Iain

Mexico – Mehico – United Mexican States

 Mexico, North America, Photography  No Responses »
Apr 162014
 

I guess Cancun isn’t really Mexico, I mean yes it’s in the country of Mexico (swap the ‘X’ for a ‘H’ to pronounce it in true Spanish style) but it’s hardly typical.

Chichen Itza however I think we can call pretty Mexican or Mayan at least.  A UNESCO World Heritage Site that lives up to it’s billing.  I’m always fascinated by the level of accuracy ancient buildings were constructed without the benefit of the technology we have today.

The best fact I can give you is that Mexico isn’t actually the name of the country….the official name is the United Mexican States and I never knew that until today!

Photos below have a good retro edge as they are scans of film negatives from the good old days of 2004.

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Paraguay – Hot & Sweaty

 Paraguay, Photography, South America  No Responses »
Apr 152014
 

Ascuncion, Paraguay – like a hot version of East Ham as my friend Tony eloquently described it.  There was probably another adjective in there as well.

It was a stop on a tour I did in South America in 2010 and more of a stop-gap.  The Jesuit ruins near Trinidad were interesting to explore for a day and the weather made for some lovely pictures.  We camped nearby at a site that I remember for the competitive table tennis tournament along with the excessive drinking which a vague memory tells me ended with a midnight dip in the swimming pool.

 

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Hitchhiking in Croatia

 Croatia, Europe, Photography  No Responses »
Apr 142014
 

Instead of camping wild with the bears in Plitvice National Park, Shane and I decided it would be a better idea to try hitchhiking to the nearest campsite which we didn’t think was that far away.  It took forever to get a lift but we finally did, with.  The chap had no room in his boot due to the full sized speaker he had wired up to his sound system.   We got to the campsite just in time for it to absolutely chuck it down with rain.

Luckily they had a bar, unluckily it wasn’t open.

Later on in the trip we managed to score another lift to the nearby town of Skradin.  The guy didn’t seem too happy about picking us up but he did, maybe it was because we were walking on the road where we probably shouldn’t have been.  It did lead to a great afternoon chewing the fat with a Croatian barman in Skradin Yacht Club where we were all admiring the view and drinking the very reasonably priced local pivo.

After that we no longer had any luck with the hitchhiking and instead walked, got the bus and finally a train into Slovenia.

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The Lowlands of Scotland

 Europe, Photography, Scotland  No Responses »
Apr 132014
 

Tighnabruaich on the west coast of Scotland is one of those beautiful little villages surrounded by the beautiful rolling hills of lowland Scotland.  It would be one of my favourite places but for the weather……but when the sun is shining there aren’t many places I’d rather be.

A friend of my brother had a house there he very kindly let me stay in for a week.  I used it as a retreat from the stresses of corporate life back in 2007.

The golf course there is probably the most ridiculous/hardest courses I’ve ever played.  It more than made up for it by being one of the most scenic though.  This helped as I spent a lot of time looking for lost balls and saw more of the course than most normally do.

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Slovenia – Short & Sweet

 Europe, Photography, Slovenia  No Responses »
Apr 122014
 

Slovenia vies for the best name of a capital in Europe, Ljubljana, pronounce that if you’ve never heard it before!

I was only there for a few days in 2011 but managed to explore the centre of Ljubljana a fair bit.  I was with my Aussie friend Shane whom I had got to know well whilst traveling in South America.

We had other friends who were in Bled, a bus ride away, in the mountains.  We set off for the day to this beautiful town, set on a lake, with a castle up on the hillside looking down on the town.  Being in such a gorgeous setting we took the view that as the weather wasn’t great we best get a cold refreshment to decide what to do next.  Needless to say I can tell you more about the bars of Bled than the scenery, a common theme when one travels with Shane, although I’m hardly one to complain!

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Photos from Barbados

 Barbados, North America, Photography  No Responses »
Apr 112014
 

Yeah man, all is good, all is cool.

Barbados – Our neighbour, Perry, personified the Bajan stereotype, loud, smiley, friendly, imposing and he knew how to have a good time!

I was only there for a week in 2004 but I loved the island, exploring around in a little mini moke.  I think it was also the only place I’ve ever hired a jet ski and boy was it fast.  Turning it out to sea and opening up to full throttle, getting air off the waves, whilst heading for the setting sun.  An exhilarating time or maybe my memory is playing tricks and it was like this…..

The photos below even look retro as they are scans from film, remember that?

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Photos from Kenya

 Africa, Kenya, Photography  No Responses »
Apr 092014
 

It’s Friday 16th January 2009.

“As required by my contract of employment, I hereby give you one months’ notice of my intention to leave my position as Project Services Manager.

My last working day will therefore be Friday 13th February 2009.”

My life would never be the same again.  I flew into Nairobi a week after I finished work to start an open-ended adventure around the world.  Everything was different, everything was exciting, including the sign behind the first bar I was in.

‘Trespassers will be shot’.

Next time I saw a gun was whilst chasing lions……

In Kenya with a loaded weapon

The photos are from Lake Nakuru & Hell’s Gate National Park and of course the Masai Mara National Reserve. We were lucky enough to camp for one night in the Masai Mara. This was as exciting as scary. We were warned that there were lions around, we were just camped in the bush, no fences.
It was great when the driver took a beer order and came back a half hour later with a crate of beer, where he got it from I have no idea, but slightly terrifying when I had to get out of the tent in the middle of the night to get rid of the beer…..pitch black, don’t turn a torch on, the lions will go for that, oh dear god, what was that rustling in the bushes?

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Photos from Botswana

 Africa, Botswana, Photography  No Responses »
Apr 092014
 

I was in Botswana April 2009 as part of a Nairobi to Cape Town trip.  You can find below a photo selection ,centred around the Okavango Delta.
I remember the flight in the Cessna very vividly. It was a great way to get some perspective on the vastness, the amount of water and wildlife in the area. It was only $60 each and the pilots (there were two planes) decided to throw in some acrobatic stuff for a laugh!

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Photos from El Nido, Palawan, The Philippines

 Asia, Philippines, Photography  No Responses »
Apr 032014
 

El Nido is located on the western most island, Palawan, of the Philippines. It sits very near the top of the island and is the name of the municipality as well as a town.
You have to make an effort to get there, if sitting in a cramped van for 5 hours is effort, but it rewards in spades. Either that or you can fly direct from Manila, they really need to advertise that more!

I was meeting my mate, Richard, who is an underwater filming legend for some R&R after my volunteering stint in Bohol. We had no more of a plan than to meet in Puerto Princesa and get up to El Nido where we would decide where else on Palawan we would go.  As it turns out we didn’t leave until it was time to return to Puerto to get the flight home, we enjoyed it that much.

We weren’t the only ones either; a number of friends from the volunteer base also came to El Nido, so with great company, amazing weather, stunning scenery, warm sand, cold beer and good food there was nothing left to want for apart from maybe a sledgehammer.

It wasn’t goodbye El Nido, definitely ¡Hasta luego!

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Photos of Bohol, The Philippines

 Asia, Philippines, Photography  No Responses »
Apr 022014
 

The final collection of photos from my time on Bohol is a series of photos I took during my time off. Basically Sundays, we worked the other six days of the week.

Bohol is ‘famous’ for it’s chocolate hills and tarsiers, neither of which you will see in the photos below!

You can see more pictures of my time on Bohol here and here.

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