“There’s a place I know that nobody knows, where the river flows and I call it home.” Deep in the jungles of Central America lies a place called Jalova—it’s waters warm, it’s forest thick and it’s creatures alive from morning to night. As we depart from the city on a 6-hour bus ride, sounds of…

I floated weightlessly over the coral. The current at Turquoise Drift took me for a ride along Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. The coral was a twisted kaleidoscope below me. Blue-green chromis were scattered like confetti above the blue-tipped branching staghorn coral. Raccoon butterflyfish poked pointed mouths between branches, daintily nibbling coral polyps. A school of…

I hear a shout in the distance, calling me to the night-blackened beach. This is it. The moment. The one I have been waiting for ever since we arrived here in Panama. The turtles are hatching. I take off running, trying to get to the hatchery as fast as I can. Shaking in exhilaration, I…