Enroute to Los Toldos, the home of JT and Betty, as well as the birthplace of Eva Perón, we made a number of stops along the 6-hour drive(180 miles) to explore local towns, tourist attractions, food and ice cream stops as well as gas stops. Almost every city has a town square serving as a […]
Indonesia 25 – Toraja 4 – Pig Heaven
Toraja society is organized along a strict caste system. The person’s caste, or class, is inherited through the mother, and it is strictly forbidden for a woman to marry a man of lower class. The noble, or upper class, is considered to be descended from a person who descended from heaven. When someone of the […]
Indonesia 13 – Java 3 – Harvesting
The rural areas surrounding Malang, Java are quite picturesque, so we had an opportunity to work on photographing landscapes. One stop was to the Wonosari Tea Plantation, located on the slopes of Mount Arjuna in East Java. It is the oldest tea plantation in East Java and the government operates this as an Agro-Tourism site, […]
Living in Ecuador as an Expat (video)
We have begun to get settled into Honolulu, and establishing our routines here. One of my personal routines is membership into the Eyes of Hawaii camera club here. At the request of members, I have created a couple of narrated slide shows. The most recent slide show, that will be shown in August, when we […]
Cuenca – Thanksgiving 2021
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends. We’re thankful we were able to get together with others this year. We had several Thanksgiving invitations, and had to choose. In the end, we decided to go to two dinners, based on timing. Yes, we were stuffed on Thanksgiving and wished we had “stretchy pants”! […]
Hawaii – Waikiki
Waikiki Beach is the highlight for any first trip to Hawaii, with its white sandy surfing beach, turquoise blue waters, and numerous water activities. Lined with luxury hotels with Diamond Head as a backdrop, this is what you see in movies and TV series such as Magnum PI and Hawaii 5-0. We went to Duke’s […]
India 8 – Hola Mohalla
A few days after the Holi Festival, the Sikh hold a three-day celebration of Hola Mohalla. There was very little throwing of powdered paint here. Instead, the big event was a show of horsemanship, martial arts, archery, and military skills. The Sikh are easily identified as all men must wear a turban. Many of the turbans were […]
Subdued New Year’s Eve in Cuenca
As usual, politicians were mocked throughout the large neighborhood dioramas. Clinton, Obama and Trump were all represented from the States, plus an assortment of Ecuadorian political figures. This was our fifth New Year’s Eve in Ecuador. Except for 2015 in Salinas, we have spent each of them in Cuenca. Our first was at the end […]
Cooking With Fire
We have heard about La Yunta since shortly before we went on our Turkey adventure last March. This is a restaurant / tienda / deli that is about a 15 minute drive out of Cuenca, enroute to Loja. Being so far out in the sticks, they have to be creative to get people to come. […]
Cyprus 1 – Keep to the left!
We are now in Cyprus. The first shock was that these people drive on the left side of the road. We have rented a car to travel around the island, and I keep having to tell myself to “Keep to the left” — particularly when I approach a car on “my” side of the road! […]