unwttng's daily photo #7 - Laos Butterfly (originally 'wings of water, wings of earth')
As well as being, and writing about being, a software engineer, I'm an avid amateur photographer. One issue I have with steemit at the moment is that it seems vastly in favour of written content (especially about the crypto-ecosystem) and seems a little dismissive of images. In my opinion, quality image content in the form of user photography, CGI and traditional art is just as valid. With that in mind I'll be putting a new photo here every day. I'll include a little bit of personal context around each one in case you're interested! (I'll also include this paragraph in them all for the time being).
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Today's photo (today being Monday the 26th September 2016, 2016-09-26) is of a butterfly. It's of one of many hundreds, if not thousands of butterflies who make their home at the Butterfly Park near Kuang Si falls, Laos. The falls are not too far from Luang Prabang, by far the most popular town for tourists to Laos, and are themselves by far the most popular side activity / site from Luang Prabang. Vans full of backpackers and other visitors are shuttled backwards and forwards to the falls from the town each day to see (and sometimes jump into) the falls and their beautiful blue/green waters. It's a stunning place.
Stay a little longer, however, and you'll find (for want of much else to do) the Butterfly Park just down the trail. It was started a little while ago by two Dutch travellers who settled in the miniscule, rural Laos village near the falls to set up a fantastically unexpected business. They bought land, massively overgrown for generations. They worked it, they cleared it, with their own hands and those of some intrepid volunteers who came and went. They made good friends with the local businesspeople, having stayed in one of their guesthouses for many months while their land was unusable.
Eventually they formed it into what it is today; an awe-inspiring little park full of beautiful and exotic flowers and huge numbers and varieties of butterfly, able to fly free and all around you. They're huge and they're beautiful.