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Marty’s photo of the day #4532: During the years 2001 through 2004, Deb and I explored all seven continents for my six-time award-winning first book, “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents.” Since that time, my mind has often wandered to the thousands of animals we saw during our journey. Are any of them […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4532: As mentioned yesterday, the first chapter of my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, takes place in Belize. The year was 2001, and during part of that trip we stayed at the Blackbird Resort on the Blackbird Caye (basically Gilligan’s Island). Just this morning, I […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4515: Anyone who has read my first book, published in 2007, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, knows that I didn’t get along well with water. That changed in 2016, when Deb and I snorkeled with sea lions and octopuses in the Sea of Cortez. Better equipment combined […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4465: I shot this orangutan photo back in 2003, when digital photography was still relatively new. I had purchased a Nikon camera for my Borneo trip that promised to be the best of its class. The camera arrived just before I left the United States, and I didn’t have much […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4452: My wife, Deb Essen, is one of America’s premier master weavers, and she has a three-book deal with Schiffer Publishing. My first two books, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents” and “Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico, feature […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4450: This is an eleven-foot-long African rock python. I caught and released this beautiful snake in Zimbabwe while working on my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents.
Marty’s photo of the day #4620: For my final picture of the year, I’m posting the untouched photo for the cover of the First Edition of my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. That’s a tailless whip scorpion on my face, and my wife, Deb, shot the photo in the Amazon […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4075: I write both fiction and nonfiction. If you’ve read any of my nonfiction books, you know I’ve experienced some great adventures, from searching for venomous snakes in the Amazon Rainforest to hiking on all seven continents to surviving a hippo attack with my wife, Deb, in Zimbabwe to overcoming […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3978: For the cover of the first edition of my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, my wife, Deb, took over two hundred photos of me with tailless whip-scorpions crawling up my face. Even though we switched covers after the first edition sold out, traveling back […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3940: This is the waterfall Deb and I had to climb up alongside to begin our epic backpacking trip with the Iban tribe in Borneo. The two of us were only the third outsiders to ever hike the Red Ape Trail (an old Iban hunting trail). Our adventure included losing […]
These are my 24-year-old Danner boots. Although I can’t prove it, they are quite likely the only boots in the world that have walked on all seven continents. At the very least, they are the only boots in the world that have walked on all seven continents and survived a hippo attack. Because these boots […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3710: Let’s take a peek through the wall of an ancient walled city in France. The following excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, further explains what you are seeing: We retrieved our car, drove back into France, and spent the rest of Sunday […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3592: When Deb and I went to Zimbabwe to complete the last chapter in my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, I was determined to see the country on foot, not from the back of a Range Rover. The reason was for moments like this, when […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3571: While working on my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, Deb and I spend a delightful day hiking La Garganta Divina in northeastern Spain. Much of the hike was an old, narrow mule track that hugged the side of the gorge—often high above the river.
Marty’s photo of the day #3534: What was the highlight of my travels to all seven continents? That’s a tough one, because so many magical things happened. But spending two hours along Antarctica’s coast with three playful/curious humpback whales is hard to beat!
Avoid the Black Friday Crowds. Signed books make special gifts! For a limited time, I’m offering free U.S. shipping on all signed books and will also include a free signed copy of Endangered Edens with every purchase of two or more books. All books are Amazon #1 best-sellers in their respective categories. Here are the […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3423: When Americans visit Spain, the vast majority stick to the touristy areas. When Deb and I went to Spain as part of the travels for my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, we made it a point to go to out-of-the-way places, where tourists don’t […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3187: If I were able to go back in time and re-do my trips to all seven continents, the first thing I would do is buy a different camera for my Borneo adventure. I always travel with two cameras, and for a while I was updating one new camera each […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3176: When Deb and I reminisce about our travels on all seven continents, for my book Cool Creatures, Hot Planet, we inevitably talk about which ones we want to do again. One that I’m reasonably sure we will repeat is our trip to the top of Canada. It was so […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3030: This is one of the many mountain villages Deb and I drove past while exploring northern Spain for the Europe chapter of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. If I remember correctly, we were lost when I took this photo. Then again, we just needed to make […]
