Author Archives: frogman
Good time in Αθήνα
Last spring, our great Greek friends invited us to come see their beatiful, troubled country rich with history. They were the paragons of hospitality, and we could have hardly wished for better guides. Here’s a bunch of photos from the capital, where we spent some quality time with Iakovos.
Desierto de Atacama
Chile is a curious country. Arguably more prosperous than its neighbours, the spaghetti-shaped land is occasionally referred to as the Switzerland of South America. But at the same time it’s a deeply troubled country, and I’m not talking about sexy communist revolutionary wannabes like Camila Vallejo. The thorough searches after we crossed the long patch of no man’s land surrounded by minefields, and arrived at the border, reminded us of the Iron Curtain, and times when freedom was scarce in Eastern Europe. Augusto Pinochet and his coup d’état had turned Chile into a dictatorship for almost twenty years, and it feels like the country still didn’t quite wake up from the decades of brutal repression – the people of Chile are nowhere near as natural, and much more guarded than in Bolivia, or even Peru.
Regardless, it’s a beautiful country with picturesque landscapes, good services, and delicious wine. It made for a great final part of our journey, and good transition back into civilisation. :-) Once again, I’m sharing excerpts from our favourite Alžbeta Lengyelová’s diary.
La Ciudad Imperial de Cusco
Cusco is a high city squeezing in an Andean valley at 3400 meters above the sea, and the Mekka of Peruvian tourism with around two million visitors every year. Its air is heavy with smog that comes from all the ancient cars that never heard of emission standards and are kept running probably by faith alone. Serving as a great base for trips around the Sacred Valley, it has become an immensely popular destination and experienced explosive growth – tripling its population over the past 20 years. Before the colonisation it served as capital of the Inca empire, and is now a UNESCO world heritage site. When Francisco Pizarro arrived in Cusco, he renamed it the “Very noble and great city of Cuzco”. As is the case with most invaders, they destroyed many of the original temples and palaces, using the foundations and material to build churches and colonial houses.
I will share parts of Alžbeta Lengyelová’s diary from the trip with you. It is in Slovak, so many apologies if you can’t appreciate it.
Panoramas de Bolivia
Last year I practiced shooting panoramas in Scotland, now it’s time to reap the rewards. Bolivia also presented plenty of beautiful sights, a three of which are already processed and ready. :-) On average, 210 megapixels of raw data were used to compose each of the panoramas.
The Promised Land
For many years I wanted to visit מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, the State of Israel. Every time I heard or read of the things going on in Middle East, I was wondering what the place must be like. The whole story would easily make a conversation topic for an evening or two, but the strongest thing for me was versatility. Tel Aviv is a booming, busy modern metropolis. Old Jerusalem is the ancient holy place of three great religions, breathing history. Akko is a beautiful old small port town with Muslims and Jews just living beside each other in peace. Regular people didn’t seem to care about such differences, didn’t seem to hate their neighbour. Mosques beside synagogues beside churches, four quarters of Old Jerusalem, at the surface it all seemed to work great. And yet some things are very, very different from Europe.
