Hawaii’s Modern Paniolos

An Interview with a Paniolo Hall of Fame Inductee by Equitrekking host Darley Newman Doesn’t being born and raised riding horses on the island of Oahu sound dreamy? That’s what I thought as I listened to Michael “Corky” Bryan tell me about his childhood on Ewa Plantation on Oahu. From… Read more »

Hawaii’s Big Island- Luau

  So I still have this song in my head from tonight’s luau and festive musical extravaganza, the Gathering of the Kings on the grounds of The Fairmont Orchid. This is quite a production, complete with dancers, torch jugglers, people on stilts and all sorts of acrobatics. It tells the… Read more »

Hawaii’s Big Island- Waipio Valley

  To get to Waipi’o Valley, the Valley of the Kings, you have to drive or hike down a VERY steep road into a valley surrounded by high cliffs. 4 WD is essential. Many people hike down into the valley to take in the lush, tropical environment and its black… Read more »

Hawaii’s Big Island- Kahua Ranch

  Something that makes the rides at Kahua Ranch different is that if you are an experienced rider, you can ride fast. We’d do a bit of that meeting up with Maile of Na’alapa Stables. Na’alapa Stables, who runs a ride that we will take in Waipi’o Valley, also runs… Read more »

Hawaii’s Big Island- Volcanoes National Park

  For our first adventure on the Big Island, we headed from the airport in Hilo to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Lots of people venture here to see hot molten lava flowing. We did too, but that lava flows here are unpredictable, so that wasn’t in the cards for us. We… Read more »

Hawaii’s Big Island- Waimea

Today, we shot some footage around Waimea on the Big Island. This is the farm/ranch area of the Big Island. It's on the Northwestern part of the island and has a great history with giant ranches like Parker Ranch sprawling out over flat and rolling grasslands. We’ll be back to… Read more »

Hawaii’s Big Island- Outrigger Canoeing

I was out on the open seas today, using a paddle to navigate our long, white outrigger canoe with Umi, a beach boy at the Fairmont Orchid who loves outrigger canoeing. The Fairmont Orchid is a beautiful resort on the Kohala Coast. The waters are clear here. The ocean breeze… Read more »

Hawaii’s Big Island- Parker Ranch

Parker Ranch is an institution on the Big Island. Karoll of Cowboys of Hawaii took us out to ride a part of the ranch. Touted at one time as the largest privately owned ranch in the United States, Parker Ranch is huge.  The distances here can be deceiving too. Out… Read more »

Costa Rica Cabalgata

As an elderly woman whizzed by me, galloping at an alarming pace in her black dress pants and high-heeled patent leather shoes, I gripped by reins and giggled. She was delicately balancing a purse on her forearm, not exactly riding attire. My horse Perla, the perfect “bomb proof” mount, was… Read more »

Virginia Hunt Country- Marriott Ranch

By: Rich Van Haste Ask your average American to picture a ranch and they will likely recall wide-open spaces somewhere out west, far from northeastern cities. Certainly that vision holds more than a grain of truth. But veteran travelers know that once you escape Boston, New York, or Washington DC… Read more »