Bill Murray's Blog, page 145

Moon and Moai, Easter Island

Positive Worldview version: It's incredible they have internet way out here on this tiny island.

Practical Reality version: It's barely-crawlin' slow. More photos when we get back to South America but for now, here's what we did last night.

Ahu Tongariki, Rapa Nui

First Stop, Lima

It's Christmas Eve, 2012. Delta Air Lines dropped us off here in Lima around midnight. Here's the view we woke up to from the 18th floor. Just now we're enjoying "organic shade grown Pachamama Peru" coffee and considering this view with you.

The sea is just past those buildings, but it's hard to see through the fog. This is four photos combined, each of them a three-shot bracketed HDR. If you click the photo you'll get a much, much larger version to explore.

Easter Island Trip Report

We're off to Lima today. Meanwhile, here's a trip report from Easter Island via Points, Miles and Martinis, a frequent flyer blog. They visited a few months ago. We'll be there Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Merry Christmas to all!

Friday Photo Quiz #169 - Where in the World?

Today is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. In scientific terms, it marks the sun's most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees.

Earth's a big place, and strange things happen as our planet moves around the sun. In honor of the solstice, today's quiz photo shows all the big fun you can have at the equator at the vernal equinox, when the sun is directly overhead there.

I can testify, on that day you can stand an egg on end on the head of a nail. Maybe you can on all other days,...

You Won't Know Until You Go

Easter Island, as they'll tell you, is the most remote inhabited spot on the planet. Its nearest inhabited neighbor, Pircairn Island, is about 1300 miles west and home to under 100. Barely inhabited.

It's hard to get a feel for all that. Maybe flying five and a half hours out from Lima will help.

The more I read, the more I buy in that it really is a mysterious place, having confounded just about everybody since 1722, the date of the first known non-Polynesian contact. What's great is, every...

Finally Almost Time for a Road Trip

Time to hit the road again. Click the map to make it bigger. We're heading out to good old "A" next week, via a few days in Lima, Peru and I promise ample photo coverage. Photos from Lima will be here, and from "A" will be here.

Friday Photo Quiz #168 - Where in the World?

Where do they have a huge fishing industry, tea pickers and wild elephants? Only one clue: Beware the obvious choice.

The answer is after the jump. A good weekend to all from CS&W

and EarthPhotos.com.

And the answer is ............................................ Sri Lanka. That's the coast at Negombo Beach near the capital Colombo, top, a tea picker near the highland town of Nuwara Eliya, center, and elephants in a wilflife refuge on the southern coast, bottom.

You can read the sto...

Seven Year Trip

Next month, Paul Salopek sets out to walk 22,000 miles. Here's the project's blog. This route map via Niemann Journalism Lab:

Friday Photo Quiz #167 - Where in the World?

Island nation. Capital city at the top, popular ski area west of the capital at the bottom. Can you name the country? The capital?

The answer is after the jump. A good weekend to all from CS&W

and EarthPhotos.com.

And

the answer is

............................................................... Japan. Tokyo at the top, the Japanese Alps, Nagano prefecture at the bottom. Today is the 7th of December, the 71st anniversary of the "date which will live in imfamy."

A few more photos in the...

Recommended Reading: Where the West Ends

Fun new book from Michael J. Totten. Fun, that is, if your idea of thrills is a drive from Turkey into Iraq for lunch.

Where the West Ends expands on Mr. Totten's Dispatches blog for World Affairs Journal. There are sections roughly grouped as the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Black Sea.

Many authors seem to believe they won't be taken seriously unless their work is laden with ponderous history. When well written, like in some of my suggestions below, that's worthwhile. Wh...