Rain Forests & Reefs: Belize, Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica & Panama
February 7, 2014 - February 21, 2014Priced from: $11,980
Especially chosen for this voyage, our team of expert leaders and lecturers serves to bring a comprehensive educational component to your adventure through lectures, guided excursions, and daily recaps.
Lia Oprea (Expedition Leader)
Part Romanian, Lia gives credit to her Gypsy heritage for her peripatetic nature and love of exploration. This love led her to travel widely around the globe and, quite naturally, to a career in adventure travel, a trade she has plied for more than a dozen years. During this time, she has worked in several capacities, including translator, cruise director, and expedition leader. Her passion for travel dovetails nicely with her other interests, such as herpetology, ethnobotany, birding, and Mayan history.
Jack Grove
A marine biologist and professional naturalist, Jack has spent much of the past two decades traveling on, and lecturing about, the world's oceans. Cofounder of Zegrahm Expeditions and research associate in the Section of Fishes at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Jack is a leading authority on the fishes and marine environments of the eastern tropical Pacific. For seven years he lived in the Galápagos, where he carried out extensive marine biological studies.
Kevin Clement
Although his specialty is subarctic ecology, Kevin’s work as a naturalist and adventure travel guide has taken him from his home in the Pacific Northwest to all seven continents. In 1995 he became a Certification Instructor for the Wilderness Education Association and in 1997 joined the adjunct faculty of the University of Alaska. That same year he initiated an outdoor leadership program for the non-profit Foundation, leading students on month-long backcountry courses. He has worked in several national parks and has guided groups in whitewater rafts, in sea kayaks, and on foot.
Rich Cahill
Born and raised in Panama, Rich is one of the most experienced guides in that country, having led ecotravelers throughout the region for the past 20 years. He is a veteran of four trans-Darien expeditions, more than 250 excursions to the Barro Colorado Nature Monument, and countless other adventures in the rain forests of the isthmus. Rich’s knowledge and enthusiasm make him popular with travelers. He is an experienced diver, and in addition to his work in Central America, has also traveled in the Galápagos.
Greg Homel
Greg is an ornithologist, award-winning international nature photojournalist, and documentary film producer who operates Natural Encounters Birding-Tours, Inc. and Natural Elements Photo-Video Research, Inc. A birder-naturalist since early childhood, Greg now travels the world on a full-time basis in search of rare and little-known birds and wildlife, which he then brings to the rest of us through his state-of-the-art digital lecture series, television, and publications.
George Lake
Inspired from a young age by world-traveling grandparents, George developed a love for travel, adventure, and nature - especially pertaining to the sea. He became a certified scuba diver at age 14 and worked many years as a commercial diver, assistant dive instructor, and sailor working on charter vessels. He retired in 2006 from a successful career in computer network security and cryptography and returned to a life of travel and his passion for the sea.
Michael Moore
A Chicago native, Mike earned both his B.S. in biology and an M.S. degree in ecology, ethology, and evolution at the University of Illinois. Since then he has spent 10 years conducting research around the Pacific Rim, where he lived in the highlands of New Guinea, logged hundreds of hours beneath its waters working for conservation organizations, and taught field biology courses for the University of PNG.
Olga Stavrakis
An anthropologist specializing in the development of culture and complex societies and the modern transition from poverty to prosperity. During the course of a long and varied career, she has excavated ancient jungle cities, mapped prehistoric agricultural fields; and lived in remote villages in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America while working on economic development projects for the United Nations, USAID, and the World Bank. Dr. Stavrakis received her Ph.D.
Conrad Weston
Conrad was born in San Jose, Costa Rica where he studied business administration at the University of Costa Rica. However his love of nature led him to a career as a naturalist guide. Tropical ecosystems are his area of expertise and he enjoys bird watching, mammal spotting, and identification of plant, arthropod, shell and fish species. For over 20 years he has led tours in Belize, Panama, Guatemala, Venezuela, British Guyana, Surinam, Curacao, Aruba, Trinidad, Tobago, Virgin Islands, and Costa Rica. In his spare time, Conrad is an avid scuba diver, surfer, and photographer.
Dennis Wille
Dennis became enamored of wildlife as a youngster in his native Costa Rica. Living in Central America, it is not difficult to see how biology could become the favorite science for any nature enthusiast, as there are several thousand species in the region. He became a Tour Guide more than twenty years ago and since 1999, has been working as a Naturalist onboard expedition ships. He even has a passion for bird sounds and has a collection of them — recently he worked on the creation of a DVD that mixes the piano with the sounds of the birds.
