Tag Archives: vacation snapshots

Vacation on the Amazon River

My dear friend Jeff is on a mission to travel to all the ends of the earth. Ten years ago, he fulfilled a lifelong dream and took a cruise down the Amazon.  He sent me these photos from the cemetery along the way.  With his permission, I share them with you.

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From Jeff’s note:

First, a context photo, since I do not know much about this graveyard.
We stopped here to go for a swim on a sandbar on an island in the middle of the Rio Negro (the branch of the Amazon we were on).  The water was warm and we just spent a few hours standing up to our necks in the water that was cooler than the air.  If you look, you can see that people are drinking beer while they stand, with our residence floating in the background.
This graveyard is at the high point of this sand bar.  On wet winters, I suspect that this graveyard would be under 1 meter of water. Typically, it seems to be right at the high water mark of the river.  When we got there, the crosses had all been freshly repainted.  The roller was still sitting there with paint on it.  Talk about a graveyard with a view!

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Loren again:  Someday we’ll be able to travel again. In the meantime, you can check out Jeff’s other exotic adventures on Cemetery Travel:

You can see Jeff’s photos of his trip to Cuba here.

See his photos of the graveyards of Croatia and Bosnia here.

His pictures of Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh are here.

Vacation in Nice

IMG_20190117_145029578My friend Scott Browne was on a book tour in France when he had a free day in Nice.  He stopped in to visit the lovely Cimetiere du Chateau.  I share his photos with his permission.

Please check out Scott’s books on Amazon.  He hasn’t written about cemeteries (yet!), but he’s a very funny and thoughtful man: https://amzn.to/2YT2Laa.

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Vacation in Edinburgh

My dear friend Jeff is on a continuing mission to travel to all the ends of the earth.  He returned from Scotland and sent me these photos from the Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh.  With his permission, I share them with you.

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The grave of Greyfriar’s Bobby, a dog that stood watch over his owner after the man’s death. People bring the dog sticks.

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Memento Mori: hand with bell, hourglass, crossed coffins, spade, mummified face, and crossbones.

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The churchyard has watchtowers left over from the days of Burke and Hare.  Guards would stand watch over the graveyard at night to foil grave robbers, who broke into new graves to steal corpses for dissection at Edinburgh’s Medical School.

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You can see Jeff’s photos of his trip to Cuba earlier this year here.

See his photos of the graveyards of Croatia and Bosnia here.

Vacation in Cuba

My dear friend Jeff is on a continuing mission to travel to all the ends of the earth.  He’s just returned from Cuba and sent me these photos from the Colon Cemetery in Havana.  With his permission, I share them with you.

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You can see Jeff’s photos of his trip to Croatia and Bosnia here.

Vacation in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina

My dear friend Jeff is on a mission to travel to all the ends of the earth.  When he returned from his most recent jaunt, he sent me these cemetery photos from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.  With his permission, I share them with you.

A Christian cemetery in Motovun, Croatia:

Looking from the graveyard to the castle on the mountain

Closeup on the central grave: notice the winged hourglass.

Spare crosses stacked up against the graveyard wall.

Notice the rocky floor of the graveyard. No grass here.

In contrast, here are some Moslem cemeteries from Bosnia-Herzegovina.  The first is in Mostar:

Look at how green the grass is here. Gravestones are very simple and graves are demarcated by a curb.

This is Sarajevo:

These graves are individualized by sarcophagi. This one has both an ornate tablet for the name and a pillar topped by a spiral flame.

Thanks so much for thinking of me when you travel, Jeff!  There’s nothing better than knowing people really are visiting graveyards on their vacations.

Does anyone else have vacation snapshots they would like to share?  You can contact me on Facebook or leave a link to your own blog posts below.