Ushuaia, End of the World, Beginning of Everything - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

I was nervous the day that we left Buenos Aires for Ushuaia.  It was the day that we were leaving behind everything that we've been brought up on and lived with.  Once boarding the ship on our voyage of the Antarctica, we'd be, pretty much, fending for ourselves in the mass bodies of ocean.

Despite the area being the habitat of The Selk’nam Indians, the Yaghan (also known as Yámana), since 10,000 years ago, the city is so remote that it was once occupied by two prisons and was built by the prisoners.  

The nerve was somewhat quenched by a cruise in the Beagle Channel before bidding good-bye to the city that's long been regarded as being the southernmost city in the world.  Little did I know at the time that it was the beginning of a wildlife paradise that I was about to enter.  As some puts it, Ushuaia is at the end of the world, and yet the beginning of everything.  

Stay tuned for more stories.  In the meantime, please feel free to visit our ever-growing image galleries, including that of Argentina. 

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Keeping the Past Alive Today - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

A much welcomed surprise in my kitchen recently had me think about this trip to the area in China that's known for this type of food for centuries.  Granted, I'm a trained microbiologist (that happened in one of my past lives), the whole thing about tofu being covered by cotton-like fluff that originated from the air is just mythical.  Even after tasting the food there, and even having watched the documentary by CCTV1 (China's national TV station), it's beyond my wildest imagination to create something like these cotton balls in my own kitchen.

In my mind, this food belongs to a place and people where it carries hundreds of years of history, where tofu (and many other types of food) is still sold on carrying poles, clothes dried in the open air and laundry done in the pond in front of their houses that were constructed and carved back in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and don't forget the  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  OK, this last part was a joke with you all.  But the movie was filmed there.

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Then, on my journey to seek traditional food preparation methods, the cotton balls made their presence in the most unexpected way in my house, on a fine spring day.  It seems they've been around all this time, including the years after the trip while I constantly reminisce about the incredible food, only waiting for the prime opportunity to debut.  So, is it the mental readiness that it's waiting for or that I started drying clothes in the open air?  Enlighten me, please.     

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Happy Valentine's Day - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

I don't know about you.  Where I live, I started hearing little birds in the back yard.  Some even came down for a help-yourself-all-you-can-eat breakfast.  Although I can't sing as well as the big and small vocalists out in the nature, I know they are telling me "spring is here... love is in the air..."

Ahhh, the love that we work so hard at and dedicate one day to celebrate.     

As anything in life, how we love and how we celebrate could be such a personal thing.  So, whether you spend the day like this:

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Or in this way:

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I wish you a happy Valentine's Day!

What has been your most memorable Valentine's Day experience(s)?  We are all ears (and eyes) for it. :-)