Wildlife – Aventura Blog

South America (2): Introduction to Chile and the Solar Eclipse

Valparaiso, Solar Eclipse and the Penguins

Let me tell you about the mega trip of about 6,000 euros for a month in South America, the trip where I visited Buenos Aires in Argentina, Chile, saw the solar eclipse in Chile, went to the desert, took night photos, I saw petroglyphs in the desert but also Easter Island in the Pacific 3,500 km from the coast, I was in the salt desert of Bolivia with its cacti island, I saw Machu Pichu, Nazca and the old pyramids of Caral. Really fascinated.

Most of the South American trip took place in Chile for a two-week period, half of the trip. In Chile we also achieved our final objective, that of observing and photographing the Solar Eclipse 2019 and also in Chile we took the most night photographs in fascinating, interesting, strange places such as the Hand of the Desert monument in Atacama or the formations of semi-precious stones from Death Valley (or Mars Valley) and Moon Valley.

Barefoot in the wild, Vrancea Mountains with bears and Jacuzzi

I arrived in the mountains of Vrancea by a coincidence of life and discovered an extraordinarily beautiful, wild and clean area. I had a lot of firsts.

It crossed my mind to stay barefoot on the first day so I walked 15 km barefoot up the mountain with 12 kg on my back.

We saw free bears, deer and more deer.

We walked the volcanic paths, through the spruce forests and barefoot through the grass to the barn.

I slept in the pen in the tent, next to the sheep.

And I paid with my blood for it, the mosquito tribute.

West Coast of Canada and Vancouver Island

At the beginning of June 2018 I went to Canada to see the most interesting kind of place, where the ocean meets the mountains. The West Coast of Canada confirmed everything I imagined about such a place. It is the ideal place to live, surrounded by majestic landscapes, the freshness of the great mountain ranges combined with the ocean breeze. The ocean, the mountains, the lakes, the rivers, the wildlife and the freedom of man – that’s what the Canadian West Coast means to me.

Of all, Vancouver Island is the most precious, it has all this without being affected by major urban developments, and this on an area about the size of a small European country.

Being from Europe, In Canada it had that feeling of Terra Nova, at least on the west coast where I was.

Birds of British Columbia

Photo Names: British Columbia Peregrine Falcon (set of 5)

Caption: I took this photo while visiting Grouse Grind peak in North Vancouver. I took advantage of a bird of prey show that was going on. The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on Earth with max measured speed of 389 km/h in high-speed dive. The background was naturally white because of the fog that day.

Properties: Nikon D5200 f/5.6 ISO-400 1/3200 sec 85mm crop.

Date & Location: 2018 Jun 14, British Columbia, Grouse Grind, Vancouver area.