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Lens-Artists Challenge #259 – Unbound

Pilgrimage to Popoyuapa.

The Big Blue Planet.

This week, guest host Dan of Departing in 5 Mins hosts the theme Unbound. Dan writes in his introduction, “Fortunately, we have summer, a time to escape the routine. You are unbound from your work hours and responsibilities. From a day trip to a road trip to a great escape to a faraway place, you have the thrill of a new experience.” You can read his entire challenge post here.

Over the working years, we’ve spent most of our vacations in the United States with rare journeys to Canada and Mexico. In 2012, we were unbound from our work lives and we made the decision to travel as long as our health allows. I have hundreds of images focusing on our retirement travels. Still, I’ve decided to concentrate on just a few photos captured in some of the countries we’ve discovered in our unbound journey through retirement.

Starting with the opening photo, on the road in Nicaragua, our tour bus was stuck in traffic for over 30 minutes due to the vast procession of the faithful on an Easter Week journey by ox cart. Eventually the cause of our delay passed in the southbound lane. A long line of ox and pony carts traveled single-file past our bus window. When we finally started moving again, I captured an image of some pilgrims that had pulled off the highway for the day.

View of Rio de Janeiro from Sugarloaf Mountain.

Much of Dan’s challenge post featured views of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Having just traveled there in March of this year, I enjoyed seeing his collection of images. In the panoramic captured above, Christ the Redeemer is high on the mountain on the left, and the city of almost seven million people on Guanabara Bay lay before us.

Tourists in Cartagena, Colombia.

Brazil wasn’t our first stop in South America. In 2013, on a Panama Canal cruise, we spent one day in Cartagena, Colombia. We toured the city on a horse-drawn wagon. As we rolled by this street with a church tower at the end of the block, I captured the church tower. Upon processing the image at home, I noticed the tourists, several were taking photos of something. I will always wonder what I missed when I probably should have been looking in the opposite direction.

Scarlet Macaw.

In 2019, we visited Natuwa, an animal rescue facility in Costa Rica. A few days ago, I was experimenting with a technique for creating dramatic animal portraits. One of my choices for the experiment is this image of a scarlet macaw housed at the animal shelter. Look for the post that features techniques for creating this style of portraiture in August.

River Thames in London, England.

The Thames has been a major transportation route for centuries. Ships have been sailing up and down the river since Roman times. This view features the Millenium Pier where visitors can board a river cruiser and see London from the river. That tall triangular-shaped building in the background is The Shard. Completed in 2012, the observation tower at the top of the 72-story building is a major tourist draw.

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain.

When the destination is Barcelona, the one person that most meets the definition of “unbound” in my mind is the artist Antoni Gaudi. Though we visited Barcelona before on a cruise, our one-day excursion was not in the city. As the terminus of our transatlantic cruise found us in the Catalonian capital city, we spent an extra day there before flying back to the United States. Though we couldn’t get tickets to get inside the Gaudi-designed cathedral, we did visit Park Güell, another of Gaudi’s most famous works.

Mahogany Bay at Isla Roatan, Honduras.

Regular readers know of our love of cruising. Our first, and most common, cruises are in the Caribbean Sea. Even with more than a dozen ocean cruises in our history, there are still plenty of Caribbean islands we have yet to visit. In February, we’re already booked to visit a couple of new (to us) islands. Our journey to Isla Roatan in 2020 marked our first visit to the popular cruise stop.

To view the above images enlarged and in HD, see the gallery on my Flickr album here. Thanks to Dan for hosting this week, and giving me the opportunity to share our unbound retirement travels. Next week, Janet of This, That, and The Other Thing is our final guest host for July. Thanks to all of the July hosts for giving the Lens-Artists team our own summer break.

For more information on joining the challenge, look here.

John Steiner

35 comments

  1. A wonderful selection that certainly extols the virtues of making the most of your retirement years by getting unbound and away from home! I especially love the panorama of Rio de Janeiro, while the scarlet macaw edit looks great – I’ll look forward to seeing more on those lines. I wonder if those tourists in Cartagena could possibly be photographing you?! The horse-drawn carriages are rather photogenic and although we didn’t go in one (I always feel a bit sorry for the horses) I did photograph several 🙂

    Finally, to fit in with us Brits you should say simply the Thames, or if you prefer the River Thames is also acceptable – we would never say the Thames River however. I have no idea why, it just sounds completely wrong! In fact in the case of our own rivers we always put ‘river’ before the name rather than after, if we use it at all. But for rivers in other countries it’s a mixed bag, possibly following their own traditions???

    Reply

    • Thanks, Sarah! You might be right that our carriage might have been the subject of those tourists. >grin< I hadn't thought of that.
      It would sound quite funny to us to say the River Mississippi, though I know many languages put the modifier after the noun, e.g. Rio Puerco.
      I used both your options in my edit, one way in the caption of the image and another in the body of the text.
      Thanks for keeping me up to date with British-isms. I also watch a YouTuber from Britain who also features British-isms in her videos. 🙂

      Reply

  3. You’ve been unbound for quite some time, John, and obviously made the most of the time. Looking forward to fall when you land in my area for at least some of the time. 🙂 I chuckled at the comment about the tourists taking photos in the opposite direction. It reminds me of Yellowstone, where a line of stopped vehicles meant either construction delays or animal spotted. Naturally the latter is to be preferred!

    The Shard is interesting but La Sagrada Familia really stands head and shoulders above the city! It must be incredible up close and inside.

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  4. Great job on this one John. Laughed at your comment about what you might have missed and loved your panorama of Rio – superb. Your image of the Sagrada Familia is marvelous, I didn’t realize how high above the skyline it rose. We saw it from ground level. I suppose I am the only person in the universe who is not a fan of Gaudi in general, and of the cathedral in particular. It will be interesting to see how history treats him.

    Reply

    • Gaudi sure has captivated Barcelona. To me, La Sagrada is way over the top. I could add (of the city.) >grin<
      Lynn and I were visiting about our choices for travel. The only thing slowing us down is our deep seated desire to not be stuck in airports.

      Reply

  6. I shouldn’t boast but I have been inside the Sagrada twice. Once in 2009 when it was wrapped in plastic on the inside with construction taking place. The outside was more scaffolding than building. Then in 2021 so much had been done. the inside was 95% finished and the towers were much higher. Not as much scaffolding either.
    I am envious of your journeys but enjoy travelling vicariously thanks 🙂

    Reply

    • Brian, we were disappointed when we learned we couldn’t get tickets to go inside. By the time we requested them, the available number of tickets were sold out.
      We have future plans for Barcelona, nothing set yet, but we still have another shot, maybe.

      Reply

  7. Living life to the fullest. Your retirement years certainly define those words. Love your view from Sugarloaf Mountain and the tourist shot.- Funny. Lovely unbound life with terrific photos, and I too look forward to the lesson in portraiture technique.

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  9. Beautiful photos. I love how many places you’ve been. I’ve been to La Sagrada Familia a couple of times, but I never knew you could get it in such a great city panoramic.

    Reply

    • We were in Montjuic Park, the swimming venue for the 1992 Olympic Games. The venue is free and open (sans water in the pools). It provides a wonderful view of the city.
      On the wall of the stadium is a photo of an Olympic diver in mid-flight. In the background is La Sagrada Familia looking like it’s just behind her.

      Reply

    • We try… Thanks for the compliments on the Panoramic images. I really like creating them and the tools for putting them together have improved greatly since I started.

      Reply

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