Posts about the various places around the world which I’ve been fortunate to visit appear here. To search for a particular destination please use the dropdown menu above.
Few would argue with the idea that the main contribution that Jamaica has made to international culture is its reggae music, and the man who did most to bring that to the world’s attention was Bob Marley. So it’s perhaps not surprising that he has achieved almost cult status on the island.
Where better to take candid street photos than New York City? It is one of my favourite cities, and has a buzz unequalled anywhere else I have visited. It is like being on a movie set. The skyscrapers and streets provide the perfect backdrop for the constant ebb and flow of people.
Standing here you feel on top of the world. You are standing at a height of 2,000 metres above sea level. Below you see the road, little more than a track, that you are to follow, winding down through an almost other-worldly volcanic landscape.
These hexagonal pillars look more man-made than natural. They are quite regular in size, creating the impression that they were somehow manufactured. In a sense they were, but by nature rather than man.
This pretty garden, originally laid out by a wealthy silk merchant, later became a popular beer garden. The small palace to which it belongs bears the name of the brewer who once had his brewery in its cellars and is still owned by his descendants.
There is something about a tale of an abandoned city that tugs at the imagination, and this one is no different. Here among the remnants of an emperor’s glory you can still discover riches, and the sense of a world that existed only briefly and is long gone.
There is a solidity to this church; it seems rooted in the soil from which it was built. Its thick walls with their jutting buttresses look more like a fortification than a place of worship, and its massive bulk seems completely out of proportion to the small community it was built to serve.
Early morning, and the sun has just climbed above the volcanoes that encircle the lake. A fisherman in a rowing boat drifts slowly, checking the net that he hopes will have captured some fish overnight.
A woman crouches beside the fast-flowing river, panning for gold. Hers is a simple life in a rural village, but success here could change it forever.
A king and his queen are buried here, an unexpected sight in a country where much of ancient history has been forgotten, ignored, rewritten or even erased.