What a Year! Postcards from 2023

What a Year!

Postcards from 2023

Our team traveled across six continents this year. Here are some of our favorite memories.

The holidays are a time for celebrating the long-standing relationships that matter most.

For us, that’s family—which reaches far beyond our relatives to include our dedicated UNCHARTED team, our partners around the world, and, of course, you, our clients and guests. We spend a lot of our year as armchair travelers: We have watched you charge out into the world, and relished seeing you return from your journeys with a refreshed sense of adventure, personal growth, and new connections.

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But we, too, have traveled far and wide in 2023. Across six continents and 23 countries, our worldwide team also created some wonderful memories in locales like Taiwan, Nicaragua, Uganda, and New Zealand.

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In the spirit of great gratitude for all of the special relationships that connect us through travel, we want to share some of our odysseys with you. We wish you and yours a fulfilling new year, and look forward to traveling with you in 2024!

CHILE | KENYA | Italy | Germany | Mexico

This year I was lucky enough to visit Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya's Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy. We arrived at feeding time for the baby ellies, so caretakers with huge bottles of milk in hand started singing in unison to bring them out, and the tiniest and cutest stampede in history ensued!

As they were feeding, a caretaker named Dorothy told me about her favorite baby, Long'uro. At less than a month old, he was found stuck in a well after being attacked by hyenas. He lost 3/4 of his trunk in the ordeal. Dorothy said he came to the sanctuary with a lot of physical injuries and a broken spirit, but the other babies rallied around him, feeding him water and grass from their own trunks when they discovered he was unable to do so on his own. He is now thriving, capable, and will be able to return to the wild!

I also traveled to Sardinia, Italy, this summer, and one day my husband and I rented a small Zodiac boat to zip around the Gulf of Orosei. We swam and dove in clear, cerulean waters, and found refuge from the sun on empty, pristine, white pebble beaches where we enjoyed ice cold Ichnusas (Sardinian beer). We ended the day in the mountains above the sea, at a farm that served a local dish called culurgiones—pasta dough that is stuffed with potato, pecorino, and mint, and served with classic pomodoro sauce. Thinking about that meal still makes me teary eyed.

I always seem to find myself in the company of a twitcher (a bird enthusiast) while on safari. While in Tanzania this October, I met a young woman who asked our wonderful guides for one little favor: to see an African green pigeon. Now, this is no easy feat since they spend their days feeding on figs—and the trees are an equally green environment, making the warblers hard to spot.

But for the following 10 days while on safari together, "find the green pigeon!" became our group’s mantra. Finally, on our last day at Lamai, after hours of cheetah, lion, and crocodile spotting in the northern Serengeti, we parked our vehicle between two bright green fig trees to watch the sun set over the plains. It was glorious, still and silent. Then, our guide quietly pointed up and whispered, "Green pigeon!". And there they were! They blended in perfectly with the leaves of the fig tree. A little comment 10 days earlier brought us to this remarkable moment with our guide, so proud of his find. While this bird might not be part of the Big Five or on your bucket list of wildlife encounters, it was a moment I will not forget. We sat there quietly, reflecting on our magical safari together, until they flew away.

JAPAN | SPAIN | Morocco | Mexico

This fall I traveled to Japan, and my favorite part of the trip was exploring Yakushima Island in the far south, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its ancient cedar-wood forests and loggerhead turtle nesting grounds. Some cedars are believed to be over 1,000 years old, including the eminent Jōmon Sugi tree. I took a morning stroll through local fishing villages, stopped in Japanese tea houses, and hiked from rocky shores and rugged cliffs up to sub-tropical greenery surrounded by waterfalls and moss-covered rocks, and finally to an alpine landscape where we spotted macques and sika deer.

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ZIMBABWE | COSTA RICA

The raw wilderness of Zimbabwe is impossible to forget. On a morning walk out of Zambezi Expeditions camp, our group caught sight of Boswell, a famous (and massive!) bull elephant. We stood less than 50 meters from him, nothing between us but swaying grasses. In silence, we watched this enormous creature nimbly rise up on his hind legs, and then reach into an acacia tree with his trunk to pull down leaves for breakfast. The image of an enormous bull elephant on its hindquarters in the middle of the savannah is such an iconic Zimbabwe moment.

I also went to Costa Rica with some of my closest friends this year, and we spent time in Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast. We found a deserted beach, and just floated in the waves for hours as the sun went down. The only thing that dragged us out of the water was the lure of fresh seafood!

Argentina | chile

Voyaging to the Ends of the Earth, which Patagonia is often called, has been at the top of my travel bucket list for a very long time. This year, my wife, Casey, and I made those dreams come true, and they absolutely shattered our expectations.

Estancia Cerro Guido boasted some of our favorite guides and people we met throughout our trip, not to mention the incredibly warm feeling it gives off, almost like you were right at home. They have an impressive commitment to conservation, especially when it comes to rewilding the puma population.

On a foggy, cold morning, Casey and I woke before the sun and joined one of the puma trackers on their morning jaunt, where they check on the local population. We struggled to keep up with the adept guide who knew the terrain like the back of his hand. As we sprinted up a cliff, he spotted a female mountain lion traversing some boulders just below us, halfway up the steep wall. Casey and I couldn’t see her—but then we turned around. She had climbed up the cliff and was now standing 10 feet away… and she was as startled to see us as we were to see her! Making the point to not break eye contact, the puma clocked us for about 30 seconds before slinking away into the brush. It was the absolute highlight, adrenaline-pumping moment of our trip.

Also, I cannot recommend enough adding an extra night in Buenos Aires. You won’t be disappointed with the city’s culinary scene, and the hospitality and kindness of Argentinians is palpable.

Mexico | Denmark | Sweden | Germany | Czech Republic | Netherlands | England | France

I turned 30 this year, and to celebrate I went on a long-awaited trip to Europe to visit some of my oldest friends. I sipped pilsner while cruising down Prague's Vltava river, and ate my weight in shawarma on East Berlin's famous Simon-Dach-Straße road, the 1 a.m. vendors handing me warm kebabs with pickled cucumber and tahini dripping down the sides.

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But my favorite moment was in Denmark, when I went to a family friend's cabin along the coast in Hundested. It was late October, and the weekend was filled with playing board games around the wood-burning stove, climbing up sand dunes, hiking through marshes, layering up and sailing around the sound, making fresh apple cider, and drinking gløgg, or Danish spiced mulled wine. I was in happy tears the whole time, laughing my heart out with my birthday twin, who was born two days after me, and hugging her parents whom I hadn't seen since before the pandemic. It truly encapsulated the Danish word hygge, or a feeling of coziness, comfort, and contentment.

I also recently relocated to Mexico City. At first, I thought moving here during the holiday season would be odd, but it has been nothing of the sort! I've experienced several posadas, or nativity processions. Every night, the streets explode with tuba banda music, paper mache sculptures, piñatas, and people dressed as angels or shepherds. Some are headed to church or on religious pilgrimages, while others are simply celebrating the festive season. Mercados Navideños, or Christmas markets, dot every single plaza I walk through, and are filled with tamales and posole. It has been an amazing month in my new home, and arriving here at this time has made a big city feel small.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, the faraway world comes to you. One of the most transporting experiences I had this year was a visit to the Brooklyn Museum to take in the expansive Africa Fashion exhibition. At every turn, it was nothing short of eye-popping and consciousness-raising.

After seeing the exhibit, I knew exactly what Kenyan designer Anna Trezbinski meant when I interviewed her about the continent's cultural ferment: "It is thankfully starting to be void of colonial hangovers. Because of how big it is and how many tribes there are, and how each person's experience is so distinctly different, there's an enormous amount of expression from writers, musicians, poets, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, and designers. artists, musicians. It's an absolute explosion. It's visceral. Wherever you go, you feel it, and it's incredibly exciting to be around for anybody who's interested in creativity and storytelling."

West Coasters take note: Africa Fashion, originally curated by London's Victoria & Albert Museum, is making its only West Coast stop at the Portland Museum of Art, through February 18, 2024.

Greece | Morocco

I spent a few weeks in Greece this summer with my sister and oldest friend. From scorching hot days exploring ancient temples to swimming in crystal clear lagoons, it was a trip for the books. Our most adventurous day was when we forgot to fill up our rental car with gas! As we pulled into Agia Marina, the tiny seaside town famed for its seafood, blasting Greek music with big smiles on our faces, I checked the gas gauge and we were fresh out. Little did I know that on this island you need an attendant to fill your tank, and it was 8 p.m., hours past closing, so they wouldn't be back until the morning.

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We were 40 minutes from our Airbnb, only one of us had brought a wallet, and our phones were low on battery. But we found a cheap hotel, attempted to find gas in the harbor (no luck), and finally decided to enjoy our time knowing we had no options. It ended up being one of the best nights of our trip, the town was a lively hidden gem!

Kenya | Morocco | UAE

My daughter and I arrived in Morocco the evening of the unnerving 6.8 earthquake that caused devastating damage in the Atlas Mountains and Marrakech. In spite of a night of chaos heightened by not knowing the extent of the disaster, the locals’ incredible dedication to our well-being, no matter their own challenges, was truly heartwarming. Throughout the week we spent there trying to get home, we witnessed Morocco’s exceptional hospitality, care for others in the community, and unwavering concern for our safety.

I also returned to Kenya, which many of you know holds a special place in my wife Sandy’s and my heart. It was where we ran Ol Donyo Wuas (now Ol Donyo Lodge) for many years. Set at the foot of Kilimanjaro, it is in a part of the country described in Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa. I was able to spend time with my two oldest friends and Maasai elders, James and Jackson, whom I’ve known for over three decades.

We had long meaningful conversations deep into the night, and reflected on the incredible progress made in Maasai involvement in guiding throughout the Mara: What was once a negligible presence has transformed into a majority of Maasai guides. Yet, the journey continues, as this industry recognizes the importance of Maasai ownership of camps on their homeland.

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