Douglas Long is the Chief Curator of Natural Sciences at the Oakland Museum of California and a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences. Most of his studies focus on sharks, marine mammals, and deep sea fish. He is also involved in wildlife conservation and is on the Research Board for Island Endemics International, an organization involved in saving and restoring habitat for rare island animals. He has taught college courses in the biological and earth sciences for over 21 years and has appeared on CNN, BBC, PBS, and the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week.”

Read a Q&A with Douglas Long here

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The Beautiful Vista of the Caribbean Photo credit: Douglas Long

Our Smithsonian Journey through the Lesser Antilles and the Caribbean Sea aboard the Silver Cloud was a beautiful cruise adventure from start to finish.  When in port, the diversity of land excursions provided a wide range of activities to suit just about anything one might like to do.  On our last day, in the port of Spanish Town on the British Virgin Island of Virgin Gorda, we decided to take an overview tour of the island.  We climbed into a comfortable open-air tour van with an affable driver and guide, and embarked on an end-to-end island journey.  What first struck me about Virgin Gorda was the lack of development and the abundance of native vegetation. The natural beauty of other Caribbean islands is often impacted by resorts or graze livestock, but Virgin Gorda offered a glimpse of what those other islands may have been like in the past.  As we toured over the hills and along the coast, we took in the numerous white-sand beaches, sapphire-blue waters, and stunning vistas that bring people back to the Caribbean again and again.

The Ruins of the Historic Copper Mine  Photo credit: Douglas Long

We visited a wide range of sights from the ruins of a historic copper mine, to the massive granite boulders of The Baths, to panoramic views of the other British Virgin Islands from our spot atop Gorda Peak.  Each of the passengers was simultaneously enjoying different facets of the tour: feeling the warm Caribbean sun, smelling the sweet trade-winds, listening to the history of the island, settling into the gentle comfort of a rum punch, or in my case, sharing bird-watching tips as we journeyed along. It was one of those instances of being in the blissful ‘now’ of a gorgeous place on a fine day, a relaxing appreciation of the beauty and restoration travel can bring, and how any single place can be enjoyed in so many different ways.   As we rolled back into Spanish Town to catch the tender ship back to the Silver Cloud, the first passenger who got off our van belted with gusto “That was GREAT!” Another chimed in, “The best tour yet!”   It was the perfect grand finale to a fantastic journey.

Photo credit: Douglas Long

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Dr. Richard Kurin serves as the Smithsonian Institution’s Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture with responsibility for most of its museums including the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Freer and Sackler Galleries, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Anacostia Community Museum, the National Museum of African Art, the National Postal Museum, and others including the soon to be built National Museum of African American History and Culture. He also oversees research and outreach programs, including the Smithsonian’s Traveling Exhibition Service, The Smithsonian Associates, the Smithsonian Channel, and the Smithsonian Affiliates—a network of 168 museums across the U.S. Read More»

Dr. Kurin is currently leading a group on an around-the-world tour of some of the world’s extraordinary cultures and will be sending regular updates from abroad. Come back regularly to follow along!

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Dispatch #3: Bali High

Bali is special. Think of the island as one big cultural festival of art, performance, architecture and ritual. Everywhere, everybody seems intent on turning everyday experiences into an artistic activity. Every house has a temple marking a daily connection to a rich, eclectic form of Balinese Hinduism. Women weaving, men carvings stone, villagers gathering for a temple festival with leaf sculptures, decorative cloths, food offerings, and a gamelan (gong, xylophone and drum) orchestra. Dance dramas abound—whether recreating scenes from ancient India’s classic Ramayana to Bali’s own indigenous Rangda and Barong masked dance.

Our group settled in Ubud, Bali’s artistic village, at two fantastic hotels—with spacious villas, private pools, and inspiring views of Bali’s rich, tropical, well-forested fertile landscape. Some of our travelers rode elephants, while others rafted down the Ayung River, bounding along the white water rapids. Most visited a butterfly farm, the Batukaru temple up in the mountains, and then visited a local school.

The butterfly farm proved especially interesting. A tremendous variety of Balinese butterflies are bred there—many with interesting colors and patterns and sizes—the larger ones as big as the span of an outstretched hand. We also saw adaptations of beetles and grasshoppers and other critters that mimicked various branches, leaves and other plant parts apparently to avoid predators.

Smithsonian travelers visit the Batukaru temple

At the temple we saw Brahmin priests—albeit on a lunch break in the sacred sanctuary of the temple that houses the sculptures of deities. Village women were weaving temple decorations from palm and leaves, while Balinese visitors were making offerings, some after having ended the grieving period for dead family members. Wearing a sarong is mandatory for those visiting the temple—our group included, and we did the best we could—looking like a somewhat rag-tag bunch, but nonetheless one respectful of local tradition.

Women at the Batukaru temple weaving decorations

Smithsonian travelers enjoy an open-air ride around town

After the temple it was off for an open air ride in Volkswagen 4-seaters up and over the ridge to another valley and Jatiluwih where we visited an elementary school. Teachers greeted us with huge garlands formed of scores of giant marigolds as young boys played in a gamelan orchestra and the school girls danced. One of our group wisely noted that the gamelan orchestra is kind of like Mickey Hart’s drum circle, with people playing percussion instruments and finding their harmony and rhythm. We distributed backpacks filled with books and school supplies to the school’s 150 students—part of the travel program’s philanthropic side.

Smithsonian travelers at a Balinese school

An evening program started with a welcome greeting by Don Washington, the public affairs officer at the U.S embassy in Jakarta and a talk by I Wayan Dibia, a native Balinese dancer, choreographer, and professor, who earned a PhD in ethnomusicology decades ago at UCLA with support of a Fulbright fellowship. Dibia, Don, and I worked together on a Festival of Indonesia program in 1991 that brought more than 100 Indonesia artists to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It was a lovely reunion, and demonstrated how links between the Smithsonian, the State Department, American institutions, and local ones—in this case Balinese, help build important relationships for educational purposes—and help make friends around the world too!

The finale was a dance performance by a Balinese group in an over-the-top setting at the hotel. Led by torch bearers, we entered a Balinese outdoor courtyard with characteristic architecture and friezes, lit up with lights and a bright spring moon. We enjoyed a lovely meal and a colorful dance performance.

While Kyoto’s pavilions and gardens, and Nara’s temple represented oases of peacefulness, contemplation, and traditional culture in the midst of a sprawling industrial society, Bali by contrast, save for its capital Denpasar, is still mostly rural, and still offers an abundant and almost sensually overwhelming canvas of local cultural expression. Though there are many changes since I first visited Bali some four decades ago, it is reassuring to see how local culture is flourishing in both traditional and contemporary ways.

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Find more information about our Around the World Private Jet trips here.

Read Dr. Kurin’s previous dispatch from Japan: “Connecting in Kyoto: Around the World with Dr. Richard Kurin”

Washington D.C. skyline at night

Washington, D.C. is such an iconic city that it is hard to image it not existing.  But like all great cities, our nation’s capital was imagined, planned out and then built, and certainly not in a day.

In 1971 Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a Frenchman who fought in the American Revolutionary War and a comrade of George Washington’s, was announced as the master city planner for the future capital.  He envisioned a place that married grand European style with American ideals, a city designed for citizens who were were truly equal.  In that light, he turned an area full of marshes, hills and working plantations into open public squares, wide avenues and formidable architecture.

Image source: Wikipedia

After surveying the land, L’Enfant came up with a very Baroque layout for the city. His plan called for ceremonial spaces and grand radial avenues, while respecting natural layout of the land. Thus, as his design took shape it became a system of diagonal avenues intersecting with and laid on top of a grid system.  L’Enfant symbolically placed the Capital building, the seat of Congress and therefore the people, on a high point of land, a location usually reserved in European city plans for the monarch’s palace. The grid would begin and branch out from where the Capitol Building would be built. 

The U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.

As L’Enfant biographer Scott Berg, explained to Smithsonian Magazine “The entire city was built around the idea that every citizen was equally important,” Berg says. “The Mall was designed as open to all comers, which would have been unheard of in France.  It’s a very sort of egalitarian idea.”

This was L’Enfant’s vision, and a good one at that.  However, he did not have popular support for his plans, in large part because his plan required the demolition of a number of high-ranking official’s houses L’Enfant eventually resigned his post, and at the time of his death in 1825 he had received no compensation, recognition or realization of his efforts. But a century later, the Senate organized a team of architects and planners to resurrect L’Enfant’s original plan and finally bring his concept to life.

Image source: Wikipedia

This vision culminated in the National Mall, a site L’Enfant had called a “great public walk.”  The National Mall stretches for two miles, from the Potomac River to Capitol Hill, and is lined with shady trees, gardens and the Smithsonian Museums.  While the end result, as we know it now, may not have been completed in L’Enfant’s lifetime, it has certainly lived up to his vision as a great congregating area for public events and protests, as well as many a pick-up ultimate Frisbee game.

Planning a trip to D.C.? Check out Smithsonian Journeys’ new Washington, D.C. Family Adventure here.

The regal female Leopard Legadima overseeing her territory. Photo by Claire Tinsley

When on safari, the “Big-5″ are on the top of everyone’s list of animals to see, and it is true that lions, leopards, buffalo, elephants and rhinos are extraordinary creatures to observe in the wild. Seeing a majestic elephant bath itself in mud or a lion greeting its pride is a magical moment that will make any journey into the bush unforgettable.

Yet, there are so many animals to see, many equally as exciting or unique as any of the Big 5, that you may be surprised to find yourself at the end of your safari with a new and unexpected favorite! With that in mind, here are five more animals to look out for while on your game drives.

Photo by Claire Tinsley

Two animals to reevaluate and pay more attention to on a safari are the hyena and the giraffe. Giraffes are simply regal. Watching them walk across the savannah as the sun sets is like taking a deep breath during yoga; it centers, calms and keeps you present. Giraffes are most closely related to the camel (you can see the resemblance if you look closely at their faces) and are among the only animals that walk by moving both legs on one side of their bodies at the same time. In order to drink water, Giraffes must spread their front legs very far apart (like they are attempting to do the splits) to get their faces close enough to the water.

Giraffes at Dusk. Photo by Claire Tinsley

Hyenas may seem like an odd animal to highlight. In fact the majority of people claim to dislike hyenas (perhaps because of their poor casting in Disney’s The Lion King!) In reality, these inquisitive creatures are fascinating to watch, especially when their young come up to your vehicle and start sniffing and chewing on the tires. Don’t worry, they aren’t trying to give you a flat tire; rather, this is how they experience and learn about the world. If you knew everything about your house, and then someone came and parked a car on your front lawn, you would probably go investigate it too! Hyenas are immensely playful animals and among the most social species. You may see the young scuffle around their den, but they are quick to stand at attention if their mother calls, as the Spotted Hyena is a female-dominated species. Hyenas are generally thought to be scavengers, and while they are indeed opportunistic animals and wouldn’t pass up trying to steal a good meal from another species, they kill as much as 95% of the food they eat. After making the kill Hyenas often make a laughing sound, to signal the rest of their family members that “dinner is ready.” However, this call may also bring in “unwanted” dinner guests, such as lions, to the table.

Three young inquisitive Hyena pups. Photo by Claire Tinsley

Be sure to be on the look out for the Red Lechwe. If you mention wanting to see one to a guide, you might get a surprised look, but this will be because they are in fact quite common. Part of the antelope species, they stand out due to their hind legs. Lechwe, which eat aquatic plants, are found in marshy areas and have evolved to use the knee-deep water as protection from predators. Their hind legs are considerably larger than their front legs and all four are covered in a water-repellant substance which allows them to run quite fast in knee-deep water. This, more often than not, keeps them safe from land-dwelling predators, such as lions and leopards (although crocodiles still have the upper hand). Seeing them run through a flood plain is a wonderful photo-op, so make sure to have your cameras ready!

A Red Lechwe. Photo by Claire Tinsley

And don’t overlook the smaller animals out there. Crimson Breasted Shrikes are small but striking birds with a white wing stripe and florescent red underbellies. They have a distinctive chirp, which will alert you that they’re near, but it’s the bright red in a land of browns and tans that will catch your eye. Look for them in drier thorn-bush areas, thickets and acacia scrubs.

A Crimson Breasted Shrike. Photo by Claire Tinsley

Chameleons are small and fast, but not as hard to spot as you might think, particularly at night. Their ability to change color is well known, but this is not done to match their background as commonly believed. Rather the color changes are used both to communicate and to regulate body temperature. When you come back from a game drive after dark, it can be hard to carry on looking for the bigger animals because all you have to locate them with is the reflective color of their eyes. Chameleons, which you would think would be infinitely harder to find, actually reflect light with their entire body! When a spotlight hits them, their whole body is the color of pearl, for the first couple of moments at least. This occurs because Chameleons have multiple layers of chromatophores, the top layer has red or yellow pigments and the bottom layers have blue or white pigment. At night the Chameleon shrinks these cells to preserve heat, which makes the blue and white cells more prevalent, and easier to catch in a spot light. You are most likely to see them in trees or bushes where they hope to spend a safe night hidden from predators. They vary greatly in length – from 2.5 cm to 50 cm – so be sure to keep your eyes peeled and get ready to impress your whole group by spotting a chameleon, at night, while driving 30 mph! Just don’t expect to get a picture of this phenomenon; it probably won’t come out very well!

Come experience the African wild with us! Learn more about our African Safari trip here.

Next time you are out for brunch, or even better, grabbing a cocktail in Venice, order a Bellini!  Originally concocted in Venice, Italy sometime between 1934 and 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani (the founder of Harry’s Bar), the Bellini’s popularity won it a permanent place on the menu, after having been originally created as a seasonal drink.  It got its name from Giovanni Bellini, the fifteenth century Venetian painter who used a color pink that Cipriani thought was recreated in his cocktail.

Image source: Wikipedia

Among the famous customers to frequent Harry’s Bar and sip on a Bellini made by Giuseppe Cipriani, are Charlie Chaplin, Barbara Hutton, Orson Welles, Truman Capote, and of course Ernest Hemingway.  Hemingway was writing Over the River and Into the Trees while staying in Venice and mentions Harry’s Bar many times.  When told that Hemingway gave Cipriani and his bar free promotion, he responded “It was me and my bar that promoted him.  They gave him the Nobel prize afterwards, not before.”

Image source: Wikipedia

When traveling to Venice these days, you can still stop off at Harry’s Bar, order a Bellini, and imagine the days when such visionary minds of the last century frequented the tables around you.  A Bellini at Harry’s Bar goes for approximately 18 Euros, but if you are just looking to be able to say you had a Bellini in Venice, you can get a non-alcoholic version in a bottle at the train station for a mere 2 Euros.  But beware; it doesn’t have as much history packed into the taste!

If you want to bring a bit of Italy to your brunch table, try the original recipe from Harry’s Bar!

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Ready to plan a getaway to Venice?  Travel with us and explore the ins and outs of this beautiful and magical city.  Learn more about our Hidden Venice tour here.