need to get back to packing for the trip and I think I have carried on for a while.

Get ready for more than s few posts over the coming weeks, our season is about to begin, and we get to go back out to do what we love… all day, every day!

Thank you for reading.

Day Three - Come on Orcas!

Day three and well, the challenge continues. Damn, I know I like a challenge but ok - orcas, it is time to come and say hi. Today was a beautiful day. There was a slight breeze, and the ocean was flat, flat flat! It was perfect. These are the days you dream of when you go out on the sea.

Unless you are chumming, then it is too calm, and there is not enough current, and your chum slick goes nowhere.

But if you are not chumming for sharks and looking for whales and dolphins, this is what you dream of - flat, perfect seas, not much current with a perfect sky. Today was perfection with excellent visibility as well. We just needed some orcas to make it EPIC. Sadly we did not find them.

Rich chilling on the boat. Being patient. Thank you brother.

Something changed in the water over the last few days, and we are just trying to figure out what. Sadly we are not even close to figuring out what it is, all we know is - it was enough for the orcas to change their patterns, and now the game is trying to see what they plan next.

We made the most of our time out there playing with a pod of very dark-colored bottlenose dolphins. They were almost black; they were so dark. I think they were just tanned by the sun. Hammerheads skin tans, so why wouldn't a dolphin's skin?

Even our Captain was helping us try to find orcas, steering the boat in his own unique way.

We took a bunch of surface pics of them and also a bunch of underwater pics. The majority of those underwater images were crap because the dolphins would not come near us. We tried, though, repeatedly to take close-up photos of them, but they were not having it.

We finished the day a bit frustrated because the orcas are still a no show, but we understand this game - tomorrow is another day, and we all ready for it!

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

Travel Day... Getting Fired up!!!

Travel day. Today I picked up the group that is joining us for this trip. We are short two guests who sadly were locked up by their country from Israel. They were not allowed to travel here to Baja, which is heartbreaking; they were just a week away from this trip happening when their government decided it was not safe to travel. I am so sorry, guys.

This morning I left Cabo with our buddy Al who is joining us on this trip. We Ubered it to the airport to pick up our rental van. After that, we went to the airport to pick up the rest of our group joining us. In total, four guests are joining us this week. All of them eager to get out on the water and look for orcas and anything else the Ocean wishes to gift us with.

The boys. Al (wearing his Game Face), Jay, Garin and Richard.

We drove to our hotel, checked in then went down to a small restaurant to eat a quick dinner and get to know each other better. Everyone joining us had traveled with me before, so I knew them, but they did not know each other. It was fun small talk and easy to see that this group of sketchy guys (inside joke), we're going get along, and it was going to be a fun week. Reports of orcas this week have been good, so I am very optimistic about our chances for a good week. We will see, tomorrow is our first day on the water, and I am super eager to get out there and start looking.

Insane!!!

Today the reports were that the orcas spent the day in Cabo Pulmo, and the video clip I saw was insane. They captured a video of the orca breaching extremely high… talk about EPIC!

After we returned from dinner, I grabbed my topside camera and decided to see what the local bird activity was like. The place we are staying at is a small seaside town, and there seems to be a lot of birds here, so it looks like it could be fun.

After a few minutes, I encountered a cat walking across the street. Normally domestic cats do not catch my attention, nor do I ever take pictures of them. However the tail and the markings on this cat captivated me. The bob tail and the color patterns on this cat made me wonder if maybe this cats momma might have danced with a wildcat, more specifically a bobcat? I snapped a few images of it, and after studying the images it left me thinking it is part wildcat. The cats eyes are captivating, and it has tiny tuffs on its ears… so who knows? It is an amazing looking cat though.

bad image of the hummingbird. But what a beauty.

I found a beautiful hummingbird feeding on some flowers. It was a species I had never seen before called the Xantus's hummingbird. It hung out for a little while, but then it flew off. I got a crappy image of it, but now… I really want to capture a nice shot of it, so I will be using any spare time to find it.

I also managed to find a couple of dead palm trees with some nesting woodpeckers and starlings in them. I focused my time there trying to capture some behavior images, which I am pretty happy with. I will try for more later, if I have time.

Overall it was a great day. Now we are all retired to our rooms to prep gear and get a good night's sleep… the adventure officially kicks off in the morning… FINALLY!

Starling momma feeding her chick.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

A New Adventure Begins... Baja!

I am sitting at the airport in Reynosa, Mexico waiting for my plane to pick me up and take me to Baja for our orca and Mobula ray expedition. Super fired up about getting there already. Baja is a fantastic place, and this time of year, the ocean is thick with wildlife. These are exploratory trips because you never know what you will find. Like our pelagic trips in November off Baja, every day is different.

the adventure begins…

the orca pod we encountered.

On this trip, the goal is to find orcas, but we will also be stopping to check out any other wildlife we may find, including the tens of thousands of Mobula rays out there right now. So the potential for great encounters is there and could be epic when we see the large groups of these beauties.

Plus, this is also prime-time smooth hammerhead season off Baja, and they are probably here because of the mobulas as well. I flew out a day early to join up with one of the local shark operators to spend a morning looking for these guys. Pelagic sharks are always fun. They are hard work to chum in, but when they finally do arrive, they are so much fun.

smooth hammerhead

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mating mobula rays

We ran our first trip off Baja for orcas back in 2019, and thankfully it was a success. We found them on day one and had some fantastic encounters with them. We also spent some time with mating Mobula rays which were unique and beautiful to experience. So our first trip was a truly memorable experience, which got us fired up about running another one. Sadly due to the corona crisis, we had to cancel our 2020 trip.

Despite a few hiccups along the way, we are all set to run the trip this season, and now we are just a plane ride away from it all beginning!

THE CORONA CHRONICLES BEGINS…
The goal is to share as much as I can with you guys daily—Internet permitting, of course. I should have wifi at our hotel where we will be staying to share updates nightly (when possible) with you guys. I will try not to bore you with too much writing. I am just trying to find an interesting way to share our world with you all, along with the highs and lows of the travel life in this post covid world. I tried it with videos years ago, but it was challenging to record/edit and then post, especially with sketchy wifi, so I gave up the ghost.

Anyway, they are now boarding the plane, so I got to go. But super fired up about this trip - well, two trips, we are running this one for two weeks, back-to-back, and I am excited about sharing it all with you guys.

Tomorrow morning I head out to look for smooth hammerheads… so look for a report late Tomorrow night.

big orca male we encountered in 2019.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

Norway Adventure Photo Gallery

So I finally got around to editing the majority of the images from our Norway trip and cut together an album I am happy with. I do admit, I really miss the crazy cold conditions we had while visiting Norway. I miss the crunching of the snow, the beautiful white powder everywhere, I miss photographing wildlife while the snow fell, and especially the tension that was building every time we all walked together with our group in the snow. Someone was always looking over their shoulder, for fear that a snowball fight might ensue. Lol, but I do miss the fun we had with our amazing group out there. Anyway, here is the album I cut together from the trip, I hope you enjoy.