Tag Archives: photos

Yellowstone: Orange Mound Spring

Orange Mound SpringHere’s your science lesson for the day: Water deep below the surface of the earth is heated by the Yellowstone Volcano. The water bubbles to the surface, and flows out over the top of the Orange Mound. Calcium Carbonate and Travertine deposits left behind by the water create the formation. Some people we were talking to said that when they visited Orange Mound Spring a year earlier, it was much, much smaller. At this point, it is growing over the current road way, and work of moving the roadway to accommodate the formation has already begun.

Orange Mound Spring is only one of several examples that show the park is always in transition. Word is that no two visits to Yellowstone are ever the same.

Roosevelt Arch & Mammoth Hot Springs

Roosevelt ArchThe night before our first day in Yellowstone we stayed in Gardiner, MT. In the morning, we entered through the Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance. President Roosevelt laid the corner stone in 1903. The inscription is a quote from the Organic Act of 1872 that basically states the park cannot be sold, settled or occupied, and that it is set aside as a public space for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Once through the gate we were in Wyoming, and ready for our Yellowstone adventure.

Yellowstone National ParkPresident Grant signed the bill declaring Yellowstone as America’s first ever National Park in 1872. The army served as park administration until a National Park Service was established in 1916. The NPS are still managing the conservation and preservation of the park. There are still army barracks in the park and several museums to celebrate the park’s history. Really, we weren’t too keen on the museums. Some of them are kind of ridiculous. Who needs to see a museum of the Park Ranger? (I imagine exhibits like in 1920 they wore green hats, and in 1940 they switched to beige. Seriously, we didn’t check it out.)

From prior research, I knew Yellowstone was going to be geothermal insanity, I just didn’t realize exactly how much we would see. Obviously everyone thinks “Old Faithful” when they hear Yellowstone, but there are more than 10,000 features in the park. There are steam vents, fumaroles, bubbling mud pots, hot springs, and lots of geysers. An astounding half of the earth’s geothermal features are in Yellowstone. We took loads of photos that don’t necessarily do the park justice. Sure the colours are beautiful, but if you can’t smell the stench of sulphur, or hear the water hissing out of the ground you won’t receive the full effect. (Be happy you can’t smell the sulphur!)

We covered all of the parks roadways making our way from the North Entrance down through Norris and Madison to Grant Village on day one. The first feature we saw was Mammoth Hot Springs. The natural terraces are formed by mineral deposits left behind by the flowing water. There trail is limited to wooden walkways that are built to protect the structures created by the hot springs, but also to protect the visitors. Some places in the park there is a very thin crust over scalding hot water, and people can be scalded or even boiled to death if they stray off the walkways.

Here are some photos from our stop at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Montana: The Heathen State

i90logoMontana has some weird stuff going on. If you drive through Montana on the I-90 you’ll notice that there are a bunch of liquor stores, gun stores, pawn shops, porn shops, and casinos. The road-side billboards are all advertising those same things.  Apparently the license plate slogan should be “The Heathen State” not “The Treasure State.”  Who knew?

In Butte, the billboards aren’t any better than the establishments because they’re all about Meth. I suppose this is all fairly typical of a mining community, or any other small town that is highly independent on one industry (oil, lumber, coal, etc). Apparently the anti-meth campaign has been extremely successful though. The billboards definitely have an impact; I’m a few thousand km away and still thinking about them. My favourite one we saw: “Before Meth I had a daughter, now I have a prostitute.” Billboards and Montanan pass times aside, there were some great finds…

Evel Knievel DaysLike Evel Knievel Days! Who knew that Evel Knievel was from Butte, Montana?!? I’m only sad we weren’t there in July when all the stunts were going down. That would have been classic. There were helium stars and stripes balloons lining the street along with placards hanging from lamp posts to honour this home town hero. At some point in his career Evel Knievel wanted to jump his motorbike across the Grand Canyon, but never did. He did jump 13 Pepsi Trucks though. FYI: His bike is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. Don’t think I’ll be making a special trip there to see it, but if I happen to be in the neighbourhood you never know.

Our Lady of the RockiesThe other find, not much of a symbol of Americana, but also in Butte–Our Lady of the Rockies. (ps: I don’t know how we manage to find so much Catholic iconography on our travels, but we do.) The statue caught our eye from when we were checking out the historic district. Now, thanks to google, I know what it is all about. Here’s a little recap: Our Lady of the Rockies is almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty. Bill O’Bob built the statue for his wife after he promised the Virgin Mary he would build a statue if his wife recovered from her battle with cancer. When she recovered, and the statue was built to honour women everywhere. Another interesting fact–Our Lady of the Rockies sits atop the Continental Divide which we crossed several times during the trip. Stay tuned for the next entry of our exciting I-90 adventure.

Happy Travels,
~j

 

Half Mast

Our first actual day in the US was September 11th.

Not that I wouldn’t have remembered the sombre significant day had I been in Canada, it just had more impact actually seeing the actions of the people. There were flags everywhere–which isn’t unusual for Americans to display, but I mean they were EVERYWHERE! 99% of them were at half mast. Businesses had messages on their communication boards. Homes had flags and messages in windows or on fences. Service men and women were hanging banners and flags on over passes. All of these things really acknowledged a shared sense of grief.

I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing during the 9-11 attacks, as I’m sure all of you do too. I was working at the resort, and we found out during morning check-in for rafting. There was no radio, no news paper, no TV, no nothing, just panicked phone calls asking if we were o.k. We were in the middle of nowhere in BC along a major river/transportation route, and there was a 3rd plane missing. Looking back, I think it is odd that people, random people at that, thought we would be in any danger at all.  A super tiny Canadian village or the Pentagon, there is no contest really, but that is how panicked everyone was.

I didn’t see the actual footage until later that evening. Thinking of it now is still upsetting.

Shrine of Guadalupe

On the way home from Peru, we had a 2 day stay in Mexico City. There were a few sites I wanted to see, but for some reason I was a little nervous about being there. The Metropolis that is Mexico is home to over 21 million people. It is the largest city in North America, so you can see why it would be a little intimidating! That said, we managed the metro, and navigating the bus system to everything we wanted to see.

Obviously the city is very old which brings along a lot of interesting, dingy, smelly places. The um, how to explain…aroma? of the City was olfactory assault in its highest art form. On certain streets, just walking around brought on an onslaught of odour. Seriously, I can’t even explain it. Surprisingly, the metro system was actually fairly clean. (At least we didn’t see the same amount of human feces on train cars in Mexico as we did in Paris!) There were sanitation people sweeping platforms and stairways 24/7.

The touts were inescapable, but at least humourous on the metro. People would hop on trying to sell literally everything and anything. We were offered crossword puzzle books, ancient computer repair manuals, rulers, CD’s, and my personal favourite–back scratchers.

While in Mexico, we visited the pyramids at Teotihuacan and Templo Mayor as mentioned previously. We climbed the Pyramid of the Sun. (FYI: It is the 3rd largest pyramid in the world.) I didn’t include photos earlier; here they are now.

When we arrived at Teotihuacan there was an insane performance going on. Thanks to Google, I now know that it is called the Danza de los Voladores de Papantla. The geek in me loves that the ceremony is recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

We also went to the Shrine of Guadalupe. The history of the shrine is similar to that of the Orvieto Duomo. To shorten up the lesson for you–in 1531 a catholic peasant had a vision of the Virgin Mary. She told him to build a church where she was standing so that she could offer love, compassion and protection to the people. The peasant, Juan Diego, spoke to the Bishop. The Bishop didn’t believe him and wanted some miraculous proof.

The Virgin appeared to Juan Diego again, and told him to pick flowers and gather them in his apron. Though it was winter, the flowers grew at his feet, he gathered them and went to the Bishop. An image of the Virgin Mary was imprinted on the apron. Thus, providing the miracle the Bishop wanted and the rest is history.

The Shrine of Guadalupe is the most visited Catholic Shrine in the world. The original basilica that was completed in 1536 is beautiful. There is a new basilica on the site as well. It is kind of gaudy, round shaped, and looks like it should for a building of the late 1970’s. We didn’t enter the new basilica to see the actual apron, or tilma on display above the alter. Church service was going on, and out of respect we stayed out. I was surprised how few people were at the site as I was expecting more visible pilgrimage that I’ve seen elsewhere (e.g.: people crawling or on their knees in hopes that their prayers would be answered.) Still, a site of such importance for so many people is humbling.

Now for science: The cloth has been examined with infrared photography, ultraviolet imaging, and stereo-microscopy. The earliest analysis shows that no under-drawing to rough out the image and no over-varnish on the image. The latter 2 show several layers beneath the current painting with all sorts of different pigments consistent with artist’s materials used in the 1500’s. There are also cracks, flaking of paint and sketch lines that would make it seem that the image was sketched before being painted.

Even with all the scientific analysis to create doubts of the miracle, the tilma still has some pretty impressive attributes. Thanks Wikipedia for the info.

The tilma has maintained its structural integrity over nearly 500 years, while replicas normally last only about 15 years before suffering degradation; it repaired itself with no external help after a 1791 ammonia spill that did considerable damage, and in 1926 an anarchist bomb destroyed the altar, but left the icon unharmed.

In 1929 and 1951 photographers found a figure reflected in the Virgin’s eyes; upon inspection they said that the reflection was tripled in what is called the Purkinje effect, commonly found in human eyes. An ophthalmologist, Dr. Jose Aste Tonsmann, later enlarged an image of the Virgin’s eyes by 2500x and found not only the aforementioned single figure, but images of all the witnesses present when the tilma was first revealed before Zumaragga in 1531, plus a small family group of mother, father, and a group of children, in the center of the Virgin’s eyes, fourteen persons in all.

Numerous Catholic websites repeat an unsourced claim that in 1936 biochemist Richard Kuhn analyzed a sample of the fabric and announced that the pigments used were from no known source, whether animal, mineral or vegetable. Dr. Philip Serna Callahan, who photographed the icon under infrared light, discovered from his photographs that portions of the face, hands, robe, and mantle had been painted in one step, with no sketches or corrections and no visible brush strokes.

I have no doubt that there is paint on the image–whether the miraculous image itself has been painted upon over the years, or painted completely is debatable, but you have to admit that the eyeball thing is a little bizarre.

ps: Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. Juan Diego was also made a saint in 2002. He’s the first Mexican to achieve sainthood.

 

Huaca Pucllana

For something to do in Lima we went to Huaca Pucllana. This active archaeological site restricts visits to certain tour times, and each tour must be escorted. Our little guide was quite informative. She told us that Huaca Pucllana was originally about 8 city blocks square, and now is about 3 at most. In 1984 the land belonged by a private business owner, and he was just bull dozing chunks of it for development. Over half of the site was destroyed until the government took possession of the site for preservation. What is left is what has been salvaged beneath the surface.

The handmade mud bricks are all placed vertically, book-end style, to create layers. There are literally thousands upon thousands of bricks; in some you can still see finger prints from when they were made. The pyramid structures are similar style to those of Templo Mayor in that the buildings would be made bigger by adding several different surrounding layers. There would be many prior structures under the most visible top layer. It is tragic to think what sorts of artifacts, tombs, or human remains were destroyed prior to the preservation efforts.

All in all it was worth the short visit to the site.
Happy Travels,
~j

Islas Ballestas: The Poor Man’s Galapagos

Islas Ballestas Pelican

Islas Ballestas is a nature reserve about a 3.5 hour bus ride from Lima. We had to be at the bus terminal in Lima for 3:30am for a 4:15am departure, which meant we left our hotel at 3am to get there on time. Ugh, getting up early sucks, but it was worth it. (I did an earlier post about part of the bus trip.) One thing I forgot was that before boarding bags are searched, and video footage is taken of each passenger’s face. We initially thought the video was for security reasons. When we got home someone told us it was to identify remains of passengers if the bus is smashed beyond recognition in an accident. That’s always reassuring!

We arrived safely at a bus station in Paracas. The bus station was more like a glorified grass hut, but with plumbing. Check out the security device on the toilet tank.

Our guide Luis met us on a tiny dock, we loaded up the boat and were out on the Ocean. We saw (and smelled) a bazillion birds. There were cormorants, gulls, pelicans, blue-footed boobies, and Humboldt Penguins! I heart PENGUINS! We also saw sea lions eating sardines right out of fishermen’s nets. The fishermen were none too happy, but the sea lions were living it up. Luis had never seen a sea lion “con pesca en bocca” in all the years he’s been a marine biologist, so he was super stoked about that.

Paracas CandellabraOn the way to the island, we passed the Paracas Candelabra. The huge geoglyph is hundreds and hundreds of years old. No one knows why it is there, or who put it there. (Pirates, Aliens, Sailors, are all theories.) Word is that the candelabra points to the Nazca Lines, but that doesn’t hold out if you google it. The geoglyph is several feet deep of dust. It hasn’t disappeared due to erosion because it is sheltered from the wind, and it never rains in the area. People are not permitted near the candelabra as the foot prints/tracks would remain imprinted on the crust.

The weather of the Paracas area creates also an anomaly for the Ballestas island. Due to the lack of wind/rain, and the island birds’ ability to produce so much guano an industry has been created. The guano is collected every 3 years to be used for fertilizer. It is illegal to set foot on the islands without special guano collecting permits. Not that that’s something I was interested in! Let’s just say you’re lucky there isn’t smell-o-vision to go along with the photos!

ps: I included a few of Jon’s photos. His zoom was better able to capture the birds.

 

Zippy Zip

Beautiful British ColumbiaFor something to do at the end of August, we went to Whistler for Ziptrek. We’d been talking about going for a while, and then finally had the opportunity. Ziptrek was AWESOME! I took some video, but can’t find the memory card; when I do, I’ll post it.

I hadn’t been to Whistler for a couple years, so seeing the changes that were made for the Olympic village was kind of sweet. There was some construction going on in the main village, and the fence/screen was all photos from the Olympics, which reminded me of how fun Vancouver was for those couple weeks.

The campground we stayed at was great. The outhouses looked like normal outhouses, but had flush toilets, sinks with running water and hand soap in them which was rather posh compared to most campgrounds–not that I’m complaining! We stopped at some Provincial Parks and did some short trails along the way. We ended up visiting Nairn Falls and Brandywine Falls. Both were super pretty. On the way home we drove through Squamish on the Sea to Sky (which I also hadn’t seen since the Olympic improvements). All in all a fun weekend. Gotta love spontaneous weekend road trips.

Happy Travels,
~j

Lima

We ended up having a couple more days in Lima then we had originally planned. The airline we were flying with to Trujillo rescheduled the flight times and made it 100% impossible to visit Chan Chan. Boo.

LIma PeruAlmost 8 million people live in the capital of Peru. Lima is a typical metropolitan area with lots of great things to see and do, but not where we really want to spend a lot of time.

We stayed near the ocean in Miraflores which is the touristy, newer, upscale, aka “safer” part of Lima. There were several parks and a shopping mall within walking distance from the place we were staying. Larcomar overlooks the Pacific Ocean, and is partially outdoors which would never work in Canada. Being able to watch paragliders from the mall was pretty cool though. We wandered from the mall to El Parque del Amor where the famous sculpture ‘El Beso’ is located. The park was a lot smaller than I expected, and not nearly as interesting.

There was only 1 brief moment where I didn’t feel 100% safe in Lima. We were on a very busy touristy street, and there was a 2 person team trying to pick pocket us or something. One was trying to distract Jon with maps etc on the left, and the other was just way too close for comfort on my right. We quickly shut that situation down. I don’t keep stuff in my pockets anyway, so they wouldn’t have gotten anything but lint. Otherwise, Lima seemed fine. Police were everywhere–police on Segways, police with dogs, and police with full riot gear. That dog’s name is Rocco. True story. He can do loads of tricks. His policeman handler was making him pose for photos. Safety first right?

Everyone we’d talked to about Lima along the trip said we had to visit the water park. Approximately 13 million US was used to renovate the park and create the water fountain circuit. (Which is ridiculous given some of the social situations in the country. I suppose the park is a revenue source?) The park is huge, it has the worlds highest water fountain at 80m. It was beautiful, but not as spectacular as I’d hoped. (Seriously, I was more impressed with the water show at the Bellagio.)

Not to be a total downer about Lima, it was just a complete change of pace from everything we’d been doing in Peru. On a positive note, I did enjoy the architecture. Some of the buildings were gorgeous. (ps: the historic district of Lima is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.) Along with beautiful churches, the Plaza Mayor also has the Presidential Palace (the Peruvian White House if you will.) Every day there is a changing of the guard–complete with marching band. Most of the police force with riot gear was out during the marching ceremony.

We visited several of the cathedrals including the San Francisco Monastery and Catacombs. The catacombs were eerie. Thousands of bones were arranged in mass graves. When someone died, their family was not permitted inside the catacombs; only monks were allowed entry. Eventually, the monastery ran out of space, and instead of being honest, they just kept piling people on top of more and more people. The bones are in a pit several meters deep. Pretty creepy really.

Here are a few photos from the city.

 

Hearts Café

Someone on a TripAdvisor forum had posted about Hearts Café. Jon knew I’d make him stop there as soon as he read about it. I’m a sucker for charity, especially one that helps women and children, so I couldn’t possibly say no.

 Hearts Café is in Ollantaytambo, in one of the corners of the Plaza de Armas square. It is a small unassuming building, but I know it does amazing things for all sorts of people. Let me tell you, this little place moved me to tears. The story of the café’s origin and founder, Sonia Newhhouse, is just insane. It proves that one person really can make a tremendous difference. I’ve added the text from The West Australian Today article featuring the café:

76 Year Old British Woman who lost her heart in the Peruvian Andes
by Chris Olney, The West Australian Newspaper
June 21, 2007

There’s a small cafe in the corner of the plaza at Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, high in the Peruvian Andes, that offers a surprising selection of food.

Besides the best cappuccino in the valley, there’s quarter pounder veggie burgers, lasagna and farmhouse chicken casserole. Not the usual Andean fare.

But the food is not the only surprise at Hearts Cafe.

The driving force at Hearts is Sonia Newhouse, a 76 year old British woman who five years ago decided to cut her ties with the UK and travel to Peru. She arrived in Lima in 2002 with all her possessions packed into two suitcases.

“It was liberating,” she said. “I had no latchkey , no car. I had never been to Peru and I soon realised the first thing I needed to do was learn the language, so I enrolled in a Spanish School.”

Fellow students encouraged her to travel to Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas. After 2 years, altitude sickness (Cusco is 3450m above sea level) forced her to move to the Sacred Valley, which is a few hundred metres lower than Cusco. There she became involved with the women living in six villages which make up the community of Huaran.

“I was shocked at how poor they are and how few resources they have,’ Mrs Newhouse said. “I decided I wanted to help them become more self sufficient and independent.”

“I formed a working group and asked them what they needed most”

“Of all the things they need they thought only of their children. They wanted a nursery school. It was very humbling”.

The women told her that a Spanish-language nursery school, or pre-primary, would give their children the chance to learn Spanish before attending Government Schools. They only know the native dialect, Quechua, at home. If the children could not speak Spanish they were at a disadvantage from their first day at school.

A mud hut has been allocated for a nursery school in Canchacancha, one of the six villages, catering for about 40 children. But the school needs a teacher and equipment.

That’s where Hearts Cafe comes in. The money raised by selling meals, tea and coffee will help pay for the nursery school. It’s a big ask. Mrs Newhouse estimates $US20,000 $23,600 a year is needed.

Although she has never run a cafe, Mrs Newhouse is a nutritionist and in the 1980s set up one of the first factories in London producing frozen vegetarian meals. She rented a shop in Ollantaytambo and opened Hearts in March. After seven weeks she had raised 1900 sols (about $480).

“I decided to spend this on much needed medicines for the women,” she said. “Many have serious gynaecological problems. We desperately need volunteer doctors and nurses.”

Mrs Newhouse is training local people to cook and run the cafe, which provides another source of income for families. But she spends every day there to make sure things run smoothly.

Ollantaytambo is en route to the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, and as the tourist season gets into full swing there is little doubt the cafe will do a roaring trade.

 Hearts Cafe Ollantaytambo PeruWe stopped to eat at the café on the way to Aguas Calientes and on the way back to Cusco. Both times the food was great. Our server was super friendly, and he remembered us from our first visit. I only wish I’d been more prepared, and had brought school supplies or clothing with me instead of just a financial donation.

The NGO, Living Heart Association, is not a hand-out organization. They focus on education and self-help in the projects they’re running. So far, the café is responsible for a water purification project, a home for abused women and abandoned children, and medical support for people living in the Sacred Valley area. The café focuses on Educational Support, Nutrition Issues and Family Planning. They provide breakfast and lunch to 400 school children and abandoned elderly Peruvians every day!

Living Heart focuses on sustainable activities like growing vegetables in scholastic gardens. How many schools in North America have an organic garden on school grounds?! (Really, the kids here are fed nuggets and tater tots, or something equally vile, and have no clue how or where real wholesome food comes from.)

If you’re thinking of visiting Peru, or know someone who is, please tell them about this little place. It is truly a gem. Also, if you want to send anything to Sonia at Hearts Café the address is:

Sonia Newhouse
c/o Hearts Café
Plaza de Armas, Ollantaytambo
Cusco, Perú

Donations of school supplies, medicine, clothing etc are all needed. ps: Packages cannot weigh over 5kg, and all clothing must look clean and new or will be confiscated by customs. If you want to contact Sonia e-mail hearts.cafe@hotmail.com