"f#$%&$k" - My own thoughts... It's 4 am, I'm driving to "Cabo da Roca" with the intention of shooting the moon set, the sky is clear when I leave home, but when I'm 500m from my destination everything gets covered in mist...

“Why do I do this”… I’m walking down the trail to my favorite spot in the darkness, seeing only the beam of my headlamp sweeping the mist… The trail is a 300m descent into a small rocky beach with loose rocks and some difficult obstacles along the way… I’ve been to this place more times than I can remember, but yes… This time I’m scared…

Half way down to the beach, the mist starts to clear and I’m able to see the moon again… For a while I’m thinking about the multitude of texts describing moments when nature is kind to photographers and to those who dare to leave the bed at insane times… But when I really get to the beach and start mounting the tripod for my first shoot the moon gets completely covered with clouds and never shows up again…

Without the moonlight I stay in the dark for more than one hour before I see the first traces of sunshine… Still I point my cameras somewhere and wait… Heck, I’m here so I’d better create some images anyway…

At 11h00, I finally feel I’m finished for the morning… Even if the weather doesn’t help, there’s so much to do "just" with stones…

"blue whale!!!..." - The Haukur Schooner's skipper, spots something in the horizon and before we can understand what's going on, he changes direction and rushes the engine...
I’m standing on a lamp at the bow (imagine a 50cm cube), it sounded like a good way for shooting above everybody’s heads but as the boat increases speed this suddenly becomes an odd way for training my balance… But ok, I continue looking towards the horizon and try to harmonize with the boat’s movements.

We’d already seen dolphins and a humpback whale… And after those I thought I could already go back home with stories to tell… I wasn’t much worried about pictures as I was aware I still did not have the training or the skill to do the kind of pictures I’d like to do so I was more worried on enjoying the moment…

Whales come to the surface every 5 minutes or so, sometimes I’d fire a burst of pictures, sometimes I’d just forget I was holding a heavy camera and used all my senses to try to build memories... The spray of a whale that just emerged, the sensation of its size compared to us and our boat, the surrounding sounds and and the whale songs, the cold wind, the sea...

The fact that we are almost at arms reach to the biggest animal on earth (even bigger that any dinosaur that ever lived on the planet), makes us feel privileged and humbly small at the same time… The fact that we can share the same waters makes me wonder why we are doing the atrocities we do this world… Still whales look calm and serene; they just keep on going singing their stories trough their seasonal trips around the world…

"this is Iceland, you don't need to rush, you can stay for as much as you wish, you can even sleep in the floor if you wish to..." - The manager at the Aldan Hotel Restaurant in Seydisfjordur, an half French half Spanish globetrotter, let's us know about some of his impressions regarding Iceland's way of living...

"the only country I remember as being more expensive than Iceland is Japan" - he continues describing the first impacts he had when first arriving in Iceland…

I was in Japan a long time ago, I remember the country as being expensive, but as usual we tend to pay more attention to present situations, and yes, coin after coin, day after day Iceland almost burned wholes in our pockets…

If in one hand it’s easy to understand the reason why Iceland is so expensive as most goods have to be imported into the country… On the other hand I was never able to understand what made it possible for Icelanders to keep their high living standards… While there I was unable to understand what would be the economical activities supporting the country, as there are no obvious resources that can be sold to other countries…

Several times I told myself I’d have to investigate this when getting back, I’m writing this here so that I don’t forget to check it ;)

"is this just me or do you also feel you're in a different planet" - another little guy, breaks the silence halfway between nowhere and Landmannalaugar...

I think that if I had to pick a moment from my trip in Iceland and forget all the others, this would be the one I'd keep...

Generally speaking, Iceland is a small country, but due to its low population rate the insulation feeling we get at times is similar to being in the large landscapes of the American South West, but with the big difference that the landscape changes much faster and looks different from whatever we've been able to imagine before...

Joining this with the added bonus of long and almost empty unpaved roads, the empty world ahead, the dust cloud we're leaving behind, the mixture of feelings from image to the sensation of driving the Paris-Dakar...

Leaving a gravel road and entering a 4x4 only road makes us feel even more far away... The road would change from sand, to hard rocky grounds, to black sand, going up and down extinct volcanoes, crossing glacial rivers... Almost touching the sky or dropping into strangely colored lakes...

We finally stopped... My mind felt as being crashed by to many sensations, it took me some time to even dare do take a picture... I eventually did, I took lots of them... but whatever I felt during these almost 200 km of road, stayed there and seams that can only be described in memories...

"sorry sir, we only have sofa beds, only 4 person apartments feature normal beds and those are very expensive..." - I just got to Brussels and been through one of the most unreal situations I remember...

I should start by saying that I did not have any alcohol before going into the hotel...

When I entered the Hotel room, I found a living room, with a TV and a sofa and thought "cool, this must be some kind of apartment"...

Then I started trying to find the bedroom, and... There wasn't any... I still went back and forth from the living room to the bathroom, looking for some hidden door, but no... There was no bed!!!...

I finally saw a leaflet titled "how to mount the sofa-bed"... Well, I've been through lots of strange situations while traveling, but I don't remember the last time I was caught in surprise by something like this...

Almost in disbelief, I called the reception in order to figure if that was the only kind of rooms they had, but strangely enough that was the standard for the hotel... It still took me some time to find the most comfortable sofa bed configuration... But ok... By 2 am I was asleep...

In the meanwhile I was thinking about other situations from past trips, like having slept on a bedroom where I could hear cockroaches running from one side to the other, or when the hotel maid entered my room and I was sleeping naked...

So here it is: life as life can be... One more funny experience and counting...

"all set, here's your receipt, have a nice trip back..." - I'm at the rental counter coming back home from Iceland, and yes... It's been a while...

During the last months it seams like I’ve been flying through life… work, mountain biking, photography and trips went through without much chance for thinking about what’s going on with destiny, and more important than that: what’s next...

Every post in this blog starts with some event in the context of an interaction between me and someone else. It started like this without any intended purpose, but from the beginning in seamed right… After all, my experiences with the world inspire whatever I write here…

The trip in Iceland made me think a lot about the way I feel the world and create images. I was probably to closed in my own thoughts in order to interact and describe any experiences… One thing is for sure: there is no point in mentioning that I finally finished a mountain bike marathon or that I got to Landmannalaugar if I’m not capable of expressing the emotions I went through on the way…

Through time I’ve heard people and religions praying that the trip is much more important than the final destination… But I had never considered how much of these moments I’m letting out of my writings and photography...

“It’s past 4 pm, you won’t be able to make it to the finish line on time, you can’t continue…” – Again, I’m laying on the ground looking at the stars while attempting star trails, and thinking to myself that I still did not write about this…

During the last weeks, I had trained for this 100 km long mountain bike marathon… This is quite an event with 4500 participants, but with the big drawback that off-road trails are not big enough for so many souls and we waited for about two hours before being able to really depart… After 73 km, we were told that we could not continue as the time limit was not changed due to initial hiccups…

It’s hard to describe the emotions one goes through while cycling through a never ending maze of tracks, sometimes down bellow in hidden valleys, sometimes up above in the ridge of mountains… I was not carrying a camera, but I’m keeping a series of images in my mind…

I was really pissed when they did not let me finish. At that point I had the feeling I would be able to get to the finish, I was already over any distance I had rode before feeling fine and enjoying the ride…

Unexpectedly, this one in a lifetime event seams like routine… I’ve been riding every weekend and there are two more marathons waiting for me in the next two weekends… And what about photography you ask?... Well I’ll keep on recording images without a camera…and you’ll have to keep looking at my boring star trail shots… sorry!...

“these are the details for your trip to Barcelona, can I issue the ticket?...” – I’m still not back to the office and I already have a new destiny… Two days and one night in Barcelona… I hate short trips… I usually spend most of the time in meetings hotels and airplanes… I usually don’t even pack a camera with me as I don’t have the chance to use it...

If you’d ask me a couple of years ago I’d tell you that Barcelona was my favorite city to live in… Nowadays it still is one of my favorite cities, what has changed over time is that my interest in urban places is decreasing…

Anyway… Here I am, back to one of my sanctuaries, with my last opportunity for shooting during this short break… Star trails under the moonlight, two cameras pointed up, the sound of waves and… A last bit of peace of mind...

“do you want to have a beer?...” – One of yesterday’s campers invites me for a beer, actually I’ve been invited several times whenever I pass by them…
Once again I can’t stop, this time I’m driving back from my last shoot, and I’m urging to get back on time for receiving a new carpet the shop is delivering… Yes, I do have a home and I do go there sometimes… It’s also true that most times when going back I think more about the next time I’ll leave than regarding what I’ll be doing there... But I’m trying hard to have it decorated before retirement age…

I drive slowly through the last kilometers of dirt road, before touching asphalt after spending almost two days out of it…

Almost painfully, details and photo opportunities seam to jump in front of me out of nowhere, although it’s around noon the light looks as good as dusk or dawn… Just like the beer I was offered some moments ago I have to let go and force myself not to stop…

As my speed increases on major roads, fields with flowers turn into color patches that make me feel like I’m driving through a dream… I’d like to have the opportunity to remember whatever comes to my mind at these times… “Maybe I should record my thoughts as Galen Rowell did…”

Still, although feeling miserable with the departure I can’t help admitting how lucky one must be just by being able to live as I do sometimes…

“are you the owner of this land?...” – Two campers ask me if I own the land where they had just mounted their tents…

It’s almost the end of my second day in Noudar… I’m alone shooting in this remote place, and at this point I’m trying to entertain my mind until my last attempt at doing star trails is finished…

A good and bad thing in this location is that I can bring my car to almost every spot and use it as kitchen and living room while hopping that long exposures will make miracles on my film or digital sensor…

“heck, today it’s cloudy and there are no many miracles to be expected… Well this will be a fairly good reason to come back here…” - I think to myself while eating an orange under the moonlight… - “but at least I’m here, what else could I wish for?...”

Sometimes I tell myself that I should take advantage of these moments and think more about life, but my mind seams completely void of any thought… More than shooting I’m making use of my ability of not thinking about much for a change…