Monday, November 9, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Colombia
Iara is from Colombia, and I had never been there, and wasn't particularly eager originally given the stories you hear from that country. But we had a small break together, and decided to go for it, being able to meet more of her family, and seeing what kind of environment she grew up in was going to be very interesting.
There are many cliches about Colombia, and sadly for me, they all appear true. Of course, I could have just been unlucky, and us losing our luggage also had to do with our stopover in mexico, but wow, I spent more time dealing with unnecessary aspects of travel (trying to retrieve said luggage) in this 6 day trip than in my entire world trip combined.
We had to deal with a lot of different people in different situations, but uniformly got the "I don't care, it is not my problem, go away you're ruining my afternoon nap" attitude. And not just implicitly, but in your face. Before I went, I felt that the "banana republic" jokes must be referring to the past, but what I experienced, it was very much alive. Good thing it was just my luggage, and not my personal security at risk, because that appears to be organized even less successfully in the country (there is hardly any real police around anywhere, just private security people who obviously care more for their employer than for you).
Colombia seems like a very fun country. When things go well.
That said, I had an absolute blast hanging around Iara's family (it made me understand her a lot better), seeing Bogota' (all the way from luxurious, european-looking neighbourhoods, old colonial areas to very poor parts of the city), and some of the surrounding country side (we stayed at her dad's farm house, which was fantastic, waterfall showers in the morning included). There is quite a variety of scenery to be had, and some great food (fruit in particular, there are endless new tastes, which inspired me to create some new cocktails ;)
There are many cliches about Colombia, and sadly for me, they all appear true. Of course, I could have just been unlucky, and us losing our luggage also had to do with our stopover in mexico, but wow, I spent more time dealing with unnecessary aspects of travel (trying to retrieve said luggage) in this 6 day trip than in my entire world trip combined.
We had to deal with a lot of different people in different situations, but uniformly got the "I don't care, it is not my problem, go away you're ruining my afternoon nap" attitude. And not just implicitly, but in your face. Before I went, I felt that the "banana republic" jokes must be referring to the past, but what I experienced, it was very much alive. Good thing it was just my luggage, and not my personal security at risk, because that appears to be organized even less successfully in the country (there is hardly any real police around anywhere, just private security people who obviously care more for their employer than for you).
Colombia seems like a very fun country. When things go well.
That said, I had an absolute blast hanging around Iara's family (it made me understand her a lot better), seeing Bogota' (all the way from luxurious, european-looking neighbourhoods, old colonial areas to very poor parts of the city), and some of the surrounding country side (we stayed at her dad's farm house, which was fantastic, waterfall showers in the morning included). There is quite a variety of scenery to be had, and some great food (fruit in particular, there are endless new tastes, which inspired me to create some new cocktails ;)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Utah!
So yeah, the reason these pictures are so much delayed is because I bought a new camera with a crazy good fisheye lens, which take circular pictures (see previous post), and I had to write my own custom software to perspective remap them because no existing software does what I want (mine can blend any combination of stereographic, cylindrical and rectilinear projections).
The cool thing is that with this camera, I can stop worrying about framing all together, since every shot takes everything in, then at home I decide what kind of projection I want for it, and how to crop it (anywhere from square 1:1 to panoramic 4:1 or so). You'll see some example results below.
Our trip, well, what can I say: this is probably the most beautiful bunch of nature I have EVER seen! ("beautiful bunch of nature", see, I should become a writer). The weird shapes and colors of these canyons appeal to me way more than the usual greenery, and the best part is, that, well, canyons are like mountains, inverted. So whereas with moutains you're always looking at them from below and never get a full overview, canyons you often look at from above, which is way more amazing.
So we landed in Salt Lake city, and took a grand round tour through the national parks of Utah (and a bit of Arizona). We did Canyon Reef, Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon north rim, Monument Valley, Goose Necks, Canyon Lands, Arches, in that order. We stayed in cute bed and breakfast places most of the way, and managed to find some suprisingly good food.
We had already attempted to see Grand Canyon on a previous trip, and failed because we didn't plan the trip there well, so when this time there was the densest fog ever that obscured it entirely, we were quite desperate. Luckily it cleared later that day, Hurray!
Anyway, enough blah, this is what y'all came here for:
The cool thing is that with this camera, I can stop worrying about framing all together, since every shot takes everything in, then at home I decide what kind of projection I want for it, and how to crop it (anywhere from square 1:1 to panoramic 4:1 or so). You'll see some example results below.
Our trip, well, what can I say: this is probably the most beautiful bunch of nature I have EVER seen! ("beautiful bunch of nature", see, I should become a writer). The weird shapes and colors of these canyons appeal to me way more than the usual greenery, and the best part is, that, well, canyons are like mountains, inverted. So whereas with moutains you're always looking at them from below and never get a full overview, canyons you often look at from above, which is way more amazing.
So we landed in Salt Lake city, and took a grand round tour through the national parks of Utah (and a bit of Arizona). We did Canyon Reef, Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon north rim, Monument Valley, Goose Necks, Canyon Lands, Arches, in that order. We stayed in cute bed and breakfast places most of the way, and managed to find some suprisingly good food.
We had already attempted to see Grand Canyon on a previous trip, and failed because we didn't plan the trip there well, so when this time there was the densest fog ever that obscured it entirely, we were quite desperate. Luckily it cleared later that day, Hurray!
Anyway, enough blah, this is what y'all came here for:
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