Captain’s Blog

I was notified about a night time balloon launch over in the pueblo of Los Cardales. I called Diego, and then confirmed the reservations. The weather has been spectacular and there is a semi-full moon. Hot air balloons, night time, fireworks… Couldn’t see a possible downside on this one…

Half way there, the guides mom called and explained that the town had canceled the flight for today. I’m sure that the honkin winds had something to do with it also…

Great… now what??? Diego says, there’s a special zoo close to there, maybe we could do that. Noone had been there, and we had all heard that you could get close to the animals.  A vote was taken, and off to the zoo we all went… Along the way, had to stop and shoot some pics of this spectacular chuch.

This is supposed to be modeled after the church in Notre Dame. Impressive!

Another HDR image of the inside of the church. You just can’t get a pic this good normally.

We had all heard that you could get close to the animals… But in the cage??? That’s your typical kitty, “scratch my belly please…”

Now…. that’s a yawn… I thought that the guide was joking when he asked if I wanted to go in this cage full of tigers… Yea right…

But then he said that I had to remove my backpack… Really??? The colors up close are intense…

Then there was the nursery, where you could play with the kittens… though these kittens are the size of dogs…

And the guide asks me if I want to pet them, or just take pictures… yep… I need both hands on the camera… thanks anyway…

I probably should have gotten a reference into this picture to show just how huge this dude is… and he’s still very young…

And, of course, you are allowed in the cages with the monkeys… That’s a big pile of monkeys…

You can ride the camels and the elephants…

I’m thinking this is that expression of “kicking up your heels”

This little dude was just feeling his oats and a real cut up…

Would have really liked to seen the balloons, but I can’t complain about this either. This is definitely on the short list of places to visit again. Along with the entire zoo, there is also an antique truck, tractor, military vehicles, trains section… I could spend a week here easily…

Capn Scott

I’m really beginning to enjoy these model shoots…

Patricia is as down to earth and nice as they get.

These were taken in the Jardin Botanico.

Pretty girl… pretty flowers…

Definitely the occasional treat for the old Captain.

I wonder if she was laughing at my jokes or just the way I butcher Spanish…

A great day in the biological gardens and a chance to practice my portraiture works.

Capn Scott

Another great day, that again starts off with a call from Diego…

On our way to the cemetery… (now that’s a loaded beginning to a paragraph) we stopped at a local train station. But behind the station was a train cemetery… (like how I tied that one together???)

This old train yard had some really interesting old trains in various states of disrepair.

And, of course bits and pieces.

I thought this was an interesting view from the inside of an antique car carrier.

Just rusting away in a field of wildflowers.

The real train station was very busy. Trains coming and going and this maze of tracks.

Yep, we made it to the cemetery finally. There were some nice statues, but not awe inspiring rock sculptures of the cemetery in Recoleta. Diego and I shoot pretty good as a team. Very soon, I’ll finish adding all the photos to stockonlinephotos.com , but I will also be adding Diego’s shots also.

Capn Scott