If You Are Going To Dream....Dream Big!

Do you have a website that you visit everyday? Or one that you religiously look at when you are bored?

I do.

National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

I love this place. I get lost here during the day scouring through pictures and adventures.
Well today I stumbled upon 2 things I must add to my “dream” bucket list:

#1. Biking in the Canary Islands

**click picture to view larger**

Lure: Mountain biking along volcanic trails

Location: La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain

Don’t let the Canary Islands’ reputation for being overrun by beery blokes in ill-advised Speedos discourage you from heading to pretty, rarely visited La Palma, the steep, northwesternmost island in the seven-isle chain off Africa’s Western Sahara.

Here, a jagged mountain ridge splits the island north to south, and in the center of it all is La Caldera de Taburiente. At 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) deep and six miles (ten kilometers) wide, it’s one of the largest eroded craters in the world. Mountain bikers of all stripes come to ride ancient trails that crisscross the island, from mellow, ripply traverses over lava fields to technical singletrack that free falls from barren summits to deserted black-sand beaches.

Siegmund Schuler runs guided tours of the island with Bike’n’Fun and says, "Every year we find or build new tracks." Make your base camp close to the trails at the orange-tree-shaded Pensión la Tienda, a 150-year-old, eight-room country house in tiny ridgetop El Paso. Plan a day with Natour Trekking to hike into the windless, brook-laced forest on the crater’s floor, and set aside another to stroll colonial Santa Cruz, where waterfront restaurants along the Avenida Maritima serve goat stew and papas arrugadas (potatoes with garlicky mojo sauce).

#2. Diving in Indonesia

**click picture to view larger**

Lure: Dive green and dive often

Location: Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands

Tiny Batbitim—part of a mostly uninhabited karst archipelago northwest of West Papua—is home to great schools of giant tuna and mobula rays hunting shimmering clouds of anchovies. "We hung in mid-water watching this spectacular dance unfold," Misool Eco Resort owner Andrew Miners says of his first dive there. "I realized that not only had I stumbled upon a place of spectacular beauty, but, aside from a few intrepid divers, I had arrived before anyone else."

Miners decided this was the place for the land-based conservation project he’d been dreaming of. Working closely with elders from nearby villages, he leased Batbitim and established a 77-square-mile (199-square-kilometer) No-Take Zone where all fishing (including prevalent cyanide fishing, bombing, and shark finning) and harvesting of turtle eggs is prohibited. With the help of his wife, Marit, and local craftsmen, he designed 11 unobtrusive but stylish cottages using salvaged driftwood and native thatch, incorporating a dive resort into his mini-eco-paradise that’s committed to operating sustainably. Request one of the eight stilted structures hovering over the lagoon; they have built-in deck hammocks and are just a few kicks away from the house reef.


Ahhhh, what I would give to run off on this type of vacation. Maybe one day my dreams will come true...I'm not giving up!