Some photographers have the ability to translate us to distant lands. Sometimes they let us watch the world through their eyes and take us to natural paradises. Here's an example of this. Enjoy these photos and don't forget to visit their home pages. Click the images to go to the pages E.J. Peiker Bill Lockhart Dark Ligth Imagery Nature Ron Magill Sergey Parinov Nick Brandt Geoff Ashton Corporate Fine Art G.R. Guy Jim Zuckerman Andrej Belic Aaron Logan Animal Photos The Nature Conservancy

In the year 2000, and by chance, the Cave Of Crystals was discovered. It is in the mines zone of Chihuahua (Mexico). In this area, there are the most valuable mines of silver and lead in the world. This cave is filled with crystals of selenite (gypsum), some of the biggest ones in the world. Many of them are longer than 11 meters (36 feet). This was possible due to the high temperatures reached inside the cave during thousands of years, approximately 58º Celsius (136.4º Fahrenheit). It is thought that these macro-crystals were formed under water, in a complex crystallization process, with uncommon conditions. Nowadays there's no water in the Cave Of Crystals. Currently, the temperature of the cave is kept constant by a ventilation system, but there's some areas in the cave that reach 45º Celsius and more (113º Fahrenheit). The humidity of the Cave prevents human beings from staying inside for more than 20 minutes. The size of the Cave Of Crystals is 50 meters long and 30 meter width (164x98 feet approx). The discoverers of this cave were two brothers: Eloy and Javier Delgado. The access to the cave is restricted to avoid damages to the crystals. Only geologists, scientifics, and technical workers can access to it. Maybe this cave reminds us the cave of Superman, but one more time, reality is much more awesome than fiction. The Cave Of Crystals, a wonder of Nature, in the inners of the Earth.

Mount Everest is located in the Asian Himalaya range. Himalaya means in Sanskrit "abode of the snow". The Himalayas are the highest range in the Earth, being the Everest the highest mountain in the planet. Mount Everest separates Nepal from Tibet, and is also called "the top of the world". Mount Everest is called Sagarmatha in Nepal (which means "Goddess of the sky"), and in China it's known as Chomolungma o Qomolangma Feng ("the mother of Universe"). This mountain was called Everest in honor of Sir George Everest (a British surveyor-general of India) in the year 1865. They were the British who sought for the highest mountain in the Earth, and that took them to the Himalayas. When they found that mountain, the Everest, always covered by the clouds because of its altitude, they knew they had found it. They did many measurements, and each time the mountain seemed to be more and more high. The first British expedition to Mount Everest was in 1921 (from June to September). The second one was in 1922 and took from April to June. In 1924 there was another expedition in which 2 of its members disappeared: Andrew Irvine and George Mallory. In 1953, Edmund Percival Hillary (who has died recently) from New Zealand, and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the summit, which is 8,850 m high (29,035 feet). It was 29 May of 1953. Edmund had already taken part in a previous expedition. He was a great adventurer (he also reached the South Pole). And he spent a big part of his life helping the Sherpa people from Nepal. Edmund created a foundation that built hospitals and schools in the most remote places of the Himalayas. Edmund lost his first wife and his daughter in an airplane accident in Nepal. He married again, and his son Peter Hillary followed his steps, reaching the summit of the Everest two times. In the commemoration of the 50 anniversary of the first ascent to the Everest, the government named Edmund Hillary as honor citizen. This way, he became the fist foreigner that has received this award in Nepal. The Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who reached the summit with Hillary, had taken part of other expeditions to Mount Everest before that. But with Edmund he reached the success. In 1974, Tenzing Norgay founded a business to offer his services to all the mountaineers and climbers that dream with reaching the summit of Mount Everest. One of Norgay's sons also followed his steps and climbed the Everest in 1996: Jamling Tenzing Norgay. As a curiosity, Tenzing Norgay has a monument to him, that represents the moment in which he reached the summit. After that moment of reaching the Everest's summit for first time, there have been many more who got it. One of them is when the Japanese Junko Tabei climbed the Everest in 1975, being the first woman in doing that. And in 1978, some explorers tried the first ascent without oxygen cylinders. In fact, the extreme conditions combined with the so high altitude make climbing very hard. The reason is that, the higher people ascend, the lesser the abundance of oxygen. So it requires a time of adaptation and a training, or using oxygen cylinders to add oxygen to blood in an artificial way. A curiosity: when Hillary and Norgay where in a critical moment of their ascent, they found some oxygen cylinders belonging to a previous expedition. After all these first pioneers, many people see Mount Everest like a goal to reach, and there have been are many expeditions, routes created... It is the summit which is in the dreams of many mountaineers: the highest summit, to be at the top of the world.

To love and respect animals, you only need to know them. And when you do it, you'll discover parts of you that you thought didn't existed. Respecting animals is respecting nature and life, thus respecting oneself. During this year I have been saving some pages of animal pics. These are the funniest. I hope you like them. When you click in a pic, you'll go to a web page that contains more. Enjoy them. (Click on the images to go to the pages)

The North Pole is the zone of Earth where the axis of rotation is. Its contrary is the South Pole. In the North Pole is the Arctic Ocean. The first explorer that is known to have reached the North Pole was called Robert Edwin Peary. He reached the North Pole in 1909, with his assistant Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos. The North Pole is also known as the Arctic. The word comes from the Greek "artus", and from the Latin "ursus", and means "land of bears". Among the North Pole fauna there are polar bears, seals, and sea creatures that live under the so called "sea ice", that is another name of the Arctic Ocean. Among the vegetation can be found lichens and other small plants that are able to resist the extreme cold. In the most external zones of the North Pole, there is more presence of vegetation and fauna. The so called "pole star" points to the North Pole, being a natural compass. In this place is where the Aurora Borealis can be more easily watched (also called Northern Lights). The North Pole is covered by eternal snow. Some say that due to the global warm-up, this snow could disappear in 40 years. With this, the sea level all over the globe would increase. All this would produce a climate change. Sometimes, in the North Pole can be found strange figures called Inukshuk. They symbolize the human race, and serve as a guide for the Eskimos in their travels. Let's hope that the global warm-up can be stopped some way and these gorgeous landscapes are not lost.

In those places where cold is very intense, the ice that was formed in winter is not melted in summer. So the ice accumulates in the mountains in big amounts. Its own weight makes this ice roll down the mountain, like true ice rivers. This is called a glacier. Sometimes this glacier continues advancing towards the valleys nearby to the sea. These glaciers, by their own strength, dig the earth on their way, until they reach the sea. Salt water melts these ice rivers. When the entire glacier gets melted, results in a valley flooded by water, surrounded by mountains that are incredibly sculpted with awesome shapes. This is called a fjord. In Norway there are many fjords. In fact, it has the second biggest fjord in the world: Sognefjord. This one reaches a maximum depth of 4,291 ft under the sea level. Some Norwegian fjords are so rough and dangerous that the Norwegians needed to tie their livestock to avoid them falling to the abyss accidentally. The lands that surround the fjords are very fertile. They are landscapes of great beauty and contrasts. The Norwegians took advantage on the navigability of these waters to expand their commerce, and increase the communications between villages. It was not estrange to take a boat to go to the church in Sunday or to go to the market for shopping. The Norwegian fjords have been listed by UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites, due to their spectacular beauty. And this is because the Norwegian fjords are considered as the most beautiful natural landscapes in the world. The awesome waterfalls that are present in the fjords, the contrasts of being able to ski and swimming in their nearby beaches... with all this, it's not strange that the National Geographic Traveler Magazine considers that visiting the Norwegian fjords is one of the best touristic destinations in the world. Norwegian fjords: one of the biggest wonders of nature.

The Kalahari Desert covers Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The Kalahari comprises 900 square kilometers. Its name comes from the word in Twsana language "Kglagadi", that means "big thirst". Although it's called Kalahari Desert, it's not really a desert. Why? Because it receives 250 mm of rainfall. Only places where the rainfall is lesser than this are considered deserts. So, actually, it's a semi-arid and sandy area. In a distant past, what nowadays is the Kalahari, was a big lake. So it's not estrange the big amount of fossils that can be found in this zone. Despite the bad climate conditions and the lack of water, the Kalahari shelters a big amount of animals and plants. Amongst the Kalahari's fauna it can be found the Kalahari antelope, which adapts very well to its medium, as it doesn't need water. It finds the liquid it needs to survive in the vegetables that it feeds of. Other animals include the black rhinoceros, hyenas, lions, birds, reptiles... The most popular animal from Kalahari is, with no doubt, the meerkat. Some curiosities about the meerkat: - They live in groups from 5 to 30 members. - One of the members is always watching to see if a predator appears. - When a predator appears, it cries to alert the group. - The black spots around the eyes are like natural sunglasses that protect their eyes from sunlight filtering the ultraviolet rays. - They use their tail to maintain balance when they are over 2 legs. - They are skilled predators, able to hunt even cobra snakes. - They feed on scorpions, and they are immune to their poison. In the Kalahari Desert, it can be found the Hoodia cactus. It has a chemical component that fools the brain and gives a feeling of lack of hunger. This cactus is used by the bushmen to calm hunger when food is limited. Bushmen. They are the inhabitants of the Kalahari Desert. They are peaceful and kind, and live on the hunt and recollection. They use to live in groups of 10 to 15 people. In their groups there is no leaders. Each member of the group has his own function. Their language is very strange, as they have an "click" sound that they make with their tongues. They use it to emphasize the meaning of some words they say. They are nomads, they travel constantly in quest for food and water. Roots and tubers are the 80% of their diet.

Yellowstone National Park is located in the USA, in the Rocky Mountains, in the northeast of Wyoming and bordering with Montana and Idaho. It was the first place in the world that received the treatment of National Park. It was named this way by Theodor Roosevelt in 1872. Under the Yellowstone Park there's a geological phenomenon called supervolcano. A supervolcano is a kind of volcano that produces bigger and more devastating eruptions. A simple volcano, when erupts, becomes a great danger that can destroy with its rivers of lava and sulfuric vapours all that encounters in its way. A supervolcano is thousands times more dangerous. It can destroy everything in hundreds of miles around it, alter the global climate of the planet, and become a cataclysm for all the Earth, similar to a nuclear winter. The supervolcano located in Yellowstone is the biggest in the world. This supervolcano had 3 big known eruptions. The last one was 640,000 years ago. The time between those eruptions was from 600,000 to 900,000 years. So if the last one was 640,000 years ago, the next one can happen now or in a very distant future. One of the biggest eruptions of a supervolcano was the Lake Toba eruption (Sumatra, Indonesia). It made planet Earth enter into an Ice Age, that lasted for 1,000 years, and 60% of human population died. The Lake Toba supervolcano was much smaller than the Yellowstone one. The Yellowstone supervolcano is the biggest in the world. It must be said that who best senses the natural phenomenons are animals. So if you find yourself in Yellowstone Park and you notice strange behaviors on animals like stampedes... run, run as fast as you can, and pray all that you know. With all these data, it's not strange that Yellowstone National Park has so much geothermal activity: geysers, thermal waters, small mud volcanoes... In the Yellowstone fauna it can be found bears, deers, buffaloes, elks, coyotes, and wolves. Wolves were extinct in 1926, but they were reintroducted in 1973. Yellowstone inspired the Jellystone Park, where the adventures of Yogi Bear happen. Here's a fun video of a real Yogi as greedy as in the cartoon. This is an Alaskan bear (Kodiak) and you must never forget that bears are big wild animals and as all wild animals, they are unpredictable. So "don't do this at home" :) Its dream landscape makes of Yellowstone Park a mythical place that everybody would like to visit. Even me, as I must confess that since my childhood I wish to visit Yellowstone Park. Enjoy this video about this National Park.

In some far places, in the dark of the night, before the sun rises, sometimes appears the Aurora. Aurora is a winding bright light that seems to dance in the sky. In northern latitudes it's called Aurora Borealis. The name of Aurora comes to the roman goddess of the dawn. Aurora the goddess, according the roman lore was a beautiful woman, who flies through the sky to announce the arrival of the sun. Her tears are the dew. Tears spilt for the death of her son. Boreal comes from the Greek word "wind". It's said that after seeing an Aurora, you will be happier for the rest of your life. The surprising phenomenon is produced in the following way. The sun emits energy charged particles called "solar wind". These solar winds arrive to the Earth (it takes them 2 days), and impact in the atmosphere, and when they crash with the nitrogen and oxygen atoms, they free energy in the form of light. That light is the Aurora. Depending on the chemical element impacted, a specific color will predominate. This phenomenon also happens in other planets. Apart from technical details, the Aurora is one of the most beautiful shows that nature can offer us. As a magical dream, Aurora appears in the sky and dances for us while we can do nothing but admire it. One day, I made my own Aurora, a dream only for you. The real Aurora is more beautiful, because the artist who made it is bigger than us all.

I begin this section "the life of" with a surprising woman: Mary Kingsley, born in the claustrophobic Victorian society. She changed the direction of her life, and decided to make her dreams come true. Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) was born in Islington (London). Her father was a doctor, and fell in love with his maid. Four days before Mary was born, they married. Mary Kingsley's uncle was the famous novelist Charles Kingsley. Mary's mother was disabled. So Mary spent a long part of her life looking after her. Her only entertainment was reading the many books her father had in his library. She was a great self-taught woman. And without academic studies, she became one of the XIX century biggest authorities about Occidental Africa. She did what was expected from her until the death of her parents. But when she was 30 years old, she started a new life. Her destination: Africa. She travels to Africa with the excuse of finishing one of his father's book about rituals and fetishes. She lives with tribes of Congo, Zaire... to get information about their religious beliefs. And she travels. Travels so much... And writes abouts her travels showing a great sense of humor, so her stories became very famous in the London society. In her travels she collects insects and plants that were sent to the British Museum and were very appreciated. With an umbrella in her hand and wearing heavy Victorian robes, she went through swamps full of crocodiles. Trying to get away from a tornado, she climbed a 4085 meters high mountain. She also encountered cannibal tribes. When an hippopotamus was trying to sink her boat, Mary stroked its ear with the umbrella. The hippopotamus turned away. Mary said in one of her writings that at last, that stupid umbrella had an use. When she was 37 years old, she died of fever when she was working as volunteer nurse. Her remains were thrown to the sea. Both her life and her writings were the incentive for many woman to try the same things. Mary was an enterprising and fearless woman. Thank you Mary Kingsley for being this way. If you wonder what made Mary Kingsley exchange the comfortable London society for Africa, this video gives you some clues.

One upon a time in a far away place, lived a peasant who loved very much his village and his people. One day, when he was going for water to the lake, the huts began to burn. When he returned from the lake, he felt horrified for seeing his village in flames. All that he loved was burning. And he ran, ran very much to the lake, and he swear to the Heaven that he could give his live in exchange for saving his village. And hugged the water and turned running to the village, and with his body he extinguished the flames. He returned to the lake forever with his deformed appearance and his skin fill of blisters. When he eats remembers his former life and drops tears of nostalgia. He will be called Crocodile forever. Sometimes we fear those who we most admire.

The parrot sings, dances and has a happiness so catchy...

There is a national park in Tanzania (Africa) called Serengeti. This awesome place has been listed by UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites. Serengeti means "endless plains" in Maasai language. And it's true, it's endless plains filled of lions, tigers, elephants, rhinoceros, giraffes, hyenas, zebras, gnus, buffaloes... In Serengeti there is a big biannual migration move. The animals go searching the water and the vegetables, following the season's change. In this travel they cross the river Mara two times. We can find in Serengeti the Maasai tribe. Kind and smiling people that wear colorful clothes. They are nomads and cattle breeders. Their life goes around their cows. From cows, they get meat, milk, blood (they drink it), leather... Near the Serengeti park, we can visit the Ngorongoro park. There we can find the Olduvai Gorge, where were found skeletons of primitive men like the Homo habilis and the Paranthropus boisei. This is only the beginning of a new section of this blog. I want to show you the most awesome places in Earth. Feel the beauty of those places and it will remain inside your hearts forever.

It's so tender that I can't stop seeing it.