Sri Lanka posted 6/2013 and restored 8/2014

 Arrived at Colombo, to a world class airport and taken by the guide to the Cinnamon Hotel for the night (probably the most luxurious hotel I have ever stayed).  The next day in the early morning departed in a luxury van and driven for 5 hours to a tented camp outside the Yala National Park.  My reason to go there was to photograph leopards; he park it is credited to be where the greatest concentration of leopards are in the world.

 

That afternoon was driven to the park about 45 minutes away, but the road from the camp to the main one took at least 15 minutes to negotiate; it was so bad that it makes the roads in the Masai Mara like autobahns.  After clearing the park gate after undergoing a long bureaucratic process, the adventure started.  The park is overwhelmed with tourists in large and tall vehicles as well as local families in small cars.  And the chase started, not much different that the situation in Bandharvgarh Park in India.  The difference was that in India, the tigers are easily seen and photographed.  It is another situation in Yala with the leopards. These are mostly seen at sunrise and sunset, and mostly crossing or walking along the sides of the road, and in occasions sleeping on trees.  So the odds of getting a great photo of them are challenging. Another problem is that the forest is covered with thick underbrush of mostly bamboo and Lantana.  The Lantana is an invasive species brought in by the British colonials and has proliferated throughout the park.  Finding the plant here in the wild was surprising; I have them at home in the garden mostly to attract butterflies.

 

The lack of leopard sightings was more than compensated by the variety of birds; at least 95 % of them new to me, so I had a feast shooting them.  The birds of prey were surprisingly cooperative and not afraid. Above is the Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl, the national bird of the country. So, I will follow with a few more birds.  This one is the green beeeater, a very common one and easy to photograph since it chooses a perch to watch for insects, flies away to capture them and return to the same branch.  If the insect is big such as a grasshopper, it hits the bug to the branch repeatedly until it is killed.  It is the most colorful bird in the park.

 

There were numerous water birds in great such as the gray heron who caught a fish and the Indian Pond Heron with the feather in the beak.  The painted stork is the most striking I had seen with such vivid colors and the thicknee, a weird looking bird with such large eyes.

The birds of prey were numerous, and all were new to me.  The most striking was the brown fish owl that I was fortunate to photograph while taking a bath in the early morning.  Also found the serpent eating eagle perched on a tree that allowed me to approach it very close while preening its feathers.  Had the same experience with an immature with a crested eagle owl.

 

 

 

 

There also some othere interesting animals such as the jackal, the langur and a monitor lizzard, the later spent most of the time digging for grugs sticking the forked tongue in the air trying to catch a scent.

 

 

I used to leave the camp in the early morning and return by 1000 for breakfast, then rest until lunch around 1400.  In the meantime, I would take photos around the grounds or take a siesta.  It was hot but not humid and there were electric fans in the Nairobi tents; first time ever.  But then again in Kenya and Tanzania it does not get hot to have a need for fans.  The Nairobi tents were large and surprisingly, made in Australia.  These tents had the usual layout with a small porch in front with two chairs and tables.  The sleeping area was larger than those found in Africa, the beds were excellent.  In the back separated by a zippered partition the toiled and sink were available.  The shower was outside in the back. There was a larger tent where the dinner and social events took place.  The Sri Lanka food was excellent and surprisingly the alcoholic beverages were included…”free”; so a lot of Lion beers did not live to see the next date.  The camp was next to a small shadow lake but surprisingly, the mosquitos and flies were not a problem; plenty of small lizards around.

 

Traveling back and forth daily to the park, we drove by large rice paddies and these were protected by sturdy fences against the elephants.  Not that these could stop the elephants and at nighttime, one could hear the firecrackers used by the farmers to scare the elephants away.

Another amazing thing about the roads and for that matter in the cities too, is that they were clean with no trash lying around.  After the safari, returned to Colombo and stayed again at the Cinnamon, this time had time for the breakfast buffet…exuberant fruits and local cuisine as well as the regular eggs.  Then drove back to the airport via the old town sightseen the old colonial buildings and the port.  I will go for the birds as well as the friendly people.

Torres del Paine posted 2/2013 and retored 8/2014

 

Last year the trip to Torres del Paine was a total lost because of the fire, the park was closed. For more details of this disaster, refer to my previous blog of this place in 2012.  The park is now open for business and the welcome spirit is back.  As a result of the fire, the park staffing has been increased to about 44 rangers. A helicopter is stationed at the park headquarters for fire surveillance; I wonder if it will be there next year since it is very costly to operate.  This is the premier tourist location in Chile; it is what Yellowstone is to the USA.  Therefore is heavily used and large tourist buses are now a common sight, this was not the case back in 2004 when I first visited.  The overcrowding is becoming a concern as seen for the lack of adequate parking places at the designated overlooks.

 In my opinion, this is the spot is where the most wonderful landscapes can be observed in the world, and due to the ever changing weather, the photographic opportunities are challenging.  The most common animals to be seen are the guanacos.  For many years I had been trying to catch these cousins of the camels jumping fences.  Finally I got my shot.  It happened that when I was there, the boys were defending their harems and fights were common and violent.  The defender chases the intruder while biting its rear legs or when facing each other, they fight hitting and biting their necks.

 

There are numerous species of birds and at this time of the year when is spring there, they are active feeding and having families.  Below is a family of Coscoroba swans, a Bandurria with its very peculiar curved bill, a Black Breasted Buzzard ( a new bird for me), the very common Upland Goose,  and finally the Rhea.

 

My purpose this year was to photograph pumas but I was not successful.  Tried hard for several days waking up at dark 0200 to no avail.  Although 5 were sighted, there were very skittish and there was no enough light, but they are there, as proven by the not the best image below; promise a better one in the future.  After a long day, a glass of wine and a great meal provided the energy for the next day.

Punta Arenas Graffiti Posted 2/2013 and restored 8/2014

 Punta Arenas in Chile is a city that I will want to live in.  It is a small quiet town where even the dogs obey the traffic lights.  No matter where you go, graffiti are the dominant subject.  So I decided to name it the “The Graffiti Capital of World.”  I had been visiting there since 2004 several times and had seen the evolution of graffiti; it appears that the climax of graffiti expression diminished by the end of the first decade of the XXI century.  Last year I noticed the decay of popular intrusive art; the images are decaying fast due to the harsh weather conditions such as rain, sun and wind. 

 

The paint is peeling and losing its colors not to mention the deterioration of substrate where they were applied to.  And then, we have the recent vandals that are adding their names, expressions of love and pornography to the original works of those that originally defaced the wall of buildings and brick fences.  So enjoy my latest collection of graffiti before it is gone. 

 

During my recent visit in January, stray dogs have become a safety issue due to the numerous dog bites inflicted in the citizens. So like anywhere there is a split in the community, those who want to get rid of them and those that want to maintain the status quo.  There are dogs everywhere and when lying in a sidewalk of door entrance they will not move.  As a result, the trash receptacles in the city are elevated so the dogs cannot scavenge the trash bags.  And some are very original and artistic in design as shown below; this has been there for some time and I always walk by to say hello.

 

Punta Arenas was a very wealthy city between the 1850 and 1920 when it was important port for the ships crossing the Magellan Strait navigating from the U.S East and West coast.  Most of those adventurers from the U.S. East Coast that went to California during the Gold Rush came this way.  Another source of wealth was the exportation of wool mostly to England.  The maritime industry is still active and the city is visited regularly by cruise ships, a host of a Chilean Navy major command, and where old piers and shipwrecks of old sailing ships adorn the shores.  At one time, it was the crossroads of the world.

 

Energy has been also and on/off source of wealth.  In 2010 when I was there, there were posters in the streets and signs along the roads fighting the opening of coal mines.  Well, the environmentalists lost and the coal mine has been opened.  Ironically, while I was there they announced the closing of the gas plant.  The plant can be seen coming into the city from the north with its wind turbines.  These were used to generate electricity for the plant and were installed by 2011, since they were not there the prior year when I visited.

 

Just waiting for my next arrival to my favorite Hotel Plaza as well as my daily visit to the second floor of the Mercado, where the best and cheapest food can be found.  Maybe by then, I will be able to revisit the Menendez Mansion that has been under renovation during the last two years…things still move slowly down at the end of the world.

Spirit Bears Posted 11/2012, retored 8/2014

 

These bears are found in some of the islands off of the coast of North and Central British Columbia and it is estimated that not more than 400 are in existence.  Prince Royal Island has the greatest concentration of the “Spirit Bears”, also known as Kermode bears. They are a sub-species of the black bears and while they are white, they are not albinos.  I spend about 8 days in this trip and did not get to see one until the “last day” walking along the shoreline. The Spirit Bears, as most others, are scavengers’ and feed in what they can find.  After they wake up from the winter hibernation, they feed mostly in grasses and bulbs.  When the salmon arrives at the streams in late August, they feed in the meat and start accumulating fat for the winter.  After the salmon run is finish, they feed mostly in berries and whatever else they can find.  I observed the spirit bear feeding on the barnacles growing in the seashore rocks and later on berries as you can see in the images below. 

 

In the way to the island where the spirit bears, we stopped at various inlets and rivers where we had the opportunity to photograph grizzly bears.  During a stop at the Mussel River, we observed about 8 grizzly bears, some of them with cubs.  They were mostly scavenging for death salmon since the runs have already taken place; I was there in the first week of October and the run was at its peak in late August/early September.  It was a very productive stop and able to photograph observe their various activities such as feeding, swimming and cubs playing.  The grizzly below is eating the rotten carcass of a salmon.

 On various occasions while navigating along the Queen Charlotte Sound and inlets, I had the opportunity to observe humpback whales feeding.  These giants’ fish in pods and when they locate a school of fish, they corral them in a net of bubbles and they plunge into the school surfacing with mouths full of fish. This is behavior is called bubbling netting.  In the image below, the pink area seen is the roof of the mouth and the yellow hairs are the baleens that filter the water out and catch the prey.  The black dots you see in the pink area are some of the fish caught. We had the opportunity to see another sea mammal, a harbor seal resting in top of a tree stump.  How was it able to climb there?

 

While in the island where the spirit bears are more likely to be seen, I stayed for 3 full days in the blinds waiting for the bears…they never showed.  But black bears were patrolling the creek looking for the few stray salmon left as well as their carcasses.  For the first time, I got to see the dipper, a bird that feeds and swim under water that is about the size of a robin.  The guide was surprised to see that this bird was also feeding in young salmon fingerlings; this may be been the first observation of such behavior.  One evening in the way back to the boat, the guide gathered a few salmon carcasses to use as bait for the crab traps.  The baited traps were dropped in the sound and the next day we had an outstanding fresh Dungeness crab dinner.

 The boat trip ended at Hartley Bay and from there, I flew to Prince Rupert float plane to catch a flight back to Vancouver later in the day.  Prince Rupert is a picturesque small town that has seen better days.  Walking through the business district, a lot of the stores are closed and the ones still operating are catering to the tourist business.  There is a “First Nations” museum well worth a visit, a nice city hall and a government building, both built during the age of the British Empire heydays.  The city just recently suffered an earthquake with an intensity of 7.7.   I enjoyed the time here and would like to come back with more time…lots of neat restaurants to taste not to mention the variety of local beers

 Below are some B&W of the sights in the Sound at sunset.