Chat Zone for The Big Big Trip Journal!

[cwskas]

The views did not disappoint!

Your pictures convey a great expanse with lots of variety, but I am sure your eyes got a better view than the camera can convey.

The onion pickers. For some reason this gave me immense joy. I think it's the fact that I'm getting to see "normal" things

It looks to me like you are having more fun than they would be.

And a close up

What a great picture! Looks to be a decent crowd for mass.

Willie

 

[HobbesOnTour]

You mean you didn't want to ride this road?

Paso de Angel

View attachment 614569​

According to lonely planet: "This vertigo-inducing mountain path running along a ridge on the way to the Guatoque waterfall is a popular attraction in its own right. At its narrowest point, the Angel's Step, it's only around 33cm wide for about a meter and a half, with vertical drops of over 100m on one side and 30m on the other. Views on both sides are amazing."

Willie

Eh....... No!
I'm happy with my adventures without having to resist the temptation of throwing someone off at the narrowest point

 

[Scoosh]

I've been to that battlefield at Boyacá !

After school, I joined the Royal Navy as an officer cadet and at the end of my first year (1969 ), was randomly selected to be part of the 12 member RN contingent of the British Military Delegation to go to Colombia to help celebrate the "150th anniversary of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela's liberation from the Spanish tyranny".

Why? Well, it turned out that the Colombians had assistance from the British military in their campaign and they wanted to thank us on this special occasion. With the Army and RAF cadets, we stayed in the Colombian army base in Bogotá and I well remember the excellent coffee !

One of the major battles was at Boyacá, so there was to be a parade there, to be attended by the President himself. After a long bus journey (80miles), we paraded and waited for the President. It started to rain. The President was 1 hour late. It rained all the time. The President gave a 1 hour speech. It rained all the time.

Although it was August and only 4 degrees from the Equator, we were 2.5k metres/8.2k feet up in the mountains (as we are all aware now) and it was not warm. It was a cold, soaked, hungry delegation on a very steamy, smelly bus for the return journey.


As a footnote, one of our RN contingent (selected purely at random) turned out to be a descendent of the commander of the British forces fighting against the Spanish, one James (Jaime) Rooke, who was born in Dublin in 1770 and fought at Waterloo before ending up in Colombia and at Boyacá. Greatly honoured in Colombia, so his descendent had to go to all sorts of extra gatherings !

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I've been to that battlefield at Boyacá !

After school, I joined the Royal Navy as an officer cadet and at the end of my first year (1969 ), was randomly selected to be part of the 12 member RN contingent of the British Military Delegation to go to Colombia to help celebrate the "150th anniversary of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela's liberation from the Spanish tyranny".

Why? Well, it turned out that the Colombians had assistance from the British military in their campaign and they wanted to thank us on this special occasion. With the Army and RAF cadets, we stayed in the Colombian army base in Bogotá and I well remember the excellent coffee !

One of the major battles was at Boyacá, so there was to be a parade there, to be attended by the President himself. After a long bus journey (80miles), we paraded and waited for the President. It started to rain. The President was 1 hour late. It rained all the time. The President gave a 1 hour speech. It rained all the time.

Although it was August and only 4 degrees from the Equator, we were 2.5k metres/8.2k feet up in the mountains (as we are all aware now) and it was not warm. It was a cold, soaked, hungry delegation on a very steamy, smelly bus for the return journey.


As a footnote, one of our RN contingent (selected purely at random) turned out to be a descendent of the commander of the British forces fighting against the Spanish, one James (Jaime) Rooke, who was born in Dublin in 1770 and fought at Waterloo before ending up in Colombia and at Boyacá. Greatly honoured in Colombia, so his descendent had to go to all sorts of extra gatherings !

It appears I was luckier with the weather than you!

There was a small display in the Maritime museum in Cartagena dedicated to an English officer who had been a liaison with and coordinator of the fledgling Colombian Navy. Their name escapes me now.

The British were heavily involved South American (and elsewhere) affairs although from my perspective less as wishing to aid in freedom and liberation and more to interfere with French & Spanish objectives. The U.S.A. too, including lending ships and crews to the Colombians. Several British captains amassed a significant personal fortune by piracy while on "official" duty.

A lot of Irish were involved too, often rising to high station in their adopted countries having arrived in that part of the world courtesy of the British as convicts or sailors.

One thing that is amazing to me from my travels is the distances travelled and bravery displayed by young Europeans. Whether driven by religious, military or commercial goals they travelled great distances in great discomfort with incredibly little knowledge of where they were going.

Here's a few extra pics for you.....

The surprisingly small río

An alternative view of the bridge complete with wannabee Instagram star. Despite a line of people wanting a similar photo she hogged the bridge

A memorial on the far side of the motorway to the bridge

And a close up. Each "face" seemed to be dedicated to a different regiment and the obelisk has been restored by the U.S. embassy!

​

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Hola.
I'm a bit under the weather and taking a couple of days off.

I have a question about photos;

I've started using more portrait style photos in the travelogue because they show up larger (and more detailed) on my phone screen. I'm assuming the same transfers to a "big screen" such as a P.C.

I'd appreciate any feedback if that is really the case.

For reference,
This is the portrait version

And this the landscape

Thanks!

 

[IaninSheffield]

Hola.
I'm a bit under the weather and taking a couple of days off.

I have a question about photos;

I've started using more portrait style photos in the travelogue because they show up larger (and more detailed) on my phone screen. I'm assuming the same transfers to a "big screen" such as a P.C.

I'd appreciate any feedback if that is really the case.

For reference,
This is the portrait version

View attachment 614734



And this the landscape

View attachment 614733

Thanks!

I suspect it depends on the orientation of the device on which one is viewing the posts. I usually read (and write) forum posts on a 10" tablet in portrait mode - your assertion is correct in this case. I then turned the tablet landscape and this allowed more detail to be visible in the landscape version of the scene. It would thus (unsurprisingly!) appear you won't be able to please all of the people all of the time, but thanks for trying .

Hope you're soon back to being 'over' the weather, although a couple of days off will surely not go amiss?

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Thanks @IaninSheffield , strangely enough when I tilt my phone to landscape mode the portrait image is still larger and with more detail (that's without selecting the picture to look at in full screen mode).

I'm still curious for the perspective on a PC/Laptop.

As for pleasing people .......
At the risk of coming across as a complete plonker I'm only thinking of myself
Someday, I'm going to get to sit down and read this travelogue on a proper screen and I want to make sure that I enjoy the maximum experience😊

I've been trying to solve the sweaty screen/finger problem with using the phone as a camera. Interestingly, using the phone in portrait mode gives less problems.
I've also bought a type of wallet for the phone that protects it from sweat in my pocket and a teeny tiny microfibre towellete to dry fingers when necessary.
Of course, going into the mountains is also a big help!

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Thanks @IaninSheffield , strangely enough when I tilt my phone to landscape mode the portrait image is still larger and with more detail (that's without selecting the picture to look at in full screen mode).

I'm still curious for the perspective on a PC/Laptop.

As for pleasing people .......
At the risk of coming across as a complete plonker I'm only thinking of myself
Someday, I'm going to get to sit down and read this travelogue on a proper screen and I want to make sure that I enjoy the maximum experience😊

I've been trying to solve the sweaty screen/finger problem with using the phone as a camera. Interestingly, using the phone in portrait mode gives less problems.
I've also bought a type of wallet for the phone that protects it from sweat in my pocket and a teeny tiny microfibre towellete to dry fingers when necessary.
Of course, going into the mountains is also a big help!

 

[Alex321]

Thanks @IaninSheffield , strangely enough when I tilt my phone to landscape mode the portrait image is still larger and with more detail (that's without selecting the picture to look at in full screen mode).

I'm still curious for the perspective on a PC/Laptop.

You definitely see more in landscape mode on a PC.

 

[IaninSheffield]

Yep, what Alex said. Much more detail.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

@Alex321 @IaninSheffield Thanks folks.
That's interesting and a bit surprising!
I'll resist the urge to use the portrait photos (they still look the best to me on my phone) and stick with the landscapes

 

[IaninSheffield]

It'll likely take you longer to read the journal than it did to undertake the adventure in the first place!

 

[cwskas]

I've started using more portrait style photos in the travelogue because they show up larger (and more detailed) on my phone screen. I'm assuming the same transfers to a "big screen" such as a P.C.

Both look fantastic on my laptop screen. The portrait mode seems to accent the sky more, while the landscape mode (of this particular photo) seems to accent the expansiveness of the view.

Upon download, the portrait mode is 506 × 900 pixels and the landscape mode is 1200 × 675 pixels.

In this case, the 'more detail' of the portrait mode comes from the cropping, it seems to me, rather than the orientation.

Are these two different photos or is the portrait mode cropped from the original landscape? If 2 separate images, was any zoom involved when taking the portrait mode?

Willie

 

[cwskas]

These days I keep reminding myself that I'm in the Andes and that a price has to be paid for that. The Andes! On my bike! Me!

I just had to quote that here. Everything costs something! Well done and I am sure quite satisfying.

Hope you are back on top of the weather soon!

Willie

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Both look fantastic on my laptop screen. The portrait mode seems to accent the sky more, while the landscape mode (of this particular photo) seems to accent the expansiveness of the view.

Upon download, the portrait mode is 506 × 900 pixels and the landscape mode is 1200 × 675 pixels.

In this case, the 'more detail' of the portrait mode comes from the cropping, it seems to me, rather than the orientation.

Are these two different photos or is the portrait mode cropped from the original landscape? If 2 separate images, was any zoom involved when taking the portrait mode?

Willie

Thanks, Willie,
From looking, the landscape picture is indeed larger than the portrait one.

They are two separate pictures, no cropping was done.
(The only "editing" I do is to rotate some pictures taken with my camera). The rare times I do anything else I'll stick a note on the bottom of the pic).

I can't recall if there was zoom in the portrait mode. Certainly it looks like it but the phone camera has a very useful "reverse zoom) function. It's possible the landscape version had this applied.
I'll try again with two photos, no zoom, just orientation.

Thanks again