16: Bogotá

Instead of jumping to conclusions, Jackie Johnson-Smith held herself together and took a deep breath. Though her instincts were screaming at her to react, she chose patience. A couple of minutes later, her curiosity won, and she leaned forward to check the note the waitress had left behind. Her husband wouldn’t meet her gaze, and that told her everything she needed to know—he knew the waitress. The thoughts wouldn’t stop racing. Had he been here before? Why did he keep this a secret from her? Jackie needed answers, and she needed them fast.

In the thrilling world of baseball, we have this batter dancing a fine line between “strike” and “ouch”. You see, being hit by a pitch (HBP) is when the ball, courtesy of the pitcher, makes unwanted contact with anything on the batter – except his bat. It’s like trying to swat a pesky fly with a toothpick. Now, baseball is full of zany moments. I mean, who thought hitting a speeding ball with a slender stick was a good idea? And just like life’s unpredicted curveballs, sometimes a pitcher’s aim might be a tad… off-target. Like right now.

At first glance, this image looks like a mythical creature silently watching from the shadows, with piercing eyes glowing in the night. But in reality, it’s an extraordinary natural formation: two massive openings in a cave ceiling aligned just perfectly with the full moon and stars beyond. The symmetry and positioning create an illusion so surreal that it feels like the Earth itself has come alive to observe the universe. This rare and awe-inspiring moment is a perfect example of nature’s ability to mimic art. The moon appearing in one of the “eye sockets” adds an almost sentient quality to the stone structure. Capturing a shot like this isn’t just a matter of photography—it’s about timing, patience, and the luck of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right second. It’s one of those fleeting instances when the natural world seems to wink at us.