Richard Mobilio founded Calidex in 1987 to introduce friends to a legion of unusual travel destinations and cultural encounters. Over the years these special places and activities have excited an increasingly wider circle of interest. Richard, a licensed pilot, mountaineer, naturalist and former Marine diving instructor, has traveled in 165 countries and explored dozens of remote archipelagoes from the Burmese Mergui Islands to the French Marquesas. He and the Calidex network of local professionals lead the Calidex journeys. Here's what makes the Calidex experience different:

Multi-Leg Journeys

A typical Calidex itinerary focuses on a single major geography such as East Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia or the Amazon Basin. Each Journey is segmented into a series of stand-alone, back-to-back trip legs. In a selected region the trip legs might be a combination of a one-week voyage on a Calidex-chartered vessel that includes scuba diving, a 10-day mountain trek, and still others that feature visits to remote villages for exceptional cultural encounters. Participants can match their available time, budget and interests to one or more trip legs, and travel from one to five weeks in the region.

Multi-Interest Experiences

Calidex designs journeys that combine natural history, folk culture and optional outdoor activities. Here's an example of the Calidex multi-interest approach:

A live-aboard dive boat offers a program of four or five dives per day. In contrast, a Calidex dive/cruise program for a given day might offer two morning dives with snorkeling for non-divers, an optional trek in the afternoon to seek out wildlife, and a village visit in the evening to witness a shaman-led tribal ritual. If they so choose, hard-core divers can forego the non-diving activities in order to dive more.

The experiences excerpted below are drawn from recent Calidex adventures:

• Natural history—wildlife encounters and geology Track along with Komodo Dragons in the bush on Indonesia's Rinca Island; ride an elephant into India's Kanha National Park to find the tiger; wrinkle your nose in a ripe and raucous penguin colony on South Georgia; watch glaciers calve in Argentine Patagonia and guanácos in Chile's Torres del Paine Park; cross Lake Baikal in an ex-Volga River gunboat skippered by a former Russian submarine captain to see the world's only freshwater seals; wait at snorkel depth in a shark cage in Gaans Bay, South Africa for Great Whites to strike the baits...

• Folk culture—gastronomy, the performing arts and authentic tribal encounters Barter for shields with Asmat ex-headhunters up the rivers of Indonesian Papua; hike to penis gourd-wearing villagers in New Guinea's central Baliem Valley who sport the world's most bizarre attire; camp with the Tuareg in the Sahara Desert north of Timbuktu; jump with the Maasai on the slopes of Ngorongoro; follow Bushmen as they hunt across Namibia's Kalahari Basin; watch spell-bound as traditional colorful Kathakali actors perform in Cochin, India; see the Hindu cremation rites unfold on the burning ghats of Varanasi; drink fermented mare's milk in the company of Mongolian nomads...

• Outdoor sports—scuba-diving, snorkeling, sea kayaking, trekking, sailing, peak-bagging, etc. Eye the grey reef sharks circling overhead on a dive in Myanmar's (Burma) Mergui Archipelago; sail the islands of Vava'u in northern Tonga; sea kayak into hidden lagoons tucked inside the dramatic karst isles of Thailand's Phang-Nga Bay; trek on the Kamchatka Peninsula's erupting Karymsky Volcano; climb Mt. Kilimanjaro; trek the Baltoro Glacier in northern Pakistan to
Concordia and the spectacular bulk of K2 looming over camp...

Group Composition

Every Calidex trip is escorted by an experienced Calidex staff member. Land trips depart with 4 to 12 group members depending on destination. For expeditionary voyages, Calidex vessel charters are always for the exclusive use of Calidex clients. Vessels typically carry 12 to 20 passengers, and no more than 36 persons on Antarctica voyages. A ship with 100 or more people aboard simply can't match the camaraderie of a true small-group expeditionary voyage, and the congestion ashore when the crowd hits the beach can diminish the quantity and quality of wildlife encounters.

Typical Calidex travelers range in age from their mid-twenties into their seventies. Those who travel repeatedly with Calidex share two essential traits: flexibility and curiosity. One-of-a-kind travel experiences with an expeditionary edge involve some risk and unpredictability by their very nature. In many third-world countries planes don't always fly on time, nor do the locals always share one's sense of urgency. The happy Calidex trip participant is a versatile, flexible and reasonably fit individual with a keen sense of adventure for whom learning never stops.

Pace, Lodging & Transport

"Play hard, eat well and sleep soundly" is the Calidex mantra. Touring days can be long; seeing what's around the next corner, beyond the next hill or on that distant shore is frequent reason to extend the day. Outdoor activities are designed to be moderately challenging; those that are especially strenuous such as a summit ascent are structured as separate, optional trip legs.

Sampling the best of local gastronomy is a favorite past-time. Ethnic specialties are a highlight of most every trip—so are the local wines in countries with superb viticulture such as Chile, Australia and South Africa. Generally, lunches and dinners ashore are not included in the trip pricing, so everyone is free to sample the local menus as they wish.

Lodging-wise, accommodations are as non-spartan as the itinerary will allow: four-star hotels (if available) in the cities, and tents in the bush when necessary. Calidex selects small hotels with historic roots, traditional art and architecture, and special craftsmanship when they're available.Given our emphasis on comfort and quality when it can be had, Calidex trips are not designed for the fiercely budget-conscious.

Ground transport in the field is often via four-wheel drive vehicles. On safari in Africa, Calidex fills a Land Rover with a maximum of four persons—no overloaded minibuses that make photography difficult. Camels, elephants, horses, mules and dogsleds have also been occasional Calidex conveyances, in addition to charter planes, trains, rafts, canoes, sailing ketches, Chinese junks, dugouts, pirogues and Russian ocean research ships converted to comfortable expeditionary cruising.