Life Trove: Wonder

Those who are Awake live in a state of constant amazement. Jack Kornfield

To stand rapt in wonder and awe is to me one the most priceless aspects of being human. Below are some of the times I have experienced wonder.

Encounters with great white bears in the Arctic
A beautiful leopard coming right up to my car window in the Kruger National Park
Soaring condors at Colca Canyon (Peru)
Swimming with wild dolphins and a whale at Llandadno (South Africa).
Swimming with a turtle in Dahab's Blue Hole (Sinai, Egypt)
Snorkeling with turtles at Barbados and Galapagos Islands
Seeing thousands of flamingos in Ngorongoro Crater (Africa)
Watching hundreds of hummingbirds in Mindo, Ecuador
Walking amongst a colony of half a million Megellanic Penguins at Puerto Tombo in Patagonia, Argentina
Hundreds of thousands of sea birds (including beautiful Inca terns) at the Ballestas Islands (Ecuador)
Photographing Horses in the Mist in Ecuador
Snorkeling with penguins, sharks, turtles and rays and getting close and personal with tortoises and marine iguanas in the surreal islands of Galapagos
Seeing millions of Soldier Crabs on a beach in Newcastle (Australia)
Dolphins doing somersaults in the ocean.
Snorkelling and seeing multi-colored, tropical fish in the crystal clear waters of Bonito (Brazil)

The mighty power of the Augrabie Falls (South Africa), Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) and Iguazu Falls (Argentina)
The enormous blue gums in Shanon National Park (Australia)
Watching huge chunks of ice fall of the Morraine Glacier
Exploring hallucinogenic salt deserts, spurting geysers and eerie lagoons around the Uyuni Salt pans (Bolivia)
Galapagos Islands (Ecuador)
The awe inspiring stars on The Orange River (Namibia)
Richard Attenboroughs´s documentaries, especially "Blue Planet" and "Life of Birds."
Photographing the amazing 12 Apostles in different light.
Overnighting at Hanging Rock to watch its reflection of the dawn light.
Circumventing the islands of Svalbard in The Arctic.
Sun rising over the pillars of Torres del Paine (Chile).
Hiking into the stunning Fitzroy Mountains in Argentina.
Diving in the Canyon and the bottomless Blue Hole in the Red Sea (Sinai, Egypt)

Seeing Tutankamin's treasures in the Museum of Cairo (Egypt)
Seeing the Taj Mahal
My first sight of Abu Simbel and The Pyramids (Egypt)
The ceiling of The Sistine Chapel (Rome)
The amazing Meteora monasteries, perched on the top of huge boulders (Greece)
Sunrise over the sacred and mysterious city of Machu Picchu (Peru)
Seeing the world's tiniest bible and a statue of Peter with his foot rubbed away at the Vatican (Rome, Italy)
The Tomb of Queen Nefertiti with wall art that looked like it had been painted yesterday. (Luxor, Egypt)
The sunrise over Angkor Wat
Temples consumed by the jungle in Cambodia.

Life Trove