World Cup 2014: Brazil!

Sierra made another compilation video from our recent trip to Salvador for the World Cup!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rXN3-TA9hI

Sonoma with Nikki, Sierra, and Liz

Sierra made a short video collage of our recent wine tasting trip to Sonoma over Xmas. He is really becoming a skilled photographer, and now video editor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIFAGz_dfMk

Iceland!

For anyone who happens to check my blog a couple years after the last post...

Iceland (Gab, Nikki, and James!) from Gabriel Martinez on Vimeo.

Aussie Rules Travelling

Hi all,
For those of you that stuck with me through a summer of work, I'm back to my travels! Tonight I head to Australia and New Zealand with Nikki. For the next two weeks we will delight in the foods of Melbourne, then enjoy the opera in Sydney, followed by exploring the wonders of the ocean on the Great Barrier Reef, and end in adventure in New Zealand...possibly risking life and limb jumping out of a plane and plumeting to earth below. I will try to keep the blog posted at each stop, and I'll see you all when I return!

Untitled from Gabriel Martinez on Vimeo.

Namibia IHRC from Gabriel Martinez on Vimeo.

Safari Adventures!

If Victoria Falls was heavenly, then Chobe comes very close to paradise. The first thing to notice, which was true in Namibia as well, is the sky. I forget how unaccustomed I am to being able to view terrain all the way to the horizon. While I hear that pollution can make for amazing sunset colors, the ability to see distant silhouetted trees and hills in front of a burnt orange dipping sun is incredible.

The first night we arrived we went on a cruise down the Zambezi River. Along the way we saw crocodiles, hippos, and lots and lots of elephants. Chobe has the highest elephant population density in the world, and they were far more welcoming than I expected. Maybe welcoming is the wrong word; they were very disinterested in us, which I found to be the case with most of the animals we viewed. I think this speaks very well of the park itself, because disinterested usually means that the animals have been undisturbed by poaching. Plus it allowed us to get close enough to the animals for some good photos.

The following days we went on driving safaris and saw giraffes, water buffalo, a couple of lions, and much more. One of the most intense moments was when a tower of giraffes (awesome group name, huh?!) saw two lions across a field. The largest giraffes stood guard, and actually followed the lions as they slowly moved across. They were keeping a watchful eye on their potential predator, and at one point this sufficiently agitated one of the lions, which made a thunderous grunt and advanced on the giraffes. The giraffes fled, but only a few yards, and then they turned and resumed monitoring the lions.

Overall, the animals we were able to see were extraordinary, and witnessing them against the backdrop of the Zambezi River and African sun and sky made the viewing all the more brilliant. I left Chobe very satisfied and ready for Cape Town.

Pics to come in a few hours!