We are crouched low to the ground, hovering like flies.
Caesar rolls onto his back, exposing his belly as he scratches his brow. At this distance, I can see the individual lashes, so like ours, surrounding his coffee-colored eyes. For a while, he watches us; poses for us; seems to want to communicate with us.
Read MoreFor the first time in three weeks I am alone, driving from Windhoek toward the Namib Desert beneath a ubiquitous blue sky, its presence above the savannah creating the illusion of a flat, wide Earth. Traffic quiets as the landscape shifts, from dramatic rock piles that converge incongruously to the Naukluft Mountains, a sort of highway toward the dunes.
Read MoreTravel and nature programs transport us to the places we long to visit. The best capture sights and sounds that elude even the best traveled: a young leopard exiting its den for the first time; hunts that fatigue the cheetah's lanky limbs; and lion roars sounding at dusk, sending terror across the savannah.
Read MoreIt was pitch-black as I walked to my cabin after my first day of volunteering at a big cat sanctuary in Namibia. Reflecting on my day as I navigated the contours of the dirt path, I recalled grueling work in the bush. Morning devoted to cutting raw horsemeat in preparation for afternoon feedings, outings to which I was not invited, relegated to cleaning a vast aviary where I shoveled dirt and bird feces for several hours, their stains imprinted on my clothes for days to come.
Read MoreBundled in their warmest winter attire, more than ten thousand San Antonians gathered at the Pearl Brewery Complex last December for its first annual Tamale Festival, a colorful celebration of a unique holiday tradition: tamales for Christmas. Friends and families shared bites of tamales and empanadas, pulled meat tacos, and sugar-drenched buñeulos while exploring the complex’s grassy public spaces and industrial, eco-friendly buildings. Mariachi bands sang in unison on several makeshift stages while live cooking demonstrations beguiled epicureans of every age.
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