David Abel (Recap): Hiking To Waterfalls In Dominican Republic

David's Call to Adventure and Commitment to Change

In this episode, David shares his enthusiasm for adventure, particularly swimming in waterfalls, and suggests taking hikes that end at beautiful waterfalls as a way to connect with nature. He highlights memorable waterfall experiences in the Dominican Republic and Thailand. For his 'pay it forward' segment, David brings attention to his wife's inspiring organization, which encourages children in Boston to complete a race, as well as the urgent need to address climate change, citing recent extreme weather events around the globe. The conversation spans various aspects of David's life, journalism, and documentaries, providing inspiration and valuable insights.

Transcript

 David got two closing traditions that we do on the show. One is the call to adventure. And the final one is the pay it forward. So the call to adventure is all about  your opportunity to suggest You know, an adventure activity, a place or a trip, a person, just something for people to, to get involved in, you know, disconnect from the screen and do something  a bit more adventurous.

So what would your call to adventure suggestion be?  So one of my favorite things in the world to do is to swim in  waterfalls. And and I love whenever I'm traveling to find a hike. That ends with a waterfall and a pool and and just hang out with the cold water, sort of giving you a nice shower.

It's the best way to end the hike. And I have seen many beautiful places. And those are often the most beautiful to me, a place where you can sort of just,  not just admire the beauty, but actually feel it, feel the beauty.  Would be my call to adventure, fantastic. Do you have a favorite waterfall that comes to mind anywhere in the world? There's one that I guess I'm thinking of, which is in the Dominican Republic. And I said I had access to horses and motorcycles and we would sometimes take the motorcycle to a horse and there was this waterfall called Salto  by Guate, I think. And it was, there was nobody there.

And it was just this Green tropical green water and the water was really warm and and it was just like, it was so easy to swim into and really beautiful. I also remember going to one in Thailand where there was like a series, it was a hike in near Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand.

And it's a national park and there's like a series of seven or so waterfalls and it's just a really beautiful place.  Fantastic. Yeah.  We've got a plethora of waterfalls and plenty of cold water in Scotland.  Yes. Phenomenal.  Excellent. Thank you very much. That's that's a great suggestion. So finally, the pay it forward.

So that's all about anything, any worthy causes, charitable or otherwise, that are important to you, but we want to raise awareness of. So what would your pay it forward suggestion be?  So something specific, my wife runs this wonderful organization where she brings together kids, you know, from all over Boston and gets them to do something that they never thought they could do, which is to complete this this race.

And in a couple of weeks, her annual 5k is coming up and she and she just brings together community and she Gets people to dream of things that, you know, to do things that they only dreamed of doing and and or never thought they could do. So that's something specific and wonderful.

The other is is to not become complacent and recognize that our, this summer we have seen how our, uh, many years now of pumping fossil fuels into our atmosphere is radically changing. Changing our environment and and we've seen evidence of that for years, but this summer, I think the dangers.

From the floods, you know, just in the past week in Libya to the fires and in Hawaii to the wildfires all over Canada, Western Canada the unbelievable deluge of rain in Southern Europe whether in Greece. And the pictures are just absolutely astonishing. The record heat that we've seen throughout Europe, particularly in Spain this summer.

The North Atlantic, the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean have never been warmer. Off the charts warm. And it is It is quite frightening to see, and we can't become complacent we need change. Very important. Thank you. Thank you.  So that brings us to the end. That's been A fantastic conversation.

It's we've covered various angles and facets of your life and journalism and  documentaries and stuff. So I really thank you for your time today, David. That's been it's been inspirational and phenomenal. Thank you. Thank you very much.  My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to share my story.