Nature

CU, Matanzas: Bellamar Caves and Bacunayagua Bridge

| Christie

 

When Justo Wong, a land worker, dropped his tool on the ground, and it just simply disappeared in a hole, only his master Don Ramon Pargas had the courage to go down and investigate, discovering in this way the entrance of the cave.

Discovered in 1861, Bellamar Caves became the first attraction in Cuba, as Ramon built stairs, handrails, and a house on the entrance. He truly believed that this discovery is not only about the cave, but everything behind that, and he opened it for tourism and further exploring. Later on, once they had electricity there were lamps installed and staff to explain to visitors the history of the place. Continue reading →

CU, Havana: The city where “si, se puede”

| Christie

Land of so many wonders, Cuba remains home of many broken promises, of lost hopes, and deluding propaganda. In a world full of divergent information, controlled media, and biased interests, people hardly know what to think unless they live through the system, to truly understand it. And not even then.

Sandy beach 2 Continue reading →

CA, Alberta: Jasper National Park – Sunwapta Falls, Goat Lick, Maligne and Medicine Lake, Edith Cavell Mt – Angel Glacier and Ghost Glacier

| Christie

Continuing our way up north on Icefields Parkway, after leaving Banff National Park, we pursued our adventure through Jasper National Park. Do you think we run out of superlatives in BNP?.. that was not really the case.
Jasper National Park Continue reading →

CA, Alberta: Banff National Park – Bow Valley Parkway, Johnson Canyon, Bow Lake, Peyto Lake

| Christie

Leaving Canmore, where we had our base for few nights, for Jasper (our next stop), we found ourselves going through the heart of Banff National Park. I still didn’t know at that time BNP was going to be our secret memory factory.Leaving Canmore 4 Continue reading →

CA, Alberta: Wildlife along the Icefields Parkway

| Christie

Canadian Rockies, home to a wealth of wildlife, is such a great place to observe many species! There are certainly specific rules for hiking in the “bear country”, and the safest one is to stay away from them🙂, since the bear spray might not be useful all the time!black bear Continue reading →

CA, Alberta: Athabasca River – Athabasca Falls – Athabasca Glacier – Glacier Skywalk

| Christie

Name of Athabasca has originated from the Cree word where there are reeds, and most of the Athabasca names are to be found in Alberta.

The Athabasca River, with its 1,538 km, is the longest river in Alberta, and starts from an unnamed lake north of Mt Columbia, on the west side of Mt Athabasca and Athabasca Glacier, flowing to the north, and ending into the Arctic Ocean. The first 168 km, located in JNP are designated as a Canadian Heritage River, for its importance to the fur trade and the construction of railways and roads.athabasca-river-1 Continue reading →

CA, Alberta: Rocky Mountains – Icefields Parkway and its wonders

| Christie

Rocky Mountains, North America’s largest mountain system, are widely known for dazzling valleys, rocky peaks, abundance of wildlife, snow-covered ridges, and alluring meadows. The Canadian Rockies extend 1,200 km north from the American borders, in both provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. You could spend months in these pristine lands, never seeing the same scene; you can do biking, hiking, horse riding, boating, fishing, rafting, Via Ferrata, or just simply open-mouthed staring if that could be named as an “activity”J. The week we spent in 2016 in these lands filled me with so much gratitude and energy I could hardly imagine I could get.icefields-parkway-2 Continue reading →

US, Wyoming: Devils Tower

| Christie

Of course, the Tower reminded me of one of the first Steven Spielberg’s famous movies Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Faded memories of a black and white wallpaper, or a strange pile dumped on a wrong spot. Watching this movie as a kid left me with impression of a mysterious place, a picture painted with non-matching colours on a rough, and old wallpaper. No nightmares about aliens, but only fantasies about foreign places. Growing up without computers and internet, I only found much later what Devils Tower was.
devils-tower-1 Continue reading →

US, South Dakota: Black Hills – Keystone – Mt Rushmore or Great faces – Great places

| Christie

Black Hills are only one-hour drive from Badlands National Park. The name comes from the native Lakota Paha Sapa meaning hills that are black, because they look dark from distance. And this is not because the hills are dark, but because of the green vegetation standing out in the middle of the plains. Coming from the eastern grasslands, we could see Black Hills rising from afar, where the pine forests and the granite peaks create a distinctive landscape from what we’ve seen until now. One of the oldest mountains in North America, these hills are actually the highest mountains east of the Rockies with its highest peak little over 2,200 m.

Black Hills Continue reading →