Jules and gang – Mombassa – West Pac 74

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Jules and gang – Mombassa – West Pac 74, originally uploaded by jjlamont.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Daddy Yankee – Ella Me Levanto

Isola Spagnvola… circa 1534

A very interesting early map of Hispaniola, 1534. Click map for detail views. See details below and “Maps” in side bar.

(1534) Ramusio, Giovanni Battista (also Peter Martyr, Fernández de Oviedo). In Raccoita di Navigationi et Viaggi… Isola de Spagnvola. Venice. This edition: second (1556). This state: second. Size: 270 x 190 mm. Language: Italian. Region: Hispaniola. Medium: woodblock. Comments: This second edition (and state) was printed in 1556, and it can be distinguished by damage to some lettering (e.g., see first “N” in PONENTE”). It is said that this block was destroyed in a fire in printing house of Tomaso Guinti so had to be recut for future editions.

Below is an updated version of same map… with waves, galleons and sea monsters.

Venice, 1565. Woodcut, printed area 190 x 270mm. Slight age-toning. Slight age-toning. Hispaniola, surrounded by galleons and seamonsters, from Ramusio’s ‘Raccolta di Navigationi et Viaggi’. This example was printed from the second block, cut in 1565 after the first was destroyed by a fire in the printing house of Thomaso Guinti after only a year’s use. A noticeable difference is that the original had no decoration or waves. The 1606 edition is recognisable by evidence of woodworm damage to the printing block.

A day at Luperon… a proud Mother!

A mother and her children. Wide eyed and inquisitive. My friends and the children enjoying a day on Luperon Beach. We rented a four seater van holding 15 people, purchased a whole roasted pig [lechone] and filled the van. Heads, elbows and knees everywhere. The kids were thrilled with the waves, the surf, the food and the excitement… just full of joy. And then, climbing a Almendras tree, wow!

 

Yosemite National Park, California – 1974

Long ago visiting Yosemite National Park in California in 1974 with my USS Enterprise shipmates. We drove there from our ship ported in Alameda. A magnificent vista. Those were the days.

 

Dinner, La Benedicta, a cigar and my friend,all pretty good!

100_1027, originally uploaded by jjlamont.

 

A day at Luperon… happy at the beach!

A day at Luperon…, originally uploaded by jjlamont.

 

Caution in Bajos de Haina…

Haina, Dominican Republic

Haina could be called the capital of lead poisoning for its 85,000 citizens and most particularly for those in the area known as Bajos de Haina. see map below. A former battery plant has caused high soil and blood levels of lead (in blood this amounts to lead poisoning). The good news is that there is concerted action to improve the situation.

[sourced from Forbes magazine, Robert Malone]

 

Local History – US occupying the DR…

US occupation of Santo Domingo… 1916 – 1922

[sourced from Wikipedia]

United States Marines landed in Santo Domingo on May 15, 1916. Prior to their landing, Jimenes resigned, refusing the exercise an office ‘regained with foreign bullets.’^[20] On June 1, Marines occupied Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata, and, after a brief campaign, took Arias’s stronghold Santiago by the beginning of July. The Dominican Congress elected Dr. Francisco Henríquez Carvajal as President, but in November, after he refused to meet the American demands, Woodrow Wilson announced the imposition of a U.S. military government, with Rear Admiral Harry Shepard Knapp as Military Governor. The American military government implemented many of the institutional reforms carried out in the United States during the Progressive Era, including reorganization of the tax system, accounting and administration, expansion of primary education, the creation of a nation-wide police force to unify the country, and the construction of a national system of roads, including a highway linking Santiago to Santo Domingo.