Category: Americas and Eurasia and Africa

Looking down (#23 in series) on Juneau

Published February 26, 2026 by Pelidoug

On the afternoon of 24 May 2015 “our” floatplane took off from the Gastineau Channel – the fiord adjacent to Alaska’s capital city.

Juneau is a surprising place, as is true of all of the low-lying, coast-adjacent terrain on southeastern Alaska’s “panhandle”.

This “strip” is not a cold place, by northern North American standards, at least.

Snow falls are infrequent, usually modest. Much of the natural vegetation is temperate rainforest.

In “the season”, cruise ships disgorge huge numbers of tourists onto Juneau’s tourist-tacky foreshore.

In terms of permanent residents, however, Alaska’s capital city is a small town; if it were in China, it would be a “village”.

Australia calls the likes of Mount Gambier, Albany, and Bathurst “cities”; Juneau is a little more populous than “The Mount”, but a deal less so than Albany or Bathurst.

Juneau is unique among capital cities in one crucial respect: no roads connect it to anywhere more than a few kilometres distant.

The mountains and glaciers just inland of “the strip” are so formidable that all visitors – and all supplies – reach Juneau via sea or air.

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Looking down (#18 in series: …but just a smidgin)

Published February 15, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#18 in series: …but just a smidgin)

When in an “epic” landscape such as The Grand Canyon, one should always remember to look at the “near views” as well as the grand vistas.

However jaw-dropping it is to look down 1.6 vertical kilometres to the Colorado, there is every chance that something else – something equally worthy of your attention – sits within a couple of metres of your nose…on the ground at your feet.

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Looking down (#17 in series: facing Grand Canyon’s North Rim)

Published February 13, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#17 in series: facing Grand Canyon’s North Rim)

This post’s photos were taken within the space of circa sixty seconds, on the autumn morning of October 8, 2012.

In the unlikely event that one had never previously seen any images of the Grand Canyon, it would be easy to believe that this post’s and the immediately-preceding post’s photos were taken in two entirely different canyons.

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Looking down (#16 in series: facing Grand Canyon’s South Rim)

Published February 10, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#16 in series: facing Grand Canyon’s South Rim)

Our early autumn morning helicopter flight in October 2012 made it easy for us to see how very different were the Grand Canyon’s North Rim and South Rim.

The average “straight line” distance from South Rim to North Rim: 16 kilometres.

Maximum straight line distance: 28.8 kilometres.

However, the road distance from South Rim Village to North Rim Village is 346 kilometres; given favourable weather, a car’s driver should allow five hours!

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Looking down (#15 in series: wide-angle, aerial view of Grand Canyon)

Published February 8, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#15 in series: wide-angle, aerial view of Grand Canyon)

The Grand Canyon’s primary “sculptor” – the Colorado River – is on the left hand side of the image.

From this October 2012 photo’s helicopter vantage point, the Colorado’s waters were rendered invisible by early morning shadows, but the river’s course was readily apparent.

As you would expect, the Grand Canyon National Park’s “stats” are impressive; click here to see many of them.

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Looking down (#14 in series) …to the Colorado

Published February 6, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#14 in series) …to the Colorado

The first three of this post’s four photos were all taken from a helicopter, looking down into the Grand Canyon.

That canyon’s “lead author” runs along its “floor” – the Colorado River.

As the Colorado’s excellent Wikipedia entry notes, the United States’ fifth-longest river is one of the most controlled and litigated river systems in the world.

This once-wild, formerly much-mightier river has become an ailing shadow of its former self; irrigators and thirsty cities have tamed, maimed and nearly drained it.

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Looking down (#13 in series – trees “5”: grand, surprising)

Published February 3, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#13 in series – trees “5”: grand, surprising)

One of the world’s most famous, most oft-photographed natural attractions can still greatly surprise even an allegedly “well-informed” first-time visitor.

This post’s photos were both taken from a helicopter, looking down at the northern “wall” of what many humans (wrongly) believe is “our” planet’s biggest and/or deepest canyon.

The Grand Canyon is neither the biggest in volume, nor the deepest, nor the longest, nor the widest, but it is very grand.

Some parts of the Grand Canyon are a deal “leafier”, cooler, and wetter than most people imagine.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (final in series: El Gordo)

Published January 7, 2026 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (final in series: El Gordo)

Q: what was the most surprising item we saw when we visited the Alhambra?

A: the lottery ticket pictured above…complete with an image of the Virgin Mary!

It was proudly displayed in a shop window…but that shop did not sell lottery tickets.

(presumably, this “fractional” ticket belonged to someone who worked at the Alhambra)

On a per capita basis, Australians are the world’s biggest gamblers/ losers.

Spain, however, has the world’s biggest, longest-running and most generous lottery.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#17 in series: flamenco..with musical bonus)

Published December 19, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#17 in series: flamenco..with musical bonus)

In 2010 UNESCO inscribed flamenco on its “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”:

(Gnawa was added to that list in 2019)

A lot of mostly-awful, so-called “flamenco” is not remotely actual flamenco,

Outside Spain, most recordings marketed as flamenco are merely “flamenco”-flavoured pap; their makers & marketers know little about the real thing, and have no passion for it.

Virtuosic dancing, singing and playing (hands & feet are key instruments too – not just guitars), in-the-moment interplay, and improvisatory flair are equally key elements …as is duende.

Without duende – an “untranslatable” word that denotes an abundance of intent/spirit/heart/presence-in-the-moment – flamenco has no raison d’être.

It is no small miracle that genuine flamenco continues to thrive in its “cradle”: Andalucia.

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Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#16 in series: Gnawa)

Published December 9, 2025 by Pelidoug

Morocco & Andalucia: “characteristic” (#16 in series: Gnawa)

“Gnawa” is the most common of various transliterations into English.

The word refers to a so-called “ethnic group” (albeit one whose members’ ethnicity is not in fact singular), a member thereof, the Sufi brotherhood to which many Gnawa men belong, and – most especially – to a musical genre which is distinctive, mesmeric and usually (simultaneously) both “devotional” and “funky”.

As “Flamenco” is to the global perception of Spanish music, “Gnawa” is to how the world perceives Morocco’s: “emblematic”.

For many foreigners, flamenco is the only Spanish musical form that rings a “bell”.

Most foreigners cannot name any Moroccan genre; if they can, chances are it will be Gnawa music.

In each case, the genre’s emblematic national status is highly paradoxical.

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