Notices by My camera shoots fascists (mikal@sfba.social), page 3

The nice thing about playing amateur naturalist after landing is that by switching gears, what would otherwise be an unremarkable 10 minute walk to the road becomes a whole other hour-long adventure.

By the way, anywhere there is an active paragliding site, there is probably a school or a company that offers tandem flights. I would totally recommend it to anyone. It's really quite an amazing experience. Though I haven't done any skydiving, paragliding is very different. It's slower and calmer. If the conditions are good, you get to just hang out up there and float around. And, yes, we carry reserve parachutes in case something goes terribly wrong.

The other thing I've been doing, either up at launch while "parawaiting" for good weather or after I've landed while I'm waiting for the retrieve vehicle, is to snap photos for iNaturalist. I recently started using my mostly-dormant account for fun. I've probably got 60 or 70 different species observations to upload, mostly plants. And this is just what are probably considered common weeds around roadsides and farm fields. I got 20 new plant species this afternoon alone, plus this really cool beetle and spider.

#inaturalist #spider #beetle #botany #Colombia #Entomology

A nice little storm moved across El Valle del Cauca to our north just before dinner. got a few bolts, this one being the best.

#StormChasing #colombia #lightning

Today's #paragliding flight nearly got rained out at launch. I got in the air, but conditions were so wet and non-thermic that I had a 15 minute sled ride to a nice grassy sheep pasture landing. This was the last formal day of the tour, but a bunch of us don't have flights out of Calí until late tomorrow night or Tuesday, so we're going to get a day of flying in at Piedechinche, which is a short hop from the airport.

Spending a few days in Bogotá next, so expect pictures of street art like last year.

A bunch of us got in a day of flying at Piedechinche, before most catch flights home tonight or tomorrow morning.

Storms started building after about an hour, so those of us still in the air headed in. The lift was so strong and consistent that I had to do what's called "going on bar" to push forward away from the mountains and lose altitude to get to the landing zone.

I just barely got the glider packed up as the rain started. One of us landed in the pouring rain, unfortunately.

First pic is someone launching. Zoom in to the sky to see all the gliders in the air. Second pic is the little burger and beer place across the street from the landing zone, everyone taking cover from the storm.
#paragliding #colombia

They have the funniest signs in Colombia. I never did figure out exactly what this one was supposed to warn us about.

It's not warning of a "serpentine" road ahead because the road is straight. It's also not a particularly dangerous stretch of road, and its doubtfully a slippery one. Maybe a snake crossing zone?

Got to Bogotá this morning. It makes me so stupidly happy to wander aimlessly around an unfamiliar city. Though this is the same part I was in last year so it's not entirely new.

This is Plaza BirdFlu...I mean Plaza Bolivar. You can buy little packs of corn to feed the pigeons and then take selfies of them sitting on your head and shoulders. This seems to be a thing amongst tourists.

I've been trying to minimize news consumption this week, but just reading that a whole bunch of FAA employees were fired makes me consider changing my flight home to Mexico City, then to Hermosillo and taking a bus from there to Phoenix to get my truck. That would avoid being under the auspices of the FAA.

FFS what the actual hell.

Carrera 7, Bogota, a kilometer of which has been turned into a pedestrian street. It is always lively during the day. At night, things shut down and all the shops pull down their steel rollup doors. Each door has some fabulous street art, so it's like a roll-up art museum that appears every night. I was here about a year ago and posted a bunch of photos if you go back through my timeline.

One of my favorite things to do here is photograph street art, so I'll have more to show at some point.

Bogotá is big on street art. Lots of recurring themes, punk being one. These images make me feel so square nowadays. But the true punk spirit is on the inside, right?

#StreetArt #Bogota #Colombia #punk

I want to post a ton more of these, but I've been indoors getting work done for a few hours and want to go back out. Maybe I'll post more and ask others for alt text, since that's what takes so long and is holding me up.

More Bogotá street art.

The text translates as "Great geniuses begin great works that can only be finished with work."

#Bogota #StreetArt

#Bogota #StreetArt #Alt4Me

These adorable characters are part of a large panel that, because of the narrowness of the street, is too hard to photograph in one shot.

#Bogota #StreetArt
Jaguars are very common theme.

I'm going to try this: I'll post a bunch of pics and if others want to write alt text, I can add it in later. Thanks in advance.
#Alt4Me

More jaguars. #Bogota #StreetArt
#ALT4me

What's the best ask-for-alt hashtag to use?

#Bogota #StreetArt
#ALT4me

Indigenous people are everywhere in Bogotá street art, but I wonder how much in the rest of society.

I'm at a little square in Bogotá that turns into an informal skate park in the evenings. I was here last year watching the kids do tricks. It's just a fun scene, people hanging out, kids riding around in their skateboards plus a few trick bikes and some dogs.

This would be totally illegal in the uptight U.S.
Americans live in such a weird isolated bubble.

Another common #Bogota #StreetArt theme: Women's faces.

#ALT4me

This part of Bogotá is not particularly clean or fancy, resembling just about every major US city I've been to, but the night vibe is so totally different. People are just...out and about, doing things, enjoying life.

A comparable place in say, San Francisco or Oakland, at this time of night, would feel sketchy. That's the part that I like about most of the Latin American cities I've been to. There's a vibrant street life, both day and night. Everyone always seems way more chill than the US.

On the other hand,… Wait, someone has a llama on a string. They are taking their llama for a walk down the street… Anyway, on the other hand, the air pollution from the narrow streets and lack of an emission controls would lead anybody to an early grave.