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Dr. Thomas Junk
ULM Chemistry Department • 210 CNSB
700 University Avenue • Monroe, LA 71209 • U.S.A.
Phone: 318/342-1830 • Fax: 318/342-3334
e-mail: junk@ulm.edu

Please visit the home page of our local ACS section, the Ouachita Valley Section of the American Chemical Society.

There is more to life than chemistry...

Louisiana offers excellent opportunities for canoeing, fishing, hiking, camping... Here are some links for those interested in Louisiana's outdoor activities:

http://www.crt.state.la.us/crt/parks/

http://www.sierraclub.org/chapters/la/trailguide.html

Some vacation pictures:

Above, en route across the central Andes: Tiwanaco, Bolivia (above, left), with wife Pia near Aguas Calientes (central Peru).

Below, left: hiking near Lagunas Llanganuco, central Andes, Peru.

Below, right: traditional clothing is still customary here (Southern highlands, Peru).

Below: Pia enjoying the view from the Pyramid of the Moon, Teotihuacan, near Mexico City.

Below: Xmas ’01, making our way to and through the Lacandon rain forest (Southern Mexico). It was tedious at times…

…but well worth it! (Below, Mayan pyramids near Palenque)

Below - Xmas ’02: Some views of Tenerife (Canary Islands). The island’s volcano seems extinct, but

no one knows for sure…

Below: December ’03, on the way from Buenos Aires to Montevideo. Pia checks out the local

transportation (we decided to take a bus instead)

Below, left: Taking a nap on the beach, approx. 100 miles east of Montevideo. Uruguay has awesome beaches!

Below, right: July’04, enjoying the view from the Chincana ruins complex onto Lake Titicaca (Isla del Sol, Bolivia)

Below, left, Xmas ’04: Exploring Mayan temples at Tikal (eastern Guatemala)

Below, left: overland travel, Central American style. You guessed it, these are old U.S. school buses and they are sometimes shared with livestock.

Right, Xmas ’04: Hiking through highland coffee plantations (near Santiago Atitlan, central Guatemala)

Above: Two views of Lake Atitlan, our Xmas hideaway (central Guatemala)

Below, left: any bugs tonight? Jungle lodge near Rio Dulce, eastern Guatemala. (Hint – don’t sleep too close to the netting, otherwise you still get bitten!)

Below, right: Enjoying a quiet beach and a shady coconut palm for a New Year’s Eve swim. (Placencia, Belize)

Xmas’05: Some pictures of Tierra del Fuego and Southern Patagonia.

Top left: Ushuaia, Argentina, the world’s southern-most town, where we started our trip. Top right: Pia negotiates a log bridge on a hike though the dense forest that covers much of Tierra del Fuego.

Below: After crossing the Strait of Magellan, we headed north into Southern Patagonia. Here a picture I took of Perito Moreno glacier, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, Argentina.

Below: Driving, Patagonian style. Most roads are still unpaved, and we drove for hours without seeing anybody. At the horizon are the Patagonian Andes and one of the many enormous glacier lakes (near Calafate, Argentina).

Above: Pia and I hiking at Torres del Paine, Patagonia. Below, at Lago Grey. The ice comes from a giant glacier visible in the background.

Below: Pia took this picture of me marveling at a waterfall we passed (Torres del Paine, Patagonia – Chile).

Xmas ’06, part 1: A visit to Egypt. Below, the giant hypostyle hall of Karnak temple at Luxor made me feel like a dwarf.

Below left: Pia inspects a fallen statue of pharaoh Ramesses II at Abu Simbel (Nubian desert, upper Egypt). Below, right: Pia and myself, visiting the step pyramid at Sakkara.

Xmas’06, part 2: We continued to Austria to visit my parents. Below left, Pia enjoys a walk through the winter wonderland (near Villach, southern Austria)

Above, left: I took this picture of the Giant Ferries Wheel in Vienna just after we got off, shortly after sunset.

Above, right: Yours truly, back on the slopes at Goldeck, Austria.

Xmas’07- Below left: Me, sitting in front of the Temple of Doom? Well, the real one is called the Bayon, located near Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Below right, Banteay Srei, Cambodia, a stunning example of Khmer architecture.

Above, Angkor Wat in all its glory. Below, Pia took this picture of the sun setting over the Mekong on Xmas Eve, with Phnom Penh in the background.

Summer ’08 – two Americans in Paris (well, kind of)

Above, enjoying a freshly baked baguette at Notre Dame. Below left, old meets new at the entrance to the Louvre.

Above right, a trip of culinary delights! Escargot in France, smoked eel and pickled herring in Holland. Here, we are enjoying a pastis at Montmartre. On the way back, we decided to spend a few days in the land of freedom, cheese, and wind mills: Below, a gracht in Amsterdam.

Below left, odd neighbors following the Dutch motto: if you don’t bother me, I won’t bother you. Needless to say, this is not a police state, the jails stay pretty empty and the streets are safe. Below, right – a wind mill in Delft.

Below, in the center of Amsterdam.