Each year the gray whales migrate from their feeding grounds in the north to their nursery lagoons on the Pacific side of the Baja California where they rear their young—a time when most species exhibit a high degree of protectiveness. In the 30+ years we’ve been leading Baja California expeditions, we’ve found the opposite: mother whales show a great deal of curiosity around us, and a willingness to let their playful calves approach us. While these encounters don’t happen all the time, they do happen a lot in Magdalena Bay during the right time of year.

Sven Lindblad, founder of Lindblad Expeditions, shared the video with this note:

There are many things I love in life—being a father, exuberant nature, and moments of pure joy.

My 13-year old son, Eric, filmed this encounter in March with his Christmas present—a GoPro.

I believe lots of people would enjoy this. Feel free to share.

-Sven

Afar Magazine is offering a path to publication through their Exceptional Travel Experiences 2013 Contest. They ask travelers to share an Afar Highlight—a photo and brief, detailed description—of a peak experience while traveling. It could be a morning spent wandering among a colony of King penguins on South Georgia Island, a close encounter with a Minke whale in Antarctica, or a day among the dolphins of Baja. Winners of the contest will be featured in the August/September issue of Afar.

The deadline to submit an Afar Highlight is May 20.

Photo by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic Staff Photographer

Last week 14 teachers from around the country gathered at National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, D.C. for a three-day professional development workshop in preparation to be Teacher Fellows this summer. In groups of two and three they’ll sail aboard National Geographic Explorer to Svalbard, Iceland, Greenland, and the Canadian High Arctic over their summer breaks.

The teachers were selected to participate in the Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Program, named in honor of Gilbert M. Grosvenor, Chairman Emeritus, National Geographic Society and Education Foundation. The program is designed to give teachers and educators the opportunity to extend Grosvenor’s legacy of excellence in geographic education, in this case through firsthand experience that they can bring back to their classroom and beyond.

The workshop, sponsored by Google Education and hosted by National Geographic Education Programs, included a host of Lindblad-National Geographic naturalists, a National Geographic photographer, a screening of James Balog’s film Chasing Ice, and a question-and-answer session with Gil Grosvenor. The group also found creative uses for technology, using iPads for a FaceTime session with last year’s Grosvenor Fellows, plus hands on data collection activities with Vernier probes, GPS units, and other tools for exploration.

Meet fellows Bill Schmoker, Joe Super, Sue Pike, and the rest of the group. We look forward to following their adventures in the high Arctic and their innovations in education upon their return.

Shawn Heinrichs, the photographer in Sri Lanka, took the bold step of suiting up to dive with the orcas attacking the sperm whale. As no humans have ever observed this kind of behavior up close, he was relying mostly on faith for his safety.

Whether the words “theme cruise” pique your interest or turn your stomach, you’re probably familiar with the concept. For decades cruise companies have filled ships by organizing departures around specific areas of interest: jazz, golf, motorcycles, and more recently, mid-90s alt-rock bands and Kid Rock, both featured in a New York Times profile. Part of the appeal is sharing the experience with like-minded people, and usually there are a couple of traveling celebrities thrown into the mix—people you might see walking around the 3,000-person cruise ship.

A Lindblad-National Geographic expedition is about as far as you can get from a theme cruise. Though, the argument could be made that all of their expeditions encompass certain themes: research, photography, history, and engagement with the wild world. And certainly every cruise aboard their 24- to 148-guest expedition ships attract like-minded guests.

In 2009, they took it a step further by adding their own type of onboard celebrities with the Global Perspectives guest speaker program aboard their flagship National Geographic Explorer. They began inviting individuals from the top tiers of science and journalism, or experts with rare experiences to add layers of interest to the already lively onboard expedition atmosphere. Travelers to the Baltics, steeped in the history surrounding the fall of communism got the added resonance of meeting Mikhail Gorbachev. Guests on a circumnavigation of the British and Irish Isles got a historical perspective from journalist Ted Koppel. And while exploring Antarctica, Buzz Aldrin has shared stories of exploring the moon with spellbound guests. Within a few years, the roster of past Global Perspectives guest speakers read like a list of adjunct professors at a top university.

While every National Geographic Explorer expedition includes guest speakers, one is nothing less than a complete debrief on a continent. This expedition would be the dream of biology lovers, filmmakers, photographers, and international music lovers. It is called Epic South America: an ambitious 38-day voyage along the east coast of the continent—from Trinidad along Brazil’s tropical and human history-rich eastern coast, to finish with a flourish in Buenos Aires. Along the way, the expedition will explore a trio of legendary rivers, visit seldom-seen wildness like Fernando de Noronha, multiple UNESCO World Heritage cities and vibrant colonial cities.

The list of Global Perspectives guest speakers for this expedition is so extensive that as long as you’re interested in something, you’ll find someone very interesting to talk to.

Cesar Gaviria, former Colombian president, will be aboard. He guided Colombia through turbulent years, and even saw Pablo Escobar’s reign of terror to an end. Some of his work was documented in the popular book, Killing Pablo.

Bio-nerds and anthro-geeks will be in ecstasy with some of their field’s historic leaders, including Thomas Lovejoy, the man who coined the term “biological diversity.” National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis will join a portion of the trip. An ethno-botanist and anthropologist, Davis wrote The Serpent and the Rainbow, among other books, and has been called “the explorer of the millennium” by National Geographic.

Students of the nature documentary will even have their own clique. National Geographic photographers and filmmakers Cotton Coulson and David Wright will be aboard, offering a video workshop to enable nature-film lovers to shoot and produce their own documentaries during the voyage. Photojournalist Tyrone Turner, whose Brazil portfolio appeared in National Geographic’s April 2012 issue, will offer field shooting tips and inspiration.

Given the importance of music to the region, music will be a theme, too. Jacob Edgar, an ethnomusicologist, researcher for Putumayo World Music, and record label owner will be aboard to arrange concerts and explain the diverse musical styles the voyage will encounter.

Also aboard: author of New York Times bestseller, How to Be a Carioca, Priscilla Ann Goslin; Suzana Machado D’Oliveira, an expedition pioneer and expert on the region; and Mark Curran, who taught Spanish and Portuguese at Arizona State University for 34 years and whose research has n Brazil’s folk-popular poetry and its relation to Brazilian erudite literature and history has resulted in 11 books published on the topic. And perhaps best of all, the guest speakers who’ve opted to join the expedition do so as fellow travelers, so among only 148 travelers, you’re ensured opportunities to share one-to-one conversation over dinner or drinks.

Get up to date on Brazil, a country and an economy on fire, and have the time of your life exploring a new destination. Some cabins are still available and there’s an enticing airfare offer too; Epic South America expedition sails September 18, 2013.

National Geographic explorer-in-residence Jared Diamond studies traditional tribal societies and has written several books, including Collapse, The World Until Yesterday, and the Pulitzer prize winner Guns, Germs, and Steel. In this talk, he offers insight into how tribal societies deal with aging and offers some lessons modern societies can learn from them.

If you’d like to meet and travel with Jared Diamond, he’ll be aboard National Geographic Explorer for an expedition in the high Arctic this summer (June 21, 2013). A few cabins are still available.

Spend a day with our guests on Santa Cruz Island in Galápagos and see not just the strange and beautiful wildlife, but the way some residents choose to make a live: sustainable farming in the highlands. We visit a farm that produces sugar cane in the old-fashioned method, plus shade-grown coffee, and a Galápagos liquor made from fermented and distilled sugar cane juice.

The Charles Darwin Foundation has been a tremendous boon to biologists, researchers, and nature lovers interested in the Galápagos Islands. Besides their numerous conservation projects, the foundation also documents natural history, distribution and threats of Galápagos species, and meteorological conditions. They also publish a scientific journal on the ongoing research in the archipelago.

Since 2010, much of this information has been moved online onto part of the foundation’s site called Datazone. Recently the site received a major upgrade. New features have been added to the Collections, Checklists, the Metrological Database, and the Galápagos Research sections. All of the scientific journals they’ve published over the years have been archived online, and future journals are now available as downloads. Now, for the first time, anyone with an Internet connection can visit the website and search across the entire Datazone to download hundreds of scientific publications for free.

Whether you’re a citizen scientist, a lover of Galápagos, or getting excited for an upcoming trip to the islands—you’ll find it’s a fantastic resource.

Financial support from the Lindblad/National Geographic Joint Fund helped the Charles Darwin Foundation upgrade and maintain Datazone.

World music tastemaker and founder of the record label Cumbancha, Jacob Edgar travels in the globe searching for—in his words—the next Bob Marley. Last summer he sailed up the entire coast of West Africa aboard National Geographic Explorer.

He talked about the experience in a recent profile in Afar magazine: “We stopped at São Tomé and Príncipe, two islands that make up one nation. I’d heard of only one musical group, Africa Negra, from that country. My local contact took me to a “record store”—basically a man with a computer who burns CDs for you—and I found gem after gem of amazing artists and songs. The musicians I spoke with rattled off the names of about 20 or 30 rhythms, reflecting all the various cultural forces that have converged on those islands.”

This year he’ll again join us aboard Explorer on another extraordinary journey—Celebrating 125 Years of National Geographic: Epic South America. He’ll join our already expert staff bringing his unique talents as we explore the dazzling cities and quaint villages from Trinidad all the way south to Buenos Aires—a 4,000-mile journey we’ll undertake over 38 days.

This year National Geographic photographer filmmakers Cotton Coulson and David Wright will be conducting video workshops aboard National Geographic Explorer during our Epic South America expedition and the Nov 7, 2013 Antarctica, South Georgia & The Falklands expedition.

They’ve created a series of gear-up videos to helps guests get a head start on preparing to shoot and produce their own nature documentaries, you can find them on Cotton Coulson’s Vimeo page. And you’ll find tutorials, tips, and equipment reviews on their new website, Expedition Workshops.

National Geographic photographer and filmmaker James Balog has recently been on NPR, given a TED talk, and spoken to several news outlets about his film Chasing Ice. Last month he joined us aboard National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica, where we screened his film and he spoke with guests. And this summer, though Balog won’t be aboard, Explorer will venture to Ilulissat glacier—where his crew filmed the largest glacial calving event ever recorded.

There is limited space aboard to join us on the expedition, Fabled Lands of the North: Greenland, Baffin Island, Newfoundland & Labrador.

Guests aboard National Geographic Explorer had an exceedingly rare wildlife sighting the other day in Antarctica when they spotted an isabelline Gentoo penguin. This individual has a rare mutation that’s found in about 1-in-100,000 penguins lending it a grayish yellow-blond color instead of traditional black-and-white.

The name of the color, isabelline, comes to us from a story about the Archduchess of Austria’s underwear, believe it or not.

Our undersea specialist David Cothran tells the story: “The color itself is named isabelline, from the story of Isabella, the Archduchess of Austria who pledged that she would not change her undergarments until her husband the Archduke returned victorious from the Siege of Ostend. Unfortunately, the siege lasted not a few days but over three years and by the end of that time, so the story goes, the Archduchess’ undies had taken on the yellow-grey color that now bears her name. Despite the off-color (!) story, it was very exciting to encounter this rare and really quite beautiful bird.”

Our past guest aboard National Geographic Explorer, Judy Warner created an Antarctic-inspired quilt from her expedition. She shares the story behind its creation on her blog (where you’ll also find more Antarctic-inspired designs).

“A year ago, I was on the National Geographic Explorer voyaging in Antarctica. On Christmas Eve, we traveled down an icy bay and sent out two zodiacs to pick up two volunteers and transport them to Port Lockroy for Christmas dinner. The volunteers had been repairing huts used by scientists studying in Antarctica.

My art quilt, Journey, captures the zodiacs journeying through an icy channel to pick up the volunteers. It was an amazing way to spend a Christmas and last night I hung Journey in our dining room to remind us of how fortunate we were to have the experience.”

Jared Diamond, author of the widely acclaimed book Guns, Germs, and Steel, is on the road promoting his new book, The World Until Yesterday. His latest work follows the story of a young boy in Papua New Guinea killed in a traffic accident by an attentive driver who was simply unable to stop in time. Within five days of that accident, the driver and the family of the child had made peace.

On NPR, Diamond says, “They ate together. They cried together. They said how sad it was to lose the dead boy. And they reached emotional reconciliation.”

An expert on Papua New Guinea, Diamond cautions us not to romanticize traditional societies, for they have much to teach us. His story of conflict resolution is one example.

Jared Diamond is a Pulitzer Prize winner, professor at UCLA, and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. He’s currently engaged on a speaking tour promoting his new book. In June, he’ll join us aboard National Geographic Explorer on the expedition Land of the Ice Bears as a Global Perspectives guest speaker. A few cabins are still available.

Are you an educator? Once again National Geographic Education Programs and Lindblad Expeditions are offering current K-12 teachers and informal educators the opportunity to travel aboard National Geographic Explorer over part of their summer break. The educators selected for the fellowship will meet in Washington, D.C. on April 25-28th for a pre-trip workshop sponsored by Google, National Geographic, and Lindblad Expeditions. Then in June, July, or August 2013 they’ll venture to Norway, Arctic Svalbard, Iceland, Greenland or the Canadian High Arctic on a Lindblad-National Geographic expedition.

Apply for the fellowship at National Geographic education.

Last month we received this thoughtful letter from one of our Amazon guests, and we asked if we could share it here. His story, while atypical in terms of his unnerving experience in Peru’s airport, is a thrilling example of expedition travel and the high level of service our guests receive. Racing downriver aboard a skiff at night, slicing through the dark, calm water to catch the ship is, I’m sure, an adventure our guest will never forget. Thanks very much for sharing your experience, Gerald.

December 1^st is Antarctica Day, commemorating the 1959 signing of the international treaty that set aside 10% of the Earth for research and peaceful purposes. Our company’s history in Antarctica began seven years after the treaty was signed, when Lars-Eric Lindblad brought the first travelers to Antarctica aboard Lapataia in 1966. Then, as today, Antarctica is a land of superlatives—stunningly beautiful in a very big way. Its seas teem with life—humpback and killer whales, five different kinds of seals—and shorelines studded with thousands of penguins.

A star of international cooperation, conservation, and advancement of science, Antarctica remains one of the planet’s wildest places. We’re proud to have shared the place with so many adventurous travelers, and we hope we’ve inspired many of them to advocate for its protection. Happy Antarctica Day.

When the Galápagos tortoise Lonesome George died at the Charles Darwin Research Station earlier this year, it was thought that his subspecies had gone extinct. Researchers at the Darwin Station had hoped Lonesome George would breed with tortoises from neighboring islands, but he died never having sired progeny in captivity. He was the last of his line.

But a new study conducted by Yale University researchers has found that tortoises living in the wild near Wolf Volcano share much of the same DNA as George. And they agree that it’s possible more of his kind could still be living in the wild. A survey of 1,667 wild tortoises identified 17 descendants of the same ancestors of George. Of the 17, five were juveniles suggesting that a purebred tortoise, the same as George, may still live on the island. If one does exist, it wouldn’t be the first time this subspecies has made a startling appearance.

George’s subspecies, Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni, was wiped out by human settlers in the early 1900s and declared extinct—until a George was discovered in 1972.

If you’re a regular viewer of Jeopardy!, odds are you’ve seen a clue or two shot aboard a ship in the Lindblad-National Geographic fleet. We’re expedition travel partners of the Jeopardy! Clue Crew and they travel the world with us, from fascinating global cultural sites to cosmopolitan urban jungles to the most remote corners of the globe.

Tune in today to see a category featuring Clue Crew members Kelly and Jimmy as they traveled through Vietnam & Cambodia with us aboard Jahan. To watch Jeopardy! in your area, click here for more information.

In other Jeopardy! news, starting today, you’re invited to test your knowledge on our new interactive map on Facebook. Challenge yourself and see video clues shot on location with the Clue Crew in Galápagos, Costa Rica & Panama, Antarctica and more!

Leopard & Cub

We began another beautiful morning at MalaMala searching for lions that had been calling at dawn across the river from the Main Camp. Soon we got a radio call that Keith (the Main Camp Manager) had just sighted a leopard and cub from the camp’s deck. We turned and headed to the edge of the river in the vicinity where they had been seen. When we found the mother and cub, they were in the shade behind vegetation near a quiet pool. We waited patiently, and soon the mother got up and began walking south along the shore. Our guide, Sean, moved the vehicle beyond them to an area where he suspected they might come up the bank. As they ascended the embankment, they came right into the morning sunlight and walked straight towards our vehicle. It was a stunning moment, and the view of their faces captured the seriousness of the mother (who had had her kill stolen the night before) and her charmingly innocent looking cub. As we followed them, this inquisitive cub wanted to climb up everything it passed; rocks, trees, and nearly onto the bonnet of our vehicle too.

Lions Ambushing an Impala

In classic MalaMala fashion, after spending some quality time watching a leopard mother and cub, we let other vehicles have time with them as we headed off for our morning coffee and snacks. Afterwards, we started heading south to view the hippo pool, but got delayed by elephants clogging the road near the river. As we considered our options, a radio call said that lions were nearby, so we turned back northward. We found members of the Styx Pride, though it was now mid-to-late morning and the lions were alternately drinking at a pool and moving into the shade. As we were watching several adult females and large young, one female headed off into the bush, noticeably in stalking mode. We tried to follow, but lost her in the dense thorn bush. Our guide, Sean, circled back around to the other pride members who were still in the shade of a large tree where we had left them. They began moving, and occasionally looking interested in something farther ahead of them in the bush. We followed and when they paused, Sean slowed and parked us within view of them. As we watched, suddenly several lions jumped up and quickly headed away into the bush. An impala came careening past us, swiftly disappearing into the bush, and at that same moment the lions ambushed a second impala only about ten meters from our vehicle. I swung my camera, aiming at the thrashing impala, and began shooting as the lions swiftly pulled it to the ground. The impala made this last gasp with no chance of escape. I only got a few frames before the antelope was completely surrounded by the hungry pride. Within minutes, the impala was devoured.

Jack & Rikki Swenson sail aboard our ships as naturalists and certified photo instructors, and they’ll  lead three Lindblad Expeditions & Bushtracks photo safaris in 2013. Two still have space available. You can see more of Jack & Rikki’s work online at Expedition Gallery. 

Namibia Photo Safari by Private Air  (pdf) | September 12, 2013 | See full itinerary

Wildlife Paradise Photo Safari: South Africa & Botswana by Private Air (pdf) | September 26, 2013 | See full itinerary

The host of the PBS travel series Music Voyager and founder of the record label Cumbancha, Jacob Edgar was profiled in the latest Afar magazine. Jacob travels the globe, seeking out unique, moving music to sign to his label and share with the world. Last year he traveled up the entire coast of West Africa with us aboard National Geographic Explorer, visiting the dazzling markets of the coastal cities always on the hunt for the new, intriguing music. Our video chronicler joined him as he visited the market in Dakar to see what locals were listening to, buying, and selling.

And next year, Jacob will join us again aboard National Geographic Explorer lending his unique expertise to our guests on two epic voyages: Exploring Africa’s West Coast in March, and again on our Epic South America expedition in September 2013.

SeaWeb’s Marine Photobank seeks to inspire people to care for and conserve our oceans in a unique way—by getting photographers to share their undersea photos.

As part of the effort to get photographers to donate their work to the Photobank, Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic offers the top prize in SeaWeb’s annual Ocean in Focus Photo Contest: A Galápagos expedition aboard National Geographic Endeavour.

The grand prize winner of last year’s contest was Terry Goss. Last week he sailed aboard Endeavour, and he made the most of it by taking some great shots, including some excellent undersea photos. And it’s certain to be a trip he’ll never forget, especially since he and his fiancée decided to get married at sunset on the ship’s bow by the captain.

This year’s Ocean in Focus Photo Contest is still open. Photographers are asked to donate up to 10 photos by January 31, 2013 for a chance to win this year’s grand prize.

A year ago NASA researches flying over Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier noticed a massive rift in the ice running for 18 miles across part of the glacier’s floating tongue. On a more recent flyover, they’ve recorded a second rift and noted that the original open further. When the rift finally reaches all the way across the ice, the glacier will calve and fall into the sea creating an enormous iceberg in Pine Island Bay. In the past, large icebergs have calved off Pine Island Glacier, but this will be the largest in decades and will leave the front of the glacier farther back than any other time in the recent past.

NASA has an animation of the rift forming over the past year online. And if you’d like to explore Antarctica for yourself, join us there aboard National Geographic Explorer.

Last spring 148 guests embarked on a sweeping journey up the coast of West Africa, beginning in Cape Town and landing in 16 countries before saying their goodbyes to one another in Marrakesh. Before the trip ended they would each fill an entire passport with visas, be greeted by national press in Liberia, and pass among deserts, tropical islands, and cities that pulse with life. And nearly everywhere they stopped, they would be greeted by the people.

One guest, Paul Pitzer, snapped photos of the people they met along the way, and turned it into a photo book: People 4, West African Odyssey.

He said, “I’ve been taking pictures of people since the ‘60s when I was in the Peace Corps. I consider what I do taking pictures; Grace (his wife) is the photographer. My book is really an addendum to hers, covering a fascinating aspect of an amazing expedition.”

Grace Pitzer’s excellent photo book, West Africa Odyssey, South Africa to Morocco, does an extraordinary job documenting the wonder and scope of the voyage, and we are delighted to be able to share Grace and Paul Pitzer’s work with you.

On a wind-whipped day in Visby, Sweden our guests aboard National Geographic Explorer took a bike ride outside of the city, through the woods, and along the coast to the sheer limestone cliffs looking out along the west side of Gotland. The cultural expedition visits all nine countries that boarder the Baltic Sea. And next year’s expedition among all countries bordering the Baltic Sea will prove to be even more epic in scope. A single departure, it is a circumnavigation over 16 days.