India Ink

My New Crush

When I decided to join some work colleagues in Charleston for a performance of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I thought I was going to hear a philharmonic from Russia. I dressed up nice and prepared for an evening of classical music.

I couldn't have been further off the mark! My first clue was that the audience walking in was in shorts and blue jeans, and tubs of popcorn were being sold in the lobby. The show was a crazy mixture of rock band, heavy metal, laser lights, pyrotechnics, opera, and storytelling.

The highlight of the evening for me? A bad-ass violinist named Roddy Chong.  Yeah I know, you don't usually hear bad-ass and violin in the same sentence (except, perhaps, for Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, whom I also adore). But the guy was insanely cool:  playing his violin over his head, running across the stage, doing splits, dueling with the guitarists, hoppin' and stompin'. I am officially a Roddy Chong groupie; I want to follow him around from gig to gig and swim in his brand of crazy.

I wasn't close enough to get a good shot of him (a few of my photos below), but you can check him out on this video someone posted on YouTube:

Aruba Birthday Dinner

My birthday evening in Aruba ended with a some some very tasty (and photogenic) Aruban cuisine.

 
Mango and tomato salad with pickled red onion and lime-herb drizzle

 
Grilled caramelized plantain satay with rice and peanut curry sauce

Strawberry frozen yogurt

Also on the menu: a sweet waiter who told me I had beautiful eyes, and wanted to take me dancing that night. He got an extra nice tip for the beautiful eyes part (I passed on the dancing though...)

Aruba: Donkey Sanctuary

Making the rounds of the animal kingdom, after the ostrich farm and the butterfly garden,  I headed to the donkey sanctuary. Donkeys were the primary method of transportation for island residents until cars came along. Some still roam the island freely, but 90 or so are cared for in this sanctuary.

This cock-a-doodle kept a watchful eye over the donkey gang.

Aruba Butterflies

I'm never one to pass up a butterfly garden, and the Aruba Butterfly Farm did not disappoint.

Scarlet swallowtail

Orangetip                                                                                Unidentified variety

Tree nymph

Malachite
This little fellow rode on my finger for about 30 minutes, while I continued to shoot pictures of the other butterflies

Checkered swallowtail

Tree nymph

Owl - so called because its eyespots resemble the eyes of an owl.

Three owl butterflies

Zebra

Atlas moth - largest moths in the world, with a wingspan of over 10 inches. 

 

If you like butterflies, you might also like these posts:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Butterfly Ball
Newfoundland, Canada: Newfoundland Butterflies
Bali, Indonesia: Bali Butterflies
Phoenix, Arizona: Mariposa Monarca

Aruba: Ostrich Farm

"Ostrich" isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think Aruba. But in fact, the island is home to some 80 frisky ostriches and emus, sheltered on an ostrich farm. And they weren't at all shy about cavorting with visitors bearing food...