Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Category: bucket list

In Search of Whale Sharks

As I mentioned in my previous post, the main reason Chris and I ended up on Isla Mujeres this year was to search for and swim with whale sharks. I’m not sure we would have picked Isla Mujeres otherwise (though we ended up really enjoying it), and a bit of anxiety built up as I worried we wouldn’t find the sharks on this trip. But I felt like it was a good omen to see this mural on the way to our villa the first day!

I absolutely love animal encounters. They’re often the highlight of my travels, and I can’t ever get enough of photographing our furry, feathered, and finned friends. That said, I’m very picky about my experiences with animals. I try to learn as much as I can upfront about popular animal-related excursions, and I absolutely refuse to participate in anything where the animals are mistreated. I was happy to learn that many of the whale shark tours in Isla Mujeres respect the marine life and environment. (Sadly, the same cannot be said about swim-with-dolphins type experiences on the island. Please do not patronize these businesses!)

I ended up choosing On Isla Mujeres for those ethical reasons and because they received consistent glowing reviews. As a bonus, their boat, the Anastascia II, offered the convenience of a restroom on board. With a long, choppy trek out to sea that could take a couple of hours round trip, it just seemed like a good idea! I also specifically planned our trip around the week smack in the middle of whale shark season (June – September), and on a week with a full moon since this apparently might increase the chances of a whale shark sighting. (It’s something to do with the science of the full moon and the tide and an abundance of plankton).

So on the Monday of our week on Isla Mujeres we met our group at the marina behind Oscar’s in hopes of seeing these giant fish. I figured if we didn’t have any luck, we still had plenty of time during the rest of the week.

The trip out to sea took almost an hour, and we ended up over twenty-five miles away from shore. Fisherman ships radioed to our captain with a pin-pointed area where we could find the sharks, and they weren’t wrong. When we arrived, we could see a dozen or so boats and several people in the water, but the presence of other people quickly receded to the back of my mind because we were also surrounded by sharks.

Huge, polka-dotted sharks, longer than some of the boats. And so many of them.

While everyone in our group geared up in masks, fins, and life jackets, we all watched and collectively gasped as the giants gracefully maneuvered around with their mouths agape to scoop up thousands and thousands of tiny plankton.

And then it was our turn to jump into the deep blue sea. The first time Chris and I entered the water, we did so without cameras in order to enjoy the experience through our eyes only, and I’ll never forget the sight of a four-foot-wide mouth sneaking up on from my side, just inches away from me. Breathtaking.

Suffice it to say, this was my most challenging photographic subject to-date, and that’s saying something considering my experience with photographing toddlers! The sharks are huge, but they’re faster than I expected. It was actually kind of exhausting (but fun) trying to keep up with them. Thankfully we lucked out on a day where there were just dozens of sharks in the water, so when one disappeared another one showed up over our shoulders.

I’m not sure what they think of us being in the water during their feeding time, but they seemed neutral and unconcerned, as much as I could read a shark’s thoughts and feelings. They swam extremely close to us while collecting plankton, so I wonder if perhaps they’re even a little curious about us humans. But as I mentioned, it’s important to me that the animals aren’t impacted by our presence in any encounter. I’ve read some awful stories about tour companies that allow people to touch the whale sharks and hang onto them, and that makes me cringe.

From what I observed that day, none of the tour operators were feeding the sharks or allowing people to touch them. We were specifically instructed by On Isla Mujeres not to touch the sharks, and to wear marine-safe sunscreen. A maximum of two people were allowed in the water at a time, and only with a guide. So overall, it seemed to be a nice opportunity to simply observe these creatures up close in their natural environment without disturbing them.

After our adventure with the gentle giants, we moved closer to shore and stopped at a reef for snorkeling. I was actually a little underwhelmed with the snorkeling spot as the waves were pretty choppy and it was a little too deep (maybe 20+ feet?) to really see the coral and fish. I spotted a huge sea turtle along the ocean floor, but I didn’t bother with photos since he was so far away. On the plus side, the coral looked pristine and healthy.

For our third and final stop, we anchored at North Beach where our guides prepared fresh ceviche and tortilla chips for us. I had opted not to eat anything before the ride out to the whale sharks in case it was choppy (it was), so I was ravenous and managed not to take photos of our meal! It was especially cute that we used floating lifejackets as makeshift tables in the water. But I assure you it was delicious, and there’s nothing like standing in crystal clear water, enjoying drinks and a great meal after a big swim.

And with that, I am officially crossing this one off the ol’ bucket list, and I feel like I leveled up quite a bit in my ocean bravery skills!

August 12, 2016
Tiptoeing Through the Tulips in Holland

As our flight descended into Amsterdam, I gasped, “LOOK AT THE TULIPS!” to Chris…and to all of the passengers within several rows. I snapped a quick (and fairly terrible) iPhone shot through the dirty, scuffed-up airplane window, and spent the rest of the time gawking at the birds-eye sight of The Netherlands, exactly as I had imagined it.

So technically, teeeccchnically I could have crossed off my longtime bucket list goal of photographing tulips in Holland right then and there. But I had high hopes for doing a little better than a blurry iPhone snapshot. And then when we checked into our Oud-West neighborhood Airbnb apartment, a fresh bouquet of tulips awaited us. The next day we found them throughout the city, too, and thus plenty of tulips ended up in front of my lens. So again, I suppose I could have checked the box on being in Holland and taking pictures of tulips.

But I had dreamed of photographing the tulip fields specifically, the rows upon rows of perfectly placed bulbs, blooming in bright springtime colors. With time and convenience in mind, my trip research pointed me to Keukenhof Gardens, where I’d be able to spot as many tulips as possible within a 30-minute bus ride from Schiphol.

We purchased the combi tickets online before our trip, which allowed us to simply hop onto the 197 bus to the airport from the Leidseplein/Museumplein area of Amsterdam and then the 858 Arriva bus (big green bus covered in tulips – you can’t miss it) to and from the gardens. I liked that the combi tickets weren’t tied to a specific date, so we were able to play it by ear and pick the best weather day. I briefly considered a tour group simply for transportation purposes, but it would have taken up the whole day with no flexibility for the weather. I’m glad we went on our own schedule.

Keukenhof dazzled me from the moment we stepped through the gates (admission is included in the combi ticket), and I ran around photographing as many bulbs as possible before I wore myself out. Plenty of other people had the same idea that day, but despite the crowds it was still completely possible to find pockets of the park to ourselves, and to take pictures without people in them. I originally wanted to rent a bike and ride through the fields, but as was the theme of our trip, it was just too cold. I was happy to have a rain-free afternoon to see and photograph the flowers, so I’m not complaining! (Tip: flowers don’t always photograph as well in bright, direct sunlight, so don’t be discouraged by an overcast day!)

Several resources in my research advised to plan a half-day or even a full day at the park. I suppose it depends on what you hope to accomplish, but we were there a little over two hours and saw everything we wanted to see. If you include a mealtime there, plus moments to just sit and take it all in, and/or are visiting with kids and plan to play on the playground and spend time at the little petting farm, then yes, you can probably fill the day.

We didn’t eat a meal at the park, but we did find very tasty waffles and poffertjes (mini pancakes) at a stand near the playground. We also did a boat tour around the fields, but I found it to be a bit slow and some of the fields had already been harvested so we were often gazing at empty plots of land. I think it took about thirty minutes.

And now…copious amounts of tulip photos.

This photo of the field is the exact shot I was hoping to get! Rows and rows and rows…

It was so fun to cross this one off! Up next: an afternoon in the quaint neighborhood of Zaanse Schans.

May 11, 2016
Koningsdag 2016 in Amsterdam

On April 27th of this year, Chris and I found ourselves celebrating King’s Day in Amsterdam completely by accident! Since my main goal for visiting The Netherlands was to photograph the tulips, I only took tulip season into consideration when booking the dates for our trip. I selected the week right in the middle of blooming season, which happened to overlap with Koningsdag 2016, a huge festival to celebrate King Willem Alexander’s birthday. Lang zal hij leven! (Long may he live!)

Up until three years ago, the Dutch celebrated the birthday of queen mother Beatrix, but she has since abdicated the throne. We didn’t know anything about a day for the queen or king until after I booked the flights and accommodations. And now that I think about it, if I had known about the nationwide all-day party that draws millions of people out into the streets at once, I might have scheduled different dates since I’m not usually a fan of huge crowds.

But with everything set in stone, I decided to go with the flow and I even packed a shirt in the official royal family color orange. We ended up having a really cold and sometimes quite rainy day, so my orange shirt ended up buried under several layers, but it’s in there. And I bought a $7 pair of orange sunglasses before we left even though I wasn’t sure I’d need them. We did get a bit of sun, so I briefly put them to good use.

Locals and tourists alike donned orange outfits and accessories (and then covered them up with coats and scarves). The city gets dressed up, too, with orange accents.

After I found out about King’s Day being in the middle of our trip, I looked into the best ways to spend our time celebrating. Thousands of merrymakers choose to spend most of the day on the canals in the party boats. That option sounded like a ton of fun, but we didn’t want to restrict so much of our first full day in the city to a specific schedule. We decided to simply enjoy wandering the streets to partake in the various food and drink stalls, the vrijmarkt (basically a city-wide flea market/swap), and watching the boats from the bridges. Being on foot also gave us the added bonus of being able to duck inside when it started to rain.

Despite the chilly and occasionally wet weather, we found ourselves in crowds so thick it was nearly impossible to navigate through the streets. We shimmied and danced our way around, combining sightseeing with the festivities.

During one of the gray and rainy moments, we stopped by the Heineken Experience for a self-guided tour of the original Heineken brewery. Most things are closed on King’s Day, but several of the museums and major attractions do have open hours. (We also fit the Anne Frank House into King’s Day evening since that was the only date we were able to get tickets online.)

The Heineken Experience was the perfect way to spend some time staying dry and I got to try Heineken for the first time (gasp). Dare I say I actually enjoyed this tour more than our time at the Guinness Storehouse last year (gasp again!). I liked the layout, the interactive stations, and the multiple beer samples. While the view of Amsterdam perhaps wasn’t quite as spectacular as the Storehouse’s 360 view of Dublin, Heineken’s rooftop bar had plenty of room for seating, standing, and dancing. And plus they gave us hats!

We heard from a few locals that this year’s Koningsdag was pretty tame compared to years in the past. The weather probably contributed a bit, and some new regulations restricted the party to certain areas, but I still felt the crazy energy and loved the people-watching opportunities. What’s more fun than walking around with beers and seeing a city on a day where everyone is in a great mood?

Happy Koningsdag! Proost!

May 10, 2016
I Amsterdam

If you’ve read some of my other posts, you may have seen me mention that I don’t typically love big cities quite as much as their counterpart smaller towns. For some reason I have always wanted to see Amsterdam though, and over a period of four days, Amsterdam served as our home base in The Netherlands. In that short time, the Dutch capital worked her charms on me easily claiming a spot on my favorite cities list. Amsterdam fascinated me with its complex onion-like layers. The network of neighborhoods offer something for everyone: rich diversity, history, beautiful architecture, a cultural food scene, and of course there’s entertainment of literally all sorts. I found myself mesmerized by the motion of people, bicycles, trams, boats, buses, and cars, constantly weaving their way around the city’s canal structure.

Chris and I hustled to see as much of Amsterdam as possible while also including day trips to the tulip fields and to a quaint countryside neighborhood (posts to follow) in our four-day visit. I feel like we were able to get a good sense of the city, but I’d love to go back because I know we only scratched the surface. We stayed in a centrally located Airbnb apartment in the Oud-West neighborhood, and we ended up walking 5-10 miles every single day simply because we covered so much ground.

Our short stay started by spending the day with King’s Day revelers (post coming up!) and doing some photography around the city.

The transportation situation in Amsterdam captivated me. In such a walkable city, they also have the option of the tram system and of course bicycles. We used the tram a few times (really efficient and easy once you figure it out), but unfortunately the chilly weather dissuaded me from hoping onto a bike this visit. Not to mention, cycling in Amsterdam looked like an experts-only mode of transport! We saw plenty of near-misses for pedestrians and cyclists alike. Tip for anyone visiting Amsterdam: look both ways multiple times when you cross the street! You’ll feel like you’re starring in a game of Frogger while making your way across the bike lanes, the tram tracks, and the road.

We lucked out by scoring advance purchase tickets for the Anne Frank House on King’s Day evening, so we wrapped up our festivities with a moving experience at the museum. No photography is allowed, but I truly enjoyed soaking up the tour sans camera in hand. When we were planning our trip I almost gave the Anne Frank House a miss (I’ve read her diary and thought the museum might be too upsetting), but as one of the top must-see attractions in Amsterdam I’m glad we made time for it. I did do parts of the tour through teary eyes.

Speaking of must-see items, I also went to Amsterdam with a must-eat list, and I managed to check off four out of five local treats: bitterballen, Gouda cheese, stroopwafels, and poffertjes. I missed out on trying pickled herring because we just didn’t come across it (although we didn’t look that hard). Something tells me it’s okay that I missed out on it. Everything else was quite good!

Considering my bucket list goal of photographing the tulips in Holland during tulip season, I loved poking around in the floating flower market. It was a good preview of what I’d see later in the week!

And of course, we had to pop by the Red Light District to see what the fuss is about. We meandered up and down the main canal and some of the side alleyways, perusing sights and transactions that are fairly foreign to us back home. The RLD made for some good people-watching and photos, and we also ate one of the most amazing pizzas I’ve ever had at nearby La Zoccola del Pacioccone. Their homemade limoncello shots were fun, too.

We checked off almost all of our must-see-and-do list for Amsterdam, with the exception of the Van Gogh Museum. Ugh, I’m kind of gutted about it, but I totally goofed – I thought I bought advance tickets online for Friday night, our last night of the trip, but when we got there I couldn’t find the tickets on my phone. It turns out I actually didn’t buy tickets (oops!), and the ticket line was crazy long. We were nearing complete exhaustion at this point, however, so it was probably fine that we skipped the museum. It’ll be on our list for next time!

And I’m certainly hoping for a next time. I really did enjoy our time in this city, and I’d love to dig deeper someday.

Up next: King’s Day fun and festivities!

May 9, 2016
2015 in Review

Happy New Year to you and yours! I hope you had a warm and cozy holiday season and wrapped up 2015 on a high note. I ended up with a really bad respiratory infection (gross!) and had to postpone our trip to Colorado, so it wasn’t my favorite way to end the year. That’s also the reason I haven’t posted a single thing here in weeks. Thankfully I’m on the mend now after a round of antibiotics, although I still have bit of a stubborn cough. Bring on the new year with fewer germs, please!

2015 was pretty good to Chris and me in general and we had our share of fun highlights. We both started off the year really strong in our resolve to study hard and get a few professional certifications (work stuff, not pictured below), and we then spent the rest of the year doing my favorite thing: gallivanting around the world together! Our travels took us to West Virginia, Belize, Ireland, Scotland, and Toronto. We also shared a wonderful trip to Vieques with my sister and brother-in-law, something we don’t get to do nearly often enough. Perhaps my biggest moment in travel though was conquering a huge fear and checking off a bucket-list item: scuba diving! Combine that with our swimming with sharks adventure and I have almost gotten over my fear of the ocean.

The award for Most Improved goes to our master bathroom – I finally painted the vanity and it made a huge difference. And speaking of improvements, I went through a refinement round of Invisalign and finally finished treatment for good. Last but not least, Marty feels pretty accomplished this year for learning quite a few new words and phrases. One of his new favorites is, “Let’s go Caps!”

Of course, along with peaks come valleys. From the keeping-it-real files, 2015 contained the following low moments: an icky parasite from Belize (I was the lucky winner of that one), falling into a fresh cow patty while on a hike in Scotland (me again), and missing Christmas in Colorado while I nearly coughed up both lungs. But really, that’s not so bad at all and we feel very fortunate.

Here’s to hoping 2016 brings you peace, good health, love, and happiness!

January 1, 2016