Yet again, the Nairobi Park lions have proved a disruptive element, one lioness actually settled down to sleep in the narrow passage separating little Kithaka’s stable from Maxwell’s Enclosure!   On another occasion it was Kithaka who first detected two sleeping lionesses in a bush, which triggered a mass retreat of both elephants and Keepers!

Orwa is recovering rapidly, gaining weight and gradually recovering strength, but remains breathless after running for his milk.   He tends to cling to the Keepers, and is a very gentle and polite little elephant and a great Nursery favourite of Kithaka..  Kainuk is another somewhat pushy member of the Nursery gang, often at odds with Sities.  She has always been extremely possessive of Turkwel, who, like all the older Nursery females, lavishes a great deal of attention on the smaller elephants that come in.  This invariably causes friction amongst previous spoiled babies who have enjoyed preferential treatment from an older Nursery female.

For more on forstering elephants & the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, please visit:

http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/

The Site International Foundation and the Incentive Travel Council released the first of four parts of its extensive “Participant’s Viewpoint” study and found high levels of interest and engagement among incentive travel program participants who did not make the cut.

Just 11 percent of the non-qualifiers in the study reported not striving for the travel award due to lack of interest, while the 66 percent said they were interested. Only 11 percent felt their employers treated them unfairly, while 65 percent felt their programs were fair despite not winning.

nearly 80 percent of  previous qualifiers said they were motivated or extremely motivated to qualify, while 69.9 percent of previous non-qualifiers felt that way going forward.

“Participants understand the objectives they have been given, they believe that they are being treated fairly and the objectives are being set fairly,” says  Steve O’Malley, Site International Foundation’s president, and senior vice president and general manager of Maxvantage, based in St. Louis. “The industry is getting more right than wrong.”

One statistic that might cause concern is 38 percent of respondents felt that the same people win each year. Alos, 18 percent reported that their engagement was lower after not qualifying. But 67.7 percent of non-earners planned to work harder to qualify in the future, while just 2.7 percent said otherwise.

-Alex Palmer

Incentive Magazine

Planners and suppliers from around the world flew into Panama in December to attend the 11th Annual Leadership Summit at The Westin Playa Bonita Panama—the new 611-room oceanfront resort owned by The Bern Group. The event was created by The Opus Group, based in Miami, for networking and product education. Panama is super hot right now with a bunch of new group hotels, making it a prime meetings capital in the easily accessible center of the Americas.

Nestled on a mile-long Pacific beach just 20 minutes away from downtown Panama City, the Westin and its staff did a phenomenal job playing host for the 4-day event, which exceeded many of the planners’ expectations. In fact, many had never been to Panama before and were impressed with not just the facilities, but the service, value and friendliness of the people.

As one of the first groups in-house, we were wowed when we stepped into the lobby with floor-to-ceiling windows offering up close and personal views of the beach. Lush tropical islands with mountains beckoned in the distance, and immediately your body starts to ratchet down amid the tranquility.

Much of the 65,000 sf of meeting space has similar vistas, like the beautiful Pacific Seascape Ballroom with a capacity for 800 pax. Basically, you have all the amenities of a modern meetings hotel with the backdrop of an exotic incentive resort.

The group dined quite well during our stay. There are so many different cuisines and menus that planners can use to create memorable dinners and events. The hotel features a Latin steakhouse, Pan Asian fusion restaurant and the Starfish Grill, serving ultra fresh sustainable seafood. Starfish is also great for a buyout either outdoors or inside with panoramic views of the ocean and fabulous pool. Capacity is 240.

The Westin’s rooms are very tastefully done as well with plenty of soothing neutral colors and accents of dark native woods. Of course, you’ll enjoy the Westin signature Heavenly Bed and Heavenly Bath, with a moveable divider when you want an ocean view from your bubble bath. We have to mention the comfortable oceanfront balconies with heartstopping views of the beach, islands and mesmerizing deep blue water.

Other hotel amenities include a Westin Workout Gym, a spa with seven treatment rooms, three freshwater infinity edge pools, and 42-inch LCD TVs and WiFi in the rooms.

Dinner with Friends
On opening night, planners were welcomed with dinner at the secluded Villa Bonita, the private residence of the Bern family set on a cliff over the Pacific Ocean. The 20 themed junior suites are decorated with items the family has collected over generations from around the globe. This property provides a fully multilingual staff, wine cellar and infinity pool, and it’s available for buyouts for corporate meetings and incentive groups.

Another evening, we all gathered for an outdoor feast at the 300-room InterContinental Playa Bonita Resort & Spa, also operated by Bern Hotels. Entertainment included performances like those you’ll see during Panama’s carnival, along with an awesome display of fireworks. The hotel recently hosted a Konica buyout for seven nights.

“We make it easy for our clients,” says Antonio Manfredonio, Bern’s corporate director of sales/marketing. “If they want all-inclusive, we’ll do it. We are one company with many choices: hotels, resorts, DMCs. Everything the planner needs, we have it.”

We asked Manfredonio what are some of the most popular group experiences in the region.

“Your group can check in at either the Intercontinental Playa Bonita or the Westin and enjoy programs to Panama’s old city, the new downtown and a Panama Canal tour,” he says. “Then they can transfer and check in at Gamboa Resort in the Gamboa Rainforest…. Or, your group can experience a myriad of programs to the beautiful rainforest. Most of the best experiences are no more than two hours away.”

Meet Local
Gamboa Tours handled logistics for the Leadership Summit group. Transportation was comfortable and convenient, and the programs they offered were well designed to inspire participants. My favorite was the Embera Village tour. Indigenous tribesmen transported us to their village via handcarved canoes over the lake and down a relaxing river. Our 25 group members were divided into three canoes, and as we pulled up to the village we were greeted with music and beautiful smiles.

We learned about their daily lives and the intricate crafts they make, such as weaved baskets colored with natural dyes. Then we all sat down for a fantastic lunch of fresh fried fish, plantains served in a banana leaf and then fresh fruit. Afterwards, some of our hosts performed traditional dancing and then a few of our group joined in­. It was truly a great networking event with everyone so engaged in such a memorable experience.

Some of our group also participated in a CSR event at the Pena Blanca elementary school in the town of Veracruz about 15 minutes from the Westin. American meeting professionals worked alongside Panamanian children to plant 45 trees around the school grounds. The goal was to teach the youngsters the importance of the natural environment, and how they have a responsibility for its preservation. Our group also donated school supplies and funds for new soccer nets, and then everyone had ice cream.

Where the World Meets
Panama, known as “Where the World Meets,” is a very attractive choice for meeting and incentive groups from North America. The government has invested in new roadways and a new 161,000-sf  convention center opening in 2014. The 100-year anniversary of the original Panama Canal and the new supertanker canal are also generating a lot of buzz and hotel development.

Also new, the Frank Gehry-designed BioMuseum Panama opens later this year. The ultra modern facility will house function space and exhibits celebrating Panama’s spectacular biodiversity and the many ways people are working to protect it.

Clearly, Panama is on the move.

“We will double our capacity of new hotel rooms in the next three years to 22,000 rooms,” says Panama’s Vice-Minister of Tourism, Ernesto Orillac. “We can wow groups with all kinds of activities from deep sea fishing off our 1,500 islands to the 2nd largest rainforest in the world. We offer the best connectivity from the USA. And add in our cultural and eco experiences with shopping, nightlife and casinos—we offer it all.”

Orillac mentions that Panama’s support services are as good as any in Latin America. For example, medical care is free for visitors up to 30 days should an attendee have a medical emergency. And, he says, planners will be provided with free meeting space at the new convention center when 500 rooms or more are booked. For more info, email gerencia@atp.gob.pa.

Le Méridien Bora Bora, French Polynesia. (800) 543-4300,

At Wyoming’s A Bar A Ranch, elk mingle with the ranch’s horses during morning feeding time. During the summer, guests ride those horses and fish the pristine North Platte River, which runs through 100,000 acres surrounded by national forest land. When winter temperatures dip down to minus 40 degrees and heavy snow closes most roads, well-bundled guests venture into the elements on the ranch’s Sno=Cat. Back at the lodge, longtime chef and cookbook author Kent Trebilcox, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, prepares a daily-changing menu and fresh-baked bread each night.

If sleeping near vast forests doesn’t quite satisfy the urge to be surrounded by trees, Oregon’s Out’n’About Treesort offers the chance to sleep among the branches in one of its 18 tree houses. Seven suspension bridges and more than a mile of zip-line courses connect the structures, set on 36 private acres. Tree-house-building seminars are even offered for those inspired by their stay.

For vacationers craving the roar of the ocean, the 16 cliffside yurts at Treebones Resort in California’s Big Sur area are as close as you can stay to the mighty Pacific while out of the range of salt spray. At night, guests can hear the barking of elephant seals — earplugs are available for light sleepers—  and during the day, intrepid paddlers can explore the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary on one of the resort’s kayaking trips. If the tentlike yurts seem a bit too luxe for hardcore campers, Treebones offers ocean-view campsites as well — BYO tent.

http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10097019-hotels-for-adventurous-souls

The Rocco Forte’s Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, recently announced its newly anointed “Tartan Butler,” a concierge named Andy Fraser who helps guests learn about their family history during visits to Scotland.

“It’s something I quite enjoy,” said Fraser, a Scotsman and longtime fan of Scottish and clan history, who has been informally assisting guests for some time on how to track down their Scottish ancestry. “Before I knew it, it really took off,” said Fraser. Both the position and title were recently formalized by the hotel.

Many Americans have Scottish surnames, and when they come to Scotland, wish to research their clan’s history, Fraser said. “We’ll sit down and have coffee. I plan itineraries to where their clan originally was from, where they ended up; I help with accommodations,” he said. “I just give whatever information I can.”

Sometimes it’s as simple as walking guests across the street from the hotel to the ScotlandsPeople Centre, where digitized copies of birth and death records as well as  coats of arms are archived — going back almost 500 years. Fraser also arranges drivers and tour guides, organizes customized tours, and helps guests identify family tartans and arrange to have kilts made with the traditional clan designs.

Fraser’s interest in genealogy began when he researched his own Scottish ancestors, which he traced back to 11^th century France. Such research can unearth some surprising results, he said. Two of Scotland’s more popular surnames — the MacDonalds and the Mackenzies — originate from “clans who were at war with each other over land,” he said.

Americans who share those surnames often want to visit Morar, in the Scottish Highlands, where a famous massacre took place in the 17th century between the two clans, a picturesque region of remote villages, where public transportation is limited. “It’s such a long drive there,” Fraser said, “but it is spectacularly beautiful to walk through the munros,” or mountains.

Prices vary depending on guests’ needs. Once, he chartered a helicopter, Fraser said. And some guests are particularly fond of including whiskey distilleries in their touring plans. “That’s the one thing I always get from Americans,” he said.

For travelers interested in tracing their own roots, Paul Nauta, public affairs manager for FamilySearch.org, a free, nonprofit, volunteer-driven website sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offered some tips to get started:

• Begin with your own family. “The number one thing to do is to contact your oldest living relatives,” Nauta said, and also talk to other relatives. “Write down everything they know about family history. And gather family documents, like birth certificates, marriage records.” As you start asking around, it isn’t unusual to find relatives who have informally been family historians, he said. “They often have the proverbial shoebox with a lot of information and old photos in it.”
• Contact local groups. FamilySearch Centers, FamilySearch’s network of 4,500 facilities that offer public access to genealogical records, are located in more than 80 countries, Nauta said. And many communities have history and genealogy organizations and local libraries that are excellent sources for research. Many of them “have people who love to help you,” Nauta said, people who have done their own searches and “love to pay it forward.”
• Use online resources. The Internet has made family history search so much simpler and faster, Nauta said. On Facebook, for example, people can easily search others with the same surname globally. Other sites, like FamilySearch.org, offer more than 500 free courses and online ask-a-question forums to connect with a community of people worldwide who can help you with your personal research for free, Nauta said. Other sites he recommends include: RootsWeb, ancestry.com, archives.com, findmypast.com and myheritage.com. The site deadfred.com helps to identify old photos, such as the date and region of origin.
• Contact archives abroad before you travel. If you plan to visit archives in another country, get in touch in advance of your trip. In many countries, the record custodians or archivists do not like drop-ins and require appointments, Nauta said. “Elsewhere in the world, there is not necessarily open access and it is not so public-service oriented.”
• First and foremost, have fun. “Stay organized, be patient and realize it’s going to take time,” Nauta said. “Realize that less than 20 percent of the U.S.’s genealogical records are searchable online today, and less than 5 percent of the world’s,” but millions are being added online weekly, he said.

You don’t have to live in Asia to take part in the festivities, either. Here is a list of cities where you can celebrate in the U.S.

If you take photos of a Chinese New Year celebration, or just have photos of destinations you’d like to share, click here to submit them.

With my dog-eared copy of Across Asia on the Cheap, I’ve been backpacking for six months with flowered skirt, pink flip-flops and a tube of mascara. A fabric pouch, pinned to my cotton Hanes underpants, conceals my passport and dwindling cash. I have no credit card and don’t dare ask my panic-stricken parents to wire more money. I have no air ticket home, and until I can see a travel agent in Delhi, I don’t know how much my ticket will cost. And I still have northern India and Nepal to explore on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Every rupee (fifteen cents) is precious. That’s why I am on this bone-jarring local bus in Karwar in southeastern India. A much longer journey, but cheaper than the train. It’s a forbidding, scrubby wasteland, unlike any place I’ve ever seen. Vultures are everywhere. (There are no vultures – at least of the feathered variety – in my hometown of Saginaw, Michigan.) Bleached carcasses of once-holy cows litter the desolate landscape. Waves of heat reflect off the roadway. It’s hotter than hell.

Most Indian buses have passengers bulging out the doorways. On this desolate road, my bus is nearly empty. Far ahead, I see a black dot. As we approach, a solitary figure flags the bus to a halt. The door opens. She gets on. I think she’s about my age but I can’t tell for sure because she is concealed from head to toe in a heavy black burka. Even her eyes are obscured by a screen.

I am mesmerized. In all my travels through southeast Asia this is my first sighting of a Muslim woman wearing this strange garb. I’m sweating through my thin cotton blouse and she’s in black? I recall my green wool plaid Catholic school uniform. Oh, how I hated it! Does she hate it? Does she always wear it? Is she allowed out in public without it? Isn’t she hot?

As a western woman traveling alone, I am accustomed to being stared at. Now I stare. She steals a glance at me across the aisle. My curiosity is relentless. What does she do? What is her life like? Is she married? Does she envy me? ISN’T SHE HOT?!

She catches me staring. She stares back behind the slit in her veil. We never speak. A few more miles down the road she stands up and turns toward me. Behind the screen, her eyes smile. I smile back. The bus creaks to a stop and she gets off.

It was one tiny, arbitrary moment 28 years ago, but I will never forget her. I wonder if she remembers me? I wonder where her path took her? We were two young women from opposite worlds on opposite aisles of a bus.

Random, momentary encounters – whether with a Muslim girl in Asia or a shopper in Sonoma Square – are profound reminders of our connection. Not just as women, but as human beings.  We’re all on this journey together.

If we could all just slow down enough to look each other in the eye, maybe – just maybe – the world would be a better place.

Originally published in Sonoma Woman magazine.

There it was:

Solar-Powered Floating Crocodile Head — The ultimate in swimming pool security!  Only $39.98.

I ordered it immediately.

When she arrived at my office a couple of weeks later, I was delighted at the life-like quality. The colors. The detail. The bulging yellow eyes. My staff thought I’d gone off the deep end. But I was resolute with my vision– and my plan was crystal clear.

I named her “Crocky.”

When it was time to pack for the incentive program I was escorting to Panama a few weeks later, she barely fit in the larger of my two suitcases, carefully swaddled in bubble wrap. I’m sure they’ve “seen it all,” but I hoped that TSA wouldn’t open my suitcase.

Gamboa is located on a sharp bend of the Chagres River where it feeds into Gatun Lake.  The area had been developed in the late 1930s to house construction workers involved in dredging operations for the Panama Canal.  An old single-lane wooden bridge crosses the Chagres and is still the only road access to what is now Gamboa Rainforest Resort – our hotel for the first three nights of my group’s incentive program.

Next morning, we split into two groups, each boarding a small boat with a naturalist guide. Given its location at the “end of the road” and the single road connecting it to the rest of the Canal Zone, Gamboa is adjacent to significant tracts of pristine rainforest. As such, Gamboa is home to caymans, crocodiles, sloths, turtles, iguanas and thousands of bird species.

Our destination is “Monkey Island,” where Capuchin and Howler monkeys live in their natural habitat.

As we cross under the old wooden bridge, we enter the shipping lane where massive vessels pass by, stacked high with Lego-like containers. Our guide points out the huge dredging operations, including the “Titan” – one of the world’s largest floating cranes.  The Titan was built by Hitler’s Germany and claimed by the U.S. as war booty.

When we reach Monkey Island, the boat captain turns off the motor and we drift silently, waiting expectantly for the resident monkeys to appear.

Nobody thought much about the large duffle bag I’ve brought along this morning. As everyone’s attention is focused on the island, I gently set Crocky afloat. She slowly drifted away from the boat and I settled back in my seat with amused anticipation.

Finally, someone spots her. There’s shouting. And pointing. The boat rocks as everyone lunges to the side to see what he’s pointing at. Cameras click away, furiously. The monkeys are screaming and even the guides are excited.

After some minutes, the fakery is apparent. I cannot suppress my amusement, and the fingers start pointing at me.

I reeled Crocky into the boat, where she was the subject of much admiration and more than a little embarrassment. For the rest of our program, Crocky enjoyed a privileged spot at the front of our motor coach. And, upon returning home, everyone could rightly claim that they’d spotted a crocodile in the Panamanian rainforest.