As I mentioned in this post about being determined to see penguins in Chile, I was also fixated on seeing the desert in bloom.  After all, I just happened to be visiting during one of those years, so how could I skip it?   It would have been at least a two hour drive to the desert, and not something I was about to do on my own.  Because it was still early in the spring/tourist season, there was a guided tour to the desert only one day a week — a few days  after I would have been gone from the area.   Like I said, I was determined, fixated, obsessed, single-minded, unwavering . . . and so managed to find a driver/guide for a half day.   To make a long story short, it wasn’t quite what I expected — maybe I was expecting the Keukenhof tulip garden in the Netherlands, or maybe I wasn’t quite in the true desert itself (the Atacama desert, which would have been 8 hours away), or maybe because there were more flowers a few weeks before (according to my guide).   But, I had a great, great day!   I started the day, expecting to see flower carpets everywhere, but instead was completely captivated by the little towns and abandoned houses along the way.  There were beautiful flowers dotting the mountains and roads, but it soon became obvious that I was less excited by that than by what I saw below.  My guide clued into my preference pretty quickly —  after asking a few times if I wanted to stop to see more flowers, and getting in response “uh, no, that’s OK . . . already saw that”, and at the same time being asked to slow down for every dilapidated house — more like, “oh, what’s that?  Stop!”  (He’s a Swiss-German national and speaks four languages and conducts private tours all over Chile.  If anyone ever wants his info, I can find it, and actually will look up his website to drop him a recommendation note . . . better late than never, because he really was fantastic).

So, the moral of the story for me is that the detour, the unexpected, is often more satisfying than the expected — this seems to occur without fail on every trip I take. Plus, probably another takeaway for me is, go with what you love.  Because I’m sure that a true flower enthusiast or nature photographer would have gotten images I didn’t or couldn’t, as my heart went out to something entirely different than wildflowers even though my original purpose was to see them.  In any event, I’m certain I’ll find things to fixate on everywhere I go, wherever that may lead me, and that won’t change.

If you want to see the glory of the Desierto Florido, just Google “images of”.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

And since this post is kind of random, I want to throw in a random recommendation too.  Have you heard of 500px.com?  I just learned about it recently, even though it’s been around in its current form since late 2009.  It’s sort of a super Flickr, where photographers can showcase their best work, and have a chance to be featured on the “popular page”, based on viewers’ ratings.   I really haven’t figured all the ins and outs of this site, as I don’t plan on joining any time soon.  Do check it out.  The photos are simply stunning.

I’ll be back next time with more photos from . . . Chile.   Yup, still slowly working my way through them (my four prior posts here).  I rarely take this long to sort through photos from one little trip, and not like it’s a burden, but I do feel like I have to “get rid” of these photos soon.  See you next time.

Thanks for stopping by.  See you again soon.

So last Saturday I went to Chinatown for its New Year Parade for the first time.  It’s a rather mundane discovery, but I found that, as in any travel, a lot of the fun was in the journey itself and the sense of discovery, and even the sense of community in being part of a crowd (though I’ll take this point only so far).   Oftentimes in a vast city like LA, where there’s little reliance on public transportation, it’s too easy to become entrenched in the familiarity of your own neighborhood and identity, and indifferent to other communities.  Not like this is a great epiphany, but I’m starting to appreciate, and hope, that events like these foster a sense of community, even though people may come just for a few hours of merriment or cheap souvenirs.  (And putting my money where my mouth is, I even took the Metro Rail for part of the way to Chinatown.  Doesn’t sound like a big deal I know; but believe me, for us Angelenos, it’s sort of a novelty).

But enough about community and all, now the photos.

Meanwhile, not too far from the parade route . . .

Thank you for stopping by.  Hope you have cheery rest of the week.

P.S.  Oh, and this is how it’s celebrated in China — see photos here.

I went to Chinatown’s New Year’s Day Parade this past weekend.  It had a nice almost small town atmosphere to it — though not like there’s any small town in the US that has CNY parades that I know of.  I actually enjoyed the post parade wandering more, but will post a few parade photos later this week.

I’m truly not comparing this photo with the movie In the Mood for Love, but being in Chinatown and looking at this photo later somehow made me think of it.  Have any of you seen it?  Set in Hong Kong in the early 60′s, the movie is a stunningly lush, moody, visual masterpiece.  The trailer doesn’t really do it justice, but you can see it at the NYT here.   The soundtrack is equally sensual and haunting, in a despairing sort of way, and almost impossible to find.  In case anyone does check out this movie, I have to warn you that it’s slow, with little dialogue (all in Chinese and maybe not even subtitled?), and there’s not a whole lot of overt drama going on.  I really didn’t set out with any intention to go on about this movie, but it just happened.  And now that I’m reminded of it, I think I’ll have to see it again soon, and maybe even hunt down the soundtrack.  Back soon.