Jane's Incredible Russian Adventure

At the end of January, IA President Jane Reifert traveled to Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod to experience a bit of what Incredible Adventures customers experience when they fly a MiG in Russia or complete a space adventure at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.  In her role with the company, Jane often takes on the role of "test dummy", personally making sure each adventure is as incredible as it can be.  Here are the kind of entries she would have made in a diary if she had time to keep a diary.

Saturday:  Arrived at Sheremetevo Airport in Moscow. Was thrilled to immediately spot a guy holding a purple sign with my name on it as I left the airplane and headed toward customs. Figured there must have been a sale on purple paper.  He took me to Galina and Loesha. Was excited to see all the snow when we got out to the van....my first snow in 20+ years!

Sunday: Went to Ismailova Market. It's definitely more touristy than it was 12 years ago but I picked up some nice amber jewelry I didn't really need.  After shopping, Lena and I boarded the train for Nizhny Novgorod. Taking a Russian train to the airbase definitely adds to the adventure. The hotel in Nizhny was surprisingly new and nice.

Monday: Went to Sokol. Met the great pilots and staff. Sat in a MiG-29 and MiG-31 in the hangar.  Would have sat in them out on the runway...if we could have found the runway. It was buried in snow. 

Tuesday: Lunch with Oleg from the base and Sergey from Rostourism. (Rostourism is the only other company besides us allowed to sell MiG flights in Russia.) Afterwards, we stopped by the American Embassy to say hello to the guys in Commercial Services. Later, Sergey invited us to dinner at an incredible restaurant called Tvrandot. Made me glad I packed that one nice outfit. I've never had a restaurant bring me a stool for my purse before.

Wednesday: Got a VIP tour of Star City from Vasili. What can I say? Wow. All that history. Didn't see any real cosmonauts but I saw their shoes. Apparently you remove them before climbing into the Soyuz simulator. Talked about new space training adventures. Had lunch in the cosmonaut dining center and discovered it's worth every ruble it costs us.

Thursday: Checked out hotels around Red Square. Confirmed that the Metropol really is the best choice for our customers. Since it was my last day, I wanted to walk around Old Arbat. Purchased more amber jewelry. Ate at McDonald's.

Friday: Headed back to Florida, happy to know that our staff and partners in Russia have everything under control. Even without a flight in a MiG, it was an incredible adventure.

You can see more photos from Jane's January trip here.  If you'd like to schedule your own MiGs Over Russia Adventure, contact Greg today.

There's a Reason We Only Offer Cage Dives

On Sunday, February 24th, an Austrian man diving with another company became the first person ever killed by a shark during an organized dive trip. The shark bite occurred 50 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in Bahamian waters.

The man was bit in the thigh by a shark while diving with a company that's been offering cage-free shark diving in the Bahamas for years without incident.  The company's multi-day liveaboard adventures were highly popular with photographers looking to get close ups of very big sharks and divers wanting to actually interact with the sharks. Bait boxes were used to attract in some of the ocean's biggest predators, including tiger sharks, lemon sharks, hammerheads and bullsharks.  We use similar bait boxes on our cage dives in the Bahamas. 

Now the great shark dive war has begun and people are rushing to take sides.  Should the operator have heeded warnings from the Bahamas Dive Association that if he didn't start using shark cages, someone would die? Or did the diver and boat operator know the risks and willingly accept them?

Cages Protect both People and Sharks

Incredible Adventures is very happy to stay out of this battle, but we will say this. We have always used shark cages and will always use cages.  We want you to see as many sharks as possible so you'll come to understand why sharks should be protected. We just want you to see them under the safest possible conditions.

"Attack" Leads to Unreasonable JAWS-like Panic

"So they are putting the beaches of South Florida on alert. Apparently that shark is going to patrol the beaches and look for more and maybe get his friends to do the same. WOW I love the media. We wonder why people have such poor information about these creatures."

That email came to us from Jillian Morris, the dive instructor and behavioral biologist who leads our popular one-day Tiger Shark Adventure in the Bahamas.

Join us for a cage dive adventure in the US, Bahamas, Isla Guadalupe or South Africa and learn about sharks from the experts...not the media.  Discover that sharks are not the killing machines they've been made out to be. 

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