by Dennis Sherwood, Gig Harbor, WA (Second of two parts)

After our 9-day birding adventure in Ecuador, we were scheduled to fly to the Galápagos Islands. However, upon arriving at the Quito airport we noticed that our flight had been dropped from the departure screen. Due to the previous night’s bad weather, nearly all flights were delayed. Meanwhile, the airport lounge was beyond full. Even pilots were hovering around an orange-vested airport worker who had a walkie-talkie mashed...

by David Tykol, Editor, ITN

While Shikoku is the smallest of Japan’s four main islands — tucked under the largest island, Honshu, and to the right of the southernmost, Kyushu — it promises big surprises, as I learned on a visit Oct. 13-18, 2008, as part of a small group of journalists.

Our gateway to Shikoku was the 8-mile Seto Ohashi Bridge series, which traverses five tiny islands in the Seto Inland Sea. Crossing this soaring structure aboard an express train traveling from...

by Dennis Sherwood, Gig Harbor, WA

Spontaneous applause erupted from the Ecuadorian passengers as we landed, through intermittent fog and rain, at Quito’s international airport. Were they just glad to be home or was it sincere gratitude for our safe passage through the mountains on this dark and cloudy night?

Days later we learned that another flight had overshot the cramped runway during similar weather and damaged the airport’s radar system, so perhaps the ovation was well...