The aquatic connection - restored

Had been a month or so since I started my travel, and since havent done anything aquatic. Sure did have the beaches of Santa cruz and the small tide pools with not much aquatic life. But being surrounded by fish and anything that's aquatic is where I feel my "calm sanctuary".

The Christmas long weekend landed me at San Diego after long queues at the airport. A couple of days it was family time with me spending time with my cousin and brother-in-law and the kids.

Sea world, San Diego had been on my list of must-see for a while. Checked out their website for park timings, and on Saturday morning landed sharp @ 9AM with crowds already beginning to build up. With it being the day after Christmas, had expected large crowds, but more to come later.

Started off with the Dolphin viewing area. Viewing them is such a calming experience.




Spoke to the Staff about them, this park has bred numerous Dolphins and Pilot whales in captivity, which is nice!
Spent a few minutes there and moved onto the "Shamu stadium" where the Killer whales and Dolphins perform.

They (the creatures and their handlers) were busy practising.






Was fascinating watching the trust they have on each other.








The dolphins simply are such enthusiastic creatures, they have tons of energy and joy.

Watching me admire the dolphins, one of the handlers invited me over to interact with the Dolphins. Petted them on their foreheads. One of the Dolphins (I forget her name now) took an instant liking for me and kept returning to me. Would take strong circles and come back to me, and nudge water towards me while making happy clicks...truly a magical experience. The handler was herself surprised that she connected so well. That one moment just filled me with so much joy. No wonder Dolphins are used in many therapies (speech and movement impairment)

Moved back out of the pool area into the spectator's arena while the crowds began "pouring in".


Soon it was time for the aquatic acrobats to enthrall the audience. Somersaults, well directed splashes towards the public...they had it all.














The Orca doing a roll :D






Talk about flying!















BTW, the first 20 rows are labeled "Soak zone" :D










Kids and adults both thoroughly enjoyed the show. What it also did was send out the "Believe" message and I'm sure that's quite a big thing for young minds, many of whom I'm sure would have been touched deep.

Awed by their performance, moved on to the next destination.
The maps provided are well marked and I knew where I was headed next...the AQUARIUM :) !!

Being around Fish felt great. Had taken both my Sony H2 as well as the new Canon 450D and just let them loose :D Felt great getting back into my "zone"

Clicking in a public aquarium is kinda tricky
1. They generally have Fiber glass instead of glass which means using Flash becomes painful.
2. The HUGE crowd, everytime I turned I bumped someone!

Some shots of the salty kind.












The inquisitive one :)
















































The lionfish is always a treat to click!




The cuttlefish are captivating with their movement and the way they "Watch" you.


The moon jellies and their dreamy moves


Also had a few coldwater fish on show.




Some large ones





Next on was the Freshwater aquarium. Most of the large fish there were rescues.





The africans








Then spotted our own Puntius denisonii, the kerala beauty and I sorta swelled with pride a bit :P
The brackish system had the archers and also the "four eyed" fish.





A few assorted ones and then the nicely lit Rainbow tank














The Piranha tank


Tried a macro with the kit lens


Also had some HUGE Arapima gigas with the regular tank busters.


The Large Datnoid was a treat :)


The electric eel


Wanted to explore more, and went to the Dolphin interaction area....the trained dolphins would go around the pool playing with the kids. Everyone truly enjoyed splashing water towards them to which they would open their mouths.


Then it was Sea lion time, they had the normal as well as the leopard seals housed.








Watched the "show", was nice fun with them dancing to the tunes. The sea otter was way too cute! The albino Walrus was a treat :)









A small video I recorded, Hilarious!!



The arctic connection was nice with the Penguins and other creatures. This is one of the few parks to have the Emperor penguins.










The Polar bear and the Beluga whale displays were next. The way the Beluga moves is spell binding. Almost like a mermaid forgotten in time.








Moved on to the Shark connection with the Hammerheads, leopard sharks and a few others.









Then it was back out in the open towards the Flamingos. Like them a lot, pity that I could not get to them in daylight (yeah had spent almost the whole day with the fishy ones :D ). Plus it gets dark by 4:45PM :(

The ducks do come in for a free snack






Almost fell over into the pond trying to take this closeup with a 18-55mm lens.


Oh and when I was there also took a few "flower" shots :P





Surprisingly was not tired even though I'd been on my feet for close to 8 hours. Guess the excitement and contentment maybe drowned it out somewhere :)

Thus ended the fulfilling day where I felt the "aquatic touch" back again.
Made me miss my fishies back home all the more :|

Well...if I have "missed out" any of the shots :P you can see them at -

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Enchanting Wayanad

Had been to Wayanad with the whole family...uncles, aunts, cousins, all of them. A few snapshots from there.
It rained quite a bit both the days, and we were on the road for quite a bit.

En route Wayanad, somewhere along the Mysore-Gundlupet road




Entering the Kerala border proved a big pain with the Check post having a massive traffic jam. Gave me time to explore the fields around




Viewpoint at Vythiri, this is the stretch that connects Kalpetta to Kozhikode




The hair pin bends seen from the view point, called "Churam" in the local language


Visited poookot lake too, sadly they do not open the gates until 9AM, so we waking up early and making a dash did not help us much.


Pedal-boated a bit with family, and also netted a couple of P. fasciatus with some nice earthen base color as stripes


Also seen were tons of tadpoles, have seen similar looking ones in the streams of the western ghats




There was tons of fern growth...they tend to grow nicely in moist areas.




And where there is moisture, there are leeches too. Thankfully caught one on my leg before it could latch on. Showed my cousins the way the leech "tracks" heat movement, almost like a snake.

Spotted some nice spiders too, a tiny red one which hopped onto my hand. Jumped off before I could transfer my camera from th e other hand.

Managed to click this HUGE Giant wood spider, a good 4"+


We moved on towards "Soochipara" falls amidst tea/coffee plantations. Though these are not really "natural" scapes, the green sure does soothe the eyes. It was heavily overcast and the humidity levels rose. Plus, without a particular light direction, metering enough from a moving bus to expose enough details on the landscape was getting tough!





Made use of every pothole where the bus slowed down to help compose the shot a bit






Even managed a macro, although a crappy one :P


The walk/trek to the Soochipara falls took a toll on some of the family. The walking distance is 1KM+
The falls itself is pretty tall, and the sound of the water thundering down on the rocks helped us reach faster :)
It was just filled with college folks and a few "Revellers", thankfully in about 15 minutes the crowd cleared out


Even with so much greenery around, the landscapes and sights enticed me into clicking a few B&W shots. Landscapes for some inexplicable reason just feel "Stronger"









There's so much more to explore, surely will be going back again to explore more of this captivating district of Kerala.

Adios till the next ride/trip :)

Cheers,
Hayath