CECILIA CLARK P HOTOGRAPHY

2019 Protest Art We took a drive through a tunnel decorated with anti-government protest art from 2019. The October demonstrations, spurred by the youth, became the largest and longest lasting uprising since 2003. People were protesting government corruption, unemployment, and lack of public services like clean water and electricity. In the first six months, security forces and paramilitary groups loosely connected to the government killed 600 protesters and injured more than

Our rides into the Mesopotamia Marshlands We left Nasiriyah early because we had a breakfast date in the Mesopotamian Marshlands 1.5 hours away. The Wandering Earl Team passed out keffiyehs for each of us to shade our heads. We all needed help getting them wrapped and secured correctly. Our bus dropped us on the bank above the boats and drivers. Once in the boats we shot off into the marsh. The water isn't so deep as you can see by the cows cooling off in the water. We sped

The drive from Najaf to Nasiriyah was about 4.5 hours. We had lunch, checked into our room at the Somerion Hotel, and then set out to visit the ancient city of Ur. The city of Ur was inhabited for more than 5,000 years by diverse cultures beginning in approximately 5500 BCE with the prehistoric Ubaids and ending with the Achaemenid Persians in 331 BCE. Our first stop in Ur was at the impressive multi-stepped ziggurat pedestal. It is built of mud with a facade of bricks and bi

Valley of Peace There are just three women in our group and the three of us had to get properly dressed before getting out of the bus. Najaf is recognized as one of the holiest places in Shia Islam, therefore, women must have their hair and bodies covered in all public spaces. We each wore an abaya. It was one piece of cloth with a small opening to put your face into while at the same time it kept our hair covered. A little tricky to manage when it is your first time wearing

Today we checked out of our Baghdad hotel and drove the approximately 1.5 hours to Babylon where Mahdi gave us a tour. The photo above is a reproduction of the Ishtar Gate. The original is in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. We saw the Ishtar Temple, procession avenue, grand hall, Babylon Lion statue, and the throne room where some think Alexander the Great died. In the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, Babylon may have been the largest city in the world with as many as 200,000 reside

The Police Escort to Fallujah The drive to Fallujah is about 1.5 hours but also dependent upon how many times our mini bus is stopped at checkpoints. Along the way we passed the notorious (during Saddam's time and later when in 2003 the US Army and CIA took over) Abu Ghraib prison. At the Anbar Province checkpoint in western Iraq we picked up a police escort, with red lights flashing and occasional sirens, that stayed with us throughout our visit to Fallujah. Additional polic

Tahrir Square (Liberation Square) sculpture commemorating the 1958 establishment of the Republic of Iraq On the first day of our tour, our minibus drove past Firdos Square which is where Saddam Hussein's statue was pulled off its pedestal and destroyed in 2003. Firdos Square was lined with political posters of candidates running for office. Political posters and flags were most everywhere we traveled in Iraq. According to the New York Times, there are more than 7,700 candidat

Fatima (right) and her friend We made it! This is our second attempted trip to Iraq and this time we made it all the way. Arriving in Baghdad a couple of days early, we took our cameras and explored some of the areas around our hotel. The first evening we walked along a nearby street with electronics stores and some high-end shops. We met Fatima who came out of a shop and asked me to take her photo, then a photo of her and her friend, and then a photo of a couple of male fri

Itilleq has just 89 residents. The main industry is fishing, and they have a small fish processing plant in the long blue building near...

Looking toward the open air Museum Sisimuit means "residences at the fox holes." It is Greenland's second largest city with a population...

Columnar Basalt at Disko Island Disko Island is the youngest area in Greenland. The rest of Greenland is billions of years old. Basalt...

We woke to another beautiful day with glassy water and beautiful reflections. The view on the other side of the ship was of an active...

The next morning, August 10, the plan for the day had changed. A passenger was having a medical emergency and needed to get back to a...

Sea Ice looking east to Greenland We're deep into the sea ice. Last night it sounded like the ship was having quite a fight plowing,...

Brother John's Glacier at the head of Foulke Fjord Still heading north, the ship stopped in Foulke Fjord. When we arrived it was very...

Qaanaaq, Greenland Continuing north along Greenland's west coast, we stopped for several hours at Qaanaaq. We were looking forward to...

Savissivik About 10,000 years ago a portion of a 100 tonne (220,500 pound) iron-rich meteorite (estimated weight before it exploded)...

Perlerfiup Sermia (glacier) Morning brought clouds, fog, and thunder. We were in Perlerfiup Fjord near the glacier of the same name. The...

Uummannaq Mountain and Island Uummannaq means "heart-shaped mountain" in Greenlandic. The island was named after its split-topped...

View of the Icefjord from Ilulissat, Greenland We had a bit of a late start for our West Greenland cruise after fog in Nuuk prevented our...