Trinidad, CUBA

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I wish you all the best in 2012.

Havana, Cuba

In the Alps

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Back in 2010 when I was visiting Philippines I met an interesting man, who we called Viktor. He took us on a tour around local villages, rice terraces and give us the opportunity to chat with local people and they also prepared us a little meal in one village. In October this year, photograph of Viktor ended up on a cover of a magazine called Svet & Ljudje (World & People – Slovenian magazine). Here is a little video and some memories from that lovely day back in the 2010. Thanks Viktor!

Istria in Fall

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I am running behind with updating my blog with photos. I have some more photos from South America and a lot from Africa, where I was in february/march. So I decided to show you some photos from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. I will be be posting more photos from my safari in the following days/weeks so be sure to come back.

Acacia trees on the Serengeti plains

The Serengeti is located in north Tanzania and extends to south-western Kenya and it spans some 30.000 km². The Serengeti hosts the largest mammal migration in the world, which is one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world.

Maasailand has East Africa’s finest game areas. The governments of Tanzania and Kenya maintain a number of Protected Areas: parks, conservation areas, game reserves, etc. that give legal protection to over 80% of the Serengeti.

Altitudes in the Serengeti range from 920 to 1,850 meters with mean temperatures varying from 15 to 25 degrees Celsius. Although the climate is usually warm and dry, rainfall occurs in two rainy seasons: March to May, and a shorter season in October and November.

The Serengeti was used as inspiration for the animated Disney feature film The Lion King and subsequent theatrical production.

Leopard

I have been to a few parks in Tanzania during my trip, but the Serengeti was the largest. Every park has its own advantages, animals, secrets…but more on others later on.

Warthog

Zebras

Leopard

Cheetahs

Lion

Lion and Lionesses

Zebras

Head over to my videos sub-page or go to vimeo to watch my movie from Africa.

It’s been a long time since I posted anything here except wallpapers. There is a reason for that. I have been busy with some projects. I was photographing two weddings this summer and it was great. I was also busy with writing some articles for the magazine called Svet & Ljudje. It is a Slovenian magazine about traveling and people. I have published photos from Safari in Tanzania in July-August issue, article and photos about random places from our planet in September issue and in October issue there is an article about cities and pristine nature around the globe, my interview and my cover photo. I hope to publish some more things in the future. I am really excited about this past issues. I am posting some photos of the magazines below, just to show you how it looks like…

You can find the link to the magazine Svet & Ljudje if you click here. There are some more photos from the publications on my Facebook Page.

Scheveningen, Netherlands

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Summer memories

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My photo from Cambodia has been featured on Photoburst.net. Click here to see the photo

Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It sits 3,811 m above sea level, making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. By volume of water, it is also the largest lake in South America.

Few facts about Titicaca:

• 3811 m above sea level
• 8,372 km² - surface area (for comparison: Slovenia has the area of 20,273 km²)
• 190km max length
• 80km max width

Titicaca Lake and Bolivian mountains in the back

Tour at Titicaca is definitely an unforgettable experience for any visitor. When visiting Lake Titicaca, the town of Puno is the bestplace to stay, on the Peruvian side of the lake.The town of Puno is an interesting place to visit as it is the capital offolklore of Peru. It also has a beautiful old cathedral, and it is close to many attractions of Peru like the Macchu Picchu or the town of Cusco.

Titicaca lake and the town of Puno in the back

Titicaca Lake at the Peru – Bolivia border at Desaguadero

Lake Titicaca is a sacred place for the Inca civilization, as the Incanmythology says that the first Inca king, Manco Capac, was born here. According to the Incan mythology, this is the place where the world was created from, when the god Viracocha came out of the lake and created the sun, the stars and the first people. You will have many places to discover on the shore of Lake Titicaca, as well as on the many islands that exist on the lake.

Uros Islands

Titicaca is notable for a population of people who live on the Uros, a group of 44 or so artificial islands made of floating reeds (totora, a reed that abounds in the shallows of the lake). These islands have become a major tourist attraction for Peru, drawing excursions from the lakeside city of Puno. Their original purpose was defensive, and they could be moved if a threat arose. Many of the islands contain watchtowers largely constructed of reeds.

The larger islands house about ten families, while smaller ones, only about thirty meters wide, house only two or three.

The islets are made of totora reeds, which grow in the lake. The dense roots that the plants develop and interweave form a natural layer called Khili (about one to two meters thick) that support the islands. They are anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake. The reeds at the bottoms of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added to the top constantly, about every three months; this is what it makes exciting for tourists when walking on the island. This is especially important in the rainy season when the reeds rot much faster. The islands last about thirty years.

There is also a floating school for local children on the islands. For further education children have to go to Puno to local schools.

children on the way to school

Machu Picchu stands 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, in an extraordinarily beautiful setting. It was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height. Its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. The natural setting, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin with its rich diversity of flora and fauna.  It is one of the most important archaeological sites in South America, one of the most visited tourist attractions in all of Latin America and the most visited tourist attraction in Peru.

Machu Picchu is one of the most important cultural sites in Latin America; the stonework of the site remains as one of the world’s great examples of the use of a natural raw material to provide outstanding architecture which is totally appropriate to the surroundings. The surrounding valleys have been cultivated continuously for well over 1,000 years, providing one of the world’s greatest examples of a productive man-land relationship; the people living around Machu Picchu continue a way of life which closely resembles that of their Inca ancestors, being based on potatoes, maize and llamas.

Set on the vertiginous site of a granite mountain sculpted by erosion and dominating a meander in the Rio Urubamba, Machu Picchu is a world renowned archaeological site. The construction of this amazing city, set out according to a very rigorous plan, comprises one of the most spectacular creations of the Inca Empire. It appears to date from the period of the two great Incas, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui (1438-71) and Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1472-93). The function of this city situated at least 100 km from the capital, Cuzco, has not been formulated which are not verifiable given the absence of written documentation and sufficiently explicit material evidence.

The Incas started building the “estate” around AD 1400, but abandoned it as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham. Since then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of what the structures originally looked like. By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored. The restoration work continues to this day.

Temple of the Sun

Since the site was never known to the Spanish during their conquest, it is highly significant as a relatively intact cultural site. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.

The city sits in a saddle between the two mountains Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu, with a commanding view down two valleys and a nearly impassable mountain at its back. It has a water supply from springs that cannot be blocked easily, and enough land to grow food for about four times as many people as ever lived there. The hillsides leading to it have been terraced, not only to provide more farmland to grow crops, but to steepen the slopes which invaders would have to ascend.

If you want to see Machu Picchu from above you have to hike to Huayna Picchu. The hike is extremely steep and it tests your lungs. The positive thing is that the altitude is not such a problem because Machu Picchu is 2430m above sea level and Huayna Picchu is few hundred meters higher. But the other disadvantage is that the temperatures are higher and that is also the case with humidity. Once you are on the top you forget all the efforts and enjoy the view.

View of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu

In January 2010, heavy rain caused flooding which buried or washed away roads and railways leading to Machu Picchu, trapping more than 2,000 local people and more than 2,000 tourists, who were taken out by airlift. Machu Picchu was closed temporarily, but it reopened on 1 April 2010. I visited Machu Picchu in August 2010. Visit my Peru subpage and find out more.

Rovinj, Istria, Croatia

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The month is over and my guest editorship on Photoburst.net is over. I have received 521 photos from which I had to choose only 28 winning pictures. I has been hard but it was a great opportunity and a great honor to be the guest editor for the month of July. Below you can see the winning photo for the month of July by Nato Tuke, all four weekly winners and all of the photos for the photo of the day award.

Photo of the month of July 2011 on Photoburst.net

Solomon Child by Nato Tuke © 2011

Weekly Winners

Photoburst.net © 2011 Sorin Vidis, Alessio Galasso, Nato Tuke and Kaushal Parikh

Photoburst.net © 2011