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Welcome to
Background Since 1987 Calidex has organized and led small-group expeditionary trips to Antarctica, Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Americas—mostly on behalf of a small circle of adventurous American and European repeat travelers. Calidex has won a loyal following for its specially-crafted itineraries and unmatched network of experienced leaders, guides, outfitters and vessel owners. No advertising, only word-of-mouth, has carried the Calidex message around the world. We invite you to learn more about why a trip with Calidex is so out-of-the-ordinary at our Introducing Calidex page.
Trip Content...the Calidex Difference Wild places of great natural beauty and corners of the world that are culturally and ethnically rich are the usual Calidex destinations. Tourism is often limited in such locations, and Calidex travelers have racked up many "firsts" by visiting back-country villages that had never seen a foreign tourist. Commonly encountering the uncommon—and frequently the extraordinary!—is a Calidex adventure trip standard. Not all Calidex venues are remote and unpronounceable—Europe has splendidly varied adventure fare from the Alps to the Arctic, and is a favorite Calidex destination.
Calidex adventure travel is multi-interest discovery travel, designed for physically active, broadly curious people. The emphasis is on wildlife observation, folk culture encounters and optional outdoor activities that range—depending on location—from diving and sea kayaking to trekking and peak-bagging. However, even those with a singular focus, e.g., birders adding species to a life list, or divers wishing to "dive-until-you-drop", often find that a particular leg of a Calidex adventure meets their objectives.
Leadership All Calidex journeys are escorted by Calidex staff members with many years of field experience. Richard Mobilio, the Calidex founder, has traveled in 170 countries and more than a hundred remote archipelagoes, islands and territories. Local expedition leaders are skilled mariners and outdoorsmen, and many are renowned ethnographers. Creative, often one-of-a-kind itineraries that feature exacting attention to detail distinguish every Calidex adventure.
Click on a red circle for 2010 trip details
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Your Road Map... • To see images of typical Calidex charter vessels, please click on Getting There •
To check on trip availability, timing and costs, click on Calendar
& Costs • To reserve space on a Journey or trip "In-the-Works", click on How to Reserve • To learn about new Calidex discovery adventures, please click on What's New? • To get in touch...contact us at info@calidex.com |
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California Seller of Travel No.2040751-40
• ASTA Member No. 900144325 • Associate Member International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators |
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Snips
from recent Calidex Journey logs
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• Rode an elephant into India's Kanha National Park for a very close tiger encounter; • Warily skirted Komodo Dragons in the bush on Indonesia's Rinca Island; • Watched predatory leopard seals inspect our Zodiacs off the Antarctic Peninsula; • Stood amidst a half-million King Penguins on South Georgia Island's Salisbury Plain; • Watched glaciers calve in Argentine Patagonia, and guanácos pose in Chile's Torres del PaineNational Park; • Crossed Lake Baikal in an ex-Volga River gunboat skippered by a Russian ex-nuclear submarine captain; • Floated in a shark cage in Gaans Bay, South Africa waiting for Great Whites to strike the baits; • Crouched in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve surrounded by Jane Goodall's best friends; • Saw the sunrise from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro; • Lunched on fresh yoghurt and fermented mare's milk served by Mongolian nomads in their isolated ger; • Watched Chinese scroll paintings come to life as twisted pines sifted clouds in the Huangshan Mountains of eastern China; • Eased a dugout toward a relaxed jaguar resting on the bank of the Rio Manú in the Peruvian Amazon; • Hung on to a coral head as a dozen Galapagos Sharks circled nearby at the Gordon Rocks in the Galàpagos islands; • Illuminated a night-time wetland in the Brazilian Pantanal thronged with capybara and caimans; • Hiked in Ecuador on the flanks of Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world; • Marveled at the dizzying whirl of feet and legs as capoeira masters in Salvador, Brazil performed at close quarters; • Cheered the sunrise on the North Face of Mt. Everest from the Rongbuk Monastery, Tibet; • Joined the kora around the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet with prayer wheel-spinning pilgrims; • Finned as fast as we could kick alongside 40'-long whalesharks in Donsol Bay, Philippines; • Met with Aboriginal elders in Central Arnemland, Australia who saw their first white men in the 1950s; • Climbed atop Ayers Rock, then helicoptered over the sandstone Olgas in Central Australia's Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park; •
Looked eye-to-eye with Dwarf Minke Whales and giant
groupers on the Great Barrier Reef;
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Discovered hidden temples of rat worship and exorcism in Indian
Rajasthan;
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Ran with hundreds of Bhutanese celebrants between hair-singeing
bonfires in Bhutan's Bumthang Valley;
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Explored limestone caves by lantern light in Sohoton
National Park, southern Samar, Philippines;
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Climbed through rain forest to the barren slopes of
smoking Mayon Volcano, the world's most perfect natural
cone, Philippines;
• Trekked to villages in Burma's recently-opened Chin State to meet exotically-tattooed Chin women and knife-dancing men; • Truffle-hunted in secret places in Italy with trained dogs and their old masters, and hiked the Cinque Terre; • Explored UNESCO World Heritage Site rock-hewn churches in northern Ethiopia; saw the Simien Wolf, the world's rarest canid; • Ascended to the surreal summit of Mt. Roraima in the Venezuelan Gran Sabana; • Made landfalls in Fiji's Southern Lau Islands as the first outsiders to visit these insular islands in decades; • Probed for and extracted 15' to 20'-long anacondas from dry-season sloughs on the Venezuelan Los Llanos; • Photographed scarlet ibis ornamenting dozens of trees in the Orinoco Delta; • Surfed the Cloud Nine break off Siargao Island in the Philippines; • Rode Mongolian ponies and hunted predators with Kazakh tribesmen and their trained Golden Eagles in Western Mongolia |
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We're
happy to give our regular Calidex travelers even more incentive
to reach out and touch the world: invite your friends to become
first-time Calidex adventurers and earn a Travel Credit of up to
$500, depending on the Journey, for
each new participant who comes aboard.
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Contact
us at
CALIDEX • 20979 Saraview Court • Saratoga • California
• 95070 • Tel: 408.867.3586 • Toll-Free: 866.CALIDEX • e-mail:
info@calidex.com • web site: www.calidex.com
• Home Page © Calidex Corporation 2008
