Back in New York City

Today's message is brought to you by the Office of Tourism of El Salvador.

OK, not really. But these are some of the photos I took recently in El Salvador, just before I accidentally/stupidly/jack-assedly (check all that apply) deleted my entire iPhoto library - yes, we're talking 6,000 photos here. Luckily/amazingly/heroically, I was able to retrieve them with a nifty little piece of UNIX freeware called Photorec, although the recovery operation - deservedly - is going to take me ages to complete. These are only the first results.

The uppermost picture is of a sunset on the beach near the Rio Jiboa inlet, a place that has been particularly productive lately for finding large, unusual gulls. (Any large gull is by definition unusual in El Salvador.) The identity of these gulls is still being debated, and once I have all my photos recovered, I'll probably post some here. Some of my photos can already be seen here.

This photo is of a sunrise over El Salvador, taken from one of the highest points in the country, in Montecristo. This is a small country, so we're looking at probably a quarter or a third of the entire country here. The peaks on the horizon are fairly close to the coast, on the other side of the country.

This is one of two Black Terns that we saw on the beach Wednesday afternoon.

I'm back in New York City, where today the skies are gray, the weather is chilly and all the trees are still bare. But I'm sure spring isn't far away here. Friday I will travel on to northern Michigan, where spring is probably still light years away...