Recent Comments

Feeds

eruptions

Posted on March 25, 2006 @ 10:42 am by massimo | Filed under: blog, travel, wordpress

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

volcano stromboli sicily cruise aynaku illustration adobe

Among the phenomena of Nature, volcanic eruptions are definitely fascinating. (is it worth saying that the Latin term monstrum etymologically means phenomenon?)
Volcanoes are largely scattered upon planet Earth’s surface. I was in the in the Philippines when Mount Pinatubo violently erupted in June 1991. I had just woken up one morning and gone out to my veranda, when I noticed - strangely enough – that everything was covered by a thin layer of grey ash! I really couldn’t guess the reason and I kept on questioning myself until someone, who had stopped by, told me about Mount Pinatubo monstrous eruption. I quickly realized its power: the distance between the place I was (Visaya Islands) and Mount Pinatubo measures several hundreds kilometres!
I witnessed another impressive affaire of the sort not far from home: It was during my very first (first!) island hopping; being of an age (eighteen) when one ought to do something, I was aboard a southbound cruiser and felt absolutely excited, so restlessly excited that I couldn’t sleep at night.
It was just before dawn when the cruiser stopped to lay anchor by the volcanic island of Stromboli - nearby Sicily -, when a brief night outburst broke out, lighting my face up with pleasure!

old posts revisited

Posted on March 22, 2006 @ 4:40 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, news, wordpress

 

gif animation aynaku illustration adobe

I’m upgrading some Aynaku illustrations in these days. Sometimes this blog turns out to be a never ending story, perhaps a work in progress…Anyway here are the links:

hammerhead in love sail away holidays the dream of the blue turtle paraw

 

barefoot

Posted on March 18, 2006 @ 7:16 pm by massimo | Filed under: beach, blog, travel, wordpress

 

footprint barefoot walk romanticism aynaku illustration adobe

In his essay “art in landscape” Stephen Bann writes about Wordsworth’s prowess as a walker. Bann calculates that the great Romantic poet “must have traversed a distance of 175,000 to 180,000 English miles”.
I doubt whether the tropical-post-freak-beachcombing-wasting time generation I fortunately belong to, can be qualified as Romantic. Most of all I doubt whether this generation gained the same reputation for inveterate walking! Personally, as an incorrigible Italian romantic, I was characteristically associated with walking barefoot; an habit which used to be quite fashionable among fellow travellers despite the fact that there is a very good chance of coming across leeches and other adorable creature, if you do some walking along grass lawns and the like. Even walking barefoot along the beach turned out to be not always safe for me when - romantically distracted by the beatiful setting or contemplating the sequel of my footmarks on the sand - I painfully stumbled upon the small and sharp coral stones scattered around…Anyway, talking about footprints, don’t miss World’s most famous and ascend to Adam’s Peak. It is a difficult and long climb: there is some kind of metal stair of 4000 steps leading to the place of Adam’s foot, but not all the steps are secure. The holy foot (mark) is in a stone…

Illustration Friday’s topic is feet

tattoo

Posted on March 12, 2006 @ 9:46 am by massimo | Filed under: blog, fun, people, wordpress

This is my ideal tattooed savage and I reckon well to meet him one day!
He has a strong linkage with the Pacific Ocean’s ancient islanders whose captain Cook’s lieutenant wrote the first account… Polynesians and Maori …

sand flies

Posted on March 4, 2006 @ 6:34 pm by massimo | Filed under: animals, beach, blog, travel, wordpress

Insects are familiar to long term travellers. These sort of folks usually travel on a shoestring and never care too much of comforts, since their only goal is keep on moving. No matter where once sleeps or eats: lousy pension …