It takes a certain amount of sacrifice and discomfort to visit El Tatio. For one thing, you will sacrifice sleep, as all tours leave very early in the morning. The steam from the geysers is most active and visible at dawn, so you need to be there before sunrise. You must also be prepared to be very cold and to cope with altitude; the geyser field is at 4,200 metres above sea level. So is it worth it? Oh yes!
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I am very much inclined to agree with Ratty that there is half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. And whenever I spot an opportunity while travelling to take to the water, I am eager to set sail. A whale-watching trip; a cruise around a harbour; an afternoon on a city’s river. Count me in for any of those!
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Studio photographers can spend a lot of time getting the light just right, changing the angles, adjusting the brightness and colour. Landscape photographers don’t have that luxury; we have to work with the light we have, or wait until it changes naturally.
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I can still remember the small thrill of excitement that ran through me – an extremely unusual emotion to feel at a school assembly! Our headteacher had just announced that our local authority was organising a three week camping trip to Niagara Falls, open to fifth and lower sixth pupils, for the following summer. I was just starting the lower sixth, so I was eligible to go. I was just starting the lower sixth, so I was eligible to go. I wasn’t even sure at that point where Niagara Falls was; somehow in my head that morning it got confused…
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If like me you enjoy a wander around an interesting neighbourhood just as much (if not more) as seeing the major sights of a city, Santiago’s Barrio Lastarria is likely to appeal. This is the perfect area to stroll through and enjoy for its ambiance and street life. And it's a great district in which to photograph street art.
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Anacortes struck me as an easy-going and slightly quirky small city. It's the sort of laid-back place where a brief stop can easily turn into a couple of hours as you stroll its downtown streets, pause for a leisurely coffee, pop into a shop or two.
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When we realised that our route back into Seattle at the end of our Washington State road trip would take us through Renton, just to the north of the city, there was one detour we just had to make.
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New Mexico dubs itself the ‘Land of Enchantment’ and indeed we were enchanted. What delighted us most was the variety. In two and a half weeks we saw natural wonders and man-made. We followed trails worn down over the centuries by the moccasin-clad feet of early inhabitants; and sat in the cramped confines of a Mercury capsule. We marvelled at the legends of those early Native Americans, and at the tales of aliens crashing near Roswell.
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Highway 20, the North Cascades Highway, is recognised as one of the most scenic drives in the North West, possibly in the entire US. It is the only real road through this vast wilderness of mountains, glaciers and lakes which constitute the North Cascades National Park.
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As we left Friday Harbor’s jetty, Captain Ken prepared us for disappointment. The only resident orca pod which had been in the area recently, had last night been seen heading west, out to sea. However, we still hoped to see some of the transient orca who visit these waters.
