Tela

Valle de la Luna

A visit to the valle de la luna... a geological phenomenon south of La Paz.

A Collection of Cacti

PICARESQUE

Main Entry: 1pi·ca·resque

Pronunciation: "pi-k&-'resk,"

Function: adjectiveEtymology: Spanish picaresco, from pícaro: of or relating to rogues or rascals; also : of, relating to, suggesting, or being a type of fiction dealing with the episodic adventures of a usually roguish protagonist

Garden Butterfly

This butterfly was sippin´nectar from the flowers in the garden:

Coca plantations

The town of Chulimani is one of Bolivia´s traditional coca growing zones. It has been grown here for thousands of years and has been used by andean civilizations as a stimulant... its use could be compared to westerners use of coffee. Coca leaves are either chewed or made into a tea. Leaves can be purchased whole or can be purchased in tea bags. The effects are milder than a strong coffee. One feels the lack of chewing coca rather than the effects of acutally chewing coca.
Coca is best for altitude sickness, combatting fatigue and supressing hunger. At 13,000 feet, when you chew coca, you don´t feel these symtoms, when you don´t chew it, you feel them.

The coca plant has been demonized during the last few decades because it can be processed into cocaine. most people who grow coca are small farmers who have a small plot of coca. although the United States government has blamed these growers for the drug problem in the United States, it is obvious that the demand for the drug is not created in these fields but rather in the United States by the same users of cocaine. As long as these drug users pay exorborant amounts of money for drugs, there will be a demand, drug cartels will try to satisfy this demand and they will buy coca leaves from local growers.

In the photos one can see the coca fields. This region grows coca that is not good for cocaine manufacture and is highly valued in the altiplano for their quality, especially their taste. The grower is pictured and is a regular farmer, not a drug dealer. The fields are well cared for and have a great deal of investment put into them.
From a coffee field to a coca field. The coca field was a coffee plantation but with the coffee crisis, the field was turned into a coca field. The Inga spp. trees in the coca field are tradition coffee shade and have been left in the coca field. Their leaves are the only source of fertilizer for the coca plants.
Coca field on a steep slope.

The Chulimani valley. This area has always been a coca growing region. It also grows fine coffee and citrus products. The landscape pattern seen here is a mix of coca fields, corn fields, coffee plantations and citrus stands. The brown areas are probably corn fields. The dark green areas are coffee and citrus and the light green or brown and green mix are coca fields.


A coca field on a moderate slope
Detail of coca leaves on the coca plant. These are young leaves and are ready to harvest when they are dark green.

The farmer


Rows of coca plants at 3 years old (1 year in the nursery and 2 years in the field). Note the zanjas that help to direct water to the plants and hold the moisture. Note also the rocky ground.

banana plant and flower

this banana plant behind the adobe house was in full bloom.

Birds

Andean Condor Rescued and Cared for in a Municipality

Domesticated Lesser Rhea

Emerald Toucanet



A big Gallo

potatoes for sale

The potato has its orgins in the Andes. Here you can find an enormous genetic diversity that manifests itself in varieties specific to certain villages. In this picture there are over 15 varieties for sale. Each is good for some specific type of cooking and has a distinct taste, texture and color.

La Cumbre

View at the Cumbre, the high pass above La Paz that leads to the Yungas. Llamas grazing in the foreground and a high range in the background. The legendary Choro Inca trail climbs over the range in the background.

Ilimani from 30,000

Illimani is a colosses. Enjoy the view of the glaciers on its slopes while you can: they are of the most dramatic evidence of global warming the world over as they steadily retreat and disappear year after year.

La Feria de la Mujer Rural, Aiquile

These pictures were taken in teh town of Aiquile during the festival of the mujere rural. We were at this feria doing interviews for the vice ministerio de la mujer....

Potosi and the Cerro Rico

The volcano that sits above Potosi became known as Cerro Rico for the enormous deposits of silver that is contained. These deposits made Potosi the richest city in the world for a time. It is now considered one of the poorest.

The mountain is honeycombed with mines that are still worked over by Quechuas and Aymaras following in a long line of their ancestors. Estimates of the number of workers killed in these mines reach 9 million.

The Tourgroup

“The tourists know this and they hate it. They were waked early yesterday for the Cuzco flight and found a mob at the airport. They were waked early for the Machu Picchu train, and this mob is worse. They do not jostle or push. They stand in the gray dawn, clutching their lunches and muttering. Most are on a twelve day tour of South America; they have spent much of the time just like this, waiting for something to happen, and they don’t like it one bit. They don’t want to complain, because they know Americans are want to complaining. But they are disgused. I stand in the mob and wait for the chance to say I don’t blame you

“You’d think they’d at least open the doors and let us into the station,” says one of the Goodchucks.

“That’s too simple for them. They’d rather keep us waiting,” says Charles P. Clapp.

“I’m awful sick of this,” says Hildy, who really does look ill. The poor women is over seventy, and here she is in the middle of the Andes, standing behind the filthy Cuzco market, on the steps of the station. At her feet is an Indian women with a crying child, selling Chiclets and cigarettes, and another pitifully dirty man with a pile of bruised peaches. Hildy is from—where? A neat suburb in the Midwest, where the trains run on time and polite people offer her their seat. She did not know how hard it would be here. She has my sympathy, even my admiration; at her age this counts as bravery. “If they don’t open the doors pretty quick I’m going straight back to the hotel…. I haven’t been right since La Paz.”

Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonian Express, By Train Through the Americas

The traveler is thrown in with a group of package tour tourists much as the travelers from the Vice-Ministerio were thrown in with a packaged group of Germans and then relieved of their seats on the plane so the group could continue as a unit onto La Paz.

The Market at Sucre

The central market is Sucre was the highlight of the visit to the city. In addition to the typical dazzling array of Andean fruits and vegetables one can find such local specialties in the Sucre market as the Chorizo Mondongo served hot on bread with lettuce and tomatoes and a fine selection of delicate chocolates. Note that the curve of the blade in the hand of the pineapple girl is not a special make but rather the result of 13 years of service.
We were able to conduct a number of interviews with women business owners who were eager to tell the story of their sucessful operations....

Andean Vegetables...


Chorizo Mondongo at the Siete Lunares

She buys the milk fresh and then elaborates the yogurt. From left to right, all natural Strawberry, Coconut and Peach.

Some Tropical Fruits including M´s favorite in the center, the Chirimoya.

Fresh Apples

Sucre´s Famous Chocolates

A complete market stall... take your purchases home in one of the unique baskets.

Sliced Pineapple

The Judge

“Ladies and gentlemen I feel it my duty to inform you that the man holding this revival is an imposter. He holds no papers of divinity from any institution recognized or improvised. He is altogether devoid of the least qualifications to the office he has usurped and has only committed to memory a few passages from the good book for the purpose of lending to his fraudulent sermons some faint flavor of the piety he despises. In truth, the gentleman standing before you posing as a minister of the Lord is not only totally illiterate but is also wanted by the law in the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Arkansas.”

Cormac McCarthy in Blood Meridian Or the Evening Redness in the West. So we are first introduction to “The Judge” and we glimpse the depths of his evil as he denounces an itinerate evangelical priest in a tent revival. Following the subsequent lynching of the priest, the Judge admits during a round of whiskey in a saloon that he has never before seen nor heard tell of the priest in question.

Andean Butterfly

This butterfly was trying to warm itself up enough to fly on the morning of Oct. 7th at 9:30. There were 6 together on a low bush.

Choquetanga Valley

If you know the village of Pongo in Bolivia, it is probably because you have stopped there for a trout dinner at one of the food stalls along the highway to the Yungas. Or it could be that you are a former gold miner that once worked the small mines in the mountains surrounding the town and have since moved on since the veins have been mostly depleted. Or you could be one of the few adventurers who have followed the directions of Sjoerd Mayer ( and taken the trail up through the Choquetanga valley looking for some of the rare, high altitude, Andean alpine bird species that may be found there.
If you have, then you know that the trail that leaves the highway starts at the base of a waterfall that descends a glacial cirque´s headwall and that the first section is a slippery scramble to a hanging valley. And then you will have seen the water capitation system for the village of Pongo and you will have seen the surrounding ridges and waterfalls. Looking up the slope to the east you will have seen the second section of the trail and how it climbs the scree slope to the top of the second headwall.
If you have climbed this trail, you would have felt the harshness in your lungs as they complain of the lack of air at 4000 meters above sea level and if you were smart, you would have brought along a bag of coca leaves to chew on and quiet that pain. In spite of those difficulties, you will have been rewarded with the views of the surrounding mountains, the Andean Alpine Ecosystem, the waterfalls, the cultivation systems and the wildlife.
Rumors reached the authors ears that the spectacled bear can be seen in this valley as well as a Puma who is raising a litter of kittens. These rumors were spoken in la cocina 21 of Pongo and of course may be true or not. No puma and no bears were seen. However, there were ample sign of the Vizcachas. Mountain Caracara chasing Andean Ibis were also seen as well as a variety of songbirds that were described by Sjoerd Mayer.
Here are some pictures of that Choquetanga Valley that were taken on Oct. 7, 2005. Thanks to Sjoerd Mayer for describing the route.

Illimani on the horizon

The dogs got out of the way in time and we drove closer and closer to the huge Illimani
The inca trail under a strong sun

Isla del Sol

Some photos from the Isla Del Sol on Lake Titicaca.
Including detail from an adobe wall, a women and her child and a sunset view of a women herding the burros back into their stalls for the night and a stall with soft drinks and candy.