You Say La Boca, I Say Genoa - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

For most tourists, no visit to Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, would be complete without spending time at its neighborhood of La Boca.  The popular pedestrian Caminito ("little walkway" or "little path" in Spanish) is well known for tango performance, artist stands and colorful houses.  In fact, the pastel colors facing the once abandoned street was not applied until late 1950s by Argentine artist Benito Quinquela Martín that lived nearby.  

Life in Argentina was probably nothing comparable to that in the glorious Italian city of Genoa, which was once one of the so-called "Maritime Republics".  Had there been a Benito Quinquela Martín  earlier, would La Boca's early settlers from Genoa still be as home sick?

The famous song in the Genoese dialect, "Ma se ghe penso" ("But if I think about it" in English), written and composed by Genoese singer Mario Cappello (with Attilio Margutti's help with the music) in 1925, depicts the yearning desire of an Italian emigrant to return "to lay my bones where my grandmother's are":

"But when I think of it, then I see the ocean, I see my mountains and Piazza della Nunziata..."
 

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Is There Restaurants in Antarctica - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Oh boy, what a mountain I've set in front of me.  Before the end of year, I said it out loud that I "strive to share beauty, spread love and inspire changes" in every breathing moment of my (remaining) life.  With such hefty goals, and all your eyes on me, I became paralyzed...

Not for long. :-)  

I knew I have work to do.  The most imminent is to share stories of the Antarctica.  And I know you have questions, because I've got a lot of them in private conversations during the holidays, like "Is there restaurants in Antarctica?".  The best way to get them answered is to post them in the Facebook comment box below this post.

I do customized photography work.  And you, by asking questions, are having your  photography viewing/blog reading experience customized.

Go, have fun! 

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Thank you and happy holidays from us to you - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Wow, what a challenging and rewarding year 2015 has proved to be!  

Family, client and friend have been afflicted with illnesses.  I faced the subject of death on many levels and were reminded what a precious opportunity that I have to spend in this world.  

This year, me and my Assistante continued our exploration of our curiosity in Italy, for the third time.  And this time, it began with tears, tears of hurt and disappointment (a little bit of what happened here).  Luckily, we did not let that incident put a damper on our trip and rose above the circumstance.  Our love for this wonderful country and its people not only stayed, but grew.     

Speaking of exploration, we are still at loss on how we ended up going to a part of the world that we never thought we'd be willingly stepping on -  the Antarctica.  We have learned so much about the beauty of this continent, and about ourselves, especially of our ever-expandable limits.  Thanks to the other-worldly challenges that we had to deal with, we have become both physically and mentally stronger.  I feel that we are more open to getting out of our "comfort zone", which used to represent moderate temperatures.  

Friends, when you are immersed in the joy of family and friends this holiday season, I want you to know that I appreciate your being you, from  a liking of our post, to a comment of how you feel about our work, to the supportive words sent to my email, to even taking the time to share our posts/website to your family and friends.  For that, I thank you!    

In case you haven't noticed, our newsletter is turning one!  Without all my engaged audience like you, it wouldn't be this grown up.  And some of you have received a special thank-you in the (snail) mail.  You know who you are. :-)  If you are reading this and wonder what I'm talking about, the first step in becoming my VIPs next year is to sign up with our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/_-A9v.  :-)

Now it's time to have that toast with my family.  With my renewed license in this world, for every additional day of my life, I will strive to share beauty, spread love and inspire changes.  And I look forward to seeing you along. 

Ciao!