Post a picture... Any picture

[LuanaGlobal]

I shot this while driving. It was an very beautiful moment. It made me think of Jehovah's Love for mankind..

[Joey]

Wow! Beautiful!Thanks for sharing.

[LeslieDean]

Luana--that is so beautiful it makes my heart ache!

Here are two pictures from 2009 when my husband visited Equador and the Galapoagos Islands

http://douglashenderson.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/posdas_mountain.jpg

i will try to get the other one to post below

You can actually read a little about this picture on a photography blog by Douglass Henderson--he is the photographer that taught my husbands classes then lead the photo/vacation

Rick said the photo was so beautiful yet so erier at the same time because they could here someones cries ring out all night long across the moutinas. Their guide said it was probably the cries of someone who was having punishment exacted on him for some type of wrong doing.

Hacienca in the Andes

Monday, October 19th, 2009

The second group spent Oct. 18 in Quito, then we headed south on the Panamerican highway, then turned west and went waaaaay out into the Andes Mountains, spending the night at Poada de Tigua;a hacienda (a working farm) that is over 125 years old. The place just has to be seen to be believed; it’s an adobe brick house with red clay tile roofing set in a beautiful valley between moutain peaks; Altitude; 11,800 feet above sea level. Dogs, sheep, llamas, pigs, goats, horses, dairy cows, donkeys, children and other animals are all around. This far from out in the boonies it’s dark; very very dark. Which means stars in the night sky. So we packed up the tripods and went down the twisty dirt road aways and shot some night sky shots. Depending on how accurate your monitor is, this will either look spectacular or just dark and blank….

Anyway, while we are out there, not only is the sky very dark it is very quite. So quite we can hear some people shouting across the valley. Our host explains to us that this far out, matters of misconduct are handled locally. If some one in the community misbehaves, the community all gets together and disciplines the offender. Even to the point of beatings. I did mention we were out in the boonies, didn’t I? We were overhearing a “trial” of sorts and later Rick heard what we presume to be justice being carried out.

The next morning, we got up early (remember this is a farm) and Rick even helped milk a cow. They milk cows “by hand”. The tiny adobe milk barn, with coble stone floors, crisp, clear morning air and big aluminum cans of hot steaming milk…

We later had a breakfast where almost everything we ate was raised there on the farm.

We hiked down the road, and around the bend found the little school for the area, and talked, as best we could to the kids there. I had brought the little battery-powered portable Epson printer, and we dug it out and started taking and printing pictures of these kids. This is just a hoot and great fun. I operated the printer and Dick Ebert shot the pitctures of the kids. Yes, I have done this before, but it’s still just really a unique experience. These mountain kids are just mesmerized by the little printer spitting out pictures of them. They all gather around it and watch each picture come out; shouting and pointing at whoever is in the picture. I was sitting on the ground with the printer, completely surrounded and crushed by about 30 kids, all squeezing in tighter to try to see the printer; and all of them had running noses.

We finally had to pack the whole thing up and go on down the road. We finally reached our destination of Banos, about 5,000 feet down the slope of the mountains from where we spent last night.

Tomorrow we will finally reach the jungle. We should be to the Rio Arajuno by about 5 tomorrow afternoon, where a dugout canoe should be waiting for us to take us far upriver to the Arajuno Jungle Lodge.

This also means I will probably be unable to get an update out for at least a couple of days. But I’ll do my best to keep you posted.

Oh, and we are all safe and well fed and happy as pigs.

D.H.

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2nd group arrives

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Yesterday, I went to the airport and met the 2nd goup from Tulsa; Barry Selke and Dick Ebert. Today we ran all over Quito, went to Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the Earth) which is a large monument build right on the Equator. Well, it used to right on the Equator that is until GPS came along and, okay, so it not really right on the Equator; it’s too late to move it now.

We also went to the national cathederal which is real cool because you can go up inside of it; all the way to the top of the bell towers. This provides stunning views of the city, which I know won’t downsize into a blog photo very well, but maybe you can get the idea…

The object on the top of the hill on the left is the 100 ft tall metal statue of the “Virgin of Quito” that appeared in an earlier blog post.

Tomorrow we get on board our van and head south, over the Andes, spending the night at a hacienda (working farm) at about 11,000 feet altitude. This is a pretty remote area, so I may not be able to update this blog from there. But as soon as I can, I’ll have another report for you.

D.H.

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Columbian Connection;

Friday, October 16th, 2009

A couple of days ago, I sent the Galapagos group home, and then I had a few days before the Ecuador/Amazon group arrived. So I went running around by myself to the very northernmost part of Ecuador. I caught a bus ( a nice, modern bus) and rode for about six hours up to the town of Tulcan, right on the Columbian border. This is a typical border town, with lots of grime and noise and bustle as only a border town can have: a photographer’s paradise.

After checking out the town, I went over to the Rio Carchi, pictured below.

This river is the border between Ecuador and Columbia. I went on over to the other side. This is what the Columbian border crossing looks like.

On the other side of the border, I caught a taxi that took me to the nearest town in Columbia; Ipiale As I came into town, there was a giant billboard with large photos of faces of known terrorists on it. Those which had been recently eliminated had a big red X over their face. Sort of a Columbian version of “America’s Most Wanted”, like a scorecard I guess. On into to town was the usual crowded streets, LOTS of action and commotion, much color and very, very friendly people. There were modern cars, ancient cars, hand carts with wooden wheels, and motorcycles by the galore and lots and lots of police /soldiers in fatigues. Because of the narrow, crowded streets, the cops get around on large dirtbikes, two to a bike, with the one on the back carrying a machine gun, out and ready for business. Pretty resourseful, huh?

After shooting awhile, I went back over the border into Ecuador, found a room and went to sleep.

D.H.

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The Gringo Express;

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Okay, this post is a little out of sequence, what I am about to describe happened the day before the previous post, but; hey; there are so many things happening, I can’t keep them all straight in my head, let alone on the blog.

At one time there was this very important railroad that linked the Ecuadorian city of Ibarra with the coast. But with the coming of highways and multiple landslides, this particular railroad fell into disrepair. In 2009, it is only used as a sort of tourist train, but unlike any tourist train you have ever seen.

In typical Ecuadorian resoursefullness, they took, what I think may have been an old school bus, put train wheels on the under carriage and who knows what else and came up with this:

Yes, I know it looks like “the little engine that could” or maybe Thomas the Train on meth, but anyway, we rented this thing in Ibarra. We all loaded up on it and from the ancient down town train station, the thing backed up verrrrrrry slowly for about a mile, then with much tooting, smoking, belching, shaking and grinding, it began to move forward. Literaly dozens of Ecuadorians were looking at this thing (they would never ride it) in great wonder as we headed on our journey.

After we finally got out of town, on we got into some beautiful scenery and the little train was a great shooting platform. The “engineer” would stop the train (try that in the states) any time we wanted and we would get out and shoot. He even went across one very high trestle bridge twice to let me video tape the train crossing the gorge.

Then we went on down the tracks. The train lurched and bumped and rattled on down the track for several hours. It was just a hoot. Literally.

More later.

D.H.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Between Groups;

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

So here’s a shot of the room Rick Hensley and I stayed in on the rim of that crater lake;

And when we got up the next morning, if we would have walked out the door you see in the corner of the room, and walked about 6 feet further we would have falled down a ver steep bluff into this lake;

Yeah, I know I talked about this in the last post, but I didn’t have a chance to send any photos of it. So that’s why I’m backtracking here.

This morning I took the other group to the airport and sent them off (I think they got home ok; nobody called and said otherwise), I then went back to the Villa Nancy and went back to bed and slept for three hours. I spent the day sorting gear and photo files. I’ve got a couple of days down time (sorely needed). Tomorrow I’m going to catch a bus and ride for about six hours up North to a little town on the Columbian border called Tulcan, which is supposed to have a really interesting cemetery. I might spend the night there, (the town not the cemetery) or if it’s a bust, I may just come back.

As much as I can, I’ll keep you posted.

D.H.

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A better post…

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Yep, we left the Galapagos Islands, and I know my last post was brief and badly texted, (it was from my iphone) but now I’m in a place with a signal and a laptop. So… Here’s a shot of the Encantada, the boat we lived on while we sailed between the islands.

Here’s a shot from that boat one morning of our “panga”, the little boat that ferried us back and forth to the islands.

Here’s a shot of baby sea lion, about a week old.

We saw hundreds of sea lions, none of which had any fear of us whatsoever. You can walk right up to any of them, you could touch them if you want(but we were told not to and so we didn’t). One baby came up and sniffed Rick’s feet (poor thing) with it’s mother not 6 feet away, she wasn’t the least bit concerned. About the same went with the Galapagos Tortises, the sea turtles, the albatroses, the boobies, and about anything else on the islands.

I’ll post more later, but to keep you updated on our progress, as soon as we landed in Quito, we got in our van and headed north, way up past the town of Otavalo on to a tiny town, then on past the tiny town, then off the road, then of the path…to a hostel (that’s not hostile) on the rim of a crater lake. It was dark and overcast when we got there, our rooms were tiny, stuccoed brick, with old red clay tile roofs, with a crude brick fire place for heat. Thick alpaca wool blankets on the bed.

We woke up to see we were perched on the edge of a cliff over the crater lake; the sun broke through and it was beautiful. We later left and went to the market in Otavalo, bought beautiful things for a pitance, then finally made our way back to the little Vila Nancy hotel where we started out. We will spend the night there, then tomorrow morning I will take the group to the airport and send them back home. I chill out in Ecuador for a few days until the other group arrives on thursday. I should have enough down time to post some more stuff. Until then…Hasta huego.

D.H.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Leaving Galapagos…

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

If everything was perfectly predictable, it wouldn’t be an adventure would it?Sothe damage to the ship’s engine was considerably more extensive than we were led to believe(surprise,surprise). They had to bring anew head for the desiel engine and the engineer worked pretty much all night long to gett things going again. This put things considerable behind schedule: sothey ended up dropping us off at a different port where they had bus waiting to whisk us to the aeroport,just in time(hopefully to catch our plane back to the mainland where our journey continues into the northern part of equador; the adv

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Oct 10?

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Bad connection, but all are well. Many amaIng things. Shouldhave a better signal tomorrow.Life on a sail boat is very interesting; VERY compact. Trouble with the engine require a re route. But that’s what makes it an adventure, right?

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Y

[LeslieDean]

At one time there was this very important railroad that linked the Ecuadorian city of Ibarra with the coast. But with the coming of highways and multiple landslides, this particular railroad fell into disrepair. In 2009, it is only used as a sort of tourist train, but unlike any tourist train you have ever seen.

In typical Ecuadorian resoursefullness, they took, what I think may have been an old school bus, put train wheels on the under carriage and who knows what else and came up with this:

Yes, I know it looks like “the little engine that could” or maybe Thomas the Train on meth, but anyway, we rented this thing in Ibarra. We all loaded up on it and from the ancient down town train station, the thing backed up verrrrrrry slowly for about a mile, then with much tooting, smoking, belching, shaking and grinding, it began to move forward. Literaly dozens of Ecuadorians were looking at this thing (they would never ride it) in great wonder as we headed on our journey.

After we finally got out of town, on we got into some beautiful scenery and the little train was a great shooting platform. The “engineer” would stop the train (try that in the states) any time we wanted and we would get out and shoot. He even went across one very high trestle bridge twice to let me video tape the train crossing the gorge.

http://douglashenderson.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ricklittle-train.jpg

Then we went on down the tracks. The train lurched and bumped and rattled on down the track for several hours. It was just a hoot. Literally.

More later.

D.H.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Between Groups;

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

So here’s a shot of the room Rick Hensley and I stayed in on the rim of that crater lake;

And when we got up the next morning, if we would have walked out the door you see in the corner of the room, and walked about 6 feet further we would have falled down a ver steep bluff into this lake;

Yeah, I know I talked about this in the last post, but I didn’t have a chance to send any photos of it. So that’s why I’m backtracking here.

This morning I took the other group to the airport and sent them off (I think they got home ok; nobody called and said otherwise), I then went back to the Villa Nancy and went back to bed and slept for three hours. I spent the day sorting gear and photo files. I’ve got a couple of days down time (sorely needed). Tomorrow I’m going to catch a bus and ride for about six hours up North to a little town on the Columbian border called Tulcan, which is supposed to have a really interesting cemetery. I might spend the night there, (the town not the cemetery) or if it’s a bust, I may just come back.

As much as I can, I’ll keep you posted.

D.H.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

A better post…

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Yep, we left the Galapagos Islands, and I know my last post was brief and badly texted, (it was from my iphone) but now I’m in a place with a signal and a laptop. So… Here’s a shot of the Encantada, the boat we lived on while we sailed between the islands.

Here’s a shot from that boat one morning of our “panga”, the little boat that ferried us back and forth to the islands.

Here’s a shot of baby sea lion, about a week old.

We saw hundreds of sea lions, none of which had any fear of us whatsoever. You can walk right up to any of them, you could touch them if you want(but we were told not to and so we didn’t). One baby came up and sniffed Rick’s feet (poor thing) with it’s mother not 6 feet away, she wasn’t the least bit concerned. About the same went with the Galapagos Tortises, the sea turtles, the albatroses, the boobies, and about anything else on the islands.

I’ll post more later, but to keep you updated on our progress, as soon as we landed in Quito, we got in our van and headed north, way up past the town of Otavalo on to a tiny town, then on past the tiny town, then off the road, then of the path…to a hostel (that’s not hostile) on the rim of a crater lake. It was dark and overcast when we got there, our rooms were tiny, stuccoed brick, with old red clay tile roofs, with a crude brick fire place for heat. Thick alpaca wool blankets on the bed.

We woke up to see we were perched on the edge of a cliff over the crater lake; the sun broke through and it was beautiful. We later left and went to the market in Otavalo, bought beautiful things for a pitance, then finally made our way back to the little Vila Nancy hotel where we started out. We will spend the night there, then tomorrow morning I will take the group to the airport and send them back home. I chill out in Ecuador for a few days until the other group arrives on thursday. I should have enough down time to post some more stuff. Until then…Hasta huego.

D.H.

[kerri]

Oh my goodness, this is magnificant Luana, I love clouds. Thank you for posting this beautiful photo xx

[LuanaGlobal]

Thanks:flowers:, I Thank Jehovah for such a beautiful display of the heavens.

I got that shot on an I-phone

through my windshield driving 35 miles per hour

on a windy road.

Luana

[SUNRAY]

That is absolutely gorgeous! Thanks!

[campanula]

Yesterday in a field service

[Joey]

That's funny.Is it a stray pony? We only have stray cats and dogs.

[campanula]

That's funny.Is it a stray pony? We only have stray cats and dogs.

No, it's a little foal and his mom was there too.

[Mrs. Musky]

Great pictures, Svetlana....So these horses just walk around your town?....Did they follow you to the doors? ha, ha....

Wouldn't that be funny?!

[campanula]

So these horses just walk around your town?....Did they follow you to the doors? ha' date=' ha.... Wouldn't that be funny?![/quote'] We usually ride wild horses from

and often use a lasso for those, who refuse

[Mrs. Musky]

Wow...that's some 'wild territory' you have, Svetlana...sounds exciting!

[campanula]

Oh, Gabriele, our territory is very boring actually, but girls are "wild" LOL

[phissiann]

That is sad I had a pit when I lived in Fla. he would lay on my lap and watch tv with me.

[Musky]

That is sad I had a pit when I lived in Fla. he would lay on my lap and watch tv with me.

I think you posted in the wrong forum? The pictures here were of a horse, not a dog.

[Greenfield]

That is sad I had a pit when I lived in Fla. he would lay on my lap and watch tv with me.

I think you posted in the wrong forum? The pictures here were of a horse, not a dog.

I clicked on the thing at the top of the post that says "by so-and-so is a response to this post" and they were actually replying to something on page 1! They have plenty of reading to catch up on in this thread. :readbible:

[Ken]

[Mrs. Musky]

GREAT picture, Ken!! Loved it! Thanks for posting.

[campanula]

Look at this dog! LOL

 

[Dave]

Hahahahahahahahah....Hahahahahaha

Oh Svetlana, that is Sooo funny!

Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor.

[rocket]

Look at this dog! LOL

 

 

 

What is the name of your dog Svetlana? :rolleyes:

[blue-jay]

They have some at our convention center and every time I see it I tell myself I want to try it too. Last year we tried it ourselves and it worked. We'll have our first home grown pineapple.

Edited April 25, 2013 by star-bug

[campanula]

What is the name of your dog Svetlana? :rolleyes:

 

Humility-Patience-Victim jr

[Dave]

What is the name of your dog Svetlana? :rolleyes:

This is funny too Lynn. But I think Svetlana missed the joke.

Svetlana, you might have to change your Avatar back to the way it was before with your beautiful young face.

Lynn thinks this is you in the picture...with YOUR dog.