Salta & Jujuy

View from my hotel room: San Fransisco church is a landmark in Salta city

Salta and Jujuy are two provinces in Northwestern Argentina with a great variety of beautiful landscapes and fascinating flora and fauna: perfect places to explore with my friend Peter Jaspers-Fayer, especially when our home in Guelph is gripped by winter weather!

Salta is also a bustling city of 600 thousand people with a rich history and a youthful, contemporary vibe. We made it our home base to acclimatize, change money and rent a car.

Peter taking in the crisp, clean air and wild landscapes on the way to Cafayate

The red, wind-sculpted rock reminded me of the Southwest USA

Our first foray was south through the wild Quebrada de las Conches to the town of Cafayate, which has become the centre of a region renown for its high-altitude vineyards. 

Lunch with a bottle of local 'tinto' required a siesta before setting off home to Salta.

Morning view of the Hill of Seven Colours from our room at Tiny Eco Cabins, Puramarca

Puramarca: cute but very touristy

Next we drove north to Puramarca, an adobe village in the mountain desert of Jujuy. Because of its proximity to the Hill of Seven Colours, Puramarca has become a popular tourist destination. It seemed that the only businesses in the village were hotels, restaurants and craft shops catering to the visitors.

Jumping for joy at Salinas Grandes

So cute I could just hug you

Our next stop was Salinas Grandes, a salt flat in the Puna, a vast, treeless wilderness high in the Andes. 

We were disappointed to see so much plastic waste at 14,000 ft. but pleased to have a close encounter with vicuñas, llama-related camelids who's wool is among the most-prized in the world.

Next we will head to an area called Las Yungas, a forested mountain area to the east of the Andes that will be wetter and warmer.

PhotoCuba 2020

I was happy to return to Santiago de Cuba and the village of Chivirico in January as the lead instructor of the annual PhotoCuba workshop.

CUBA! Sun, sand, palms and rum are all part of the fun. But it's the Cuban people themselves that makes the time there so special.

And while I'm always enamoured with the natural beauty of the island, it's the people's joie-de-vive and their resilience in the face of so many deprivations that make a trip to Cuba so memorable.



Here are a few of my favourite people pics from my two weeks stay:

Off to school on foot or, if you're lucky, on donkey

A son musician at the Casa de la Trova in Santiago. She pointed to faded photos of herself playing there as a young woman.

A homemade bat and threadbare ball are all you need to play pelota (baseball) on the street.

Diana from Havana posed for my camera 

My birding guide, Sapo, and his Plymouth

Life on the street can be hard. This gentleman has just rummaged through a garbage can and fished out a plastic bag and some wire. He folded it carefully before moving on.

This is a candid shot. No permission granted. Sometime I have to be a little surreptitious to get the shot I want.

Another candid photo: my guide Odelsys at home with her son. 

Hanging out with the musicians at Casa de la Trova was a highlight of my time in Cuba. (photo by Les Jones)

Sparkles in the Park

We waited in silent excitement as the last dark hours of 2019 slipped away... 

Soon the sky was crackling with sparks of colour. 

A twist of the wrist and the fireworks danced on the water.

May the power of light delight you in 2020. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bucket Hat Brigade

Spent the morning on the floor playing with my grandson Daxton and his Play-Doh.

We took a break to play with his new sand castle buckets when I got this charming shot of Dax with his dad Daniel.

At 2 1/2 years of age, it's amazing to see him develop his verbal skills so quickly. Today he can count at least to 7 both forwards and backwards!

Lloyd Longfield

Congratulations to my friend Lloyd Longfield on winning his second term as Member of Parliament for Guelph last night.

Though I've considered myself a Liberal for many years - I volunteered on Pierre Trudeau's leadership campaign in 1968 - I voted for the man more than the party.

Lloyd has come to embody all the positive things I love about this city: caring, progressive and inclusive of others; ready to take a greener path to a better future for all.

Mennonite School Workshop

Many of the children at Floradale Public School, where I attended a recent Focus on Nature workshop, are Mennonite.

Children who grow up in the David Martin Mennonite sect wear traditional clothes -   bonnets and long skirts for girls, straw hats and suspenders for boys - and come to school by horse and buggy.

Some children in the class were not permitted to take a nature photography course and were sent to another class for the day.

Those that did stay had a great time. They were enthusiastic to be out exploring nature and curious to learn more.

When I asked one student about high school and university, she said matter-of-factly "Oh no, we stop going to school when we turn fourteen."

British Columbia Wildlife

 I was hoping to see Orcas while in B.C. but that was not to be. Instead I encountered many other species on trip and they all seemed quite comfortable having their portraits taken.

Young male Stellar's sea lions posture and pose for the camera

Humpback whales are used to being petted in Mexico and will approach a tour boat hoping for similar treatment in BC

We watched an otter catch and eat a gull in Victoria's inner harbour

Flocks of Cedar waxwings gorged on hawthorn berries

Douglas squirrels liked the hawthorn berries too

 We have Pileated woodpeckers and Bald eagles in Ontario but it was nice to see them here in the forests of beautiful British Columbia.

Really Big Trees

Gail and I recently spent two weeks travelling in British Columbia. It was Gail's first visit to Canada's west coast and what impressed her most were the trees. Indeed, compared to trees in Ontario, they are huge!

On our way to Campbell River we took a detour to visit Cathedral Grove, one of the most impressive stands of ancient Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock and Red Cedar on Vancouver Island.

As soon as we parked the car the sun broke through the clouds giving the forest a lovely dappled light  that was perfect for photography.

Some of the old growth trees are gone now, brought down by wild winds and the axeman's hand. But the old stumps and logs soon become a nursery for the next generation of trees.



Forests need our appreciation, respect and protection. We need them to be healthy and growing strong. Only then will life on this planet thrive and survive the coming climate crisis.

Sublime Scugog

Heather put a new dock in at her home on Lake Scugog. I took this panorama of her on the dock at sunset with my iPhoneX and added the 'vivid warm' filter to it. She loves it!

Bug Hunter

One of the most rewarding activities for me and the kids at FoN's summer camps is bug hunting with our cameras. Of course they like to actually catch the critters with their nets but I like to show them how to sneak up on them to get a good shot.

So here are a few of my favs this summer. (click to enlarge)

Dogbane leaf beetles getting it on

A cicada emerges

Title slide from my camp slideshow

A fellow bug hunter!

Praying mantis

unidentified bee

A skipper butterfly flutters in the pool

A deer fly

A hummingbird moth caterpillar

Fine Feathered Friends

Getting a good photo of a bird in the wild is one of my most difficult challenges in photography. They  don't like me getting too close; they move around a lot; and they're usually obscured by trees and shrubs they live in. So good shots can be few and far between. Here are a few of my favourites taken so far this year...

Blackburnian warbler at Point Pelee

the Cuban Tody at Brisas Sierra Mar

a Turkey in Chivarico, Cuba

a male Northern Cardinal in Hendrie Valley, Burlington

an Eastern bluebird at the Guelph Arboretum

an endangered Prothonotory warbler at Point Pelee