Lake Atitlán has been called the most beautiful lake in the world. Although I certainly haven’t seen them all, I have to agree that it’s up there at the top of my list. It’s surrounded by volcanoes and is large enough to be dotted with villages along its shores. My recent trip to Guatemala had toContinue reading “San Juan la Laguna”
Category Archives: art
Antigua again
The picturesque streets of Antigua, Guatemala seemed to welcome me back like a long lost friend. Earlier this year I received an email from a Japanese friend. She was planning to spend a month in Antigua in the summer studying Spanish at a language school. Why don’t I come down and visit? I hadn’t beenContinue reading “Antigua again”
Marseille, Cosquer
I had been through Marseille decades ago while visiting French towns where Impressionist artists had painted (links below), but it was just a train connection. This time I had a day to wander and visit one more ancient cave painting site. My wanderings were planned to take me to the Cosquer cave on the MediterraneanContinue reading “Marseille, Cosquer”
Arles
Just a short train ride from Montpellier is the town of Arles, in the south of France, where Vincent Van Gogh lived for a year. Artist Paul Gauguin joined him there for two months, a turbulent cohabitation. Van Gogh created over three hundred paintings there, many so iconic we know and revere them today, althoughContinue reading “Arles”
Montpellier
On the last day of my tour across the south of France to see prehistoric painted caves, we arrived in Montpellier. It had been a week since we were in a real city; I admit to being a bit reluctant to leave those picturesque villages and charming country inns behind. Our historic hotel, the GrandContinue reading “Montpellier”
Petroglyph National Monument
Along seventeen miles of the escarpment west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the Rio Grande valley, an estimated 24,000 petroglyphs, images carved into rock by ancient Pueblo peoples are protected in this preserved park. I have read dates for these rock carvings as far back as 5,000 to as recent as 400 years ago. TheContinue reading “Petroglyph National Monument”
Antelope Canyon
The tall and varied shapes towering over the landscape are the most obvious red rock carvings of nature when driving or hiking through the U.S. Southwest. But there are hidden treasures that are not as evident. I have often admired photos of Antelope Canyon, in the northeast corner of Arizona, not on the way toContinue reading “Antelope Canyon”
Chauvet, 200th post!
Chauvet-Pont d’Arc in Ardèche, France, an enormous, stunning, prehistoric painted cave, is closed for preservation. Its replica, called Chauvet 2, opened to the public in 2015. The original cave is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The oldest site I visited on this journey across the south of France, it is dated at approximatelyContinue reading “Chauvet, 200th post!”
Les Combarelles, Pech-Merle caves
The next two days, on this south of France journey, we ventured into two more natural caves that had been open to the air for thousands of years. Like Font-de-Gaume, the caves were preserved as much as possible, once their significance was realized, with minimal lighting used sparingly and floor gratings to protect gravel andContinue reading “Les Combarelles, Pech-Merle caves”
Lascaux
In 1940, four teenage boys and their dogs explored the grounds around the old Lascaux castle, in the Périgord region of France, looking for treasure. Robot, the dog, fell into a hole. They were able to rescue him, and could see there was an underground cave. The oldest, Marcel Ravidate, age 17, returned with some otherContinue reading “Lascaux”
Ruth Rosenfeld 