Author: Erik

Ancient Chilean Pictographs

Several sites of prehistoric rock art exist in Chile. The works comprise the three main techniques employed by the pre-Hispanic artists: petroglyphs (engravings), pictographs (paintings) and geoglyphs (markings or designs on the land). The ones pictures on this postcard are the pictographs of Milla: “On one of the panels, two camelids with blank faces, one with an empty womb, are depicted walking, followed by a person wearing a feather plume and preceded by another dressed in a tunic decorated with a zigzag motif and headdress similar to the traditional conical hats of the Tamarugal Pampa.”

Chile postcard

Chile stamp

Postcard from Hell, Cayman Islands

Hell is a group of short, black, limestone formations located in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. Located in West Bay, it is roughly the size of half a soccer field. It is claimed that the name “Hell” is derived from the fact that if a pebble is thrown out into the formation, it echoes amongst the limestone peaks and valleys and sounds as if the pebble is falling all the way down to “Hell.”

Cayman Islands postcard

Cayman Islands stamp

Canada’s Nature

The world’s second largest country, Canada is blessed with a stunning variety of landscapes, seascapes, flora and fauna. Its incredibly spectacular scenery – and the many species that make their homes in its midst – is a source of great pleasure and pride. If you love the outdoors, Canada is a wonderful world of natural delight.

Canada postcard

Canada stamps

Bamileke elephant masks, Cameroon

Elephant masks take the form of an important royal icon, the elephant, with its long trunk and large ears. The patterns on the front and back panels suggest another royal icon, the leopard. The display of wearing these richly embellished masks and other regalia at court ceremonies was the best evidence of the wealth of a Bamileke kingdom. The Bamileke people populate western part of the savannahs in Cameroon.

Cameroon postcard

Cameroon stamps

The Baths, BVI

The Baths are a beach area on the island of Virgin Gorda among the British Virgin Islands. The Baths is an area of unique geologic formations and one of the BVI’s major tourist destinations. At The Baths we see granite that eroded into piles of boulders on the beach. Granite forms from the slow cooling of magma at depth nowhere close to surface volcanoes. The granite only appears at the surface after geologic ages have eroded away all the overburden covering it. Once exposed, erosion continued to isolate the granite into large boulders and round their surfaces. The boulders form natural tidal pools, tunnels, arches, and scenic grottoes that are open to the sea.

British Virgin Islands postcard

British Virgin Islands stamps

Russia-Kosovo Mail Experiment

Retour postmark

After learning about sending mail to some of the partially recognized countries, like Abkhazia, Transnistria, and Nagorny Karabakh, I wondered, how do I send mail from Russia to Kosovo ? Russia doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s independence, and supports Serbia in the conflict. So, it may not be as easy as writing “Kosovo” in the address.

Searching the web shed no light on this question, nobody on postcrossing forum knew either. I asked Russian Post rep in Vkontakte (“Russian Facebook”), he came back with “you have to address it to Serbia”. I was skeptical it would make it. So, I decided to test…

Continue reading “Russia-Kosovo Mail Experiment”

Varna, Bulgaria

Varna is a port city and seaside resort on Bulgaria‘s Black Sea, adjacent to the coastal resorts of Golden Sands, St. Konstantin and Albena. It’s famous for the “Gold of Varna,” 6,000-year-old Thracian jewelry discovered in a necropolis. The jewelry’s displayed inside the Archaeological Museum, along with Greek, Roman and Ottoman antiquities. A bar-lined waterfront promenade fronts 19th-century Primorski Park.

Bulgaria postcard

Bulgaria stamps

National Historical Museum, Brazil

The National Historical Museum, created in 1922, is one of the most important museums in Brazil, consisting of over 348.515 items, among which the largest numismatic collection of Latin America. The architectonic complex that houses the Museum had is beginning with the construction of the Santiago Fort, at the Calaboose Point, one of the strategic places for the defense of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil postcard

Brazil stamps

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo is a slavicized word based on “saray”, the Turkish word for palace. In 1885, Sarajevo was the first city in Europe and the second city in the world to have a full-time electric tram network running through the city, following San Francisco. In 1914, it was the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria that sparked World War I. In 1984 it hosted Winter Olympics. Sarajevo is the only major European city to have a mosque, Catholic church, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighborhood.

Sarajevo postcard

Sarajevo stamp