Unknown Heroes

Two months ago I came back to Portugal from a great trip through the Colorado Plateau, in the Arizona and Utah states of the United States of America. It was an amazing trip, through six National Parks and some amazing landscapes, and I was able to take a lot of photos. My friends here loved them, they said they were amazing photographs, but the real truth is that one of the main reasons the photos look great is because the places themselves are fantastic. And the reason these places are fantastic is because lots of people care for them, and wanted to protect them.

More than one hundred years ago, some people in the USA came up with this weird idea that Nature is something that fuels our spirits. They defended that the wild places that still existed in America should be protected from commercial exploitation, and should be made public so that all people, regardless of age, religion or position in society could benefit from them. Thus was born one of the greatest ideas of America: the National Parks. And the funny thing is that all it took was people with a love for certain places and with the ideas and initiative to make things happen.

Now the photo you see in this post is not from America. It's from my own country, Portugal, from our only National Park, Geres. The reason I chose this photo for this post is because I recently found out that in my own country there are also people with this kind of initiative and driving force. In fact, I feel privileged and happy to count one such person as a friend of mine.

She's just like you and me, she has a job to where she goes to every day. However at certain times, she packs her stuff, gets in her car or in a train and travels in our country, in order to volunteer to certain nature protection activities. Whether it's helping to recover wild animals in recovery centers, or participating in reforestation activities, she does her bit. Her enthusiasm has inspired me to start helping as well in any way I can, and I am looking forward to participate in some of these activities as well. I know there are more people like her, but still I wish there were even more. These are the people that make things happen behind the scenes. It was this kind of efforts and enthusiasm that led to the creation of the National Park idea in the United States long ago.

People look at some of my photos and they see the natural beauty of the landscapes. For some time, that was all I saw as well, but now I see something more. I see these unknown heroes that have worked so hard to keep these places so beautiful. So here's to them all. Thank you for your efforts and hard work.