Patagonia

Iguassu Falls: Morning Walk

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I arranged a morning bird walk to commence at 6:00am on our last day in Iguassu Falls.  We had to leave mid-morning to head back to the airport and I wanted to maximize my time.  Besides early morning is the best time to see birds and we were still on the hunt for a hummingbird to complete the animal wish list.

We walked towards the river bank where you can see the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.

Three Countries

Three Countries

A bunch of black birds were hanging out in one of the trees.  The air felt slightly cool and was only mildly sticky feeling.  It was warming up rapidly, but the heat felt nice after the weeks spent in Patagonia.  I also knew I was headed home to some frigid temperatures so I was trying to absorb as much heat as possible.

Where the rivers and countries meet.

Where the rivers and countries meet.

And finally, we saw the hummingbird.  It’s perched on a skinny branch in the middle of the picture.

Hummingbird! Tiny, but mighty.

Hummingbird! Tiny, but mighty.

Before ending the walk, my brother and I went down this path.  It looked inviting.  After about 10 minutes of walking, nature won.  We were covered in mosquito bites and extremely hot from the muggy humidity.

Mosquito central.

Mosquito central.

Later that morning we flew back to Buenos Aires for another day.  We visited the world renowned Teatro Colón and went on a boat ride through the Tigre Delta.

Happy New Year!  Stay tuned for pictures from next year’s excursion: The Rain Forest & Galapagos Islands.

Digital Photos

The Selfie Stick: Cool Invention or Narcisstick?

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A Selfie Stick may just be one of the hottest holiday gifts this year.  Basically a selfie stick is a monopod (like a one-armed camera tripod) with a clamp at one end to attach a smartphone. The selfie stick can extend from 9″ – 42″.  The stick enables selfie takers to get wider angles, more background scenery, and more people into the frame because the lens is not limited by the length of someone’s arm.

A selfie stick with an iPhone loaded into the clamp. This selfie stick uses a headphone jack to connect the phone with the buttons on the handle.

A selfie stick with an iPhone loaded into the clamp. This selfie stick uses a headphone jack to connect the phone with the buttons on the handle.

If the selfie stick is Blue-tooth enabled or comes with a headphone jack connecting the smartphone to the stick, like the one pictured above, taking the actual picture can be done with a button on the selfie stick handle.  Some selfie sticks come with a remote-control option requiring two separate pieces, the selfie stick and remote control.  A friend of mine just returned from Hong Kong with a selfie stick stashed in her luggage and was kind enough to donate a selfie-stick selfie.  If you’re clever about how you hold the selfie stick, you can’t even tell it’s a selfie.

Selfie Stick

A selfie taken with a selfie stick so that it doesn’t really look like a selfie, but it really is…

Although I rarely take selfies, I could appreciate the angles and views that can be captured with a selfie stick, all without the awkwardness of having to ask a complete stranger to take your picture.  I always feel slightly paranoid asking a stranger because I’m nervous they’ll run off with my camera, and that definitely doesn’t make for a good picture.

I’m not a fan of the selfie, but I am fascinated by the selfie trend and what will come out of it.  One article in the New York Post titled “Why the selfie stick is 2014’s most controversial gift” discusses different opinions about the selfie stick and the people who use them.  It really didn’t seem controversial but some people think the stick is great because they can take great selfies, whereas other people think it fuels “self-obsession” and refer to them as “narcissticks.”  Then there’s a whole craze of people taking selfies to surreptitiously capture people taking selfie-stick selfies in the background.  Sounds like total selfie madness to me.

Patagonia

Iguassu Falls: Argentina Lower Trail

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The Lower Trail offered the most spectacular views of the falls, in my opinion.  At one point on the trail you can stand so close to a fall that you’re practically underneath it.

Looking up at the falls.

Looking up at the falls.

Rainbows were everywhere.  I was fortunate to get a picture of a double rainbow.

One of the many beautiful rainbows we saw that day.

One of the many beautiful rainbows we saw that day.

Throughout the day I kept imagining myself as a great explorer instead of a soft, pampered North American walking on asphalt trails.  I wanted to fully immerse myself in the experience of what it must have been like to stumble across the falls for the first time.  To push through the foliage to see the falls expanding across the landscape in the muggy semi-tropical conditions filled with the sounds of animals and the soft fluttering of butterflies.

Run off from one of the hundreds of falls.

Run off from one of the hundreds of falls.

After traipsing along the Lower Trails we headed down to the raft for our ride under the fall.  It was pretty amazing.  I wish I had brought my swim goggles so that I could’ve kept my eyes open. When the ride ended I was the last person to get off the boat.  As I stepped onto the dock I looked up and spied two toucans in the trees.  Score!  Animal number two on the wish list. They’re incredible looking birds.  Black bodied with brilliantly colored beaks in that distinctive toucan shape.  Fortunately my fellow traveller was around so she was able to see them too.  It was also fortunate I was slow getting off the boat because most of the passengers were gone so we were able to watch the toucans in peace.  Similar to the monkeys, they were too far away and too obscured by trees to photograph.

And finally, one last butterfly who landed on a fellow traveller.

The hitchhiker getting a free lunch of human sweat and sunscreen.

The hitchhiker getting a free lunch of human sweat and sunscreen.

Stay tuned for the last stop in Iguassu Falls: The Morning Bird Walk.

Digital Dilemma

Textual Relations

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I first started texting in 2001 when I spent 6 months in Paris as an exchange student. Everybody texted because it was cheaper than calls.  When I returned texting didn’t catch on until a while later.

Now texting is one of the new norms for communicating.  Sometimes I’ll send texts back and forth with somebody before getting irritated, picking up the phone to call and go directly to voicemail.  Then I’m always wondering why the other person didn’t pick up, especially if s/he was available for texting.

In some situations texting is super useful, for example if you’re in a loud place and need to find people.  Or if you need to send a quick note.  But making plans, or starting a relationship with texting can be daunting, especially when you don’t really know the other person.  The reason is because texting eliminates nuance, tone, inflection, expression and many other things we naturally react to when we actually converse with somebody in person or even over the phone/video calling.

Having been out on numerous dates in my lifetime, I’ve noticed a pattern developing all centered around texting.  Here’s how the scenario usually goes:

  1. Two people meet with a mutual attraction
  2. Information is exchanged
  3. Person A initiates by texting
  4. Person B responds by texting

Basically what happens is steps 3 & 4 repeated ad nauseam.  I’ve ended up in these textual relations where either nothing really much happens and it gets very boring dragged out over weeks.  I’ll receive lots of useless texts along the lines of “what’s up?”, “how’s it going?” or my favorite “were [sic] you at?”  This last one was actually asking me out on a date, in case you missed it, because I certainly did at the time.

Or a whole relationship develops over text without any real physical contact happening.  I read an article about this called “Pro Tip: Hold Your Texts Til the Third Date.”  The “couple” followed the steps outlined above except actually developed a relationship complete with inside jokes, frequent check ins, long heartful texts, all without any physical contact.  When they did finally manage to go on a date it was awful.  The woman was in a total quandary about if she had to break up with the guy because they really only had a textual relation.  And if so, how she was supposed to do it?  The answer is with a text, of course!

Social Media

Whisper Anonymously

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Whisper is another app designed to allow people to post secrets anonymously on the internet.  Unlike Secret, Whisper postings are completely anonymous and shared with everybody, not just friends, or those in your social circle. In this regard, Whisper acts more like a forum for confessions rather than a place to post comments about, or to your friends, anonymously.

Sharing deep, dark secrets anonymously can feel liberating, especially if it’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t share if people knew your identity.  The app seems to be particularly popular with millenials in the 18-24 age range.  Perhaps it’s because they’ve all grown up with digital communications and haven’t developed the necessary skills to interact with people face-to-face, or develop meaningful connections in this way.

Numerous articles are written about the appeal of anonymous internet communications and why they can also be damaging.  When people are allowed to post anonymously it removes the accountability from the posting.  Some of the anonymous posts end up being a form of cyber bullying, or contain abusive language or profanity.  Due to the heavy traffic and usage of these apps the companies have a  responsibility to monitor posts and ensure that participants are complying with terms of usage.

Also, since you’re required to create a login and password it means posted content is not really anonymous.  A quick read through the privacy policy for Whisper, or any of these related apps, will explain exactly which information is being collected on every user and post.  On some level this is for security reasons.  In case a post contains something related to a crime the company may be required to report it to the proper authorities.  But on other levels, it’s likely just to mine data and sell it to retailers for more targeted advertising.  All of these anonymous secret-sharing apps are free, but that doesn’t mean they don’t come attached with a hidden cost and agenda.

And yet Whisper is gaining in popularity, along with other apps all promising the allure of anonymous posting. A quick read through any of the topics posted on the Whisper home page will attest to this.  Some of them are hilarious and harmless, like this one about people who love bacon too much, while others are more poignant and thoughtful.  The impact of these anonymous sharing apps has yet to be fully realized, but their inherent popularity is sure to influence something.

Social Media

Anonymous Secrets

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I’ve often heard that one of the best (and worst) features of the internet is that it gives everybody a voice.  Often it seems that the “voice” is showcasing the brightest, best and proudest moments of one’s life.  The perspective then becomes a distorted view of how we see ourselves and more importantly, how we want to be seen by others.

A new app, Secret, aims to bring back the genuine side missing in digital communication by allowing friends to share secrets anonymously.  One advertisement reads “Speak Freely – Introducing a new way to connect with friends.”  I find this confusing.  To me connecting with friends, or another human, means sharing the vulnerabilities, the ugly bits, and the fun stuff.  So how are meaningful connections built with friends through anonymous communications?  The word “friend” in the digital world often has a different connotation from “friend” in the flesh-and-blood world.  A digital friend could be only a connection, a contact, or an anonymous and random stranger with whom you bonded over toneless digital communications and emoticons.

Over thousands of years humans have developed behaviors and emotions to engage in face-to-face interactions.  Technology made some aspects of this easier, at least for maintaining contact either on a more frequent or long-distance basis.  But along with this readily available easy communication, the human element got trampled.  Secret is now trying to recapture it by providing a forum for friends to anonymously share secrets.  What’s the point?

A blog post on The Huffington Post called Social Media’s New Dark ‘Secret’, discusses how damaging Secret is precisely because every post is about somebody in your social circle.  Even though it’s anonymous sometimes enough details are shared that everybody knows who is being referenced even without names.  In this case wouldn’t it be better to just talk to your “friend” directly rather than posting potentially damaging things about him/her?  Isn’t that what friends are for?

Reading through the company website it seems that the founders of Secret really believe anonymous sharing fosters a sense of community and openness with your circle.  To me it just sounds like a digital version of writing on the bathroom wall about somebody, similar to when I was in middle school.

There are so few things that we truly own in this world.  Your voice is one of them, be mindful of that.  It’s precious.